Speaker 1: Hello, Hello, Hi.
Speaker 2: What's your name? Sir?
Speaker 1: Hey, Chris Barty against you or I should say Chris
Speaker 1: Barty Tea is just a Jene Nasha. I am from
Speaker 1: the Nafo Nation in northeastern Arizona. Cool and that just
Speaker 1: gave me to I told you who I am, my name,
Speaker 1: my four clans, and where I'm from.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you telling me your actual name, but I
Speaker 2: do have to let you know. So there's times during
Speaker 2: this podcast where a guy will be like, my name
Speaker 2: is Steve, and I'll forget that immediately, So I probably
Speaker 2: I'm not good at remembering things, but that sounds cool.
Speaker 2: That's a cool name. Do people call you by that name?
Speaker 1: Yeah? They just leusually called me Chris, like Chris, that's
Speaker 1: my last name, Yeah, Chris Christ.
Speaker 2: And you're from the Navajo Nation.
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Cool, you said living in Phoenix.
Speaker 1: I'm living in uh on the Napo Nation. In the
Speaker 1: community it's called h fitch is it in our language,
Speaker 1: which means rough rock? So I live on the on
Speaker 1: the reservation on the NFL Nation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's it?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 2: What's it like on the reservations? Because I've heard a
Speaker 2: lot of different things, but they're all just rumors I
Speaker 2: want to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Well, it depends who you ask. We have what kind
Speaker 1: of in a moment of transition in the culture, Like
Speaker 1: we're still trying to hold on to our traditional ways,
Speaker 1: our language and culture, but at the same time, influence
Speaker 1: from the outside world is kind of drawing a lot
Speaker 1: of our people away, especially our young people. So they
Speaker 1: want to be more westernized, and they mostly some of
Speaker 1: them mostly speak English only or they only speak maybe
Speaker 1: partially now for or some even Like a lot of
Speaker 1: young people are grappling with trying to understand the culture
Speaker 1: and the fluency of the language. But you can ask
Speaker 1: me anything.
Speaker 2: How old How old are you?
Speaker 1: I am thirty eight, Okay?
Speaker 2: And did you grow up speaking this language or did
Speaker 2: you learn it later?
Speaker 1: Oh a uh shamasana a my grandmother and shamato uh
Speaker 1: shatay my my relatives, my aunties, my uncles and people
Speaker 1: were fluent speakers, so they spoke to us at little kids,
Speaker 1: and I grew up speaking the language. Uh. And we're
Speaker 1: learning a lot of things as an adult.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you have kids.
Speaker 1: I raised two boys, they're my nephews. One's eighteen and
Speaker 1: one's fourteen with my family. But I don't have any
Speaker 1: children of my own, not biologically.
Speaker 2: Did you raise them like by yourself or was your
Speaker 2: brother slash sister there too?
Speaker 1: My sister she's in college and working and things, so
Speaker 1: I pretty much raised them from babies like when the
Speaker 1: time they came from the hospital to the time they're
Speaker 1: like almost adults now.
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: So that's very common with our culture because we we
Speaker 1: have like intergenerational families sometimes living together in the same area,
Speaker 1: and where we we go by clans. We have a
Speaker 1: plan system, so we have an a Our mother and
Speaker 1: our father's plan are the main plans that we affiliate with.
Speaker 1: So that was very.
Speaker 2: Much wall I'm sorry, but are you are you? Are
Speaker 2: you taking a walk right now or something?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm hurting sheep or I'm walking off my goats
Speaker 1: and sheep.
Speaker 2: You're walking with your goats and sheep? Yes, whow interesting?
Speaker 2: I feel like you know what I feel like. Normally
Speaker 2: I would ask if you could stand still so that
Speaker 2: we can have this conversation without your phone going in
Speaker 2: and out. But I guess I can't tell you to
Speaker 2: stop hurting the sheep.
Speaker 1: Oh jeez, yeah, I'm standing still at the moment. I'm
Speaker 1: not moving.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, you're hurting sheep. Interesting, Okay, we're going.
Speaker 2: There's so much to I want, There's so much to
Speaker 2: talk to you about. How did so, how did you
Speaker 2: grow up? What was it like for you? Did you
Speaker 2: grow Did you grow up on this reservation that you're
Speaker 2: on right now?
Speaker 1: Yes, I've I've lived here all my life and I've
Speaker 1: grown up here. And I went to school here on
Speaker 1: the reservation, and I went to for a short stint,
Speaker 1: I went to Santa Fe. Yeah, I have a place
Speaker 1: called the Institute of American Indian Arts, and so I
Speaker 1: studied filmmaking there, and I came back here and started
Speaker 1: farming full time years ago. So, yeah, I studied filmmaking.
Speaker 2: Have you made any films?
Speaker 1: Just one? I helped out in some small films. I'm
Speaker 1: also a writer. I write poetry. I've written, uh and
Speaker 1: published poetry, mostly attempting to write a novel. I've done screenplays.
Speaker 1: I've helped edit people's work, you know, sometimes gone uncredited.
Speaker 1: But that's okay because I just volunteer, you know. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I went to Telm school.
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm. What do most people, uh they do for
Speaker 2: work on the reservation.
Speaker 1: Oh, they have odd jobs. Some work with the tribal
Speaker 1: They have a tribal headquarters, so people are work for
Speaker 1: the tribe doing different things. Some work as maintenance people.
Speaker 1: Some go off the reservation to find jobs in the cities,
Speaker 1: like weldings a big thing, electricians, journeymen. Some people are cowboys,
Speaker 1: professional cowboys, you know, like just all sorts of things.
Speaker 1: Some people are medicine people, they do healing work. I'm
Speaker 1: in the community and you know, for the world, so
Speaker 1: it all, it all varies. Some are teachers, some are doctors.
Speaker 1: Some are this so that you know. Some people have
Speaker 1: gone to Harvard, some people have gone to Columbia. Some
Speaker 1: people come back to the rask people live. You know,
Speaker 1: we have Navajos everywhere, you know, like the people that
Speaker 1: I uh, the tribe that I belong to.
Speaker 2: So there's a battle going on where younger people are
Speaker 2: becoming more westernized, and like the original culture is kind
Speaker 2: of being being lost, you say, in some ways.
Speaker 1: In some ways a lot of people have seen the
Speaker 1: the change is happening, and they're doing something about it.
Speaker 1: They're being proactive in their families. They're speaking the language
Speaker 1: to the young people, they're bringing them to ceremonies, they're
Speaker 1: engaging with them culturally, teaching them things. We're land based people, uh,
Speaker 1: that we have our origins here on this land. Our
Speaker 1: Cracian stories say, we came out of the earth and
Speaker 1: from there we journey through several worlds into this one
Speaker 1: that we're currently And.
Speaker 2: You journeyed through several several worlds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, under the earth, like in the ground, like ants. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we were like spirit beings, but when we came up,
Speaker 1: we came into like material, physical beings like you and me,
Speaker 1: like human being, you know.
Speaker 2: Confession blood, I gotta ask why, why why do you
Speaker 2: think we stopped here? Like what is it about this
Speaker 2: place where it's like, you know what, let's stop at
Speaker 2: this world, this wireless one as McDonald's.
Speaker 1: Well, your people came from across the ocean, so you know, actually, actually,
Speaker 1: why why did you guys stop here?
Speaker 2: A wait? Are you talking about like this like soul
Speaker 2: like spiritual souls you're talking about like the Navajo people.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll talk about my people. We we we uh,
Speaker 1: we came out of the earth, out of out of
Speaker 1: sick place. I can't mention the name, but we came
Speaker 1: into this world and we are our boundaries to our
Speaker 1: homeland is four sacred mountains, and we stayed within those
Speaker 1: four sacred mountains what were supposed to anyway?
