November 27, 2024 • 30 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
So Michael Verie show is on the air.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Interesting to me. In the course of my life, different
things have happened that I noticed.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
How we deal with.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
The concept of accountability and consequences and how they are
extolled or forgotten in common conversation and in popular culture.
Really interesting phenomenon to me because we have a tendency
to ignore the idea do whatever you want, damn the consequence.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Do what makes you feel good, gives you gratification.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I think gratification is a better word than happiness, because
happiness is a silly word. Nobody's walking around and we're happy.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
We're all happy all the time, just happy.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
You'd get bored being happy, you would. Jordan Peterson has
really done some important work on this subject. He's not
the first, but he's the first to take it to
such a big audience. And the idea that he has
that he has really popularized is that the pursuit of
(01:37):
happiness per se is a fool's errand you never actually
achieve happiness. Many people are watching pop culture and they
think the Kardashians are happy, or Diddy is Epstein is happy,
or Lizzo or whoever else, And then there's shocked to
(02:00):
find out that person isn't happy in the sense that
they believe they would be happy. This euphoria overcoming you
at all times warm sensation and believe it or not,
even though that person is their hero. That person is
they would sell off their kidney to get to go
to a concert, to just be part of a screaming,
(02:23):
teeming mass of people cheering that that person is singing
the song they've already heard of that but in the
same zip code as them. They're also delighted to learn
that those people are usually miserable because they have been
on a journey to the destination of happiness, and as
it turns out, happiness is not neverland. So that makes
(02:48):
him feel good because I may not be happy, but
it turns out that person is supposed.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
To be happy.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
He's supposed to be happy, and he's not happy, So
that makes me feel better because I thought he was
just sitting overre just being happy all the time. But
what Jordan Peterson has done I think groundbreaking work in
terms of taking.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
It to the masses.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
As I say, it's not the first to come up
with this.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I understand this.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
The idea that happiness is not the pursuit of man
should not be the pursuit of Man's.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
A it's a throwaway term.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
It's it's a simplistic term that has become a catch all.
In economics, we use the term utility. It gives some
people utility to do this or that. Doesn't mean they're
smiling necessarily. If you hate pedophiles and you get to
be the executioner of pedophiles, doesn't make you happy to
(03:44):
be the.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Executioner, but it gives you utility.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
And Rick Warren in twenty twelve, I think it was
wrote The Purpose Driven Life, which I actually think it
was an portant book at the time. The idea of
finding purpose in your life and what you do, living purposefully, intentionally,
(04:12):
knowing why you're here and what you're doing. And I've
come to learn that this is why some people, I'm
going to use that term, are very happy doing a
job when they don't need to work anymore. You know.
The Walmart reader kind of went away.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I loved the Walmart reader.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I loved the Walmart reader because so many of the
Walmart readers didn't need to work. They didn't turn the
money down, because that's what they used to buy a
cup of coffee while they were there. They arrived early,
they stayed late, they stayed afterwards. They took their penny
off and hung around, or kept their penny on. They
loved to greet people. What a brilliant idea. You take
(04:57):
this cold soul warehouse full of junk that people are
coming into to grab, most of which they could do without,
and you put a human face on it, A real
human face. Not a kid on a phone, not not
somebody disinterested, not somebody checking sports scores or texting their
(05:22):
buddies or taking Peter Picks. A real human being in
comfortable shoes, welcoming people into your cold, soulless warehouse. It
was a brilliant a strike, a stroke of brilliance. It
was a brilliant move. I love everything about it. But
what it spoke to in me, which I didn't understand
(05:45):
too many years later, was the idea of having purpose.
I've known so many people over the years who cannot
wait to retire, and the moment they retire, they have
the world by the tail, and within a couple of
days they realized they've lost their purpose. Even if work
was not their purpose because they're pulling a paycheck, punch
(06:07):
in a clock. They they they've lost their routine, and
in that routine was comfort. You may not like your
job per se, the actual job, but we put some
we put some dressing on it. Right, we put at
On the way to your job, you may stop and
get a kalachi and you really like talking to the
(06:29):
people there at lunch. You might enjoy walking across the
street and talking on the way home. You might.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Kamal Harris was just officially endorsed by I R.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
S Agency. You believe the Michael Berry Show. I'd rather
not have that endorsement.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I received a mean and it's two stick figures. They're
both sitting on stools and one is gesturing like he's talking,
the other one is sitting kind of like he is listening.
And the title of it is being taught to avoid
(07:11):
talking about politics and religion has led to a lack
of understanding of politics and religion. What we should have
been taught was how to have a civil conversation about
(07:33):
a difficult topic.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I'll read that.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Again, being taught to avoid talking about politics and religion.
Think about how many times in your life you've been told, no,
(07:57):
two things. You don't talk about politics and religion. Why
the two of the most important things related to the
human condition.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
What else is there?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Being taught to avoid talking about politics and religion has
led to a lack of understanding of politics and religion.
