November 24, 2025 • 29 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
It's that time time, time, Luck and Load Michael Verie
Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's interesting to me in the course of my life
different things that I notice, how we deal with the
concept of accountability and consequences and how they are extolled
or forgotten in that common conversation and in the popular culture.
(00:40):
It's really interesting phenomenon to me because we have a
tendency to ignore the idea. Do whatever you want, damn
the consequence. Do what makes you feel good, do what
gives you gratification. I think gratification it's a better word
(01:00):
than happiness. Happiness is a silly word. Nobody's walking around
and we're happy. We're all happy all the time. Test happy,
you'd get bored being happy?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
You would.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
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 happiness per se is a fool's errand you
(01:39):
never actually achieve happiness. Many people are watching pop culture
and they think the Kardashians are happy, or Diddy Epstein
is happy, or Lizo or whoever else, and then they're
shocked to find out that person isn't happy in this
(02:00):
since that they believe they would be happy, this euphoria
overcoming you at all times in 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, teeming, massive people cheering that that person
(02:22):
is singing the song they've already heard of them, but
in the same.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Zip code as them.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
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 never land. So that makes him feel good because
I may not be happy, but it turns out that
(02:49):
person is supposed to be happy. He's supposed to be happy,
and he's not happy, So that makes me feel better
because I thought he was just sitting over here just
being happy all the time. But what Jordan Peterson has
done I think groundbreaking work in terms of taking it
to the masses. As I say, it's not the first
to come up with this, I understand this the idea
that happiness is not the pursuit of man should not
(03:12):
be the pursuit of man. It's a throwaway term. It's
a simplicity 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.
(03:33):
If you hate pedophiles and you get to be the
executioner of pedophiles, it doesn't make you happy to be
the executioner, but it gives you utility. And Rick Warren
in twenty twelve, I think it was wrote The Purpose
Driven Life, which I actually think it was an important
(03:56):
book at the time, the idea of finding purpose in
your life and what you do, living purposefully, intentionally, 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
(04:17):
to use that term, are very happy doing a job
when they don't need to work anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
The Walmart reader kind of went away. I loved the
Walmart read. 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.
(04:47):
They loved to greet people. What a brilliant idea. You
take this cold, soulless 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,
(05:12):
not not somebody disinterested, not somebody checking sports scores or
texting their 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.
(05:35):
It was a brilliant move. I love everything about it.
But what it spoke to in me, which I didn't
understand 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 out of the tail, and within a couple of
(05:57):
days they realize they've lost their purpose. Even if work
was not their purpose, because they're pulling a paycheck, punch
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
(06:18):
put some dressing on it.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Right. We put a Briton. On the way to your.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Job, you may stop and get a kalachi, and you
really like talking to the people there at lunch. You
might enjoy walking across the street and talking on the
way home. You might come up LATERUS was just officially
endorsed by IRS Agency the Michael Barry Show.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I'd rather not have that endorsement.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
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 resigned, like he
is listening. And the title of it is being taught
(07:04):
to avoid 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
(07:26):
conversation about a difficult topic. I'll read that again, being
taught to avoid talking about politics and religion. Think about
how many times in your life you've been told I
(07:52):
know two things. You don't talk about politics and religion.
Why the two of the most important things related to
the human condition. What else is there? Being taught to
avoid talking about politics and religion has led to a
(08:15):
lack of understanding of politics and religion. If we're uncomfortable
talking about those things, talking is how we express ourselves,
which forces us to structure our arguments. When people are
(08:39):
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 feel about it. They
can't begin to to explain what their problem with it is,
(09:05):
what their opposition to it is, why it gives them
such discomfort. You should be able 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
(09:27):
you uncomfortable, that's a sign. Being taught to avoid 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 a
(09:52):
difficult topic. When we don't talk about things them underground,
you could put under politics and religion.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
You could put race.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
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 picked up on this already.
That is the reason why I inject race into things
(10:29):
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 lose their job, who's going
to get in trouble, who's going to be boycotted? And
(10:50):
that's what people do. In fact, some of you do that.
I've actually witnessed.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
It with my own eyes.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
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?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Why would you ask that?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Why does that upset you? If I had said is
he tall? 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
(11:38):
we tell a story. 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,
(12:03):
he will describe not just that the man is wearing glasses,
but that they're pin snaze or however you pronounce it, glasses,
And he may give you the color. 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.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
He doesn't just.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
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. 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
(12:50):
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, there are people who
have taught you or scared you into believing that that's
(13:10):
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 be was up and then
I leave and somebody who doesn't know me comes out
of the bathroom and they go, who were you all
talking to? They wouldn't say a human being, Okay, well
(13:33):
I saw four people walk in, which one were you
all talking to the 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. That doesn't offend me because it's true.
