#127 - Ben Hardy Interviews Lee Carl - The County Line

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It's really beneficial and we are rolling.
It's really beneficial whenyou're in a situation that one
of two things, when you've gotmore than two people on the
podcast, or in a situation likethis where we don't have the
mics all up in our grill.
That way we can judge andmonitor ourselves, because if

(00:44):
you don't have the headphones on, obviously you don't know how
you sound in the microphone.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
No doubt.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
And so if we're going to sit here and talk shit for
two hours and we have our thingsrecorded and we need to know
that, hey, we're getting a highquality product.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Being in bands for a long time I didn't, before I
quit playing it was.
It's a huge difference.
Somebody had some click tracksone night and we were playing at
the Magnolia.
I mean not click tracks butin-ear pieces.
So being able to hear everybodyelse because the monitors face

(01:20):
out and away from the drums andthe drums are obviously loud, so
being able to hear them, thatreally up my play, absolutely,
absolutely.
Because you can monitor.
It's common sense.
But if, whoever sets up your PAin a local band, you know, if
you don't have, if the drummerdoes not have a monitor right

(01:42):
near them, it's hard to stay ontime, because playing live not
everybody keeps the same tempothat they normally have, so you
got to be able to roll thosepunches.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
And it's also one of those things that I recognize
dealing with all this shit withsound and microphones and volume
and all of that.
I've never played in a band butto your point, you said it was
common sense to think abouthaving an earpiece in to monitor
your levels, whether it beyours or somebody else's, but
like it makes a huge fuckingdifference.

(02:18):
No doubt when you can hearwhat's going on from the
amplifier, from whatever's beingcaptured as a result of the
microphones, and all that.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
And I played harmonica as well and had I had
some in-ear monitors be able tohear I can tell if I'm off beat
or, more importantly, with theharmonica off key.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
If you could hear yourself, or if you yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Absolutely.
And I played a gig, well,played harmonica to gig one time
and I was had the wrong keyharmonica but I couldn't hear
myself and Hannah was like thatsounds bad.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
At least I know that now.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Well, the last time we you and I spoke on the
podcast, I believe Jeff Stewartand I had just gotten some new
mics.
These two mics are the OG,triple OGs.
These are from a one day one,but these right here are better
for this scenario, when we're onthe couch and we need room for
the cameras to catch our faceand not have the mic all up in

(03:19):
our grill, whereas those othermics sound better up close.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
I'm more comfortable.
Just from experience with thesemics, yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
These right here.
These capture a better soundfrom further away is what I
found.
I guess it's because of theround top, I don't really know
but the other ones that they'rethe cylindrical shape and then
they've got the whatever thefuck.
The thing is that captures thesound.
It's in the middle and ifyou're not talking directly into
that space, you're not going toget the optimal end product.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Well, if you had a cylindrical shape and a round
top, what's that?
Look like A pecker.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Be a thick pecker.
So what's up, man?
You know the rhino for prez haton you feeling pretty good
today.
We got the good Lord has done,blessed us with a beautiful day.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Oh, it's beautiful out there.
Yeah, got a little workout inthis morning, got sweat a little
bit, and the weather couldn'tbe even better, especially after
maybe the first part of August,may might have been the hottest
that I can recall in a longtime.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah, it's the hottest I can remember it's also
it brings up the debate in myhead like are we just a bunch of
pussies, like are we justgetting softer because we've had
air conditioned longer, or isit?
Was it really extremely hotthis summer?

Speaker 2 (04:47):
I don't think those ideas have to be mutually
exclusive.
It could be both.
Yeah, it could be.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Excuse me, I have a, as I'm sure you can tell, I have
a head cold and it has everytime the weather changes
drastically.
It happens in the fall, ithappens in the spring and the
barometric pressure eitherdecreases I think it decreases.
Whatever happens when thetemperature changes drastically

(05:17):
causes me to have a head coldand I guess it's allergies.
But I'm currently in thatscenario right now.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, I got through a lot of that too.
I've had a lot of sinuspressure last few weeks.
By the way, it was there.
We go Strange brew cup rightthere, strange brew coffee house
out of Starfleet.
Yeah, I need to have him on andto blow and Tuscaloosa.

(05:46):
Yes, you know, it's funny.
You've been doing this podcastthree years.
Probably 10 years ago we hadn'tchained Reed and I have not
lived in the same city for along time.
He's been in Starfleet for along time, but he's been talking
about wanting to do a podcastfor at least 10 years.
Talk about whatever.

(06:08):
We just never did it.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah he, he must have a pretty good business mind.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Well, if he's got three different strange brew
coffee houses and they also havechurned a spoon where they make
that ice cream in front of you,they're still going.
So something's something'sgoing right with that, yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
They had a churning spoon at the strange brew
location in Starfleet one timedidn't they?

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, still do.
Originally it was, was itColdstone?

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Coldstone franchise and then, when his contract that
he signed was up, then heopened up his own ice cream
parlor.
Yeah, that's been a while.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
That's something Philadelphia's going to
definitely need moving forwardas a, as a local, non-branded
coffee house.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
I've talked.
I've talked to him a bunchabout it.
You know, up at my office, youknow we drink coffee all the
time and I don't want to getstruck by anybody.
But you know we got communitycoffee and it is what it is.
But I've had strange brew, youknow, with their albino squirrel
or all of their different, theblueberry, blueberry cobbler and

(07:32):
they got many different kindsand it's a, you know, one of my
oldest friends in the world andhe's got great coffee.
I just assumed I'd rather havethat than a community coffee or
Folgers or whatever we get from,from whoever we buy our coffee
from.
Yeah, that could be.
I don't know the coffeebusiness but that could be

(07:57):
supplying, supplying businessesaround town with strange brew
coffee.
That could be a little extraincome right there.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
No doubt the thing we lack here specifically is not
demand.
The thing that we lack isentrepreneurial ambition on the
part of our citizens.
The demand for many things inPhiladelphia and Shelby County
is clear, but particularlynative Philadelphians and the

(08:30):
Shelby Countyans, for whateverreason, did not have an
entrepreneurial spirit.
If you look at a lot of thebusinesses that have been
started here in Philadelphiathat are not generational, most
of them, I would argue.
I don't know the numbers onthis, but just anecdotally
speaking, it seems to me thatit's people that are non-native,

(08:52):
whether it be Arabs, whether itbe Mexicans, whether it be even
Jamaicans, which I don't know.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
That some are down.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Still they're not in the location they were in, but
just to highlight, I mean we'vegot like eight Mexican
restaurants yeah.
It seems like in small towns,and all of them do good business
.
So that tells you that thedemand for restaurants is
obviously there.
Then the Mexicans arecapitalizing on it.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
Well, you were there at the Vision to Shelby meeting
when they asked this committeethat's trying to come up with a
vision for the Shelby County forthe next 10 plus years.
One of the biggest things thatthe members of the community
that did show up which was veryfew and it's not surprising that

(09:41):
not that many people showed up,unfortunately but one of the
biggest things that people saidthat they wanted was restaurants
, more places to eat, and that'severybody I talked to.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
That's what they want more options, yeah the people
of Philadelphia, in addition toindustrial development and
tourism and all that from just aliving here on a day to day
basis.
People want more groceryoptions and they want more
dining options, and that'sacross the board.
I think that that transcendsrace, class, age.

(10:17):
It's just people.
It's just people.
It's just people.
I mean people want more optionsin the way of food, whether it
be from grocery shoppingstandpoint or dining out.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Well, everybody likes what they like, and so the more
options you have, the morelikely you already get something
that you really like.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
I think the mayor has done a wonderful job in
creating a business friendlyenvironment.
I agree I like the mayor.
For example, when the BellBondsman Place moved in on the
square and they've got the pinksign, a lot of people were have
been critical of number one typeof that type of business being

(11:03):
so visible on the square.
Number two the signage on thebuilding.
A lot of people bitched andmown coloring.
Yeah, and I'm paraphrasing here,but Mayor Young basically said
look this, this person meets allthe qualifications and the
requirements to have alegitimate business within the

(11:24):
city limits of Philadelphia,Mississippi.
If they meet all of thoserequirements that we've had in
place, then they are going to beallowed to have a business,
whatever type of business it is,wherever they can afford to
have it, and I think that'srefreshing.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
You start turning away folks just because you
don't like the way they dothings.
That could be a slippery slopeand a harming this town and this
economy.
Yes, yes, I think just becausea personal taste, right.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
So we, what we have to strive to do is separate
religion from business andgovernment affairs because in
the South, historically,although very devout in our
religion, we do allow it toprevent growth in certain areas.

(12:18):
Look at alcohol.
Look at, I mean, we, our county, still dry.
The county south of us, we'resurrounded by dry counties, with
the exception of Lauderdale,that's.
Those are tax dollars, thisthat are that we're gaining in
Philadelphia because we do sellliquor.
People that live in Carthage,people that live in Union,

(12:41):
people that live in the cab,people that live in Louisville
has liquor stores, but peoplethat don't have liquor, they're,
they're losing tax dollars.
Like that's stupid.
People are going to drink, weknow that.
Go ahead and capitalize on thatand instead of letting those
tax dollars leave your area.
But people are still so caughtup in what the fuck somebody

(13:04):
else thinks about theirreligious viewpoint that they
still allow that to prevent themfrom growing the community from
an economic standpoint.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Well, one hard fact that people might not like is
with that bail bonds business.
It's needed.
We've got a crime problemaround here and people need to
get bailed out of jail.
You know, less crime means lesspeople having to get bonded out

(13:35):
of jail, so that might negate aneed for that business, but
there's a need for that.
So I'm all for it being there,whether I like or don't like the
signage, and I think it's thesignage from people that I've
talked to.
That's the biggest issue.
It's more so than that businessbeing on the square.

(13:58):
I know everybody wants theidyllic downtown square and
we've got a great square.
I don't think that signage orthat business takes away from
how great our downtown square isand there's still growth that's
going to happen on our squareand I think this the Congress

(14:19):
have a country music being there.
I think it's it's starting toprove people wrong that that
thought that nothing good wasgoing to come from that Congress
being downtown.
I think if you, if you just payattention a little bit, you can
see how that's economically,that's improved everything for

(14:45):
us and the buzz that's going on.
I mean, who would have thoughtthat Dolly Parton would be
coming to Philadelphia,mississippi?
That's a she's an icon.
Yes, she is.
She's on up there.
You know, with like With WillieNelson, you know people like

(15:05):
that.
It's pretty incredible.
You saw what happened when shecame.
The businesses got behind it,they started decorating, they
started ordering Dolly T shirtsand Dolly coffee mugs and you
see citizens dressing up intheir quote unquote Dolly

(15:26):
outfits and going to you know,and during the day they're
downtown shopping, and so it'seasy to see how that the
Congress of country music hasaffected this town positively.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Without a doubt, I think a lot of reservations from
people in the community camefrom their ignorance of Marty
Stewart's stature in the countrymusic community.
Right, they just didn't knowhow much of an influence he
actually has been, is and willalways be in country music.
So therefore they didn'trecognize the significance.

(16:05):
There are still people thatdon't recognize the significance
of Marty Stewart and I thinkthat's where a lot of the
reservations and the hesitationcame from.
But you're right Now, you don'thave to.
I mean, we can walk out my frontdoor right now and walk up the
hill and see very vividly theimpact, the positive economic

(16:27):
impact, that the Congress ofcountry music and the LSD
creator is having and continuesto have in Philadelphia.
We have an opportunity, as thosegentlemen were saying the other
night at that vision, to showthe meeting that we went to.
We have an opportunity toreally, really, really

(16:48):
capitalize on a lot of to usethe word he used unique economic
characteristics, the confluenceof these economic
characteristics.
We are on third base.
We can hit a grand slam.

(17:11):
I'll say this we're at theplate, being economically, our
towns at the plate.
The bases are loaded.
We're capable of hitting asingle, double, triple, knocking
one, two or three runs in,we're also capable of hitting a
grand slam.
The final piece of that is tobring the education system all

(17:35):
under one roof, and whetherthat's done by school choice or
school consolidation, that's thefinal piece.
That's gone spur.
I mean if that happens and youdon't have to live outside the
city limits to send yourchildren to the show, the
central you will see theeconomic boom come full circle.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
We will fulfill our potential from an economic
growth standpoint if thathappens this is off that subject
a little bit and I coach mydaughter's seven year old
softball team and soccer and,lucky enough to, she made the
All Star team this summer andCody Brian and had a tournament

(18:22):
here, and so that was.
I don't know the numbers, butthat part was full of people and
the tournament here was first.
Second week in June it washottest blazes out there.
We played our first game andthen we had a roughly two hours

(18:44):
before we had to play again andI was so hot.
I live, you know, two minutesaway from the park, so I leave,
go home and I go home to sit inthe shower and just go down
between the park and my house inWilling Hills there is there's

(19:05):
a dollar general and there'sNancy's shortstop.
I go to you know I'm on you, myyou may or may not can tell on
YouTube, but I'm wide as a sheet, I'm just, I'm a ginger I'm.
You know my friends say I walkoutside and I might get moonburn
.
It doesn't make you a bad guythough.

(19:25):
No, I don't think it does.
So I go looking for SPF 100because I got to have it, and go
to dollar general and it ispacked and majority of those
people you know got on theirLaurel softball shirts or people
from that came into town forthat little tournament.