If we're uncomfortable talking about those things, talking is how
(08:36):
we express ourselves, which forces us to structure our arguments.
When people are uncomfortable talking about something, it often means
that they can't quite process it. They can't figure out
where to put it, They can't figure out what they
(08:58):
feel about it. They can't begin to explain what their
problem with it is, what their opposition to it is,
why it gives them such discomfort. You should be able
(09:19):
to explain those things, and if you cannot explain those things,
there's a good reason for it. If a conversation about
that subject makes you uncomfortable, that's a sign. Being taught
to avoid talking about politics and religion has led to
(09:44):
a lack of understanding of politics and religion. What we
should have been taught was how to have a civil
conversation about a difficult topic. When we don't talk about things,
(10:04):
we drive them underground. You could put under politics and religion.
You could put race because people are very uncomfortable talking
about race. And my belief is that you should be
able to talk about race the way you talk about
everything else. And that is the reason you should have
(10:26):
picked up on this already. That is the reason why
I inject race into things in a very whimsical way,
because it's not taboo. It shouldn't scare you, it shouldn't
frighten you. It shouldn't be something that when you hear
you immediately look around both ways and who's going to
(10:49):
lose their job, who's going to get in trouble, who's
going to be boycotted? And that's what people do. Ifact
some of you do that. I've actually witnessed it.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
With my own eyes.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
In the middle of a conversation, I will say, for
no good reason, when they're just saying, so, this guy
walks into the restaurant, was he black? Well?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Why would you ask that? Why does that upset you?
If I had said is he tall?
Speaker 3 (11:23):
You wouldn't have panicked. If I'd said is he right handed?
You wouldn't have panicked. If I'd said was he wearing
a coat? I'm asking you to give me details about
the person in the story. That's how we tell a story.
(11:45):
We set the time, the place, the who, what where,
We described the person to paint a picture. If you
read Himmingway talking about the guy in the bar, as
your narrator is walking into the bar, he will describe
(12:10):
not just that the man is wearing glasses, but that
they're pien snazz or however you pronounce it glasses, And
he may give.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
You the color.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
He'll tell you whether they create an oval effect on
the eye. He doesn't just tell you the guy's wearing
a hat. He'll tell you how the hat's sitting on
his head. He doesn't just tell you that the guy's white.
He'll tell you whether he's sunburned or whether he looks
like he's worked on a marina doc his entire life.
(12:44):
He doesn't just tell you what kind of clothes. He
tells you how those clothes are hanging. Do they look
like thrift store clothes or designer clothes? Are they well
worn from that day or did he pick them up
off the floor. So why is race a subject that
is simply a descriptor that makes people so uncomfortable. Well,
(13:07):
there are people who have taught you or scared you
into believing that that's a thing you have to pretend
doesn't exist, which is really stupid. If I walk into
a group of black guys and they say, Mike b
was up and then I leave and somebody who doesn't
(13:30):
know me comes out of the bathroom and they go who.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Were all talking to?
Speaker 3 (13:34):
They wouldn't say a human being, Okay, well I saw
four people walk in, which one were you all talking to?
Uh person who was wearing a shirt? Okay, there were
four people wearing a shirt. They would say, you know
that white boy, you saw him. That's not a bad thing.
(13:56):
That doesn't offend me because it's true. And that's how
they separate me from the Asian guy, the Hispanic guy,
and the caveman that walked within with me who might
have also been a white man, but we're really not
sure because some of those early civilizations.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
You gets it, well, you know.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I want to ask you people to do yourself a
favor right now and rock somebody's world. You know, in
conversation with people, I find that we devote a lot
of energy to consuming content, and we devote a lot
(14:47):
of energy to the internal conversation within our own head
of where we stand on issues and who we're going
to support and who we're against and how much we're
against them important, no doubt, important should be done, and
sadly a lot of people don't do it. But we
(15:09):
are getting diminishing returns at some point because we are
consuming what would appear to be the same swirl of
information from the same echo chamber, day in and day out,
which leads to a sense of frustration that nothing's being done,
just not. But part of that becomes if it's what
(15:31):
I talk about sixteen hours a day, all day, every day,
and all I ever think about, then even one day
of talking about it is interminable, because it's all I'm
talking about. You have to have some level of balance
to make it. Soldiers in war don't fight the war
(15:52):
in the minute the battle is over, repaired to their
tents and talk about the war. They make music, They
write letters home, They compose poetry. They look at a
picture of their girl and pine for her in the
town they lived in. They send a letter to their
mum and tell her how much they loved her. They
might play cards and drink some whiskey. It's not because
(16:15):
the battle's not real and people aren't dying it must
be won or we will lose. No, it's because of
the understanding that that is so all consuming that it
has to be turned off and recharged, and you have
to have a diversion from that engagement and a lot
of our And you know why you don't have a
diversion because the radio and the website and the TV
(16:38):
station can't afford for you to have a diversion. They
need to keep you plugged in the whole time. They
need to keep you so plugged in that you're worn down.
