63 - Aaron Deshotel - Host of I Had To Say It

0:01 You are listening to a Fons Media Network production. Hello, World of Blaze listeners. In this episode, I welcome Erin Desk's Hotel. He is a chef and the host of the I Had to Say It podcast. Eron I had a great discussion about life working in the events and service industry, podcasting, and being a gen xer. Aaron has a no bullshit approach that he applies to various topics on his podcast, especially when it comes to current events and politics. As I said earlier, Erin and I had a great conversation. I think that you're going to really enjoy anyway, as we were riffing earlier, Thanks for coming on Erin Desk Hotel for that.

0:55 Correct. That is correct? All right. So you I've come across on X a few times because you interact with Whiskey Hell quite a bit. Good guys. Yeah. I interact with them as well, for sure, and they are good guys. But it got me to listening to your podcast, and I'm like this, this guy at times could literally be almost my twin, you know. And I love your no bullshit approach, like the way you just just go after it. You call things for what it is and how you see it. You're not afraid to speak your mind. And I was like, I got to talk to you. I mean, this is this is uh, we need more of it, we need more of it. I'm inclined to agree with you on that one. And thank you. I appreciate that. And uh, actually I did you know I've gone throwing up and listening to your show too, and I was like, yeap, you know what this is going to work? I got this is somebody I can talk to, you know, And it's one of those things. It's like I feel like we're roughly pretty close to the same age too, so that might have something to do with it. Yeah, I believe I picked that up because oh jeez, now, my just I was just the episode I was listening to last night, Actually I was, I was driving home. It was the guest spot.

2:06 You guys started out the episode smoking cigars, oh with Ryan Ryan McBeth, thank you, Yes, yes, And I was like, I'm like, at some point in there, you guys mentioned it. He said he's getting ready to turn fifty and you said you're catching up to him. I'm like, I'm a couple of years out myself, so I'm roughly in the same ballpark, and yeah we are. Actually, you know what, I just realized, Aaron, I mentioned your podcast, but your podcast is. I had to say it, and I have to say what your podcast is, So the title is I had to say it. And first before we move on at I'm just gonna tell everybody right now, if if you listen to me, you gotta listen to Aaron. I think you're gonna are gonna like it. I think I think Aaron comes off like a rapid fire.

2:48 I have a hard time keeping up with you sometimes because you just spit it out man, and you're but you're on point the whole time, which is crazy. I appreciate that. It's Uh. The funny thing is occasionally I'll get people that were like I start interact, like whether it's over like a zoom call like this or a team's meeting, or in person or in real life, and people are like, you know, I thought that might be just a lot of editing, but you really are like this, And I'm like, when I get rolling, I can be I am. I am very verbose, I'm very comfortable speaking my mind. Obviously. That's the other thing. I got a lot of people that have heard the podcast have been like I don't know how you could do that, and da da da da, and like I I haven't Ever since I launched the show, I haven't really like, I haven't been one of the people like, oh, I have to maintain anonymity. This could come back and bite me in the ass. I've had a lot of people like dude, you can't say that. Yeah, I can. Actually, at the end of the day, I still believe that we'd be a lot better off if people were more forthright and more honest. Being artificially fake, being well, artificially fake is that's a redundant being artificially polite being. I mean, there's a time and a place for decorum and proper, proper manners, and like I was raised very strictly, you know this is appropriate. This is not I contrary to the image I portray it in a lot of ways through my show, I'm actually very good at dealing with

4:19 situations where you have to be proper and well behaved and well mannered. And I won't lean on a table because at one point I did that in front of my grandmother and she cracked me in the elbow with a soup spoon. So I mean I do. I do know how to be proper, in prim and professional when it's required. But on the other side of the point, I do believe that a lot of this this falsehood that we put forward due to societal pressures and people, Oh, well, that hurts my feelings and I'm offended. Well, at the end of the day, maybe you need to be offended because people lying to each other and equivocating because they're afraid of social stigma, they're afraid of the backlash, they're afraid of somebody getting bent out of shape. They're they're indulging the proclivities of people to be like, my feelings and my values are more important than yours. So you can't say these things because I'm going to get but hurt about it and I'm gonna throw a fit. And we've allowed it to get to the point where you don't know what you're actually dealing with. And that pisss me off more than anything else, because in a lot of ways, I am a very like what you see is what you get, no bullshit, no equivocation. You know exactly where you stand with me. If I like you, I mean, I'm still gonna talk crap about you, because that's I think that's just our generation. You talk shit about your friends. That's that's normal to me. I don't believe that you would be like, oh, well, no, that's my best friend. I would never say anything about my

5:50 best eat man. I will say six mean things about my best friend to his face, three more to his wife, and people come right back and make fun of my hairline with just as you can see non existent view. The listeners can't see it. I have a very shiny head and I forgot to put my hat on, so it's glaring into the camera. That's because, thanks to some wonderful genetics, every man on my mom's side of the family has that Georgekastanza toilet bowl haircut. George stands and I'm not rocking that look. I'm not a friar tuck. I'm not doing the fringe. So it's I'm clean shaven. I'm thankful. I have a good shaped head, which, you know, despite all the childhood trauma of being gen X and like, you know, not wearing a helmet to ride a bicycle and running into trees and playing football and all that other stuff, I still came out with a good shaped head.

6:37 So you know count my blessings. Well, don't worry, I'm hiding my bald and it's under my hat as well. So well, I, like I said, I usually try to just to be polite and not have the gleam in the camera. But I listen to the. Challenges of a bald man. I swear people do not get it. They just don't get it. Oh, they really don't. And and unfortunately again family trade. You know, I've been shaving my head for twenty friggin years at this point, you know, And and when I was younger, particularly when I was like in my early twenties. Just a little background information. I'm a chef, right, I just I've been working in the service industry, culinary industry for almost thirty years at this point. Started when I was a teenager, just doubled down and went into it like hardcore. In my early twenties. I also was really like in my more so in my twenties than my teens, I really got into like, you know, weightlifting, weight training, fighting.

7:35 I would bounce on the weekends just because I was like, oh, gee, it's not enough that I work fourteen hours a day. I need to do something at night too. To keep myself out of trouble, so I would bounce at night. And so you get this big, kind of kind of grumpy, kind of chiseled, bald guy walking around who happens to be pasty white because he never sees the sun, because during the day he's in a kitchen and at night he's in a bar. And a lot of people would make assumptions about my demean people I associated with who I was. Then they'd be like, hmm, big bald white guy, that he's racist as ship. And I'm like, if you look at my friends group of people I grew up with, I mean, and again, I think this is really our generation was kind of one of those like we didn't care about dumb shit. It was if you were cool, he'd hang out with you. If you weren't cool, we'd make you cry. Yeah, I mean, you're right on that is that's the truth. That's that's how I grew up.

8:28 That's that's It's like, dude, we like doing X, Y and Z. You like doing that too, Okay, come along. Yeah, So I'm gonna make fun of your glasses, I'm gonna make fun of your haircut, and I'm gonna make fun of you know your waistline, but I'm not the other crap. We can't and you know, let's I've never cared, but a lot of people make assumptions about me because, like I said, big bald, white dude, you must be like, no, I've got I've gotten that too. Yeah, I've gotten that to Aaron. And you know what I just learned. Just be yourself. Man, If you're a good person, people eventually see it. And if they don't, honestly, they didn't need to be in your life. Yeah exactly. I mean, that's that's just bottom line. That's I completely agree with you. It's I mean, I I and I want a lot of people over just by being my me.

9:11 I mean I am boisterous, I am loud, I am opinionated. Uh, which again, everything you'll hear if you listen to my podcast that that's maybe a little bit of amplification just for effect, but that's really how I am pretty much across the board. Again, like I said, I can turn it off if if the need situation arises, if I'm talking to somebody that's like way more important than I am. If I'm dealing with clients, customers, you know, patrons, my boss HR. Well, actually no, I shouldn't say that, because I'm absolutely horrible to our HR lady. But fortunately she's pretty cool so because she gives it right back. I mean she's old school then too, right, Oh, it's very much so she's just like, you know, you can't say that.

10:00 That's completely inappropriate. I said, you're smiling, I'm not in trouble, and I'll walk away. Man, Aaron, I gotta ask you, man, because I think a lot of us independent podcasters we got in this for other reasons. But why did you start getting me hind of mic and press and record? What led to that? COVID? That's the short form answer of it. I have been honestly kicking around the idea of launching a podcast since like twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, like the early days before people for it was actually popular. Yeah, And I was doing it because, like I said, I'm a chef. That's what I've been, that's my chosen career path, that's the life path I took. But in my developmental years, I was really into computers. I was one of those like mid nineties text based, twenty eight eight dial up internet geeks. Yep. The funny thing was in my situation.

11:03 And I was also on the football team, and like I said, weight training, and I wasn't like a track person. I throw the heaviest. I wasn't a runner, but so'm but I also happened to be like honors classes, geeky. I was in band, I was in year book. But on the other hand, I was like, go ahead and say something, give me shit about it. I want you to so I but so I was really into like the internet pretty much from the time it started being a thing. So I was aware of podcasts just via that, and I was kind of like, this is kind of cool, you know, you put out these little like pseudo radio shows. And I was actually kind of looking at going into broadcasting when I first graduated from high school. That's a bit of an exaggeration too, When I first graduated from high school, Originally I was actually the first time I went to college, I was a going to be a finance major in pre law and then be a financial lawyer.

12:02 Which that that I realized really quickly that like family oriented life path that like my my forebears decided was what Aaron should do with his life was not what I wanted to do, so I kind of walked away from that. But but at the same time, it was like I was debating going into broadcasting before I decided, you know what, I've been working in kitchens all this time. I think I'm going to run with that. I think I'd make a good chef, and so I was thinking about doing radio, and then I was like, well, this podcasting thing is kind of cool. And I have like a lot of my friends, particularly in my early to mid twenties, which you know, let's we're back at that timetable. All these guys were like, you know, dude, you tell great stories. You should do this, you should do that.