Speaker 2: M hm, so I okay, I'm curious about this. Okay,
Speaker 2: So yes it is true. Yes, Uh, white people came
Speaker 2: to what was America called before all that stuff happened.
Speaker 1: It depends on who you taught to a lot of
Speaker 1: the tribes like then the Shawnee and the Iroquois First
Speaker 1: Nations people, Uh, the sixth Council of forget how many
Speaker 1: councils they are, the people in the eastern part of
Speaker 1: the US, the Wapanog, the Cayuga, the Shawnee, the Pahatan,
Speaker 1: all those people that the Mayflower people met, the first
Speaker 1: colonists that came you know, Jamestown and all that before
Speaker 1: Columbus and the Spaniards after excuse after they came like
Speaker 1: with plummet Rock and all that. They called this plan
Speaker 1: Turtle Island. Those people over there.
Speaker 2: Hunts Turtle Islands. So okay, So yes, white people came
Speaker 2: and we just fucking did a bunch of shit. And
Speaker 2: then I'm curious, so does the American government, like to
Speaker 2: to what degree has the American government been like, you know,
Speaker 2: are bad we're gonna help you guys like you know
Speaker 2: has has what what does that look like?
Speaker 1: Well, we have what it's called. Uh. We my ancestors
Speaker 1: fought the Americans when they came and tried to control them,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people were captured in the resistance.
Speaker 1: Some people evaded resistance. My ancestors included Uh, they escaped
Speaker 1: and fought back and hid from the It was just
Speaker 1: carried in eighteen sixty four where the federal government came
Speaker 1: and relocated and tried to uh take them at least
Speaker 1: nine thousand Napos from the from our homeland when they
Speaker 1: marched them into New Mexico to a place called Fort
Speaker 1: Sumner and held them at gunpoint for four years. So
Speaker 1: they were incarcerated in a concentration camp like like what
Speaker 1: happened with the Holocaust. Yeah, them us and also Mescalero
Speaker 1: Apaches and some other tribes. But the Muscleros got out
Speaker 1: in the night that it took off. So my people
Speaker 1: we call ourselves the NET. That's that's who it means.
Speaker 1: The people are human beings. So uh, the NET people
Speaker 1: uh were there for four years until eighteen sixty eight,
Speaker 1: where we signed a peace treaty with the United States
Speaker 1: government and military to quit fighting. Okay, so we have
Speaker 1: a peace treaty with the United States or treaty tribe.
Speaker 2: So there's a peace treaty. But like, does the government
Speaker 2: like do anything for you guys like today.
Speaker 1: Yes, they're obligated under the provisions of the Treaty of
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty eight to provide whatever way they can to
Speaker 1: try to they give like funding to the tribe contemporarily.
Speaker 1: And right now there's a lot of discussion and there's
Speaker 1: a lot of controversy how to spend federal funds that
Speaker 1: we get from the tribal government and I'm excuse me,
Speaker 1: from the federal government to the tribal government. You see,
Speaker 1: our tribal government was set up in nineteen twenty three
Speaker 1: as a business council, and so in order to give
Speaker 1: legitimacy to energy corporations to mine and drill into the
Speaker 1: earth for oil, uranium, coal, natural gas, helium, and whatever
Speaker 1: you know water. So on our homeland there's a vast
Speaker 1: amounts of natural resources, including timber, you know, gravel, whatever
Speaker 1: you know. Coal. There was a big thing uranium I
Speaker 1: think I mentioned uranium oil. And so when they discovered
Speaker 1: all these minerals below us are on the land itself.
Speaker 1: They came in and started to mine and established a
Speaker 1: relations with the tribe to modernize the now for people
Speaker 1: through boarding schools and through like things like mission schools,
Speaker 1: boarding schools where they took children away and basically tried
Speaker 1: to teach them how to be like white people. MM.
Speaker 2: So you said that, you said that there's a controversy
Speaker 2: in terms of how this money should be spent by
Speaker 2: the tribal government. What's that controversy? Where do people think
Speaker 2: the money should be spent.
Speaker 1: Well, they have several trust funds and they have several
Speaker 1: funding sources where they set up I guess like big
Speaker 1: bank banking systems. They try to make use to distribute
Speaker 1: the wealth of the tribal government evening among the people,
Speaker 1: but the tribal officials mostly spend it among themselves. They
Speaker 1: pay themselves millions of dollars and the hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of US in salary, like six seven figure salaries, and
Speaker 1: it's just really ridiculous. So that's where a lot of
Speaker 1: the local government we see. We have one hundred and
Speaker 1: ten chapters, and we have a tribal council, and we
Speaker 1: have a three branch government like that mirror is to
Speaker 1: the United States government. And so we also have a
Speaker 1: president and there's been like a lot of controversy with
Speaker 1: him and his leadership are lacked thereof.
Speaker 2: So the government is so a lot of the tribal
Speaker 2: government has gotten fairly corrupt.
Speaker 1: Yes, just because they haven't learned how to utilize the
Speaker 1: funding correctly. M in my in my opinion, m hm.
Speaker 2: So so the did the reservations right? Do they do?
Speaker 2: They follow? So they have their own government and their
Speaker 2: own kind of rules and laws and stuff, and like
Speaker 2: they do they have to like are are they still
Speaker 2: under the jurisdiction of the federal American government or like
Speaker 2: even or even like the state government that they're located in.
Speaker 1: Yes, we have I'll start of the state. We have
Speaker 1: tribal representation within the different districts of the state of Arizona,
Speaker 1: New Mexico, and Utah. And we have uh people out
Speaker 1: in Washington who advocate our behalf. We have a Washington
Speaker 1: office kind of like a like a little embassy that
Speaker 1: people go out there and try to establish not just
Speaker 1: funding but laws that will help our people. And there's
Speaker 1: all sorts of things. I know, if you're familiar with
Speaker 1: federal Indian law, but there was a lot of things
Speaker 1: that happened. The reorganization Department of Interior, which we call
Speaker 1: the bare Indian Affairs, oversaw a lot of tribal government
Speaker 1: business until they handed it over to the tribes. I
Speaker 1: think it was in nineteen fifty two or somewhere around there,
Speaker 1: organized a tribe into a tribal government with a three
Speaker 1: branch system, and so we're like a many Washington.
Speaker 4: I like to say, it's just funny that I'm imagining
Speaker 4: you telling me all of this while you're hurting sheep.
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, how is the sheep herding going?
Speaker 1: It's good. I'm actually I'm trying to look over the
Speaker 1: hill here, see where they wait, because I was trying
Speaker 1: to hold steel they wanted at all, but they're not far.
Speaker 2: So okay, you know, let's let's talk. I want to
Speaker 2: talk about you. I'm curious about you.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So you have these two nephews that are basically like
Speaker 2: your sons. You have two boys that you raised. Do
Speaker 2: you have a wife or a girlfriend.
Speaker 1: No, it's a I don't have anyone like currently in
Speaker 1: my life like that.
Speaker 2: Did you did you use did you used to? Are
Speaker 2: you divorced or broken up.
Speaker 1: Or oh I've left a long shrill of heartbreaks now. Uh, yes,
Speaker 1: once upon a time ago I did.
Speaker 2: How did you meet these ladies? Like? Where are they like?