This trickle battery is catching on fire and not good.
It's overheating, burning everything down.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So what do you do?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
What do you do to find meaning in your day?
What do you do that at the end of it
you say I did that? Ah? Yeah, Because watching television news,
reading the websites of the headlines, that does not leave
you with a feeling of fulfillment, satisfaction, completion, and accomplishment.
(17:29):
It may be necessary, but it does not do that.
So let me challenge you to find one thing.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Today that will leave you with that feeling.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Example, there's a business that you support, maybe a restaurant,
may not, maybe a little distribution company, maybe a tire company,
or an oil change company, or a muffler shop. But
it's locally owned and the owner is there on site
and you like the service they provide or the product
(17:59):
they build for the few who still do Or maybe
it's done fence company, or maybe it's the people who
cut your grass, or maybe it's the people who painted
your home or the guy who takes care of your car.
But it could be a burger joint, could be a
(18:19):
beer joint. It could be most any small business you
can imagine. The point is not the product of the service.
The point is that their biggest challenge is getting enough
people in to serve and enough good employees to keep
the business afloat. And it's so much harder than you think.
(18:39):
You would be shocked. What a difference you could make
if you go in and spend a dollar. Secondly, if
you ask the owners, Hey, what can I do to
help you guys? I want to spread the word. You
guys are wonderful. I wish more people knew about you.
You got a Facebook page, put up a post, simple
(19:01):
quick post. I had a great experience at this restaurant.
I encourage you to try it out. Now go the
extra mile and you'll get a lot more bang.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
For your buck.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Give the address, the cross street, the phone number, and
who to ask for because if somebody has, the more
layers you put into getting someone to do what you
want them to do, the less likely you will accomplish
getting them to do what you wanted them to do.
If someone sends me, hey, you ought to watch this movie.
(19:34):
If when I'm flipping through movie ideas, that movie comes
up on the screen and I can hit play, than
I will. But I'm not going to go do the
research on all the movies that are just the name
of a movie.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Why would I?
Speaker 3 (19:48):
But if you tell what the movie's about might catch
my interest. If you tell what the movie is about
and put a link to it, you're increasing the chances.
I see salesmen do this. I see people do this
all day every day. Hey, would you this is a
great one. Hey, would you mind calling my dad in
(20:11):
having him on the show, because this is his interesting
thing that he did in his life, and I think
you would be fascinated by it. Why not include his
phone number and his name so I can.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Go look it up.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Because people are lazy or thoughtless. If your life depended
on that business, that you've decided to show favor to today,
then you would do more than just post or tell
one person a so and so Bob's down the corner
is pretty good. You would drive them there yourself, just
(20:46):
like we do for elections. That's how candidates win election.
I tell you this, if you've ever been involved with
a campaign, it ain't going to war, not even one
one millionth of it. But there is after the election
a certain serotonin drop. There is almost a sadness, a
(21:07):
sense of loss, because campaigns are all consuming, they're exciting,
you're engaged in a battle. Can't tell you how many
warriors have told me that they come back when a
campaign is over, people who've been in it, especially if
you win. There's a sense of exhaustion because now the
(21:29):
race is running. But there's almost a sadness because when
you're in the middle of a campaign, you wake up
thinking about it and go to sleep thinking about it.
Your mind doesn't stray. You are so locked in, you
feel so alive. What if you were to take that
mentality today and say, you know what I'm going to do.
I've got a grandson, I'm eighty two years old. I
(21:53):
might not be here in a year or five. When
my grandson is older, I want him to know how
much his Papaul loved him, or his Mamma loved him.
I'm gonna sit down right now while he's in school.
I'm gonna write him a letter that I'm going to
present to him, and I'm going to ask his mom
if I can pick him up at three, and I'm
(22:13):
going to take him fishing, and I'm gonna have.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
The food ready and the whole deal. Or I'm going
to take him to the arcade, or I'm going to
take him.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
To the BMX bit whatever he would love, and go
make a memory.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
You will never regret that you did that.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Job, he says.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
My labor, I don't.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
It's art, it's not art. Imitating letter.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Rush tate him a cool million to perform at Russia's
wedding like a house concert. Then they questioned and criticize
Elton John.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Why would you play Elton?
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Why would you play Rush Limbough's wedding. This was when
he married Catherine, not too many years ago, and they
were afraid that Well, I'd like to see the tax
rate lowered, the borders closed. I'm against abortion, and I
think affirmative action is out of control and global warming
(23:27):
is a bunch of bunk.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
They thought, maybe you know.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
You shared some political views, and he says, pay me
a million dollars, thebody paying you a million dollars. You
think you might get passed some minor disagreements over politics.
