September 3, 2024 • 57 mins
Today, I'm joined by two of my absolute favorite influencers, Landon Reid and Alex Cascio to discuss various topics related to the experiences and frustrations of younger generations. We touch on issues such as the challenges of finding affordable housing, the impact of credit scores, the lack of enthusiasm for driving among young people, and the need for gun control.
We also discuss the barriers to running for office and the need for election reform. The conversation covers topics such as voter registration, gerrymandering, the importance of voting, and the impact of racism and money in society.
Alex Cascio:
Instagram: @the_casalmon
TikTok: @casalmon
Landon Reid:
Instagram: @and_mayhem_ensued
TikTok: @and_mayhem_ensued
Takeaways
- The younger generation faces challenges in finding affordable housing and dealing with high credit scores.
- There is a lack of enthusiasm for driving among young people, which can be attributed to the cost of driver's training and the high expenses associated with owning a car.
- Gun control is a pressing issue, and there is frustration with the prioritization of guns over the lives of children.
- Running for office is difficult due to economic constraints and gatekeeping, and there is a need for election reform to make the process more accessible.
- There is a call for more young people to get involved in local politics and join county Democratic clubs to have a voice in endorsements and decision-making. The importance of checking voter registration and advocating for fair voting practices
- The impact of gerrymandering on elections and the need for redistricting reform
- The significance of voting and the potential for change, even in heavily red or blue areas
- The role of racism and money in shaping societal issues
- The influence of social media and online presence in sharing ideas and connecting with others
Executive Producer and Host: Vanessa Joy: https://linktr.ee/vanesstradiol
Vanesstradiol Podcast - Copyright © 2023-2025 Vanessa Joy
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Vanessa (00:01):
Okay, I need to do a little bit of vocal exercises.
Okay, that's better. Okay, good.
I'm happy with this to see if Ican keep this up. Anyways, hello
and welcome back to transcendinghumanity. I'm Vanessa, aka
Vanessa audio, and I am joinedtoday by two people I've been
very excited to have on thepodcast. I've had Landon here
(00:22):
before, but Alex is new. Just areminder to using the opinions
that the people you see on yourscreen or hearing in your ears
are their own and not theirrespective employers, if they're
employed, and send us money onPatreon and buy shit from the
store and thank you to thecurrent patrons. So let's jump
into it. This is my Gen Z, andapparently younger millennial
(00:49):
episode. You all probablyremember Landon. He was on
episode 50, and also he was onEpisode Episode 25 and he really
laid out the kind of thegenerational divide between the
different generations and howeveryone needs to stop fucking
(01:10):
relying on Gen Z to fix all theproblems and actually do it
themselves. So so I asked him tocome back, and I also asked Alex
to join me, and she's anothercreator that I've been following
for a while, and I absolutelylove her shit, and I send her a
message, and she said, Yes, sothis is like a dream for me. So
without further ado, I'm gonnalet you two introduce
(01:33):
yourselves. Say a little bityada yada yada, ladies, first,
Alex (01:41):
I don't want to jump in.
All right, all right, all right,all right. I'll go first. I can
do it. My name is Alex fire.
Baptism by fire, yeah, justthrow me the wolves. We got
this. My name is Alex. I dopolitical content on Tiktok and
Instagram, really, especiallytrying to engage those younger
generations with politics,especially social justice
(02:04):
issues. So LGBTQ rights,abortion rights, income
inequality, those kinds ofthings. Yeah, that's me.
Vanessa (02:15):
Thank you. Landon,
Landon (02:18):
hello. I am not part Chow. I just had cotton candy.
That's why my tongue is dark. Iam a drag queen on Instagram and
Tiktok and all the social mediasexcept x, because Elon sucks, I
do content that is political,but really shouldn't be, but it
(02:38):
was made political. Yeah,
Vanessa (02:41):
it's honestly pretty innocent stuff too. It is like,
How dare you be children'sstory. I know it's so
scandalous. One
Landon (02:50):
Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, indoctrination fish,
Alex (02:56):
right there.
Vanessa (02:58):
I know, right. I'm gonna take a picture this just
for socials, because this isexciting.
Landon (03:06):
So for sure, because my eyeline is all over the place, I
know, and I'm looking at you,I'm looking off to the side, and
when I'm looking at myself, itlooks like I'm looking at you,
and that's
Vanessa (03:20):
just weird. I know I have to keep training myself to
look like I'm looking into thecamera right now, so, but this
is really Alex.
Landon (03:27):
They're the little green dot. It's,
Vanessa (03:30):
it's hard, you know, like, I've even seen, like,
these cameras that, like,they'll stick down in front of
the screen for you, but my handsgiant, you know, this far, yeah.
So, I just wanted to start up aconversation about, what kind of
day to day bullshit Do you twoas younger Americans that are
(03:52):
trying to make a impact in thisworld or trying to just survive
in this world, what are just theday to day bullshit, stuff that
just drives you nuts, and youwant to just get it out there
and call people out for it. Sogo
Landon (04:09):
apartment hunting. Oh, my God, such a big one. Okay, so
I'm trying to move from Texas toLos Angeles, and when you don't
have a job in a place, it's verydifficult, because, you know,
they require a job to get anapartment, but almost every
(04:30):
single job requires you to livethere currently to even be
considered. And so it's thiscatch 22 snake just devouring
itself over and over. And I havea decent amount of savings,
because I've just swirled awayeverything I've ever received
for birthdays or whatever, and Ijust have it all in a little
(04:54):
bank account. Just so, yeah, sowhen I figured out. Out I would
qualify to be the cosigner. Ifsomebody with horrible credit
and no savings and no job wantedthis apartment, I could get that
apartment for them, but I cannotqualify to get that apartment
(05:15):
for myself. And that was justlike, What is wrong with this
system? I'd say it's broken. Itis so broken.
Alex (05:24):
Man, I could say mad about credit scores in general, it's
just a joke number. It doesn'teven matter. Like, I made my
younger brother like anauthorized user on one of my
credit cards, so he would have agood credit score. So he's got,
like, an 800 now, because I'manal about money and, like,
nothing. He's done nothing. It'sjust a joke. He knows somebody
(05:45):
with good credit, and now he canget, like, a loan where someone
who maybe had like, medical debtcan't, yeah, that
Vanessa (05:52):
entire system, the credit score thing is so done.
Like, I declared bankruptcy acouple years ago, but then I
changed my name right after,which, kind of, like, get put a
hiccup in my credit score, andit went way up, like six months
after I declared bankruptcy, mycredit score was in the seven
hundreds, which was kind ofwild, but, and it never really
caught up, even though my namefinally got caught up on it. But
(06:15):
so like, right now, if I go onCredit Karma, it says, like,
712, or something like that, andwhen I just went and bought a
car, and when they pull up myactual credit, not the credit
that we at the seat, it was like630 which is still enough to get
a loan. But how the fuck are wesupposed to know anything?
Alex (06:34):
Yeah.
Landon (06:36):
And the thing with, like the apartment hunting, is I was
complaining to some people, andI have some friends in Los
Angeles who are nativeAngelinos, and one of them is a
man in his 50s, and one of themis a woman in her late 40s, and
they were giving me this advice.
And it's like that advice is sobeyond worthless, like what
(06:58):
you're telling me to do isbeyond worthless. And one of
them told me to look in thisarea, because, oh yeah, they
keep the rent low so artists canlive there. Like, that's, that's
been the whole thing. That's theMO and they went, and it's a
beautiful area, because theartists keep it nice and keep it
pretty. And I looked it up, andI was saying a 200 square foot
(07:19):
studio with a shared bathroom is3000 a month that is now the
yuppie place to live, becauseartists made it beautiful, and
corporate landlords bought itup, and it was like it this
place that had been around sinceHollywood was created where
(07:40):
artists could live affordablywith the knowledge that artists
will keep the area safe andnice, went out the window with
corporate landlords.
Alex (07:53):
I mean, the entire housing market went out the window with
corporate landlords. I wastrying to explain my
grandparents, like a coupleweeks ago, about why I'm renting
and not buying a house, and justlike, it's ridiculous. You have
to have a ridiculous amount ofmoney saved up for a down
payments. Interest rates are outof astronomical right now, so
people that are locked into lowrates aren't selling, so there's
(08:15):
a housing shortage and all thesethings not even taking into
account like inflation sincetheir generation, and they're
just like, Oh, you just need tosave more. You just need to save
more. Like, oh, okay, yeah, manylattes.
Vanessa (08:33):
I used to be a homeowner, and when my ex was
pregnant with our son, I movedin with her, so I sold my house,
like, two months before thehousing like, exploded. So like,
if I had waited two months, Icould have gotten another like,
60 grand for my house, and nowit's just so unavoidable,
(08:59):
affordable. I lucked out theplace I'm in now. I'm renting
for $800 a month, an entirehouse. Oh, wow. Lennon's head
just exploded. It belongs to oneof my photography clients. It's
the house that she grew up in,and her mother in law was living
here, but her mother in lawmoved, and she didn't want to
(09:19):
sell the house. She knew I waslooking for it. She's like, if
you would pay me the same rentthat she was paying, you can
live there. I'm like, fuck yeah,so, but that is so rare, yeah?
And like, any place else aroundhere would be starting at like
1500 if they let me live therebecause I have a German
Shepherd. Yeah? Racism is athing,
Alex (09:38):
so that's like a whole other thing too. Like, it's so
normalized now for us, like,living with your parents is
like, cool, like, oh yeah,you're putting aside that bag.
Like the friends that are ableto live at home were jealous of
where that used to be astereotype. Like, I've been
talking to a dude on Tinderthat's living with his parents.
I'm like, Yeah, dude, get thatbag. Like, that would have been
(09:58):
a red flag for my parents.
Parents generation, and now it'sjust, like, nice so you have
savings, cool, like,
Vanessa (10:07):
that's definitely a big difference between the five,
because I imagine your parentsare Gen X for both of you, minor
boomers. Yeah, they're boomers.
Okay, yeah. Minor, olderboomers. And, like, living at
home when I was growing at like,there's so many things that are
different, like, for me in inhigh school, every time, every
(10:29):
time someone hit 15 and a half,that's when you, like, ran out
and started your driver'slicense thing. And now, from
what I understand, kids justdon't really care that much
about driving. My local partner,her kids, just they couldn't
give a flying fuck aboutdriving. And I almost think that
a lot of it is, I think kids, intheir parents, it's more of a
(10:52):
general role than it was when Iwas growing up. Have a little
bit more of a connection, andmight actually be able to
tolerate sometimes living, Icould not imagine living with my
parents, but, I mean, that'sthat's just a very blanket
statement, but how do you twofeel about all that?
Alex (11:16):
I mean, I also could not live with my parents, but I know
in my case, and for like, a lotof my friends, we started
driving late just becausedriver's training is not
something that's free anymore.
Like we're seeing all theselittle things start to add up,
of things that older generationstook for granted, like driver's
training was just part of highschool that was included in
public education. It's not freeanymore. It's several $100 and
for a lot of middle classfamilies living paycheck they
(11:39):
can't afford it. I had to waituntil I was 18 and able to just,
like, go to the Secretary ofState and get a permit and,
like, have friends teach me howto drive, because, like, it was
just not an affordable thing.
But living with my parents,that's a no for me. Talk.
Unknown (11:56):
I can't pay boomers.
What
Alex (12:00):
about you? Landon, how do you feel?
Landon (12:02):
Oh, well, I live with my mother. I could not have lived
with my father, but it's thewith the driving thing.