12:47 And then you start podcasting starts becoming a thing, and they're like, dude, you should get you should start a podcast. You'd kill it. You could just get on there and crack jokes and da da da da dad. And I'm like, yeah, it's I don't have the time, because at that point I was starting to get into like just got married, dealing with a family, Like I don't have time to sit down and record shit. I don't have time to tell stories into a microphone and then try and make it sound good and edit it. And clean all that up because I, like I said, since I had kind of looked at going into broadcasting, I was slightly aware of the process. I mean not super well educated on it, but enough to be aware that it was more work than I had time to commit to it. You know, I had a kid to raise, I had a wife to a wife to keep from lighting me on fire in my sleep, and I was busy. And then then, like I said, then after kicking the idea around for a few years, and it came up actually on my Facebook memories the other day, I made a post like three years before I actually started the show, like, hey, what would you guys think if I started doing this here And here's a list of names you guys should vote on the names of what you think would be a good name for a podcast by Aaron. And this was right around the time, like Rogan was really starting to take off and all that stuff, so like twenty eighteen ish, and so again I got some responses. One of the names was actually pretty close to I had to say it, which was it was one of the one of the contenders was it has to be said,

14:19 And I was like, it's almost but not right, And so yeah, so I've been kicking it around, like I said, forever basically, and then COVID happened and I got laid off because, like I said, culinary industry twenty twenty pretty much put my line of work into the ICU. I mean, none of us had jobs, and I can relate. I'll get into that later, but I can relate to that. But yeah, So twenty twenty year old around, and I was actually very fortunate because the company I was working for at the time, it's big national contract company, multiple divisions, literally thousands and thousands of employees. A lot of them got a lot of including some of my coworkers from my unit all got laid off, and then a small percentage of the staff was furloughed instead of laid off.

15:18 So I was one of the people that got furloughed, you know. Thankfully for my situation, it worked out fantastically because the timing was like perfect. I got and I didn't get furloughed until March of twenty twenty. So the initial burst of COVID where everybody else was getting shut down, I managed to avoid because I had actually been farmed out from my facility to another facility. To help them implement a catering program. And then I was the general manager at that facility was going to be going on maternity to leave. So the plan was I would take over the facility when she went on maternity leave after I set up their new catering program for them, and and that that facility was involved in producing producing like hand sanitizers and stuff when there was a huge demand for all that actually an alcohol bottling facility, but they switched several of the production lines over to hand sanitizer. Yeah.

16:18 Even a lot of distillers did that during that time so they can stay relevant in a float and pay their bills. Yeah, and that's exactly this company was bottling for those distillers. So they would take the you know, the big vats and break it down into gallon bottles. And yeah, it was an interesting time in my life. And uh so I thought I was going to be okay. And then so at what point during all this, like did you just have time in your hands and You're like, I just could I'm gonna finally. Just start this? Is that how that came about? Honestly, it wasn't even that. It was like I said, I got furloughed, So all of a sudden, I went from having somewhere to beat every day. And the thing is the company I was working for head thing where I still had to get up in the morning and log into this app that they put together to check and see if any of the facilities within twenty five miles of my home account needed people for that day, and if they did. As a furload employee, I had to say I am available for work. Because as a furload employee, they kept my benefits active and they and so I didn't have to worry about like my insurance and all that stuff. So I had insurance the entire time, which was perfect because my wife actually went in for knee surgery the day after I got furloughed, so and they told they told me it was gonna be two to three weeks. I was like, this is great. I can take two to three weeks off, stay home with my wife, take care of her while she's recuperating, and then go

17:49 back to work and everything. I'll be fine. And it turned into like nine months. So after after like five or six weeks of sitting around the house, getting up at four thirty in the morning every day, logging into this app to go yep. Everybody within twenty five miles of my units still closed because we were all in the same division and everybody was furtiled, so all of those units were closed. So I knew nobody was working, so nobody was going to need me. But I still had to get up and log in, so it showed that I logged in, and I would get up in the morning and then like let the dog out and drink a cup of coffee, and I was just sitting there, like doing nothing, watching the news, watching TV, going stir crazy because I didn't have anybody to talk to other than my wife, and we kind of ran out of things to talk about because all we did was sit around and stare at each other all day. So I was like, I need to do something. This is driving me crazy, and you know, I was kind of hemming and hahn, and you know, I go from being out interacting with people every day to seeing just like I said, just my wife and occasionally my kid would come by the house, but by that point he had actually moved out, so it was, Yeah, it was very frustrating. And then I was apparently driving her crazy because she went online and got me an early birthday present and bought me a microphone and a little soundcard adapter thing to plug into my computer. And she was like, here, you need to use this. You know that podcast you've been talking about.

19:14 You need to start that podcast because you need to talk to somebody other than me, because you're driving me freaking nuts. And I was like, okay, I love you, Yeah, I mean yeah, Well what do you say to that, Like okay, yes, dear, yeah right, it's go go talking to Mike exactly. Go go talk to random people on the internet and leave me the hell alone. Take your ranting, crazy, complaining ass in the other room. Close the door so I don't have to hear it. It's almost like saying, tell someone who gives damn. Yeah, it was a really nice way of telling me to go tell somebody that gives a damn. And what can I say. I don't blame her. She was not wrong. I really did need to just start venting my spleen a little bit, because that's the other thing about working in the service industry.

20:10 I'm used to being around a lot of people. When I'm not in the customer facing side of things, that it's a different environment. I mean, I know most people do at least touch in service industry briefly when they're younger or whatever. But when you get around a bunch of career culinary people, like lifers, people who have made this their thing, there's something wrong with us. I say that all the time. I worked at a culinary school for years, and I would tell like the incoming freshman classes, like, if there's something wrong with you before you signed up for these classes, there will be something wrong with you by the time you get that diploma. Well, and I say that, Okay, what's funny. This is where the relation comes into what you said earlier, because I am in the events industry too. My company, that's what I do as a vent production and where the guys that the hanging speakers, the lights to stages where we do that, We do drape Shannon, We do all kinds of crazy stuff. Man.

21:06 I actually I know exactly, you know, because I worked with a lot of you guys exactly specialist years. So that was uh with the company I was working for. That was literally my job title was catering specialist. Well, I was going to say, is I I feel like that like the events the industry in general, call service, event events, whatever, it's it's literally sometimes I feel like it's just made up of a bunch of misfits. You said, no, I don't want to I don't want to adhere to society, don't want to do it your way, you know, And yeah, it feels that way. There's there's a lot of like there's something wrong with us. Yeah, a little bit when everybody else is playing we're we're out here and we just we shall not conform. It's a it's it's a it's a truth. It's uh no, it is one of the things I found. I mean, it's kind of funny. I'm actually at this point in my life, I've managed to avoid a lot of the the less the less pleasant stereotypes I guess of the service industry. You know, I didn't develop any kind of major drug habits. I didn't. I mean, like, after you get to a certain point as a chef, you either have gone one of two routes and you're either like a full blown alcoholic or you're a recovery alcoholic. And that's a lifestyle though, right, you know, it's hard.

22:24 The late nights, like crazy long nights, the long out the hours are insane and then he went. By the time you get home, everyone's in a sleep or there's no one around, so it's just you. Yeah, it's a hard life to live, man, because like same thing on our side, we do it. When we do it, we do I'm not lying to here, and we're literally working eighteen hours a day sometimes we have belore twenty four hour shifts where you don't get any sleep. You're dealing with shady promoters that can't even go out of the way to budge enough to get you a hotel room, or even you know, union labor when it's supposed to be a union house, and all a sudden, oh yeah, for you know what, there are other off it's just you two guys. I have these whole things like really, and you know we've been through the whole thing too.

23:04 And it's like when you said, you know when your industry got shut down, I mean that's that was us. We all of a sudden, Hey, COVID's here, you can't do anything. Well, what do I do about? All these bills are to keep my business open, not our problem. You got to stop the spread, Okay, So now what Yeah, I I can I empathize, I feel your pain. Brother. It's uh. And like I said, I working as I did. Like I said, on the catering side of special events things, I've seen the work you're talking about. I respect the hell out of it. I've seen set up in teardowns that you know. And sometimes I was working in a facilities. Sometimes I was working in stuff where like with you know, some of my jobs, I was doing things like with colleges or with city officials where it's like we're setting up for twenty five thousand people to be at this function. Yep, you guys are heroes. I got. I I can coordinate my brigade and we'll have you know, fifty thousand sandwiches and you know, one hundred thousand sides done before the doors open. But you know that's just you know, preparation and repetition. You guys are doing all the brutal stuff.

24:15 Yeah, but you know, I feel like if you're in events, in your in service man, there's a camaraderie regard. This doesn't matter if you're if you're a chef, you're an av guy, it doesn't matter. We're all going to the same crap. We're all taking shit, we're all getting talked down to. We're all having these crazy expectations put on us, all because client X can't afford to pay for four days that we need to set up and do our jobs. All has to be done in two oh and by the way, you got to get everything out after the event. When does the event? And oh two in the morning. Oh okay, yep, and we got something else going on at nine point thirty exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, you're talking my language. I get it. I I have definitely I've been there. I feel you pain. It's uh, there's something special about us. I'll say that. I'll just say we're different. Yeah for it, We're a little We're a little different. So did you so? So how did you feel?

25:13 What you look? And we cry on it, which is just well, you know, we we do. We actually do somehow it feeds us. I don't understand it, but you know, I'll be honest here. And you know, as as I've done this for so many years and I've owned my business going on twenty seven years, I'm kind of getting tired, man, I really am. But you know, until I can find the excess strategy, I'm still in it. And it's not like I hate I don't I hate doing it. It's just I think I'm just physically getting worn down after a while. There's so much that your body can do, and the you're just like, oh yeah, it's getting hard to stay up till two in the morning. Man. It's like I can't be driving. I can't be driving back to the shop at two am and getting home at you know, at eight in the morning. You know, a lot of those nights are kind of I think a lot of those days are getting behind me. But and I'm sure you probably feel the same way a lot of a lot of times now, I mean you have.

