"Are You In A Cult?" YES or NO: Mary Morgan

26m
In this episode of YES or NO, Michael Knowles and Mary Morgan tackle the toughest, most controversial questions over stiff drinks and sharp debates. From woke ideology and political movements to modern-day cult behaviors, nothing is off-limits.

Is blind allegiance to political parties, social causes, or even fandoms turning people into cult followers? Michael and Mary break it all down—no dodging, just YES or NO!

- - -

Today’s Sponsor:

Helix - Visit https://helixsleep.com/knowles to get 20% off sitewide.

Press play and read along

Runtime: 26m

Transcript

Speaker 1 Are men who refuse to physically work out their bodies by definition lazy buttersoft lips? I feel like a lot of the men who are really into working out are pretty gay.

Speaker 1 I am Michael Rowland.

Speaker 2 Welcome to Yes or No, the bibulous battle to discover who knows whom better. My guest today is Mary Morgan, host of Pop Culture Crisis.
We will see a clip of her show later. How do we play?

Speaker 2 I will ask Mary a yes or no question. She will select her answer away from my prying eyes.
Then, I will guess how she answered. If I guess correctly, I get a point.

Speaker 2 If I guess incorrectly, I lose a point. No matter how I guess, I probably will drink.
Then it's Mary's turn. Neither of us has seen the questions beforehand.

Speaker 2 The questions cover various and sundry topics, from the philosophical to the anatomical, and everything in between.

Speaker 2 Whoever has the most points wins. The stakes could be higher.
Mary Morgan, thank you for being here.

Speaker 1 Thank you for having me. I'm really just here to day drink.

Speaker 2 I understand. In fact, I matched your drink.
I never matched the drink of my guest, but we got this fancy botanical gin for your G and T.

Speaker 1 It's delicious. I already pre-gamed it.

Speaker 2 You did. That's good.

Speaker 2 We haven't even picked a card yet. I like it.
I'm channeling my inner anglo for a GNT today. Shall we have a wager?

Speaker 1 I think we should. Okay.

Speaker 2 Whoever loses has to send any tweet of the winner's choosing. Is that a high stake?

Speaker 1 It's high enough. It's high enough.
I would say it's a kind of a middle-tier stake. I want to hack your account.
Okay, great.

Speaker 2 All right, you got it. Let me know if you find the password.
I have no idea.

Speaker 2 Mary Morgan, even though you're a lady, I have been demanded by the producers that I go first.

Speaker 2 I find it very wrong and unchivalrous, but so be it.

Speaker 2 Is hentai so popular? What is, who writes this disgusting film? Is hentai so popular on adult websites because anime is inherently gay?

Speaker 1 So the question is, is hentai popular because anime is gay?

Speaker 2 Hentai is anime, I take it, from this question?

Speaker 2 Yes. Okay.

Speaker 1 Yes, Michael.

Speaker 2 Is hentai so popular on adult websites because anime is inherently gay? All right.

Speaker 2 You would say no.

Speaker 1 And you know, both parts of that question just made sense to me.

Speaker 2 Right?

Speaker 1 Hentai is popular. Anime is gay.

Speaker 1 Both of those things are true.

Speaker 2 Is hentai popular?

Speaker 1 Yeah, unfortunately.

Speaker 2 Why would someone want to look at a cartoon? If you're going to do that anyway, why not look at

Speaker 2 a real person?

Speaker 1 It's just about as real as other people.

Speaker 2 Anything else on glittering images? Yeah. I guess certainly

Speaker 2 is gay

Speaker 2 because it's, you know, it's just you in a room looking at an image and whatever ensues that's that would be a same-sex thing because it's only right right and and usually

Speaker 1 I don't want to get graphic but you're watching a woman with another man which is cuckoldry right but that's not gay but that's not really gay still humiliating yes but and anime brought it like Pokemon is gay

Speaker 1 I am very anti-anime people don't know this about me and when I bring it up they get very angry.

Speaker 2 But are you anti-anime because of your homophobia or because of something else?

Speaker 1 It's a Venn diagram that's almost a circle, okay?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I am emphatically anti-anime. Why?