Especially, there was this manon Tiktok, and he wasn't even
that old. He was probably like5556 and he was talking about
(12:23):
how lazy younger generationsare, and how, you know, younger
generations don't even want toget a driver's license because
they're all narcissistic, andtheir lives are online and blah,
blah, blah, you know, theregurgitated talking points were
also used to hearing. And he washe said this phrase where he got
(12:44):
a car. He got his first job. Hisparents paid for half of his
first car. He paid for the otherhalf, and then he was
responsible with his part timeafter school, job all day,
Saturday, Sunday, off to pay forhis gas and car insurance. And I
replied to this man to go, allright, a couple things. Number
(13:06):
one, there are no affordableused cars anymore. And a couple
years ago, when Gen Z actuallyrealized, wait a minute, we can
start buying luxury cars from,you know, the 90s and early,
2000s for not that much money,because people who are looking
for luxury cars are not going totouch these, and people who are
(13:29):
looking for a used car won'teven think to go, oh, do I want
a Bentley? Do I want a Cadillac?
Do I want, you know, this, that,whatever. And so it was these
cars aren't that expensive, andGen Z was buying them. And how
did boomers respond? Theystarted buying those cars to
hold as investments. And youknow, when Boomers and Gen X was
(13:50):
coming up, it was this big push,like, there was a media campaign
for, like, Silent Generation andgreatest generation of if you're
looking to trade in your car.
Think about selling it to ayoung person for trade in value
like that was a campaign of,don't, don't, let the dealership
(14:12):
get the money. You know, thedealership will pay you, like,
um, 1/10 of what the car'sworth. So sell it to a young
person for 1/10 of what the carswere then smoked Mabo
cigarettes. And it was that thatwas one of those things of so
there are no affordable usecars, but even if there were
just paying for gas andinsurance, and I pointed out
(14:35):
that part time job you had, andhe, like, told me where, like,
what the job was doing. And Iwent, Okay, so that would pay
absolute minimum wage, and inyour state, that is like 750 you
know, an hour. And I went for a16 year old's insurance and the
gas for a part time job, theywould need to be making at least
(14:59):
$40 An hour to pay for just thatand, and, and he was arguing,
and he was being belligerent.
And I will say, when I told himto crunch the numbers, he did
come back and go, okay,
Vanessa (15:14):
yeah, the numbers still, yeah, like, my insurances
are cheap because, again, I'mold, but still, my car payments
like 405 for 2015, car and thencar insurance is like 80, and
then gas, you know, everythingtogether. Like, let's just do a
quick thing here. Like, theaverage pay around me is about
(15:36):
12 hours an hour. So, you know,say, $700 I've divided by 12,
it's 58 hours of work just topay for the car. And that
doesn't that doesn't evenaccount for taxes, either. So
and So how is anyone supposed tokeep up with that? Because then
(15:57):
they also have rent and food,and so living at home just makes
sense. As much as that can suck.
So or you get a nice little youalso hear of a lot of like
communes starting up, you know,just, just a bunch of people
living together, just to, youknow, survive. But that also has
to get annoying too, is, what ifone of them doesn't shower? You
(16:21):
know, guys don't wash theirglass. Well,
Alex (16:28):
I think definitely cost of living is like the biggest
divide, and it's so hard toexplain to people because, like,
Landon was saying, you reallyhave to break the numbers down
of just like, Okay, this is howthat wage would equate out today
because of the, you know,inflation rate and everything,
because these people hearsomething like, oh, wow, you're
making 12 bucks an hour. Andthey're really like, not doing
(16:52):
the mental processing of how farthat doesn't go now, combined
with the fact that, like acrossthe board, even not low wage
earners, but wages havestagnated since the 70s, like,
we're not seeing wages go up. Sothey're used to, like, if
they're making 40 bucks an hour,they feel really good about
themselves. They should bemaking like, 80 bucks an hour.
And realizing like, Oh, hey, youare also getting screwed can be
(17:13):
a hard thing to accept, becauseyou're like, especially when
you're older, it's like, I workso hard for all the things I
have and you probably did, andto realize like, Oh, I'm getting
screwed. The younger generationshave it even worse. I think it's
an easier knee jerk reaction tohave to just like, call us lazy.
Unknown (17:29):
The
Vanessa (17:31):
system is fucked, absolutely fucked. My first job
paid is that SeaWorld in Ohio.
If you believe that Ohio had asea world. I believe I had a Sea
World. Emily had a sea world,and it was $4.25 an hour. But
everything was cheap back then.
(17:54):
So like, I remember filling upmy car for 68 cents a gallon in
I think 2000 Yeah, and so, youknow, everything is no one can
catch up, and it's the absoluteworst. Let's pivot to the whole
gun bullshit. I imagine you bothwere in school during with the
(18:20):
constant fear of shootings. Whatcrosses your mind when you hear
all of these politicians and itNRA, I almost said NAR National
Association of Realtors, butreally not same thing, if you
think about it, but like whenthey so clearly value guns over
(18:44):
the lives of children with gunwith gun violence being the
number one cause of death forkids in this country, which is a
very uniquely American problem.
And they keep saying, it's notthe guns, it's the people. Well,
the guns do fucking help,because if you notice, it's the
same kind of gun that tends tobe used with a lot of these
shootings. What kind offrustrations Do you two feel
(19:07):
with all that?
Alex (19:11):
I think, for me, it's the disconnect between like the
actual legislation that is beingproposed and then what is being
told to conservative voters andconservative conservative groups
and gun owners, like they paintit as the LIBS are coming for
your guns. No one's coming foryour guns, like we're proposing,
(19:31):
like actual proposals, likeuniversal background checks, red
flag laws, safe storage laws,these are all things that, when
you pitch them individually tothe public, there's overwhelming
support, because it's like,yeah, people should have to pass
a background check on a firearm,exactly. It's common sense
legislation, I mean, things likebanning assault rifles outright,
that usually gets a bit morepushback. But then you start
(19:53):
like explaining in depth theretoo. It's like, it's not the
government's not going to bangon your door and take your guns.
There would be buyback programsto make. Sure you're fairly
compensated for property thatyou paid into. Like most people
are, like, okay, yeah, that's alot more reasonable. But there's
a lot of just outrightpropaganda and almost cultish
(20:13):
behavior too, like theCongressman wearing, like they
are 15 pins after a shooting.
Can you imagine if one of theDemocrats did that after Trump
got shot, like there'd beoutrage, I know,
Landon (20:24):
yeah, so much performative outrage would have
happened. I always say thatchildren are in schools are the
soldiers dying on the frontlines for Republican stupid war
so they can continue to owntheir guns.
Vanessa (20:49):
It's flat out true. And as Alex said, you know, they're
not coming for your guns. Youknow, owning a gun is an
American thing. You know, a lotof liberals own guns. There's a
lot of trans people that ownguns, mainly to protect
themselves from the assholeconservatives with guns. Well,
there's
Alex (21:08):
the same you go far enough left, you get the guns back.
Vanessa (21:12):
Exactly, exactly. I love that, and it's true, but I
just, I honestly don'tunderstand why the average
citizen needs something like anAR 15 and, you know, everyone's
like, Oh, it's not an assaultrifle. You know, no, it is. You
(21:32):
know, there's a citizen does notneed that. It's literally
Alex (21:36):
designed to kill as many people as quickly, efficiently
as possible. It's an assaultrifle.
Vanessa (21:43):
You know, it's a bunch of just scared white people
there buying them so they canmow down to black people. And
that's all. That's what it boilsdown to in the end. And
Alex (21:51):
I mean, I've shot one.
It's fun. Like, I've got a gunbro friend that I've been trying
to convert. He's like, left oneverything else except, like,
don't touch my guns. I've shotone. It's fun. Like, I get the
appeal, like, there's somemonkey part of my brain that's
just, like, I want to make theboom, boom big, but like, that
is not enough to justify peopleactually dying. Like, I think
(22:13):
really, it's just like, a matterof, like, outreach and
education. Because, like I said,most people do support, like
common sense gun laws, they'vejust been spun in a way that the
two way cultists go rabid about
Vanessa (22:30):
there's way too much money involved. So, yeah,
Landon (22:35):
I find it fascinating how I don't remember what year
it was, but the NRA used to belike this very common sense
group that was pushing for like,gun legislation, and there was
dissent in the group, and thecrazies took over. And I think
at one point, the NRA, like, hadthis view that having a gun
(23:00):
should be, like having adriver's license, where you need
to get a gun license, and, yeah,you know, after a certain age,
or a certain number of years ofyou having the license, you need
to come in and completely haveeverything reviewed. You know,
like with when, when you have adriver's license, there's the at
a certain point where you've hadit enough years, you do need to
(23:23):
actually come into the DMV andget everything redone, and
sometimes you need to retake thequiz, and
Alex (23:34):
it's an argument they make is like, Oh, well, cars aren't
in the Constitution. Though youdon't have a constitutional
right to drive a car, like,Bitch, I didn't have a
constitutional right to votewhen that thing was written.
Okay, get out of here with that.
Well, they
Landon (23:48):
don't want you to do that either. So, yeah,
Vanessa (23:53):
I don't know if either of you have ever like, handled
a, like, black powder musket,but they're very different from
a modern gun too. That's whatwas the gun back then. So the
language really could stand alittle bit of updating, but we
need the Boomers to die outfirst. I
Landon (24:10):
always love when when conservatives will bring up
guns, and I always like to go,Well, yes, our corset wearing
high heeled makeup, loving wig,donning founding fathers did, in
fact, love guns? No, I've beensaying this fashion changes. So
Alex (24:33):
I've been saying this gay.
Like, if we make guns gay, theywill run away from them. They'll
be getting banned up and down,like, we need to take it over
just like, go to pride paradesand like, hand out. That's
probably a bad idea. But you getwhy I'm Yeah,
Landon (24:48):
I have a theory that if we start instead with abortion
rights, if we start callingfetuses illegal aliens.
Alex (25:01):
They'll be on day one.
They will
Landon (25:03):
be on board the illegal aliens. And the vagina is now
the southern border. The illegalaliens attempting to cross the
southern border to great begranted citizenship in our
country and will lead your taxdollars. They will be for
abortion.
Vanessa (25:21):
We got anything whenever it costs them money.
Whenever it costs them money.
Yeah. So another pivot, how muchenthusiasm Do you see people of
your generation looking to runfor office?
Alex (25:39):
I'd say it's really mixed.
I think we're seeing more andmore of it, but the threshold to
run for office is reallydifficult. And again, like, it
ties back to cost of living.
Like, take out the fact, like,you need time to go run for
office. There's a lot ofgatekeeping and breaking into
these positions even, like,there are some city council
(25:59):
organizations where it's likeyou have to be part of like a
member board, and that's like atiered service, like you have to
pay, like, a certain amount ofmoney a month to be like part of
this special group to be able torun, or you have to actually own
your home in that community inorder to run, so renters can't
take part. So there is moreenthusiasm, but I do think it's
(26:21):
a lot more difficult again,because just economic
constraints.
Landon (26:27):
Yeah, the entire system is really just so skewed. I
mean, I read somewhere and Ididn't fact check it at the time
to make sure it was true. Sodon't be saying, if it's not
true, I'm just spreadingmisinformation. I'm putting that
disclaimer on it. But theFounding Fathers, when they
(26:50):
created the criteria to bepresident, they wrote it in such
a way they never dreamed someonewho is not one of their
descendants of the men in thatroom would ever be able to be
president, like they did not seeanyone who wasn't one of their
offspring ever having thepossibility of being President.
Alex (27:12):
Well, their offspring in their class, because it's all
white landowning men that couldeven have a political influence.
