#590 - Fathers and Voices

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Speaker 1 California, we've got some new tour dates for you.

Speaker 1 I'll be in Los Angeles on August 14th at the Dolby Theater, Anaheim on August 16th at the Honda Center, and Oceanside on August 17th at Front Wave Arena.

Speaker 1 Get your tickets early this Thursday, June 19th with code RATKI, 10 a.m. local time.
General on sale begins Friday, June 20th. Get your tickets only at theovon.com slash T-O-U-R.

Speaker 1 Please avoid any scalper sites. And thank you so much.
This is the Return of the Rat tour almost over. I promise it's almost over.
And thank you guys so much for all the support.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 What's going on?

Speaker 1 What am I doing? What am I doing?

Speaker 1 What am I doing? Yeah, you ever had,

Speaker 1 that's where I'm at. Like, what am I doing?

Speaker 1 What am I doing?

Speaker 1 You, you feel like that sometimes, ever? What am I doing?

Speaker 1 Like, you know, the feeling like you go back in the house to get something and then you get in there and you don't know what you're just staying. You're like, what am I?

Speaker 1 You go into different rooms and like, what?

Speaker 1 Does this feel like what I'm, why I was coming back in here? Does it feel like it's in here?

Speaker 1 You know, it's like you're like on a scavenger hunt just with your own memory.

Speaker 1 That's how I feel. I just, it's just one of those days.

Speaker 1 The whole day feels like that, kind of.

Speaker 1 You ever have those type of days where you're like,

Speaker 1 this ain't my day?

Speaker 1 Me and this day don't even know each other.

Speaker 1 You know, you're alive the whole day, but like you just don't even belong to the calendar. Like you just loitering.

Speaker 1 That's the kind. That's where I'm at.

Speaker 1 that's where i'm at

Speaker 1 and i don't know if it's the world making me feel that way it's just me i mean it's you know uh

Speaker 1 but it's okay you know i show up here i'm happy to be here today with you guys um

Speaker 1 yeah my name's theo and i'm happy to be here

Speaker 1 uh happy belated father's day let's say that

Speaker 1 happy belated father's day to all the men out there who

Speaker 1 who make those choices even the choices their children don't see to show up

Speaker 1 you know they do the extra thing

Speaker 1 you know

Speaker 1 they do the things they're supposed to do as a father

Speaker 1 you know they follow the blueprint

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 happy father happy belated father's day to those guys and sorry we didn't get this episode out um last week but here we are, right? Here we are.

Speaker 1 And some people, you may not have a father, right? Your father may have passed or he may not be in your life. And,

Speaker 1 you know, I can relate to some of that where like sometimes I'll find pieces of my father and other

Speaker 1 in other men,

Speaker 1 you know?

Speaker 1 There's certain men I'll go to for like certain advice or

Speaker 1 you know, and I get a little piece of fatherhood there.

Speaker 1 There's certain men I'll call when maybe I'm scared, or maybe when things are good,

Speaker 1 and I'll share them and I'll get a little piece of fatherhood there.

Speaker 1 So, happy belated Father's Day to all the fathers, or even just all the men in the world that

Speaker 1 create pieces of fatherhood for others. Even sometimes, they don't even know they do it, I bet.

Speaker 1 What's going on?

Speaker 1 Oh, I went to Qatar. I I hadn't even talked about that.
I went to the Middle East, baby.

Speaker 1 And the Middle East, dude, it's, I mean, it is,

Speaker 1 it's something. It's like, you ever open the oven door?

Speaker 1 And that bitch is on?

Speaker 1 That's the Middle East, boy.

Speaker 1 That bitch is on.

Speaker 1 Like the whole time I'm there, I'm just looking to like turn off the preheat switch or something. I'm like, damn, somebody set this bitch on broil.

Speaker 1 The sun is over there. It's geeking, bro.

Speaker 1 The sun is over there. It's damn.
That shit, the heat come down on you. Like, dang, bro.
This sun trying to press me. This heat feeling a little bit zesty.

Speaker 1 This shit, because that heat will get everywhere. It get down the back of your neck.
Like, God dang.

Speaker 1 That heat start undoing your belt buckle. You're like, gosh, this sun getting zesty.

Speaker 1 That's heat gay and bro. That's heat gay and man.

Speaker 1 But I got invited over there by the

Speaker 1 Qatari,

Speaker 1 and it's Q-A-T-A-R. That's what it's how it's spelled.
And it doesn't have a U in it. And the whole time, I'm thinking, like, should I get these guys a gift or something for inviting me over?

Speaker 1 And I was like, I'll get them the letter U. You know, I'll just get a big U in a box and give that to them.

Speaker 1 But then you're like, nah,

Speaker 1 they doing their own shit, bro. They say, you know, they conserving, hell, hell, they're conserving water.
They're conserving letters too.