And when Rush was criticized or questioned, he said, I
love Elton John.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
It's a dream come true. Are you kidding me? You
don't need to come to the wedding.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
You're not invited anyway. It was only Rush could do
all right. Nine presidents never graduated from college, the last
one and the only one of the twentieth century. Can
he guess it was you can guess think of the
(24:15):
most common president, by which I mean breeding schooling.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
He was a clerk.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
In fact, he was a very very corrupt clerk in Missouri.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Who I think was a.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Pendergast family who ran a machine there, and he was
the cog in the wheel that made it happen.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Harry S.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Truman S stands for.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Nothing.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Yeah, it's like in the word T, like iced t.
The E and the A are silent, same thing as
no middle name. So you're nine presidents who never graduated
from college. George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Martin van Buren, Zachary Taylor,
(25:12):
Millard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln, you could practice law without a
college degree.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
At the town.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Andrew Johnson, the accidental president when Lincoln was assassinated, and
last but not least, Grover Cleveland, and then, of course
Harry has Truman. All right, very quickly, Ramond, to make
a point, there are a handful of first ladies in
American history that are extremely well known, and the rest
(25:49):
are not partially known. I don't know much about him.
You either know the first lady and something about her,
or you don't know her name at all. I looked
this up this weekend, so kind of interested to share,
like a little nerd.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
All right, so here we go.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I'll give you the president, and very quickly, you spout
the first lady's name.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Are you ready? We'll go in order.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
George Washington, Martha Washington is correct, John Adams, Abigail Adams
is correct. Thomas Jefferson, aren't they.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
You wouldn't know.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
James Madison, Dolly Madison, that's correct, James Monroe, Elizabeth, you
wouldn't know that, John Quincy Adams, Louisa You wouldn't know
Andrew Jackson. A lot of people know this one because
they were married, well that they were both separately married,
(26:49):
and it became a huge scandal and they smeared him
with that. Rachel Emily Jackson, Oh, you're just guessing old names.
Martin van Buren Hannah, but her full name, just so
you know, was Hannah Hoose h Oees, Hannah Hoose van Buren.
(27:14):
Those Hose girls, you know, that's what they were known as.
William Henry Harrison, Anna Tutthill Simms Harrison, John Tyler, Letitia
James K. Polk, Sarah Zachary Taylor, Margaret Millard Fillmore, Another
(27:38):
Abigail Franklin Pierce, Jane James Buchanan never married. You know
what that means if you're president from eighteen fifty seven
eighteen sixty one and you never married. Abraham Lincoln, Mary
Todd Lincoln is correct. Andrew Johnson, Eliza, you wouldn't know that.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Ulysses s.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Grant, Julia Rutherford b.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Hayes. Be's Burchard.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
By the way, Lucretia, Oh no, sorry, not Lucretia Lucy.
Lucy James Garfield has been shot down. His widow was
Lucretia his successor Chester, Arthur Ellen, Grover Cleveland, Francis Benjamin Harrison,
(28:32):
Caroline Grover Cleveland. I like old name, Francis William McKinley, Ida.
Don't name women Ida anymore?
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Teddy Roosevelt.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Do you know Teddy Roosevelt's West name? Edith Kermit, Caro Roosevelt,
William H. Path, Helen Woodrow Wilson Ellen, not Helen Ellen.
Calvin Coolidge or what a perfect name for his wife,
(29:08):
Grace because he was a Methodist ministry Grace good Hugh Coolidge.
Did that sound like a minister's wife, Grace? It's only
an English novel. Herbert Hoover. His wife's name was Lou
Lou Franklin D.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Roosevelt.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
See, there's one of those that you know. The wife's
name Eleanor is correct.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Harry S.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Truman. I think not as many, but a lot of
people will know Harry Truman's wife's name.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Bess b E s S. Dwight D.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Eisenhower from here people will know I think most Maybe
you know what state. Dwight Eisenower was born in Texas.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
John F.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Kennedy, The Lovely Jack Qulyn Bouvier Kennedy and then she
goes and ruined by Maryonnette.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Lyndon B.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Johnson, particularly known in Texas.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
What a great cause.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Flowers on the Highway. That might seem silly, but that's
lasting to this day and I love it, by the way,
Lady Birdy, Dick Nixon, Pat Gerald Ford, Betty famous for
Jimmy Carter, Rosalind Ronald Reagan, of course, Nancy Barbara.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Bush, Oh sorry, George Bush.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Barbara Bush most noted for what was her cause? Literacy?