So, yeah, I
Vanessa (27:23):
would like to see the money taken out of politics
completely, and shorten theelection cycle the episode of
the show that's coming outtomorrow. I interviewed two Ohio
State House representativesabout stuff like that, and
because I ran for office andthey are actually their
representatives that created abill to help people not get
(27:47):
disqualified the way that I was,but like when I ran, it is
expensive, and if you don't knowthe right people, like I, I
didn't fucking jerk off The thehead of the stark County
Democratic Party, so he wouldnot return my calls. And from i,
from what I understand, he wasactively working to keep me off
(28:09):
the ballot. And then theSecretary of State saying that,
you know, candidates have tohave their own legal teams and
stuff like that to know all therules we're gonna fucking afford
that it's there's so manybarriers that we really need
major election reform. And Ithink it's possible, I don't do
(28:32):
to listen to Jon Stewart at all.
Unknown (28:35):
Yeah,
Landon (28:37):
I bet a little. He
Vanessa (28:39):
has a weekly show. Now that he didn't, he interviewed
some people that are that talkedabout America's two party system
and how it's just functionnothing can get done in that how
we need more parties, not toomany, because if you have too
many, then it also messy, butit's like four or five or six,
(29:02):
kind of a sweet spot. You expandthe seats in the House to
represent that and with the goalof actually starting to get
things done,
Alex (29:13):
like a parliamentary system,
Vanessa (29:15):
exactly,
Landon (29:17):
I would love, love.
Love. First thing, getting ridof the Electoral College and
equally, yep. Second thing,tiered voting like Australia.
Explain where in Australia youyou have, I believe it's like
(29:37):
you have three votes. So if youlike, let's say you want to vote
for Jill Stein. Jill Stein'syour girl. Woo, woo. Jill Stein.
You can vote for Jill Stein, butyou know, Jill Stein's not going
to win, so you're not, you don'tfeel like you're throwing your
(29:58):
vote away. Because your secondvote would be Kamala Harris.
Alex (30:05):
Oh, like ranked choice voting? Yeah, yes,
Landon (30:09):
yes, let me be clear,
Alex (30:15):
yeah, because we don't have ranked choice voting. It's
funny you bring up Australia,though too, because their
election system is so superiorto ours. For one, voting is
mandatory, and you have the timeoff to go do it like you, yeah,
you'll pay a fine if you don'tvote. They're also their
election cycles. It's supercondensed, like it's illegal to
(30:36):
campaign outside of the electioncycles, and it's super short. I
want to say, like, three weeks,I might be off on that. I have a
friend from Australia that wastelling me about this. But,
like, you can only campaign inthat time. And also, the
government has to educate votersabout, like, who's on the
ballot. Like, they have to sendout information and everything.
So, I mean, campaigns aren'tdumping all this money into
(30:58):
like, I mean, essentially, like,look at Biden before he dropped
out and Trump, they werecampaigning for like, the last
two years. So like, half thepresidential term is just
campaigning. You're not evendoing the job, and that's
millions of dollars going away,but it's
Vanessa (31:12):
almost elected officials too. Yeah, yeah.
Alex (31:16):
Well, I also wanted to point out because you mentioned,
like, your county democraticclub, but that's another area
where, like, young people needto be getting involved. Like,
you don't have to run foroffice, but like, you go to your
local dem club. 90% of the timeit's like, middle aged, white
ladies, and that's it. Those arethe only Democrats in your
county. They're just the onesthat are showing up. But like,
if you have time, and even ifit's not all the time, but like,
(31:38):
some events, like, you can takepart in those county dem clubs.
And then when the electionseason comes around, you can
have a voice and like, Okay, whoare we endorsing? So who are we
going to be knocking doors forin this primary? There are a lot
of avenues where I think justyoung people aren't getting
involved, like they're voting ina lot higher numbers, but like,
(31:58):
there's a lot more work to bedone. That's
Vanessa (32:01):
one of the only good things about Facebook left, is
that it's easy to create groups,to kind of organize that kind of
stuff, but otherwise it'sclusterfuck.
My brain just died. My braindies all that this is, this is
my third episode I've recordedthis week. So, oh, wow. Which
(32:24):
is, I mean, they, they releaseweekly, but my brain is, you
know, fried. Another thing thatwe're seeing a lot in this
country is stupid fuckingRepublican push to purge the
voter rolls. It's happening inevery state. And I think one of
the most important things thatwe all need to do right now is
(32:44):
remind everybody we know tocheck their voter registration,
because, like in Florida, whatwas it like? 800,000 were
purged, or something crazy likethat, and that's a lot of
people, and you know, they'reprobably focusing on purging the
Democrats more than they are theRepublicans off of there. So
(33:05):
like, because if you'reperished, you show up to vote,
you think you're registered, youcan't. And it's I really like
the idea of mandatory votingthat would also completely fuck
all this trying to stop peoplefrom voting, from happening?
Yeah,
Alex (33:21):
so the Republicans would never win again. No, they
wouldn't.
Landon (33:26):
This is one of the other things of voting in general,
like when you try to explain towhite suburban conservatives or
even white suburban liberalsabout what is happening in the
black areas, or any ethnic area,or even a much more liberal area
(33:51):
than the white suburbs, that itisn't a two minute line at the
High school like it is at yourvoting area, like where I live
currently, it's a very in andout experience. It's super fast,
super easy. And when my familylived in a much nicer gated
(34:14):
community, there was a pollingplace in the community, like was
at the clubhouse at theclubhouse in the gated
community, and it was so fastand easy to vote, and they make
it so fast and easy for whitesuburbia to vote. So when you
try to explain to them, theymade it incredibly difficult,
(34:34):
they just don't believe you.
Because why would why would theymake somebody stand in the line
for 20 hours when we quiteliterally in and out two
minutes. Boom. Texas redrawing.
I saw them the gerrymandered mapnow because people moving in
(34:55):
from other states, which numberone Texas when they brought.
Brag about creating all thesejobs. No, he relocated all these
jobs from people in California,and the company moved all their
workers from California toTexas, which in fact, created no
new jobs for the actual state.
But we digress. But most ofthose people who moved are more
(35:17):
left leaning. And so to combatthat, they were redrawing a map,
and one of the maps, like I kidyou not. It was a giant red
blob, and they cut up the blueparts into four different groups
that in this blue area used tobe one district, and they cut it
(35:38):
up into different parts. And onered place had to stretch like, I
think it was 20 miles withouttouching anything, to do a
little circle and go back
Vanessa (35:54):
to my district when I was running head individual
houses cut out. Like, Yeah,seriously. Like this and like it
would go just like what yousaid. They would go along a
highway and then clip out ahouse. It's so right in Ohio in
November, there's in a citizenlet belt initiative to put
(36:16):
districts back into the hands ofthe people, and the Republicans
are losing their fucking mind.
So anyone that hasn't listenedto last week's episode with the
state reps, listen to that oneso you can kind of get an idea.
Or if you're really bored, lookup on the Ohio Secretary of
State's website, the Ohio Houseof Representatives district
(36:39):
maps, and it's mind bogglingthat the fucking crazy ass
Tetris that they pull out withit. So because Ohio's really, if
I was not a blue state, it's apurple state, but you would
never know by a government. So
Alex (36:57):
Well, Nick powers, I don't know if you guys are familiar
with Nick powers. He's like, thestats guy. He's got all the
spreadsheets. He's been doing areally great series, kind of
breaking down, like, becauseit's easy to get kind of
complacent when you live in anarea that's very gerrymandered,
or, like, a solid red state, andbe like, Oh, well, my vote's not
going to do anything. It's veryred here. But that's
(37:17):
counterintuitive, because thenyou're more likely to stay home.
And you look at certainelections like Florida, it's
like, if only, like, a few 1000more people showed up, like
Santas did not win by a largemargin. So I think it's
important too. It's like, yeah,we need to fight the corruption.
But also that doesn't mean yourvote doesn't matter. You know,
(37:38):
like, you can still get outthere, even if you're in like, a
totally red desert, you know,get your friends and family to
come with you. Like, make sureyou're, like, bringing people
out to the polls. I mean, like,look at Georgia that flipped in
2020 That was insane.
Landon (37:56):
And when you go to the polls, you can't wear political
clothes, but you can wear ashirt that says I read banned
books or something like that,and that makes them so mad.
Yeah, it's one of my favoritethings. Is when the first time I
voted for which was, I believe,for Biden, I wore a black shirt
(38:22):
with a lace doily collar, justbecause Ruth Bader Ginsburg had
just died. And it was like,Yeah, I'm doing that. I'm doing
that.
Vanessa (38:33):
It's like, I piss people off just by showing up,
because six foot tall trans girlin red Ohio, walking into a
church, because that's whereonly place you can vote around
here is always in fuckingchurches, which I hate, and so
like, and I fucking get mean.
Like, a couple years ago, theykept misgendering me over and
over and over again, and I justfinally didn't know you guys are
(38:56):
just being fucking rude. This isstupid and so, but now I'm
trying to do mail in voting.
Alex (39:05):
See, I like mail in voting, just because then I can
sit there with my ballot andactually, like, look up,
especially like the releaseoffices, I could take a ton of
time and not feel like I'm like,holding a voting booth too long.
For some reason it's wrong tohave my phone out in a voting
booth. It's legal, but I feellike I'm like, cheating on a
test, like a breaking a rule.
Yeah, it
Landon (39:24):
is. They, they won't have your phone. They won't let
me do that here, really, on apaper. Yeah, okay, because,
like, at least in my area, theyare very clear. No, your phone
must be turned off. Oh,interesting. Go into that area.
And, yeah, but I write it downon a piece of paper of like,
(39:46):
This is who I like, This is whoI don't like. And if it's
something like a judge and it'slike, Oh, crap, I didn't look
that information up. I don'tvote because I don't want to do
any. Harm in that, yeah. Butmost of the time I have every
single thing, every singleinitiative, every single thing,
(40:10):
picked and ready and voting onit,
Vanessa (40:14):
yeah, and like your Secretary of State's websites
for pretty much every state, Iwould imagine, once you get
close enough to election time,you can see your ballot, so that
you can do your research aheadof time as well, so you can do
what Brandon did, and write itdown and follow up on another
thing, where like, when peoplelike are think that their vote
(40:38):
won't matter, and like redcounties and stuff like that in
Ohio. I don't know if you twohave heard of a guy named Gary
click. He's the I swear he's asexual predator. He's a Ohio
State House Representativepastor who is absolutely
obsessed with trans kids, andhe's the one that got trans
healthcare banned for kids inthe state and sports bands and
working in bathroom bands.
Alex (40:59):
Was he with John caught on a podcast recently where they
were talking about how they wantto Yeah, yeah. I know who you're
talking
Vanessa (41:05):
about, yeah, yeah. But like, if you look at how his
elections, he only won by like3000 votes, so in an entire
district where the main thingpeople just it's hard to say
this, especially for me, becausekind of hypocritical, because I
went 40 years without voting,but now I understand how
(41:27):
important it is, but I onlyreally started understanding
that when I came out and allthis shit started like affecting
me personally, and that's thehard part, is showing people how
that does affect thempersonally, but If they get out
there, they can make adifference. And that's one of
the most, probably the mostimportant thing I have to say in
(41:49):
this episode is one, make sureyou haven't been purged. And
two, just go do it, and it'seasy. It doesn't take long, and
you could make a difference. So,anything else you two want to
get into before I break outCards Against Humanity?
Alex (42:08):
Oh, we have cards against humanity.