(13:57):
And that's how they separate me from the Asian guy,
the Hispanic guy, and the caveman that walks within with
me who might have also been a white man, but
we're really not sure. Because some of those early civilizations,
you get say, you know, I want to ask you people,
(14:21):
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
(14:42):
devote a lot 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 the and.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Sadly a lot of people don't do it.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
But we 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
(15:25):
becomes if it's what 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
(15:47):
don't fight the war 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 sent a
letter to their mom and tell her how much they
loved her. They might play cards and drink some whiskey.
(16:09):
It's not because the battle's not real and people aren't dying.
It must be one 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
(16:33):
the TV station can't afford for you to have a diversion.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
They need to.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
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. So what do you do? What do
you do to find meaning in your day? What do
(17:00):
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. It
(17:24):
may be necessary, but it does not do that. So
let me challenge you to find one thing today that
will leave you with that feeling. 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
(17:48):
and the owner is there on site and you like
the service they provide or the product they build for
the few who still do Or maybe it's dun fence company,
or maybe it's the people who cut your grass, or
maybe it's the people who painted your home or the
(18:10):
guy who takes care of your car. But it could
be a burger joint, could be a 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.
(18:33):
And it's so much harder than you think. 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?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Guys?
Speaker 2 (18:47):
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 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 1 (19:06):
For your buck.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
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 want them to do.
If someone sends me, hey, you ought to watch this movie.
(19:30):
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 1 (19:42):
Why would I?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
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
(20:06):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I can go look it up. Because people are lazy
or thoughtless.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
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, ay, I was
so and so Bob's down the corner is pretty good.
You would drive them there yourself, just like we do
for elections. That's how candidates win election. I'll tell you this,
(20:48):
if you've ever been involved with a campaign, it ain't
going to war, not even one one million of it.
But there is after the election a certain serotonin drop.
There is almost a sadness, a sense of loss, because
campaigns are all consuming, they're exciting, you're engaged in a battle.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Can't tell you.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
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 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
(21:32):
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 might not be here in a year or five
when my grandson is older. I don't want him to
(21:54):
know how much his papau loved him, or his memo
loved him. I'm going to sit down 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 going to take him fishing, and I'm going
to have the food ready and the whole deal.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Or I'm going to take him to the arcade, or I'm.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Going to take him to the BMX bit whatever he
would love, and go make him memory.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
You will never regret that you did that, all right.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Nine presidents never graduated from college, the last one and
the only one of the twentieth century.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Can you guess who it was? You can guess.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Think of the most common president, by which I mean
breeding schooling.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
He was a clerk.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
In fact, he was a very very corrupt clerk in
Missouri who I think it was a Pendergast family who
ran a machine there and he was the cog in
the wheel that made it happen.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Harry S. Truman S stands for nothing. Yeah, it's like
in the word T, like iced T the E and
the A are silent, same thing as no middle name.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
So you're nine presidents who never graduated from college. George Washington,
Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Abraham
(23:45):
Lincoln you could practice law without a college degree at
the time, Andrew Johnson, the accidental president when Lincoln was assassinated.
And last, but not at least, Grover Cleveland. And then,
of course, Harry has Truman. All right, very quickly, ramon
(24:06):
to make a point. There are a handful of first
ladies in American history that are extremely well known, and
the rest 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.
(24:27):
I looked this up this weekend, so I'm kind of
interested to share, like a little nerd.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
All Right, so here we go.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I'll give you the president, and very quickly, you spout
the first lady's name.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Are you ready? We'll go in order?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
George Washington, Martha Washington is correct, John Adams, Abigail Adams
is correct. Thomas Jefferson, Martha, thank you didn't know. James Madison,
Dolly Madison, that's correct. James Monroe, Elizabeth. You wouldn't know that.
(25:03):
John Quincy Adams, Louisa. You wouldn't know. Andrew Jackson. A
lot of people know this one because they were married, well,
they were both separately married, and it became a huge
scandal and they smeared him with that. Rachel Emily Jackson. Oh,
(25:29):
you're just guessing old names. Martin van Buren Hannah. But
her full name, just so you know, was Hannah Hose
h o E s Hannah Hose van Buren.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Those Hose girls, you know, that's what they were known as.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
William Henry Harrison, Anna Tutthill Sims Harrison, John Tyler, Letitia
James K. Polk, Sarah Zachary Taylor, Margaret Millard Fillmore, another
(26:07):
Abigail Franklin, Pierce, Jane James Buchanan never married. You know
what that means if you're president from eighteen fifty seven
eighteen sixty one.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
And you never married.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln is correct. Andrew Johnston Eliza,
you wouldn't know that.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Ulysses S.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Grant, Julia Rutherford b. Hayes Be's Burchard. By the way, Lucretia.