(19:49):
They going into dollar generalthere at Nancy's north side and
that's just in that little stripright there.
So talking about opportunities,if we can and we've got a great
park right now, but they justthey're just starting volleyball
at Booker T pretty soon foreight to 14 year olds, I believe

(20:13):
, and you know they'recontemplating ways of making the
park better.
And I think you know when yousay, when people look at this
town, if they're looking to movehere for a job, they're going
to look at the hospital, they'regoing to look at the school.
So look at the park.
That's.
The park is another opportunity,you know, and there was

(20:38):
Northside Park.
Put out a post on Facebooktalking about you know what can
we do, and a lot of peopletalked about a splash pad or or
more, you know, trails.
For what's a splash pad?
It's a.
It's an area about as big asthis room, maybe a little bit
bigger, or water just spurts upout of the ground, you know,

(20:59):
like sprinklers, like kidsplaying in the sprinklers, but
instead of doing it, you know,in your backyard with a
sprinkler.
Then you can go to the park andthey've got.
You know, just like they gotdifferent things to play on, to
playground.
You got different.
So it's like a kid thing.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah, absolutely, so kids can play in the water.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good idea and I've seen them,
and you know, in other places,taking my kid to them in other
places.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
A lot of people play disc golf out there.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
I go out there at least two or three days a week
and every time I go they areplaying.
Somebody's out there playingdisc golf.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, and you know pickleball is is pretty popular
these days.
They, they redid the tenniscourts and now you can play
pickleball at the tennis courtsout there, oh really, so there's
, you know, our park is.
I think our park is pretty topnotch already, but there's also
ways to, you know, invest inother things, like a splash pad

(22:03):
or, you know, a walking trailthat's not already there, bike
trails.
I think that could help attractpeople when they're looking to
move into this town.
No doubt, um, and the reason Ithought park is because I'm out
there so much.
Uh, you know, typically I'm outthere coaching to at least two

(22:29):
days a week, sometimes threedays a week, so that's what I
see.
And then I just think aboutthis summer, when that, when
that, uh, the tournament that mydaughter was in, that I was
coaching in, when that was outthere, uh, what that brought in.
And there was anothertournament, uh, later on this
summer where they had morepeople, and so that's another uh

(22:52):
opportunity and another touristattraction.
But that's a pretty big stapleof what people look for.
Excuse me, when, uh, when,coming into town, if you've got
something, if you've got a greatpark, that's a, that's a big
win, that's a big, big drawer.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yeah, that's a notch in your belt for sure.
What I think about movingforward is how can we?
Yes, the parks and the parksare very important and also a
part, an extension of the parksystem is trails throughout the
community for biking, hikingwhat have you?
We have some abandoned railroadbeds around this community that

(23:36):
are doing nothing.
They're just growing up.
Let's take those tracks up andput a long leaf trace type.
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
That's a great idea.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
You know, throughout the county or throughout East
central Mississippi, we can comein the one.
The long leaf trace runs fromHattiesburg to Bassfield and
it's just an old railroad bedsAll it is.
I mean, we got an old railroadbed.
I know that runs from at leastPhiladelphia to Sebastopol.
So I mean, and that to me wouldnot be extremely expensive.

(24:07):
I mean it's mostly, I would say, probably destruction more than
construction.
Right, when you're talkingabout a railroad bed, because
then things are, they're wellbuilt.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
No doubt, no doubt.
I mean some landscaping.
You know, weed eating andgetting everything.
Oh yeah, Looking a whole lotbetter, and that just makes the
town look better when you cleanall that up.
That's another, another eyesore in certain, certain parts
of the town.
You go by the railroad trackand they're grass that are six

(24:40):
feet tall.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
Why do you think so few people showed up to the
meeting the other night?

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Who knows?
I don't, I don't know.
I hate to be negative, but alot of people like to talk, you
know, or more talk and less youknow, less action, I don't know.
I think that's enough.
People knew about it.
And that's not me criticizinganything.
I think that's a component.

(25:07):
But I, I think people like meand you and there, you know,
many people in this town reallypay attention and care about
what's going on, community wise.
So our antenna is already upand we hear about it and that
spurs us to say, hey, maybe Ican go and at the very least

(25:29):
hear what's going on and if Igot an idea, then maybe I can.
I can contribute and voice myopinion.
And I think they listened toeverybody that talked the other
night and they valuedeverybody's opinion that spoke
up.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
Yes, it was.
No, it was not a dog and ponyshow Absolutely not.
It was very interactive.
It was very constructive andvery productive.
I think there's an issue withpeople just simply being afraid
or embarrassed to voice theiropinion.
I think there's a lot ofinsecurity in the, in the

(26:07):
populace, not just inPhiladelphia, Mississippi, but
nationwide, as it pertains torepresenting oneself in person.
Because we've become soaccustomed to having the
accessibility to expressourselves virtually through a
device.
There's there's very littleemotion attached to putting

(26:29):
something out there on a device,like putting updating a status
on Facebook or putting a captionor a comment on Instagram or
voicing your opinion on Twitter.
There's way less emotion andaccountability associated with
expressing oneself that way, asopposed to walking into a
physical building, being withpeople physically and being

(26:54):
comfortable with yourself inthat scenario voicing your
opinion.
It's a totally differentballgame and I just think we are
our people in general have lessexperience doing that as a
result of the advent oftechnology and social media and
it's just a side effect.
I don't think people areintentionally not participating,
I just think it's a byproductof how we've come to communicate

(27:15):
.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
I'd agree with that Social media.
While you know it has helped alot, there's a lot of things
that has hurt.
If, let's say, I get on anysocial media platform but I know
you're on Instagram, so if Igot an issue with the County
Line podcast and I think it'scrap and I get on there and say

(27:39):
it, that's a whole lot differentthan me bumping into you at the
grocery store and be like hey,your podcast sucks 100%, 100%.
I don't know what your contentis.
I don't know what you're goingfor.
It's boring.
I don't care about it.
Yes, that is how I feel, youknow, because it's just, it's a

(28:01):
whole lot different when youmight have to face real
consequences for your state andyour opinion.
Instant.
Yeah, because you could smackme in the face.
I could.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
I could yeah.
It's I think that's the biggestthing.
I think that's the two biggestcomponents which you mentioned
was not, I don't know, that themarketing was as high powered as
it needs to be.
I do think a potential solutionto that would be contact all
the churches and have them do anannouncement on Sunday morning.

(28:37):
You know, I think.
I think that's the way youreach the most people in the
Shelby County is at church,whether it be the church's
Facebook page or physically inthe church, because pretty much
everybody I'd say a majority ofpeople are associated with the
church in some way.
Not saying everybody goes tochurch every Sunday, but

(28:57):
majority of people are receivingsome sort of communication from
a church in some way.
Are they connected to somebody?

Speaker 2 (29:06):
And let me ask you this Okay, so what was and we'll
get into my questions in asecond, but this can kind of
start that out what were yournumbers like before you decided
to Get back on social media andmake that real push?
What's, what's the differencebetween before you made the

(29:28):
ultimate big push?
What were the numbers likebefore and since?
Regarding downloads, yeah, ordownloads, or popularity,
popularity and and more peoplebeing aware of your podcast
Night and day.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
Me Night and day.
Meaning what Meaning Prior togetting on social media.
So let me back up to thebeginning.
So when we first started theCounty line May of 2020, we came
online with an online presence.
So when episodes started beingreleased on the streaming

(30:09):
platforms, there was socialmedia presence coinciding.
Coinciding with that.
I was running it personally,doing it myself, and inherently
with that comes seeing people'sopinions on social media.
And about two months into itthis was during just after

(30:34):
George Floyd this was duringCOVID.
So things are wild, right,Leading up to the 2020 election,
and so the country was inturmoil at that point it was in
turmoil, things were were goingto hell in a handbasket and I
got tired of seeing it.
I got tired of hearing itbecause I was not experiencing

(30:57):
what was being depicted onlinein everyday life, so like there
was turmoil in the world,turmoil on the news, but really
and truly in Philadelphia,mississippi, think it was not
like the world was ending, youknow, so I became.
I started coming to therealization that what's going on

(31:18):
online is that's a wholeanother world, it's a different
world.
It's a different world thanwhere my feet are so, long story
short, I pulled everything offof social media because I got
tired of seeing the stuff thatwas being put on social media as
a result byproduct of mepushing the podcast on there.
So numbers came out of the gatedoing like 2000 downloads a

(31:43):
month.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
All right, Let me ask you, let me jump in real quick
Go ahead.
So you say downloads?
I've got no podcast experienceso I stream it.
I've got a Spotify membershipand that's how I listen to your
podcast and others.
Primarily, but not only somepeople, got Apple Music, so I

(32:07):
stream it on Spotify.
Does that count as a download,or do I have to actually
download the episode to my phone?

Speaker 1 (32:16):
The way I understand that, ben, and I'm not an expert
, but the way I understand thatis as a play is a download.
Okay, so if you, you know, forexample, if you don't, if you're
not downloading every singleepisode in its entirety to like,
to where you can listen to itoffline, for example right.
That's not a download.
That's not what's beingcalculated as a download.

(32:38):
A download is whether you'redownloading, so to speak, the
episode or not.
As long as you're listening,those are being calculated as
downloads.
That I can see on my end.
Okay, that's the way Iunderstand it.
Now I don't know if that's 100%factual.
If that's the way it works,that's the way I understand it.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
So, as the way you understand it, a download and a
listen are the same thing.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yes, essentially so.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
I'm sorry to interrupt you, but yeah, go back
to it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
So we were doing very good numbers out of the gate.
Number one it was new.
Number two we were on socialmedia.
So then I stopped doing socialmedia and became really
inconsistent with the productionof the episodes.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
And you also jumped in at the.
Probably the apex of whenpeople were listening to
podcasts online was when thequarantine and all that was
happening.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yes, that is definitely another contributing
factor.
There were a lot of differentfactors that went into those
numbers being what they were,but nonetheless, I dropped off,
social media became wildlyinconsistent and the numbers
just went to the bottom, youknow, and they stayed that way

(33:54):
for about six months, I guess,and then I got back into it, did
it for about three monthsconsistently and then took
probably another four or fivemonths off.
I can't remember at this point,but I took another break, so I
was inconsistent.
So that time period there'sreally no way to get reliable

(34:15):
data because I was soinconsistent.
Now, starting at the beginningof this year, 2023, I was in a
relationship with the girl and Ihad not been focusing on the
podcast at all.
We broke up and the podcastbecame my girlfriend and ever
since then we've been doingepisodes every week and we have

(34:37):
gotten back on social media andour numbers have surpassed what
they ever were prior to thesecond time getting on social
media.
I mean, we've doubled ournumbers, so it's had a huge
impact.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
What's been your biggest episode so far In terms
of downloads?

Speaker 1 (35:00):
Yes, cb Ray, cb Ray.
By far.
It went viral in this area.
Yeah, and that's really theonly example I have of anything
just catching fire, like evenRoy Jones Jr Tofer.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
None of them have, none of the more high profile
guests have caught fire in sorapidly as that episode and for
people that are listening thatdon't know, when he says CB Ray,
that episode was about schoolconsolidation and she gave her
opinion on school consolidationand so locally I would assume

(35:47):
you got listeners that you maynot have had before and may not
have had since, but since you'refrom Philadelphia, living
Philadelphia, and that's aPhiladelphia issue and you get a
local person giving her ownopinion on it, then that's small

(36:07):
towns.
You know gossip and how thatgoes.
That lit the fire.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yes, yes, it definitely lit the fire.
There were a lot of factorsthere that contributed to it
becoming so viral, if you will,so quickly.
The issue resonated with a lotof people.
The content of particularlyPhoebe's explanation struck a

(36:33):
chord with a lot of people, andyou know it.
Just, it got in the internetand it started doing circles.
It started hopping here, thereand everywhere.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Right.
Have you talked with her sincethat episode?

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yes, yes, not particularly, not specifically
about schools or anything likethat.
But yeah, we, we talk when wesee each other.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yeah, well that, but have y'all talked about the
episode and what kind of fervorthat generated?
Yes, and I'm not trying to stirthe pot at all, I'm just asking
, right.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
No, I think after the fact she wishes she would not
have done it or maybe said somethings in the way she said it.
But I tell her, I say you know,look, Phoebe, you got, you have
.
First of all, you had the nutsto come give your opinion and
let thousands of people hear you, hear how you really feel.
If that's how you feel, thenyou should have nothing to worry

(37:33):
about, because the fact of thematter is she let her voice be
heard, Whereas those thousandsof people who shared it were
tuned in and they were havingtheir own opinion behind closed
doors.
But there ain't no secret abouthow she feels and I respect
that they were on the socialmedia world rather than the real
world.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Voice in their opinion.
That's right.
I got all the respect in theworld for Phoebe and I wish you
know that more people from thecommunity would actually come in
and voice their opinion,because that's what it, that's
what it's all about, right?
But a lot of people will see meout and you know, know
generally, that I do have thepodcast and they'll say, lee,

(38:15):
when you go, let me come on thepodcast, I say, look, it's an
open door policy whenever youwant to.
You know you name the time, youknow the name of the day and
the time and we'll make ithappen.
But very few people followthrough on that request.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
So there's a difference between, I think one
problem in society today.
There's a difference betweenyou.
Can you and I might get into afor lack of better word heated
argument over an opinion onsomething.
That does not mean I have tohate you or be pissed at you all

(38:51):
the time or think you're a badperson, and I think a lot of
times in society they, people,can't differentiate that and I
think legacy media helps us helpstir that pot and divide people
one way or the other.
Just because our opinionsdiffer don't does not mean that
there's not a common ground.