Unknown (42:13):
Yes,
Vanessa (42:18):
nothing, okay, so then we're gonna do
Alex (42:22):
transcend. We're Yeah, I thought it was Friday, and then
I got really upset that I gotone more day of work. Love,
Vanessa (42:30):
you hit your 40s because then you're brain fried
all the time. But then time goesby super fast, and you never
know what day it is, and all ofa sudden it's like, two weeks
later, and you're like, whathappened? I don't get it. I
really don't. I feel like
Alex (42:43):
that's starting to happen to me. It's catching up.
Vanessa (42:47):
Well, you're what, 29 so yeah, or right around there,
so yeah, 30s when it first hits.
Though, honestly, I felt oldestwhen I was 29 like, hands down,
oldest. And now in my 40s, Ifeel younger than I did when I
was in my 30s. But I'm also onhormone replacement therapy,
which took like, 510, years offmy parents. So that could be
part
Landon (43:08):
of it. I feel quite ancient. So
Vanessa (43:11):
you are an old soul. I
Landon (43:13):
am. You really are. I am,
Vanessa (43:16):
like,
Landon (43:17):
also, it doesn't help that I know almost nothing about
modern pop culture. All my popculture references are basically
end at 1975 and start at like1933
Vanessa (43:33):
you're so stereotypical gay
Landon (43:35):
I am, which is amazing about Auntie Mame. Yeah,
Vanessa (43:40):
exactly No. I tell people about you all the time,
actually, Landon like, I like topoint people towards episode I
had you on there, because that'sthat's one reason I want to have
you both here is I feel you twohave a lot in common in that
you're two of some of the mostbrilliant people I've ever come
across, and I want more peopleto hear what you have to say,
(44:01):
because your insights into lifeare fucking again, old soul kind
of shit. And like you were somuch more in tune with the world
than people were when I wasgrowing up. And at that age, you
know, in my 20s, I was justtrying to fuck anything that
moved testosterone do that. Butif I don't have that anymore,
Alex (44:27):
I'm also just trying to fuck anything that moves, but
while shit posting online. Sothat's really the only
difference.
Vanessa (44:33):
Yes, now if you can multitask and do it at the same
time,
Alex (44:38):
there we go. That's normally fans. There we go.
Vanessa (44:41):
Exactly I tried only fans, but post op trans girls,
no one wants to say it, so we'rejust as boring as a cis girl.
Apparently, wow, you have tohave a dick. So I gave up on it.
But after I ran for office, someright wing news organization.
Like far, far right, dug up mydeleted posts on Reddit because
(45:05):
I advertised on Reddit, and somy pussy was there for everyone
to see on the internet for awhile. So that's fun. But
anyways, so Cards AgainstHumanity. This is like the old
deck. So I really I need to getsomething more up to date,
because all this stuff seems tobe kind of irrelevant, but So
how it works? We each get acard, and I only have a black
(45:30):
card, so white ones are overthere somewhere, but that's no
fun, because you can't see them.
Landon (45:35):
We need to keep cards segregated, separate but equal,
exactly,
Vanessa (45:40):
separate from the equal feels like Ohio and trans
people. I swear history justrepeats itself over
Landon (45:50):
Oh, it does. Oh, 100
Alex (45:51):
so
Landon (45:52):
don't get me started on the unholy alliance the Southern
Baptist church made with theRepublican Party in the 70s
after they lost their SupremeCourt lawsuit about having to
desegregate their privateChristian schools or pay taxes,
that's when they started to careabout abortion. They didn't care
(46:13):
and and they they there werelike, letters between the
Southern Baptist Church and theRepublicans, like, basically
doing a hey, we've been teachingour people to not think
critically for decades. Like, doyou know how valuable they'll
be? And they went, we needsomething to get them off of the
(46:34):
fact that we lost this case sobadly. Let's go with abortion,
because everyone hates women. Wecan focus on this, and they
went, and we cannot tell themhow to vote from the pulpit, but
we can talk about abortion beingevil, and all you need to do is
say the magic words of abortionis bad, and they'll vote for
(46:55):
you, and the sheep will follow.
And that is what createdChristian nationalism, was them
not wanting to have to paytaxes, or which also goes to
proof, because they were arguingthis whole thing of it's, it's,
you know, God's will that theraces be segregated and the
little white children not be incontact with the black children.
Like, Funny how that went outthe window when they said, you
(47:17):
can continue to have your littleracist schools. You just have to
pay taxes on them.
Vanessa (47:24):
I swear every, every bullshit thing in this country
boils down to two things, racismand money, racism and money.
That's It's simple. It's assimple as that, and as stupid as
it is. And, you know, I justlike, I've had racism just baked
into me intrinsically my entirelife, like I grew up in a super
racist family, and as whitepeople, it's we all are guilty
(47:48):
of it on different levels, andit's a constant unlearning
process. But when you step backand think about racism, just how
fucking stupid it is. It is sostupid. It's a different color
of skin. And honestly, I thinkit might have started because
(48:10):
white people were upset thatblack people were better looking
than that. It could be asstupidly simple as that, but I
don't I buy
Alex (48:20):
that. When I was a little girl, I was so jealous of like,
the black girls in my class thathad, like, all the beads, or,
like, they'd come in, like, withcrazy, like, poofy, like, they
just do such amazing things withtheir hair that I'm like, this
is never gonna do. And I was sojealous. I remember coming home
to my mom and be like, Mom, Iwant black girl hair. She said,
You can't. You can't just saythat. You can't, just don't like
(48:41):
what I do. Yeah, so I buy thattheory black people are hotter
than us, and we were at bagsabout it.
Vanessa (48:49):
We are. It's just it's so stupid. Okay, Cards Against
Humanity. So I'm gonna pull acard for each of us, just at
random. Hopefully I keep onwinding up polling once I pulled
recently. So Landon's card,
Landon (49:02):
that's always how it goes, I know. And
Vanessa (49:05):
we have Alex's card and we have Vanessa's card, so you
mini money mode, but it neverworks. I'm going first. So,
okay, so what you do is, I showyou the card, and then you come
(49:29):
up with the white card, part ofit, and for some reason, like I
can't really read it when I holdit. I don't know if you two can
read it, so I'm just gonna readit
Alex (49:38):
out. Yeah, read it out, because
Unknown (49:39):
this is blurry. Okay.
Vanessa (49:42):
Well, if you'll excuse me, gentlemen, I have a date
with
Landon (49:47):
that's actually a good one for that.
Vanessa (49:49):
Do it? Throw it out.
Landon (49:50):
There's groovy new thing called LSD. Goddamn. I think
that's an actual white card.
Vanessa (50:00):
Though it probably is.
And the one that came into mymind is probably a wipe card
too, but my vibrator, becausethat poor thing, I keep wearing
all its batteries. So my
Alex (50:12):
first thought was just macho Bell, but that's because
I'm getting hungry, and I keepthinking about getting, like the
cheesy gordita crunch. I
Vanessa (50:20):
was just thinking about Mexican food too.
Landon (50:22):
Have you seen Well, I wouldn't call Taco Bell Mexican
food that plays cards againsthumanity on Tiktok. No legends,
hilarious.
Vanessa (50:33):
I need to look
Landon (50:34):
that up. Yeah, he's, he's kind of an evil cat. He
loves genocide. I mean, which isa great drag name,
Vanessa (50:45):
so here, genocide.
Okay, who's next? Alex orLandon?
Alex (50:55):
Okay, I'll go. But I feel like you're gonna have to read
it, because I can't read it fromyour screen. I
Vanessa (50:59):
am gonna read it. Okay, this is a long one. Okay, let's
see. It's so fucking hard to dothis on camera. After four
platinum albums and threeGrammys, it's time to get back
to my roots, to what inspired meto make music in the first
place,
Alex (51:18):
cuck holding. Fuck yeah,
Unknown (51:21):
first thought,
Vanessa (51:29):
I don't think I can beat that. I really don't.
Sometimes I just don't have afilter. No, I love that. That's
like, that's one reason you'rehere, because an
Landon (51:43):
animator on bluey got fired, because in the parents
bedroom he put, he put the chairthat just faces the bed weirdly,
and and people on, and peoplesaw it, and half of the internet
was going like No, and the otherhalf was going Yes, and they
were like, going, it's bluey.
Stop being pervs. It's just achair. And then the anime was
like, I did it. And it was abloody hilarious like, and like,
(52:06):
and they were like, you'refired. Like, how dare you Sully
bluey. Oh
Vanessa (52:13):
yeah, there's some things that should be sacred,
but it's still pretty funny. Ican't get my kid to watch Bluey,
so, I mean, unfortunately, Idon't live with him anymore.
Maybe he's starting to watch itnow, then not there anymore,
but, like, I had to, like, forcehim to watch it. Oh, Curious
Landon (52:29):
George, that is one of the best TV shows ever,
Vanessa (52:33):
really. There's a new one or an old one. Yeah,
Landon (52:36):
it, well, it started in like 2006 and it has like, 15
seasons. It's so good. It damnso good. I highly recommend it.
Vanessa (52:47):
Okay. June Rogers is over here, plugging. Curious
George, so Okay, last on asecond one. Landon, how are you
maintain How? How am Imaintaining my relationship
status? Meaning you, how are youmaintaining your relationship
status with a Ouija
Landon (53:03):
board?
Vanessa (53:05):
That's a really good idea. Shit.
Alex (53:10):
Damn. That is good.
Unknown (53:13):
Yeah. Who are so? Who
Alex (53:14):
are you communing with via the Ouija board to maintain your
relationship well,
Landon (53:19):
my family from my past life.
Alex (53:24):
They're giving you some spiritual guidance,
Landon (53:27):
and they're telling me good barbiturians,
Vanessa (53:34):
barbiturates, you really are the toys to the 70s,
aren't you? It's prettyglorious. It's pretty glorious.
So okay, wrapping up, where canpeople find you? If they're not
already connected to you?
Alex (53:54):
Well, I am on Instagram and Tiktok. If you search
caslmon or CA salmon, you'llfind me and all my ship hosting,
yay.
Landon (54:10):
I am on Instagram, Tiktok threads and YouTube. I
just hit 10,000 on YouTube theother day. I am now I officially
have over 10,000 followers onevery platform I'm on, which I'm
very proud of. And it's andunderscore mayhem, underscore
(54:31):
ensued. And, or you can justlook up Landon read that's most
likely faster.
Vanessa (54:40):
Mayhem ensued is so much more fun. I
Landon (54:42):
was planning on, on, on it going on, becoming any kind
of influencer at all. So it'sjust like, That's a funny name,
stupid 19 year old me, honestly,
Vanessa (54:56):
though, because it's fitting.
Alex (54:59):
So how? Happened with my name? It was like, there was,
like, a dumb thing to, like,figure out your digimon name out
of letters from your name, andthen it just became my screen
name on everything. And nowpeople are like, California
salmon. I'm like, close enough.
All right, fine,
Vanessa (55:13):
yeah. I was kind of wondering where yours came from.
So, like, I mean, no, you know,I can, yeah, because YouTube on
social media, so you're able to,you know, it's, it's closer.
Landon (55:28):
I oddly didn't, okay, really, I here's, here's the
interesting thing, I washomeschooled. Explain so much
all of your, all of your burningquestions were just answered. I
was home, and we didn't have myfather didn't allow us to have
the internet until I was 11, andI didn't have my first cell
(55:51):
phone until I was 16.
Alex (55:56):
See, my dad was super in the online gaming so we had a
computer in my house, but it wasmostly for, like, Neopets and
stuff. And then I had a MySpacefor like a minute.