Speaker 1 In the same way that Matt Walsh is anti-anime. Like, it's just satanic.

Speaker 1 And I don't need to explain myself. Like, it just is.

Speaker 2 Is there not...

Speaker 2 Is there not like a wholesome kind of anime or are the Japanese just a totally wholesome? There's something that

Speaker 1 there is a genre of anime that pretends to be wholesome like these slice of life shows with slice of life but when you think about it

Speaker 1 these are shows about little schoolgirls and there are grown men watching it and they're like oh how cute but it's not but you're not but it's not gay i want my point back is what i'm saying you're no i don't mean it's homosexual i mean it's gay

Speaker 2 i think we've been talking past each other this power okay no no no okay there's a difference between something being homosexual and something being gay.

Speaker 2 So gay, but it doesn't.

Speaker 1 In the pejorative sense of the word.

Speaker 2 Okay, fine. All right.
I lose my point. You're up.

Speaker 1 Are men who refuse to physically work out their bodies, by definition, lazy, buttersoft lives?

Speaker 2 Lazy, buttersoft libs, huh?

Speaker 2 You're so right, Mary, because you've got an example of virility right in front of you. Yeah, it's so true.

Speaker 1 I already knew that about you, though, so I'm just staying in your good grace.

Speaker 2 But you might have thought that I would say, no, you're I'm a lazy buttersoft lib.

Speaker 1 But I feel like a lot of the men who are really into working out are pretty gay.

Speaker 2 Yes, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 Like there's something pretty gay about it. We're talking a lot about gayness.

Speaker 2 My producer clearly has something on his mind.

Speaker 1 I'm not in the mirror with each other. Like, yeah, you look so good, bro.

Speaker 2 Yeah. It's like the YMCA.

Speaker 2 Which is great great now. I've been reliably informed.

Speaker 1 No, I mean, that guy can sue me. That's a gay anthem.

Speaker 2 You think of a guy like old school men. Think of Gary Cooper, John Wayne.
Did these guys work out? You think they were gym rats on an elliptical? Just like, oh, I've got to look good for...

Speaker 2 No, they were men, you know.

Speaker 1 What were they doing instead?

Speaker 2 Well, they were riding horses instead.

Speaker 1 Riding horses, farm work.

Speaker 2 Slaughtering Indians in the movies. Yeah.
Yeah, that's true. I don't know what to do.

Speaker 2 Where should I put this? Put that card right here. Oh, okay.
Okay.

Speaker 2 We need to watch this video first. Oh, okay.

Speaker 3 Thank you so much for giving me a chance to win a VMA award.

Speaker 2 Yo, Taylor,

Speaker 2 I'm really happy for you. I'm going to let you finish.
But Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.

Speaker 2 One of the best videos of all time.

Speaker 2 Did Kanye actually save Taylor from Beyoncé?

Speaker 2 It was emphatic and quick.

Speaker 1 I thought about this.

Speaker 2 You're correct. How did he save her?

Speaker 1 Well, the rumor has it that all of these artists at the Grammys are obligated to pay their fealty to Beyoncé. Every time that they win an award over her, they have to give her all the credits.

Speaker 2 Queen Bee.

Speaker 1 Yeah, she's the Queen Bee.

Speaker 1 And if they don't,

Speaker 2 well,

Speaker 1 I'm not going to say out loud what happens next. But

Speaker 1 that's the rumor that her and Jay-Z pretty much pressure the rest of the music industry to worship them.

Speaker 2 Because they're involved in the Illuminati and the occult.

Speaker 1 But for the record, Kanye actually was right.

Speaker 1 Her music video was better than Taylor Swift's.

Speaker 2 Was it? I don't remember either of them.

Speaker 1 I think it was for single ladies.

Speaker 2 Oh, that was a good idea.

Speaker 1 Compared to Love Story?

Speaker 1 Yeah, that was a way better music video. Not a better song, in my opinion, but a better music video.

Speaker 2 But overall, Beyonce is quite.

Speaker 1 Technically, he was correct.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 1 It's not like he needed to point it out.

Speaker 2 What else do you think he was correct about?

Speaker 1 It's a sensitive time.

Speaker 2 Okay, you're up. All right.

