WEBVTT - Part One: The Idiot Who Made, And Destroyed, WeWork 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:06.920 What's in Chicago? Meet me? I'm in Chicago. This is 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:09.320 Robert Evans hosted Behind the Bastards, the show that tells 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:11.680 you everything you don't know about the very worst people 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.800 in all of history. And today I'm in the Windy 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:18.960 City that Never sleeps on a big apple, Chicago, Illinois, 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:23.320 with my co hosts today, the hosts of the Wonderful 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:28.120 Knowledge Fight podcast, my favorite podcast, Dan and Jordan's. That's 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:32.440 I don't know your last names? Wow, it's irrelevant. We're 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:36.000 not allowed to say our last names on television sales. 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:40.240 So Mr mixel Plick situation will to another dimension should 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.200 we say our names? Oddly enough, I have a friend 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:46.879 who's like that, and it's Mr. He said his name 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.600 backwards twice though, so you got him? Yeah, you got 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:54.200 you terrible. You can only visit him on certain occasions 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:57.600 for having us. You know, it's nicely in Chicago. There's 0:00:57.640 --> 0:00:59.840 so many, so many choices of people you could sit 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:01.760 down lot, a lot of things going on in Chicago. 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:05.280 I was surprised at the cars um as a Southerner 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.160 and then and then a West Coaster. I didn't realize 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:10.080 you had them here yet. But that's good. It's good. 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:14.160 It's good. It's good. Once the once the city burned 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:16.320 down the first time, we were like, well, let's wait 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:18.520 for the second to get some cars, but we decided 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:21.040 against it. Well, I'm I'm proud of y'all. There's a 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:25.600 lot going on in Chicago. Mainly it's cold, very cold. 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:28.720 Have you been yelled out about food at all? Oh 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:31.240 my god, Actually I have a tail. This will be 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:34.240 dropping an episode of Worst Year Ever. But we went 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.360 totally on accident. When we were covering Cody Johnson, Katie 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:39.119 Stile and I were coming the Midwest Profest. We went 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:43.080 to accidentally what has to be one of the fanciest restaurants. 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:45.880 It's one of fancies restaurants, maybe the fanciest I've been 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:47.560 to in my life, so I'm guessing it's one of 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:52.720 the fancier ones in Chicago. No, it was the Capital 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:55.440 grill Um. It was a place that, like, we walked 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.520 in and they asked to take our coats and we 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.320 said no, and they immediately looked like, oh, you're not 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.440 supposed to be here. That is just not done. But 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:06.520 they seated us and we ordered lobster bisk which was fantastic. 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.200 The food was was phenomenal um. And as I was 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:12.680 eating my bisk, the waiter walked by and gave me, 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.960 fetched me a look of pity and said, sir, is 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:25.000 there something wrong your soup spoon? I had used the 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.880 wrong spoon, I was. I was half sure the problem 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:29.160 was going to be that you put ketch up in 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:32.239 the b which is frowned upon. Not quite that much 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.680 an animal, but I am apparently a filthy animal because 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:39.959 I used Yeah, you know, um, I'm I'm deeply ashamed 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:47.000 as Chicaglan's allow us to resolve or what does that call? 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:49.680 Absolve you of your food since yeah, I thought you 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:51.359 were going to double down. No, I don't give a 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:54.200 sh about bisk. So we we have never been to 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:58.520 a swanky I look like I've ever. It was purely 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.919 by accident that we went. Jordan thought Julia Bays was 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:04.720 a cold sup really did It's not really. This is 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:09.640 on the way here. Every soup that's not clam chatter. 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:12.600 I assume it is gus paco. I don't know other suits. 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:16.679 Jordan didn't know. I did not know about Tripe. That's 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:20.240 a shame. I really don't think. Once I learned about Tripe, 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:22.760 it did not bother me that I didn't know about 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:27.240 it this long. It's not good. Um so, uh, normally 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:30.600 y'all host a podcast, you sit around, drink novelty beverages 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:32.480 and talk a little bit about Alex Jack. It's true. 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:36.040 We're not doing anything like that today, nothing even vaguely 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.600 reminiscent of that. You told me earlier that we're going 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.080 to talk about somebody that has nothing to do within 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.880 for war, couldn't be lesson. I was almost convinced it 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.640 was a trap. No, we talked about Alex Jones before. 