Speaker 1 And I got invited over there by the, I guess it's the,

Speaker 1 like kind of the board that

Speaker 1 the tourism board, I guess. So that's who I got invited over there by.
And it was in conjunction with a time that Donald Trump was going to be there performing for the troops.

Speaker 1 or speaking to the troops. And so I got to perform that same day, probably maybe like an hour or so before he was up there.

Speaker 1 The show was,

Speaker 1 it was

Speaker 1 hectic. The show was hectic because there weren't supposed to be any cameras.
I got on stage. There were like 20 news cameras.
So that was a total surprise. And

Speaker 1 so we had to make some adjustments or whatever. But just getting to be there and see the base and see the soldiers over there and see the people that, you know, that made that commitment.

Speaker 1 It was very inspiring. And it was just real, you know?

Speaker 1 And so that was really special. I felt very lucky to just get to witness that, to be allowed to show up.

Speaker 1 What else did we do there? Oh, it's very organized there. The sidewalks, that bitch stays in line, bruh.

Speaker 1 You know, I'm from Louisiana and the sidewalk there, they got one of them bitches will be at a 40 degree.

Speaker 1 The next cement

Speaker 1 plank will be at like a six degree. The next one will have a damn

Speaker 1 off ramp on it. I've seen a sidewalk with a damn off ramp on it in Louisiana, bro.

Speaker 1 Because the oak trees, the roots grow up under the sidewalk and they'll push that bitch off, dog. Bro, you're trying to walk down the street, you end up fucking six blocks over, bro.

Speaker 1 If you follow the sidewalk, that bitch will take you wherever, dude. So a lot of times in Louisiana, you see somebody walking right along the side of the street, and that's why.

Speaker 1 Because them sidewalks, them bitches, dang,

Speaker 1 they don't care.

Speaker 1 Each piece of cement barely even knows the next piece. Them bitches, they at odds.

Speaker 1 You know, and then you'll have one tsunami, you know, it'll hit a damn sinkhole. That bitch will be 40 feet down.

Speaker 1 You know, you're trying to go half a block, and next thing you know, you got repellent equipment on.

Speaker 1 So it's just heading going down a Louisiana sidewalk is very intense. But

Speaker 1 in Qatar or Qatar, they say Qatar.

Speaker 1 That's everything's very organized. Every lamplight, every, every, everything, it's pristine,

Speaker 1 you know. It's like a Christmas village, but uh, but they don't believe in Christmas, you know.
I don't think anyway, I don't know if they do or not. Let me see.

Speaker 1 Do Muslims

Speaker 1 believe in

Speaker 1 Christmas?

Speaker 1 Uh,

Speaker 1 no, Muslims do not celebrate Christmas. If Jesus, peace be upon him, is so revered in Islam, why do we not celebrate his birthday?

Speaker 1 It is necessary to point out that Jesus and his mother, Mary, are revered highly by Muslims. As far as celebrating Christmas as the birthday of Jesus is concerned,

Speaker 1 the Muslim community do not celebrate it just as we do not celebrate the birthdays of any other prophet.

Speaker 1 We believe that celebrating a prophet's birth amounts to adopting that prophet's teachings as a way of life. If the teachings are not followed, the Almighty's displeasure is invoked.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so so anyway, they got, you know, they got a different setup over there.

Speaker 1 But yeah, all the, and all, a lot of the buildings, they look very much, they have like a castle top.

Speaker 1 You ever, or, you ever see like a rook piece if you're playing chess or the top of a castle, it's like the, it's got a little square goes up and then it goes down and up and down, um, like a riveting kind of every building.

Speaker 1 In Qatar was like that. I mean, you'll, you're like, damn, is that a damn fortress? And they're like, dang, nah, son, that's a damn Carls Jr., bro.

Speaker 1 That's a nah, they just protecting a fucking new chicken sandwich in that bitch, you know. Um,

Speaker 1 but it was uh really awesome just to be there and see what it was like.

Speaker 1 The tourism people that had me come, the I think it was like the prime minister, maybe, or somebody else, they were very accommodating.

Speaker 1 They invited me over to their house for dinner, which was great, man. You sit there, and if they bring,

Speaker 1 dude, they got condiments.

Speaker 1 They won the condiment war, bro. No, we got a couple condiments.
You see a little bit of ketchup. You see some mayonnaise, baby, you know, you see that mustard, bro.

Speaker 1 And sometimes it's mustarded, you know, but you eat it anyway, bro. You don't have a lot because you don't want to catch nothing, you know, or pass it on to your children.

Speaker 1 But you eat over there, they got. They had a little cut of lamb or something and they got 30 sauces.