Vanessa (56:10):
I had a MySpace. I was one of first. I was early on
Facebook, but yeah, it's allseems so far and now in anyways,
thank you two so much forjoining me this week.
Alex (56:26):
Thanks for inviting me.
Vanessa (56:29):
Yes, yes. Next week will be river Rowan and I
talking about, it's actually atrans episode for a change.
We're talking about, like seeingour past selves, and the fact
that I came across an old dickpic of mine, and it blew my
fucking mind. So tune into thatone next week. Anyways, Alex
(56:53):
Landon, thank you so much forjoining me on this show, and
people follow them, you willlove their content, and you
really well this, this has been,this is a carefully curated
episode of this, of this pod. Sountil I've
Alex (57:07):
ever said that about me, ever in my life, until now,
well,
Vanessa (57:11):
now you're there. So, all right, two dolls. I.
Okay, I need to do a little bit of vocal exercises.
Okay, that's better. Okay, good.
I'm happy with this to see if Ican keep this up. Anyways, hello
and welcome back to transcendinghumanity. I'm Vanessa, aka
Vanessa audio, and I am joinedtoday by two people I've been
very excited to have on thepodcast. I've had Landon here
(00:22):
before, but Alex is new. Just areminder to using the opinions
that the people you see on yourscreen or hearing in your ears
are their own and not theirrespective employers, if they're
employed, and send us money onPatreon and buy shit from the
store and thank you to thecurrent patrons. So let's jump
into it. This is my Gen Z, andapparently younger millennial
(00:49):
episode. You all probablyremember Landon. He was on
episode 50, and also he was onEpisode Episode 25 and he really
laid out the kind of thegenerational divide between the
different generations and howeveryone needs to stop fucking
(01:10):
relying on Gen Z to fix all theproblems and actually do it
themselves. So so I asked him tocome back, and I also asked Alex
to join me, and she's anothercreator that I've been following
for a while, and I absolutelylove her shit, and I send her a
message, and she said, Yes, sothis is like a dream for me. So
without further ado, I'm gonnalet you two introduce
(01:33):
yourselves. Say a little bityada yada yada, ladies, first,
Alex (01:41):
I don't want to jump in.
All right, all right, all right,all right. I'll go first. I can
do it. My name is Alex fire.
Baptism by fire, yeah, justthrow me the wolves. We got
this. My name is Alex. I dopolitical content on Tiktok and
Instagram, really, especiallytrying to engage those younger
generations with politics,especially social justice
(02:04):
issues. So LGBTQ rights,abortion rights, income
inequality, those kinds ofthings. Yeah, that's me.
Vanessa (02:15):
Thank you. Landon,
Landon (02:18):
hello. I am not part Chow. I just had cotton candy.
That's why my tongue is dark. Iam a drag queen on Instagram and
Tiktok and all the social mediasexcept x, because Elon sucks, I
do content that is political,but really shouldn't be, but it
(02:38):
was made political. Yeah,
Vanessa (02:41):
it's honestly pretty innocent stuff too. It is like,
How dare you be children'sstory. I know it's so
scandalous. One
Landon (02:50):
Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, indoctrination fish,
Alex (02:56):
right there.
Vanessa (02:58):
I know, right. I'm gonna take a picture this just
for socials, because this isexciting.
Landon (03:06):
So for sure, because my eyeline is all over the place, I
know, and I'm looking at you,I'm looking off to the side, and
when I'm looking at myself, itlooks like I'm looking at you,
and that's
Vanessa (03:20):
just weird. I know I have to keep training myself to
look like I'm looking into thecamera right now, so, but this
is really Alex.
Landon (03:27):
They're the little green dot. It's,
Vanessa (03:30):
it's hard, you know, like, I've even seen, like,
these cameras that, like,they'll stick down in front of
the screen for you, but my handsgiant, you know, this far, yeah.
So, I just wanted to start up aconversation about, what kind of
day to day bullshit Do you twoas younger Americans that are
(03:52):
trying to make a impact in thisworld or trying to just survive
in this world, what are just theday to day bullshit, stuff that
just drives you nuts, and youwant to just get it out there
and call people out for it. Sogo
Landon (04:09):
apartment hunting. Oh, my God, such a big one. Okay, so
I'm trying to move from Texas toLos Angeles, and when you don't
have a job in a place, it's verydifficult, because, you know,
they require a job to get anapartment, but almost every
(04:30):
single job requires you to livethere currently to even be
considered. And so it's thiscatch 22 snake just devouring
itself over and over. And I havea decent amount of savings,
because I've just swirled awayeverything I've ever received
for birthdays or whatever, and Ijust have it all in a little
(04:54):
bank account. Just so, yeah, sowhen I figured out. Out I would
qualify to be the cosigner. Ifsomebody with horrible credit
and no savings and no job wantedthis apartment, I could get that
apartment for them, but I cannotqualify to get that apartment
(05:15):
for myself. And that was justlike, What is wrong with this
system? I'd say it's broken. Itis so broken.
Alex (05:24):
Man, I could say mad about credit scores in general, it's
just a joke number. It doesn'teven matter. Like, I made my
younger brother like anauthorized user on one of my
credit cards, so he would have agood credit score. So he's got,
like, an 800 now, because I'manal about money and, like,
nothing. He's done nothing. It'sjust a joke. He knows somebody
(05:45):
with good credit, and now he canget, like, a loan where someone
who maybe had like, medical debtcan't, yeah, that
Vanessa (05:52):
entire system, the credit score thing is so done.
Like, I declared bankruptcy acouple years ago, but then I
changed my name right after,which, kind of, like, get put a
hiccup in my credit score, andit went way up, like six months
after I declared bankruptcy, mycredit score was in the seven
hundreds, which was kind ofwild, but, and it never really
caught up, even though my namefinally got caught up on it. But
(06:15):
so like, right now, if I go onCredit Karma, it says, like,
712, or something like that, andwhen I just went and bought a
car, and when they pull up myactual credit, not the credit
that we at the seat, it was like630 which is still enough to get
a loan. But how the fuck are wesupposed to know anything?
Alex (06:34):
Yeah.
Landon (06:36):
And the thing with, like the apartment hunting, is I was
complaining to some people, andI have some friends in Los
Angeles who are nativeAngelinos, and one of them is a
man in his 50s, and one of themis a woman in her late 40s, and
they were giving me this advice.
And it's like that advice is sobeyond worthless, like what
(06:58):
you're telling me to do isbeyond worthless. And one of
them told me to look in thisarea, because, oh yeah, they
keep the rent low so artists canlive there. Like, that's, that's
been the whole thing. That's theMO and they went, and it's a
beautiful area, because theartists keep it nice and keep it
pretty. And I looked it up, andI was saying a 200 square foot
(07:19):
studio with a shared bathroom is3000 a month that is now the
yuppie place to live, becauseartists made it beautiful, and
corporate landlords bought itup, and it was like it this
place that had been around sinceHollywood was created where
(07:40):
artists could live affordablywith the knowledge that artists
will keep the area safe andnice, went out the window with
corporate landlords.
Alex (07:53):
I mean, the entire housing market went out the window with
corporate landlords. I wastrying to explain my
grandparents, like a coupleweeks ago, about why I'm renting
and not buying a house, and justlike, it's ridiculous. You have
to have a ridiculous amount ofmoney saved up for a down
payments. Interest rates are outof astronomical right now, so
people that are locked into lowrates aren't selling, so there's
(08:15):
a housing shortage and all thesethings not even taking into
account like inflation sincetheir generation, and they're
just like, Oh, you just need tosave more. You just need to save
more. Like, oh, okay, yeah, manylattes.
Vanessa (08:33):
I used to be a homeowner, and when my ex was
pregnant with our son, I movedin with her, so I sold my house,
like, two months before thehousing like, exploded. So like,
if I had waited two months, Icould have gotten another like,
60 grand for my house, and nowit's just so unavoidable,
(08:59):
affordable. I lucked out theplace I'm in now. I'm renting
for $800 a month, an entirehouse. Oh, wow. Lennon's head
just exploded. It belongs to oneof my photography clients. It's
the house that she grew up in,and her mother in law was living
here, but her mother in lawmoved, and she didn't want to
(09:19):
sell the house. She knew I waslooking for it. She's like, if
you would pay me the same rentthat she was paying, you can
live there. I'm like, fuck yeah,so, but that is so rare, yeah?
And like, any place else aroundhere would be starting at like
1500 if they let me live therebecause I have a German
Shepherd. Yeah? Racism is athing,
Alex (09:38):
so that's like a whole other thing too. Like, it's so
normalized now for us, like,living with your parents is
like, cool, like, oh yeah,you're putting aside that bag.
Like the friends that are ableto live at home were jealous of
where that used to be astereotype. Like, I've been
talking to a dude on Tinderthat's living with his parents.
I'm like, Yeah, dude, get thatbag. Like, that would have been
(09:58):
a red flag for my parents.
Parents generation, and now it'sjust, like, nice so you have
savings, cool, like,
Vanessa (10:07):
that's definitely a big difference between the five,
because I imagine your parentsare Gen X for both of you, minor
boomers. Yeah, they're boomers.
Okay, yeah. Minor, olderboomers. And, like, living at
home when I was growing at like,there's so many things that are
different, like, for me in inhigh school, every time, every
(10:29):
time someone hit 15 and a half,that's when you, like, ran out
and started your driver'slicense thing. And now, from
what I understand, kids justdon't really care that much
about driving. My local partner,her kids, just they couldn't
give a flying fuck aboutdriving. And I almost think that
a lot of it is, I think kids, intheir parents, it's more of a
(10:52):
general role than it was when Iwas growing up. Have a little
bit more of a connection, andmight actually be able to
tolerate sometimes living, Icould not imagine living with my
parents, but, I mean, that'sthat's just a very blanket
statement, but how do you twofeel about all that?
Alex (11:16):
I mean, I also could not live with my parents, but I know
in my case, and for like, a lotof my friends, we started
driving late just becausedriver's training is not
something that's free anymore.
Like we're seeing all theselittle things start to add up,
of things that older generationstook for granted, like driver's
training was just part of highschool that was included in
public education. It's not freeanymore. It's several $100 and
for a lot of middle classfamilies living paycheck they
(11:39):
can't afford it. I had to waituntil I was 18 and able to just,
like, go to the Secretary ofState and get a permit and,
like, have friends teach me howto drive, because, like, it was
just not an affordable thing.
But living with my parents,that's a no for me. Talk.
Unknown (11:56):
I can't pay boomers.
What
Alex (12:00):
about you? Landon, how do you feel?
Landon (12:02):
Oh, well, I live with my mother. I could not have lived
with my father, but it's thewith the driving thing.
Especially, there was this manon Tiktok, and he wasn't even
that old. He was probably like5556 and he was talking about
(12:23):
how lazy younger generationsare, and how, you know, younger
generations don't even want toget a driver's license because
they're all narcissistic, andtheir lives are online and blah,
blah, blah, you know, theregurgitated talking points were
also used to hearing. And he washe said this phrase where he got
(12:44):
a car. He got his first job. Hisparents paid for half of his
first car. He paid for the otherhalf, and then he was
responsible with his part timeafter school, job all day,
Saturday, Sunday, off to pay forhis gas and car insurance. And I
replied to this man to go, allright, a couple things. Number
(13:06):
one, there are no affordableused cars anymore. And a couple
years ago, when Gen Z actuallyrealized, wait a minute, we can
start buying luxury cars from,you know, the 90s and early,
2000s for not that much money,because people who are looking
for luxury cars are not going totouch these, and people who are
(13:29):
looking for a used car won'teven think to go, oh, do I want
a Bentley? Do I want a Cadillac?