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:54.040 And yeah, yeah, normally I would have you on to 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.080 to discuss someone in Alex Jones's universe because that's your wheelhouse. 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:00.520 But sometimes the sausage just gotta be made. You are 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:05.960 the sausage packers nearby. Yeah, I'll take it. Chicago has 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.960 not had sausage packing for a while, but I think 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:11.880 we'll we'll start the project again. Well, um, do you 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:16.600 guys know the name a little fella named Adam Neuman? No, 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:18.760 it does ring a bell. Have you heard of a 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:22.760 company called we Work? Yes? Is that guy? Oh boy, 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:27.920 oh boy? And he is a real piece of ship. Okay, 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:31.679 now that sounds right. So I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna, 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:34.800 I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna dive into this, to 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:39.320 dive into the ship right now. Um so well, now, 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:41.880 I actually scrolled to the bottom of the page, very professional. 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:43.839 This is how the sausage gets made when we don't 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:49.039 print it out. Adam no discernible middle name, Neuman was 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:53.080 born in Tel Aviv, Israel, on a n seventy nine, 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:55.880 very close to my birthday. I'm already very invested in 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:58.400 this story. And you were also born in Televisi correct, 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:03.880 well the American television Yes, yes, which is Van Eys, California. Yes. 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:05.520 He gets a lot of ship about the right to 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:09.320 return laws for California, which is you do not have 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:11.719 them stay the funk out of California. Just too many 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:18.839 people here. Um so yeah. When he was seven, his 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:21.120 parents divorced and his mother moved to New York City 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.920 to do her medical residency. Adam and his sister av 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:26.680 moved in with her. Now I found other variations about them. 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:28.400 Story that climed to split happen when he was nine, 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:30.919 and that they moved to Minneapolis first. I think he 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:36.080 lies a lot on this show. Whenever it's like I've 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:40.240 heard multiple stories about his life about like specifically when 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:43.320 he came Like yeah, like in so consequential details, I 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.120 don't know. I I ran into both. Um. We don't 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:48.559 have a lot of granular details of his childhood, UM, 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:51.159 like not a lot of anecdotes about him as a kid. UM, 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.040 but we know it was rough. He was severely dyslexic, 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:56.960 still is severely dyslexic. You don't just um, is that 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:01.240 why we work as one word? Maybe? Does that? Is 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:04.880 that a dyslexic thing? I don't think it is welcome 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:07.839 Behind the Beasts the podcast where we slandered dyslexia and 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:13.240 talk about terrible people. H So, yeah, he was dyslexic, 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:15.719 couldn't read it write at all until the third grade. 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.920 UM and his mom moved constantly, so he lived in 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:20.840 a lot of different homes and usually didn't spend enough 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:23.039 time in any one place to build strong attachments to 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:27.760 people there. I get that a little bit. Yeah. Now, 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.640 in nineteen ninety, when he was eleven, Adam's mom moved 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:34.440 back to Israel his family and he settled in a kipputz. 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.520 Gives no much about kipputz is ku. I know a 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:42.039 little bit about kid butts is like, Yeah, it's like 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.560 a it's like a commune essentially, right, Yeah, it's like 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:47.760 it's like an Israeli type of commune thing. I'm got 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.000 to talk about him a little bit. The first Kipputz 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.159 was founded in a place called dia Gania and you 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.320 know in Palestine at the time now now the nation 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:59.560 known as Israel uh in nineteen o nine and nineteen ten. Now, 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:01.920 this is two complex a topic to do justice too 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.400 as an aside in this episode, but it's reasonably accurate 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:06.800 to say that the inspiring motivations behind the establishment of 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.800 the first kibbutz is kibbutze Um. I'm not really sure 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:13.520 what's correct. I don't know yetish Um is a mix 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:18.080 of Zionism, admiration of like literal classical Spartan values um 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:20.800 and communism. So it's like a millity. It was like 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:23.680 an initially like very militant. So like when the Israeli 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:29.000 War for Independence or war the Nakba, whichever term you 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:31.440 prefer to use, when that happened, a lot of like 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:34.560 the cells of like Israeli um or not, I mean, 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:36.000 they weren't is rather at that point of like of 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:40.400 like Jewish partisans who like we're active, we're like based 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:42.440 around kibbutz is and stuff, and like there are kibbutz 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:44.280 is that were like manufacturing arms and stuff and like 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:46.880 later wars and stuff. So there's like a militant swing 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.880 to them, but also very leftist, very communist, very like 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.320 like like communitary. Yeah, yeah, I assume that will never 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.080 go wrong. And yeah, just a really fucking complicated thing. 