Speaker 1 They got shit. They got a damn, one of the sauces had a damn deep end on the dish of it i was like yeah

Speaker 1 that sauce got a shallow a deep end

Speaker 1 it would they had a damn a little hot tub full of damn some turquoise fuchsia afterpaste or something everything

Speaker 1 bloop bloop bloop blop bloop blop

Speaker 1 just condimented

Speaker 1 So that was wonderful just to be invited to be able to do that.

Speaker 1 Oh, they have dates over there. That's like one of their big fruits or vegetables, or

Speaker 1 shit. I mean, a date.
They're like, oh, you like dates? The dates. I'm like, that bitch, that's just a fucking old-ass plum, homie.
That bitch is a senior citizen plum, brother.

Speaker 1 That's what you guys are eating. Um,

Speaker 1 but they were just great senses of humor. Like, it was just fun, man.
I went, we went to like a three-hour dinner, and it was a blast.

Speaker 1 And everything there, they have huge buildings for like a lot of stuff because they have extra money to build, you know, don't have like a damn 30 floor anytime fitness in that bitch you know and that you'd be you know you're doing curls on the 17th floor they got leg press on the ninth floor you know and they got um

Speaker 1 saltwater baths down there on the on the third floor you know on the second floor then they got a leak obviously coming from the ceiling but that's how gravity is you know uh

Speaker 1 What was else was interesting really about it?

Speaker 1 We almost stayed for a Travis Scott concert the night after, but we didn't.

Speaker 1 One thing that's interesting over there, they had the World Cup a few years ago. So there's still a lot of these huge soccer stadiums, right?

Speaker 1 And they're kind of just, you know, they use them for different events, but they're just everywhere. You're like, oh, there's a soccer stadium.
There's a soccer stadium.

Speaker 1 It's kind of fascinating just to see like all these huge empty soccer stadiums out in the desert.

Speaker 1 What else? We got to swim in the Persian Gulf right outside our hotel. They had a Persian, uh, part of the Persian Gulf, so I got to swim out there.
Real salty, nice.

Speaker 1 Um, what else? Oh, let me think. Oh, and then I had some people say, asking me, Were you compromised by the Qatari government? Were you a spy?

Speaker 1 Um, no, I would never be a spy. I don't think.
I don't think I would, I don't think I would be a good spy, dude.

Speaker 1 I don't, I don't know. I don't, I could,

Speaker 1 if it's it's like,

Speaker 1 you know, no, I don't,

Speaker 1 I guess spies have to hide all the time. I don't, I wouldn't do it.
I wouldn't do it.

Speaker 1 So, no, I didn't get asked to be a spy. Part of me was almost low-key hoping I would or something like that.

Speaker 1 Because I was like, why are they having me come over? But,

Speaker 1 but I didn't get asked to be a spy. I didn't get.

Speaker 1 What's it called when you get compromised or whatever? None of that shit happened to me.

Speaker 1 I didn't even get an offer, which that kind of bummed me out. But

Speaker 1 yeah, they didn't ask me to say anything specific about their place or them or anything. All they did was just treat me very nice.
I went with my tour manager

Speaker 1 and we got to wear the traditional garbs. It's one of the thobes, one of the nice robes.
I'll have a picture of us in it on YouTube.

Speaker 1 I mean, everybody, it looks kind of like an altar boy. Like everybody looks like an altar.
You know, it looks like somebody's about to get molested, dude.

Speaker 1 It definitely seems like they holding a damn molestival, you know, like,

Speaker 1 but then you realize, oh, that's just the garb. And it's just almost like a private school.
That's what I learned. So that everybody wears the same thing.

Speaker 1 So there's not like a level of hierarchy between clothing or anything like that.

Speaker 1 Anything else about it that was super fascinating? It was a very short trip. It was like 36 hours.
I don't think I slept the whole time. I hit jet lag.
I didn't worry about it. And then

Speaker 1 just slept on the way home. But, oh, you can't, like, there's not like places to just go drink and stuff.
So you could drink at your hotels.

Speaker 1 Everybody's kind of covered up. So you don't, it feels very, it felt very proper.
That was kind of the energy that I got.

Speaker 1 But then you're talking to a lot of the guys there. And a lot of them, they did, they went to like University of Oregon or, you know,

Speaker 1 Texas A ⁇ M or something. So you're like, oh, this guy's just in this fan, in this kind of fancy outfit.
You know, he looks like a baby angel.

Speaker 1 Like everybody looks like they would be on top of a christmas tree um

Speaker 1 but they a lot of them that's just once they go back to their country that's how they operate so

Speaker 1 but it was a great experience i'm glad i got to do it uh we got to go al-assad air base was the place and uh thank you to everybody that's stationed there that's stationed anywhere happy belated 250th birthday to the army

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 But yeah, I just, yeah, I really enjoyed it, you know, because I think I always had this idea in my head of,

Speaker 1 I don't know, I think the Middle East is also often framed as kind of scary.