Oh no, sorry, not Lucretia. Lucy.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Lucy.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
James Garfield's been shot down. His widow was Lucretia. His
successor Chester, Arthur Ellen, Grover Cleveland, Francis Benjamin Harrison, Caroline
Grover Cleveland, I like old name. Francis William McKinley, Ida.
(27:08):
Don't name women Ida anymore?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Teddy Roosevelt. Do you know Teddy Roosevelt's what his name?
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Edith Kermit, Caro Roosevelt, William H. Have Helen Woodrow Wilson Ellen,
not Helen Ellen. Calvin Coolidge, what a perfect name for
his wife, Grace, because he was a Methodist minister, Grace
(27:41):
good Hugh Coolidge.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Did that sound like a minister's wife, Grace? It's only
an English novel. Herbert Hoover.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
His wife's name was Loulou Franklin D.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Roosevelt.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
See there's one of those that you know. The wife's
name Eleanor is correct.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Harry S.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Truman. I think not as many, but a lot of
people will know Harry Truman's wife's name, Bess b E
S S.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Dwight D.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Eisenhower. From here people will know I think most Maybe
you know what state Dwight Eisenhower was born in.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
John F. Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
The Lovely Jackline Bouvier Kennedy And Then she Doesn't Ruin
It by Marionette Lyndon B. Johnson, particularly known in Texas.
What a great cause. Flowers on the Highway that might
seem silly, but that's lasting to this day and I
(28:43):
love it, by the way, Lady Bird, Dick Nixon, Pat
Gerald Ford, Betty famous for Jimmy Carter, Rosalind's Ronald Reagan
of course, Nancy Barbara Bush, Oh sorry, George Bush.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Barbara Bush most noted for what was her cause? Literacy?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Bill Clinton, Oh that tastes in my mouth.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
George W.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Bush, Laura Bush, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Donald J. Trump,
The most Beautiful, the first Stage of Millennia. And Joe Biden,
Doctor Joe Biden,
It's that time time, time, Luck and Load Michael Verie
Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's interesting to me in the course of my life
different things that I notice, how we deal with the
concept of accountability and consequences and how they are extolled
or forgotten in that common conversation and in the popular culture.
(00:40):
It's really interesting phenomenon to me because we have a
tendency to ignore the idea. Do whatever you want, damn
the consequence. Do what makes you feel good, do what
gives you gratification. I think gratification it's a better word
(01:00):
than happiness. Happiness is a silly word. Nobody's walking around
and we're happy. We're all happy all the time. Test happy,
you'd get bored being happy?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
You would.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
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 happiness per se is a fool's errand you
(01:39):
never actually achieve happiness. Many people are watching pop culture
and they think the Kardashians are happy, or Diddy Epstein
is happy, or Lizo or whoever else, and then they're
shocked to find out that person isn't happy in this
(02:00):
since that they believe they would be happy, this euphoria
overcoming you at all times in 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, teeming, massive people cheering that that person
(02:22):
is singing the song they've already heard of them, but
in the same.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Zip code as them.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
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 never land. So that makes him feel good because
I may not be happy, but it turns out that
(02:49):
person is supposed to be happy. He's supposed to be happy,
and he's not happy, So that makes me feel better
because I thought he was just sitting over here just
being happy all the time. But what Jordan Peterson has
done I think groundbreaking work in terms of taking it
to the masses. As I say, it's not the first
to come up with this, I understand this the idea
that happiness is not the pursuit of man should not
(03:12):
be the pursuit of man. It's a throwaway term. It's
a simplicity 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.
(03:33):
If you hate pedophiles and you get to be the
executioner of pedophiles, it doesn't make you happy to be
the executioner, but it gives you utility. And Rick Warren
in twenty twelve, I think it was wrote The Purpose
Driven Life, which I actually think it was an important
(03:56):
book at the time, the idea of finding purpose in
your life and what you do, living purposefully, intentionally, 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
(04:17):
to use that term, are very happy doing a job
when they don't need to work anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
The Walmart reader kind of went away. I loved the
Walmart read. 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.
(04:47):
They loved to greet people. What a brilliant idea. You
take this cold, soulless 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,
(05:12):
not not somebody disinterested, not somebody checking sports scores or
texting their 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.