Speaker 2: Women that you met on like the reservation?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I met some in high school. I met some
Speaker 1: in the I was involved in online resistance movements to
Speaker 1: try to protect sacred sites and things like mountains or
Speaker 1: water rights. I fought and want against power plants with
Speaker 1: people you know, and we uh built poalitions to protect
Speaker 1: the Grand Canyon in certain places, the Holy San Francisco
Speaker 1: Peaks and flag Staff. Mhm. We did things like we
Speaker 1: changed ourselves to machinery and as far as protests, lots
Speaker 1: of community involvement, a lot of organizing, a lot of
Speaker 1: spiritual support from our elders and our medicine practitioners are healers.
Speaker 2: So where do you Where do you think we go
Speaker 2: when we die?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: To the spirit world, the spare world. Do you think
Speaker 2: the spirit world is better or worse than the current world?
Speaker 1: Oh, there's there's no sadness, there's no grief, there's no pain.
Speaker 1: It's just bliss. You're you're free.
Speaker 2: Interesting, interesting mm hmm.
Speaker 1: It's better than a Christian heaven.
Speaker 2: So are you I don't know, man, I I guess
Speaker 2: are you? Like who's around? Like, what's the community like?
Speaker 2: Do you have a lot of friends and family hanging around? Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got a whole bunch of followers social media
Speaker 1: people around me, but I live a pretty private life.
Speaker 1: I don't be.
Speaker 2: You have I asked if you have a lot of people?
Speaker 2: Are you have? I asked if you have a lot
Speaker 2: of people around you?
Speaker 1: You have?
Speaker 2: You have social media followers?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I have tons of followers and people that
Speaker 1: follow what I do. I work.
Speaker 2: Okay, what about like, like, you know, like people in
Speaker 2: the community.
Speaker 1: Not so much because I don't really mingle with them
Speaker 1: my neighbors, because we're we're like really private people. We
Speaker 1: don't really like get into people's business too much. But
Speaker 1: I do have I'm surrounded by relatives like blood and clan,
Speaker 1: so we all know each other, you know, but we
Speaker 1: just live separate lives.
Speaker 2: Do you prefer the social media followers to the actual people?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yes, because because the neighbors around me. If people
Speaker 1: get territorial and envious of things that you do, so
Speaker 1: we just kind of like I just or them, you know.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, it's kind of weird.
Speaker 2: Do you talk with your followers?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, I engage with people all the time every day.
Speaker 2: Where do you Where do you post this stuff? Uh?
Speaker 1: Instagram, Facebook mainly. I don't really do TikTok or anything else,
Speaker 1: but that.
Speaker 2: This is so interesting where you're like a sheep herder influencer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have like five thousand followers on Facebook and
Speaker 1: my tenth or five thousand friends. I max it out
Speaker 1: all the time and people come on drop off and
Speaker 1: I'm about two thousand something on on Instagram, But I
Speaker 1: kind of neglect in it because I'm been so busy,
Speaker 1: you know, only kind to do things.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like the sheep are your friends or
Speaker 2: that they're just like fodder? Like, what's your relationship like
Speaker 2: with the sheep?
Speaker 1: Well? I call them my children and do that my babies,
Speaker 1: you know, even though I eat them sometimes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sometimes you gotta do that.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, we.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: I'm fascinated by this. So you prefer being around sheep
Speaker 2: and social media followers to real people?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Because animals they love you unconditionally. People are complicated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true, that's true. Do you do you hope
Speaker 2: to one day develop stronger relationships with the people around you.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, to a point. But like I said, I
Speaker 1: like my private you know, m hm, because once you
Speaker 1: start engaging with the community, they bring into the problems
Speaker 1: and I don't want to get involved people's problems. You know,
Speaker 1: I got my own problems.
Speaker 2: So your nephews are so your nephews, I guess, are
Speaker 2: the representation of these young people who are becoming more westernized.
Speaker 2: Do you think that? Do you think your nephews are
Speaker 2: being westernized? Like, what's your relationship with them on that front?
Speaker 1: Well, there's two ways. Show them the culture and bring
Speaker 1: them into it every day, a little by little, you know,
Speaker 1: and you teach them this is what this plant is.
Speaker 1: This is the name of this lizard. This is the
Speaker 1: name of that bird. This is the name of the
Speaker 1: when the clouds, the lightning in the thunder, Mother Earth,
Speaker 1: you know, father Sky, the Sun, father's son, grandmother is
Speaker 1: the moon, the stars. You know. You called them and
Speaker 1: you tell them this is what they're called, you know,
Speaker 1: And that's how I was raised. And uh, this is
Speaker 1: what herb kills pierced. This, this is what herb helps
Speaker 1: the sheep. This is what herb is a tobacco you
Speaker 1: can smoke. This is how you make an offering for rain,
Speaker 1: you know. Hm, we're always praying. We pray with corn
Speaker 1: pollen and corn mill.
Speaker 2: Mmm. Do you are? Are you are? Do you feel
Speaker 2: like they're being westernized? Like, do you like, is there
Speaker 2: like a specific part of Western culture or something like
Speaker 2: that that you think that they have found themselves aligned with.
Speaker 1: Oh, movies, TV shows, video games, social media, music, you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's normal. I think every young person native and
Speaker 1: non native loves all that, right, like Fortnite whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: Legend Azelda. I've played all those things and like watch
Speaker 1: movies all the time. I have Wi Fi at my
Speaker 1: house if I just get online and start doing things.
Speaker 1: You know, one of my favorite things that plays Assassin's Creed.
Speaker 2: All those games fucking you play? You played Assassin's Creed three?
Speaker 1: Yes, I played all the Enzo and all that. The
Speaker 1: only one I haven't played the latest one with the
Speaker 1: Samurai storyline.
Speaker 2: So yeah, well, Assassin's Creed three you play? I think
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know if he's a Navajo,
Speaker 2: but maybe I think maybe he's a navajo. Yeah, Like
Speaker 2: his name is Ken Kenny something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Ken, No, he's a native from the from the
Speaker 1: East coast. Like he's inspired by is that he's a
Speaker 1: native baby. Yeah, my switch I was playing it one time,
Speaker 1: kind of got far, but it's kind of confusing because
Speaker 1: it's on the switch, you.
Speaker 2: Know, Yeah, and the controls kind of suck.
Speaker 1: I love it. I played Rest of the Wild and
Speaker 1: The Tears of the Kingdom and everything.
Speaker 2: Dude, it's fine. Something dude, something about something about a
Speaker 2: sheep herd, something about like it's very like you. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm imagining that you right now are in a vast
Speaker 2: field like herding sheep, and then at some point you're
Speaker 2: like fuck this, and then you just pull out your
Speaker 2: switch and then you play play a simulated version of
Speaker 2: of being in a vast field.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I live in the hills below a mountain. M hmm.
Speaker 1: The mountain is just like south of me. Uh, and
Speaker 1: I could go anywhere. There's canyons, there's springs, there's places
Speaker 1: where water comes and it rains it becomes like a river.
Speaker 1: There's also ta mesa tops like hills, rocks everywhere, trees,
Speaker 1: it's like a jungle like a and uh. Where I
Speaker 1: live at it's full of rocks and rocks everywhere, so
Speaker 1: it's not flat. It's like I'm a hill in a
Speaker 1: hill country.
Speaker 2: There's one more thing I actually wanted to ask you
Speaker 2: before we go. You well, you texted me and uh
Speaker 2: you said that you you have a message that you
Speaker 2: wanted to deliver. Is that true? Is that accurate?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, before we go, do you wanna do you wanna
Speaker 2: to deliver your message?