Bill Clinton, Oh, that tastes in my mouth.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
George W.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Bush, Laura Bush, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Donald J. Trump,
the most Beautiful, the First Dave's Millennia. And Joe Biden
doctor Jill Biden
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
So Michael Verie show is on the air.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Interesting to me. In the course of my life, different
things have happened that I noticed.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
How we deal with.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
The concept of accountability and consequences and how they are
extolled or forgotten in common conversation and in popular culture.
Really interesting phenomenon to me because we have a tendency
to ignore the idea do whatever you want, damn the consequence.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Do what makes you feel good, gives you gratification.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I think gratification is a better word than happiness, because
happiness is a silly word. Nobody's walking around and we're happy.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
We're all happy all the time, just happy.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
You'd get bored being happy, you would. Jordan Peterson has
really done some important work on this subject. He's not
the first, but he's the first to take it to
such a big audience. And the idea that he has
that he has really popularized is that the pursuit of
(01:37):
happiness per se is a fool's errand you never actually
achieve happiness. Many people are watching pop culture and they
think the Kardashians are happy, or Diddy is Epstein is happy,
or Lizzo or whoever else, And then there's shocked to
(02:00):
find out that person isn't happy in the sense that
they believe they would be happy. This euphoria overcoming you
at all times warm sensation and believe it or not,
even though that person is their hero. That person is
they would sell off their kidney to get to go
to a concert, to just be part of a screaming,
(02:23):
teeming mass of people cheering that that person is singing
the song they've already heard of that but in the
same zip code as them. They're also delighted to learn
that those people are usually miserable because they have been
on a journey to the destination of happiness, and as
it turns out, happiness is not neverland. So that makes
(02:48):
him feel good because I may not be happy, but
it turns out that person is supposed.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
To be happy.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
He's supposed to be happy, and he's not happy, So
that makes me feel better because I thought he was
just sitting overre just being happy all the time. But
what Jordan Peterson has done I think groundbreaking work in
terms of taking.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
It to the masses.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
As I say, it's not the first to come up
with this.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I understand this.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
The idea that happiness is not the pursuit of man
should not be the pursuit of Man's.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
A it's a throwaway term.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
It's it's a simplistic term that has become a catch all.
In economics, we use the term utility. It gives some
people utility to do this or that. Doesn't mean they're
smiling necessarily. If you hate pedophiles and you get to
be the executioner of pedophiles, doesn't make you happy to
(03:44):
be the.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Executioner, but it gives you utility.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
And Rick Warren in twenty twelve, I think it was
wrote The Purpose Driven Life, which I actually think it
was an portant book at the time. The idea of
finding purpose in your life and what you do, living purposefully, intentionally,
(04:12):
knowing why you're here and what you're doing. And I've
come to learn that this is why some people, I'm
going to use that term, are very happy doing a
job when they don't need to work anymore. You know.
The Walmart reader kind of went away.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I loved the Walmart reader.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I loved the Walmart reader because so many of the
Walmart readers didn't need to work. They didn't turn the
money down, because that's what they used to buy a
cup of coffee while they were there. They arrived early,
they stayed late, they stayed afterwards. They took their penny
off and hung around, or kept their penny on. They
loved to greet people. What a brilliant idea. You take
(04:57):
this cold soul warehouse full of junk that people are
coming into to grab, most of which they could do without,
and you put a human face on it, A real
human face. Not a kid on a phone, not not
somebody disinterested, not somebody checking sports scores or texting their
(05:22):
buddies or taking Peter Picks. A real human being in
comfortable shoes, welcoming people into your cold, soulless warehouse. It
was a brilliant a strike, a stroke of brilliance. It
was a brilliant move. I love everything about it. But
what it spoke to in me, which I didn't understand
(05:45):
too many years later, was the idea of having purpose.
I've known so many people over the years who cannot
wait to retire, and the moment they retire, they have
the world by the tail, and within a couple of
days they realized they've lost their purpose. Even if work
was not their purpose because they're pulling a paycheck, punch
(06:07):
in a clock. They they they've lost their routine, and
in that routine was comfort. You may not like your
job per se, the actual job, but we put some
we put some dressing on it. Right, we put at
On the way to your job, you may stop and
get a kalachi and you really like talking to the
(06:29):
people there at lunch. You might enjoy walking across the
street and talking on the way home. You might.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Kamal Harris was just officially endorsed by I R.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
S Agency. You believe the Michael Berry Show. I'd rather
not have that endorsement.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I received a mean and it's two stick figures. They're
both sitting on stools and one is gesturing like he's talking,
the other one is sitting kind of like he is listening.
And the title of it is being taught to avoid
(07:11):
talking about politics and religion has led to a lack
of understanding of politics and religion. What we should have
been taught was how to have a civil conversation about
(07:33):
a difficult topic.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I'll read that.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Again, being taught to avoid talking about politics and religion.
Think about how many times in your life you've been told, no,
(07:57):
two things. You don't talk about politics and religion. Why
the two of the most important things related to the
human condition.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
What else is there?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Being taught to avoid talking about politics and religion has
led to a lack of understanding of politics and religion.