Speaker 1 Michael, was this an appropriate answer? We have another video.

Speaker 4 Mr. Buckling, do you think mini skirts are in good taste?

Speaker 4 Do I think what? Mini skirts are in good taste.

Speaker 2 On you, I think they are.

Speaker 2 Good legs are in good taste. Good legs, I never would have figured you for that kind.

Speaker 2 Good legs are in good taste.

Speaker 1 Is that an appropriate answer?

Speaker 2 He was a married man at that time.

Speaker 1 Oh, was he?

Speaker 1 Hmm.

Speaker 2 Give me my point. Let's go.
You see how I got in her head? You see that little...

Speaker 1 It was so obvious, too.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I let you know. That was nice.
Because

Speaker 2 now, you know, now in our modern culture, the response to that is he would would like pounce on her or something, or they'd go get, they'd join like a polycule of, you know, orgies and things.

Speaker 2 But back in the day, that was really edgy. To just like kind of be a little flirtatious in a joking way with a woman.
I think that's

Speaker 2 getting back to that is better than now. Everyone takes all of these things so seriously.
On the one hand, you know, if you

Speaker 2 look at, if Justin Beldoni looks at Blake Lively, that's this big sexual harassment case. But then on the other hand, everyone's encouraged to cheat on their spouses and do all sorts of weird stuff.

Speaker 2 So getting back to that, that's appropriate.

Speaker 1 I agree with your take, but also, what do you think of her question? Do you think mini skirts are in good taste?

Speaker 2 There's a table here. I can't tell if you're wearing a mini skirt.
You would never wear it. I actually am.
Are you really? Yes, I actually am. Wow.

Speaker 1 But you can be honest if you think they're in bad taste.

Speaker 2 I'm not saying women need to go full burqa. I don't encourage that.
A nice tasteful niqab or

Speaker 2 an abaya, I think.

Speaker 1 But the eyes are so seductive.

Speaker 2 They are.

Speaker 2 You're right. You're right.
They have to go full Burka. Okay, that's my answer.

Speaker 2 We live in a... Burka with sunglasses?

Speaker 2 Even, yeah, or with a full one. You don't even see it because there's like the veil in between the eyes.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I think back in those days, look, it was the swing in the 60s, and people were experimenting with the sexual revolution, but we realized sexual revolution has gone very wrong.

Speaker 2 And so I think Wahhabis Cheek is back. All right, sick.
Right now, go to helixleep.com/slash knolls. I adore my helix mattress, okay?

Speaker 2 And when I was a bachelor, I thought, oh, how much difference could a mattress make, right? Then you try Helix. It is incredible how much better your sleep will become.

Speaker 2 No more tossing and turning all night. It's that persistent sleep problem that you used to have that will be gone.
What makes Helix different is their personalized approach.

Speaker 2 They actually take the time to match you with the perfect mattress for your specific needs. Okay, I've had my Helix for like five years now.

Speaker 2 I'm such a good father that I gave my son a beautiful Helix mattress for his first bed. Now my second son is getting ready to move from the crib to the bed.

Speaker 2 And I'm considering, because I don't want one of them to get a complex, you know, I'm considering even treating my second son to a beautiful top of the line helix mattress.

Speaker 2 When you are getting better sleep, everything else falls into place from your productivity to your overall well-being.

Speaker 2 If you want to make the most of your sleep right now, go to helixleep.com slash knolls. Make the most of their March Madness sale.
Helix Sleep.com slash Knowles, get 20% off site wide.

Speaker 2 HelixSleep.com slash Knolls.

Speaker 2 Mary, since you're a believer, are you technically

Speaker 2 an occult?

Speaker 1 Did you say believer?

Speaker 2 A believer.

Speaker 1 A believer. A believer.

Speaker 2 Oh, oh.

Speaker 1 Incorrect. No.
This is not a cult. I didn't know that I was going to get exposed for being a believer.

Speaker 2 I had no idea. He's good, though.
He's talented. He is.

Speaker 1 And there's been no one else to do it like him.

Speaker 2 He seems kind of mainstream, though, because you have like a cool, edgy aesthetic, like you're like a cool girl. But Bieber is so vanilla.
He's so mainstream.

