WEBVTT - The Karol Markowicz Show: Challenges and Insights in Journalism with Justin Robert Young 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:13.640 Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:18.480 Last week, JD. Vance got into this whole kerfuffle from 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:22.080 an old video from twenty twenty one, where he said 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:26.160 this quote, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.440 by people without children. How does it make sense We've 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.000 turned our country over to people who don't really have 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.800 a direct stake in it. He said the country was 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:38.240 being run by quote, a bunch of childless cat ladies 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:40.800 who are miserable at their own lives and choices that 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:43.040 they've made, and so they want to make the rest 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.200 of the country miserable too. I'm going to maybe write 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:48.839 about the politics of the comment and the way that 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.400 Democrats attacked him for telling them how to live their lives, 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:55.319 as if they don't do that to all of us 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:59.600 all the time. But Vance went on the Megan Kelly 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:03.600 Show and said that people weren't addressing the substance of 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.000 what he said. So I want to do that here, 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:10.000 especially since I frequently talk about what a societal and 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.560 personal plus it is to have children. My thinking is 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:18.520 that Vance's comments are absolutely right on the macro level. 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:22.080 Of course, society is better off with people having children. 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:25.479 Of course, people have more of a stake in society 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:29.360 if they have kids. It's crazy to believe otherwise. When 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:33.559 I worry about Europe or specifically Britain, because the rest 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.200 of the continent, you know, I feel less about But 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:40.119 I've always loved Britain. It's a large part because they're 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:44.720 not having kids. It does feel sort of shoulder struggy 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:49.600 about the future because their birth rate continues to drop. Yes, 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:53.000 they're not you know, super emotional people, stiff upper lip, 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:56.520 et cetera. But it feels very much like they're losing 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:01.120 their culture and society to unchecked immigration, and very few 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.400 feel like fighting back because what's the point. But on 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:09.960 a micro level, what Vance said is insulting, and I 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:14.600 fully understand that there are people who desperately want to 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.079 have children and can't. There are people who don't want 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.800 to have children but still care passionately about the country 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:25.400 that will live on after they're gone. Of course, all 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:28.640 of that's true. I can think of many examples in 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:32.399 my own life of people representing both of these things. 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:36.000 It's funny that people have brought up George Washington as 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:38.880 an example of someone who cared deeply for the country 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:43.240 despite not having children. I use George Washington as an 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:47.040 example for friends who are on the fence about having kids. 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:51.880 I wish we had George Washington's progeny around right now. 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:56.000 Vance was trying to target Democrats for not being the 0:02:56.000 --> 0:03:00.280 party of families, and sorry, I fully get that. It 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.560 was very obvious when Democrats did everything they could to 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:07.320 not open schools during the pandemic. Randy Weingarten was one 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:10.920 of the worst villains of that, and obviously she doesn't 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:14.880 have kids. But again back to the micro level, some 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:19.280 of my greatest allies in getting schools open were childless. 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.040 Of course, we can't just assume that people without kids 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:26.000 don't have a stake in the future. Vance is a 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:30.080 vice presidential candidate now, and his vision should be for 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.639 the whole country. I'd love for him to cut out 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:37.640 the micro. He insulted people who otherwise like him, and 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.560 that's a silly thing to do in politics. I'd love 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:44.080 to hear him speak more about the macro, about how 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:46.840 good it is for all of us to have kids, 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.800 about how our country needs people to have families, and 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.400 I'd love for him to get into the decline of 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:58.040 marriage rates, because look, while kids are important, I'm most 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.960 scared about the relationships that the younger generations just aren't 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:05.600 having and find so much harder to find. One thing 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:08.640 leads to another. Talk about the benefits of marriage and 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:12.320 kids will largely follow. Coming up next an interview with 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.160 Justin Robert Young. Join us after the break. 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.919 Welcome back to the Carol Marcowitz Show on iHeartRadio. My 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:25.840 guest today is Justin Robert Young, national politics reporter and 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.800 host of the Politics, Politics, Politics podcast. 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:30.520 Hi, Justin, so nice to have you on. 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:33.479 I'm very excited for a non political show. 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:35.960 I forced you to say politics four times in the 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:36.960 first three seconds. 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:40.080 Well, so I was going to say politics, politics, politics. 