If we're uncomfortable talking about those things, talking is how
(08:36):
we express ourselves, which forces us to structure our arguments.
When people are uncomfortable talking about something, it often means
that they can't quite process it. They can't figure out
where to put it, They can't figure out what they
(08:58):
feel about it. They can't begin to explain what their
problem with it is, what their opposition to it is,
why it gives them such discomfort. You should be able
(09:19):
to explain those things, and if you cannot explain those things,
there's a good reason for it. If a conversation about
that subject makes you uncomfortable, that's a sign. Being taught
to avoid talking about politics and religion has led to
(09:44):
a lack of understanding of politics and religion. What we
should have been taught was how to have a civil
conversation about a difficult topic. When we don't talk about things,
(10:04):
we drive them underground. You could put under politics and religion.
You could put race because people are very uncomfortable talking
about race. And my belief is that you should be
able to talk about race the way you talk about
everything else. And that is the reason you should have
(10:26):
picked up on this already. That is the reason why
I inject race into things in a very whimsical way,
because it's not taboo. It shouldn't scare you, it shouldn't
frighten you. It shouldn't be something that when you hear
you immediately look around both ways and who's going to
(10:49):
lose their job, who's going to get in trouble, who's
going to be boycotted? And that's what people do. Ifact
some of you do that. I've actually witnessed it.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
With my own eyes.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
In the middle of a conversation, I will say, for
no good reason, when they're just saying, so, this guy
walks into the restaurant, was he black? Well?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Why would you ask that? Why does that upset you?
If I had said is he tall?
Speaker 3 (11:23):
You wouldn't have panicked. If I'd said is he right handed?
You wouldn't have panicked. If I'd said was he wearing
a coat? I'm asking you to give me details about
the person in the story. That's how we tell a story.
(11:45):
We set the time, the place, the who, what where,
We described the person to paint a picture. If you
read Himmingway talking about the guy in the bar, as
your narrator is walking into the bar, he will describe
(12:10):
not just that the man is wearing glasses, but that
they're pien snazz or however you pronounce it glasses, And
he may give.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
You the color.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
He'll tell you whether they create an oval effect on
the eye. He doesn't just tell you the guy's wearing
a hat. He'll tell you how the hat's sitting on
his head. He doesn't just tell you that the guy's white.
He'll tell you whether he's sunburned or whether he looks
like he's worked on a marina doc his entire life.
(12:44):
He doesn't just tell you what kind of clothes. He
tells you how those clothes are hanging. Do they look
like thrift store clothes or designer clothes? Are they well
worn from that day or did he pick them up
off the floor. So why is race a subject that
is simply a descriptor that makes people so uncomfortable. Well,
(13:07):
there are people who have taught you or scared you
into believing that that's a thing you have to pretend
doesn't exist, which is really stupid. If I walk into
a group of black guys and they say, Mike b
was up and then I leave and somebody who doesn't
(13:30):
know me comes out of the bathroom and they go who.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Were all talking to?
Speaker 3 (13:34):
They wouldn't say a human being, Okay, well I saw
four people walk in, which one were you all talking to?
Uh person who was wearing a shirt? Okay, there were
four people wearing a shirt. They would say, you know
that white boy, you saw him. That's not a bad thing.
(13:56):
That doesn't offend me because it's true. And that's how
they separate me from the Asian guy, the Hispanic guy,
and the caveman that walked within with me who might
have also been a white man, but we're really not
sure because some of those early civilizations.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
You gets it, well, you know.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I want to ask you people to do yourself a
favor right now and rock somebody's world. You know, in
conversation with people, I find that we devote a lot
of energy to consuming content, and we devote a lot
(14:47):
of energy to the internal conversation within our own head
of where we stand on issues and who we're going
to support and who we're against and how much we're
against them important, no doubt, important should be done, and
sadly a lot of people don't do it. But we
(15:09):
are getting diminishing returns at some point because we are
consuming what would appear to be the same swirl of
information from the same echo chamber, day in and day out,
which leads to a sense of frustration that nothing's being done,
just not. But part of that becomes if it's what
(15:31):
I talk about sixteen hours a day, all day, every day,
and all I ever think about, then even one day
of talking about it is interminable, because it's all I'm
talking about. You have to have some level of balance
to make it. Soldiers in war don't fight the war
(15:52):
in the minute the battle is over, repaired to their
tents and talk about the war. They make music, They
write letters home, They compose poetry. They look at a
picture of their girl and pine for her in the
town they lived in. They send a letter to their
mum and tell her how much they loved her. They
might play cards and drink some whiskey. It's not because
(16:15):
the battle's not real and people aren't dying it must
be won or we will lose. No, it's because of
the understanding that that is so all consuming that it
has to be turned off and recharged, and you have
to have a diversion from that engagement and a lot
of our And you know why you don't have a
diversion because the radio and the website and the TV
(16:38):
station can't afford for you to have a diversion. They
need to keep you plugged in the whole time. They
need to keep you so plugged in that you're worn down.