Do I want, you know, this, that,whatever. And so it was these
cars aren't that expensive, andGen Z was buying them. And how
did boomers respond? Theystarted buying those cars to
hold as investments. And youknow, when Boomers and Gen X was
(13:50):
coming up, it was this big push,like, there was a media campaign
for, like, Silent Generation andgreatest generation of if you're
looking to trade in your car.
Think about selling it to ayoung person for trade in value
like that was a campaign of,don't, don't, let the dealership
(14:12):
get the money. You know, thedealership will pay you, like,
um, 1/10 of what the car'sworth. So sell it to a young
person for 1/10 of what the carswere then smoked Mabo
cigarettes. And it was that thatwas one of those things of so
there are no affordable usecars, but even if there were
just paying for gas andinsurance, and I pointed out
(14:35):
that part time job you had, andhe, like, told me where, like,
what the job was doing. And Iwent, Okay, so that would pay
absolute minimum wage, and inyour state, that is like 750 you
know, an hour. And I went for a16 year old's insurance and the
gas for a part time job, theywould need to be making at least
(14:59):
$40 An hour to pay for just thatand, and, and he was arguing,
and he was being belligerent.
And I will say, when I told himto crunch the numbers, he did
come back and go, okay,
Vanessa (15:14):
yeah, the numbers still, yeah, like, my insurances
are cheap because, again, I'mold, but still, my car payments
like 405 for 2015, car and thencar insurance is like 80, and
then gas, you know, everythingtogether. Like, let's just do a
quick thing here. Like, theaverage pay around me is about
(15:36):
12 hours an hour. So, you know,say, $700 I've divided by 12,
it's 58 hours of work just topay for the car. And that
doesn't that doesn't evenaccount for taxes, either. So
and So how is anyone supposed tokeep up with that? Because then
(15:57):
they also have rent and food,and so living at home just makes
sense. As much as that can suck.
So or you get a nice little youalso hear of a lot of like
communes starting up, you know,just, just a bunch of people
living together, just to, youknow, survive. But that also has
to get annoying too, is, what ifone of them doesn't shower? You
(16:21):
know, guys don't wash theirglass. Well,
Alex (16:28):
I think definitely cost of living is like the biggest
divide, and it's so hard toexplain to people because, like,
Landon was saying, you reallyhave to break the numbers down
of just like, Okay, this is howthat wage would equate out today
because of the, you know,inflation rate and everything,
because these people hearsomething like, oh, wow, you're
making 12 bucks an hour. Andthey're really like, not doing
(16:52):
the mental processing of how farthat doesn't go now, combined
with the fact that, like acrossthe board, even not low wage
earners, but wages havestagnated since the 70s, like,
we're not seeing wages go up. Sothey're used to, like, if
they're making 40 bucks an hour,they feel really good about
themselves. They should bemaking like, 80 bucks an hour.
And realizing like, Oh, hey, youare also getting screwed can be
(17:13):
a hard thing to accept, becauseyou're like, especially when
you're older, it's like, I workso hard for all the things I
have and you probably did, andto realize like, Oh, I'm getting
screwed. The younger generationshave it even worse. I think it's
an easier knee jerk reaction tohave to just like, call us lazy.
Unknown (17:29):
The
Vanessa (17:31):
system is fucked, absolutely fucked. My first job
paid is that SeaWorld in Ohio.
If you believe that Ohio had asea world. I believe I had a Sea
World. Emily had a sea world,and it was $4.25 an hour. But
everything was cheap back then.
(17:54):
So like, I remember filling upmy car for 68 cents a gallon in
I think 2000 Yeah, and so, youknow, everything is no one can
catch up, and it's the absoluteworst. Let's pivot to the whole
gun bullshit. I imagine you bothwere in school during with the
(18:20):
constant fear of shootings. Whatcrosses your mind when you hear
all of these politicians and itNRA, I almost said NAR National
Association of Realtors, butreally not same thing, if you
think about it, but like whenthey so clearly value guns over
(18:44):
the lives of children with gunwith gun violence being the
number one cause of death forkids in this country, which is a
very uniquely American problem.
And they keep saying, it's notthe guns, it's the people. Well,
the guns do fucking help,because if you notice, it's the
same kind of gun that tends tobe used with a lot of these
shootings. What kind offrustrations Do you two feel
(19:07):
with all that?
Alex (19:11):
I think, for me, it's the disconnect between like the
actual legislation that is beingproposed and then what is being
told to conservative voters andconservative conservative groups
and gun owners, like they paintit as the LIBS are coming for
your guns. No one's coming foryour guns, like we're proposing,
(19:31):
like actual proposals, likeuniversal background checks, red
flag laws, safe storage laws,these are all things that, when
you pitch them individually tothe public, there's overwhelming
support, because it's like,yeah, people should have to pass
a background check on a firearm,exactly. It's common sense
legislation, I mean, things likebanning assault rifles outright,
that usually gets a bit morepushback. But then you start
(19:53):
like explaining in depth theretoo. It's like, it's not the
government's not going to bangon your door and take your guns.
There would be buyback programsto make. Sure you're fairly
compensated for property thatyou paid into. Like most people
are, like, okay, yeah, that's alot more reasonable. But there's
a lot of just outrightpropaganda and almost cultish
(20:13):
behavior too, like theCongressman wearing, like they
are 15 pins after a shooting.
Can you imagine if one of theDemocrats did that after Trump
got shot, like there'd beoutrage, I know,
Landon (20:24):
yeah, so much performative outrage would have
happened. I always say thatchildren are in schools are the
soldiers dying on the frontlines for Republican stupid war
so they can continue to owntheir guns.
Vanessa (20:49):
It's flat out true. And as Alex said, you know, they're
not coming for your guns. Youknow, owning a gun is an
American thing. You know, a lotof liberals own guns. There's a
lot of trans people that ownguns, mainly to protect
themselves from the assholeconservatives with guns. Well,
there's
Alex (21:08):
the same you go far enough left, you get the guns back.
Vanessa (21:12):
Exactly, exactly. I love that, and it's true, but I
just, I honestly don'tunderstand why the average
citizen needs something like anAR 15 and, you know, everyone's
like, Oh, it's not an assaultrifle. You know, no, it is. You
(21:32):
know, there's a citizen does notneed that. It's literally
Alex (21:36):
designed to kill as many people as quickly, efficiently
as possible. It's an assaultrifle.
Vanessa (21:43):
You know, it's a bunch of just scared white people
there buying them so they canmow down to black people. And
that's all. That's what it boilsdown to in the end. And
Alex (21:51):
I mean, I've shot one.
It's fun. Like, I've got a gunbro friend that I've been trying
to convert. He's like, left oneverything else except, like,
don't touch my guns. I've shotone. It's fun. Like, I get the
appeal, like, there's somemonkey part of my brain that's
just, like, I want to make theboom, boom big, but like, that
is not enough to justify peopleactually dying. Like, I think
(22:13):
really, it's just like, a matterof, like, outreach and
education. Because, like I said,most people do support, like
common sense gun laws, they'vejust been spun in a way that the
two way cultists go rabid about
Vanessa (22:30):
there's way too much money involved. So, yeah,
Landon (22:35):
I find it fascinating how I don't remember what year
it was, but the NRA used to belike this very common sense
group that was pushing for like,gun legislation, and there was
dissent in the group, and thecrazies took over. And I think
at one point, the NRA, like, hadthis view that having a gun
(23:00):
should be, like having adriver's license, where you need
to get a gun license, and, yeah,you know, after a certain age,
or a certain number of years ofyou having the license, you need
to come in and completely haveeverything reviewed. You know,
like with when, when you have adriver's license, there's the at
a certain point where you've hadit enough years, you do need to
(23:23):
actually come into the DMV andget everything redone, and
sometimes you need to retake thequiz, and
Alex (23:34):
it's an argument they make is like, Oh, well, cars aren't
in the Constitution. Though youdon't have a constitutional
right to drive a car, like,Bitch, I didn't have a
constitutional right to votewhen that thing was written.
Okay, get out of here with that.
Well, they
Landon (23:48):
don't want you to do that either. So, yeah,
Vanessa (23:53):
I don't know if either of you have ever like, handled
a, like, black powder musket,but they're very different from
a modern gun too. That's whatwas the gun back then. So the
language really could stand alittle bit of updating, but we
need the Boomers to die outfirst. I
Landon (24:10):
always love when when conservatives will bring up
guns, and I always like to go,Well, yes, our corset wearing
high heeled makeup, loving wig,donning founding fathers did, in
fact, love guns? No, I've beensaying this fashion changes. So
Alex (24:33):
I've been saying this gay.
Like, if we make guns gay, theywill run away from them. They'll
be getting banned up and down,like, we need to take it over
just like, go to pride paradesand like, hand out. That's
probably a bad idea. But you getwhy I'm Yeah,
Landon (24:48):
I have a theory that if we start instead with abortion
rights, if we start callingfetuses illegal aliens.
Alex (25:01):
They'll be on day one.
They will
Landon (25:03):
be on board the illegal aliens. And the vagina is now
the southern border. The illegalaliens attempting to cross the
southern border to great begranted citizenship in our
country and will lead your taxdollars. They will be for
abortion.
Vanessa (25:21):
We got anything whenever it costs them money.
Whenever it costs them money.
Yeah. So another pivot, how muchenthusiasm Do you see people of
your generation looking to runfor office?
Alex (25:39):
I'd say it's really mixed.
I think we're seeing more andmore of it, but the threshold to
run for office is reallydifficult. And again, like, it
ties back to cost of living.
Like, take out the fact, like,you need time to go run for
office. There's a lot ofgatekeeping and breaking into
these positions even, like,there are some city council
(25:59):
organizations where it's likeyou have to be part of like a
member board, and that's like atiered service, like you have to
pay, like, a certain amount ofmoney a month to be like part of
this special group to be able torun, or you have to actually own
your home in that community inorder to run, so renters can't
take part. So there is moreenthusiasm, but I do think it's
(26:21):
a lot more difficult again,because just economic
constraints.
Landon (26:27):
Yeah, the entire system is really just so skewed. I
mean, I read somewhere and Ididn't fact check it at the time
to make sure it was true. Sodon't be saying, if it's not
true, I'm just spreadingmisinformation. I'm putting that
disclaimer on it. But theFounding Fathers, when they
(26:50):
created the criteria to bepresident, they wrote it in such
a way they never dreamed someonewho is not one of their
descendants of the men in thatroom would ever be able to be
president, like they did not seeanyone who wasn't one of their
offspring ever having thepossibility of being President.
Alex (27:12):
Well, their offspring in their class, because it's all
white landowning men that couldeven have a political influence.
So, yeah, I
Vanessa (27:23):
would like to see the money taken out of politics
completely, and shorten theelection cycle the episode of
the show that's coming outtomorrow. I interviewed two Ohio
State House representativesabout stuff like that, and
because I ran for office andthey are actually their
representatives that created abill to help people not get
(27:47):
disqualified the way that I was,but like when I ran, it is
expensive, and if you don't knowthe right people, like I, I
didn't fucking jerk off The thehead of the stark County
Democratic Party, so he wouldnot return my calls. And from i,
from what I understand, he wasactively working to keep me off
(28:09):
the ballot. And then theSecretary of State saying that,
you know, candidates have tohave their own legal teams and
stuff like that to know all therules we're gonna fucking afford
that it's there's so manybarriers that we really need
major election reform. And Ithink it's possible, I don't do
(28:32):
to listen to Jon Stewart at all.
