JoJo Siwa Felt “Pressured” To Be Gay & Nancy Pelosi Outperforms Largest Hedge Funds | Episode 43

So guys, in a shocking turn of events, Jojo Siwa might just be the most self-aware former child star out there.

Nancy Pelosi is of course profiting off of all of our chaos.

And guys, we have an update on the mother-daughter-only fans duo.

Now before we get into all of those stories, I feel like we do need to address the elephant in the room, everything that is going on in the world right now.

Now, I am filming this on Sunday afternoon because I'm going to be in Texas for the last leg of my tour, but I do want to talk about what happened last night.

Obviously, unless you have been living under a rock, which again, good for you, we did bomb Iran.

And so if over the next four days before this video comes out, shit hits the fan, I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry that I don't have the updates, but I think I should at least talk about it now.

But before I do, make sure that you are following our podcast page and please rate the show if you are enjoying it.

It helps us out so much.

And I am so grateful for all of you guys who have left reviews.

And of course, if you want to stay up to date on all of the Brett Cooper happenings, the future live events, the newsletter, all of that jazz, make sure to check out brettcooper.com.

Now, obviously, the first thing that I need to say about all of this is I just have to congratulate all of us on becoming foreign policy experts over the last couple of weeks because that really is what it feels like online right now.

I'm sort of joking, but also I'm not joking because everybody is talking about this like they know exactly what's going on.

And if you are coming to my channel hoping to get expert advice, you're not going to get it because you know what?

I don't know what's going on.

I don't really think anybody online other than Donald Trump and J.D.

Vance and Pete Hag Seth and Marco Rubio, I think they are literally the only ones who actually know what is going on.

So all of the influencers who are posting all of their speculations and their very cutthroat opinions about what is going to happen over the next week, I guarantee they really don't know what's going on.

Everything is just an opinion, even though everyone is trying to convince you that they are the expert on this matter.

And of course, on top of trying to convince all of us that they are the experts on this matter, they are also pointing the finger at everybody who disagrees with them and saying that they are controlled opposition or they are bought by one country or one group of people or another it is just ridiculous it is so chaotic and it is so hard to consume all of that content as a human race i don't think that we were designed to consume all of this at once to go from videos of iran being bombed to a shein ad to stories about jojo see what like we are literally just not designed for that.

But basically what I want to say is that I understand that it feels like we have been whipped around for the last couple of weeks because not only do these influencers not know what is going on, but the media has not known what is going on.

And it feels like every single day there has been a different story for why we are getting involved.

And I think a lot of people were apprehensive.

I was very apprehensive.

I am not interested in us being influenced by foreign countries.

I am not interested in us getting into another endless war in the Middle East.

So obviously I was apprehensive, but the stories kept changing on why we were getting involved.

So everybody was confused.

But I will tell you what I hope.

And what I hope more than anything is that Donald Trump is right.

I hope that this was well calculated.

I hope that this was something that was actually planned, that was not just a fast reaction because of something that Israel did.

Like, I just, I hope that this was as well thought out as he is saying.

And I hope that it all goes well.

I hope that it is over in a blip and that we are not dragged into something for the next five, 10, 15 years.

So, I am praying for that.

I am praying for American soldiers.

And I think that that is the best thing that we can all do right now because everything is just so damn uncertain.

But the one thing that is certain, and that is always certain in these situations, is that our politicians are going to profit off of all of this.

And I am sure they already are.

Like, I am sure that Nancy Pelosi is watching her stocks rise and fall as she has designed.

Because, guys, if you did not see her stock portfolio, she and her husband's outperformed the top hedge funds in America last year.

This is what the New York Post reported just a couple of days ago.

Pelosi raked in millions last year.

year and her portfolio outperformed every large hedge fund with stunning returns.

Stunning.

And they all have the gall to tell us that they actually have no insider information.

Everything that they're doing is completely above board.

It's totally fine.

Like, Nancy, I really don't think you and your husband are smarter than every other trader in America, but whatever, whatever you say.

Anyway, like I said, New York Post was reporting on this.

Apparently, we should all be following those accounts and those apps that help you follow Nancy's portfolio.

Because listen to this: Nancy Pelosi, Democratic California, as you know, breaked in between $7.8 and $42.5 million in 2024, meaning her estimated net worth with venture capitalist hubby Paul Pelosi could now top out at $413 million, according to new financial disclosures.