Speaker 1 And it was definitely intriguing, like very like Casablanca-y, like

Speaker 1 you're just wondering what's going on everywhere. But

Speaker 1 I didn't feel

Speaker 1 like threatened or scared at all, you know? And I was also on a U.S. military base for half of one day.
So that's,

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 the dogs had my back over there. So that that was really beautiful.
Um,

Speaker 1 but yeah, I would go back. So, I just want to share that about that experience.
And no, nobody paid me to say that.

Speaker 1 I've never been, I've never been paid for, I mean, I get paid for advertisements and stuff, but I've never been had anybody

Speaker 1 say,

Speaker 1 We need you to say this or not say this in my whole life.

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 so

Speaker 1 yeah, just want to say that,

Speaker 1 or are they paying me? done dun dun

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 what else oh

Speaker 1 sorry i feel nervous today i don't know

Speaker 1 i just feel like it's just not you know it's just not you're like this day is never gonna fit perfect oh you know what you know what i've been thinking about is just like a lot like just about uh your voice right

Speaker 1 like just having a voice like what does it mean you know

Speaker 1 Because sometimes it feels to me sometimes like we're in a place where people get afraid to speak speak up.

Speaker 1 You know, I get afraid to speak up.

Speaker 1 So maybe it's not people. Maybe it's just me.
Yeah, so let me just say me. So I'm not, I feel like I'm putting that on anybody.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I wonder sometimes, like, man, it's like, I don't know if what I want to say is right.

Speaker 1 You know, like it feels right, but I don't know, you know? And so then I get scared to speak up.

Speaker 1 And I just wonder if that's,

Speaker 1 I think having some, you know, knowing when to kind of hold them, know when to fold them, know when, you know, or not that, let's walk away, but know, yeah, know when to say something, know when not to say something is important.

Speaker 1 But,

Speaker 1 yeah, I just, I think I've been thinking a lot about that, like having a voice. Like, what does it mean to have a voice and, you know, and to be able to

Speaker 1 share and to speak up and, you know, and when, when do you do that? I think that's been something that's been on my mind a lot lately,

Speaker 1 personally.

Speaker 1 I did a 72-hour fast, 73 hours I made it to, which is pretty cool. It's kind of scary, but it wasn't that scary.
I felt good about it. I'm glad that I did it.

Speaker 1 Battled a bit with dehydration,

Speaker 1 chewed some gum that didn't have anything in it, basically, to make me feel like I was having something sometimes. And then I would put salt on my hand and lick it and just drink some water with it.

Speaker 1 What else? What else is happening? Let's get into some calls. There's a lot that's going on in the world right now.
We'll get into some of that.

Speaker 1 They're trying to, I don't know if they're trying to get us into a war with Iran or not, America, if Israel is trying to. I don't trust the

Speaker 1 Israel leader at all. I don't believe anything that guy says.
And

Speaker 1 I don't think that

Speaker 1 our

Speaker 1 soldiers should have to go and defend stuff that they start.

Speaker 1 I'm not a soldier, so I might, I'm obviously speaking out of turn. I'm not even brave enough to serve.
So there's that element.

Speaker 1 But that is kind of how I feel, I guess. And so it's like, yeah, when do I speak? When do I say that? You know?

Speaker 1 Because it feels like they're trying to push Trump to go do that. And it's like,

Speaker 1 who makes that choice? Does he make that choice? And then

Speaker 1 what do we get? You know, what's the win for us? We're just involved in some other

Speaker 1 thing

Speaker 1 while we have suffering here at home.

Speaker 1 So maybe something like that is like, yeah, do I have, should I even speak up? Because I'm not in service.

Speaker 1 Servicemen and women may be like, we want to, we'll do what, you know, and that's their commitment and their job.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 yeah, I just,

Speaker 1 I don't know. That guy really scares me.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I don't know why we support them. I don't understand that.
I wish they would really give us a better explanation. You know, especially after the massacres in Gaza.

Speaker 1 I don't understand. I do not understand that.

Speaker 1 And some people say, well, you don't know enough about it.

Speaker 1 And I may not.

Speaker 1 But it's like, do, can I still speak about it?

Speaker 1 Can I speak about how I feel about it?

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 1 moments like that, like, when do I, when am I, when do I need to speak up

Speaker 1 and share just for myself, right?

Speaker 1 You know, and not even try to, I don't think it's, this is virtue signaling. I don't know exactly what that is.
I was talking with my producer about it today.

Speaker 1 But I think I'm talking about a voice for myself. Like,

Speaker 1 when do I speak up for myself?