25:59 To, I'll be honest, I kind of I found the cheat code. It my industry, okay, chef, I should say I found the cheat code. I went into corporate services. Uh yeah, back right right before right before h COVID hit I got. I got a corporate services job Monday through Friday, with very minimal exceptions. The downside was I had to be at work at four forty five in the morning. The upside was I was home by like three. Yeah, so yeah, that's nice. That's nice. And I had weekends and and uh you know. What, that's that's the thing A lot of people don't understand about us, Like, like you got into corporate services, you got that schedule, but before then, like I missed every holiday, every birthday, celebrate like, but people don't understand about guys like us when you're celebrating. The reason you have all these amenities is because we're working that.

26:52 Day, oh, without a doubt. And and then I don't know how it is for you. But I found the backside of that on my I coin was on the rare, rare, rare occasion where I wasn't humping. On one of those days, I would get some jackass family member like, Hey, you're a chef. You want to help me? Well, you know we're having one hundred people over at my house for the Fourth of July. You want to come over and barbecue? No, you're like I do. That was a matter of fact. I don't you remember when we were kids and I used to shove your head in the fucking toilet. Guess what's happening again? If I come to your house? Uh, it was crazy. Is one of those blue pucks in there too? I want I want the water to look like Grandma's house. It knows crazy? Is my original pathway there was two. But originally I actually wanted to be a chef and I wanted to go to the San Francisco Culinary Institute. And the only reason that never happened is I couldn't get the finances to do it. And then I veered into other directions because, like you said, you were in band. I don't know what what instrument did you pay Let's see primary instrument. I played trumpet in the actual school band. I also played guitar, keyboards, harmonica. Awesome.

28:11 I was like, everybody in my family plays at least two instruments, so nice, man, it's a family thing. Yeah, I was. I was a drummer, and then so I got out of that and progressed into music, and then you know, got into being a sound engineers, recording studios, all etc. And then it just kind of just went that direction. And then one day I was just like, yeah, you know, I'm playing all over the place in this band. We're traveling, you know, playing at the Whiskey, the you know, you name all these big clubs. I'm starting our name out there, and I'm just like, but until we make it, it's not happening. And it's costing me to do these gigs and I can go on the weekend provide some services and make some actual money. And then I just abandoned that and just got into production, you know, providing production.

28:51 And then that happened something. You know. What's funny is almost everybody I know who became an engineer, almost everybody who became a sound engineer or uh a production owner, was a drummer. It's a weird thing. I don't know why, but it just seems to there's something about that, that trait that attracts us to this crazy lifestyle. Uh, now that you mentioned it, yeah, I'm thinking about it, thinking about a few of the drummers I know. Yeah, yeah, Now that actually is a track. Hey, so when when you when you got when you when you started the show? Though? Man, so you started venting and and how'd you feel about just vanding in the mic and just talking into the ether. It's like, did you did you? Did you expect anybody to listen to you or anyone to catch onto the show or are you just saying fuck it, I'm just I'm just gonna talk.

29:37 If I'm being completely out, No, I'm still surprised people listen and that's you know, I maybe it's you know, some underlying, you know, personal issues where I just I but I still am like kind of surprised. What I'll be just bullshitting with one of my online friends and and uh, they'll just oh, yeah, you know when you said this the other day, I'm like, oh, yeah, I forgot we met because you said you listened to my podcast. I forgot about that. And I've definitely made some some for you know, people I've never actually met in the real world. I've made some pretty good friends because of the show, just again and with the whole COVID thing, and like a lot of people decided to start podcasts because they didn't have anything else going on and they didn't have any way to talk to their friends.

30:23 So yeah, I feel I feel like a lot of people who've been doing it as long as we have, well you've been doing little longer than I have, for sure, but that we all, we all kind of started based out of that frustration during that that pandemic time, right, and it was like, well, you know what, I realized I do have an opinion, and and I felt like, to me. I don't know if you felt this way because Uh. I felt like, look, I'm hearing this jackass talk all this crap and get in offering his opinion, and I'm and I'm thinking, if this guy is famous in doing this, why can't I just offer my two cents on on the subject? You know, why not? Why not me? And and that's why I started doing I was like, you know, I got some stuff to say too. And I always felt like a lot of people, you know, like the talking heads that are in my space, like you're kind of in the same thing you do, like the news and politics thing a lot like news commentary politics.

31:11 I don't think that's your entire show. I know you talk about other things. But yeah, it really wasn't that's that wasn't the original intention. Yeah, it seems to be what's at the forefront of my ire every time I sit down in front of gravitated that way. Yeah, it just it was a natural progression kind of thing. But I found a lot of these talking heads were just really to me, living on the surface, man, you know, there's just very surface level, not really getting deep about anything and just feeding their pocket. But like I just felt they're saying things because they know it's getting a certain reaction, that certain reaction is feeding their bank account. And yeah, and I wanted to go deeper. And then when I heard you, it's it's like you you seem very similar, except you know, you're not afraid to go that's bullshit.

31:55 No, this is what it is. This is exactly how it is. And I heard I heard your show a few times to where you even you even mentioned like at one time, not to get to polarizing or you know, a raw, raw team whatever, but you lean more democrat and now you're kind of I mean, I think you're more center, but you're you're just not afraid to call people out on their ship and sometimes you lean a little more right. But you know, how do you feel about this whole right versus left bullshit? To be honest, I think it's fucking retarded. Yeah, to be completely honest, and yes, I still say fucking retarded. But they bring retard back. Yeah, exactly, we're taking it back. That's right, because I mean, you know it's it's it's like the meme says, retard is not what you say to people with legitimate medical conditions and handicaps. Retard is what you say to your friends when they're being fucking retarded. Yeah, yeah, it's it's just the way it is. But you're you're I mean, I'm gonna say you're right. I am definitely more centrist and and honestly I always have been. It's just in my younger days I was more left leaning central based on the standards of the time. My most of most of my core philosophical beliefs have not changed much.

33:08 I mean, you have to change a little bit, because if you're not changing and growing, you're dead. Whether you're whether you're actually in the ground or not, you know, you're not You're not living if you're not evolving. No, I agree with that. So, yeah, some of my stances and beliefs have changed. But like I've always I'm a gun guy. I've always been a gun guy, even when I was considered more liberal, because I don't care if you're gay, straights, by Polly, any of that ship. I don't care. It never bothered me. I've got gay friends. I have I have. I have a friend who I just referred to as a massive horror because he, by his definition, he's polyamorous. I'm like, dude, you'll fuck anything that holds still long enough. That's not pomorous, that's non discerning.

33:55 You're just overly horny, exactly. I'm like, you're you're horny. You're not you're you're You're not some you know, unique snowflake of a fucking character. You're just really hornied up. And you know, and and he's still my friend. I'm not. You know, it's not a matter of judgment, like you're a bad person because you like humpin'. No. I mean, I get it. I questioned some of his choices, like, you know, just to have a little self respect, Like really that's ill. But I mean, if he's happy and his whatever he's hopping on is happy, you know, I don't care. It doesn't impact me. He's not touching my junks, So I don't care. Right. That used to be considered a very liberal stance, like, oh my god, you're not gonna judge that guy for liking another guy. I don't know.

34:40 They make each other happy, and they're both adults, who freaking cares? You know what? Isn't it crazy how that became something that was akin to politics, when in fact, it's really like our generation. I think, like you're on you're a Gen X retailing, a gen X. Yeah, when we grew up, that's literally just what our generation thoughts, like who cares? And and and I get so I get. I'm so tired of waking up looking at posts on X around the news. It's a little different now that Trump got elected, but it's still there to where this this whole sexual preference slash identification warfare bullshit. It's like everybody thinks that people like you and I like today, they're considering us maga hard right, right, people.

35:22 I must be I must be maga because that's our label now, right, And they think people like us are waking up every day going fuck that gay guy? Who am I going to mess with today? Who am I gonna go yell at today? And in reality is like I people just don't realize that we don't care. We just don't care. If that's your preference in your life, great, yes, I mean it makes you happy, man, just don't push it on me. It's finactly you do you and I mean, but it doesn't mean we can't be friends. Yeah, it doesn't mean we can't be friends, except for the problem is you don't want to be my friend because I don't care and you equate me not giving a shit with me somehow judging you and not validating you, and say, if if you I can get a little soapboxy here for a second. Because I was actually just thinking about this the other day again because the post I saw on X and it was one of those things where I read it and I started to type out a reply, and I realized, even though I, yes, I'm one of those people, I pay for X because I believe not even necessarily that, I you know, was like, yeah, here, I'm gonna be a big elon fanboy. I did it because I do believe it's a better platform for free speech.

36:30 It's not perfect, none of them are. There are biases, there are still you know, algorithms. You can definitely create a neck with chamber if you're not careful. Oh yeah. But I also wanted the extra character limit. I got tired of having to do like, here's my post one of question mark and having to go on and on and on. So I was like, you know what, to me, it's worth the extra eight dollars to not be able to have to make multiple posts to get my point across. Not that anybody ever clicks the read more when I type stuff, I guarantee they don't because nobody cares. But but I started to type up a response to this post I saw and it was one of those like, you know, a week after Trump was inaugurated and they're, oh my god, they're gonna take all our rights. They they took away the other identities on our passport form.

37:15 And I went, you know what, I have a thought that you're not gonna like let me start, and I was like, Okay, first off, this person is probably gonna get nine thousand k poor applies to this, so the odds of anyone that actually needs to read this reading it become infantesmal. And also I was like, this is a whole lot to do with my thumbs, because this is I am still of that mindset, and I think this is more of an our generation thing where it's like I'm still sitting there going in the back of my mind, I hear a voice going, nothing worth reading has ever been written using only your thumbs, And I know that's no longer true, but I mean I spent years talking shit about everybody who texted on a regular basis.