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:58.160 And I I please don't take this, like read up 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:00.360 more on them. I I don't want to, like, and 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:02.480 they're all different too, so I'm sure there's a lot 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:05.160 of kibbutz is that that are very different backgrounds. But 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:07.680 I found like a really fun lecture on the history 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:09.720 of kibutz is by guy named Henry Near who was 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:13.080 a professor some fucking college, and I'm gonna quote from 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:15.160 that now. It was governed by all the members gathered 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.680 in their weekly meetings. Meals were eaten in common in 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:19.920 the central dining hall, which also served as a social 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:22.920 and cultural center, and other items of consumption were distributed 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:25.560 freely or in accordance with the principle to each according 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:28.240 to his or her need. In its early stages, all 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.160 decisions were taken in common by all the members. That's 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.520 the idea of the chibuts, like pretty practical ground democracy 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:36.600 sounds pretty pretty all right, Yeah, it sounds like every 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:38.280 one way to live. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.280 about the making arms part. I don't know if I'm 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.360 going to sign up for that. Do you want to 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.160 make some arms? It's not my thing. Little bit arms here, 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:47.839 a little bit arms there. I just feel like I 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:51.000 don't have the right kind of like dexterity in those skills. 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.079 Really really want kids for making because they're little fingers 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:59.840 getting all those holes. Yeah, pop, a little little baby fingers. 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:03.120 H nobody makes an a k forty seven like a 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.840 couple of three month olds. They really, they really know 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:10.040 how to start now. Women and men both worked all 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:12.840 day in the kibbutz is kibbutz um um. Their children 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:15.120 were cared for in small groups, looked after by individuals 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:17.520 were a mix of teacher and nanny. Kild spent time 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:19.640 in their parents home after working hours, but most cases 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:21.760 slept with other kids in a children's house at night. 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:24.000 In the early days, at least all of the kibbutz 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.360 is were part of a utopian movement towards a better society. 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.640 One of the founders of the first kibbutz, Joseph Barretts, 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.400 wrote this in his memoirs. We were happy enough working 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:35.480 on the land, but we knew more and more certainly 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:37.520 that the ways of the old settlements were not for us. 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:39.439 This was not the way we hope to settle the country, 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:41.640 this old way with Jews on top and Arabs working 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.239 for them. Anyway, we thought that there shouldn't be employers 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:46.600 or employed at all. There must be a better way. 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:52.319 Very left wing, very like like utopian projects. I just 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.600 want to emphasize that. Yeah, this being this show, though 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.400 I'm waiting for a hammer to drop. Yeah, it goes 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:01.040 into not not as utopian direction. There's all around. They're 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:03.880 not all at least the same that they were so 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.080 obviously in the early days they were all about agriculture. Um, 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:09.040 some still focus on that, but today they serve in 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.320 a variety of industries. For example, Kibbutz sasa Uh serves 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.920 the Israeli military making special military grade plastics. Is two 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:18.720 hundred members sold some eight hundred and fifty million dollars 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.040 in products in two thousand tens. These are not all, 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.520 These are not small, but yes, necessarily and that's a 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:30.679 sizeable business. Yeah, And Kibbutz near m where Adam Neuman 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.839 spent his formative years, currently hosts an innovation center that 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.040 seems to focus as an incubator for the Israeli