Speaker 1 Well, okay, full transparency.

Speaker 1 Before I was emo,

Speaker 1 I was obsessed with Justin Bieber like crazy. Like I had multiple life-size cardboard cutouts of Justin Bieber in my childhood bedroom, posters everywhere.

Speaker 2 Why do you need multiple cardboard cutouts? Wouldn't one suffice?

Speaker 1 One is not enough. He has to be staring at me from all angles.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 2 What was it about him?

Speaker 1 It was his white boy swag.

Speaker 1 Really. And there's no one else who has that these days.

Speaker 2 like name one other but wasn't his white boy other than you like who else has white boy swag because when I think of white boy swag I think of like vineyard vines in a barber jacket his it seems to me his white boy swag was more of a black guy swag like he was a white guy doing kind of black guy stuff no but it's not like he was he wasn't like larping as something he wasn't you know he was a you're saying he was a kind of a trans-urban

Speaker 2 on the inside he was truly that person that was his authentic self i think you're getting

Speaker 1 white boy swag confused with Wigger.

Speaker 2 No,

Speaker 2 no, that's what I'm saying. I'm saying, yes, you're right.
I guess the way that you're using it, I assume you're conflating the two of those. Well, what's the difference?

Speaker 1 I think you can compare Justin Bieber back then

Speaker 1 to

Speaker 1 Travis Kelsey now and see the difference between white boy swag and wigger.

Speaker 2 Okay. Travis Kelsey definitely white boy swag.

Speaker 1 No. He does not have white boy swag.
No, Travis Kelsey is the wigger.

Speaker 2 Really?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Justin Bieber has the white boy swag.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 2 I need to.

Speaker 1 But also incredible vocalist. Yes.
He's naturally a star.

Speaker 2 Do I have white boy swag?

Speaker 1 I think you do. I do.
Even though you're Italian.

Speaker 2 Yeah. It's a little swarthy.
It's a little liminal case. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Okay.
You're up. All right.

Speaker 1 Should women ever be firefighters or police?

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 2 They should not be. They should not be.
Yeah, that was easy.

Speaker 1 Obviously not. That was easy.
That'd be crazy.

Speaker 2 Oh, but if they meet the standard. What if they meet the standard? Like, what if they meet the standard? Then

Speaker 1 it's meritocratic.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but wishes were horses, beggars would ride. I know.
It's so crazy when they say, well, what if it's a standards? It's like, well, what if they're like much smaller and physically weaker?

Speaker 2 As a, just in principle. Okay.
They're not going to meet the standards.

Speaker 1 Let's think about the edge case, like this woman who fits the physical strength of endurance

Speaker 1 standards of the average male firefighter. Yeah.
Maybe she's out there somewhere. She's mentally insane for wanting to be a firefighter.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 1 So she shouldn't be one.

Speaker 2 And also, you just don't want to compromise like team fitness.

Speaker 2 If you're with a bunch of dudes and you're going to go fight a fire or go chase bad guys or whatever, you're going to operate in a certain way.

Speaker 2 The minute you introduce a lady into that mix and you're sending a lady into a burning building or to catch bullets from some gangster or something, men are going to just react differently to protect women, which is good.

Speaker 2 Like you want that reaction. But even if the woman really wants to and even if in some world she like we pretend that she met the standards or something like

Speaker 2 still too bad. It's like this is about public service and that doesn't serve the common good and the purpose of these units.

Speaker 1 It's funny. This whole like DEI firefighter discourse is what revealed to me.
There are so many people on the right

Speaker 1 who are also mad that men and women are different.

Speaker 2 I know. And they can't get over it.

Speaker 2 Everyone's a real tough guy when it comes to like, we shouldn't trans the kids or whatever. Right.
But there are many feminists, practical feminists on the right.

Speaker 2 And there are many people who deny biological differences and think that men and women should behave like each other, just don't put on a dress or something. I know, it's not good.

Speaker 2 My best-selling game, yes or no, sold exclusively in the Daily Wire shop, dailywire.com slash shop. It is expanding yet.

Speaker 2 Again, the all-new dating and relationships expansion pack is now available for pre-order.