(05:35):
It was a brilliant move. I love everything about it.
But what it spoke to in me, which I didn't
understand 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 out of the tail, and within a couple of
(05:57):
days they realize they've lost their purpose. Even if work
was not their purpose, because they're pulling a paycheck, punch
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
(06:18):
put some dressing on it.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Right. We put a Briton. On the way to your.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Job, you may stop and get a kalachi, and you
really like talking to the people there at lunch. You
might enjoy walking across the street and talking on the
way home. You might come up LATERUS was just officially
endorsed by IRS Agency the Michael Barry Show.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I'd rather not have that endorsement.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
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 resigned, like he
is listening. And the title of it is being taught
(07:04):
to avoid 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
(07:26):
conversation about a difficult topic. I'll read that again, being
taught to avoid talking about politics and religion. Think about
how many times in your life you've been told I
(07:52):
know two things. You don't talk about politics and religion.
Why the two of the most important things related to
the human condition. What else is there? Being taught to
avoid talking about politics and religion has led to a
(08:15):
lack of understanding of politics and religion. If we're uncomfortable
talking about those things, talking is how we express ourselves,
which forces us to structure our arguments. When people are
(08:39):
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 feel about it. They
can't begin to to explain what their problem with it is,
(09:05):
what their opposition to it is, why it gives them
such discomfort. You should be able 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
(09:27):
you uncomfortable, that's a sign. Being taught to avoid 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 a
(09:52):
difficult topic. When we don't talk about things them underground,
you could put under politics and religion.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
You could put race.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
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 picked up on this already.
That is the reason why I inject race into things
(10:29):
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 lose their job, who's going
to get in trouble, who's going to be boycotted? And
(10:50):
that's what people do. In fact, some of you do that.
I've actually witnessed.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
It with my own eyes.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
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?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Why would you ask that?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Why does that upset you? If I had said is
he tall? 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
(11:38):
we tell a story. 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,
(12:03):
he will describe not just that the man is wearing glasses,
but that they're pin snaze or however you pronounce it, glasses,
And he may give you the color. 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.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
He doesn't just.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
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. 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
(12:50):
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, there are people who
have taught you or scared you into believing that that's
(13:10):
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 be was up and then
I leave and somebody who doesn't know me comes out
of the bathroom and they go, who were you all
talking to? They wouldn't say a human being, Okay, well
(13:33):
I saw four people walk in, which one were you
all talking to the 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. That doesn't offend me because it's true.
(13:57):
And that's how they separate me from the Asian guy,
the Hispanic guy, and the caveman that walks within with
me who might have also been a white man, but
we're really not sure. Because some of those early civilizations,
you get say, you know, I want to ask you people,
(14:21):
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
(14:42):
devote a lot 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 the and.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Sadly a lot of people don't do it.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
But we 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
(15:25):
becomes if it's what 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
(15:47):
don't fight the war 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 sent a
letter to their mom and tell her how much they
loved her. They might play cards and drink some whiskey.
(16:09):
It's not because the battle's not real and people aren't dying.
It must be one 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
(16:33):
the TV station can't afford for you to have a diversion.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
They need to.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
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. So what do you do? What do
you do to find meaning in your day? What do
(17:00):
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. It
(17:24):
may be necessary, but it does not do that. So
let me challenge you to find one thing today that
will leave you with that feeling. 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
(17:48):
and the owner is there on site and you like
the service they provide or the product they build for
the few who still do Or maybe it's dun fence company,
or maybe it's the people who cut your grass, or
maybe it's the people who painted your home or the
(18:10):
guy who takes care of your car. But it could
be a burger joint, could be a 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.
(18:33):
And it's so much harder than you think. 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?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Guys?
Speaker 2 (18:47):
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 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 1 (19:06):
For your buck.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
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 want them to do.
If someone sends me, hey, you ought to watch this movie.
(19:30):
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 1 (19:42):
Why would I?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
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
(20:06):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I can go look it up. Because people are lazy
or thoughtless.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
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, ay, I was
so and so Bob's down the corner is pretty good.
You would drive them there yourself, just like we do
for elections. That's how candidates win election. I'll tell you this,
(20:48):
if you've ever been involved with a campaign, it ain't
going to war, not even one one million of it.
But there is after the election a certain serotonin drop.