37:56 I'm like, you know what, I have a phone in my hand. Yeah, you want to tell me something. Take the three seconds, call me, say here's what I got to say, and then hang the fuck up. I don't care. We don't have to have a conversation. Just tell me. I'm not going to sit here. And you know, again going back to like, you know, when we had just nine buttons on our phone and yet one, one, one, three, Yeah, I hated that. I hated that. Yeah, incursions to what we have now that's considered text Like the generations aftors have no idea the struggle to be out, quite honest. They don't understand why we hated texting when it first came out. Yeah, there was, there was a legitimate reason. My kid brother had a two way pager and to me that was the dumbest thing on the planet because the only other people who could use that were other people with two way pagers. Exactly made no sense. This makes no sense, your thumb talking again. Yeah, so so your post you decided did did you? Did you post a response? Or you just decided it wasn't worth it because again it just got way too long winded where I was just like, you know what, I don't feel like typing this whole thing out. But I had a thought and it's actually very pertinent to what we're talking about here right now, because, like you said, with our generation, we didn't care. We didn't judge anybody for being orientedly different or identifying different. We didn't care. I mean, I have a friend who in nineteen ninety seven was cross dressing on a regular basis. Good dude, gay as the day is long, liked wearing dresses. I didn't give a shit.

39:24 I'd see him walking down the street. I didn't oh my god, that dude's in add I'd be like, what's up, Steve? You know nothing. I don't care. Yeah, who cares? It makes him happy, It doesn't hurt anybody. He's not, you know, walking around with his junk hanging out. He's not embarrassing anybody. Who cares. He likes a dress. I don't care. But and to us that was normal, you know that that was and that was a lot of progress from like our parents' generation where and the kids nowadays don't get it. Grandma and Grandpa were judge as fuck kids. I hate to tell you that, yes, but we were not so much. It was just like, I don't care. It doesn't impact me, It doesn't directly affect my life. It doesn't hit my bottom line, I don't care. And at some point, I mean, because that is really realistically, that's acceptance. That's not you know, when you're you're foregoing judgment because it doesn't directly impact your life. That is pretty much the definition of accepting something.

40:26 Acceptance stopped being enough, and that's how I started to lose the narrative. I think our generation didn't care because we were kind of the generation where the we didn't well, let's just be honest. Parents weren't that involved. It was more like, girl, We're like, hey, come back when the sun goes down, right, And it used to yeah, yeah, right, it used to be that way. And so we had. To interact and find others to connect with and get to know people. So I think that's probably where the attitude came from, because we actually interacted with each other other and and we realize like, yeah, we're all human, we're all this, we're all similar, like we're all people who are just trying to live our best lives exactly.

41:10 Yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna touch on something about X though, because the thing about X I I've noticed is, all right, everybody everybody is a professional. Everybody's an author, an authoritive figure on every single fucking subject. And I read some of these things, and and I do a lot of research on my show. I do. I will do some deep dives. And when I when I see a post, I'm like, that's not right or exactly right. And and and the thing I hate about X is like, I know I could like you, like you probably just went through. I know I can respond, but but this platform is not necessarily the place to be able to respond and and get your point across, because there's so much more to it, Like it involves an actual conversation. And when I've when I've tried engage people to get into a debate or at least have an open conversation, their response is I'm gonna block you and run away, Like then we want to deal with you.

42:07 I found out recently when when they changed how the block fere feature works, I found out there were there there are several people I've never interacted with ever that have blocked me. And you know, because I go to you know, follow a link on a post from somebody else that made a comment, and then it's like, oh here, let me go check out this person's profile and see more about them before I either lay into them really harder. Maybe I'm actually interested in their perspective. This account has blocked you. You cannot interact with their posts. You can still see their posts. I'm oh, fuck me running okay. Yeah, crazy person yeah, or or I'm not gonna get too big in this because honestly, exit there's a lot of communities I talk about this bs but or you'll or you'll find out later like it's not outright, but you can you can tell when you've been muted by larger accounts. So like, for example, I can put a post that maybe has a couple of hundred I've done something to have a few thousand responses, and then I could respond to I'll just I don't even give a shit what they could do to me, like a gun through Eagleman. For example, when I first responded to them, I would get some decent traction and then all of a sudden, I don't know what I said. But now if i'd make a response, I'll get like five five impressions, maybe twenty, and it's like it doesn't make sense. And basically what I'm trying to get at is people's instant need for instagratification and affirmation of their thoughts just just to look like the authority or the hero, I think is a real problem in today's society. Nobody wants to be challenged, nobody wants to have the conversations, and even when you prevent present the facts and data, they still

43:37 are in disbelief. They're still in disbelief. It doesn't it doesn't fit the the pre drawn conclusion they've come into the conversation with. So it must be wrong, or you must be lying, or you must that your information must be false, or you're just the you know, insert topic of the like you're the pobe, you're THET, you're the it, you're the whatever. Use I mean, God forbid you come to the table with facts and I agree with your conversation. As a lost art these days, we've lost the ability to disagree with people without I mean, people are so tied up in the like these notions of this is who I am, this defines who I am, this is what I am, that anyone that holds a different opinion or a different thought is seen as an attack as opposed to just somebody that sees things differently and since people view this as an attack on their personhood, I feel like they've lost the ability to not even necessarily be objective, but to hear dissenting and discerning opinions, because again, they're taking it as a personal attack on them. Well, you don't agree with me, so you must hate me.

44:44 It's like, and I don't know how we got to this point where it's that, because to me, that's an utterly ridiculous way of looking at life. And that's probably why I'm a lot happier than a lot of younger people are. Yeah, I've seen tholes, like people in the like twenty one to twenty seven age bracket are all miserable, and I'm like, that's because they get butter to buy the dumbest shit. You know, I agree with you, it's it's you cannot like me or what I say all you want at the end of the day. Since I'm not sleeping with you and you don't sign my paychecks, it doesn't matter, right. But yeah, I mean, like I said, that's just why I'm happier than most people in their twenties.

45:28 It's not because I'm in my forties and I finally managed to amass wealth and happiness because I promise you I haven't the other thing. I picked an industry where it's really hard. I mean, you can do okay, you can be comfortable, but it's really hard to get to that point where you're like, yeah, I'm good now. And it's hard work unless you're like unless you become like one of these rock star chefs who happen to break out, you know, and get all the all the glory. And thing that comes back. A few of those guys. Yeah, oh oh, I have some stories really well. I mean a couple of them. I actually I could probably get sued if I brought them up. Of course, you work with them that you make you guys sign NDAs and all that. Oh yeah, I've I actually, most of most of the like like name chefs I've met have actually been pretty cool guys when you get them outside of like outside of that like public persona. That's good. I've run into I've I've interacted with some of these guys just through you know, big events things like that. It's never been like a like, hey, I'm Aaron and you're here to work with me and it's gonna be cool.

46:33 It's more like, oh no, you're here as this celebrity face and I'm just a grunt. But how you treat me is going to tell me all I need to know about what kind of absolutely man. It's I've always appreciated any famous person who never forgot their roots and they can connect with you. Oh yeah, okay, so I got I got a couple of stories then, because I'll name these people. So I remember when I did so we provided production for the Misfits one year and Jerry only and I remember that guy's through that bass stack was ridiculous, but didn't have to put it in the PA. I'm not gonna lie, and so fast forward this is what happened. So this was like I'm gonna say, maybe a year and a half, I meet this guy. I'm just a production guy, like they see these they see me all the time, guys like me right here, today, gone, tomorrow, whatever, move on to the next show. And so I'm working with him and somehow, I do not know how, but he remembered me. So I go to you ever heard of Nam?

47:34 Yeah? Okay, so Nam over in Anaheim's like the big musical instrument conference show all the manufacturers. So I go there and I'm walking and I got my passes and my dad's with me. He's a musician, so he was. He was with me, and we're walking and checking stuff out, and all of a sudden, I just hear someone yelling my name. I'm like, who the hell knows I'm here. I'm looking around and it's Jerry. Only he was out of booth and he saw me, and hey, I'm like, how does this guy even fucking remember me? And then I go over and he goes, come here, and he kept waving over. I'm like, I'm like, hey, how you doing man? He goes, he goes Modesto because I live in Modesto, California. Go I go yeah, and he goes. I go, how do you remember that? He goes get over here and he kicks these guys out that he was talking to and he puts his arm around me. He takes this picture. I'm like, holy shit, that was That was really cool man. And there's some guys are like that. Another guy was like that was Ronnie James Dio, same thing.

48:25 I think I've actually heard that before that he was. He was a really cool guy. One interaction vague interaction, by the way, not like I got close in person with the guy, but somehow remember my face and was kind of like the same same way, and uh, there was a few other other guys like that, So that totally changed my perception of some of these guys. But there are the ones that are complete assholes, man, and and they just they just they let the fame get to their head. Uh. But it's good to hear that you had that experience with some of these chefs to where they're like offline, they're like, yeah, you know, I get it. You know, they were just regular. But it's like in Chicago, go every year they got the National Restaurant Show, National Restaurant Association as this big show fills up the convention center.

49:08 It's like four days and it's I haven't been to it in several years just because I whether it was like I couldn't get the time off work or just like the past is kept getting more and more expensive and it was like, if work's not going to pay for this, I'm not freaking going. Because it's it's an industry show. It's you know, new products, new companies, existing products, existing companies, food vendors bringing out you know new but for for your industry and it and so it's and it's a big thing. And like back in the early to mid two thousands, it was an entirely different creature. It started changing just because of society shifts and stuff like that. But like in when I was in culinary school and a young man, I it was like every single booth had some sort of liquor at it. I mean, it was really leaning into that side of the service industry.