(39:12):
We're both humans and we can.
Once we get you know to acertain point in the issue, we
either move on or that's how wefeel.
But personally we can.
We can still be friends Right,it's so or respectful to one
another it's so bizarre how weallow the media to communicate

(39:34):
to our neighbors.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
For us Like, for example, if you know somebody
who leans left in a small townit doesn't even have to be a
small town anywhere, all right,and you know yourself you lean
right Then we automaticallyassume in a lot of cases that

(39:56):
whatever we hear from legacymedia is automatically what that
person who leans left thinks,without even having a fucking
conversation with that person.
And vice versa.
We have to communicate with oneanother, like we're doing right
now, not saying everybody's gotto put it on a microphone and

(40:17):
broadcast it to the world, butbefore we make assumptions about
how our neighbors think, weneed to first have a face to
face conversation with them andget to know them, as opposed to
just looking at the media andassuming, first of all, that
they take that in but second ofall, they hold that ideology
that's being pushed by thatmedia outlet.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
Yeah, just labeling people just liberal,
conservative.
Well, that's a human being andI, as a spiritual person, I try
to look for the best in otherpeople and also not judge them,
because if I'm just, I mean,I've got plenty of stuff that

(41:00):
I've struggled with and I got myown issues.
I got plenty of them.
So it's easy to cast your, it'seasy to look at somebody and
pick out what's wrong with them.
I think it's harder to lookthrough the issues you have with

(41:22):
them and see a human being thathas just as many probably
struggles as you do.
They may be different, butthey're trying to make it in
this world just like you are.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Absolutely, and what I've found is having
conversations with people andbeing willing to engage with
them sincerely and in a genuinemanner Is makes people embrace
you and really give you who theyare, as opposed to just staying

(41:59):
surface level with the person.
If you really show that you'regenuinely interested in the well
being of them, then they willreturn that, they will
reciprocate that energy and youknow that's, that's a beautiful
thing.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Look at the question just popped into my mind.
I got some notes here and I'llget to that in a second, but we
used to talk about havingconversations with people and
I've had conversations with youout, obviously outside of here.
Let me find that question, findit Bull.
Why do you stand so close topeople and have an in person

(42:36):
conversation?
I mean, you don't, do you notbelieve in respecting people's
personal space?

Speaker 1 (42:48):
I think a lot of it has to do with me being tall and
having to especially in crowdedplaces, having to like bend
down to their ear so that theycan hear me.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
But what about bending out like to their mouth
and face?
That's a little bit differentthan their ear.
Well, I also like to make eyecontact.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
I like to see eyes, because those tell the true
story.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know.
I've never really noticed thatabout myself until you said that
Is my breath state.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
I don't recall because usually I'll back up.
No, I remember being at thefairgrounds one night when
Daniel Sharp was out thereplaying and there was some music
going on.
But I was on the front of thecabin.
You know, a bunch of us behindthe cabin having a conversation
and I don't know if you rememberthis, but you were talking

(43:49):
about coming on the podcast andsomebody was saying something
you said to me you're like,you're very measured in what you
say.
You remember that?
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
I do.
You are very measured, verymeasured, and that is a.
That means you've given a lotof things a lot of thought.
Yeah, I'd agree with that,because there are some people
there are a lot of people thatwhen having a conversation with
them, it can't go past a certainlevel because either their IQ

(44:23):
isn't there or they just haven'texplored a lot of topics from a
thought process standpoint.
And so when someone's measuredand they have an opinion on a
lot of different things, thattells me that they've done a lot
of thinking about a lot ofdifferent things.
So it's a compliment.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
I appreciate it.
I didn't.
I didn't take it as bad on thething.
When you said it.
You were like it looked likewe're about to make out, so I
backed up.
That's the only.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
I'm very intimate Ben .

Speaker 2 (44:56):
No, that's fine.
I just didn't know if youremember that Is that the night
you had the Ricky Williamsjersey on.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
It is yeah.
Shout out Ricky Williams.
He's underrated and overlooked.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
I don't have a doubt.
Have you seen the 30 30 run?
Ricky run.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
I'd love to have Ricky Williams on the county
line.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Oh man, that would be .
That'd be crazy.
I think he's very intelligentand very misunderstood.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
They fuck up Ricky Williams because they do him in
snips.
They edit his shit when theywhen they interview him.
But it's not just him, that's alot of people, but they
particularly do it to people whoare lightning rides or
polarizing figures.
Yes, they do it to everybody,but like somebody like Dion,
they'll clip him up.
Ricky Williams they'll clip himup because they do have good

(45:47):
soundbites.
They also clip up Bootsy.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
And I meant to.
You said Bootsy, and that'sgoing to lead into my first
question.
Last night, going to pick up mydaughter from a birthday party,
stopped in the conveniencestore to get a drink and I saw
some Bootsy chips.
Uh huh, have you had those?
Absolutely Louisiana heat.
Yeah, that's it.
I meant to bring some today.

(46:13):
I just forgot about it till now.
Them bitches are good, but myidea maybe two months ago,
probably longer.
Uh, I've made up some questions.
I thought you know the podcasthas been around for three years
and some people new listenersmight not know who you are, so I

(46:36):
thought maybe I asked you somequestions about yourself.
Absolutely, uh, but forlisteners, everybody that
listens or knows you personallyknows your I would.
I would guess you always saidhip hop and country your
favorite, your favorite twogenres of music, genres of music

(46:58):
.
I guess hip hop would be yourfavorite.
Yes, uh, when do you firstremember hearing hip hop?
What are your first memories ofhip hop?
Eminem?
Uh, probably 99, 2000s, earlyEminem Are we talking about like
98?

Speaker 1 (47:14):
Okay, Like when I was four or five years old.
Uh, uh, listen to the radio.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Eminem on the radio yeah.
Clean out my closet.
Yeah, I didn't think Eminemwould be on the radio now.
Uh, in 98, I was an unstartfulin college when you were four
but you know had those CDs andyou know I didn't what it was.
He was on MTV and that was abig deal.
When MTV was me it played music.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
It could have been a little later.
It could have been early 2000s,it was before.
It was before he went to.
Uh, what was the group D12 orsome shit?

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Yeah.
It was before all that I wasn'ta fan of it's just me.
I didn't, didn't really likeD12.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
No, I just like Eminem, straight Eminem.
Yeah, just give me Eminem, Idon't need nobody else.
But that's, that's the first.
That's the first hip hop Iremember, uh, but then also
keeping in mind, everything I'mhearing is coming from 105.7 to
beat, right Up until I'm 12 or13 years old, when we had

(48:20):
LimeWire, yeah, and then wecould explore the music.
The serial killer of Computers,many, many computers.
Yes, sir, it will eat you aliveson.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
What about hip hop?
Resonated so much with you backthen.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
The lyricism Okay, the lyricism, the beats, um
little did I know what resonatedwith me the most about hip hop,
and particularly southern hiphop, is soul music.
Mm, hmm, I didn't have soulmusic in the house.
That's not what my parentslistened to.

(48:57):
So I didn't, um, with theexception of Barry White.
But I didn't have a lot ofexperience with soul or southern
soul.
But I did through hip hop.
So I listened to it backwards,so I I liked hip hop Then you
got into R and B and soul.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
Uh, when I say R and B, you know that's what they
called my understanding Longtime.
You know Otis Redding, arethaFranklin, you know.
And then, uh, what people haveused as R and B changed over the
years.
But but soul music are youtalking about?
Like the Motown stuff, or youtalking about southern soul?

Speaker 1 (49:40):
I'm talking about both, but as far as hip hop
samples go, soul music Okay.
So William Devon and um bethankful for what you got.
That song, I think, is like1976, but it's sampled on a
Ludacris song that I heard Ludabefore I even knew William Devon

(50:05):
in 1976 existed, so I fuckedwith that song because I liked
the beat.
Well, later on I heard WilliamDevon thankful for what you got
and I was like damn, this iswhere it originated.
And so then I started exploringmore soul music and recognized
that I resonated with hip hop awhole lot because I fucked with

(50:29):
soul music.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Right Veer off just for a second.
You said Ludacris, uh, you know, back in college playing Madden
I don't know what year it was,but uh, round the time that roll
out by Ludacris came out andyou go on there.
You know, you're sitting thereplaying your games and, uh, you
know you, you choose youroffense.

(50:50):
They have like four up top,four in the bottom, which one?
And uh, we always pick roll outso we can start singing.
Roll out, yep Cause, so westart going.
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
And I knew it, I knew what time it was so what?

Speaker 2 (51:12):
uh, so soul music was a big reason that resonated so
much with you then.
Uh huh, what about now?
I found talking with people, uh, white people that, have you
know, used to listen to rap, hiphop, and it is a certain point

(51:36):
of people that I know, majorityof them white folks uh, they get
a certain age and they justquit listening to, quit
listening to hip hop alltogether or only listen to stuff
that they listen to when theywere grown.
You know when they firststarted.
You know when I first startedlistening to it.
It's cause my brother wasplaying, it was NWA and a two

(52:00):
life crew and then LL Cool J.
You know a lot of the olderstuff.
High school for me it was Dre,the chronic and doggy style, and
then you know it grew fromthere.
But a lot of white folks aroundmy age, white guys around my
age, seem to quit listening tohip hop either all together or

(52:22):
just anything new.
Why do you think you?
It's continues to resonate withyou now and you listen to it, I
would assume as much now and asyou did when you were 15, 16,
17 years old.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
I think it's.
It continues to tell a story.
Again, the lyricism is whatreally and the utilization of
the English language in that wayis really what resonates with
me the most about hip hop.
I just like country music, mysecond favorite form of music,

(53:02):
genre of music.
It has history.
It has very rich history, as weknow, with the Congress of
country music and Marty Stewart,and all of that interests me
just as much as the history ofhip hop.
So, with hip hop only being 50years old, I've got pretty much
a front row seat to watching agenre evolve and just watching

(53:30):
that history unfold and evolveover time and see what the
changes are.
I mean, rap today is the bestit's ever been as far as the
talent of the rappers, I mean.
And that's, you know, that's, Iwould say, an obvious component
of today's rap game, becauseanytime something evolves it

(53:53):
gets better and better andbetter.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
So I think, personally, I would disagree
with that.
From what I listen now, I don'tlisten to as much hip hop as
you do now.
Well, much as much newer hiphop as I do Newer hip hop today
as I used to.
Yeah, from what I hear, I don'tpersonally.

(54:19):
It's my opinion.
I don't think it's better todaythan what it used to be.
That's my opinion and, again,I'm not as well versed in newer
stuff now.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
What would be your reasoning for saying you don't
think it's better?

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Well, there's and I hate to use broad
generalizations yeah, there's a.
I'm not sure who said it was.
Somebody said allgeneralizations are false,
including this one.
So I'm not trying to throw outa generalization, but and I've
heard Snoop talk about it, butthere's a lot that I hear and I

(54:59):
haven't dealt into it and all ofit sounds a lot of it, not all
of it.
A lot of it sounds the same,Not all of it Now, but again, my
, I limited my exposure to it.
So, and I and I also think lotsof times you'll find with a lot

(55:22):
of people, when they look backwhen they first get in music,
what they grew up on, that'snothing's ever going to be for
that person personally, whatthey ever grew up on, and that
that's across.
That probably has the biggestthing to do with it, because you

(55:42):
know, you know, for me it waswhen I really started getting
into music as a whole.
You know, in that like take theearly 90s, you go with, you
know NWA, dre, ice Cube, cypressHill, and you know, keep going
in and here comes outcast andthere's a and then the South

(56:03):
took over and we stilluncontroll that yeah.
But that's what you know.
That's that was when I firstreally fell in love with music
probably was the early 90s, andso Snoop Doggy, Dog Doggy style
that album is, to me, the bestrap hip hop album of all time.

(56:26):
I'm not blind to the fact thatmost people, have you know, feel
nostalgic about the music theyfell in love with when they
first fell in love with music.
So that might be the biggestreason.
Now it might not be a popularopinion and I might be an old

(56:48):
head, but I don't.
You know, I don't think Drakewas as good as Tupac.
That's me.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
I'm older and I just but I think, I think a good way
to measure someone's greatnessis to look at the spectrum in
which the people, the spectrumthat they're fat, the spectrum
of their fans.

(57:17):
So like Tupac reached, I wouldsay, a lot of people, but I
wouldn't say he's reached asmany and resonated with as many
as Drake.
So what does that?

Speaker 2 (57:30):
say Well, in that line of thinking, you think
maybe Taylor Swift's better thanDolly Parton?

Speaker 1 (57:39):
Um better, what Well?
I mean better singer or betterentertainer.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
either I mean if Taylor Swift probably has
touched more people in a shortamount of time, relatively
speaking, or then maybe Dollyhas over her whole career, right
, I realized Dolly has got what40, 50 years.

(58:07):
Taylor's been around 15.
Mm, hmm, uh, and clearly I meanpeople watch Kansas City Chiefs
games because Taylor Swift'sgoing to be there watching.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
Travis.

Speaker 2 (58:20):
Kelsey.
So I don't.
I don't necessarily think justbecause somebody resonated more
with a large amount of peopleand sold more albums like in my
this example, taylor and DollyMm.
Hmm, uh, I and I'm not I don'tthink Taylor Swift would would

(58:43):
be considered a greater artistthan Dolly.
I don't think that at all, butI don't think that's one way.
It applies to your what youjust said.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
Yeah, I say what you're saying.
Um, do you think Lil Wayne'sbetter than Tupac?

Speaker 2 (58:59):
They're pretty close.
I think Lil Wayne's great, Uh,but again nostalgic.
Do you think Biggie's betterthan Tupac?

Speaker 1 (59:09):
No, I don't you think Lil Wayne's better than Biggie?