Speaker 2 Test your relationships and how well you know those around you by exploring such topics as stay-at-home girlfriends are just modern day concubines. Fur babies are replacing children.

Speaker 2 Contraception is gay. Pre-order yours now to be the first in line to get your dating and relationships expansion pack.
Dailywire.com slash shop

Speaker 2 today.

Speaker 2 Are you ready?

Speaker 1 So ready.

Speaker 2 This is

Speaker 2 the rapid fire round.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 Very intense. All right.
That's the point of it. All right.
Get you sweating a little bit. I'm going to run through three prompts.

Speaker 2 And you're going to answer, and I'm going to give you your answer, but we're not going to discuss it. We're just going to fly through them.
30 seconds. Are you prepared?

Speaker 1 Okay. I think I'm prepared.

Speaker 2 Would you be okay with an arranged marriage?

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 1 Correct.

Speaker 2 There we go. Let's go.
Right now, is Elon Musk probably the second most important man in America?

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 No. First most important?

Speaker 2 Yes. Wow.

Speaker 2 On Halloween, do you just dress normally?

Speaker 2 Who wrote that? That's outrageous.

Speaker 2 Because you dray all the black and everything, you know.

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 2 No. You're right.
Okay, all right.

Speaker 2 Wow. Try to sneak that one in there, huh? So how many points did I get?

Speaker 1 That was a drive-by right there.

Speaker 2 All right, so I'm somehow still losing. It's actually zero, me, one, you.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 Now you go, same thing.

Speaker 1 Does that just mean that we know each other too well?

Speaker 2 We're so close we can almost finish each other's sandwiches. No one ever.
I'm not doing that.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 1 Should women be permitted to speak at church?

Speaker 2 Yes, they can sing along in the pews.

Speaker 2 Singing. It was a It was cheap a little bit, but I'll take it.

Speaker 2 Alright.

Speaker 1 If an animal the size of a house cat got loose in your house, would you call someone else to get rid of it?

Speaker 2 Would I? Yeah.

Speaker 1 The size of a house cat.

Speaker 2 You say yes, because I'm not the handiest, but I'm also cheap, so no, I would not call someone to take care of it.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 1 If you had to give up either booze or cigars, you would give up booze and keep the cigars.

Speaker 2 Let's go. Don't call it a comeback, baby.
No. Oh.

Speaker 2 I mean, I like a nice tipple every now and again, but I'm way more into the stogies than I am into booze.

Speaker 1 All right, sober, Michael.

Speaker 2 All right, here we go. So, Michael, zero, Mary Morgan, negative two.

Speaker 2 This is the final round.

Speaker 1 Messed up.

Speaker 2 These points are worth double.

Speaker 2 We're going to answer at the same time, Harry. Do you understand? So,

Speaker 2 I'm going to state the prompt. You're going to put down your answer.
I'm going to put down my answer. Then we're going to look at each other.

Speaker 2 We're going to move our cups based on how we think the other would answer.

Speaker 2 Most of America's problems can be solved with political action.

Speaker 2 Let's go.

Speaker 2 Oh, I got it. Culture is downstream of politics, you know?

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 when you have a political order that encourages certain good behaviors and discourages bad behaviors, that's going to start to push people toward the right things because the law is a tutor.

Speaker 2 However,

Speaker 2 most people think it's the opposite these days, which is why we have this order where we encourage bad things and discourage good things.

Speaker 1 I'm losing so badly right now. You're getting destroyed with facts and logic.
I thought of everybody

Speaker 1 kvetching about the birth rate right now.

Speaker 1 They're thinking about how much money can we throw at people to make them have babies? And that's not a political

Speaker 2 solution.

Speaker 1 You need a cultural solution to that.

Speaker 2 But how do you change culture? I'll tell you what,

Speaker 2 before November, all these companies were big into DEI and LGBT and all this anti-open borders and stuff. Trump wins.

Speaker 2 There go the DEI departments. There goes the funding for all of the radical left-wing activism through USAID.
I think we can flex our muscles a little bit politically.

Speaker 2 And on the birth rate thing, you could just say, all right, well, I got this birth rate problem. So you know what we're going to do? We're going to cut it out with the fake definitions of marriage.