This trickle battery is catching on fire and not good.
It's overheating, burning everything down.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So what do you do?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
What do you do to find meaning in your day?
What do you do that at the end of it
you say I did that? Ah? Yeah, Because watching television news,
reading the websites of the headlines, that does not leave
you with a feeling of fulfillment, satisfaction, completion, and accomplishment.
(17:29):
It may be necessary, but it does not do that.
So let me challenge you to find one thing.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Today that will leave you with that feeling.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Example, there's a business that you support, maybe a restaurant,
may not, maybe a little distribution company, maybe a tire company,
or an oil change company, or a muffler shop. But
it's locally owned and the owner is there on site
and you like the service they provide or the product
(17:59):
they build for the few who still do Or maybe
it's done fence company, or maybe it's the people who
cut your grass, or maybe it's the people who painted
your home or the guy who takes care of your car.
But it could be a burger joint, could be a
(18:19):
beer joint. It could be most any small business you
can imagine. The point is not the product of the service.
The point is that their biggest challenge is getting enough
people in to serve and enough good employees to keep
the business afloat. And it's so much harder than you think.
(18:39):
You would be shocked. What a difference you could make
if you go in and spend a dollar. Secondly, if
you ask the owners, Hey, what can I do to
help you guys? I want to spread the word. You
guys are wonderful. I wish more people knew about you.
You got a Facebook page, put up a post, simple
(19:01):
quick post. I had a great experience at this restaurant.
I encourage you to try it out. Now go the
extra mile and you'll get a lot more bang.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
For your buck.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Give the address, the cross street, the phone number, and
who to ask for because if somebody has, the more
layers you put into getting someone to do what you
want them to do, the less likely you will accomplish
getting them to do what you wanted them to do.
If someone sends me, hey, you ought to watch this movie.
(19:34):
If when I'm flipping through movie ideas, that movie comes
up on the screen and I can hit play, than
I will. But I'm not going to go do the
research on all the movies that are just the name
of a movie.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Why would I?
Speaker 3 (19:48):
But if you tell what the movie's about might catch
my interest. If you tell what the movie is about
and put a link to it, you're increasing the chances.
I see salesmen do this. I see people do this
all day every day. Hey, would you this is a
great one. Hey, would you mind calling my dad in
(20:11):
having him on the show, because this is his interesting
thing that he did in his life, and I think
you would be fascinated by it. Why not include his
phone number and his name so I can.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Go look it up.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Because people are lazy or thoughtless. If your life depended
on that business, that you've decided to show favor to today,
then you would do more than just post or tell
one person a so and so Bob's down the corner
is pretty good. You would drive them there yourself, just
(20:46):
like we do for elections. That's how candidates win election.
I tell you this, if you've ever been involved with
a campaign, it ain't going to war, not even one
one millionth of it. But there is after the election
a certain serotonin drop. There is almost a sadness, a
(21:07):
sense of loss, because campaigns are all consuming, they're exciting,
you're engaged in a battle. Can't tell you how many
warriors have told me that they come back when a
campaign is over, people who've been in it, especially if
you win. There's a sense of exhaustion because now the
(21:29):
race is running. But there's almost a sadness because when
you're in the middle of a campaign, you wake up
thinking about it and go to sleep thinking about it.
Your mind doesn't stray. You are so locked in, you
feel so alive. What if you were to take that
mentality today and say, you know what I'm going to do.
I've got a grandson, I'm eighty two years old. I
(21:53):
might not be here in a year or five. When
my grandson is older, I want him to know how
much his Papaul loved him, or his Mamma loved him.
I'm gonna sit down right now while he's in school.
I'm gonna write him a letter that I'm going to
present to him, and I'm going to ask his mom
if I can pick him up at three, and I'm
(22:13):
going to take him fishing, and I'm gonna have.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
The food ready and the whole deal. Or I'm going
to take him to the arcade, or I'm going to
take him.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
To the BMX bit whatever he would love, and go
make a memory.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
You will never regret that you did that.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Job, he says.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
My labor, I don't.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
It's art, it's not art. Imitating letter.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Rush tate him a cool million to perform at Russia's
wedding like a house concert. Then they questioned and criticize
Elton John.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Why would you play Elton?
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Why would you play Rush Limbough's wedding. This was when
he married Catherine, not too many years ago, and they
were afraid that Well, I'd like to see the tax
rate lowered, the borders closed. I'm against abortion, and I
think affirmative action is out of control and global warming
(23:27):
is a bunch of bunk.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
They thought, maybe you know.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
You shared some political views, and he says, pay me
a million dollars, thebody paying you a million dollars. You
think you might get passed some minor disagreements over politics.