This staggering sum is an eye-popping jump from 2023 when financial disclosure showed the couple's net worth topping out at a possible 370 million.

Just those numbers alone, not even the jump, but just 370 million already is just insane.

And this is just a perfect example.

of how corrupt our government and our politicians are.

The New York Post went on and they said that the former House Speaker who's so infamous for trading, the Missouri rep Josh Holly named a bill after her and her husband dumped 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock worth an estimated of 2.2 million in July, one of their largest sales in three years, just a few short months before the FTC coincidentally announced an antitrust investigation into the tech giant.

What a just, what a coinka dank by Nancy.

Just shows good luck, apparently.

They also sold 2,000 shares worth an estimated $525,000 of Visa stock less than three months before the credit card company was hit with a DOJ monopoly lawsuit.

And guys, I know that we all hone in on Pelosi here because it is just so ridiculous and so glaring.

And she's kind of funny to mock and make fun of, but I want to be clear, she is not the only elected official who trades in this way or who has a huge portfolio.

95% of senators and representatives combined own stock.

And it's not just the Democrats.

Of that number, 59% are Republicans, 41% are Democrats.

So yes, Republicans are doing it too.

I saw one tweet about this.

This guy hit the nail on the head.

He was primarily talking about Democrats, but obviously it includes the Republicans as well.

But he said Democrats, and I would just swap that with corrupt politicians, are such hypocrites.

They say that they are for the people, but only for as long as they can stay in power, engaging in as much corruption as possible.

The fact that not one of them would ever give up their power and control in favor of a minority should have been the tell, as some of us suggested, a long time ago.

Another guy said it is called insider trading in the real world.

Congress cheats and get away with it, which is so true.

And this also happened five years ago at the start of COVID when a bunch of U.S.

senators allegedly violated the stock act by dumping stocks at the beginning of COVID-19, just before that wild stock market crash in February of 2020.

And they conveniently made those trades after a closed Senate hearing about COVID-19.

I mean, they move as stealthily and silently as the silencers from Silencer Shop.

Now, I know that you guys love your guns and you love the Second Amendment, so now imagine kicking your shooting experience up a notch.

With a suppressor from Silencer Shop, your range days get even better and your hunts become unforgettable.

Shooting suppressed is cooler, it's quieter, and honestly, it is just a heck of a lot more fun.

And yes, before you ask, silencers are legal and silencer shop makes getting one easier than ever.

Suppressors mean tighter groups, less kick, and no more ringing ears at the end of a range day.

So whether you are after that trophy buck or ringing steel targets or just enjoying the range with friends on a Saturday afternoon, adding a suppressor transforms your firearm from pretty good to downright amazing.

And Silencer Shop has the biggest and best selection of suppressors for any firearm and any shooting style.

But they do more than just just sell suppressors.

Silencer Shop is out there every single day defending our Second Amendment rights and fighting for our freedoms nationwide.

So do your guns and your rights as an American a favor.

So head on over to silencershop.com slash Cooper and see how much better your guns can be.

Silencer Shop is the go-to spot for getting a suppressor.

Again, that is silencershop.com slash Cooper to get started today.

But back to the corruption and back to COVID-19.

The Department of Justice investigated those alleged trades.

Obviously, that case was closed without prosecution.

Nothing happened.

Nothing ever happens.

Now, there are, of course, a few good eggs on both sides who have proposed legislation to try to quell this.

AOC is adamantly against it.

Josh Hawley is adamantly against it.

That legislation has gone nowhere, but it is often reintroduced.

I think Josh Holly reintroduced his legislation, which is called the Pelosi Act in April.

We'll see if it happens, but just know, there's so much chaos going on in the world.

We want to trust our elected officials.

There's a lot that happens behind the scenes that we don't know that do not benefit us in the slightest.

This is just another example of that.

And I know that this all sounds really negative and doom and gloom, but I am really not trying to blackpill you in this episode.

I am actually super excited to talk about this next story because it is very positive.

Like I am about to celebrate JoJo Siwa.

That has not happened on this show before.

That did not happen on my old show before, but it is a new day with Brett Cooper and JoJo Siwa.

And obviously, I like to make fun of people.

We like to laugh here.

But I also want to point out when somebody is doing something that I think is super healthy and is super productive and shows that they've had a lot of growth.

And I think that that is happening with JoJo Siwa.