There is almost a sadness, a sense of loss, because
campaigns are all consuming, they're exciting, you're engaged in a battle.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Can't tell you.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
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 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
(21:32):
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 might not be here in a year or five
when my grandson is older. I don't want him to
(21:54):
know how much his papau loved him, or his memo
loved him. I'm going to sit down 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 going to take him fishing, and I'm going
to have the food ready and the whole deal.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Or I'm going to take him to the arcade, or I'm.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Going to take him to the BMX bit whatever he
would love, and go make him memory.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
You will never regret that you did that, all right.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Nine presidents never graduated from college, the last one and
the only one of the twentieth century.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Can you guess who it was? You can guess.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Think of the most common president, by which I mean
breeding schooling.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
He was a clerk.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
In fact, he was a very very corrupt clerk in
Missouri who I think it was a Pendergast family who
ran a machine there and he was the cog in
the wheel that made it happen.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Harry S. Truman S stands for nothing. Yeah, it's like
in the word T, like iced T the E and
the A are silent, same thing as no middle name.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
So you're nine presidents who never graduated from college. George Washington,
Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Abraham
(23:45):
Lincoln you could practice law without a college degree at
the time, Andrew Johnson, the accidental president when Lincoln was assassinated.
And last, but not at least, Grover Cleveland. And then,
of course, Harry has Truman. All right, very quickly, ramon
(24:06):
to make a point. There are a handful of first
ladies in American history that are extremely well known, and
the rest 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.
(24:27):
I looked this up this weekend, so I'm kind of
interested to share, like a little nerd.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
All Right, so here we go.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I'll give you the president, and very quickly, you spout
the first lady's name.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Are you ready? We'll go in order?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
George Washington, Martha Washington is correct, John Adams, Abigail Adams
is correct. Thomas Jefferson, Martha, thank you didn't know. James Madison,
Dolly Madison, that's correct. James Monroe, Elizabeth. You wouldn't know that.
(25:03):
John Quincy Adams, Louisa. You wouldn't know. Andrew Jackson. A
lot of people know this one because they were married, well,
they were both separately married, and it became a huge
scandal and they smeared him with that. Rachel Emily Jackson. Oh,
(25:29):
you're just guessing old names. Martin van Buren Hannah. But
her full name, just so you know, was Hannah Hose
h o E s Hannah Hose van Buren.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Those Hose girls, you know, that's what they were known as.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
William Henry Harrison, Anna Tutthill Sims Harrison, John Tyler, Letitia
James K. Polk, Sarah Zachary Taylor, Margaret Millard Fillmore, another
(26:07):
Abigail Franklin, Pierce, Jane James Buchanan never married. You know
what that means if you're president from eighteen fifty seven
eighteen sixty one.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
And you never married.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln is correct. Andrew Johnston Eliza,
you wouldn't know that.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Ulysses S.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Grant, Julia Rutherford b. Hayes Be's Burchard. By the way, Lucretia.
Oh no, sorry, not Lucretia. Lucy.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Lucy.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
James Garfield's been shot down. His widow was Lucretia. His
successor Chester, Arthur Ellen, Grover Cleveland, Francis Benjamin Harrison, Caroline
Grover Cleveland, I like old name. Francis William McKinley, Ida.
(27:08):
Don't name women Ida anymore?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Teddy Roosevelt. Do you know Teddy Roosevelt's what his name?
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Edith Kermit, Caro Roosevelt, William H. Have Helen Woodrow Wilson Ellen,
not Helen Ellen. Calvin Coolidge, what a perfect name for
his wife, Grace, because he was a Methodist minister, Grace
(27:41):
good Hugh Coolidge.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Did that sound like a minister's wife, Grace? It's only
an English novel. Herbert Hoover.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
His wife's name was Loulou Franklin D.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Roosevelt.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
See there's one of those that you know. The wife's
name Eleanor is correct.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Harry S.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Truman. I think not as many, but a lot of
people will know Harry Truman's wife's name, Bess b E
S S.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Dwight D.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Eisenhower. From here people will know I think most Maybe
you know what state Dwight Eisenhower was born in.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
John F. Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
The Lovely Jackline Bouvier Kennedy And Then she Doesn't Ruin
It by Marionette Lyndon B. Johnson, particularly known in Texas.
What a great cause. Flowers on the Highway that might
seem silly, but that's lasting to this day and I
(28:43):
love it, by the way, Lady Bird, Dick Nixon, Pat
Gerald Ford, Betty famous for Jimmy Carter, Rosalind's Ronald Reagan
of course, Nancy Barbara Bush, Oh sorry, George Bush.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Barbara Bush most noted for what was her cause? Literacy?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Bill Clinton, Oh that tastes in my mouth.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
George W.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Bush, Laura Bush, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Donald J. Trump,
The most Beautiful, the first Stage of Millennia. And Joe Biden,
Doctor Joe Biden,
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