tech 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.680 industry and looks like literally any tech building in San 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.319 Francisco from the pictures I've seen, so like these are 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.720 no longer like like necessarily like rule or like like 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:49.160 hard scrabble things like there's big businesses that are are 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.400 operated in these um Now. By the time Adam and 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:55.160 his family arrived at Kibbutz near Am, Kibbutz has had 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:58.520 moderated significantly from their early radical leftist ideology, and rather 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:00.839 than being educated in a group of children on site, 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:04.280 he went to the share Hannegev. I'm so sorry for 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.240 surely pronouncing that school, which is near to Gaza Strip. 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:09.959 His mother worked as an oncologist at a nearby hospital. 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:12.760 Um and living in the kibbutz and taking partners communal 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.360 life was something that Adam's mom valued. He later recalled, 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:16.920 it was important to my mother that we all do 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.360 something special. So, yeah, every rite up you're going to find. 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:22.520 This guy's life focuses on his time in the Kibbutz. 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:24.360 It seems to be something out of himself. May has 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:28.079 made a point of discussing with every journalist who interviewed him. Um, 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.160 despite how often it comes up, you seldom here in 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:32.079 the details of his time there. One of the few 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.880 scraps I ran into came from a Hearts article. As 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:36.440 a child who lived in a lot of places, one 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:37.800 of the hardest things for me was to join a 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:39.880 new community. It was hardest at the Kibbutz, but that 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.200 was also one of the most impressive communities. I remember 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:43.880 how much fun it was to be a child in 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:47.800 the Kibbuts. I feel like I would probably speak the 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:52.040 same but also like, you know, not very in detail 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:54.680 about like the time when I lived in like I 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.440 don't know, Boston. Yeah, I don't remember much of it, 0:11:57.480 --> 0:11:59.360 but I could probably be like, you know, hey, it 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:03.400 made me who And you get the like he really 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:06.280 drives home that it was like a formative thing for him, 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:07.959 but you also get the the idea that was kind 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.640 of painful. He talks a lot about how, um, the 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:13.720 other kids that he that were on the Kibbitts had 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.080 all been born and like grown up there, and he 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:17.880 had moved there when he was like eleven or twelve 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:21.599 or so. UM, so that was like obviously difficult. He 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:23.760 would have been something of an outsider. He says, he 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:26.840 like made his way in and it was really rewarding. 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.680 I kind of get the feeling that maybe this guy's 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:33.320 never quite felt like he belonged anywhere. It's like a 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:35.800 new kid in school, but the school happens to be 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.720 a commune, and nobody wants you there, and nobody wants 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.920 you there. Yeah, maybe I don't know. I wasn't there. 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:47.199 I didn't grow up in that particular Israeli kibbutz um. Now. 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:49.240 As a young adult, Adam went to the Israeli Naval 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.200 Academy and served in the Navy for five years. So 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:53.320 he didn't do like the minimum service you need to do, 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:55.640 Like he he made a thing of it. Um. He 0:12:55.720 --> 0:13:00.160 retired as a captain or left the service as a captain. Um. 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.720 Once he'd done his time, he followed in his mother's 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:05.600 footsteps and moved to New York. He was twenty two 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.080 years old, and it was two thousand one, widely considered 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:09.760 to be the very best year in history to move 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:13.200 to the game. I remember well the Blueprint three or 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:17.560 now the Blueprint dropped, the Yes first album that was 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.600 really really good, The Strokes first album that was awesome. 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:23.640 All of those, All of those happened on on a 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:25.920 day that I don't think anybody remembers for any reason 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:30.000 at all. No, no, uh. Two thousand one particularly like 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:34.400 the fall, early winter, like autumn. Great time to be 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:38.200 in New York. The two thousand one particularly good time 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.480 to be a dance punk was taken the nation by Yeah. 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.840 It was fantastic. So he moves there in a perfect time. Um. Now, 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:47.040 his sister Avy had already beaten him to New York. 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:49.679 She had been a former team Miss Israel and then 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:51.920 managed to turn that into a career as a model. 