So as we have now extensively covered, Jojo Siwa was on Big Brother recently and she had a bit of a transformation when it comes to her identity and her sexuality.

And she is now dating a man named Chris who she met on Big Brother.

And she just did her first big interview since leaving the show and starting to date a man for the first time.

And one thing with JoJo that I think a lot of people forget is that she is only 22 years old.

She is only a year younger than me and she has spent her entire life in the spotlight.

Like she grew up on RTV screens, on dance moms.

Kids were going to her concerts and her dance shows for years.

Like her entire life, she has been living with her mom and jur and under a microscope from the media.

And in reading through this new interview, this article that was done, it is actually shocking to see how much growth she has had.

The maturity, the gracefulness, and how forgiving she is.

And how, most importantly, how self-aware she is.

Like, it seems that she actually is very aware of everything that she has been doing publicly for the last three years and why she made those decisions, which I think is the most important part.

And if you don't know what I'm talking about, basically JoJo Siwa became an adult and she decided that she did not want to be seen as a child anymore or a teeny bop or performer.

And so she like wiped her whole social media and she was like, mature content warning, unfollow me if you're under age 18.

And she like started doing all this music and she was singing.

She was doing these music videos where she was like humping the beach.

It was very awkward.

very unfortunate, but it was all her way of signaling to the world that she is no longer a child and did not want to be seen as a child.

And she is now looking back on that like a year later and going, oh boy, that was a decision that I made.

Those are choices that I now kind of regret.

And I mean, like most child stars go through something like that.

They go through a huge identity crisis around that time as they're becoming an adult.

They want to be seen as an adult, but everybody still sees them as children.

Their fans are mostly children.

So they kind of have to like break away from that.

And we have seen basically every female child star go through this.

I mean, we saw it with Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande.

So obviously this was going to be basically expected from JoJo.

And she admits that in this interview, which again, I think is so mature and was so healthy.

So this is what they wrote.

By 2024, Jojo had to perform the tricky act that all child stars must.

She had to grow up.

She binned the bows, cut her hair, wore a lot of black leather, and released a song called Karma with the first line, I was a bad girl and I did some bad things.

It was all, she admits, nonsense.

Quote, I faked being naughty for a year.

I faked that I was screwing people right and left.

I think I wanted attention.

And I look back and I'm like, what were you doing?

You look crazy.

I mean, yeah, just a little bit.

I think we did about six episodes on JoJo and this whole transformation at the time.

And it was crazy.

And it was so obvious to most of the outside world that this was an act that she was putting on because she felt like this was the only way that she could communicate with people that she was grown up.

She was so desperate to break out of the hot pink bows and sparkles and dance performances that she felt like she had to go that far.

And I mean, guys, on some level, I feel like all of us can probably relate to this.

Like I think that everyone went through some kind kind of awkward, weird identity crisis as we were becoming adults, but most of us were just lucky that we did it without being watched by millions and millions of fans online and having that pressure and feeling like you need to break out of that child's stardom even more than us just being like, how do we adult and where do we fit in?

Like the pressure on her was so much more intense.

But what's interesting is that our culture has changed this identity crisis that used to be about, you know, style and the music that you would listen to and your personality into something that revolves around sexuality like we see this across the board with teenagers today like half of them want to rebel against the norm and rebel against their parents and just be different so they express this by coming out as queer or bisexual and probably because they are seeking community and the lgbtq community is basically the biggest and most inclusive thing that you can be a part of if you are seeking that in your life which a lot of young people are because it's weird and it's awkward and it's hard growing up and developing in that way.

And so for Jojo, even though I think that there are a lot of actresses and musicians out there who kind of use this as a way to reach a new fan base, like I don't think that this was a way for her to sell tickets or queer bait, whatever that term is that they use.

I think that it was her way to give herself a literal new identity separate from what we all knew of her as a child and to make people stop looking at her as a child, a way of becoming an adult in the eyes of the public.

And the LGBTQ community, unfortunately, has become so toxic that once you say you are one thing and that you're part of them, you must stick with it.

Like we've been talking about that for the last couple of weeks.

All these women who are bisexual who are now dating men, it's like, oh my God, you can't do that.

Now you're not one of us.

Like it's so, so toxic.

It's almost like a cult.

And that is what JoJo is now reeling from.

And in this interview, she talks about that pressure that she felt from within her own inclusive and loving and tolerant community.