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:41.359 What's your podcast about? 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:46.320 Mostly model train building? You know, we try to diversify. 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:47.080 Yeah. 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:49.680 I came up with a name that was very memorable, 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.320 but possibly the worst SEO decision that I've ever made 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:54.400 in my entire life. 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:57.200 Hi, everybody's googling politics podcasts. 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.279 Sure, yeah, and that's the problem is that everything else 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:01.680 shows up before my podcast. 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:02.839 I should have. I should have. 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:05.919 My second name was the Carol Mark Wood Show. So 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:07.040 I'm glad that. 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:09.480 I used that because that would have been a problem. 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:14.320 So we recently met for the first time at the 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:15.880 southern border visit. 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:17.480 What do you think of that? 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:22.200 We're all great friendships begin Yes, a talent at the 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:23.320 southern US border. 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:24.320 Yeah, the many. 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:26.960 Unfinished walls that you could just walk right around. 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:29.480 That was actually I feel like. 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:32.320 That's a story that doesn't get told enough. That all 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:36.320 of the walls are extremely easy to penetrate, Like, well, 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:39.200 the Trump Wall is like you literally could just walk 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:41.520 around it because it's not finished, and I don't know 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:43.440 how it could be finished because there's really nowhere they 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.280 could go, because they explained to us right that there's 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.440 nowhere that the wall can continue on to. 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.839 Yeah, that was something, you know, it was. 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:56.000 It was a really interesting trip and I'm glad that 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:59.520 I did it because it showed that that problem is 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.440 so small faceted. When you look at the wall and McCallen, 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:08.800 you realize very quickly that America's number one trading partners Mexico, 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.440 So you kind of the wall makes a lot of 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:15.719 sense just to make sure that the money is coming 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.520 in in this direction, and then anybody who would want 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:21.160 to claim asylum would be going in another direction, which 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:23.840 just makes sense. It makes business sense for a lot 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:28.000 of different stakeholders. The larger issue I think that we 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:30.320 were explained and talked to a bunch of people is 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.960 just that we have a broken asylum system that has 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:39.160 been abused, and that's that's where I think we probably 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:43.440 have more of a political issue that will be dealt with, 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:44.479 you know, going. 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:47.240 Forward, we'll never be dealt with or won't. 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:49.120 And we'll just continue to have a problem and everybody 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.040 will raise money on it for the rest of time. 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:52.800 That sounds more plausible. 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:54.200 Yeah, makes sense. 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.560 So how did you get into politics podcasting? 0:06:57.680 --> 0:06:58.840 What was your background? 0:06:59.720 --> 0:06:59.880 So? 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:07.560 I was a bright eyed young journalism student way back 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:10.840 in the day, and I got a degree in Syracuse 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:13.760 University at the new House School, and I was all 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:17.560 excited to begin my career. I was a crime reporter initially, 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.920 that's really what I wanted to do. And then looked 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:27.560 at the landscape of newspapers, which at that point we 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:31.320 were at like the final days of newspapers being a 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:32.840 relevant thing in. 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:34.679 The world because the timing. 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.280 Yeah, so I graduate in two thousand and five, so 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:42.040 we are right. I'm super fired up by the Internet 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:43.480 and super fired up about blogging. 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:47.040 I look in the field and I'm like, eh, let's 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:48.040 give it a couple of years. 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.360 So I decided to go and try a few other 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:52.920 things in the meanwhile. And by the time that I 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:56.120 got back to a position that I wanted to maybe 0:07:56.200 --> 0:08:01.280 re enter the matrix, everything was on fire. Newspapers were 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:03.360 not moving in the position that I wanted to, and 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:08.160 so at that point I pretty much began podcasting and blogging, 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.520 and that kind of started right out of college. It 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:15.600 was a horrifying financial decision for me. It certainly was 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:16.680 cool among. 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.240 Us didn't make that horrifying financial decision, you know. 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:20.720 Oh yeah, yeah. 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:21.680 Pursuing our dreams. 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:23.440 We're so stupid exactly. 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:25.960 Now. The good news is is that now, as we 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:31.920 talk in twenty twenty four, it might be investing all 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.360 this time into the world of free entertainment on the 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:39.280 internet might have been the best way to invest my time, 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:42.680 as I can now make a living doing it. But boy, 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:46.280 in the moment, as I was paying off my student loans, 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:47.839 I really felt like a ding donk. 