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.000 She was very successful model and is very famous in 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:56.920 his room, much more famous than actually he is to 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:00.600 this day. Um. He stayed in her Tribeca apartment while 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.000 he worked to figure out what his future would be. 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.120 Eventually he settled on business and enrolled at Baruch College. 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:09.800 In between classes, he and his own words, spent his 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:11.760 first years in New York hanging out at clubs and 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.800 quote hitting on every girl in the city. Um he 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:18.040 looked for you know, spent the rest of his time 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:20.560 looking for get rich quick schemes. His first months in 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:25.160 the USA brought with them some sobering revelations about American culture. Quote, 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:29.560 it's bullshit, yeah kind of actually yeah, yeah, it's it's 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.480 propag around the world. Okay, that a lot of other 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:37.800 people are also try and get rich quick sche people 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:40.320 like me. It seems like a lot of people really 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:43.120 wish they could get rich quick. The whole thing about 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.960 the American character being con artists, and it's a mix 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:49.960 of con artists and gold rushers. Like the honest people 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.960 are looking for a gold rush, the not honest people 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:55.120 are con artists. The goal is always the same. Which 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:57.080 has spent his little time living in the part of 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.400 America that exists for people who aren't rich, Yeah, which 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:05.600 is hard, and then filled with go fund means for insulin. 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:09.000 So far, the places for Americans who aren't rich are 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.280 are not great. Most people want to get out of there. 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.240 You know, I, for one, don't understand why you would 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:19.600 want to live anywhere but the Pacific Palisades. But you know, 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.040 my butler lives elsewhere, and he says, it's there's there's, there's, 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:25.200 there's decent parts. You fly him in for the week 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.720 days or is he a weekend butler, Like no, no, no, no, no, 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:31.920 you split custody of the butler with your ex wife. 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:35.160 He takes, he takes, he takes a bus in and 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:37.240 he's you know, there's there's a tracking chip on him 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:38.880 when he's in the palaceine. We don't want to stay, 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:43.200 good lord though, not after dark unless there's a party, 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:45.720 in which case we deliver a small series of electric 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:48.080 shocks every fifteen minutes. We didn't get too comfortable, you know, 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:52.680 all right, yeah, ethics, Um so yeah. Adam had a 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:56.000 rough arrival to the United States. Um and I'm gonna 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:58.440 quote him now. After I arrived in the United States, 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:00.320 I realized that in the army is really had to 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:02.280 be part of something bigger than themselves. The things that 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:04.520 I had experienced in my life all came together in 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:05.920 our life. We had a lot of movement and a 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:07.640 lot of new things. So I feel sorry for someone 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:09.320 who's having a bit of a hard time, because I 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:13.120 know what it's like to be new. Um. He found 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:17.280 that he was like really frustrated by particularly the distance 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:20.800 and kind of facelessness of American culture. Elevator rides were 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.320 the things that most struck him. He recalled later to 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:25.440 an interviewer that whenever he would travel up the elevator 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:27.720 in his sister's apartment, he would wonder, why is nobody 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:29.920 talking to each other? We're in the same building. How 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:33.800 come you don't know everybody? Oh? Man, man, if somebody 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.080 talked to me in an elevator, I lose my ship. Yeah, 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.160 absolutely furious. To be fair, I've had those very similar thoughts. 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:44.120 But every time I've tried to act the opposite, it's 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:50.480 been a disaster. No, they don't want to be to say, 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.840 I look like me. Yeah, it's a it's a captive environment. 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:58.560 There's no escape route. That's that's the issue there. I mean, obviously, 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:02.520 until the door's open, it seems very suspicious. You strike 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.000 up a conversation in those now those times when we've 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:08.280 as a culture just decided shut it down. Yeah, yeah, 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:12.879 start a conversation in the bathroom, the bus, the bus, 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:16.720 never elevators. No, I keep a tear gas grenade on 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.440 me at all times. Anyone talks, I just pulled that pen. 