The article goes on and they write of her sexuality.

Jojo says that she is queer, the umbrella term for people who identify other than straight, and says, quote, when I came out at 17, I said, I'm pansexual because I don't care about gender, but then I kind of boxed myself in and said, okay, I'm a lesbian.

And I think I did that because of the pressure.

Where did that pressure come from?

Quote, in a weird way, I think that it a little bit came from inside the LGBTQ community at times, from people I know, from partners I've had.

You just get put into this world where you feel like because you have now said, oh, I'm a lesbian, you have to be a lesbian.

And the truth is, sexuality is fluid.

And immediately upon reading this, my brain goes to the trans craze with young people.

Like, this is what is so dangerous about transgenderism among children and enabling this and validating it in them because kids are just figuring things out.

They are experimenting.

They are rebelling against the norms.

And I have so much respect for JoJo for being open and real about this journey because nobody else wants to face the facts that in almost all of these cases, the kids who come out, they change their minds.

But unfortunately, transitioning is a lot more severe than just saying, I'm a lesbian one day and then deciding you're not the next.

Like it has irreversible consequences, especially if you go down that path of actually medically transitioning.

I mean, take a look at this 15-year study that came out of the Netherlands last year.

A major study carried out in the Netherlands over a 15-year period has found that the majority of children who experience gender dysphoria grow out of it by the time that they are adults.

This is a fad.

It is experimentation.

It is kids trying to find their way and feeling awkward and uncomfortable in puberty and trying to understand where they fit into this weird world as adults.

That is what was going on with JoJo.

And thank God she didn't transition.

Thank God she doesn't have to detransition.

Thank God she was able to meet somebody who she can fall in love with and kind of get out of this and understand that she was facing so much pressure.

But a lot of people unfortunately don't.

And for a lot of young people, as they grow up, they realize that there is so much more to life and so much more to them than who they prefer to sleep with at one point in their life.

And while JoJo did not directly say this, another thing that really stood out to me in this interview was the fact that she desperately wants to be a mom and she wants to have kids.

In the interview, they kind of had this little like parentheses at the bottom of a paragraph and they say, before the photo shoot, we go to coffee and when a father and a baby walk past us, Jojo says, God, I want kids so much.

Like she's a normal girl.

She is a normal girl figuring things out.

Unfortunately, it's very public and it's been very awkward and uncomfortable and intense and very strange at times.

But she's normal and it's okay to be gay or lesbian.

It's okay if you don't want to have kids.

I'm not here to judge you.

But it is also okay to want to be with a man, to wanna have kids, to change your mind about something that you said when you were 18 years old.

So to the extreme leftists out there, stop judging us and stop judging judging JoJo for doing what a normal young person does as she just figures out her life.

And I hope that she stays as happy as she seems right now.

I hope she goes on to have so many cute little babies who at seven weeks are the size of a coffee bean, which is why my favorite coffee company is called Seven Weeks Coffee.

Now, as you guys know, Alex and I are very picky about what ingredients we bring into our home and Seven Weeks Coffee hits the mark.

This coffee is mold-free, it is pesticide-free, it's shade-grown, low-acid, and it is organically farmed.

Not to mention, most importantly, they also have an incredible mission.

Seven Weeks Coffee is America's pro-life coffee company on a mission to help fund the pro-life movement one cup of coffee at a time.

They donate 10% of every sale to support pregnancy care centers and pro-life organizations around the country.

And at this point, they have raised over $900,000 for these centers and have saved thousands of lives.

They truly make an incredible product with incredible standards.

And I love that I can stand behind both the ingredients and the values.

So if you are ready to make the switch to Seven Weeks Coffee, just go to sevenweekscoffee.com slash brett and you will save 15% forever when you subscribe plus you'll get a free gift with your order.

And exclusively for all of the Cooper Troopers out there, make sure to use code Brett at checkout for an extra 10% on your first order.

So that means that if you subscribe, that is a total of 25% off savings on your first order plus that free gift.

Just use code Brett at checkout.

And while we're on the topic of pro-life companies, I also want to tell you guys about pre-born.

Because when a woman faces an unplanned pregnancy, her entire world is shaken.

And most of these mothers, they want to make the right choice, but often in this culture, everyone around her insists that it it is just a clump of cells, not a life, and that she should just take the easy way out.

And Pre-born's mission is to empower women with the choice of life.