Speaker 1 Let's take some calls here here that came in. You guys had calls about some interesting stuff and we'll get into it.

Speaker 2 Hey, Theo. This is calling to say thank you

Speaker 2 for

Speaker 2 your support of

Speaker 2 the Palestinian people. I know I sound like

Speaker 2 Lib, Snowflake, whatever the fuck those guys think of

Speaker 2 people who support the Palestinians.

Speaker 1 I don't think that I don't think somebody's supporting what appears to be like a massacre of a lot of children.

Speaker 1 I don't see, I'm shocked that there aren't more voices sometimes speaking up, but that's also coming from a place where,

Speaker 1 you know, I

Speaker 1 can take care of myself, I know, and feed myself and roof myself for the rest of my life. And so other people's lives are

Speaker 1 different. And so,

Speaker 1 yeah, I can be surprised by that, but I can also totally understand that for sure onward.

Speaker 2 Hearing you today on the podcast with JD Vance, speaking up for those people who have no voice is like, I think I ovulated while I was listening to the podcast.

Speaker 1 Whoa,

Speaker 1 dang, that Easter came early right there.

Speaker 1 Well, thank you for the call. I appreciate you sharing what you thought.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 yeah, I don't think it's like a choice just to try and speak up about Gaza and about Palestine. I think for me, it just feels like

Speaker 1 there's no,

Speaker 1 it's not even a choice. It's just like, how can you watch this? It's like,

Speaker 1 am I insane? I'm sorry that it took me so long to say something.

Speaker 1 To be very honest, I was afraid, you know, I think I was afraid. I think I, you know,

Speaker 1 it's just like

Speaker 1 trying to connect your instinct to your voice sometimes.

Speaker 1 I think that's always been something that's been a little bit tough for me.

Speaker 1 But I didn't think that I did a good job, to be honest with you on the Vance interview.

Speaker 1 I had follow-up questions about certain parts of it, right? I had follow-up questions about,

Speaker 1 you know, the surveillance state and

Speaker 1 the genocide and

Speaker 1 what else? Oh, the money that we give Israel. Like, I had follow-up questions about these things.
I just,

Speaker 1 I don't know. I don't know if I got like afraid or.

Speaker 1 I don't know. And I think part of me gets stuck in this space where it's like, well, this is a comedy podcast.

Speaker 1 But then a lot of like life starts to get mixed into it. And then it's like, well, what do,

Speaker 1 I guess I think, well, what do people want?

Speaker 1 You know?

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 so that probably has something to do with it.

Speaker 1 I think last time that JD came on, and I was very grateful for him. I like JD.

Speaker 1 I was very grateful that he came

Speaker 1 We'd known like a month in advance that he was coming.

Speaker 1 But last time he was like campaigning, right? It was just him and his cousin in the room and it just, it felt a little bit less pressure.

Speaker 1 This didn't feel like a ton of pressure, but it was, you know, he had like his campaign team and stuff and there's secret service there.

Speaker 1 And, um,

Speaker 1 and they can kind of wrap up the interview whenever, you know, I think that fear was in my head. Like, maybe, well, if I say the wrong thing, are they just going to kind of shut down the interview?

Speaker 1 I'm not saying that that was true at all. I'm just saying that that was something that was probably in my head.

Speaker 1 And then you realize that there's a level of kind of diplomacy, you know.

Speaker 1 What is diplomacy? I'm gonna look it up.

Speaker 1 Okay, of or concerning the profession, activity, or skill of managing

Speaker 1 relations. It says international relations, but I just think relations, right?

Speaker 1 Like, I was like, oh, well, if I try, if I ask too much,

Speaker 1 will

Speaker 1 they not want to come back again? Will I lose the bridge to be able to communicate with him? Right.

Speaker 1 For me, that was something.

Speaker 1 So I'm just trying to manage it, you know, because you start to realize that in politics that there's a, there's a level of give and take with all of those, all those meetings they go into and all the votes and the,

Speaker 1 you know, they're all like behind the scenes, like trading this option for, okay, well, I'll help support you here if you can help support me. You know, there's just so much of that.

Speaker 1 It's very much that Game of Thrones type of energy. But, yeah, but I wish I'd had spoken up a little bit.
You know, I felt like

Speaker 1 Mr. Vance gave more political answers this time.

Speaker 1 So it felt different. I don't think I was as prepared for that.

Speaker 1 I think sometimes it seemed like, I don't know if he answered exactly what I was asking, but it's my job to like fine-tune the question or make sure that I at least get my question very clear.

Speaker 1 So there was a lot of that,

Speaker 1 you know, all those things kind of happening at once, I guess. And then,

Speaker 1 and then also you're like, well,

Speaker 1 people can make their choices about things, right?