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:50.599 Yeah, most expensive mistake I've ever made is going to 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:52.080 graduate school for politics. 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:56.319 You know, I what a huge error? Turned out nobody needed. 0:08:56.040 --> 0:09:01.760 That, No, Yeah, thankfully I was. I was so disillusioned 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:05.080 with college. As soon as I got there, the concept 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:09.760 of finishing my undergraduate was was going to be an upset, 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:14.800 which did happen only because I started working at the 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.480 Daily Orange, which is a student paper that's independent of 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:21.040 the university. But I just spent my entire time there 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:25.720 actually learning how to you know, report and overseeing a 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.839 budget and overseeing a staff, you know, actual lessons that 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.200 were applicable to my life. If I had only gone 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.440 to class I, I really would have been a lot more. 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:38.840 Sad than I am now Now I'm happy, which is good. 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:42.080 So what do you consider your beat? 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.200 Like, what's what are you most covering? 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:46.320 Politics? Yeah? 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:48.520 So how did I get into politics? 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:50.600 I really kind of backed into it. 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:53.520 Politics was something that I have always been obsessed with. 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:57.160 It's always been something that I followed. It's, you know, to. 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:59.520 Give my my druthers. 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.600 If I'm re reading a book, if I'm reading newspaper coverage, 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:05.640 I'm always I've always been obsessed with politics and political history. 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:10.839 And so I'm doing a comedy show that then turns 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:13.040 into a one mic show. And I decided in the 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:16.400 twenty sixteen election that you want to know what this 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:20.520 is getting a little heated let me separate out the politics, 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:25.080 so I can everybody can, we can have fun with 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:27.080 this other thing, and I can just talk. 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:28.840 Politics on this other show. 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:31.360 I'll quarantine it, right, And it turned out that the 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.320 audience wanted me. There was a lot bigger audience for 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:36.560 me to talk about politics than there was for me 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:39.360 to talk about news of the of the day. Yeah, 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:43.840 and so it wound up becoming my main gig. 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:48.040 And I feel like you love politics, and I don't 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:50.640 mean so. A lot of people love politics. I love politics, 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:52.760 but I also hate politics. I feel like you don't 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:54.319 have like a love hate necessarily. 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:55.719 I think you really do love it. 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:00.200 I really do, mostly because I don't think that they're 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.800 are many things on the planet that are the same 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:09.360 sociological experiments that we do once every four years. 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:15.440 Specifically, here in America, we have raw crush it up. 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.640 And snort it fast, and the furious style first past 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.520 the post democracy on a level that nobody else in 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:23.760 the world has, And so. 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:26.240 It's interesting. 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.840 The strategies are interesting to me, The messaging is interesting 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:35.439 to me. And the competency of these gigantic machines that 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:39.360 sort of battle out in front of us is endlessly fascinating, 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:40.600 as is the history to it. 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:43.439 So a question that I ask everybody on this show 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:47.760 is what is our largest cultural problem? And so what 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.719 is it? And is it something that you cover on 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:52.160 your podcast. 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:54.040 I don't think it's anything that I cover. 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:57.480 I do think that it is something that is exploited 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:03.360 by politics, and that is fatalism. I think that America 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:06.719 has a real fatalism problem and it is. 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:09.920 Well, let me let me rephrase it. 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:14.640 America's self loathing complex, I think is its greatest strength, 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:16.920 especially strength. 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:18.600 Okay, I didn't think you're gonna say strength. 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:24.079 Okay, Well, what as much as I've traveled around the world, Uh, 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:28.400 there's one thing that stands out, and that's America has 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.960 its own faults, very front and center in its mind, 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:36.280 and that goes across all political spectrums. We know what 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:40.079 the problem is and we want to address it immediately, 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:42.800 and that has been to our great benefit. I think 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:46.600 it's been to our great benefit economically, technologically, and socially. 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:50.199 We have we have benefited from our ability to identify 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:54.640 problems and go forward. The problem that I see is 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:56.800 that there's two ways that you can handle it. When 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:00.640 you identify a problem, fix it or wallow in it. 