Speaker 2 (59:14):
Uh, I prefer Biggie, so but yeah, but great, greater
is always subjective.
Um, that's a tough one.
Uh, lil Wayne, in my opinion,is better than Drake.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
Uh yeah, I think Lil Wayne is number one and I think
Drake is number two, and justskill from a skill standpoint.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Yeah, and this is a whole.
It could be an hour longconversation on what you're
judging by.
So, uh, as far as the MC, uh, Ithink Tupac's better than Lil
Wayne, but that's not all, thatis.
Uh, when we talking about hiphop, it's not just, as you know,

(01:00:03):
the lyrical flow and thelyrical content I mean cause.
As lyric, you know, uh,spitting bars.
Not many people, if any, aregonna be a lot better than than
Eminem, true, but that doesn'tmean I think he's the greatest

(01:00:23):
rapper of all time, right?
So there's there's different,uh, there's different way to
judge all that.
There ain't no doubt I'm notknocking Drake or Lil I like Lil
Wayne a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
Also.
When having a conversation likethis, it's also important to
consider how much one hasconsumed of each artist, Right?
Because, the more you know ofanybody, the more you're going
to like them.
That's right.
So then it becomes that muchmore subjective.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
That's right so again , for you know I'm 46.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
So have you ever listened to much Kevin Gates?
No, what about Boosie?
Yes, I would encourage anybodyout there who is not familiar
with Kevin Gates, uh, to golisten to him.
He's very talented, Verytalented, Very talented.
I'll take it out Bad and Roogeand New Orleans.

(01:01:17):
South East Louisiana has gotsome.
It's a hot bed for rappers.
At least in my generation.
It has been from freaking umcash, money and Master P all the
way up to NBA young boy who'srunning the game now.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Yeah, I haven't listened to much NBA young boy
either, so I can't speak on that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
Very, very talented.
I'm not a Kodak boy.
A little, a little bit, I'mgoing to have to put you on, I'm
going to have to put you on man.
Yeah, you ain't got to, youain't got the right sources.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
I know.
That's why you know I've madesome playlists for you.
You can make some for me andlet me folks.
I need it.
You know, modern folks rightnow, hip hop artists that I need
to check out.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
Something fun that I've started doing is creating
hip hop playlists based oncities or based on regions.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
So I've got New Orleans, I've got.
Well, I did South Louisiana toencompass New Orleans and Baton
Rouge, memphis, memphis.
Who you got in Memphis Project?

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Pat Yo, gotti Young, dolph Key, glock, three, six,
eight ball there you go All allone of my favorite albums eight
ball and MJG sitting on top ofthe world.
You know Space Age Pimpin Hell.
Yeah, I know Space.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
Age Pimpin.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
So that's me showing my age and kind of I fuck with
all them boys in Memphis.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
I know they can't hardly get along the North and
the South, but they've beenmaking some good music.
And then, of course, atlantathe South they got nothing to
say.
South got a whole lot to say.
Do you know what I'm talkingabout?
I'm talking about Andre 3000.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
I wish he.
I don't know what he's doing.
I wish he'd come out.
I was thinking about him.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
The other day I was listening to Outkast and
thinking to myself I mean hecould, he could have put out so
much more music.
But I think he is so weird likein a good way, yeah and so
artistic that he doesn't justwant to put out a whole bunch of
shit.

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
I think we were talking about Outkast, somebody
that's underrated andundervalued.
Big boy, because Dray isincredible.
Andre 3000 is incredible andhis personality, his quirks are
so different, so, like I thinkhe's better than Tupac Dray,
yeah, me too he's.
He's number one for me, andre3000.

(01:03:52):
Yeah, that's mine.
But big boy I don't think getsenough credit.
You go back and just listen tohim.
He's incredible.
Without big boy it doesn't work.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
No, and it's not just because he's country, and I
mean he's Southern, as it gets.
You know, andre 3000 is fromthe South, but you can't hear it
like you can hear it with bigboy, and then big boy's talent
is next to almost none, and evenafter Outkast I mean the stuff
that he's put out I fuck with itall the way up till now.

Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
Yeah, and they wouldn't be.
They would not be as successful, in my opinion, if it was just
Andre 3000, because I don'tthink enough people would give
it a chance because it's sodifferent, he's so different.
It's not your cookie cutterselling albums kind of Rapper by

(01:04:55):
himself.
I don't think because he's sodifferent.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
And they did a great job of explaining that.
What you're talking about onEquimani, yeah, they, they
express themselves fully and bigboys over here doing his thing
and Andre 3000 is over here onhis weird shit, but together on
Equimani they put that togetherand it's I mean, it's amazing.
That's my favorite Album oftheirs.

(01:05:24):
I got to take a break.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
I take a leak.
All right, take a quick break,yep.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
All right, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
Sounded all right there.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
Oh, yeah, you got me, yeah, I got you, and we back
rolling.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
So, talking about these, these questions, had an
idea some months ago when Ifirst talked to you and about
asking you questions aboutyourself, and so Bring it on.
Benjamin, on the episode titledSupport the Count of Line,
released on March 30th 2022.

(01:06:04):
You asked people to support theshow via Patreon.
Yeah, so my first question isbetween that date and when you
really started the social mediapush, between that date and how

(01:06:25):
did it go before 2023, and howhas the Patreon support gone
since your your bigger forayinto pushing the podcast?

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
So right now we've got four Patreon members you,
sue Ellen Smith, justin Clearmanand Nicole Bounds.
Okay, that is the most we'veever had and I love y'all dearly
.
That's really been.
We just picked up Nicole hererecently, but but you, sue Ellen

(01:06:59):
and Justin Clearman, y'all beenthere since fucking day one,
son.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
So when I first wrote that question, you know, on
that episode you said yousupport Patreon, you get a free
t-shirt Hang out one time andyou give me that free t-shirt.
We should, huh, we should, weshould look on that.
But at the end of notes and Ibelieve on the episode of that

(01:07:28):
particular episode you said ifyou got enough support on
Patreon that we get to hear themixtape black sheep.
You recall that, yes, so do youstill got that in the can?

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
Yes, I have.
So what black sheep turned intowhat started as black sheep
turned into the vassals work.
Okay, that's how that's playedout, but we haven't reached our
goal on Patreon.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
Yeah, but I've been surprised subscribing to Patreon
since you first made that call.
Absolutely, I thought maybe Icould hear black sheep, but I
actually you've heard some of it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
Yeah, some of it is still unreleased, unfinished.
Now, that's not my fault,that's Ethan's fault and that's
Daniel's fault.
Not, and it's really not evenDaniel's fault.
Daniel's done all the shit he'sbeen asked to do and I've done
all the shit I've been asked todo.
The only motherfucker thatain't done what he needs to do
is Ethan Carter.
You know what's crazy?

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
is how that worked out.
Uh, with my questions.
So I got two questions and bothof them regard what you just
said.
So who are the vassals andwhat's going on with the vassals
?
That's my first one.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
The vassals consist of myself, lee Carl, ethan
Carter, also known by many othernicknames, and Daniel Sharp,
and they, that group, formedApril of 2022.

(01:09:12):
Thanks to you, uh, introducingmyself and Daniel to one another
and um, so we made a couple ofsongs that were original vassal
songs that were created by usthree from scratch, but there
are also vassal songs thatstarted as black sheep songs,

(01:09:37):
and then we picked up a, thethird vassal, and we merged what
the black sheep had beenworking on into vassals were the
black sheep was not a song,that was a group, that was a
project, a project between youand Ethan.
Yes, Okay, unnamed.

Speaker 2 (01:09:56):
Okay, so it's crazy.
So, speaking of Ethan Carter,tell me about how your
friendship began, what he'sdoing now and when do you expect
him to be back on the podcast,ethan Carter?

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
and I probably first encountered one another I don't
know probably six or when.
I was probably five or six andhe was eight or nine or
something like that Childhood.
He's two years older than you,he's four years older than me,

(01:10:29):
okay, so we we encountered oneanother through schools and we
lived in the same neighborhood,right up the street from one
another, same church, so we, wehad a lot of overlapping social
institutions, if you will.
And, um, then when I got tohigh school, he or middle school

(01:10:51):
, he's five years older than meDamn, he's old.
Um, when I got to middle school, I started being on the same
sports teams with Mike and so,inherently, us living in the
same neighborhood, I'd behopping rides, and credit to him

(01:11:13):
.
He did take a lot of the youngerguys under his wing and made
them feel welcome, although hefucked with all of them.
Uh, he did it.
In a way he really, he reallydoes love people, you know, and
that showed he took it.
You know, he took us in hisyoungsters and when we were in
middle school he was in highschool, showed us the ropes, so

(01:11:36):
to speak.
So he was really somebody thatI looked at as a big brother
figure for a long time it's.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
it's weird that you say that he's five years older
than you.
The off-dynamic when I'm aroundyou is like you're his older
brother.
I know that's funny how thatworks.
That's strange.
But both y'all act sort of giveoff that the vibes and you know
sending a host, and the vibesthat you're his older brother

(01:12:05):
because he'll do something andyou'll kind of scald him, wave
your finger like quit, all thatI have to.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
I have to or else he'll get out of line.
He fucks with me all the timehe calls.
He calls me like a onary old,onary bastard Because he I mean
he still has the spirit of ateenager.
I'm not saying he acts like ateenager.
He handles his shit, he handleshis responsibilities, but in

(01:12:33):
his heart he's still a teenager.

Speaker 2 (01:12:35):
Yeah, I understand, I see that and I am too, and so
our friendship has evolved.

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
So he graduated and I was still in high school.
I had plenty of friends, youknow, that were my age or around
my age.
But then throughout college,when I was at Ole Miss, he was
at Bethel and Keaton andLightimer and I lived together
and Ethan would come Clay, clay,live with y'all.

(01:13:06):
No, clay, he lived around thecorner, okay, he lived on
Beanlin, but Mike would comedown and party with us and chill
and whatever and feel a tightcrew, always, always.
And we've just stayed incontact throughout the years and

(01:13:26):
our friendship has grown closeras we've gotten older,
particularly because we've beenfriends for so long.
But also we have similarinterests in sports and music
and chasing women and doing shitthat single guys do.
We're the last left of our, Iguess, that five-year window

(01:13:52):
that either lives around here orthat's not married.
There may be a couple of y'allout there that I'm forgetting,
but because our lives have takensimilar paths in the way of not
having a family, having acertain level of freedom, we
tend to end up in the samevicinity.

Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
I'm looking at my phone now for the calculator, so
I don't feel like doing math.
I was 34 when I got married.
Good for you, Benjamin.
So a lot of my friends gotmarried way earlier, but I was
34, so you.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
fine, I am.
Look, I'm in my prime, dude,I'm in my prime.
I'm not going to say that lifedoesn't get lonely, because I'd
be lying if I said that I don'tget lonely sometimes.
But being lonely doesn't thefix to being lonely doesn't
necessarily have to be go getmarried or go get in a

(01:14:49):
relationship.
There are other ways to dealwith that and I'm thankful that
I recognize that, because itallows me to explore who I am
further and in the long run, Ithink that allows me to give
whoever I end up with as apartner the best version of
myself For me it well, my wholelife.

Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
but you know, 18 to 30, had I been married I would
have been no good, for whoever Iwas married to.
I wouldn't say I've got my ownstuff figured out now.
I wouldn't say that you got towork on stuff every day, but
pure as hell not in my 20s.

(01:15:34):
No, I would have been no good.
So you're fine.
What's Ethan doing now?

Speaker 1 (01:15:42):
Ethan has taken a job in the Jackson area and he's
been doing that for a couplemonths now, I think, and living
over there he's.
He started in Madison.
Now I think he's got a place inJackson and he's back and forth

(01:16:04):
between here.
He's.
He's got to make.
I want him to start makingappearances on the podcast for
the Patreon subscribers.
Okay, that's the.
That's a role that I would liketo see him take on.

Speaker 2 (01:16:17):
Okay, so would he do that?
Would it be?
Would he strickel be on Patreonor would he be able to Depends?
Okay?

Speaker 1 (01:16:27):
It depends.

Speaker 2 (01:16:28):
Yeah, he's a wild card.

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
So we would.
What we would have to do is doa couple of episodes and not
release them.
You know, let's say, do threeepisodes that we intend on
releasing but just see how thoseepisodes go and how they turn
out and the nature of them, andthen determine okay, do we want
to keep this same theme and keepit behind the paywall, or do we

(01:16:54):
want to totally change thetheme so that we can put it
behind the paywall and onstreaming platforms?

Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
So have you reached out to my cousin, your friend
Clay Johnson, and said what upwith that?
You know, don't eight and fivedollars a month.
What's up with that?
No, you should tell them.

Speaker 1 (01:17:09):
I said, dude, no, I no, I'm not going to do that,
because I'm joking, right, justcause it's my cousin, well, he
ain't going to give me fivedollars if I ask to be in his
face for it.
So we love you, clay.
Shout out Clay.

(01:17:29):
But something that I havegotten better at is just
recognizing how effective a callto action to an audience is.
When I first started I was veryreluctant, and even I still am
to a certain extent now.

(01:17:50):
But I haven't had to learn andrecognize that just because you
ask somebody to do somethingdoesn't make you thirsty,
doesn't make you seem desperate.
That's just simply youcommunicating to your audience

(01:18:10):
what you want, and peoplerecognize that.
I was overthinking it too muchand still do to a certain extent
, but we're getting to a pointwhere we're going to start
taking on sponsorships.
We're in that process right nowand so people will be seeing
that coming in.

Speaker 2 (01:18:28):
I'd say probably next couple months and you got a
like a tier worked out workingon that right now.

Speaker 1 (01:18:39):
So I'm just I'm just making calls right now I've had
one, one business bite and saythat they're interested.
I'm going to try to get acouple of surefire options and
then determine how I want to doit.
Do I want to just create oneprice to have an exclusive

(01:19:00):
sponsor of the county line, ordo I want to break it up and do
a tier system like you'retalking about in some form?

Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
Are you going to do like Joe Rogan or Ben Shapiro,
say, this episode sponsored byathletic greens.
Are you going to do that in themiddle of the episode?
Or you have a banner, or haveyou worked all that out?

Speaker 1 (01:19:21):
That's what I'm going to have to figure out.
Okay, that's what I'm going tohave to figure out and once so,
once I figure out how I'm goingto structure the sponsorship
package or the sponsorship planand advertising, will it be more
of an advertisement or will itbe a sponsorship, you know?
Will it be an advertisementwhere we just have ad space and

(01:19:42):
we charge different prices atdifferent points of the episode
to have your ad, or do we wantto just say this entire episode
is sponsored by such and suchand such and such?
Because I think you can, Ithink there are a lot of
different ways you can go aboutdoing a pricing structure, and
so, of course, then you startlooking at profitability and
what makes you the most money inthe least amount of time, blah,

(01:20:05):
blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
I would also assume that your potential sponsors.
It would only make sense for,if it's a business, for that
business to have some kind ofrelationship with your listeners
or with your podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:20:23):
For sure I don't want to have any ads on my shit.
That is not somebody I know.
Now I'm not saying that one day, if good, or the sunglass
company comes to me and says,hey, I want to do it and do some

(01:20:45):
ads with you, I'm not going tosay I'm not going to turn them
down, but I'm going to build arelationship with a product that
I have personal experience with, obviously.
But what was your question?
I forgot.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
I just said, I would think it would make more sense.

Speaker 1 (01:21:08):
I know where I was going.
I think that one of the ways todo it as far as sponsorships go
is have built into the planthat the owner or representative
of that brand have episodes andhave multiple episodes to build

(01:21:30):
that relationship with theaudience.

Speaker 2 (01:21:32):
Okay, Ethan's probably been on here Six times
more than that.
Another frequent county lineguest.

Speaker 1 (01:21:50):
So I am.

Speaker 2 (01:21:53):
That I don't ask you about on December 27, 2021.
Tommy Warren OK, tom Tom waskilled.
Tell the folks listening aboutTom Tom, your friendship and
what kind of legacy he leavesbehind.

Speaker 1 (01:22:08):
Rest in peace, Tom yes.

Speaker 2 (01:22:11):
And before you get started, I never met him, but he
was one of my favorite guests.
The episodes were always great.

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
He was the ultimate entertainer.
Like who he was, was anentertainer all the time.
Like Tom Tom, not even trying,just being himself, was an
entertainer.
Tom Tom and I met in elementaryschool.
He was three years older thanme he's my sister's age, so

(01:22:45):
three grades ahead of me and wewere always either at North side
or West side or at a sportingfunction primarily, but Tom Tom
was also in the band.
So school and sports is how TomTom and I knew one another.
Of course, we played on thesame teams in high school and
then we continued our friendshipon after high school,

(01:23:07):
intermittently, mostly throughFacebook or social media.

Speaker 2 (01:23:11):
Kind of how it goes with a lot of people after high
school right.
Friends people, you're friendswith it just.

Speaker 1 (01:23:17):
And so growing up he was always this is so cliche,
but he always had a smile on hisface and he was always putting
smiles on other people's faces.
More importantly, to thosepeople at least and that's you
know I did not know anybody whodisliked Tom Tom had a beef with

(01:23:40):
Tom Tom.
That's why his death to me wasso shocking.
I was like because when I firstheard that Tom Tom got shot I
was like what?
I was like who the fuck wouldshoot Tom Tom?
Like why, who, for what reason?
It just didn't make any sense.
It was so antithetical to hisnature, like I did, it was hard

(01:24:03):
to believe that he would beinvolved in anything close to
something like that.
Now we know that he was calledin crossfire, wrong place, wrong
time.
So that was a huge shock.
But he was a huge influence onthe county line because early on
still am struggling for guestsat certain points but

(01:24:27):
entertaining people, and earlyon Tom Tom was very.
He was motivation for mebecause when I first started
thinking about who I wanted tohave on just people that I knew
just getting started he was oneof the first people that came to
mind.
I was like there's no waypeople won't enjoy here in Tom
Tom, because that motherfuckeris hilarious.

(01:24:48):
So I just asked him you know,hey, you want to be on the
podcast.
He was like hell yeah.
So I get over to his house andTom Tom been working on music
and so Tom Tom started lettingme, he started playing some of
the stuff that he had beenproducing and recording and
making in the way of music athis house over there and he had

(01:25:08):
a.
He had a chicken coop where hehad to, literally a studio set
up in there recording both thewhole night.
And he's one of the biggestmotivation for me just even
trying to rap, because I sawwhat he was able to do and how

(01:25:29):
he was doing it and I wanted totry it, and so that's that's how
he became a very frequent gueston the county lines, because he
was a motivation, you know, tokeep it going as an entertainer
and, as you know, somebody thatreally wanted to, really wanted

(01:25:51):
to do something outside of thenorm in the way of you know how
he made a living he would have.
I mean, I have no doubt in mymind if you look at Too Smooth
and Cole right now, tom Tom beright there beside him.

Speaker 2 (01:26:03):
He was, he was, he was well on his way, and not to
Too Smooth and Cole the last twoepisodes that they did on two
or three with you, I think.

Speaker 1 (01:26:19):
I think they've done three, maybe four apiece.
Okay, but in differentinstances.
So like Cole was on there, withTom.
He was on there with Tom onetime together I think they've
with Too Smooth and Cole.
I think it's three Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:26:33):
They are also some of my favorites.
The way y'all the three y'allinteract is as natural as can be
and that's not me saying theother ones aren't, but it feels
like me hanging out with myfriends from high school.
That's what it feels like,except somebody hit record

(01:26:55):
somewhere and didn't tellanybody about it.

Speaker 1 (01:26:56):
Yeah, yeah, well it's .
It's interesting how we havedifferent chemistries with
people, and particularly aroundhere.
I talk with Cole and smoothdifferently than I conversate
with you or Daniel or you know,just because obviously we have

(01:27:17):
different experiences with oneanother, but going to school
together, having a lot moreinteraction there, it's just
weird how the differentconversations are different with
different people and youinteract with them differently.

Speaker 2 (01:27:34):
And your experiences with those people, those
specific people.
I act.
You know you go with my oldestfriend in the world, andrew
Wyndham.
How we act around each other isdifferent than how I act around
other people.
Just right.
Right Experiences from what youyou know.
I would assume the same thingwith you and Ethan, because

(01:27:55):
y'all got your little yeah allthat stuff y'all do that.
I would assume majority ofpeople that listen may not know
at all that that gibberish is.

Speaker 1 (01:28:07):
But it's definitely gibberish.

Speaker 2 (01:28:10):
Yeah, I mean, you know, shut up.
You know.
I'm sure a lot of people don'tknow it.
I don't know what that means.
I don't have to know, but it's.
But you know what I'm talkingabout.

Speaker 1 (01:28:22):
Yeah, shout out to my boy, my boy Kiki.
I saw Kiki and Oxford two weeksago.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
I was with.

Speaker 1 (01:28:30):
Keaton Lane.
Okay, I was with Kiki and Ethan, ethan and I slept in my truck.
And it does not surprise me atall.
Not at all.
Yeah, we went up there withzero plan and it showed we got
separated at like 530 onSaturday of the LSU game, like

(01:28:54):
before the game, after the game.
So when the game started,majority of people that were in
the grove went into the game.
So Ethan and I look at eachother and we're like we want to
watch the game but we don't wantto go in, we don't want to stay
in the grove, whatever.
So we'll go to the square,we'll get into the bars early,
we'll watch the game there, letthe night play out.

(01:29:15):
So we walked from the grove tothe square.
We got separated on that tripand I don't know what he did.
We didn't see each other.
Our both of our phones died andhe ended up on the square, as
did I, but we don't know whatbars we went to.
It's like his memory.

(01:29:36):
It's like somebody drugged uswhen we left the grove.

Speaker 2 (01:29:39):
It's like somebody drugged you or you drugged
yourselves.
One of the two, maybe a littlebit about it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:47):
Yeah, but it was a good time, we had fun.
But that was the second night.
The first night I don'tremember what we did.
It wasn't anything crazy oranything, but we uh we ended up
getting locked out of the placewe were supposed to be staying.
They locked us out and so wejust had to end up sleeping in
the truck.
That's how we were slumped outin the Tahoe.

Speaker 2 (01:30:11):
Yeah, that doesn't sound very much fun.
It was what it was.

Speaker 1 (01:30:16):
Yeah, I mean I'm sure we did have a cooler beer.
We had a cooler beer and alittle of that devil's lettuce.
Yeah, no-transcript.

Speaker 2 (01:30:29):
So, going back to the time, time, what's?
What kind of legacy do youthink he leaves behind?

Speaker 1 (01:30:38):
Well, of course, no death is good, but the death of
Tom Tom, it seems since then,speaking anecdotally,
anecdotally, with with no datato back this opinion up, it
seems that the gun violence,particularly in the black

(01:30:58):
community in Philadelphia, hasdecreased since his death.
So in that way his death hasbenefited the community, because
I do think a lot of people whowere not paying attention, or
maybe even who were not payingattention, to the level of gun

(01:31:19):
violence in Philadelphia,recognized that people are
shooting aimlessly, primarilyjuveniles, and a very good
person got caught in thecrossfire of it and I think it
made people who wereparticipating in it recognize

(01:31:40):
that they need to chill out andbut I also think it allowed the
community as a whole torecognize that, hey, we need to
pay attention to what our youthare doing, we need to recognize
that we have a problem here andwe need to address it.
But I think the biggest thing isthe people that were
participating in it backed thefuck up because they recognized
that they took somebody thatdidn't didn't deserve to die Not

(01:32:05):
saying anybody does, but hedamn sure did and he was very
influential in the community andeverybody liked Tom Tom.
He's a great dad, husband therefor his family.
You know, it's no secret, inthe black community there aren't
a lot of stable households withtwo parent households, and he

(01:32:28):
was a.
He was an example of that andwe lost him because of senseless
violence.
So I think in that way hisdeath has benefited the
community.
But obviously you don't want toever lose anybody, especially
not anybody like Tom Tom.

Speaker 2 (01:32:42):
Yeah, and I was 19.
When I was 19 years old, mybest friend got killed in a car
wreck and that that was kind ofa pivotal point for me and it
turned me.
Then it didn't turn me.

(01:33:04):
I allowed it to turn me down aroad.
Well, I struggled with withmental health issues for a long
time Depression, anxiety and allof that was in me, but I
allowed it to To dictate howI've lived a lot of my life.
So, talking about mental health, you've talked about mental

(01:33:30):
health on numerous episodes and,and addressing specifically the
first episode, we told yourstory how you began to first
address your anxiety anddepression.
How are people, including thoseclosest to you, responded to
you telling your story In a verypositive way?
Do you hear a lot?

(01:33:50):
Do you hear?
Have you gotten a lot of peoplereached out to you since you?
Yes, you've talked on it.
Yes, I've had more people reachout to me.

Speaker 1 (01:34:01):
More people reach out to me about that than any other
thing I've spoken about or anyother guests that I've had on.
That's great.

Speaker 2 (01:34:10):
And Well, that leads me to that you know who Ryan
Clark is.
I don't believe he was safetyfor LSU and oh yeah, and the
Pittsburgh Steelers and Ithought you meant like dude
living down the road orsomething.
No.

Speaker 1 (01:34:25):
I, yeah, I know who Ryan Clark is.

Speaker 2 (01:34:27):
Yeah, he's got a excuse me, besides being on ESPN
on NFL Live.
And yeah, he's got a podcast onwith you with two former NFL
players called the Pivot podcast.
Yes, I've seen that.
Ok, so it's him and Fred Taylorand One other guy I feel bad on

(01:34:51):
, I can't remember his name, heplayed for the Dolphins, but
they have conversations, longform conversations, variety of
people Shaq, ric Flair, lilWayne, ice Cube, snoop, the Rock
, dion, dustin Lynch.
Oh, one podcast.
Ryan Clark was talking aboutthree questions that a friend of

(01:35:12):
him asked, asked him the daybefore that friend took his own
life, and those questions areare you good, are you OK?
Do you need anything?
For some of us that battledaily and anxiety and have
battled it or continue to battletheir days, we can't get out of

(01:35:35):
bed when the weight on ourchest is almost we can't breathe
.
The strongest of us fight thebiggest and baddest and most
relentless demons Needssomething and admitting it, it
needing something and admittingit is a sign of weakness.
I mean a sign of bravery, notweakness.

(01:35:57):
So, having said all that, areyou good?

Speaker 1 (01:36:03):
Yes, yes, I'm good.
I appreciate you asking.
I am Always going to bestressed, no matter the
circumstances, whether it be myoccupation, my living situation,
the podcast not performing theway I want, whatever, whatever

(01:36:25):
the stress indicator is, I'malways going to be stressed.
I'm stressed at baseline, buthow do I cope with that?
It's up to me to ensure that Ido the things that I need to do
to manage that baseline stresslevel, and I'm doing that.

(01:36:46):
Is it a struggle?
Hell, yes, a struggle, but lifeain't easy, life ain't easy.
And coming to that realizationthat life ain't easy, Life ain't
fair, and just accepting thatbut then also striving to be the
best version of myself, is oneof the most liberating things

(01:37:08):
when dealing with Mental healthor just life in general, because
it's so enormous.
The enormity of it is fuckingcrazy, but I'm doing good.
I'm doing good.
I appreciate you asking.
Having conversations like thishelp I'm a true believer in

(01:37:32):
Quote unquote getting it offyour chest.
Again, I'm not suggesting thateverybody has to sit in front of
a microphone and a camera to doit, but if you're listening to
this and you're struggling, itwill help you to tell somebody
whatever it is, whatever youknow is is Making you suffer.