49:56 It was. I mean, there were there there were lectures, there were there were conferences, there were breakout sessions, teaching sessions. There competitions, ice ice carving competition, stuff like that. The ice carving team from my culinary school was there competing one year. And I and like, my school had a booth there, and I worked the booth one year just so I could go to the show for free. And then I hung out of the booth for like forty five minutes and then I spent like three hours walking around the show doing shots at every booth. So and yeah, good times, you know. And I had a driver that day because one of the one of the one of the instructors, drove the bus from the school to the to the to the conference centers. So so we you know, I was like, yeah, I don't have to be I don't have to behave I'm as long as I'm not falling down. I'm straight and right, and you know, it was a good time. Like there'd be you know, like pan manufacturers, knife manufacturers, and I got I got a nine dollars set of chef's knives for like one hundred and seventy five bucks because I went on the last day at the convention and just offered the offered guy money for the display and just I'm like, look, I know what you're doing. You're gonna sell all this ship so you don't have to pack it up.

51:07 Yes, Like that's exactly what happens at these trade shows. Yeah. So that's why I love the trade shows because I would always go on the last day of the show and just clean house. I would I would leave with like the bed of my pickup truck full of shit, and I'd be out like, you know, maybe a couple hundred bucks, but I'd be walking out with display pieces of you know, like kitchen gadgets and like cases of like sample products and packages of individually and individually packed fruit snacks that it's a new flavor of fruit snack we're gonna be bringing to market. I've got six hundred of these in the back of my truck on the last day of the show, so some poor bastard didn't have to load them up. Did you.

51:48 Did you ever see any celebrity personalities go to some of these vendors and just kind of. Like, guess free it would? They would show up like like, I'm here endorsing this, You're on a fucking show on the w B. Why are you here at a food show? You know what, I don't care. How you doing? Nice to meet you, you know, I and I've and I've done that multiple times because again just and party. Part of it's just me being me. But I don't get starstruck very often. There's a couple I've met a couple of people where I'm just like, holy shit, this is awesome. You know. For the most part, I'm just like, dude, you you take a crap first thing in the morning, just like all of us. I'm exactly, everybody poops exactly, so you know, I just hey, how you doing. And honestly, I've probably gotten a lot better reaction out of most of the people I've interacted with that are celebrities because I don't treat them like I don't. I'm not here to kiss your ass. Hey, how you doing. You're You're a human being, just like me. I'm not gonna I'm gonna tell you you're special. I'm gonna treat you equivalent to how you treat me. I agree.

52:55 I found that when you just treat treat people equally like people, they I think they appreciate that because it was on full disclosure. I had a I had a sales rep company for many years now in the musical instrument professional AV industry. So I was a rep. I had a rep company, and for many years I had to go to NAM. I haven't been there since two thousand and seven, thank god. But I was a Pevy rep. I was an Orange Jam rep. I was. I mean, I had so many lines that we represented, and I remember that I got to know some people, got their cell phone numbers. We stayed connected and they were just down to earth man, really cool. But I got a funny story. The reason I asked you about the vendor thing is because I remember at NAM because you're talking about you know, hey, at the last day of show, everybody just they don't want take their ship home, right, they don't want to pack it up.

53:46 Yeah, say for shipping. So I went. To, uh this booth. I don't even if you're still around their factory. Metals they made like these. They're kind of like symbols, more like sound effect stuff made out of metal that you would you would hit with your stick. And I was at the booth and the guy was talking to me, and he was gonna give me a couple of things for free, and I had to buy a few things. We just hit it off, and then all of a sudden, he says, great, I never forgot this. Carmine Apiece or Carmen Apassy, however you say his name, do you know who he is? So he's uh, he was a drummer for Blue Oyster Colt for a while. He played with Ozzy Osbourne on that parkt Foon album and all that. And his brother's Vini Appssi, who played for Sabbath and Dio. And so Carmen Apiece comes over right next to me and I'm talking to the owner of this company, and Carmine just stands there with his aunt garage. He's like chewing his gum and he's looking at these things, he's picking it up, and he's he's pulling the whole I'm a rock star persona. And the owner keeps looking at him and and he looks at his staff behind him like, hey, go talk to him.

54:45 And the whole time they're trying to talk to him and give him the pitch, he's just he's just like tapping it. He's all looking around. And then he started asking them like, well, you know what would uh so, how well, so what would it take to for me to get a set of these like whatever? And they start pitching price to him, right and check this out. He looks at me, he looks at. You on your turns yes, sunglass, He grabs the he grabs his bridge of his glasses, pulls them down and just looks down at the guy and just stands there. And the owner looks at me. He looks at a carmine a piece and he just goes, just take what you want. I was like, what the fuck? He just pulled that on that move on of it. He's just like the older caves, like what are here? Whatever we have, just just go and take it, just take it. Yeah, I've actually seen stuff kind of like that with maybe some of the smaller companies at the restaurant shows. But the thing about the restaurant show is you gotta figure you're getting like these big national producers who also have like industry lock you know. I mean, you're not going to the McCain's food booth and impressing them into giving you some free shit just because because of your name.

55:56 Because literally ninety percent of the like potato products in the country are coming from this factory. So it's yeah, it looks a little harder to get those guys, you know, because they already have contracts with their celebrity endorsements. They don't You're not just a company like, hey, look how important I am give me free shits? Oh I saw it all the time at them. It didn't even matter who you were. I mean, when you're a rockstar, rock star, it was it was just it was. That's also a little different. That's more practical because you know, no, no celebrity chef is coming in and walking out with like a two thousand pound mixer on a fricking dolly at the show. There's not a lot of stuff you can conveniently, you know, because that that's where the real money in that stuff is at those shows is equipment. It's absolutely it's not it.

56:40 I mean all the other products and pitches and all that other stuff, and you get little you know, like there was you know, people that make you know, glow in the dark, ice filled shotglasses, and you know, I mean all all kinds of random crap. But you know, at the end of the day, the ovens, the I mean, yes, the small wars are nice, but it's like, like I said, I got I got a thousand dollars set of knife for a couple hundred bucks and and it you know, yeah, maybe they would have given him away to some celebrity chef for free, but at the end of the day, that guy doesn't need it. He's got a knife contract and he gets all the free shit he wants, all rights. Yeah, well, it's it's just crazy, I mean it kind of. Also, it also hits on kind like I've heard you talk about this on your show, how society values, like how they value certain individuals, you.

57:28 Know, for just just for existence. Yeah, exactly, I'm not a fan of that either. Isn't that crazy actually goes to one of those negative influenced type situations. Where I did run have a slight run in with a celebrity chef who, like I said, for for for for the sake of not naming names, because uh yeah, you don't have to. Well no, I'm just like it's one of those things. It's like it makes me sound like I'm being kind of petty, because it's like, dude, who the fuck are you to cop this attitude with this guy? But the thing is, I'm me and I would have copped the same attitude for the circumstances at hand with any other person. And I'm not gonna I'm not this guy doesn't get a pass for being famous and and objectively, I don't like to tell the story and say who it was because he might have just been having a bad fucking day, you know, because it was It wasn't like an arrogance, pompous like do you know who I am?

58:28 Kind of situation. It was just kind of being a prick and under the circumstances it was, we were working a a like it was a it was a concert slash cookout slash Guinness record attempt of breaking a world record for the world's biggest barbecue. Right, wow, Yeah, it was at the Stadium where the Bears play in Chicago, and like the literally the entire infield was all these separate barbecue companies, all cooking at the same time, all making you know, different flavors of barbecue. And so there was literally hundreds of restaurants there with portable barbecue stations. And I was working at one of the barbecue stations and a certain celebrity chef I was running to go get some stuff from another Like the guy I was coordinating with who owned the place ran out of like buns, and he worked something out with another guy down like halfway down the fricking stadium, and he was like, you know, I take him these four gallons of sauce and he could bring back, you know, five flats of buns from him.

59:34 And so I'm running through the freaking stadium with you know, four gallons of fucking barbecue sauce, which is it's not light, I mean like a where it was like a five gallon pail of barbecue sauce, which is like, I don't know, fifty some pounds. So I'm running with this pail and I happened to run into this guy and I didn't even actually run into him. It was like one of those close calls. We're like, oh Jesus, and I'm watch where the fuck you're going? Man, I was like, excuse the fuck out of me. I'm like, maybe if you weren't walking backwards, you wouldn't have run. I wouldn't have had to fucking veer to get away from you. Well, dude, you should be watching where you're going. You shouldn't run through these people. That's a fucking crowd of people. And I'm like, like, look, I know who you are. That's not gonna temper my opinion of this at all. Maybe you should watch where the fuck you're walking whatever, dude, I don't even need to hear this shit from some punk kid. And I'm like, all right, you you take that attitude and you run with it, and you know, I'm It's not like I'm gonna be like, dude, I don't watch your cooking show anyway, because you don't fucking care, right, You get the same check from the Food Channel whether I tune in or not. So hmmm, I think I know who you're talking about. I got a good idea.

1:00:53 But yeah, so And that was But on the other hand, like I said, I've met some I've met some chefs that are really cool. Well, like I met some names like you know, like Paul Prudome was like, you know, big, big time, well known chef, had one of the original cooking shows on TV. You know, just the nicest fricking guy you'd ever want to meet, just really, I mean I met him a couple of years before he passed. Just down to earth. Fantastic guy. I and I met him at the Food Show and you know, he was there and he was working a booth and signing, signing his cookbooks and stuff. And that's not where I met him. I met him like he was coming back from the bathroom, going back to his booth, and I just ran into him.

1:01:33 And he was in one of those little mobility scooters because he wasn't getting around real good at the end of his life. And and I was just like, oh, hey, chef, I don't want to bother you, I don't want to keep you. I just want to say, you know, I've got all your cookbooks. Love. I watched your soul growing up when I was a kid. I you know you're fantastic. Thank you. I love I love what you do. And I wound up talking to this guy for like forty minutes before he went back to his booth, and I was just like, what a nice guy, very cool. But I mean, the funny thing is most of my actual real horror stories are interactions with like celebrities from like not in the industry, you know, for every because meeting guys that are in my industry. But we all kind of, with a few exceptions, we're all cut from the same cloth in a lot of ways. You know, we've all got a certain degree of respect for anybody that's been in the trenches. You know. Who My my worst interactions were with was not necessarily celebrities, because with a certain celebrity you kind of expect, you know, that kind of treatment.