Speaker 1: I want to say that we're in a period of
Speaker 1: great transition on this earth and that we all need
Speaker 1: to come together, all people from all directions of life,
Speaker 1: to remember who we are as human beings, as people
Speaker 1: of the Earth's surface Nona, and no matter what color
Speaker 1: or blood, skin, or wherever we come from, we are
Speaker 1: all children of Mother Earth in the universe, and to
Speaker 1: never lose a connection to the source of life, to
Speaker 1: the Creator.
Speaker 2: What do you think is this transition that we're going through?
Speaker 2: What would you how would you describe it?
Speaker 1: We're coming into new times all the time, and people
Speaker 1: in a spiritual way think it's like a age of
Speaker 1: Aquarius or you know, some transition, some spiritual you know,
Speaker 1: five D reality, who knows, you know, they all have
Speaker 1: different things. You know, the year of the horse. You know,
Speaker 1: people astrologers talk about things with the planet whatever you know.
Speaker 1: But with us, in our traditional people, we see that
Speaker 1: we're coming back to our old ways. We're starting to
Speaker 1: pick up where where our ancestors left off. Nesas that's
Speaker 1: what we call our ancestors. Has two Sania which means
Speaker 1: the way of our old people, the way of life,
Speaker 1: that way they live. Then they then and then not
Speaker 1: the excuse me? Then uh cut it ding j which
Speaker 1: means the corn pollen, the way which means the beauty way.
Speaker 1: We we pray for peace on earth. We also go
Speaker 1: to war. We have a warriors warriors societies. But when
Speaker 1: we come home, we come home with peace and mind. John,
Speaker 1: and we want a beauty and we beauty around us,
Speaker 1: and beauty behind and before us, and are all around us,
Speaker 1: and make beautiful things come from our words and are
Speaker 1: our thinking and our hearing and our our our speak
Speaker 1: to our language. May everything become beautiful again? And j
Speaker 1: John Hasli Koja Hasli k j Hasli k j Hasli.
Speaker 1: I say that four times as a way of confirmation
Speaker 1: to say everything will be restored in harmony.
Speaker 2: Chris, do you want to tell us where we can
Speaker 2: follow you? On social media and and keep up with
Speaker 2: your sheepherding adventures.
Speaker 1: Is uh, you can find me at has teen got
Speaker 1: Herder at h A s T I I n go
Speaker 1: Herder Instagram and Chris Barney O k R I s
Speaker 1: uh space U A R n E Y like the dinosaur.
Speaker 2: You're max you're maxed out on friends. Yes, you got
Speaker 2: to you gotta Oh okay, I was gonna say, you
Speaker 2: gotta purge some people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just the other day I was filling kind
Speaker 1: of whimsical and so I I got meta verified. So
Speaker 1: I'm like navigating all that stuff now reels and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get mon monetization going, and it's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know how this all works. It's all complicated,
Speaker 1: but I'm figuring it out.
Speaker 2: Dude, there's gotta be someone. There's gotta be some funk.
Speaker 2: I wish I was clever enough to come up with
Speaker 2: funny sponsorships for you to take as a sheep herder
Speaker 2: Instagram influencer. But they exist, they exist.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Also, I sell seeds. I have a farm and
Speaker 1: my main uh employment is selling seeds.
Speaker 2: Sell them? Do you sell the seeds online?
Speaker 1: Yes? On many on those two platforms. Right now, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to get a website going, but I haven't figured
Speaker 1: it out how to do that?
Speaker 2: Cool cool, cool well ship. I hope some people from
Speaker 2: this show go over and follow you. Maybe you can
Speaker 2: sell a seed or two.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I sell all kinds of corn being squashed the
Speaker 1: back rook and chili tomatoes, mass thoogumsung flowers, we you
Speaker 1: name it, I grow it and I sell and I
Speaker 1: the seeds that grow are very drought tolerant, so they
Speaker 1: don't need much water.
Speaker 2: And you sell the ship online or you like sell
Speaker 2: it at like a store.
Speaker 1: Just out of my Facebook and Instagram at the moment. Cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're like a You're like a You're like a general.
Speaker 1: Store on exactly.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, all right here, you know I'll go there
Speaker 2: right now. What what say this? Say this? Say this again?
Speaker 2: I'll live how you act?
Speaker 1: Hasting Hasting goat Herder on Instagram. H A S T
Speaker 1: I I N goat.
Speaker 2: Herder hastin see okay, here you are Chris Barney. Well, okay, right,
Speaker 2: I don't know why. I don't know why I was
Speaker 2: so surprised to see a goat, but look at this goat.
Speaker 2: It's that's why does it have four horns.
Speaker 1: It's a brief called now fla turtle sheet, and they
Speaker 1: have four horns. Most of them the rams. Some of
Speaker 1: them have two horns, some of them have like four horns.
Speaker 1: Some of them are fused together. It all varies.
Speaker 2: Oh, this is you wearing sunglasses. You look pretty cool.
Speaker 2: I like how there's okay, your Instagram right now. I
Speaker 2: like how there's pictures of eagles and beautiful skies and
Speaker 2: then there's a just a meme that you posted and
Speaker 2: it's a guy looking in the mirror talking to himself
Speaker 2: going I'm not crazy, You're crazy. Yeah, Well, you sell seeds.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna look at your website. Okay, you have a
Speaker 2: po box, you have a YouTube chip. Wait, how come
Speaker 2: you don't have a link to your website on here?
Speaker 2: I'm going into digital marketing mode. How do I yeah,
Speaker 2: I can't buy. How do we buy your seeds?
Speaker 1: Well? Just message me. I was gonna update a list
Speaker 1: of seeds today and like I just mostly through. Like
Speaker 1: the direct are the it's a messaging direct messaging.
Speaker 2: Ok all right, so you just so people just venmo
Speaker 2: you for seeds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Venmo cash Okay, all right, wait that's actually wait,
Speaker 1: that's way cooler.
Speaker 2: Wait that's I I thought honestly, I thought what you
Speaker 2: did was cool before, but that's way cooler. You just
Speaker 2: like I thought you. I thought you had like an
Speaker 2: e commerce set up. You just you just kind of
Speaker 2: vibe it out.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, people they border and trade, but were thing too.
Speaker 1: You know. They give me food and we trade seeds
Speaker 1: with other people who are farmers and gardeners from all.
Speaker 2: Over the way. So could I or anyone who messages you.
Speaker 2: Theoretically it like be like, yo, I have a I
Speaker 2: have like this rare Pokemon card, I'll send it to
Speaker 2: you in exchange for like a seed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or from corn, or like a uh something to eat,
Speaker 1: like maybe some pasole or some chili or you know
Speaker 1: something like that. You know, like there's a seeds butla food,
Speaker 1: and I saw all sorts of stuff. I'm kind of
Speaker 1: like a like a trading post or something, you know.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, I encourage, all right, I encourage the
Speaker 2: listeners of this podcast to message Husting the Goat Herder
Speaker 2: and and begin to barter. I'm very curious, but I'm
Speaker 2: very please let me know what kind of I'm I'm
Speaker 2: I want to know the most quirky trade that comes
Speaker 2: out of this. I want to see if you get like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, like a picture of someone's grandfather in
Speaker 2: exchange for a piece of wheat, you know, something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I have seeds from all over the place, all
Speaker 1: over the world. I have corns from the Ada Kama
Speaker 1: Desert in Chile. I have seeds from Brazil. I have
Speaker 1: seeds from like Europe, Turkey. I have a friend in
Speaker 1: Morocco that I'm trying to get some castor beans from him,
Speaker 1: you know, because they grow everywhere in Morocco, and I
Speaker 1: send seeds everywhere. I've sent beans to Norway, Australia, Pakistan,
Speaker 1: all over the place, Germany, England, Brooklyn, New York, you know, La,
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, wherever I can send that ship things I tried.