Speaker 2 We're going to discourage contraception. We're going to ban abortion.
We're going to reshore American manufacturing, rebuild the American family. I bet that will go a long way.

Speaker 1 Discourage contraception by doing what?

Speaker 2 By, you know, maybe revisiting Eisenstadt v. Baird or Griswold v.
Connecticut or some of these kind of crazy 1960s, 70s Supreme Court decisions. Just a thought.
I'm just suggesting it.

Speaker 2 If any Republican politicians are listening, I don't know. Not a bad thought.

Speaker 1 Okay, we're on the last one. Last one.

Speaker 1 I've seen something supernatural.

Speaker 2 I'm playing with the house's money. Yeah.

Speaker 2 You have? Yes. What have you seen, Mary?

Speaker 1 I thought you were going to answer as well.

Speaker 2 Oh, you got mine right.

Speaker 1 And I said yes. Oh, you said yes, too.
Okay.

Speaker 1 The transfiguration. Or sorry, transubstantiation.

Speaker 2 Oh.

Speaker 1 But, you know, if we're talking about...

Speaker 2 That's good. That's a good idea.

Speaker 1 If we're talking about paranormal stuff, like ghosts, haven't seen seen that. No.

Speaker 2 Have not seen that. Entertain Angels Unawares.
But anytime you're in a mess.

Speaker 1 I think you're witnessing something supernatural, right?

Speaker 2 That is such a good, basic answer that is obviously true. Yes.
When the bread and the wine aren't awesome.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but I'm just being a smart ass, aren't I?

Speaker 2 Or are transubstantiated. No, you're not.

Speaker 2 You're being smart is what you're being. You're being smart as usual.
That was very good.

Speaker 2 Mary Morgan's show, Pop Culture Crisis, is your source of sanity while navigating the insane world of pop culture. Hosted by Brett Dazovich and Mary Morgan.
Check out this clip from their show.

Speaker 3 You want to think about it. You went on a reality show where you have to marry someone after a week.

Speaker 2 I'm picturing the CIA like, yes, yes, we could.

Speaker 3 He got taken off the show because he didn't find someone to marry.

Speaker 3 This...

Speaker 3 This doesn't make sense to me because like I, after reading this article, would totally go on Love is Blind. Like it does not sound bad at all.

Speaker 3 I get paid $1,000 a week to just sit around and chat with strangers through a screen and drink wine. Well, he's not.

Speaker 2 Like that sounds fun.

Speaker 2 How come

Speaker 2 Mary gets the plug, Brett gets the plug, but there's Ian there. He doesn't get any plug.
I just, I only said two names.

Speaker 1 Doesn't get the credit he deserves.

Speaker 2 He does. He never does.

Speaker 1 But that was one of my many famous zingers.

Speaker 2 You'd go on Love is Blind, huh?

Speaker 1 I totally would. For sure, who would? And then they complain about having to drink.
Here I am with a free drink.

Speaker 2 I know, a delicious. I love a free drink.
Although I've had a little bit more than you. I don't know.
Maybe. And I'm the one losing.
I know. That's crude.
I think I found my cigar.

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 2 Mary, since we made a little wager at the top, I think the tweet you need to send out

Speaker 2 needs to be a multimedia tweet, and it needs to be you smoking a Mayflower cigar with your endorsement of it. But it's got to be, I need the picture, though.

Speaker 2 I need you smoking the cigar, because the visual is what's really going to grab people. You know, just a tweet like, oh, I like the cigar, it doesn't do it.

Speaker 1 Sales are going to skyrocket.

Speaker 2 You're going to skyrocket.

Speaker 2 I'll get you a cigar before the end of this show. Totally.
Before you walk out of this building. Before I stumble out of this building.

Speaker 1 I had such a good idea for what to tweet on your mind.

Speaker 2 What were you going to tweet?

Speaker 1 I was going to tweet Mary Morgan Ghostwrote Speechless.

Speaker 2 Send all royalties to Mary. Wow, man, that would have been more lucrative than selling cigars.
Mary Morgan. Wonderful to see you as always.
Thank you for coming on the show.

Speaker 1 Thank for having me.