Unknown (28:35):
Yeah,
Landon (28:37):
I bet a little. He
Vanessa (28:39):
has a weekly show. Now that he didn't, he interviewed
some people that are that talkedabout America's two party system
and how it's just functionnothing can get done in that how
we need more parties, not toomany, because if you have too
many, then it also messy, butit's like four or five or six,
(29:02):
kind of a sweet spot. You expandthe seats in the House to
represent that and with the goalof actually starting to get
things done,
Alex (29:13):
like a parliamentary system,
Vanessa (29:15):
exactly,
Landon (29:17):
I would love, love.
Love. First thing, getting ridof the Electoral College and
equally, yep. Second thing,tiered voting like Australia.
Explain where in Australia youyou have, I believe it's like
(29:37):
you have three votes. So if youlike, let's say you want to vote
for Jill Stein. Jill Stein'syour girl. Woo, woo. Jill Stein.
You can vote for Jill Stein, butyou know, Jill Stein's not going
to win, so you're not, you don'tfeel like you're throwing your
(29:58):
vote away. Because your secondvote would be Kamala Harris.
Alex (30:05):
Oh, like ranked choice voting? Yeah, yes,
Landon (30:09):
yes, let me be clear,
Alex (30:15):
yeah, because we don't have ranked choice voting. It's
funny you bring up Australia,though too, because their
election system is so superiorto ours. For one, voting is
mandatory, and you have the timeoff to go do it like you, yeah,
you'll pay a fine if you don'tvote. They're also their
election cycles. It's supercondensed, like it's illegal to
(30:36):
campaign outside of the electioncycles, and it's super short. I
want to say, like, three weeks,I might be off on that. I have a
friend from Australia that wastelling me about this. But,
like, you can only campaign inthat time. And also, the
government has to educate votersabout, like, who's on the
ballot. Like, they have to sendout information and everything.
So, I mean, campaigns aren'tdumping all this money into
(30:58):
like, I mean, essentially, like,look at Biden before he dropped
out and Trump, they werecampaigning for like, the last
two years. So like, half thepresidential term is just
campaigning. You're not evendoing the job, and that's
millions of dollars going away,but it's
Vanessa (31:12):
almost elected officials too. Yeah, yeah.
Alex (31:16):
Well, I also wanted to point out because you mentioned,
like, your county democraticclub, but that's another area
where, like, young people needto be getting involved. Like,
you don't have to run foroffice, but like, you go to your
local dem club. 90% of the timeit's like, middle aged, white
ladies, and that's it. Those arethe only Democrats in your
county. They're just the onesthat are showing up. But like,
if you have time, and even ifit's not all the time, but like,
(31:38):
some events, like, you can takepart in those county dem clubs.
And then when the electionseason comes around, you can
have a voice and like, Okay, whoare we endorsing? So who are we
going to be knocking doors forin this primary? There are a lot
of avenues where I think justyoung people aren't getting
involved, like they're voting ina lot higher numbers, but like,
(31:58):
there's a lot more work to bedone. That's
Vanessa (32:01):
one of the only good things about Facebook left, is
that it's easy to create groups,to kind of organize that kind of
stuff, but otherwise it'sclusterfuck.
My brain just died. My braindies all that this is, this is
my third episode I've recordedthis week. So, oh, wow. Which
(32:24):
is, I mean, they, they releaseweekly, but my brain is, you
know, fried. Another thing thatwe're seeing a lot in this
country is stupid fuckingRepublican push to purge the
voter rolls. It's happening inevery state. And I think one of
the most important things thatwe all need to do right now is
(32:44):
remind everybody we know tocheck their voter registration,
because, like in Florida, whatwas it like? 800,000 were
purged, or something crazy likethat, and that's a lot of
people, and you know, they'reprobably focusing on purging the
Democrats more than they are theRepublicans off of there. So
(33:05):
like, because if you'reperished, you show up to vote,
you think you're registered, youcan't. And it's I really like
the idea of mandatory votingthat would also completely fuck
all this trying to stop peoplefrom voting, from happening?
Yeah,
Alex (33:21):
so the Republicans would never win again. No, they
wouldn't.
Landon (33:26):
This is one of the other things of voting in general,
like when you try to explain towhite suburban conservatives or
even white suburban liberalsabout what is happening in the
black areas, or any ethnic area,or even a much more liberal area
(33:51):
than the white suburbs, that itisn't a two minute line at the
High school like it is at yourvoting area, like where I live
currently, it's a very in andout experience. It's super fast,
super easy. And when my familylived in a much nicer gated
(34:14):
community, there was a pollingplace in the community, like was
at the clubhouse at theclubhouse in the gated
community, and it was so fastand easy to vote, and they make
it so fast and easy for whitesuburbia to vote. So when you
try to explain to them, theymade it incredibly difficult,
(34:34):
they just don't believe you.
Because why would why would theymake somebody stand in the line
for 20 hours when we quiteliterally in and out two
minutes. Boom. Texas redrawing.
I saw them the gerrymandered mapnow because people moving in
(34:55):
from other states, which numberone Texas when they brought.
Brag about creating all thesejobs. No, he relocated all these
jobs from people in California,and the company moved all their
workers from California toTexas, which in fact, created no
new jobs for the actual state.
But we digress. But most ofthose people who moved are more
(35:17):
left leaning. And so to combatthat, they were redrawing a map,
and one of the maps, like I kidyou not. It was a giant red
blob, and they cut up the blueparts into four different groups
that in this blue area used tobe one district, and they cut it
(35:38):
up into different parts. And onered place had to stretch like, I
think it was 20 miles withouttouching anything, to do a
little circle and go back
Vanessa (35:54):
to my district when I was running head individual
houses cut out. Like, Yeah,seriously. Like this and like it
would go just like what yousaid. They would go along a
highway and then clip out ahouse. It's so right in Ohio in
November, there's in a citizenlet belt initiative to put
(36:16):
districts back into the hands ofthe people, and the Republicans
are losing their fucking mind.
So anyone that hasn't listenedto last week's episode with the
state reps, listen to that oneso you can kind of get an idea.
Or if you're really bored, lookup on the Ohio Secretary of
State's website, the Ohio Houseof Representatives district
(36:39):
maps, and it's mind bogglingthat the fucking crazy ass
Tetris that they pull out withit. So because Ohio's really, if
I was not a blue state, it's apurple state, but you would
never know by a government. So
Alex (36:57):
Well, Nick powers, I don't know if you guys are familiar
with Nick powers. He's like, thestats guy. He's got all the
spreadsheets. He's been doing areally great series, kind of
breaking down, like, becauseit's easy to get kind of
complacent when you live in anarea that's very gerrymandered,
or, like, a solid red state, andbe like, Oh, well, my vote's not
going to do anything. It's veryred here. But that's
(37:17):
counterintuitive, because thenyou're more likely to stay home.
And you look at certainelections like Florida, it's
like, if only, like, a few 1000more people showed up, like
Santas did not win by a largemargin. So I think it's
important too. It's like, yeah,we need to fight the corruption.
But also that doesn't mean yourvote doesn't matter. You know,
(37:38):
like, you can still get outthere, even if you're in like, a
totally red desert, you know,get your friends and family to
come with you. Like, make sureyou're, like, bringing people
out to the polls. I mean, like,look at Georgia that flipped in
2020 That was insane.
Landon (37:56):
And when you go to the polls, you can't wear political
clothes, but you can wear ashirt that says I read banned
books or something like that,and that makes them so mad.
Yeah, it's one of my favoritethings. Is when the first time I
voted for which was, I believe,for Biden, I wore a black shirt
(38:22):
with a lace doily collar, justbecause Ruth Bader Ginsburg had
just died. And it was like,Yeah, I'm doing that. I'm doing
that.
Vanessa (38:33):
It's like, I piss people off just by showing up,
because six foot tall trans girlin red Ohio, walking into a
church, because that's whereonly place you can vote around
here is always in fuckingchurches, which I hate, and so
like, and I fucking get mean.
Like, a couple years ago, theykept misgendering me over and
over and over again, and I justfinally didn't know you guys are
(38:56):
just being fucking rude. This isstupid and so, but now I'm
trying to do mail in voting.
Alex (39:05):
See, I like mail in voting, just because then I can
sit there with my ballot andactually, like, look up,
especially like the releaseoffices, I could take a ton of
time and not feel like I'm like,holding a voting booth too long.
For some reason it's wrong tohave my phone out in a voting
booth. It's legal, but I feellike I'm like, cheating on a
test, like a breaking a rule.
Yeah, it
Landon (39:24):
is. They, they won't have your phone. They won't let
me do that here, really, on apaper. Yeah, okay, because,
like, at least in my area, theyare very clear. No, your phone
must be turned off. Oh,interesting. Go into that area.
And, yeah, but I write it downon a piece of paper of like,
(39:46):
This is who I like, This is whoI don't like. And if it's
something like a judge and it'slike, Oh, crap, I didn't look
that information up. I don'tvote because I don't want to do
any. Harm in that, yeah. Butmost of the time I have every
single thing, every singleinitiative, every single thing,
(40:10):
picked and ready and voting onit,
Vanessa (40:14):
yeah, and like your Secretary of State's websites
for pretty much every state, Iwould imagine, once you get
close enough to election time,you can see your ballot, so that
you can do your research aheadof time as well, so you can do
what Brandon did, and write itdown and follow up on another
thing, where like, when peoplelike are think that their vote
(40:38):
won't matter, and like redcounties and stuff like that in
Ohio. I don't know if you twohave heard of a guy named Gary
click. He's the I swear he's asexual predator. He's a Ohio
State House Representativepastor who is absolutely
obsessed with trans kids, andhe's the one that got trans
healthcare banned for kids inthe state and sports bands and
working in bathroom bands.
Alex (40:59):
Was he with John caught on a podcast recently where they
were talking about how they wantto Yeah, yeah. I know who you're
talking
Vanessa (41:05):
about, yeah, yeah. But like, if you look at how his
elections, he only won by like3000 votes, so in an entire
district where the main thingpeople just it's hard to say
this, especially for me, becausekind of hypocritical, because I
went 40 years without voting,but now I understand how
(41:27):
important it is, but I onlyreally started understanding
that when I came out and allthis shit started like affecting
me personally, and that's thehard part, is showing people how
that does affect thempersonally, but If they get out
there, they can make adifference. And that's one of
the most, probably the mostimportant thing I have to say in
(41:49):
this episode is one, make sureyou haven't been purged. And
two, just go do it, and it'seasy. It doesn't take long, and
you could make a difference. So,anything else you two want to
get into before I break outCards Against Humanity?
Alex (42:08):
Oh, we have cards against humanity.
Unknown (42:13):
Yes,
Vanessa (42:18):
nothing, okay, so then we're gonna do
Alex (42:22):
transcend. We're Yeah, I thought it was Friday, and then
I got really upset that I gotone more day of work. Love,
Vanessa (42:30):
you hit your 40s because then you're brain fried
all the time. But then time goesby super fast, and you never
know what day it is, and all ofa sudden it's like, two weeks
later, and you're like, whathappened? I don't get it. I
really don't. I feel like
Alex (42:43):
that's starting to happen to me. It's catching up.
Vanessa (42:47):
Well, you're what, 29 so yeah, or right around there,
so yeah, 30s when it first hits.