Their network of clinics provide women with the care and resources that they need to choose their baby and have a successful pregnancy and start to motherhood.

And that all begins with an ultrasound from Pre-born.

Because with an unplanned pregnancy, an ultrasound doubles a baby's chance at life.

Twice as many women choose life when they see their baby or their babies on the ultrasound.

And in just last year, Pre-Born rescued over 67,000 babies through ultrasounds alone, and they are not stopping anytime soon.

And today, you can join them on their mission to do that.

One ultrasound is just $28, and you can play a part in helping a mother choose life.

Save a baby for just $28 a month.

Please get involved today.

Just visit preborn.com slash brett.

Again, that is preborn.com slash brett.

Now, even though I just gave you this kind of holier than thou, empathetic speech on why we shouldn't judge JoJo Siwa and people like her, I do think that we need to keep judging the OnlyFans mother-daughter duo.

And that obviously obviously would be Denise Richards and Sammy Sheen.

And their story is not over yet, much to my excitement, because that means that we have more to talk about.

Now, in case you missed the story, you can go back to a previous episode we did.

It was about two months ago.

We covered this insanity, but basically, Charlie Sheen, the actor, he has an ex-wife, Denise Richards, who is also a famous actress.

They have a daughter named Sammy.

And Sammy, right after her 18th birthday, of course, as all modern women are apparently doing these days, she made an OnlyFans.

But it wasn't just the fact that she made an OnlyFans because 10 days later, her mother, Denise Richards, decided that she also wanted to be part of the fun and she also made an OnlyFans.

So now they are this like OnlyFans duo.

It is very chaotic.

It is very dysfunctional.

We went into all of that on a previous episode.

So we will link that below.

But while all of that was going on, while all of this dysfunction was like erupting in their home, Sammy's younger sister, Denise's middle daughter, was going in the completely opposite direction.

And that younger sister is named Lola.

And so, around the time that all this was happening, Lola got baptized.

She found God and she started making videos online about her relationship with Christ and how it had saved her.

Just take a watch.

Before I had Jesus,

when I would get hit with depression, I would think that I'm back to square one.

I'm back to where I used to be.

When I'm hit with a wave of depression, I feel him testing me to see if I will still trust him in those moments and

if I will still praise him him the same in those moments and so

it's such a blessing for me to still experience those feelings because I get to draw

you know Jesus is the only strength that I have in that moment and if you go to her social media she has tons of videos like this they are so genuine they are so pure but it also is just so hysterical knowing the dichotomy of her family like knowing the fact that she was having to sit and film that reality TV show that Denise Richards is doing where they're talking about OnlyFans selling their bodies, that being the only avenue for sammy sheen to make money and be able to move out of the house meanwhile she's sitting here she's found god and she is reading her bible on tick tock like no wonder she had to find god if that was the house that she was living in obviously she needed a way to cope with that kind of insanity which is a very personal decision and it should be respected it seems like a very healthy one but apparently her only fans sister Sammy does not agree.

But what really sent their relationship over the edge and now has me talking about this is the fact that lola allegedly according to her sister started reposting transphobic and bigoted videos on tick tock allegedly like this one so god loves us enough to give human beings free will which gives us the choice to choose god or not anything outside of the original design would be considered perverted in sin right if god designed allie as a boy and then allie is now claiming to be a girl right you would be outside of this original design that god has and god says no I actually designed you as a boy.

Now, not only did Lola allegedly repost this on TikTok, but she also reposted it during Pride Month, which is the cardinal sin of all cardinal sins in the LGBTQ Bible, apparently.

Now, when I go to Lola's TikTok, I do not see this video anymore.

I don't know if she removed it or what happened, but either way, it started this huge fight between the two sisters.

And Sammy then took to TikTok and she made a four-minute long video about how transphobic her sister is and how disappointed she is in her.

Because, of course, it's 2025.

So, when you have an issue in your family, you don't go talk to them.

Instead, you air it out on social media.

And apparently, she says she made this video because Lola blocked her.

So, she wanted to make it all public.

But at one point in the video, she says, and I quote, I am part of the effing LGBTQ plus community.

That's news to me.

Good for her, I guess.

And I wish my sister was an effing ally.

It is honestly disgusting, close-minded behavior.

So, again, this is a Pride Month fight.

Anyway, just watch.

This is what she she had to say.

It disgusts me because it's so sad that she's this conformed to her religion that now she thinks like this.