Speaker 1 So sometimes if you just have a conversation with people, they'll derive from it when they hear the person speak. They might be like, okay,

Speaker 1 I believe this person or I don't believe this person or

Speaker 1 I empathize or I sympathize or I understand this person or wow i'm surprised by that person right or people so sometimes i think

Speaker 1 that that's kind of what a podcast is a lot of times as opposed to like an interview it's just a space where people talk and then people can devise their own thoughts about the conversation um

Speaker 1 and i'm not trying to take any skin off of my own neck as a as a as being an interviewer.

Speaker 1 But then it's like, well, is this an interview or is it a podcast? So there's all there, you know, there's just like little things I think that I'm just kind of still learning and navigating and

Speaker 1 just how to have a voice in those spaces, you know, I think that I could have joked less.

Speaker 1 But then you get into this space, well, do I have a responsibility, like a social or societal responsibility to ask certain things?

Speaker 1 But that's very scary because

Speaker 1 Then it's like, oh, well, it's a, that, that's like ego. You know, that's like, well, do I, I mean,

Speaker 1 you know, who, you know, you have to be careful that you're just not getting into this ego place.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 so yeah, I don't know. I feel scared.
I don't know if shit, I might just be having a little bit extra Celsius today. But yeah, so there was just a lot going on.

Speaker 1 I do felt like I could have done a better job. I definitely feel like I live and learn.

Speaker 1 I think there were a lot of like little things in there, but I'm grateful to have had that opportunity.

Speaker 1 And, you know, I hope to be able to do better in certain instances in the future and get the questions in that I want to, that I do feel like are important.

Speaker 1 Anyway, I don't want to lament over it too much or like overlook at it too much,

Speaker 1 but those are just my thoughts, you know, and you can think whatever you want. You may have hated even him sitting in there, you know, you might not be,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 he might not be your cup of tea, you know.

Speaker 1 Anyway, so yeah, that's kind of,

Speaker 1 I get, yeah, I'm just rambling about that shit now, but that was something that's on my mind.

Speaker 1 You know, I wish it, and I wish I'd have spoken up more and had another couple of follow-up questions about the Middle East.

Speaker 1 And it's okay. I'm not going to get down on myself, but I want to be able to just, I want to do my best, you know?

Speaker 1 I want to do my best. And what does that mean? You know, it could mean many things, but,

Speaker 1 but yeah.

Speaker 1 Thank you guys for just anybody that paid attention to it, for even checking it out and for bearing with me you know i also think that damn dude after you've done 500 episodes if you haven't figured some of this out by now then this is where we are we just did a great episode about the roman empire too i thought it was really good just trying to be there and listen a little bit more i wish i would have done but i thought it was fun today's episode is sponsored by acorns Acorns is a financial wellness app that makes it easier to start saving and investing for your future.

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Speaker 1 Let's take another call here.

Speaker 2 Hey, Theo. I just wanted to get your thoughts on a topic regarding what's going on with the ICE raids down in LA.

Speaker 2 I was a victim of a sexual assault when I was in college, and I never got to go to trial or any of that because I never reported it.

Speaker 1 Thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry to hear that. Thank you for sharing.
Onward.

Speaker 1 Anyways,

Speaker 2 I was just thinking about in this country, how there's, I mean, I don't know, at least 25,000 rape kits sitting in evidence lockers that are not tested.

Speaker 2 And that while this is happening, people are being pulled from their families. and that's what our country has decided to spend their money on.
Like, what do you think about that?

Speaker 2 Like, do you really think that there is value in what our government is choosing to do?

Speaker 2 Do you think that

Speaker 2 the citizens of this country who have actually committed crimes are better than people who have

Speaker 2 existed illegally,

Speaker 2 you know, doing, picking fruit, like having families, like being good people?

Speaker 2 Like, I know you love Mexicans. I love Mexicans.
Like, they are

Speaker 2 like, how mad are all the whole food moms going to be when they can't afford strawberries? Like, this is hilarious to me.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, there's a lot here. Sorry, there's a lot in this voicemail.
Yeah, I love, I love Mexicans. I would like to be Mexican next time.

Speaker 1 I've prayed for that. God knows that.

Speaker 1 So if something ever happens to me, please look out for me. And if you see me in El Barrio, say, bien maniro esteodoro.

Speaker 1 But yeah, sorry to kind of joke, but you were kind of laughing there at the end as well. Yeah, I'm sorry about your sexual assault.
I don't,

Speaker 1 yeah,

Speaker 1 it's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking what

Speaker 1 let me look up about those rape kits. I didn't even know that.

Speaker 1 How many rape kits are awaiting testing in the U.S.?

Speaker 1 This is a site called USAFACS.org.

Speaker 1 The federal government spent over $1.3 billion to clear the rape kit backlog since 2011, but USA Facts Analysis covered thousands of rape kits awaiting testing in 2022.