Speaker 2: Yeah, cool, cool, Thanks for talking to us today, Chris.
Speaker 2: I appreciate this. I hope I hope you get some
Speaker 2: good trades from this. This would be that'd be cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, even rocks. I like crystals and obsidian and things
Speaker 1: you can make arrow heads out of, you know.
Speaker 2: Is there anything else you want to say before we go?
Speaker 1: Just a yet, which means thank you, You know I've
Speaker 1: I've been I've been listening to you for a few
Speaker 1: years now, since probably twenty twenty two. Around there, cool
Speaker 1: and if you touch my heart? Oh, thank you, all
Speaker 1: your all your people on there. Just stay strong with
Speaker 1: each other. You know, we'll get through these tough times,
Speaker 1: you know, in this country, in the world. You know,
Speaker 1: things are kind of upside down, but I think they're
Speaker 1: going to get better eventually, you know. Yeah, you gotta
Speaker 1: have faith and everything we do.
Speaker 2: Hey, thank you, Chris. I appreciate the kind words.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: I'll I'll see you around the spiritual, the spiritual realm.
Speaker 1: Oh, definitely in this world too. You know, maybe someday
Speaker 1: I'll come and visit you in New York and then
Speaker 1: Washington wherever you came.
Speaker 2: Out heaving fucking crazy man come through.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got an eagle feather for you, brother.
Speaker 2: Oh, that'd be cool, all right, I'll chack all right.
Speaker 2: If I ever get to see you in real life,
Speaker 2: I'll trade you an eagle feather for a gecko foot,
Speaker 2: all right, right on. Hey, have it going, Chris, Thank you, man,
Speaker 2: here you will, but go on at by Chris. That
Speaker 2: was fascinating, dude, that man, I fuck with that guy
Speaker 2: that's I was dude, I was in my head thinking
Speaker 2: like he had like a some kind of e commerce store.
Speaker 2: He's got like a Shopify page, and I'm like, no,
Speaker 2: I'm thinking he's fucking just He barters like straight up
Speaker 2: fucking yo. You're in Pakistan. You got a cool rock
Speaker 2: over there. Let me send you a seed in the
Speaker 2: mail you Venmo, no, no Venmo. You send me a seed.
Speaker 2: I'll send you a seed. You send me that cool rock.
Speaker 2: Shit it that's awesome. Everyone go trade with that guy.
Speaker 2: I want that guy to get all sorts of interesting stuff. Hello,
Speaker 2: what's up? Hey, how's it going?
Speaker 1: Oh? Look with you?
Speaker 2: You're about to go to work?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I work at UH in thirty minutes, but I
Speaker 3: have to leave out like in like ten minutes.
Speaker 2: So what made you want to call him?
Speaker 3: The guy that was last talking on there on here
Speaker 3: about his culture and all of that was just super
Speaker 3: super interesting. And I have an interesting story about because
Speaker 3: I'm Native American as well. But yeah, but I'm like,
Speaker 3: my dad is half Naive American, half Puerto Rican, and
Speaker 3: my mom is white, so I kind of look just
Speaker 3: white and it's made it like kind of I don't know,
Speaker 3: nobody believes me, and then I have to like show
Speaker 3: them a picture of my dad and like he's like brown,
Speaker 3: so and then it's like I'm just like a kind
Speaker 3: of a white presenting person. But my dad's family was
Speaker 3: super whitewashed because his mom, who is Native, she was
Speaker 3: utterly recognized as white and same with all of her
Speaker 3: brothers and sisters, because like that was like during the
Speaker 3: time of when they were sending like Indian children to
Speaker 3: boarding school. I don't know if you know about that,
Speaker 3: but her mom was like, you know, they were like, oh, no,
Speaker 3: she's white.
Speaker 5: She doesn't need to go to boarding school.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm white. And so basically because my grandparents
Speaker 3: or my great great grandparents kind of led to the
Speaker 3: federal government, I in turn have less federal recognization for
Speaker 3: my native heritage, which is kind of like just this
Speaker 3: crazy unfortunate event. I've talked to a lot of other
Speaker 3: people in my situation. It's it's a really common thing.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I wish. I so wish that my family
Speaker 3: was not kind of whitewashed out of their culture because
Speaker 3: of you know, like segregation and prejudice. But yeah, I
Speaker 3: really like I just love hearing stories like the last
Speaker 3: guy that called, who's putting such an effort to keep
Speaker 3: his language alive and share it with the use. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I just wanted to say that, you know, there's a
Speaker 3: lot going on in like the Native American world, I think,
Speaker 3: and I just thought his call was really interesting.
Speaker 2: Wild from I mean, what's going on in the Native
Speaker 2: American world from your perspectives.
Speaker 3: What he was talking about, like with the uranium minds,
Speaker 3: and like all of the minds going on at the
Speaker 3: reservations are super or not, they're not on the reservations,
Speaker 3: but I know specifically what he's talking about is the
Speaker 3: uranium mind that is poisoning the water supply to the
Speaker 3: reservation of the Navajo people. And it's just like this
Speaker 3: super super fucked up situation that they're in and people
Speaker 3: are getting really sick, davies are born with like deformities,
Speaker 3: Like it's like a horrible, horrible thing. And it's kind
Speaker 3: of like a trend, like not necessarily a trend, but.
Speaker 5: You know, it happens everywhere.
Speaker 3: Just like minds and water contamination. And since they are
Speaker 3: kind of a separate federal entity, it's like it's not
Speaker 3: being treated as kind of a another country would treat
Speaker 3: you know, it's not like we're kind of poisoning Mexico's water.
Speaker 3: In Mexico is like this giant, you know, entity, so
Speaker 3: they could easily fight back, but you know, Native American
Speaker 3: power is like very limited.
Speaker 2: What so do you you said your mother was Native
Speaker 2: or your father was Native? My dad and what does
Speaker 2: your dad like like embrace uh, like a lot of
Speaker 2: cultural things.
Speaker 3: No, it's like super sad, Like me and my sisters
Speaker 3: and my cousins on my.
Speaker 5: Dad's side are starting.
Speaker 3: To embrace that type like part of our heritage. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it's like, you know, during the time of trying to
Speaker 3: figure out who's Indian and who's not and putting them
Speaker 3: in boarding schools, it was just like so normalized to
Speaker 3: be like, oh, no, we're white, don't worry about us.
Speaker 5: And my dad's dad, my.
Speaker 3: Grandpa, he and migrated from Puerto Rico and he was
Speaker 3: facing a lot of discrimination too. So when my grandparents
Speaker 3: got together, it was kind of like a we're going
Speaker 3: to decide to not teach our kids about this because
Speaker 3: we don't want them to feel the racism that we experienced.
Speaker 1: Hmm.
Speaker 2: And okay, so they were just like we don't want
Speaker 2: to deal with any of the We don't want them
Speaker 2: to deal with any of that stuff, so we're just
Speaker 2: not going to even bother with.
Speaker 3: It exactly, like we don't want them to to feel different.
Speaker 3: But you know, now it's so cool.
Speaker 1: To be different.
Speaker 3: I think back then it was.
Speaker 2: Like yeah, yeah, that's that's interesting. I feel like that's
Speaker 2: like a it's a very interesting general cultural shift where
Speaker 2: like yeah, yeah, it's it's now cool to be different.