I understand everyone has their own beliefs, but you don't have to, you don't have to be transphobic or homophobic to follow your beliefs, okay?

It's disgusting that she's found God, but your lifestyle.

Selling your body online, oh no, that is totally, totally fine.

That should be respected.

You can't respect her lifestyle, but you're expecting her to respect you and everything that you are doing.

that goes against her entire value system in return.

I mean, just make it make sense.

Now, the last part of this that I will show you is that a few minutes later in this video, she, of course, starts to crap on men.

I also asked her how she would feel about me if I ended up marrying a girl.

And she got really weird and was like, well, I mean,

I guess I would come to the wedding, but I think every woman needs a man to provide for them.

Right.

Yeah, because men are so amazing.

It's just really sad that I'm related to someone like this when we've both been raised the same way.

And I am a part of the fucking LGBTQ community.

And I wish my sister was a fucking ally.

It's just so sad.

Every part of this is just low-key, high-key, depressing that my sister is not destroying her entire framework and her value system to appease the current thing that I am doing in my life.

And of course, Sammy, you don't think that men are great.

Like, look at who your father is and how he has raised you and what you are doing as a career.

Like, of course, you are only going to have bad experiences with men because you sexualize yourself on the internet and you sell your body.

Of course, you are going to attract gross men.

And I hate to bring it to you, but there are great men out there.

They just simply are not your subscribers on OnlyFans.

And maybe if you would have a conversation with your sister that was not full of judgment and hatred of her religion, maybe you could start to understand that.

And the other thing that I want to say about this that I found so interesting is that in this video, she kept saying like, we were raised in the same tolerant household.

We were raised by the same parents.

How could she be so different from me?

It's like, like, well, she could say the same thing about you.

And yet she's not.

Like Lola, to her credit, has gracefully gone through all of this.

She has gracefully sat on the couch throughout the entire reality show where you guys have talked about your weird dysfunctional sexual jobs.

She has talked people through her relationship with Christ.

She has not attacked you once publicly.

Even though you have gone on completely different paths, her reposting something is not a direct attack on you.

And yet you are the one who decided to make a four minute video going after everything she believes and everything she stands for, which unfortunately is just going to make this already insane family dynamic just that much more dysfunctional.

And I also think that this is just such an important lesson, especially for those of us who grew up in dysfunctional families or maybe you're going through that right now, is that there are always two paths.

You can follow the paths of your parents or the standards that are set by the generations who came before you, or you can break through.

You can be the exception.

You can change the narrative of your life and your family, even when they are all all doing insane things right in front of you that you unfortunately kind of have to be involved in.

Like even in that environment, you have the opportunity to make a change and be different and break through those generational trends.

And I think that that is what Lola is doing right now.

And I hope that she stays the course.

I hope that she is undeterred.

And I hope that in two months or a year or five years, I get to sit down and make a video and say, you know what, Denise Richards, Sammy Sheen, they saw the light.

They changed their ways.

She realized what she was doing is wrong.

They've apologized.

I hope that that happens because that would be the most positive outcome for everyone.

No matter if you are somebody who consumes their content, whether that is their reality TV show or their OnlyFans, or whether you are just somebody who stumbles upon the story because you also were raised in a dysfunctional household.

So that is what I hope comes out of the story.

Now, of course, we could not do an episode about Hollywood and entertainment if there was not somebody who was crapping on things that they did 10 years ago in the name of social justice.

And that is exactly what is happening.

happening with the director of Slum Dog Millionaire.

So Danny Boyle, who is the director of Slum Dog Millionaire, who is most known for Slum Dog Millionaire, who was nominated for Oscars for Slum Dog Millionaire, who made millions off of Slum Dog Millionaire, is now turning his back on the film and his own legacy and said that he would not make the film, that the film could not be made in today's culture because of cultural appropriation.

This is what he said.

Quote, we would not be able to make that now.

And that's how it should be.

It's time to reflect on all of that.

Oh yeah, we're listening and learning.

We're reflecting, guys.

We have to look at the cultural baggage we carry and the mark that we have left on the world.

Is he saying that the the production itself amounted to a form of colonialism?

No, no, no, no, he says.

Well, he doesn't want to take that responsibility, of course.

Well, only in the sense that everything is.

At the time, it felt radical.

We made the decision that only a handful of us would go to Mumbai.