1:02:32 So I've learned to like whatever. The worst ones for me. Were the the CEOs of the large corporations because you know, when we do the events, yeah, and they think they're just like the ungodly do whatever the fuck I want rock stars, And it's just like, Okay, when I'm getting yeah, why do I say this? This isn't who the company is, but let's just I'm just gonna say, let's just say Samsung for example, just because it's big name people know, not saying this was what actually happened, by the way, but let's just say, like CEO for Samsung, like, who the fuck is this this guy? Shit, he'll trying to put a mic on me, this fucking guy, he's a piece of ship, Like I didn't you talk to you? Like waves you away and then calls their assistant and I'm not it wasn't Samson whether I'm just using that name.

1:03:17 So so just to give people an idea of like, Okay, you're dealing with these large corporations. The CEOs think that they're you know, they're gods because everybody bows down before them at the company. But it's like, bro, outside of that, you're nothing. I hate to tell you that, but like you're not exactly. I mean, you're you're not a world builder, You're not you're yeah, you're not a rock star, you're you're a suit But. Yeah, that's been my my my more negative interactions has been from those types of people than you know, actual musicians or worked. I worked in downtown Chicago as at a private club for several years and it was it was it was two sets of people. It was old money and and like you know, like the Dailies had memberships there. You know, I mean everybody knows Richard Daly and Mayor Daily, and I mean that's even people know that are not from the Midwest, I find are familiar with that particular name because the but I digress. But then we had there was so there were the old money guys, and then there were like day traders because we were right in the heart of the financial district and a lot of our a lot of our members were stock market guys.

1:04:25 And and we had two degrees of stock market guys. He had the guys that had like literal fuck you money, and then we had the guys that were like coked out and scraping to get by and wanted to feel more important than they were because they were paying, you know, twelve hundred dollars a month to belong to this club. Yeah. Yeah, those guys like they and none of them were bossed here. None of them were you know, oh, I run the trading house. I own the trading house. No, they were just floor guys. Some of the most arrogant pricks I ever had to deal with. I had one guy literally the only time he ever came into the dining room at the club was on days where there were member events and everything was free, so I was and he would come in and then he would talk shit about the food. He would make three or four trips through the through the buffet line or whatever the case was, or order you know, four or five plates of whatever was on special that day that was the free member item, and then talk shit the entire time. He was stuff in his face. Oh the chef, here's a piece of shit.

1:05:19 The food, here's crap. I'm like, well, you don't have a problem shoveling down your gullet all fucking day. Yeah, right. And at one point he got he because he was extremely fucking drunk, and one of the other members was also very drunk, and the other member kept saying, I don't want a drink anymore, and he kept trying to four drinks on the guy, and the bartender was kind of like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. What do I do about this guy? And I said, you know what, I'm the manager on duty right now. He's fucking cut off, he's done. Don't serve him anymore. And he's like, who do you think you are? Said, I think I'm the manager on duty. I think, if you really have a problem with it, look up what they call dramshop laws and understand that I am doing my legal duty by refusing you any further service abriated beyond the point of being reasonably accountable for your actions. And subsequently, if you had any problems from this, I could find myself liable if we continue to serve you. And we're not going to. He was like, fuck you, you fucking prick. I don't know who you think you are, but you're fucking done. You are so done.

1:06:17 I'm gonna be I'm gonna have your fucking job. And and I sat there, Okay, get it all out. Yeah, come on, tell me, tell me I'm a worthless piece of shit, tell me, tell me how much I suck that. Tell me tell everybody what a shitty chef I am, And how how far things have gone downhill since I took over this place. Go on, come on. And and I mean the guy hated me to begin with, uh for other reasons because when he tried acting like he had clout, I just you weren't feeding the fire. Just no, not at all. Like he would do things like occasionally he would wind up on TV because he would try to get interviews like, oh, no, I know financial stuff.

1:06:59 I'm important. And this is when a lot of stuff was going on where like trading houses were getting shut down and people were losing their jobs and there were massive layoffs and several of these trading houses because there was a big scandal going on and he wasn't one of the people that was affected by it, but he was still trying to Like he got the local news to come in and he shows up with like a camera crew and he's like, I need to set up in the dining room. And I said, did you clear this with anybody? And well no, But I told them we're gonna set up here because that's the best background. I said. We opened for lunch in twenty five minutes. The staff is resetting the room right now. You didn't arrange this, you didn't talk to anybody about it, and you don't have authorization to do it. So you're gonna take that camera crew and I'll put you in one of the small conference rooms. You're not setting up in the dining room. Well, I told them this is where I said, I don't fucking care. Yeah, he can't interrupt your business. Like that, that's stupid inconvenience to other members.

1:07:56 Let's well, look, let's circle back a little bit. Let's get back into what your show does here. Okay, and the Rent and the Raven and I like it. It's great. Well, as you can see, it's it's just kind of natural for me. It's it's okay. So I heard one of your more recent shows you talked about how your Democrat and now you let you lean a little more, right, even though you and I already established we're not really we're just this is just gen X. It's just who we are, like who we are, Yeah, exactly. So that being said, how do you feel about the administration now? Trump? I mean, I know I voted for him. Did you I think you did? Which I did vote for him?

1:08:39 I actually are you getting what you what you thought he would he would do? Like? Is he coming through in his promises? You think? I think he's delivering a lot more than than, uh than I expected. He's definitely trying to stick to what he said he was going to do. I mean, he's getting fought tooth and nail. Big contrast from like twenty sixteen, right from his first term hunt it was like he was trying to figure it out and then he was just led the wrong. Qua He's he he didn't get where he is in the world by not learning, and he made a lot of mistakes on that first run through. And I'm not gonna lie. I talked shit pretty much consistently from twenty sixteen, well actually from twenty fifteen before the election was over, like from the announcement of like, these are the candidates and I and I've never ever, for a single second been a fan of Hillary Clinton. Nope, not at all.

1:09:36 And you know, so there was like literally no way and fuck I was going to be voting for her. But at the same time I was looking at Donald Trump as the guy from The Apprentice. I think everybody was back here, yeah, I like. And when the election was called and they declared him the winner, I put a post on Facebook that said, I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on the matter. I'm not going to get too deeply into it. But we ran an unlike likable, unelectable candidate, and we ran a guy from reality TV, and frankly, this country got what it deserved for because neither one of them was the right pick. And I actually I still stand by what I said at the time. Now to give the man his credit, Like I said, I think, and I've been watching him in the intervening time since his presidency. He did a lot of things I didn't agree with. He did some things I did. I didn't agree with a lot of his cabinet picks. I didn't agree with a lot of the way he handled things. I think. I thought he surrounded himself with people that were not going to help forward the agenda he ran on and and it is what is. But he learned from his mistakes and he's been good for that. People want to talk shit like, oh, well, he's filed bankruptcy this many times, and he said in an interview, he says, that makes me smart. I'm using the laws that are on the books to my benefit.

1:10:50 If you don't do that, you're an idiot. And and that's kind of I feel like how he's the second term is going to go. It's I think it's in the game to make any calls about it. He's only been in office for three weeks exactly. Yeah, you know, it's too early to say, but I like the indicators. I voted for him, not because of him I mean, I'm but more because of the people he brought to him. The people he was bringing to the table appealed to me a lot more than than just him by himself. And I do believe in like an America first stance. We can't take I've said a million times. I think at this point we can't take care of the rest of the world when we don't handle our own shit first.

1:11:36 And that's that's from a national standpoint, all the way down to individuals. You can't help someone else if you're busy falling on your own fucking face. If you don't take care of get in your own house in order first, you can't help anybody else. I can't. I can't understand why people are offended by the sentiment of America first, or how MAGA became like just what MAGA stands were like make America greatigan, how that became something negative? I don't get it either. It's like, why why is it a bad thing to want to see the country you live in, the country that who's well being is directly impacting your life be successful? Well? I think why is it bad to prioritize us?

1:12:19 I think as far as politicians go, I mean, just just the takedown of what's going on with USAID you know itself probably speaks volumes as to why people are not liking it. The American first sentiment is really about them first, right, Yeah, I mean, what do you think of that? What do you think of that? Like the I think it well that they shut down USA? Now, how are they going to teach Palestinian goat farmers to use the right pronouns when they're throwing people off of roofs? Right? They're spending literally millions and millions of dollars on programs for people who don't want them, to teach them things they don't give a shit about out or to enforce values that they don't align with. So we need this to spread the lgbt q I a message in Tanzania.

1:13:10 So we need to put together a musical with a puppet with AIDS. I mean, I mean, and if you look at that, if you if you're not realizing that that is all just literally just money laundering. Oh yeah, no, it's it's none of none of it's you know, above board. We'll know, he'll know. It's it's crazy that you know, it's well and the thing that kills me is it's like, this is what they chose to launder it as I mean, color me crazy, but if I'm going to be laundering money in the tens of millions of dollars, I'm going to at least try and make it sound believable. This is for tech innovation research on a new form of battery, and we need to explore new mineral rights. That sounds like something that might cost ten million dollars, well, ten billion dollars to teach pronouns to people who have a gender oriented language. Doesn't make sense.

1:14:09 And before and before this whole doze report, I remember a couple of years ago I brought this. I'm I'm gonna be off with the number, but I believe it was the administration. Back then, I was doing some digging way before where we are now, that that the government was going to allot like seven million to Pakistan for gender studies. Yes, stuff like that is like wow, it makes no sense things like that would come up in the well. I I actually I stopped digging several years ago because I was infuriating myself to like the point where my blood pressure was getting messed up. Well, our tax dollars man I'm looking at our tax dollars. And more importantly, I'm some schmuck from Illinois. Well, I mean, I'm technicoly from Wisconsin. But that's that's a whole other conversation. I I've lived here for twenty years. I still don't claim this fucking state. But ultimately, you know, I'm some schmuck from the Midwest that has a show with tens of listeners, and and and a bad attitude. Why am I looking into these things I can't do anything about I don't have the And again, this may be a defeatist attitude.