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:05.760 And I think that in our modern world, we've wallowed 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:07.880 in it a little bit more than I think is healthy. 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.240 And that's in politics. 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.120 You exploit that a lot because you need a problem 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:17.960 to solve, so you can get people to donate money 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:18.439 and go to. 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:19.840 The ballot box and hit a button. 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:25.319 But you should take some time off from that and 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.760 think of why, how far have we come have we 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:29.960 been working on this problem? 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:30.520 Look at that? 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:32.280 You know, I think we all see that in our 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:34.760 own lives that sometimes you got to take a breath 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.120 and you got to look at the road behind you 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:37.679 and say. 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:39.440 Wow, we've walked a long way. 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:43.040 We should feel good about that without sacrificing the idea 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:44.400 that we do have longer to walk. 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:46.360 We're going to take a quick break and be right 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:47.920 back on the Carol Markowitz Show. 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:53.360 I think a lot of people think of Americans because 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:55.400 it's funny you said, you say that we're self loathing. 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:58.280 I just picture like people in Europe who think that 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:00.920 we're like so obsessed with ourselves, like, yeah, well we 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:04.720 are self loathing. We're constantly beerating ourselves and we're constantly 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:08.160 I think there's a sense in America that doesn't exist 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:10.680 in places like you're, for example, that when there's a problem, 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:12.679 it has to be solved, even if we don't end 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:15.160 up solving it, which we don't, we at least kind 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:16.480 of entertain that. 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:17.960 We should solve this problem. 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:19.200 And I don't. 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:19.880 I don't see that. 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:22.640 Some other countries necessarily have that. I lived in Britain 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:24.840 for a while. They're not looking to solve any. 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:29.240 No, and that's we have such a self loathing complex 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.200 that we go to other countries so if they can 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:36.280 complain about us, so we can agree with them, right, Like, that's. 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:40.640 That's that's it. It's a fascinating, a fascinating thing. 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:44.680 Yeah, but yeah, I mean, and it's hard to not 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:49.280 be obsessed with yourself when you're an American when you 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:53.920 go abroad and every news that you go to has 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:58.000 like a fifteen minute here's what happened in America today, Yes, right, 0:14:58.080 --> 0:14:59.680 the way, that doesn't happen in America. 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:02.400 In America, it's fifteen minutes for the rest of you, 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:07.400 Like maybe maybe you get a little bit, but. 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:12.720 It's a gigantic, gigantic block in any Western country, Japan 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:16.480 or Japan not a Western country obviously, but a First 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:20.720 World country, Japan, England, Italy, Germany. 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:22.520 Any place that I have been, they all have the 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:22.880 same thing. 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:24.960 So at a certain point you do have to throw 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:26.760 your hair back and say, oh my god, why are 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:27.680 you so obsessed with me? 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:32.800 Was yours? The Mariah carry line? Though? Why are you 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:33.480 so obsessed with me? 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:33.920 Why? Yeah? 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:34.360 Subsessed? 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:38.520 Well that was my first thought when the UK announced 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:40.920 that they were having their elections on July fourth. 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.000 And I'm like, why are you so obsessed with us? 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:46.560 Like, God, it's been a while, you guys should really 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:48.400 get over it. 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:50.320 Yeah, so do you? 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:52.600 Another question that I asked all my guests is do 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:55.200 you feel like you've made it? You have a really 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:57.560 successful podcast, you talk about what you want to be 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:01.320 talking about your you know, self made right, It's it's 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:02.440 a big thing. 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.680 Uh, you know, it's it's funny as I've thought a 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:09.760 lot about you sent these questions, and so I've really 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:11.880 wrestled with this and them. 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:13.880 So I'll tell you that I like that. I get 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:15.400 a lot of shocked faces of. 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:20.400 People being like, what where did It's all my email? Actually? 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:27.200 Uh yeah, I'm going to say yes because I do 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:31.160 believe that I have built something rare for now I 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.800 think that we will probably see stories like mine a 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:40.480 lot more common going forward. But I'm not a satisfied guy. 