Though, honestly, I felt oldestwhen I was 29 like, hands down,
oldest. And now in my 40s, Ifeel younger than I did when I
was in my 30s. But I'm also onhormone replacement therapy,
which took like, 510, years offmy parents. So that could be
part
Landon (43:08):
of it. I feel quite ancient. So
Vanessa (43:11):
you are an old soul. I
Landon (43:13):
am. You really are. I am,
Vanessa (43:16):
like,
Landon (43:17):
also, it doesn't help that I know almost nothing about
modern pop culture. All my popculture references are basically
end at 1975 and start at like1933
Vanessa (43:33):
you're so stereotypical gay
Landon (43:35):
I am, which is amazing about Auntie Mame. Yeah,
Vanessa (43:40):
exactly No. I tell people about you all the time,
actually, Landon like, I like topoint people towards episode I
had you on there, because that'sthat's one reason I want to have
you both here is I feel you twohave a lot in common in that
you're two of some of the mostbrilliant people I've ever come
across, and I want more peopleto hear what you have to say,
(44:01):
because your insights into lifeare fucking again, old soul kind
of shit. And like you were somuch more in tune with the world
than people were when I wasgrowing up. And at that age, you
know, in my 20s, I was justtrying to fuck anything that
moved testosterone do that. Butif I don't have that anymore,
Alex (44:27):
I'm also just trying to fuck anything that moves, but
while shit posting online. Sothat's really the only
difference.
Vanessa (44:33):
Yes, now if you can multitask and do it at the same
time,
Alex (44:38):
there we go. That's normally fans. There we go.
Vanessa (44:41):
Exactly I tried only fans, but post op trans girls,
no one wants to say it, so we'rejust as boring as a cis girl.
Apparently, wow, you have tohave a dick. So I gave up on it.
But after I ran for office, someright wing news organization.
Like far, far right, dug up mydeleted posts on Reddit because
(45:05):
I advertised on Reddit, and somy pussy was there for everyone
to see on the internet for awhile. So that's fun. But
anyways, so Cards AgainstHumanity. This is like the old
deck. So I really I need to getsomething more up to date,
because all this stuff seems tobe kind of irrelevant, but So
how it works? We each get acard, and I only have a black
(45:30):
card, so white ones are overthere somewhere, but that's no
fun, because you can't see them.
Landon (45:35):
We need to keep cards segregated, separate but equal,
exactly,
Vanessa (45:40):
separate from the equal feels like Ohio and trans
people. I swear history justrepeats itself over
Landon (45:50):
Oh, it does. Oh, 100
Alex (45:51):
so
Landon (45:52):
don't get me started on the unholy alliance the Southern
Baptist church made with theRepublican Party in the 70s
after they lost their SupremeCourt lawsuit about having to
desegregate their privateChristian schools or pay taxes,
that's when they started to careabout abortion. They didn't care
(46:13):
and and they they there werelike, letters between the
Southern Baptist Church and theRepublicans, like, basically
doing a hey, we've been teachingour people to not think
critically for decades. Like, doyou know how valuable they'll
be? And they went, we needsomething to get them off of the
(46:34):
fact that we lost this case sobadly. Let's go with abortion,
because everyone hates women. Wecan focus on this, and they
went, and we cannot tell themhow to vote from the pulpit, but
we can talk about abortion beingevil, and all you need to do is
say the magic words of abortionis bad, and they'll vote for
(46:55):
you, and the sheep will follow.
And that is what createdChristian nationalism, was them
not wanting to have to paytaxes, or which also goes to
proof, because they were arguingthis whole thing of it's, it's,
you know, God's will that theraces be segregated and the
little white children not be incontact with the black children.
Like, Funny how that went outthe window when they said, you
(47:17):
can continue to have your littleracist schools. You just have to
pay taxes on them.
Vanessa (47:24):
I swear every, every bullshit thing in this country
boils down to two things, racismand money, racism and money.
That's It's simple. It's assimple as that, and as stupid as
it is. And, you know, I justlike, I've had racism just baked
into me intrinsically my entirelife, like I grew up in a super
racist family, and as whitepeople, it's we all are guilty
(47:48):
of it on different levels, andit's a constant unlearning
process. But when you step backand think about racism, just how
fucking stupid it is. It is sostupid. It's a different color
of skin. And honestly, I thinkit might have started because
(48:10):
white people were upset thatblack people were better looking
than that. It could be asstupidly simple as that, but I
don't I buy
Alex (48:20):
that. When I was a little girl, I was so jealous of like,
the black girls in my class thathad, like, all the beads, or,
like, they'd come in, like, withcrazy, like, poofy, like, they
just do such amazing things withtheir hair that I'm like, this
is never gonna do. And I was sojealous. I remember coming home
to my mom and be like, Mom, Iwant black girl hair. She said,
You can't. You can't just saythat. You can't, just don't like
(48:41):
what I do. Yeah, so I buy thattheory black people are hotter
than us, and we were at bagsabout it.
Vanessa (48:49):
We are. It's just it's so stupid. Okay, Cards Against
Humanity. So I'm gonna pull acard for each of us, just at
random. Hopefully I keep onwinding up polling once I pulled
recently. So Landon's card,
Landon (49:02):
that's always how it goes, I know. And
Vanessa (49:05):
we have Alex's card and we have Vanessa's card, so you
mini money mode, but it neverworks. I'm going first. So,
okay, so what you do is, I showyou the card, and then you come
(49:29):
up with the white card, part ofit, and for some reason, like I
can't really read it when I holdit. I don't know if you two can
read it, so I'm just gonna readit
Alex (49:38):
out. Yeah, read it out, because
Unknown (49:39):
this is blurry. Okay.
Vanessa (49:42):
Well, if you'll excuse me, gentlemen, I have a date
with
Landon (49:47):
that's actually a good one for that.
Vanessa (49:49):
Do it? Throw it out.
Landon (49:50):
There's groovy new thing called LSD. Goddamn. I think
that's an actual white card.
Vanessa (50:00):
Though it probably is.
And the one that came into mymind is probably a wipe card
too, but my vibrator, becausethat poor thing, I keep wearing
all its batteries. So my
Alex (50:12):
first thought was just macho Bell, but that's because
I'm getting hungry, and I keepthinking about getting, like the
cheesy gordita crunch. I
Vanessa (50:20):
was just thinking about Mexican food too.
Landon (50:22):
Have you seen Well, I wouldn't call Taco Bell Mexican
food that plays cards againsthumanity on Tiktok. No legends,
hilarious.
Vanessa (50:33):
I need to look
Landon (50:34):
that up. Yeah, he's, he's kind of an evil cat. He
loves genocide. I mean, which isa great drag name,
Vanessa (50:45):
so here, genocide.
Okay, who's next? Alex orLandon?
Alex (50:55):
Okay, I'll go. But I feel like you're gonna have to read
it, because I can't read it fromyour screen. I
Vanessa (50:59):
am gonna read it. Okay, this is a long one. Okay, let's
see. It's so fucking hard to dothis on camera. After four
platinum albums and threeGrammys, it's time to get back
to my roots, to what inspired meto make music in the first
place,
Alex (51:18):
cuck holding. Fuck yeah,
Unknown (51:21):
first thought,
Vanessa (51:29):
I don't think I can beat that. I really don't.
Sometimes I just don't have afilter. No, I love that. That's
like, that's one reason you'rehere, because an
Landon (51:43):
animator on bluey got fired, because in the parents
bedroom he put, he put the chairthat just faces the bed weirdly,
and and people on, and peoplesaw it, and half of the internet
was going like No, and the otherhalf was going Yes, and they
were like, going, it's bluey.
Stop being pervs. It's just achair. And then the anime was
like, I did it. And it was abloody hilarious like, and like,
(52:06):
and they were like, you'refired. Like, how dare you Sully
bluey. Oh
Vanessa (52:13):
yeah, there's some things that should be sacred,
but it's still pretty funny. Ican't get my kid to watch Bluey,
so, I mean, unfortunately, Idon't live with him anymore.
Maybe he's starting to watch itnow, then not there anymore,
but, like, I had to, like, forcehim to watch it. Oh, Curious
Landon (52:29):
George, that is one of the best TV shows ever,
Vanessa (52:33):
really. There's a new one or an old one. Yeah,
Landon (52:36):
it, well, it started in like 2006 and it has like, 15
seasons. It's so good. It damnso good. I highly recommend it.
Vanessa (52:47):
Okay. June Rogers is over here, plugging. Curious
George, so Okay, last on asecond one. Landon, how are you
maintain How? How am Imaintaining my relationship
status? Meaning you, how are youmaintaining your relationship
status with a Ouija
Landon (53:03):
board?
Vanessa (53:05):
That's a really good idea. Shit.
Alex (53:10):
Damn. That is good.
Unknown (53:13):
Yeah. Who are so? Who
Alex (53:14):
are you communing with via the Ouija board to maintain your
relationship well,
Landon (53:19):
my family from my past life.
Alex (53:24):
They're giving you some spiritual guidance,
Landon (53:27):
and they're telling me good barbiturians,
Vanessa (53:34):
barbiturates, you really are the toys to the 70s,
aren't you? It's prettyglorious. It's pretty glorious.
So okay, wrapping up, where canpeople find you? If they're not
already connected to you?
Alex (53:54):
Well, I am on Instagram and Tiktok. If you search
caslmon or CA salmon, you'llfind me and all my ship hosting,
yay.
Landon (54:10):
I am on Instagram, Tiktok threads and YouTube. I
just hit 10,000 on YouTube theother day. I am now I officially
have over 10,000 followers onevery platform I'm on, which I'm
very proud of. And it's andunderscore mayhem, underscore
(54:31):
ensued. And, or you can justlook up Landon read that's most
likely faster.
Vanessa (54:40):
Mayhem ensued is so much more fun. I
Landon (54:42):
was planning on, on, on it going on, becoming any kind
of influencer at all. So it'sjust like, That's a funny name,
stupid 19 year old me, honestly,
Vanessa (54:56):
though, because it's fitting.
Alex (54:59):
So how? Happened with my name? It was like, there was,
like, a dumb thing to, like,figure out your digimon name out
of letters from your name, andthen it just became my screen
name on everything. And nowpeople are like, California
salmon. I'm like, close enough.
All right, fine,
Vanessa (55:13):
yeah. I was kind of wondering where yours came from.
So, like, I mean, no, you know,I can, yeah, because YouTube on
social media, so you're able to,you know, it's, it's closer.
Landon (55:28):
I oddly didn't, okay, really, I here's, here's the
interesting thing, I washomeschooled. Explain so much
all of your, all of your burningquestions were just answered. I
was home, and we didn't have myfather didn't allow us to have
the internet until I was 11, andI didn't have my first cell
(55:51):
phone until I was 16.
Alex (55:56):
See, my dad was super in the online gaming so we had a
computer in my house, but it wasmostly for, like, Neopets and
stuff. And then I had a MySpacefor like a minute.
Vanessa (56:10):
I had a MySpace. I was one of first. I was early on
Facebook, but yeah, it's allseems so far and now in anyways,
thank you two so much forjoining me this week.
Alex (56:26):
Thanks for inviting me.
Vanessa (56:29):
Yes, yes. Next week will be river Rowan and I
talking about, it's actually atrans episode for a change.
We're talking about, like seeingour past selves, and the fact
that I came across an old dickpic of mine, and it blew my
fucking mind. So tune into thatone next week. Anyways, Alex
(56:53):
Landon, thank you so much forjoining me on this show, and
people follow them, you willlove their content, and you
really well this, this has been,this is a carefully curated
episode of this, of this pod. Sountil I've
Alex (57:07):
ever said that about me, ever in my life, until now,
well,
Vanessa (57:11):
now you're there. So, all right, two dolls. I.
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