Speaker 2: When it used to be bad to be different, it did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's like in you know, I think that
Speaker 3: it's hard for people I don't know. I don't want
Speaker 3: to say it's hard for people like me, but it
Speaker 3: is kind of just like invalidating because I look kind
Speaker 3: of white. I look maybe a little bit hispanic. My
Speaker 3: hair is like super curly, so people think, you know,
Speaker 3: some people think I'm mixed, some people think I'm white.
Speaker 3: But it's like other people don't believe me. They're like,
Speaker 3: you know, I work in a restaurant, so like the
Speaker 3: chefs are always like, oh, white girl, this white girl
Speaker 3: that the just making jokes about, like you know, because
Speaker 3: I look white, and it's like, oh, well, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm not really And then it's like nobody believes me
Speaker 3: because also it's like everybody wants to not be white.
Speaker 3: Everybody wants to like kind of stand out like that.
Speaker 3: So it comes off as like I'm trying to be different,
Speaker 3: you know, mm hmm.
Speaker 5: But I am like suttterly recognized.
Speaker 3: As natives still.
Speaker 5: But I don't like have the correct amount of Native
Speaker 5: blood on my records because of my family not claiming
Speaker 5: their Native American heritage.
Speaker 2: Have you ever been to been to a reservation? I have.
Speaker 3: I've not been to the one my tribe, my tribe's reservation,
Speaker 3: but I have.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: My sister teaches high school at a reservation in Arizona.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how has that been for her? Like what was
Speaker 2: she reported about that experience?
Speaker 3: Well, like kind of what he was saying, like the
Speaker 3: funds are super you know, stretched thin, and and they
Speaker 3: don't have a lot of resources for the school and uh,
Speaker 3: you know, people are, but people are like.
Speaker 5: I will say that she said specifically.
Speaker 3: I don't think it was the Navajo who she was
Speaker 3: working with, but she did say that, like there is
Speaker 3: a resurgence in teaching kids their native language. And she
Speaker 3: said that they're like trilingual, like they have like their
Speaker 3: native language and then they have they know Spanish and
Speaker 3: then they know English.
Speaker 1: Obviously, but.
Speaker 3: She said, it's it's a little bit, it's just kind
Speaker 3: of hard conditions.
Speaker 2: Mmmm, what is this? What job are you going to
Speaker 2: right now?
Speaker 3: I'm a server at a restaurant?
Speaker 2: Okay? What are your what are your aspirations for your
Speaker 2: existence on this planet?
Speaker 3: You know, it kind of segues perfectly because I just
Speaker 3: had a breakdown about that exact question a few hours ago.
Speaker 3: But I I I studied art in college, and I
Speaker 3: had some like good jobs with it, surprisingly outside of college,
Speaker 3: didn't really stick with any of them long enough.
Speaker 5: But you know, I'm kind of trying to figure it
Speaker 5: out still.
Speaker 3: I might go back to school. And I was actually
Speaker 3: considering studying Native American art history because I had this
Speaker 3: super cool professor in college who she like has a
Speaker 3: doctorate degree in art history with this like a specification
Speaker 3: or whatever in Native American art history studies, so and
Speaker 3: like she's just the coolest person ever. So I'm kind
Speaker 3: of like that's an option. But then I'm like, I
Speaker 3: don't I don't give a I don't like school that much.
Speaker 3: I don't really know, I don't know. I just want
Speaker 3: to do something really sick and cool and feel fulfilled,
Speaker 3: and obviously working in the restaurant is not that for me,
Speaker 3: but that's okay, do what you gotta do.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm I'm I'm I'm kind of the
Speaker 2: same way. I think it's a good way to be.
Speaker 2: I think when you get to when you get to
Speaker 2: a chat, when you get too attached to any kind
Speaker 2: of specific dream, you sort of set yourself up for failure.
Speaker 2: But uh, like for me, I'm always I'm. I remember
Speaker 2: long a while ago, I remember thinking, like I don't
Speaker 2: really care what I do. I just want to do
Speaker 2: something interesting, something that like if I tell people what
Speaker 2: I'm up to, like, I just always want to be
Speaker 2: like if I'm like telling people what I'm up to,
Speaker 2: I want to be like excited to talk to them
Speaker 2: about it. That's my that's really my main barometer for
Speaker 2: my existence.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I think when you get to you definitely general. When
Speaker 2: you get to a specific things get you know, you
Speaker 2: set yourself up for disappointment.
Speaker 3: Like I said, we're too general, Like what if you're just.
Speaker 2: Like I do finance, that's very that's specific.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, yeah, I guess I was thinking like
Speaker 3: in terms of like your job is so niche and
Speaker 3: interesting and cool, and it's like you could just be
Speaker 3: somebody that does finance.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, you could be somebody who's like, I
Speaker 2: want to make a lot of money and you know
Speaker 2: that could be achieved in a myriad of different ways,
Speaker 2: or you could be like I want to be financed.
Speaker 2: You know, I think the I think the more general.
Speaker 2: There's a weird dude. There's a weird paradoxical thing where
Speaker 2: like your dreams need to be both Like it's so
Speaker 2: paradoxical where it's like they need to be both specific
Speaker 2: enough that you can actually achieve them, but general enough
Speaker 2: that you're like open to the world, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 3: For sure, Like, yeah, I don't know, Yeah, it is
Speaker 3: this weird paradox I'm really like kind of been spiraling
Speaker 3: the last couple of months over it because it's like, Wow,
Speaker 3: what I went to college and studied four years to
Speaker 3: do and I got a job and I didn't like it,
Speaker 3: and I am now doing the same job I was
Speaker 3: doing when I was sixteen, and it's like that is
Speaker 3: kind of I don't know, it just kind of makes
Speaker 3: me feel bad, kind of makes me feel like I've
Speaker 3: failed a.
Speaker 1: Little bit.
Speaker 2: That you that you failed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, not like I failed, but I mean I definitely
Speaker 3: got in closer now to what I want to do,
Speaker 3: like with all my life experience and whatever. But you know,
Speaker 3: I like went to college for a specific thing and
Speaker 3: I like didn't like it at the end of the day.
Speaker 2: Did you mention what that specific thing is?
Speaker 3: I went to school for art.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you don't like art? Why don't you like art?
Speaker 3: No? No, I love art. I don't like the commodification
Speaker 3: of art and like the commercial side of art.
Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, the fast is way. Yeah, yeah, I think.
Speaker 2: I think there is a lot of value in separating
Speaker 2: what you do for money and what you do for
Speaker 2: personal fulfillments. There's also there's also there's also a lot
Speaker 2: of value in those two being the same thing. But
Speaker 2: they each each situation, each situation has its trade offs,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's just like I can't, ah, I just like,
Speaker 3: you know, other than doing a restaurant job, which is
Speaker 3: like in my head, this is like the easy job.
Speaker 3: Like I can't think of anything else like that I
Speaker 3: want to do for money that I would like, Like,
Speaker 3: I don't know, I just can't find fulfillment in a
Speaker 3: job where I just get a paycheck. Money doesn't like
Speaker 3: motivate me, and I like wish it did, but it
Speaker 3: just like makes me feel kind of like icky when
Speaker 3: I'm chasing a bag, do you know.
Speaker 2: What I mean? Well, can you take me? I have
Speaker 2: a speakerphone real quick?
Speaker 3: Oh sorry, not no words.
Speaker 2: I was no I heard. I heard you said. Why
Speaker 2: do you say you wish money motivated you?