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.639 I will in the conversation that I will begin a 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.520 conversation if we're stuck in the elevator, and I'm just 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:27.720 at the place where I have to poop in the corner. 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:32.160 Back in that situation, I'm going to start with a sorry. Yeah, 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:35.119 this is gonna be rough for all of us. I 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:37.840 think we'll make it through. There are different protocols for 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:41.720 once you get to that point. The only place in 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.560 America it's okay to talk to people is in lying 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:47.399 at the movies. That's a good one that works. That's it, 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:51.120 really okay, that's it. Say yeah. Other than that, zip 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.520 it yeah, keep it, keep it shut. Doctor's waiting room 0:17:55.840 --> 0:18:02.800 under no circumstances, no no eye contact blames. A holding 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:05.399 cell is probably a good place. Like yeah, you in 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:12.840 on as more like collaboration. Yeah, you're you're you're in 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.000 a holding cell. You're getting something cooking in the beginning 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:17.919 of the movie blow, that's yeah, that's a rich scheme. 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:20.080 In the in the works, I can say a lot 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.399 of people at guns stores want to have conversations with 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:26.560 you while you're waiting. You should not. You should not 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:29.879 talk to those people. It does not end well. You 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:34.560 will learn uncomfortable things about them. Um. Yeah, I imagine 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:37.280 every conversation at a gun store starts with my ex 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:41.679 wife and that's where it goes. Well, the government, let 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:46.679 me tell you about the government. Federal government. Either that 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:49.680 or I got a lot of fucking gophers on my property. 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.280 How many misdemeanors for I can't buy one of these 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:56.720 no more. I imagine the people around there are full 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:01.360 of trivia. It is actually it's just mostly firstly gun trivia. Yeah, 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:05.119 very accurate. Yeah, you know they change the way the 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:07.919 feed and ramp loads back in nineteen sixty two, so 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:12.600 that's a yeah, it's very very boring in general. Um so, yeah. 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.240 Adam gets to the US fresh out of the military 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.359 is frustrated at like the distance and the kind of 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:23.199 soullessness lack of communication in American culture. Um yeah. He 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:27.760 challenges his sister Abby to a friendmaking competition, uh, to 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:31.840 see who could learn the names and established cordial social 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.720 relationships with the most people in the building the fastest. 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.119 This is the first time. This is the beginning of 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:43.320 me saying fuck this guy. Yeah, this is it. It's 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.920 him trying to people like, let's have a friendship contest. 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:52.440 Fuck that guy out. You're trying to gamify like natural 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:56.159 interaction between people. That just seems weird. Also, his sister's 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:58.440 name is Addie. I'm a hack and a fraud and 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:03.399 and spelled it wrong, not added. Yeah, so is that 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:07.480 long for something? Probably? I don't know. It's just sister. 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:10.760 She didn't do anything wrong. Um. They get into what 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:13.000 they get into a contest to see who can like 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.080 build the most cordial social relationships the fastest. Yeah, she's 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:22.400 she absolutely wins this contest very quickly. They like, almost immediately. 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.800 This guy seems like a creep. She's a model. Yeah, 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:30.240 this guy is weird. He's trying to start conversations elevators. 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.280 And she's one of the most beautiful. Yes, she wins. Handle. 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.560 She has like six times as many friends in after 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:39.480 a week. It is not a not a close not 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:43.679 a close thing, not a near run game. Um. But 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:46.359 Adam claims as a result of their contest, the entire 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:51.880 energy of the building changed to what what people would 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:54.840 he be bothered, borrow, shooker from each other. He was good, 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:00.119 he says, it was good, Okay, all right now. Is 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:02.439 a common refrain in Adam's interviews, both the difficulty of 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:04.159 meeting new people when you move, a lot of the 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:07.879 cold and informal nature of life in American society. Uh. 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:11.720 And oddly enough, this sort of like understanding that whatever 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:13.879 it is about our hyper capitalist world makes people not 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:16.800 want to connect with one another was paired in Adam 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:21.760