Speaker 1 At least 25,000 untested rape kits sat in law enforcement agencies and crime lives across the country.

Speaker 1 Untested rape kits have significant consequences to both the criminal justice system and sexual assault survivors.

Speaker 1 Not only can rape kit testing provide crucial evidence that helps identify perpetrators and bring them to justice, it also can connect perpetrators to other assaults. Wow, unreal.

Speaker 1 You know, yeah, I didn't even, I was not even aware of that. Thank you for bringing that to our attention.

Speaker 1 It always, I'm always mesmerized by what our country appears to do with funding. Right? When I was a kid, I know my mother was like, why are we sending this money to these other places?

Speaker 1 Like, we don't, what is, you know, there's always been this situation, like, why are we sent? Why? Like, what do we need over here?

Speaker 1 You know, with this money we're sending to Israel, we could do so many things, right?

Speaker 1 We could do so.

Speaker 1 And I just picked that place because it's the one that, you know, I think we sent them $12 billion already this year.

Speaker 1 But yeah, like, what are we, why?

Speaker 1 Why? Right?

Speaker 1 Why?

Speaker 1 And knowing that people are sitting there waiting just in the stress of waiting for a kit like this to come back, I just can't even fathom.

Speaker 1 While the perpetrator perpetrator is out there may be doing more crimes, the alleged perpetrator is out there doing more crimes.

Speaker 1 But let's talk about the ICE situation, you know, because I feel like that was more the focal point of

Speaker 1 your call.

Speaker 1 I think a lot of things on this. So one,

Speaker 1 I think a lot of what you see, not a lot, I would say I bet half of what you see, the videos and stuff out of Los Angeles, are not real.

Speaker 1 I think a lot of them are seeds that are planted to create conflict, right? To create more videos. You know, caring people show up, caring for a cause, they create more videos.

Speaker 1 And then there's all this extra videography. But I believe that the,

Speaker 1 whatever you would call it, the duralogue, whatever starts, that that is kind of staged. I feel like even a lot of the videos are probably staged.
Not saying all of them.

Speaker 1 I'm not saying that deportations aren't happening. I'm not saying any of that.
I just don't trust things that

Speaker 1 a lot of some of the, a lot of the stuff in Los Angeles, I believe that

Speaker 1 a lot of things in our world are staged. And then we see videos and then we believe them.
I believe them. You believe them.
We believe them.

Speaker 1 Obviously, there's a lot of deportations going on. It's sick when you see like children crying and people being taken from their parents.
It's heartbreaking.

Speaker 1 Anybody thinks that that's heartbreaking?

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 there's also in the country, there's, you know, you have rules, you have laws, you have like, these are the rules, right?

Speaker 1 And some people are here, they're illegal, they're illegal by the letter of the law, technically. They're undocumented, right?

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 40% of people that are here illegally are

Speaker 1 Mexican, right? 60% are not.

Speaker 1 We're just coming off a huge influx.

Speaker 1 of people that were just let into the country during the last political administration. There's no, we've had border patrol agents on, it's undeniable.
A lot of them are not even from Mexico.

Speaker 1 A lot of them are not laborers that were just coming over for fruit season or for farming season and then coming back. A lot of them are not that.

Speaker 1 So, you know, when Trump is a, he's heavy-handed. That's who he is, right?

Speaker 1 We've also had a broken system for a long time.

Speaker 1 So when the hammer starts to come down,

Speaker 1 or the guillotine as this is, it's not going to be comfortable.

Speaker 1 And at first, it's going to be messy.

Speaker 1 It's not going to be smooth.

Speaker 1 And I think that, and I know Trump spoke the other day, that there needs to be a way, and I believe wholeheartedly, there needs to be a way where people who are productive citizens are allowed to get amnesty or

Speaker 1 create a path for them to have citizenship. I believe that undeniably.

Speaker 1 There's also people who are like, well, when someone says that they shouldn't be in our country, right? You hear that they shouldn't be in our country. Well, you know, this or this is our land, right?

Speaker 1 I believe that our land is still, that America is still fully entrenched by the ghosts of pain from what happened to Native American people. I believe that, right?

Speaker 1 I believe that the land

Speaker 1 doesn't forget.

Speaker 1 I believe that. I don't believe that we've made amends to those situations.
I think there's other situations in history that we haven't made amends to.

Speaker 1 I believe that.

Speaker 1 At the same time, like I believe, and this is a bigger belief, that

Speaker 1 in a few years,

Speaker 1 there's this plan with,

Speaker 1 it was spoken a few weeks ago. that Trump picked this company, Palantir, to create this digital database, right? This, to use like AI technologies, create this whole database of everything.