Speaker 3: Because then I'd have more of it and then I
Speaker 3: could do what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: You know that is.
Speaker 3: I Yeah, I can't like do so I'm like starting
Speaker 3: to apply to a bunch of because I'm kind of
Speaker 3: you know, figuring out, Okay, I want to do art.
Speaker 3: I'm going to make this happen. So I started applying
Speaker 3: to like different art grants in my state and trying
Speaker 3: to make it happen for myself and like planning on
Speaker 3: moving to a more populated area that has more opportunities
Speaker 3: and whatever for that. And it's just like, at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, I can't make art if I
Speaker 3: don't have money, But I can't make money if I
Speaker 3: don't have time to create.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: It's yeah, like the.
Speaker 2: Paradox, yes, yes, yeah, that's why the goal. The goal
Speaker 2: is to like, well, that's the trade off, right, is
Speaker 2: because the goal is to like be able to spend
Speaker 2: as much time, like and energy doing the things you
Speaker 2: really want to do. And then yeah, paradoxically, yes, you
Speaker 2: need money to do them, and then paradoxically, in order
Speaker 2: to get that money, you have to spend time doing
Speaker 2: things you don't want to do. It's's weird. It's as
Speaker 2: weird like when you like when you like overlap them
Speaker 2: where it becomes a thing of like, you know, your
Speaker 2: your incentives start getting like, you know, you don't know
Speaker 2: what you're doing because you like it. You don't know
Speaker 2: what you're doing because you want to make money. But
Speaker 2: I guess the goal is to figure out. That's why
Speaker 2: everyone's scheming all the time. You know, It's like we
Speaker 2: have everyone's everyone's we're like the goals like figure out
Speaker 2: how can I spend as little amount of time doing
Speaker 2: things I don't want to do and make as much
Speaker 2: money as possible? And that is that That is kind
Speaker 2: of the twenty twenty six American dream, just figuring out
Speaker 2: figuring out a good scheme.
Speaker 3: True that I mean, I'm kind of in a scheme.
Speaker 3: What's your Yeah, I'm scheming for sure. I'm definitely on
Speaker 3: the come up, giving my way to a bag.
Speaker 2: I guess you could say, what are you scheming? What's
Speaker 2: the scheme.
Speaker 3: The Well, my scheme is like the art grants and
Speaker 3: like trying to find money to create and try to
Speaker 3: create off of somebody else's dime.
Speaker 2: That's a good scheme, is my schemes?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Fuck it?
Speaker 3: And I'm also kind of like I have a long
Speaker 3: term boyfriend, so it's kind of like, why don't I
Speaker 3: just move in with you and then we could live
Speaker 3: cut our rent cost in half and it would be dreamy.
Speaker 3: That's a scheme.
Speaker 2: That's a classic scheme. That's a that's a that's a
Speaker 2: scheme as old as time.
Speaker 1: True.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, you pay people. People have talked about this.
Speaker 2: You pay like a there's there is a single tax
Speaker 2: that you have to pay.
Speaker 3: Like being for being single? Yeah yeah yeah, And like, yeah,
Speaker 3: why would I pay that? If I have a boyfriend,
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna But then it's like why would I?
Speaker 3: I told my mom I might move in with him,
Speaker 3: and she was like, why don't you just get married?
Speaker 3: I'm like, what in this economy now? Not getting married?
Speaker 2: How long have you guys been together.
Speaker 3: Three years?
Speaker 2: Three years? What's he do? What's his deal?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I wish I had more time to
Speaker 3: talk to you, but looking at the clock, I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm gonna.
Speaker 1: Be late for work.
Speaker 2: We have, in fact gone over ten minutes. So I
Speaker 2: will let you get on with your life. What is
Speaker 2: your name? One more time?
Speaker 1: Nicole?
Speaker 2: Nicole? It was nice talking to you, Nicole. I will
Speaker 2: I will see you around the universe. And good luck
Speaker 2: on your on your artistic endeavors.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you. I liked your perspectives, the paradox.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Nice to talk about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, life is crazy. I always say it, I always
Speaker 2: feel it. I never I never don't feel that way.
Speaker 3: Okay, love you, talk to you later.
Speaker 2: See you, man. What's up, folks, It's me. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: do a little bit of view or mail just to
Speaker 2: end us out, just because I just because I'm like,
Speaker 2: you know what, it's a nice I don't know, it's
Speaker 2: a nice way to end the podcast. I feel, you know,
Speaker 2: I can just talk directly to you, guys. I feel
Speaker 2: like I'm always talking to all to the I feel
Speaker 2: like I talk to the people who listen to this podcast.
Speaker 2: One at a time usually, and I like doing that.
Speaker 2: But this is nice because I can talk to all
Speaker 2: of you at once by also, I guess, but I'm
Speaker 2: also reading emails, so which is also kind of talking
Speaker 2: to people one at a time still. But you know what,
Speaker 2: let's not think about it too much. Let's just let's
Speaker 2: read a few we don't. It's not gonna be crazy,
Speaker 2: it's not gonna be a lot, but let's just read
Speaker 2: a couple. Just is a nice way to end the show.
Speaker 2: This is David. This is an email from a guy
Speaker 2: named David. The subject line is I used to write
Speaker 2: gay erotica. Hey, Gek. In your latest gek Mal episode,
Speaker 2: you read an email of mine. I was the guy
Speaker 2: who asked you about your favorite movies, and you told
Speaker 2: me that you are not a movie guy. This is true.
Speaker 2: I thought you were because I thought you talked about
Speaker 2: going to film school and made the connection that way.
Speaker 2: I did go to film school. I don't I like
Speaker 2: making stuff, but I this stuff I like. The the
Speaker 2: stuff I like to make and the stuff I like
Speaker 2: to watch are very very different, like my whole Like
Speaker 2: I make videos about like like talking to people and
Speaker 2: about like real world stuff. I guess, but all of
Speaker 2: my like actual YouTube algorithm is like is like, we
Speaker 2: play the over the Hedge video game from two thousand
Speaker 2: and six and we reviewed it, and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I want to watch tho. That's great. Anyways, while listening
Speaker 2: to my own email, I thought it was so fucking
Speaker 2: boring that I wanted to reach out again and share
Speaker 2: something more interesting that I could actually use some advice on.
Speaker 2: As the subject line says, I used to write gay
Speaker 2: erotica stories. Sometimes I'll start by saying I'm actually kind
Speaker 2: of a straight guy. I had two sexual experiences with
Speaker 2: men in an experimental phase that I met online, but
Speaker 2: came to the conclusion no pun intended that was good.
Speaker 2: He wrote, no pun intended that was good. I concluded
Speaker 2: I wasn't into guys like that if I had to
Speaker 2: put a label on it. If I had to put
Speaker 2: a label on it, I would probably call myself by
Speaker 2: But I feel sure I'll end up with a woman
Speaker 2: in my life as I feel more attraction towards them.
Speaker 2: During this experimental phase, I also started reading some erotica
Speaker 2: and wanted to try writing one myself because I enjoyed
Speaker 2: the act of writing. Because I recently had these experiences
Speaker 2: with guys, I thought I would take them as inspiration
Speaker 2: for the stories. After writing my first story, I posted
Speaker 2: it on the gay story subreddit I had been reading on,
Speaker 2: just to see if it would get any reactions. To
Speaker 2: my surprise, the next morning, I checked and saw it
Speaker 2: got a bunch of comments and likes fifteen thousand views.