1:15:17 This might be part of the problem is that I think about things this way, where it's like and I was looking and I'm like, why are we studying the effect of cocaine on dolphins? Right? For starter, they probably appreciate it. And second off, oh no, no, it's mean we're giving dolphins blow. They're already probably smarter than us, because when's the last time you saw a dolphin with a checkbook. I mean, they're intelligent creatures and they don't have bills. Yeah, I mean, but my wife tells me the same stuff. Sometimes she goes, well, what's the point of everything you do?

1:15:57 I mean, what do you Sometimes she'll say, what are you doing about it? I'm like, point take, and I get it. Like what am I individually doing about it? There's only so much I could do as an individual. I think the reason I do this, and the reason is important, Like people like you do this because you never know who is going to receive the message. You know. That's kind of what I tell myself is somebody might. Hear this, and there's and if enough of us are hearing this, this message and and I think at some point, look, we've already seen it. With the elections, It's obvious people were fed up. They knew that everything that was going on was bullshit. And Trump got the vote. And it wasn't. It wasn't it wasn't my small marchin by the way it was, it was.

1:16:38 It was huge. The country wanted a shift and they wanted a change, and a lot of that came from not legacy media, but independent media, right like podcasting all of a sudden became even bigger and influencing what was going on with the election, you know, just because podcasters in general aren't afraid to call it how it is, like they just they're just gonna say whatever's on my mind. Most of them. I mean, we do have some corporately controlled podcasts out there, but for the most part, it's still kind of the wild West. And a lot of ways that's very true. Plus occasionally get people like, you know, like me, I'm not monetized. I mean in some of the it's kind of funny. I still every once in a while get like a little little notice from Spotify, like you have eleven dollars thanks, because for a while I was running out and I was like, okay, you know, but at the same time, I was like, this isn't worth it, and it because I would like listen to my own episodes just to which is ironic because I hate doing it. I hate listening to my own episodes, but I wanted to make sure they were like uploading right and you know, yeah, and posting properly. Because there were a few episodes I had where it was like, yeah, somebody would DM me at like because I set them up to new episodes post at seven am Central time, so I would be like the gym getting like before I went to work, and I'd get a DM from somebody like bro the entire episode static, oh fuck, or you know, the sound

1:18:12 file got corrupted. Yeah, I've had that happen on Spotify before, and I'd just feel like, oh shit, well I can't fix it until I get home from work tonight. So sorry. Yeah. So I was like, but so I was listening to my own episodes. You know, I just actually started posting them a little earlier so I could listen to them before I left for the gym. And I'm like, and I started realizing, like, these random ads are just breaking up the flow. It bothers me, and it's I'm at the payout's not worth it to me. So I'm like, eh, so I just I just stopped running them. But I did run them for like six months or whatever, and some for for whatever reason, the old episode still get plays. So I mean, I don't know if it's like new people finding me and going through the back catalog or just randomly somebody's randomly picking up episodes. But so every once in a while, I get that, like, your Spotify balance is eight dollars, You're all thanks, thanks a bunch. Well that's the thing is, like I cashed it out the last time. It got to be like forty five bucks or something, and I was like, Okay, cash that out, I'm done running ads at and then, like I said, every now and then, like oh hey, guess what, you're back up to seven dollars.

1:19:21 Well, I think it's important you bring this up because there's been a shift, like people are trusting independent media personalities more more and more, whether it's guys like you and me or you know, people were more established in terms of their popularity. Regardless, I always try to support the independent community, especially in podcasts, because we're the people who give a shit enough to dive a little deeper and dig up the shit that most people don't because they don't want to kick the hornes's nets. We're just like, we got nothing to lose. We're not beholden to anybody. We're just gonna come out and say it and present the information. And and mainstream media can't understand why they're they're losing the trust of the public. It's because they're not doing what we're doing. They're not being actual journalists.

1:20:07 Not that I'm claiming to be one, by the way, it's just we're not. We're not We're not afraid to like say, look what I found. And regardless of what you say here's here's the data to back it up. And here's here's the here's the web links, and here's the books. And if you don't believe me, go ahead and prove me wrong. Here's here's my sources. Find something better, find something more absolute. Yeah, and that's one of those things too. And again you mentioned earlier, whiskey Hell, those guys are phenomenal when it comes to, you know, running down things, getting their information, getting their facts together. Fits and McShane are they like I said, they're got, They're good dudes, and they're they they're on their due diligence.

1:20:48 They and if they're if they're wrong about something, they will retract it. They will admit they were wrong, which is another thing that like legacy media doesn't do true. They doubled. And like there's a gal I went to high school with and I'm not sure if she's still there, but for a while she was an editor at the New York Times. Doesn't speak to me for multiple reasons. But when I found out what she was doing for a living through a like just a Facebook group that was like a bunch of us that went to high school together, and she made some comments in there and I was just like, you know what, No, I can't, I can't let this slide, and da da da. So I just you know, I gave her both barrels and basically called her out and said pretty much exactly what we're saying around now. There's a reason nobody trusts you people anymore. I'm sorry you wasted your career and your life by going into a dying media because but I have no sympathy for you, because you people are the reason that it's dying. We stop being journalists, she started being shills, and that's what you got coming. Well, absolutely, yeah, what the funny thing was, She goes, so you're still an asshole? Then I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yeah, yes I am. I'm sorry. Well no i'm not, but I mean, yeah, no, I'm I'm the exact same prick I was back in the nineties.

1:22:15 Well, and the in the point you're making earlier about you know, you took the ads out of your out of your your show because you're like, I don't want to interrupt the flow of my conversation information and and and when you're talking about, hey, I'm doing all of this work and guess what I got eight dollars for my efforts. I don't think people realize that guys like us, like like the Independence, we're not making a living off of this. We're doing this because we want to do it, and we're trying to trying to. Present on this every month. Yeah, we're trying to present the present the case of no, no, this isn't right. This, this is why it's not right. Like we're not just saying this is bullshit and walking away. We're saying this is bullshit because and this is how I came to this conclusion. So I I totally believe that what you're doing, you know, like we'll bring up whiskey. Hell, guys like them, even even my friend Kurvin, who has this week explained, we're we're kind of just doing the deep dive stuff or or at least not accepting what's on the surface and just presenting it. And I think that's why people are trusting independence like us more, and even those aren't independent, like even Joe Rogan got very popular because he wasn't afraid to talk. I think what his strength was wasn't necessarily his stance on things as a person.

1:23:29 It was I think his strength was I'll talk to anyone and just have the conversation and see where this goes. He actually has conversations with people, and he will he will, he will, he will learn and change. Yeah, and I've learned a lot by doing this. I don't know if you feel that way, but you know, being forced to to first off, come into this with opinion and being forced to correct that after you've done your research. And then while you're doing it, I get to talk to many people, you know, like you and other experts, and it's like, oh, I'm smarter for it. It's forcing me to learn. It's forcing me to become a better person in terms of how I take an information and view things.

1:24:11 And so. I think it's really really important that you keep doing what you're doing because you know, while people just might hear it as a rant, you're also presenting a lot of really important opinions and facts, and it's it's kind of like a rapid fire, like Okay, here's the fire hose. Open your freaking ears, and I'm going to just open this pigot. There you go. And yeah, but that's not a bad thing, you know, and I like it, and I think a lot of people need to come around to just accepting that look your way of life and high look at things isn't the only way to do it, and you need to broaden your horizons and take in other viewpoints, opinions, and even especially those are that are backed by data, and then take that in and then maybe you might find that, hey, I'm looking at this wrong way. I think that might be one of the problems we have with the US at this moment is we got to get back to that. We got to get back to being an objective and hearing other people out and not just being so like, you know, here's my palm palms, I got cheer for my team, and no, I don't care what you say. No I like I like TMX regardless, it doesn't matter. And that that's just stupid. You're so wrong.

1:25:15 You guys suck and we're awesome. I mean, now that's boring. That's yeah. It is. The other thing too, is I think so somewhere as a society we lost that. We lost the appreciation for like development, for growth, for learning a new thing. People got complacent. They they're just like, no, I like this, this is what it is, and this is how it has to stay because this is familiar, This is comfortable, this is safe, and you know, it can be kind of scary going out there and hearing a different opinion or learning someone learning somebody else's beliefs or somebody else's thoughts. But like I said, I mean, you kind of need to do it because if you don't, your your stagnation is death. I mean, coming back to that.

1:26:00 Maybe maybe it's just because you know, we're getting older and getting a little morose, but like you know, you got to keep moving or you and that's you know, you got to keep moving or you die. I mean, and that's not just a you know, I mean yes, societally, culturally, individually, but I mean even people like if you look at old people like like Congress, the when you get past a certain point, you stop moving, you stop stop acting, you stop learning, growing, changing, keeping your mental wits about you, keeping your physical body and motion. I mean you literally you start to deteriorate. And you'll see that with and I again, maybe I'm overly focused on these things recently, just because of things that are going on, and you know, you know, my parents are getting older, and and I think about these things in terms of them, and it's like for being older people. My parents and like my wife's parents are still pretty active, you know, and they're keeping busy and keeping keeping their minds sharp. And because I mean I remember when I was a kid and seeing people and hearing oh, like that guy's you know, sixty five, and like the guy looks like walking death.