And when Rush was criticized or questioned, he said, I
love Elton John.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
It's a dream come true. Are you kidding me? You
don't need to come to the wedding.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
You're not invited anyway. It was only Rush could do
all right. Nine presidents never graduated from college, the last
one and the only one of the twentieth century. Can
he guess it was you can guess think of the
(24:15):
most common president, by which I mean breeding schooling.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
He was a clerk.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
In fact, he was a very very corrupt clerk in Missouri.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Who I think was a.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Pendergast family who ran a machine there, and he was
the cog in the wheel that made it happen.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Harry S.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Truman S stands for.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Nothing.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Yeah, it's like in the word T, like iced t.
The E and the A are silent, same thing as
no middle name. So you're nine presidents who never graduated
from college. George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Martin van Buren, Zachary Taylor,
(25:12):
Millard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln, you could practice law without a
college degree.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
At the town.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Andrew Johnson, the accidental president when Lincoln was assassinated, and
last but not least, Grover Cleveland, and then, of course
Harry has Truman. All right, very quickly, Ramond, to make
a point, there are a handful of first ladies in
American history that are extremely well known, and the rest
(25:49):
are not partially known. I don't know much about him.
You either know the first lady and something about her,
or you don't know her name at all. I looked
this up this weekend, so kind of interested to share,
like a little nerd.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
All right, so here we go.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I'll give you the president, and very quickly, you spout
the first lady's name.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Are you ready? We'll go in order.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
George Washington, Martha Washington is correct, John Adams, Abigail Adams
is correct. Thomas Jefferson, aren't they.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
You wouldn't know.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
James Madison, Dolly Madison, that's correct, James Monroe, Elizabeth, you
wouldn't know that, John Quincy Adams, Louisa You wouldn't know
Andrew Jackson. A lot of people know this one because
they were married, well that they were both separately married,
(26:49):
and it became a huge scandal and they smeared him
with that. Rachel Emily Jackson, Oh, you're just guessing old names.
Martin van Buren Hannah, but her full name, just so
you know, was Hannah Hoose h Oees, Hannah Hoose van Buren.
(27:14):
Those Hose girls, you know, that's what they were known as.
William Henry Harrison, Anna Tutthill Simms Harrison, John Tyler, Letitia
James K. Polk, Sarah Zachary Taylor, Margaret Millard Fillmore, Another
(27:38):
Abigail Franklin Pierce, Jane James Buchanan never married. You know
what that means if you're president from eighteen fifty seven
eighteen sixty one and you never married. Abraham Lincoln, Mary
Todd Lincoln is correct. Andrew Johnson, Eliza, you wouldn't know that.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Ulysses s.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Grant, Julia Rutherford b.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Hayes. Be's Burchard.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
By the way, Lucretia, Oh no, sorry, not Lucretia Lucy.
Lucy James Garfield has been shot down. His widow was
Lucretia his successor Chester, Arthur Ellen, Grover Cleveland, Francis Benjamin Harrison,
(28:32):
Caroline Grover Cleveland. I like old name, Francis William McKinley, Ida.
Don't name women Ida anymore?
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Teddy Roosevelt.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Do you know Teddy Roosevelt's West name? Edith Kermit, Caro Roosevelt,
William H. Path, Helen Woodrow Wilson Ellen, not Helen Ellen.
Calvin Coolidge or what a perfect name for his wife,
(29:08):
Grace because he was a Methodist ministry Grace good Hugh Coolidge.
Did that sound like a minister's wife, Grace? It's only
an English novel. Herbert Hoover. His wife's name was Lou
Lou Franklin D.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Roosevelt.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
See, there's one of those that you know. The wife's
name Eleanor is correct.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Harry S.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Truman. I think not as many, but a lot of
people will know Harry Truman's wife's name.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Bess b E s S. Dwight D.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Eisenhower from here people will know I think most Maybe
you know what state. Dwight Eisenower was born in Texas.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
John F.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Kennedy, The Lovely Jack Qulyn Bouvier Kennedy and then she
goes and ruined by Maryonnette.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Lyndon B.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Johnson, particularly known in Texas.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
What a great cause.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Flowers on the Highway. That might seem silly, but that's
lasting to this day and I love it, by the way,
Lady Birdy, Dick Nixon, Pat Gerald Ford, Betty famous for
Jimmy Carter, Rosalind Ronald Reagan, of course, Nancy Barbara.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Bush, Oh sorry, George Bush.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Barbara Bush most noted for what was her cause? Literacy?
Bill Clinton, Oh, that tastes in my mouth.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
George W.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Bush, Laura Bush, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Donald J. Trump,
the most Beautiful, the First Dave's Millennia. And Joe Biden
doctor Jill Biden
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