Speaker 2: It felt kind of cool to reach so many people
Speaker 2: and possibly make their day a little better. I kept
Speaker 2: writing stories, and some of them got more than one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand views, accumulating to a total of
Speaker 2: more than a million views on my gay erotica stories.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if this is for a lot of
Speaker 2: Reddit posts, as I don't use it otherwise, but it
Speaker 2: sure felt like it for me. Some people actually kept
Speaker 2: reaching out asking me to write more with special requests.
Speaker 2: It was like I had a little fan base, and
Speaker 2: I actually fulfilled some of these requests, but mostly stayed
Speaker 2: with my own imagination for inspiration. I'm also not sure
Speaker 2: why I kept writing exclusively gay stories. I guess I
Speaker 2: just stuck with what was working for me, as I
Speaker 2: liked the engagement I was getting. I love the you
Speaker 2: know what, I love the fucking idea of like, you
Speaker 2: know how, like I don't know, I this is this
Speaker 2: is this sounds uh, this is ironic as somebody who's
Speaker 2: been dressing up in a gecko costume for almost six
Speaker 2: years now. But you know how, there are those content
Speaker 2: creators where it's like they figure out their niche and
Speaker 2: they're like, well, this is what's working, so we got
Speaker 2: to keep staying with it. This guy, this guy's like,
Speaker 2: I guess my niche is being gay, So I have
Speaker 2: to keep being gay because it's what's working. It's just
Speaker 2: it's an interesting way to approach one's sexuality. I stuck
Speaker 2: with what was working for me is I liked the engagement.
Speaker 2: Now here's what I'm debating with myself. I haven't written
Speaker 2: a story or read one, for that matter, in over
Speaker 2: a year because I lost interest in it. I'm currently single,
Speaker 2: but if I were to get with someone, should I
Speaker 2: tell them about this anonymous gay erotica presence I had online?
Speaker 2: On one hand, I want to be open with my
Speaker 2: future partner about stuff like this, But on the other hand,
Speaker 2: I have never told anyone about it or my gay experiences.
Speaker 2: It's not something I'm ashamed of, per se, but I
Speaker 2: feel like it's a chapter I've closed and it might
Speaker 2: be off putting to a future partner. Should some things
Speaker 2: stay secret or it does honesty last the longest. I
Speaker 2: would love to hear your thoughts and advice. Thank you
Speaker 2: for sharing. This is a great email. So it's interesting.
Speaker 2: This is a very is a deeply it's a deeply
Speaker 2: personal thing, right. I will say this. It's a deeply
Speaker 2: personal thing, and there's a lot different ways to look
Speaker 2: at it. Here's a few things that I will say confidently.
Speaker 2: I will say confidently that I don't believe in any way,
Speaker 2: shape or form, you have some kind of external obligation
Speaker 2: to tell a future partner about this stuff. I don't
Speaker 2: feel like you're obligated too. So if for whatever reason,
Speaker 2: you're gonna share it with them, I don't think you
Speaker 2: should share with them out of obligation. I think it's
Speaker 2: a bad reason if you share if now now now listen,
Speaker 2: Some people like I don't know, I have a thing
Speaker 2: where it's like I can't fucking keep my mouth shut
Speaker 2: about shit. So I like sharing. I like when I
Speaker 2: share a thing that I'm a little ashamed of with
Speaker 2: the person, I feel closer to them. And that's my
Speaker 2: motivation for sharing stuff. There's things I don't share because
Speaker 2: I'm I'm uncomfortable, but some things are on the line
Speaker 2: of comfortability where it's like, I'm comfortable enough with this,
Speaker 2: I have enough confidence that I can share this with
Speaker 2: this person and it'll it'll strengthen our relationship rather than
Speaker 2: making it worse, and I'm gonna do it. And so
Speaker 2: I have kind of an intuitive thing that tells me
Speaker 2: whether or not I want to share something with someone,
Speaker 2: and I follow that intuition. So I think that for you,
Speaker 2: you probably have an intuition about that as well. And
Speaker 2: I hope that intuition isn't guided by some form of
Speaker 2: obligation to keep a secret or obligation to tell someone something,
Speaker 2: but rather that your intuition is is again just guided
Speaker 2: by the principles of like, I don't know this, like
Speaker 2: intangible kind of feeling. Oh, I think it would. I
Speaker 2: think I think this person would. I'm this interesting. I
Speaker 2: think this person might know me more if they knew this. Oh,
Speaker 2: I'm kind of feel comfortable enough with this person to
Speaker 2: show this side of myself. So I can't say, yes,
Speaker 2: you should tell her, Yes you shouldn't, but uh, you
Speaker 2: know I think you should stick your intuition on that.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's really interesting, it's cool. I don't
Speaker 2: think it's I don't you know you said you said
Speaker 2: it's not something you're ashamed of. I don't think it's
Speaker 2: something you should be ashamed of at all, or or
Speaker 2: that it might. I don't know why it would be
Speaker 2: off putting to a future partner. Yeah, you know, I
Speaker 2: I used you know what I used to believe. Maybe
Speaker 2: some parts of me I used to believe, and maybe
Speaker 2: some part of my brain still believes this and it
Speaker 2: doesn't want to because it's the more difficult way of
Speaker 2: going through life, I believe. But there's also the whole
Speaker 2: thing of like, well, you know, walk the reads naked
Speaker 2: metaphorically of course, or if I were naked, or just
Speaker 2: walk the streets naked, if that's your thing that you
Speaker 2: want to do. If if if walking the streets naked
Speaker 2: is your metaphorical walking the streets naked, then you know
Speaker 2: that's then that's what it is. You know, do that,
Speaker 2: but it walked the streets naked, and whoever's around, that's
Speaker 2: who's meant to be in your life. Like if you
Speaker 2: literally walk to the streets naked, and there was and
Speaker 2: nine and most and everyone was horrified, except like one
Speaker 2: guy came up to you and was like, Hey, what
Speaker 2: are you doing? It's interesting? What's your name? Why you
Speaker 2: walk around naked? What's your name? What do you what
Speaker 2: are you doing? You're crazy, man? You want to hang
Speaker 2: out later? This is wild, Like that could happen to you.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but yeah, this part of me, part
Speaker 2: of me wants to believe that. But then another part
Speaker 2: of me believes that walking the streets naked metaphorically is
Speaker 2: a little similar to doing it literally, where everyone's like, wow,
Speaker 2: that guy's naked. He looks like a crazy person. Let's
Speaker 2: uh go to another part of the streets. I don't know,
Speaker 2: but I appreciate you writing this email to me, David.
Speaker 2: Good luck with your with your Oh wait, okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know you lost interest in it.
Speaker 3: MM.
Speaker 2: I don't know why I'm pausing. I don't have anything
Speaker 2: else to say. I said everything I wanted to say.
Speaker 2: That was the podcast. That was it. We read one email.
Speaker 2: I don't think I needed to read more. I feel
Speaker 2: like that email was worth five emails. I liked, I
Speaker 2: liked all the people we interacted with today. Chris. I
Speaker 2: forget the name of the girl who I was just
Speaker 2: talking to, but I liked her. She was nice. Then
Speaker 2: this guy David, who I saw. His name. I only
Speaker 2: know because I can read it directly in front of me.
Speaker 2: I mean, if anyone ends up bartering with that guy,
Speaker 2: that'd be awesome. All Right, thanks for listening to this podcast.
Speaker 2: I'll keep making it. Uh, get bless see you around
Speaker 2: the universe. Have a good one. Goes on the line,
Speaker 2: taking your phone calls.
Speaker 3: Every night, goes to ride.
Speaker 2: I'm just teaching you. Cloud's not really an expert.