1:27:11 Oh my god, that's changed a bit now. Huh yeah. Now my parents are, you know, in the late sixties and uh late I got a math now, okay, early seventies. My parents are in their early seventies, and you know, and there's like my mom and my stepdad just got back from a cruise to Alaska, and you know, they they went hiking in the freaking wilderness in Alaska. And and my my dad lives in like Bufu, northern Wisconsin, in like a unibomber shed in the middle of nowhere, and like he just cut down a whole damn tree last week. I mean, damn. That's now granted, But I stand by the statement that I think my father is probably one of the hardest people I've ever met in my life. I Mean, he's a great dude. He's a wonderful human being. He's like, actually, this kind of like biker hippie guy from this you know, like from the sixties, or he's a for real hippie and but you know he's also this big, tatted up biker who looks intimidating as hell, but you know he likes to go out and garden and play with his dog. And I mean, he's just a great guy until he's not. And then and then it's like my brother and I used to joke when we when we were kids, like, you know, I don't know, but if he ever has to go on a home you're doing it. And I'm like, the fuck I am. Huh huh, We're paying somebody to put him in a home. I'm not getting involved in that ship at all. I'm terrified of that old fart man.

1:28:36 Everything he says a great example, and I'm still terrified of him. So yeah, everything he just says a great example of like what you said earlier about you know, stopping and not not continue to grow and stopping uh leads to death because it does, and it translates literally in the physical aspect, like you said you stopped moving your boy ceriates. It's not use very very kin to anybody who has a desk job for a living, Like you see them getting into their mid forties and they just they're already starting to fall apart, you know, because they're not using their body. So yeah, that's that's a very true statement that plays out in the real world, not not not just a theoretical statement.

1:29:17 And and well, and that's the thing is, people don't actually make that equation, like even the ones who acknowledge, like, Okay, you gotta, I gotta, I got. I have a desk job, so I have to go to the gym after work, or I have to go to the gym before work. Right, I have to move, I have to stay physically active to stay healthy. You have to do that with your mentality too, And I agree, take that for granted. They're like they they don't. I mean, you know, yeah, we have brain teasers and puzzles and things like that, but that's not the only aspect of mental exercise. I mean, like, I'm I'm a not as much as I used to be, but I'm I've always been a pretty voracious reader. I mean, I'll knock out a six hundred page book in a couple of days. That was me. Yeah, definitely, Yeah, I mean, I love like a sleep. No, I'm not gonna lie. No, I was gonna say, that's the problem is I still love reading, it just takes me a lot longer to do it. Yeah, it's like and part of that might just be the like the getting old and the physicality of the last you know, twenty five years catching up with me, where it's like, yeah, it used to be I would run on four to five hours of sleep, yeah, pretty much every day, you know, and then like if I got sick, I would crash for like twenty some hours.

1:30:34 And then the first time that happened actually was kind of funny. Right after my wife and I got married, I got I got sick for the first time where after we had been living because I never used to get sick very frequently, and the first time I got like legitimately sick was after we got married. We've been we've been living together for like two years, and I'd never like even really gotten a fever or anything. And then I got legitimately sick one day and I was like at work and I was dead on my feet basically, and my boss called my wife and was like, you need to come get him. I'm not letting him drive home. He's he's wobbling on his feet, and my wife's like, he's not drunk or you know, that's what she goes to. She's like, he's fine, he hasn't been drinking or anything.

1:31:17 What's going on is he He's like, no, I think he's sick. Like he's very pale, and he doesn't look good. And my wife came and picked me up and drove me home, and I by the time I got home, I took my temperature. I had like one hundred and three degree fever and I was just really not doing well. So I drank half a gallon of gatorade and laid down on the couch, rolled up in a blanket, and went to sleep. I don't remember. I don't remember any of this, but she told me so like thirteen hours later, like the next morning, she couldn't get me to wake up, and she was starting to freak out. Like I was still breathing. I was just snoring peacefully in my sleep.

1:31:59 I'm couch, hadn't moved all night and basically comatose, and my mom happened to call because it was right before Thanksgiving. It was like two days before Thanksgiving, and my mom called it just you know, hey, how's it going? Blah blah blah, and she's like, I'm really kind of worried. I can't get Aeron to wake up. And my mom said, did he get sick? And she goes, well, yeah, he was running a fever esday. And my mom's like, was it around one hundred and two point eight. It's like it was almost one hundred and three, and she's like, how long has he been asleep? My wife tells, well, he got he went to sleep as soon as he got home from work. It was like four o'clock and I went to check on him at seven and he's still asleep, and my mom like does the math and she's like, okay, so that's like fifteen hours. He's going to wake up around noon. He's going to be really hungry, and he's going to be dehydrated. And she says, if he doesn't wake up by one o'clock, then you can call the hospital and call an ambulance if he doesn't wake up by like one, and sure as hell, about eleven fifteen, I pop up off the couch like we got any food? Make breakfast? And she's just looking at me like, what the hell's wrong with you. I'm like, what do you talk about? I'm fine, I feel great, my feet, I'm good. I'm hungry and I'm thirsty, and I like, like, we don't we uh? We get bottled the five gallon jugs of water here because the water water where we live is shit and it's very full of heavy metals and shit. So I pay for water,

1:33:30 and so I went to the little water cooler thing and I filled up like a sixty four ounce mug that I have, and I drank two of them right off the bat. So I literally drank a gallon of water. As soon as I got up. You just sweated all out because it was all it was, all wrapped up in the blanket. Yeah, And she's my and my wife's looking at me. She's like, your mom was right? When did you talk to my mom? And she's like, well, she called this morning and I told her I couldn't wake you up, and she said, if it's been less than twenty hours, I shouldn't be freaking out because that's what you do when you get sick. And apparently your father does the same thing. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I've only seen dad get sick twice in like my entire life. But yes, that's what happens. We go, we go, we go to sleep, we go into a coma for like a day, and then we're fine. Huh. And so yeah, that just totally freaked her out. And that's crazy where I was going. I forgot the point of that story.

1:34:22 I don't know a little. I'm not I I tend to do that. That's okay, it's all good. Man. Well let me see, shoot's been going over an hour and a half. Yeah. I tend to do that too, by the way, I should have warned yet. No, No, I'm I'm fine with it. I'm good. I was just gonna say, uh, I want to keep going. But let's. I think you and I should stay in touch and probably do this again down cool. Oh that definitely, dude. This has been fun. This is a this is a good talk. Yeah. Look, there's nothing wrong with just being yourself and just riffing. And you know, I think I think this was great. It was good for I think it was good good for you, and I wanted to introduce you to my audience.

1:35:05 And I like what you do, man, I love I love your rants. You ever to come on my show too? I mean I'll do it. I'm good, I'm I want to get back. I did guests for a while, and I could just kind of got away from it just because every time I tried booking something, somebody, you know, something came up, somebody went wrong on something. It's hard. It's hard. So I just kind of got out of it for a little while because I was like, you know, I mean, the guest episodes are fun and I like doing them my audience, I mean, my listeners listen to the guest episodes too, and sometimes they find new stuff. But on the other hand, I was also for a while, I got kind of paranoid about it because like it was like during the big pod fade, where you know, a lot of the COVID podcasters stopped coviing because stopped podcasting because all of a sudden, they went back to having lives.

1:35:49 And it was like for a while, it was like every time I had a guest on the show died like three weeks later, and I'm like, people were just overwhelmed with it. Maybe I'm the problem. These people come and talk to me and then they realize I don't want to do this shit no more. Oh yeah, uh tell everybody where they can find you all that information real Quickfore we sign off and sure, let's. See I can be found on any and all of these podcast platforms by putting in I had to say it, and you look for a screaming grilla with a microphone and that is the right show. Otherwise you can go to I had to say at podcast dot com and there is a show there with there's links to you know, other other shows. I've interacted with guests, uh, people that I podcasts. I like things I recommend. It's I mean, really, it's it's just kind of my own little thing where it's like it's a landing platform, it's got ways to contact me, it's got like I said, but I see it more as like here's a bunch of other shit you guys should check out because I think it's cool and I think you'll think it's cool too. I mean, it really is kind of like my little like, hi, friends, look at this stuff because I look at my shiny rocks.

1:37:01 You know. It's it's it's things I've found that I think are cool and I want to share with other people. And so that's really what's at the website. I mean, yes, you can find me. But more more so, you're gonna find a bunch of shit I think is really cool. Other podcasts, other shows, you know. I mean, there's the links to the usual stuff like the buy me a coffee and the Patreon and which I'm kind of excited. I did the math the other day. If I can get four more Patreon subscribers, my Patreon will be a break even, which will be awesome because I'm like, you know, But on the other hand, I feel bad, like I don't want to take money from anybody. If you want to, that's great because like I said, look, I'm not I'm using the Royal you, not not the specific you. But oh no, no, I was gonna say, look, I look at it this way. I think I think people should hear your show. I I like how you support independent podcasts because like when you go to your site, you do list some independent people that that you recommend, which is great. Although I do need to update it because like I said, there's a bunch more of those Kisses of Death people on there. I need to move from A to the inactive section. It's just it's hard for me to keep up with it because honestly, and half the time I forget the website exists. Well, I mean I'm gonna say stop that I don't update it. It's just it's like I update like, oh, here's new stuff.

1:38:16 I don't go you know what I need to I need to prune some of these people because that part is like sad and I don't want to think about it. I'm like, no shiny new rocks. Well as when when you're independent, you don't have a staff to do all this, so it's like you got to find time on your day to do all these updates and like I said, edits and whatever, but the. Boss keeps getting mad at me when I do the stuff at works. I'm gonna encourage everybody to listen to you, and I'm gonna say it. I'm going to say, listen to Aaron's podcast, listen to I had to say it, and if you like them, by all means, buy him a fucking coffee. Just just just give him a little something for his efforts. So listen, man, thanks, I'm gonna have to. I'm about to end it. I think you and I both need a break after a long day here and appreciate it.

1:38:57 And yeah, I'll stay in touch and I'll definitely be on your show. Not a problem, man, Let's let's let's connect after this. Yeah, for sure, we'll set something up. We'll have some more Ranti, Ranti and zep on time. All right, Thank you Eron, appreciate it, my friend. Well as always, thanks for listening, and don't forget to follow, share, subscribe, and turn on notifications for World Ablaze. Find us on our website At www dot world Ablaze podcast dot com and don't forget to follow me on x at s Wants a Blaze