We would work with a big Indian crew and try to make a film within the culture.

But you are still an outsider.

It is still a flawed model.

That kind of cultural appropriation might be sanctioned at certain times, but at other times, it cannot be.

I mean, I am proud of the film, but you wouldn't even contemplate doing something like that today.

It wouldn't even get financed.

Even if I was involved, I'd be looking for a young Indian filmmaker to shoot it.

So he is saying that because he is a white man, he could not make Slum Dog Millionaire today, that he could not and should not be telling the story.

But the one thing that stands out to me and everything that he's saying is that they were actually very involved in the culture.

They went to Mumbai.

They shot the film there.

They worked with an Indian crew.

Like they were ahead of their time.

It seems like they were doing everything possible to be engaged in the culture and actually tell this story authentically.

It's not like they made a set of Mumbai in Hollywood at Paramount Studios and had an entirely white cast and white crew that had no idea about any kind of Indian culture.

He actually got involved.

Like, I thought that that was what Hollywood was supposed to be doing.

But apparently, that's not enough, or he doesn't think it's enough.

And he's going to say that it's not enough in order to get some attention in the year 2025.

And you know what?

It really is easy to say all of this in retrospect after you have already profited off of the film because Slum Dog Millionaire made $378 million at the box office.

Like, I don't see you donating any of of that back to Mumbai.

I don't see you starting scholarships for Indian filmmakers.

You're sitting pretty in your Hollywood mansion making hundreds of millions of dollars saying, oh yeah, what I did was really wrong.

I couldn't do that today.

Okay.

If you feel that strongly about it, then fix the situation.

You're obviously not going to do that.

You are, again, just saying this to get attention.

But even more importantly than that is the fact that this ideology, this argument that he's making is so completely outrageous and it does not make any sense.

Like only people who have a lived experience in a certain story can tell that story.

Like nobody can make a movie about the Holocaust unless they were actually there.

Like was Gladiator then cultural appropriation?

Was Ben-Hur cultural appropriation because Romans weren't making it?

Like it genuinely does not make sense.

I guess we have to bar the English directors from coming over to America and making American movies because, oh, they don't have the lived experience.

No, that's never going to happen because it's ridiculous.

And it would also stop great stories from being told.

Because what you're doing is actively stifling creativity, which a lot of people online have rightfully pointed out.

Like this person who said, pigeonholing yourself in the name of cultural appropriation is a lame way to stifle one's creativity.

Sum Dog Millionaire is great.

And the mark of a good writer, director, or any type of creator is being able to engage audiences while telling stories outside of your lived experiences.

Like that is the whole point of being an actor.

Like the great actors that you see in all of these movies, they did not grow up like those characters did.

They did not have those exact lived experiences.

They're a great actor because they can put themselves in those people's shoes and make you believe that they have those lived experiences.

The fact that a director can come in and not know anything about a culture, but can spend months engaging with the script, engaging with the cast and the crew and the story and the context and everything, and make something so beautiful that all of us sitting in the audience feel like we were actually there.

That is what it means to be great.

That is what it means to see great art.

And if you put up all these barriers and you say things like only gay people can play gay characters and only Indian directors can direct Indian films like it is just so ridiculous, and you are going to box out so many incredible pieces of art.

So, maybe the lesson here today is to just stay on your own path.

Don't listen to what these people are saying.

Make the art that you want to make.

Tell the stories that you want to make.

Date the people that you want to date.

Follow the religion that you want to follow.

Because if you are genuinely being authentically yourself and boxing out all of this noise, I guarantee you will be happier.

All right, bud.

Let's go over this again.

You said you are Wagu adjacent.

We, I am premium.

Imported.

My marbling is magnifique.

So that's supposed to explain why somebody paid $40 for you even though you have a freezer burn from a month-long boat ride?

We, that is the price of sophistication.

Sophistication?

Right.

Even though you are stuffed in a crate labeled product of unknown origin.

I am a citizen of the world.

You just do not understand.

What I understand is that the best meat comes from American farms.

And you?

You are just overpriced and over-traveled.

Okay, fine.

You caught me.

At least I'm not plant-based.

Listen, bud, tell it to the grill.

You don't want meat that needed a passport to get here.

You want Good Ranchers.

100% American, tariff-proof, and absolutely delicious.

Get $40 off and free meat for life with code Brett.

Goodranchers.com, American Meat Delivered.