(01:37:58):
It will help you to tellsomebody about it, even if they
don't even say anything back.
So you're good, are you OK?
I am OK Again.
I don't ever want to make themistake of Becoming complacent.

(01:38:23):
And so there is.
There's a fine line betweenPushing yourself and being hard
on yourself, and for me, findingthat sweet spot is the biggest
thing I'm struggling with.
But it could be way worse.
It could be way worse.
You know, I have a tendency tobe very hard on myself.

(01:38:47):
Like the external forces are noMore harsh than the internal
forces that I impose on myself,I feel that you see, what I'm
saying.
Yeah, the biggest obstacle mostof us have to overcome is our
self, and I think I'm doing adecent job of that.

(01:39:09):
But that's always.
That's always going to be.
The biggest struggle is how.
How do I determine if I'm beingtoo hard on myself or I'm not
pushing myself?

Speaker 2 (01:39:21):
Do you need anything?
I?

Speaker 1 (01:39:23):
need.
You know what I want for mybirthday?
Is that a big booty?
How?
All I need for my birthday is abig booty.
How to change?
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:39:37):
The first time you said it sounds like you said big
booty, whole, definitely don'tneed one of those, all right.
Well, good, little bit lighter.
What are three books that you'drecommend somebody 1984.

Speaker 1 (01:39:55):
By George Orwell.
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.
And how to win free how to winfriends and influence people by
Dale Carnegie.

Speaker 2 (01:40:06):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:40:07):
Why 1984 is very relevant to a lot of the issues
that we're facing in societytoday that humanity is facing.
We can learn a lot from someonewho was experiencing tyranny
and projecting how that wasgoing to impact the future, and

(01:40:32):
he was very accurate and a lotof the subject matter in that
book is extremely relevant to alot of questions that we're
trying to answer today.
Outliers is very informative inthe way that it highlights the

(01:40:54):
fact that although people areextraordinary, they still have
to be lucky to achieve highlevels of greatness.
For example, Bill Gates.
He was born in Washington State.
Well, in that state, in Seattle, it's no secret that that was

(01:41:19):
the home of the advent ofcomputers and supercomputers.
So he had access.
Is he brilliant?
Yes, but he had access to theseresources at such a young age.
That avoid Benjamin.
Yeah, you can pull it back.
Pull it back to your pivot.

Speaker 2 (01:41:40):
That's good, right there.

Speaker 1 (01:41:44):
He had access to those computers.
So was he brilliant?
Yes, but at the same time hewas lucky that he came up in
that area, so he was an outlier.
In that way, it's very.
It also tells a story about thecorrelation between NHL players
that were born in Canada andtheir birthdays.
Very interesting book andinformative how to win friends

(01:42:08):
and influence people.
I've learned more from thatbook than any other book I've
ever read.
I ain't ever read the Bible Allright Three podcasts that you'd
recommend.
Midwife Crisis podcast.
Two girls from Mississippi, aporch talk.

(01:42:30):
Another podcast fromMississippi.
Who am I missing?
You tell me, trying to get allmy Miss Suvie people.
What about the man up podcast?
Man up podcast?
You know those three podcastsare all in the same vicinity
geographically Rough draftpodcast.

(01:42:54):
That's a Holly Rumbarger and Iforget the name of her host.
Co-host.
They're out of Hattiesburg, soalways the people from
Mississippi.
I want to recommend them, buton a larger scale.
Joe Rogan is the best in it.

(01:43:16):
I listened to him a great deal.
Chris Williamson has a podcastcalled Modern Wisdom Very, very
good podcast, I reckon.
I highly recommend that if youare a cerebral person, you like

(01:43:40):
to think, you like to learn.
If you don't, I don't suggestit.
But he covers a broad spectrumof topics and he's very smart
and he does a good job.
He's been doing it a while.
I think he's got 600 episodesor something crazy like that.
What episodes is for you?

Speaker 2 (01:44:00):
Possibly 125.
Okay, you've done 125 already,or this would be the 125th.
Yeah, there are 100, 123 areout.

Speaker 1 (01:44:11):
I've recorded 124.
So theoretically this would be125.
If they put out in that order,gotcha Favorite stand-up
comedians?

Speaker 2 (01:44:24):
Not necessarily one, but Richard Pryor, Cat Williams,
Dave Chappelle, Cedric theEntertainer.

Speaker 1 (01:44:31):
I think I'm going to go with the Cedric, Cedric, the
Entertainer, Miss Pat Ron White,Joe Rogan Bill Burr.

Speaker 2 (01:44:53):
He's on my list.
I wrote down mine.

Speaker 1 (01:44:56):
Burt Kreischer.
I'm trying to thinkhistorically.

Speaker 2 (01:45:02):
He's definitely on mine.

Speaker 1 (01:45:03):
Martin Lawrence, mike Epps, red Fox I don't listen to
.
I don't recall a lot of womencomedians.
I like women female comedy, butI just don't.
Nikki Glaser is good UmSeinfeld, I like all the greats.

(01:45:30):
You know what about you listento Steve Martin?
I haven't.
I know who you're talking about, though.

Speaker 2 (01:45:39):
You need to listen to his stuff in the 70s, his early
stuff.
Well, anything that he does,it's great.
He does a tour now.
He plays band jams.
He's a great singer.
He's a great singer.
He's a great tour now.
He plays banjo.
But he does stand up, tour andplay some banjo with Martin

(01:45:59):
Short, uh-huh, and Movies yougot.
Well, let's tell you what.
Let's skip movies.
Since you're a football guy,what's your Favorite football
movies?

Speaker 1 (01:46:17):
Favorite football movie.
Remember the Titans.
The Titans by far Not evenclose.
The second one I don't evenknow Friday Night.
Lights.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not crazyabout it, I'm crazy about
Remember the Titans, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:46:37):
That's that real shit .
Did you watch Friday Night?

Speaker 1 (01:46:40):
Lights TV show Intermittently, Like if it's on.
Well, I mean, at one time it'sall anybody I knew was watching.
So I'm guilty by association inthat way that I saw a lot of
Friday Night Lights at differentpoints throughout the series,
but I never once sat down myselfand watched it from beginning

(01:47:01):
to end in sequence.
So I don't I wouldn't say it'sone of my favorites.
No, Nor the movie either,Except for when Tim McGrath
beats his son up.

Speaker 2 (01:47:11):
Ha ha, ha, ha, ha ha.
Uh, what's the concert you'llnever forget?

Speaker 1 (01:47:17):
Um, hank Williams Jr and Jackson, mississippi
Coliseum circa 2009.
Mississippi State beat Floridain the swamp that night and we
were hammered at 15 years old inthe Coliseum going ham watching

(01:47:40):
Hank Jr with a Saints jersey on.
And they started doing MaroonWhite in the Coliseum once
everybody found out that Statehad won and then we drove drunk
around the State Capitol thatnight.
Um, acted like idiots Becausewe were idiots and um, but yeah,

(01:48:03):
kid Rock, hank Williams Jr,2009.

Speaker 2 (01:48:08):
Uh, in New Orleans 2001, up and spoke concert.
Dr Dre, eminem, snoop Dogg, iceCube was on the tour, but he
was not in New Orleans.
Damn Cube, yeah, but Nate Dogg,one of my.

(01:48:29):
I mean, if you don't love NateDogg, I ain't got nothing for
you.
I mean, I don't know what totell you, nate.
Nate Dogg lived in Mississippifor a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:48:40):
Ham, snoop Ray J Brandy, all from Mississippi
originally.
But why does that get missed?
Like why doesn't?
I mean?
Obviously Snoop grew up inCalifornia, but was he born here
in Macomb?

Speaker 2 (01:49:00):
I don't, I had to look that up.
Somebody's not.
I don't think he was born herebut lived here for a while.
Oh, okay, Could be wrong.
Could be Nate Dogg.

Speaker 1 (01:49:12):
I think Nate Dogg, afro man, same thing.
Afro man was here at a coupleof different points, if I
understand correctly, as a childand then later as a young adult
.

Speaker 2 (01:49:28):
I've seen him in concert probably six times.

Speaker 1 (01:49:31):
I would love to see him in concert.

Speaker 2 (01:49:34):
Up and Smoke was my in 2001, right in the middle of
that heyday.
That was my favorite beforeKatrina.
Yeah, not long ago, danielSharp gave you an album by the
Doors.
Have you listened to it?
I?

Speaker 1 (01:49:49):
have not, it's sitting right there.
In that case, I have zerosurprise on my face.

Speaker 2 (01:49:58):
What other music, what music other than hip hop or
country have you listened tolately that you're really vibing
with Jazz soul.

Speaker 1 (01:50:11):
Those two primarily.
I like listening to the pianoand I like listening to the
saxophone.
There's a girl by the name ofCleo Soul.
She has a lot of songs thatI've been listening to lately.
She's I forget what countryshe's from Somewhere in Europe,
I think.
Kenny G, I folks with Kenny G,I like Kenny G.

(01:50:37):
Oh, kenny G, I like.
What's this man's name?
Maputo James Maputo.
Hold on, let me get this man'sname right.

Speaker 2 (01:50:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:50:54):
Cause I like listening to him.
Let's see, you walked inearlier, didn't know that.
I must have thought I didn'tfuck with Elena's.

Speaker 2 (01:51:04):
Morse, it was just surprising to hear it.

Speaker 1 (01:51:09):
This guy is the guy I'm looking up.
He's.
I think he plays the same.
Okay, so it's a song by BobJames and David Sanborn.
David Sanborn is the guy thatI've listened to.
I've heard David Sanborn, butthe name of the song is Maputo

(01:51:29):
by Bob James and David Sanborn.
I've been jamming on that bitchand I also listen to.

Speaker 2 (01:51:35):
Is that kind of like I kicked the wall and all Maputo
I?

Speaker 1 (01:51:40):
don't know.
I don't know if it's Maputo ornot.
I don't know if it's Maputo.
I hadn't thought about it inthat way and I really hadn't.
It's not a.
There aren't words.
So you like instrumental?
Depends on what it is.
Yeah, like I like instrumental,I think that's an instrumental

(01:52:01):
Maputo, maputo.
And then also like listening toHot 8 Brass Band.
Yeah, I've been listening to alot of them.
They're in the steady rotation.
I mean they're at least acouple times a week Did.

Speaker 2 (01:52:13):
I send you that about New Orleans.
There was a Galactic andjuvenile and the.

Speaker 1 (01:52:25):
I saw that with all the New Orleans rappers yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:52:28):
And the dirty dozen brass band doing a song.
Did I send you that video?

Speaker 1 (01:52:34):
Yes, you did.
I saw it.
Juveniles made a resurgence,has he?
I mean, I feel like.
I mean, I've always felt withjuvenile, but it just seems like
his popularity stagnated for alittle while and here recently
it's like juvenile has beeneverywhere, all over the

(01:52:55):
internet.

Speaker 2 (01:52:56):
I hadn't seen him in a while, but he didn't go to
jail.
Have you seen the juvenile TinyDesk concert?
Hell yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:53:06):
BG just got out of jail.
You know who BG is.
Uh-oh, let's see.

Speaker 2 (01:53:09):
New Orleans rapper.

Speaker 1 (01:53:11):
He and Boosie did a song.
My dog, my dog, my dog, I don'tget some of that he just came
out with it last month becauseBG just got out of jail, okay,
and Boosie been holding his assdown son.
He been holding him down whilehe been in the can, and so

(01:53:31):
Boosie got the first track whenhe got up out that bitch cuh.

Speaker 2 (01:53:35):
I'll take BG, my dog.

Speaker 1 (01:53:39):
It's BG and Boosie, okay, and it's a picture of
Boosie with his arm around BG onthe cover.

Speaker 2 (01:53:46):
Okay, yeah, send that to me.

Speaker 1 (01:53:49):
I'll send it to you right now Say less Of all your
close friends.

Speaker 2 (01:53:55):
which one of their wives or girlfriends do you
dislike, and why?

Speaker 1 (01:53:59):
Oh, that's a tough one.
I'm joking.

Speaker 2 (01:54:04):
I didn't expect you.

Speaker 1 (01:54:05):
Look, I won't tell you who it is, but I'll tell you
why.
Tell me the why, okay.
So you asked which one of myfriends, wives or girlfriends.
I'll just make a generalstatement of what I dislike
about my friends, girlfriends orwives, when I don't care for
them very much, when she tellshim what to do all the time and

(01:54:31):
is unreasonable and does notcare about his opinion but also
can't go with the flow.
Not saying she's got to be atomboy, but be able to have a
conversation with men.
That's a problem I think wehave.
Men have trouble having aconversation with women and vice

(01:54:56):
versa, which I'm sure that's anage old problem.
But shit, when a woman can'tcarry on and have a conversation
with a room full of men, sheprobably ain't going to make it
very long.
You'd be surprised, yeah, butgenerally speaking, do I think

(01:55:18):
some of my friends have gottenmarried, have settled, so to
speak?
Yes, but I don't think that'sjust my friends, I think that's
society in general.
Yeah, I never lived people thatsettled.
I was listening to a podcast theother day by a friend of mine
who I met on a podcast the otherday by Chris Williamson or

(01:55:41):
Williams Modern Wisdom, and hehad this lady on there Her name
escapes me.
Her last name's Kearney, Ithink K-E-A-R-N-E-Y and they
were talking about thedetrimental impact the
prevalence of single parenthomes is and is going to
continue to have on society.