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:47.320 I'm not somebody that that tends to rest well on things, 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.520 and so there will always be a part of me 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:55.440 that wishes I had plugged into the matrix that I 0:16:55.560 --> 0:17:00.920 had some buzzy you know, I had a a poster 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:04.600 a Times pick any of them like next to my 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.800 name at some point, just because those were the brands 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.720 that I was obsessed with growing up. But at the 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:14.400 same time, whenever I get into my head of like, well, 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.480 you know you can apply, like you know people that 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.800 work in these places, like you could you could go 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:21.720 work there, I'm like, yeah, yeah, but then I'd have 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:25.080 a boss and I probably wouldn't want to do the 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:26.560 things that they want me to do. 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:29.080 And so I talked myself out of it. 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.600 So on one level, I do think that I've got 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:35.159 miles to go. I do think that what I do 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:38.280 could be bigger and better, and I could apply myself 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:40.919 more and I could do X, Y and Z. So 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:46.439 I will, for motivational purposes say no, but to just 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.760 point out that you should also take stock of your 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.159 own life and appreciate what you have, I'll say, yes, 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:54.720 that's yeah. 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:54.840 I like that. 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:57.840 Do you are you open about your own political views 0:17:57.960 --> 0:17:59.760 or do you just because I you know, I was 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:02.440 thinking about this, I just assumed you were a libertarian 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:04.760 because we were on a trip with a bunch of libertarians. 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:05.879 A bunch of libertarians here. 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.600 Oh, I don't know your political leanings. 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:13.600 Yeah, I don't identify myself as a conservative or a 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:15.359 liberal commentator. 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:17.200 I will say that. 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:22.240 Identifying yourself as a libertarian is probably the most sato 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.320 masochistic thing that you could do, because it just obligates 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:27.879 you to have a lot of conversations with libertarians about 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.880 what kind of libertarian you are, which, having just left 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.159 their convention two weeks ago, I think I'm full for 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:38.159 the next several decades of discussing exactly the font size 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:38.639 of the L. 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:41.760 Yeah. 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:46.199 I talk openly about my opinions on issues. But I 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:48.959 do think that there is a real worth that I 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:54.359 can give to people by not identifying as a political 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:58.160 as a conservative or liberal commentator, because what I want 0:18:58.200 --> 0:18:58.520 to do. 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.680 Is just be correct on how I'm seeing the race. 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:07.920 And if I say, oh, here's my opinion on or 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.240 like I'm taking I'm looking at this from a conservative perspective. Right, 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:15.440 then I'm not providing to conservative listeners because conservative listeners 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:17.919 want when something crazy happens, they want to listen to 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:20.440 me and trust that I can read the polls, trust 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:23.720 that I can see what fundraising is and say, yeah, 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.520 this did matter, or I'm not If I say I'm liberal, 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.840 I'm not really serving my liberal listeners because when something happens, 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:32.600 they want to come to me and say, hey, does 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:34.760 this matter? Because that's the number one thing I get 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:38.840 from either side is thing happens? Does this matter? 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:41.440 And I want to preserve my ability to do that 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:43.720 for the listenership. 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:46.000 Because lots of podcasters, I would say that don't say 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:48.639 what their political leanings are. But then you just know. 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:51.640 And I find it interesting that I don't know yours. 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:56.160 Like again, I just assumed you were, you know, cookie libertarian. 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:00.639 Yeah, and I I think. 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:04.199 You know, And I'm very i feel like I identify as 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:06.600 a conservative, but I'm very aligned with libertarians. 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:08.879 They are my people. I go to their parties. They 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:09.560 are a lot of fun. 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:12.800 So yes, you know, oh yeah and me too. 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:17.560 I I probably the closest I've ever come to identifying 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:20.760 is anything personally would have been a libertarian when I 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:23.919 was in my twenties and I was first reading Reason 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:27.800 magazine the way that everybody gets into the libertarian drug. 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:28.760 Yeah. 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.800 I will say also that one of my favorite memories 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:35.960 of that trip that we took down to the border 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:39.520 happened literally on the plane there where we were all 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.399 on the same flight down to McAllen and I was 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:44.960 with Andrew Heaton, who does the funny videos for Reason, 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:48.600 and you just pointed it, just said Brett Kavanaugh, Bret Cavanall. 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:50.359 He had no idea what I was talking about. 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.480 Like, so the joke is, you know, he had played 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:57.080 Brett Cavanaugh in a video. So I have I have kids, 0:20:57.080 --> 0:20:59.440 they are fourteen, eleven, and eight, and like I want 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.359