(01:56:04):
She said that the trend is thatpeople are getting married less
, so therefore the birth ratesare lower, so we're having fewer
children.
So our age, our overall age inAmerica, is getting older.

(01:56:25):
But she said that more peopleare deciding not to settle just
to get married.
More people are of the opinionthat if it's not the one, then
I'll just live by myself.
Fuck it.
Which is encouraging, yeah, butyou're going to have less

(01:56:50):
people.
We need more people in America.
We need more younger people.
We need more young Americans.
We need more youngPhiladelphians.
You can't have more olderpeople Fuck no that's too
expensive.

Speaker 2 (01:57:03):
I mean no, I mean literally you cannot have more.
How can you have more olderpeople?
You can't.
They've already been born andthey went from young to old, so
you can't.
You're not going to birth anold person.

Speaker 1 (01:57:23):
No, but you can like that was just me.
Certain numbers of old people.
Can the amount of old peopleskew the median age?

Speaker 2 (01:57:37):
I knew what you meant .
I was just being literaldickhead.

Speaker 1 (01:57:41):
No, you can't have more old people.
Thank God we got enough.

Speaker 2 (01:57:46):
What does success mean to you and how do you know
when you have attained?

Speaker 1 (01:57:50):
it.

Speaker 2 (01:57:50):
Money.

Speaker 1 (01:57:51):
Okay, that's it, that's not it, but that's a big
component.
Okay, I think it's a big timebecause money will allow me to
do things that I want to do.
I really want to do.
What I mean by that is helpingpeople.
My ultimate goals can bereached with a certain level of

(01:58:15):
money.
I'm not saying that I'm notimpacting people now, but my
impact can be felt greater tomore with the more money that I
have.
That's a component of success.
But also almost an equalcomponent is knowing that I'm

(01:58:38):
providing either a service or abenefit to a certain amount of
people.
You know, right now we'resitting at about 5,000 listens a
month or downloads a month, andthat's a lot, you know, and
everybody that listens thatmeans a lot.

(01:59:02):
But being able to reach 5,000people a month should not be
taken for granted on my part.
You know that should be arecognition of success.
So there are a lot of differentcomponents of success, but you
know, number one are we are, amI helping somebody and is it

(01:59:25):
fulfilling to me than thatsuccess.

Speaker 2 (01:59:32):
What's your biggest failure and what did you learn
from that experience?

Speaker 1 (01:59:37):
My biggest failure is hmm, I really don't have
something that sticks out in mymind is being my biggest failure
.
I try my best to not view awhole lot as being a failure.

Speaker 2 (01:59:58):
Well, let me reword that have you learned more from
failures in your life or haveyou learned more from successes?

Speaker 1 (02:00:10):
I've learned more from coming up short.
I wouldn't say failure.
Not attaining the goal is how Iwould phrase that and frame
that in my mind.
To me, failure is so extreme orblack and white.

Speaker 2 (02:00:39):
Whereas life is more gray.
I understand that it's allabout perspective, so you've
learned more from shortcomingsthan from windfalls.
Tell me about the three mostinfluential people in your life
and how they impacted you.

Speaker 1 (02:01:00):
I'm going to utilize the marriage of my parents as
one person, because that'sreally what it represents.
That's the number one mostinfluential institution, if you
will, in my life.
And then I'd say from thereit's a conglomeration of people.

(02:01:26):
You know, I don't have somebodythat just sits right there
behind my parents and influencein my life.
I would say a mixture of veryclose family and friends fill up
that number two, three, four,whatever you know.
However you want to rank it.

(02:01:48):
Coaches, preachers, fathers ofclose friends, leaders,
particularly men in thecommunity, have had a huge

(02:02:08):
impact on me because theyrecognized and then expressed to
me at an early age that theythought that I was a leader or I
had the characteristics that aleader has, and so they
instilled in me that I hadpotential, I had a lot of

(02:02:29):
potential that I could fulfill,that it was up to me, but they
identified it and relayed thatto me, and so that has always
been impactful in how I'vecarried myself, because they
told me that people see me thatway, and so that allowed me to

(02:02:50):
be hold myself more accountableand more responsible for how I
conduct myself and recognizingthe weight that a person who is
a quote leader, their words has,and so the men, the strong men

(02:03:10):
that I have in my, that I've hadin my life, have relayed that
to me, and so that's been veryeye opening and almost like a
cheat code, so to speak, to nothave to go through some bullshit
, because I already recognizethat people see me a certain way
, generally speaking.
And then of course, I mean thewomen in the community, the

(02:03:33):
mothers of my friends, the womenthat I spent a lot of time in
their house they know who theyare as a child did a very good
job raising us, particularlyboys, because we were hail, we
were held to deal with.
There was a lot going on in theway of mixture of personalities

(02:03:55):
and all of that that they hadto put up with, and I commend
them for it and thankful everyday for it.
But, yeah, I'd say my parents,and then the parents of my close
friends and then, of course,coaches and preachers and people
like that, have been mostinfluential.

(02:04:15):
You know people in my immediatecommunity for sure.

Speaker 2 (02:04:21):
What was one of the most best or most worthwhile
investments as you've made.

Speaker 1 (02:04:28):
My house my house For sure, financially speaking,
particularly at the price that Igot it and the age that I got
it I mean the age you were whenyou bought it Right, that's been
one of the most beneficialpurchases or investments that

(02:04:51):
I've had so far.
And you know, in a place likeMississippi, you can do that now
here, if somebody waits muchlonger, they're going to have to
pay double for a house that's$65,000 right now in
Philadelphia.
What year did you buy it?
2020.
November of 2020.

Speaker 2 (02:05:13):
Okay, so you might have.
It might have been right beforethe interest rate skyrocket.

Speaker 1 (02:05:19):
Oh yeah, I got 2.9.

Speaker 2 (02:05:20):
Yeah so.

Speaker 1 (02:05:23):
Yeah, that's good, but I did for somebody out there
who's maybe not very financialliterate or personal finance
literate.
Getting the equity built up inthis house at a low interest
rate allowed me to utilize thishouse as collateral on further

(02:05:50):
borrowing.
So my interest rate did go up,but the fact that it was so low
whenever I got in the increaseas a result of getting a line of
credit, that interest raterelatively speaking long term is
still not that high.
So really I got a deal for sureon the front end.

(02:06:13):
Now Dave Ramsey would say I didthe wrong thing by going to get
a line of credit and using myhouse as collateral.
But to do some things in lifeyou got to take some fucking
risks, and so making thatpurchase when I did allowed me
to further better myself.

Speaker 2 (02:06:33):
So I think you probably, I would assume, today
you haven't been around thatmany people.
So well, let's look back atyesterday.
Yesterday were you honest allday.

Speaker 1 (02:06:51):
I think so.

Speaker 2 (02:06:53):
Were you kind to everyone you talked with
yesterday.

Speaker 1 (02:06:59):
The only person I wasn't kind with yesterday was
Jerry, because at 6 am he has ablower in my front yard going
full fucking blast.
I sleep naked.
So I jump up out of bed and Igo to the front door and I've
got a pillow over my privates,over my balls, and I open the

(02:07:22):
door and I start flicking thelight on the porch trying to get
his attention.
Is it still dark?
I said, jerry, what the fuckare you doing?
I just get these leaves off theyard.
I was like, jerry, it is 6 am,two more hours until you crank
that back up.
7 15.
Warrr, other than Jerry.

(02:07:45):
Yes, I was kind.

Speaker 2 (02:07:50):
Did you do something for someone else, something good
for someone else yesterday?

Speaker 1 (02:07:54):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (02:07:57):
What's giving you hope right now?

Speaker 1 (02:08:00):
People, People are always my greatest source of
hope and inspiration by far.
Yeah, building therelationships and friendships
with family and friends that areclosest to me and then building
new friendships.

(02:08:20):
All that and then observing.
You know people are whereeverything emanates from.
So I can go read a new book,listen to a new song, watch a
new movie that's created bypeople, and so I know you're
going to the AI direction.
No, what you got.

Speaker 2 (02:08:42):
My opinion is that everything does not come from
people.
I think who created people iswhere everything comes from.
Yeah, that's my opinion on areligious level?

Speaker 1 (02:08:54):
Yes, for sure, yes.
But here on and right in frontof me, in the real world, the
shit that I can see, therelationships and the
friendships with physical beings, is really what gives me hope
and inspiration.

Speaker 2 (02:09:09):
What are you deeply grateful for right now?

Speaker 1 (02:09:13):
Family and friends.
Family and friends, that'salways been the most important
and that will always be the mostimportant.

Speaker 2 (02:09:24):
Talking about podcasts, early there's one you
ever heard of real ones, withJohn Bernthoff.
You know who John Bernthoff is.
Do you ever watch the WalkingDead?

Speaker 1 (02:09:33):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (02:09:34):
You remember early on Shane.

Speaker 1 (02:09:38):
Yes, I remember Shane's bitch ass.
Yeah, so Shane got dusted, sothey trusted.

Speaker 2 (02:09:43):
He that's the actor who plays Shane so and he's been
in some of the other stuff.
He was the Punisher and thePunisher series and but he got a
podcast.
He interviews people he knowscalled real ones.
You all check it out it's.
It's really good.
He had a shyly buff on thereyou know I'm talking about, and

(02:10:08):
shy went through some stuffpublicly a few years ago.
Anyway, there's a story onthere that he told.
I thought in this way, at leastmy part of it.
Once upon a time there was aChinese farmer whose horse ran
away.
That evening all of hisneighbors came around to

(02:10:29):
commiserate.
They said we're so sorry tohear your horse has run away.
This is most unfortunate.
The farmer said maybe.
The next day the horse cameback bringing seven wild horses
with it, and then even everybodycame back and said oh, isn't
that lucky.
What a great turn of events.
You now have eight horses.

(02:10:50):
The farmer again said maybe.
The following day his son triedto break one of the horses and
while riding it he was thrownand broke his leg.
The neighbors then said oh dear, that's too bad.
And the farmer responded maybethe next day the conscript
conscription officers camearound to conscript people into

(02:11:12):
the army and they rejected hisson because he had a broken leg.
Again, all the neighbors camearound and said Isn't that great
?
Again he said, maybe the wholeprocess of nature is an
integrated process of immensecomplexity and it's really
impossible to tell whetheranything happens in it is good

(02:11:35):
or is bad, because you neverknow what the consequence of the
misfortune, or you never knowthat what will be the
consequences of good fortune.
I agree with that.
I thought that was a cool story.
So yeah, I agree with that.

Speaker 1 (02:11:52):
So why did you want to come interview me, Ben?

Speaker 2 (02:11:57):
I thought it'd be.
You might have some newlistener you may or may not and
I thought it'd be a good way.
Most of the podcasts I know thepeople who own or run or host
the podcast are usuallyinterviewing other people, and I
thought it would be a good ideaLet your listeners possibly, if

(02:12:21):
I ask decent enough questions,find out more about you.

Speaker 1 (02:12:25):
I think that's a tremendous idea.
I am glad that you took it uponyourself to come up with the
idea, then express it to me,because, as I think about it,
you are right.
I am often in the seat of host,and, although I do give my
opinions and let my thoughts beheard, I'm often guiding the

(02:12:50):
conversation, and often or Ialways give the guest the time.
That's what the long form isall about, is allowing someone
to get their thoughts out, andso there is a component of
getting to know me that'smissing, and so I think it would

(02:13:10):
be good if we did this ever sooften, so that the audience does
get to see me from a differentperspective.

Speaker 2 (02:13:18):
It's kind of funny that it happened like this,
because I had the idea and I'msure I'm not the first one to
think of it, but I listened to aporch talk, but I had this idea
several months ago.
And then I go on a porch talkand this Alan has somebody that

(02:13:38):
wanted to ask him questions.
I didn't I don't recall any ofthose questions, but the guy was
trying to get to know Alan.
Right, I just thought it wasfunny that I also had that idea.

Speaker 1 (02:13:49):
and who else better to do it than Benjamin Netton
Hardy?

Speaker 2 (02:13:54):
That's right.
I think a little bitdifferently than a lot of people
, so I just thought it'd be acurveball.

Speaker 1 (02:14:02):
That shit in Israel is crazy.

Speaker 2 (02:14:06):
Yeah, it's scary One, it's horrible, it's just
horrible.
What's going on?
Murders and rapes of peoplegoing on.
That's horrible Right off thebat.
But then you know, now they,you know some radicals have

(02:14:30):
called, called yesterday for aday of jihad, not only across
the world, including in theUnited States, and which would
mean Acts of terror and peopledying.
So so for Hamas, was thatsupposed to be today?

(02:14:53):
It's supposed to be yesterday.
So there were several schoolsand what was there?

Speaker 1 (02:14:59):
Was there a market significant increase in terror?

Speaker 2 (02:15:03):
attacks in the United States or in the United States.
Not that I'm aware of, that'sgood, but Gavin Newsom, in
California and in New York theyhad several I know.
In New York from what I heardthey gave everybody Thursday off

(02:15:24):
, not everybody, but themajority of them Thursday For
real.
So Friday everybody was at workprotecting houses of worship,
schools.
Some, many parents shows not tolet their kids go to school and
I would think not necessarilyall Jewish but primarily Jewish

(02:15:49):
parents held their children homefrom school in, you know, in
fear of somebody attacking aplace of worship or Jewish why
do?

Speaker 1 (02:16:02):
why do people historically hate Jews?

Speaker 2 (02:16:07):
I don't know the answer to that.
I'm sure that they long.
That would probably be anothertwo hour conversation.

Speaker 1 (02:16:19):
So I mean I know that there's a religious, a huge
religious component, but does itlike why the fuck did Hitler
not like Jews, and is the reasonthat he didn't like them the
same as Hamas?
Because I can't imagine thatbeing the case.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:16:38):
I don't know how to connect those two dots other
than evil.

Speaker 1 (02:16:43):
Yeah, I mean, but I wonder like and I'm not
expecting you to have the answerto this- I'm talking, I'm
thinking out loud yeah.
Hey, why?
Why would Hitler in Germanyhave the same vitriol and the
same evil as Hamas towards thesame people?

(02:17:07):
I mean, that baffles me.
It's been going on forcenturies.

Speaker 2 (02:17:15):
Yeah, it's what's and what's going on over there is.
It is already and could verymuch determine, you know what
happens in the next few years.
But it could be another worldwar.

(02:17:36):
Yeah, throw in, you know, iranand Iran needs to be dealt with.

Speaker 1 (02:17:44):
They're the problem.
They're the fucking problem.
They need to be dealt with Now.
I'm not saying America needs todeal with them, because I don't
think we should deal withnobody.
I think we got enough shit hereat home that we need to worry
about working on ourselves moreso than doing anything anywhere
else.
But it always comes back toIran Ultimately funded them, you

(02:18:08):
know, especially when you'retalking about Hezbollah and
Hamas, which are both Muslimterrorist organizations, and the
way I frame Hamas in my mind islike the way that they patrol
and control that society in thatarea of the world is in the

(02:18:33):
same vein.
I'm not saying it's the same,but it's in the same vein as the
way the KKK controlled our partof the world.
It's a similar mindset.

Speaker 2 (02:18:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:18:48):
Control through terror.

Speaker 2 (02:18:49):
Mm, hmm.
What a lot of people haveexpressed concern about is, with
the amount of people that arecoming through our southern
border, that there might beHamas or, even worse than that,
hezbollah sales coming throughour southern border and have

(02:19:10):
been here for a while and thatcould lead to Attacks.

Speaker 1 (02:19:18):
I wouldn't doubt it One bit on our homeland, I
wouldn't doubt it.
One bit.
But I can tell you one thingthey better not be in
Mississippi because we got that.
We got that firepower for theass and we would notice.

Speaker 2 (02:19:31):
Yeah, and in Spal town, mississippi, yes, we would
notice now the New Orleans.

Speaker 1 (02:19:38):
Yeah, new Orleans, that'd probably be even more
notice or more noticeable thanNew York City or Houston, texas
or Chicago or Chicago or LosAngeles.
There's melting pots whereyou've got millions of people
stacked on top of each other.
Right, nobody's payingattention to what the person
next to him is doing.

Speaker 2 (02:19:56):
Yeah, it's, it's it's a concern, yeah it's a concern
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:20:05):
I'm interested in how Israel responds, because you,
you have to, you have to, well,have to go, fuck them up right
now.

Speaker 2 (02:20:17):
I know they cut off all electricity and power and
water to Gaza and they give youknow so we can cut that back on
if we get our hostages back.

Speaker 1 (02:20:31):
They've also told all Israel has also told all
Palestinians to migrate south toEgypt.

Speaker 2 (02:20:39):
Yes, and Egypt is not letting him in, right.

Speaker 1 (02:20:46):
They're the really.
This is harsh, but really thesolution.
If you really want to Cut Hamasoff, you just got to bomb it.

Speaker 2 (02:20:58):
What's now no kit.
Yeah, what's hard about that is, hamas is setting up their
their headquarters belowhospitals.

Speaker 1 (02:21:07):
I understand that they're just gonna have to and
I'm not saying like what they doit or don't do it.

Speaker 2 (02:21:14):
There are severe casualties and every ward, and I
don't I Don't say that Like I'mheartless and I don't feel that
that there are innocent peoplein any conflict that die, but it
, you know, the longer they'reallowed to be alive and thrive

(02:21:36):
Hamas is, the more In general,the more innocent lives are
gonna be lost.

Speaker 1 (02:21:45):
And I don't understand.
Another component of this storythat I understand is the
support for the Palestinians inthe United States.
I understand that Hamas doesnot equal Palestine right.
I understand that.
I understand that not allPalestinians are of the Hamas
sect.

Speaker 2 (02:22:05):
But To ridicule Israel and basically have
opposition to Israel forretaliating, it would be like if
Israel was Alabama andPalestine is Mississippi and the
KKK, like you just said, isHamas and KKK attacks Alabama.

(02:22:29):
Alabama turns around andattacks Mississippi and somebody
else says you know, we support,you know.

Speaker 1 (02:22:39):
You see what I'm saying.
It doesn't.
Yes, I understand exactly whatyou're saying.

Speaker 2 (02:22:43):
It doesn't make a lot of sense it seems to be.

Speaker 1 (02:22:45):
It is a what I think one media outlet described as a
flashpoint on college campusesis the support for Palestinians.
Dude, I think what's going onin the colleges is freaking a
disaster like I think our Publicis be.

(02:23:06):
Our educated put collegeeducated public is being misled.
I think they're being given acertain curriculum and people
are becoming Under its spell.

Speaker 2 (02:23:18):
I'm not a conspiracy theorist a bit it would make
sense.
But the advent of social media,and if You're gonna play a
long-term game, start withtrying to, first you divide
people and then, if you want tochange an area or countries,

(02:23:44):
mindset long term, you startwith the young people.
Get them while they're youngand Push whatever agenda that is
.
And you so you, you get the,the intellectuals at these
universities to startindoctrinating these young
people and over a long period oftime you've Divided and and

(02:24:14):
crushed what a and accomplishedyour goal of pushing your own
agenda 10, 20, 50 years down theroad.
You start start a while back.
So the absolute yeah, I agreewith you.
A Lot of college campuses.
Right now, there are some wildand crazy ideas being being put

(02:24:40):
forth, and then not only putforth, adopted and supported.

Speaker 1 (02:24:45):
Yes, I mean, you have what I.
What I found is, I think, a lotof people who go through
college young people and wedon't have a huge problem with
it in Mississippi because ourideas and beliefs are so

(02:25:06):
opposite of what's what theliberal woke ideology consists
of so like there's a hugecontrast between what a lot of
our young people are taught asas as children, and then what
they're exposed to at thecolleges.
So it's not as extreme in ourcolleges, I don't think, but the

(02:25:27):
fact that it's going on atthese colleges and it becomes,
and primarily the northeast andthe west.
And these young people arenaive, they're malleable,
they're still developing and andvery susceptible to any idea,
but the fact that they're beingshoved one ideology, they're

(02:25:49):
being told what to think,they're being told what's right,
as opposed to being given anenvironment in which they can do
that Exploration for themselves, like it's intended to be, as a
disgrace there's a lot of, Ibelieve, self-worth that some
people get from social mediawith their posts, and it

(02:26:10):
particularly younger people.

Speaker 2 (02:26:11):
You know there was no social media when I was born
mm-hmm, you were born when 93.
Okay, so there's no internetthen.
You know, when you were ten,you weren't Taking selfies of
yourself and then posting it onInstagram and getting likes,

(02:26:31):
getting those dopamine hits.
A lot of kids nowadaysself-worth is wrapped up in that
those dopamine hits and thoselikes.
And so, as they get older, ifthey post something that's About

(02:26:54):
there, if they say, okay, youknow, I'm a 18 year old American
in college Was happen?
You know I'm anti-Israel, I'mpro-Palestine, and they get
20,000 likes.
That's gonna that what they'rebeing fed.

(02:27:14):
And then those, those Frompeople around them, and then
those likes to just further.
That further illustrates thatthat doctrine that they're being
taught, that's where they needto, that's what they need to
follow right.

Speaker 1 (02:27:34):
There's so many different variables that make it
so difficult to figure outReally what's going on that it's
crazy.
Between technology evolvingtechnology, with a social media,
the internet, the terroristorganizations, whether it be
Hamas or the cartel, fentanylbeing synthetically produced in

(02:27:55):
China like the, the mediaoutlets having all these
different agendas, thepoliticians having different
agendas, how you can fuckingPhotoshop shit and you can just
turn.
You can, you can make whateverfucking narrative you want to
make, and there's so manydifferent narratives out there
and unreliable sources, orsuspect sources at best, that

(02:28:19):
you know it looks like the, theDemocratic Party, that it looks
like our media is thecommunications wing of the
Democratic Party, but thenthey'll call you a conspiracy
theorist if you pose that beinga possibility.

Speaker 2 (02:28:38):
Not to get to inflammatory three years ago.
This is October, so October of2020.
If you said on social media, aLook, coronavirus came from my
lab, then you probably gotdeleted from said social media

(02:28:59):
Now, unless I'm wrong, that'sfact.
Yes, so it's.

Speaker 1 (02:29:07):
It's crazy the election interference, to
highlight the power of socialmedia and media in general.
Election interference, in myopinion, was not done at the
precincts.
It was not done because of allthe mail, invalid mail, invalid
initiatives.
It was done by Facebook,instagram, youtube and the media

(02:29:34):
outlets Deciding whatinformation that you see when
you get on.
Was was accessible to the users.
They killed that hunter-bidenstory.
They killed it.
I followed that shit from thefrom the day that it was
reported all the way till now,and I've taken in a lot of

(02:29:55):
different sources of information.
That is a real story.
There is real smoke associatedwith a fire in that story and
they purposely suppress thatstory so that Joe Biden would
win the election.
That's election interference.
That's bullshit and that'sthat's the crazy thing.

(02:30:17):
Ever since then, I'm like theycan, they can.
They can decide what world wethink we live in.

Speaker 2 (02:30:23):
Mm-hmm or they want us to live in, so deciphering
what information that you wantto Get your facts from.
Get your facts from Quoteunquote fact Uh-huh, the sign

(02:30:43):
what's true and what's not.

Speaker 1 (02:30:45):
It takes a lot of work.
Yes, it takes a lot of work.
You have to be committed toDoing a lot of research.
You have to be committed todoing a lot of different Taking
in information from a lot ofdifferent sources.
You got to read shit that youdon't want to read, just to get
the other side of the story, soto speak.

(02:31:07):
I hate to put it that way, butlike there's a lot of shit put
out by MSNBC with when I'mreading and I'm like I'm rolling
my eyes, but I have to be trueto that and read stuff that I
don't want to read or I don'tagree with to be fair, or to try
to be as fair as possible.

Speaker 2 (02:31:23):
You need got to get the whole story and that just
one side or the other, becausethere's bullshit on both sides,
no doubt.

Speaker 1 (02:31:29):
And so you know, take , take both with a grain of salt
, go do, do our own research,and even even saying doing
research, okay, well, where'sthat research comes from?
Most of us, wikipedia.
For most people, that's the,that's the highest thing on the
SEO.
So who's putting theinformation into Wikipedia?

(02:31:50):
There you go you know who'scontrolling the narrative within
Wikipedia, so we had to becareful about how much stake we
put in a certain sources content, was it?

Speaker 2 (02:32:02):
was it you that Was talking about the chat.
Gpt about looking at the.
Was the oldest members ofCongress?

Speaker 1 (02:32:12):
Yes, yes, I mean, chapter GPT is the same thing.
We had to.
We had to be.
I mean, there's nothing you andI can do about it, ben, like
whoever's, in putting the datainto the artificial intelligence
right now, they're gonna get,they're gonna keep doing it, if
we know it or not, but we doneed it, the more we make people
aware of what it takes to,generally speaking, inform this

(02:32:37):
new technology.
We need to do that because wedon't want somebody putting a
bunch of bullshit, bunch of liesand all this artificial
intelligence, and thenEverybody's running around
thinking that you know, it hasto be Columbus Day instead of,
in our indigenous people's dayinstead of Columbus Day, or you

(02:32:58):
know whatever these.
This is the history thatthey're trying to change, they
being these people with the wokeideology.
We can't let them have solecontrol of this artificial
intelligence, because thatshit's running, gonna run our
lives in 10 years and and all ofour, all of our information is
gonna come from there.

Speaker 2 (02:33:17):
Well, it's the same time, I also think you Got
radicals on the far right too.

Speaker 1 (02:33:25):
That, yes, but they don't have as much control.

Speaker 2 (02:33:28):
I agree with that, but they spin a narrative and
I'm up.
So what I'm saying is I thinkMajority of people somewhere
around the center I Think so too, but whether they are or not,
what we need no matter howpretty or ugly it is is the

(02:33:50):
absolute truth.

Speaker 1 (02:33:51):
That's what, that's just what we need, and then we
can make our judgments anddecisions Based off of that,
rather than somebody's Versionof the truth right now, good and
evil are At war big time, notonly in America but across the

(02:34:12):
world, and the layers are beingpulled back as we speak.
As it pertains to ourgovernment particularly, there's
a there's a fight going onbetween Establishment and
anti-establishment, and that'swhat the next, that's what the
2024 election is gonna be.
It's gonna be Establishmentversus anti-establishment.

(02:34:34):
Now what that looks like, andwho's who's in the general
election and who's what theirparty is, who ultimately becomes
elected?
Because RFK jr Coming at youknow, dropping out, saying you
know, fuck y'all Democrats,y'all gonna treat me like shit.
I'll run on an independentticket and y'all stick it up
your ass, because that's gonnahelp Trump more than by it will,

(02:34:58):
absolutely.
So it's gonna be interesting.
Benjamin, let's leave it rightthere.
Yeah, that's good.
Don't be a stranger.
Yeah, I'll be listening.
Anything else, you don't telleverybody.
No, caroline congregation, welove you and we love being
hearted.
Peace you.

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#127 - Ben Hardy Interviews Lee Carl

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#127 - Ben Hardy Interviews Lee Carl