Speaker 1 I had asked J.D. Vance about it.
So I believe in a few years in America, that everywhere you go, there's going to be facial recognition.

Speaker 1 They're going to be, that's just going to be all built into our society, right? I mean, built in.

Speaker 1 So I don't think in a few years, you would even be able to be in the country

Speaker 1 if you're not supposed to be by law, right? By the letter of the law. I don't even think it's going to be possible.
I think that's where we're headed and we're headed there quick.

Speaker 1 And I think this is just one of the early stair steps you see of that, right?

Speaker 1 Is the organization, the documentation, everybody, you have to know who's here. You have to.

Speaker 1 And I don't think, I think in a few years,

Speaker 1 it's not going to matter.

Speaker 1 The system will know, right?

Speaker 1 I think it's Palantir is the company that's going to do it. They've also been accused of a lot of dangerous stuff in Gaza.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 that's the company that's we're we're going to be surveilling basically ourselves, right? We as citizens, whoever we are, are going to be under surveillance in our own country.

Speaker 1 That's going to be bonkers, dude. So

Speaker 1 I believe that it's a bigger thing that

Speaker 1 these are the stairs, these are the baby steps of it. Is first is you got to know who's here.
You got to figure everything out.

Speaker 1 And yeah,

Speaker 1 I agree. This stuff's gross.
It's sick. It's it's heartbreaking.

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 you know, the stuff in Gaza is is heartbreaking. Us watching this and becoming immune to some of the

Speaker 1 or not,

Speaker 1 you know, and then you're so overwhelmed sometimes you don't even know what to speak up about. And you still also, most people have to take care of their families and

Speaker 1 get to school or worry about this or worry about that or do okay at their job, you know.

Speaker 1 So, and then some people just stay out of it and they just go on about their lives. And I,

Speaker 1 are they, are they bad for doing that? I don't think, you know, I don't think so. That's just,

Speaker 1 it's all a lot. It's all a lot.
That's what it feels like sometimes, you know?

Speaker 1 It feels tough. It feels tough to navigate.
What do I do? How do I do this? You know, but we feel, we see, and we feel everything now. So

Speaker 1 emotionally, I think a lot of shit gets pretty overwhelming at times, or we just start to get immune to it, which is even scarier.

Speaker 1 Because then you see something really messed up and you don't even say anything. You literally move past it with your thumb.

Speaker 1 So anyway, sorry to be a downer right there with a lot of downer stuff.

Speaker 1 There's also people that have been in the country technically illegal, right? Like by the letter of the law,

Speaker 1 who I don't know if over the years they've had the opportunity to figure that out. Is there, you know, have there been opportunities? I don't know enough about it.

Speaker 1 I'm not an I don't know enough about immigration policy to know if they've had where they could go to an office and get that figured out over the years. I don't know.
I don't know what that's like.

Speaker 1 I bet it's also miserable to be like living in the shadows and like worried all the time that this isn't going to be able to get figured out or this won't be able to be figured out.

Speaker 1 And you also have to believe that different political parties, they will use these things as kickballs. They'll use certain videos and stuff as kickballs

Speaker 1 to get us all to watch the ball in the air, right? And even though sometimes it's horrible, some of the situations is horrible.

Speaker 1 You're watching the monkey juggle. Meanwhile, the monkey's stealing all your shit.
The monkey gots all your bananas, baby. You down fruitless.
You down bad.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 prayers, if a Mexican person needs to hide at my house, man, I'd be willing to discuss it. Fuck, I don't know if I should say that out loud or not.

Speaker 1 But,

Speaker 1 yeah, I just...

Speaker 1 And sometimes people are like, you got to speak about, you got to speak about this.

Speaker 1 You speak what you feel you need to speak about

Speaker 1 okay you you speak what you think you need to speak about

Speaker 1 because also i don't sit there all day looking at everything you know i don't sit there all day looking at every single thing and moment some stuff i'm not even attuned to there's other genocides happening in the world that i don't even know about

Speaker 1 right and that you don't even know about and that's okay you know

Speaker 1 so anyway there's a lot going on there that's all i'm saying and

Speaker 1 I think this is all part of a bigger, this is, this is just the beginning step. This isn't,

Speaker 1 while we're all watching this, so many other things are going on. And the crazy part about all of everything is, of everything,

Speaker 1 is that it's always the same shit. You look, it's always like, oh, here's a racial issue.
Here's a this issue.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 nothing ever changes, it feels like.

Speaker 1 Nothing ever changes.

Speaker 1 And that's sometimes I think maybe even with that Vance interview, I'd be like, is anything going to change?

Speaker 1 Because if not, just tell us it's not.

Speaker 1 You know?

Speaker 1 So, you know, I can go back to using and doing adult kickball or whatever. Just, you know.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 anyway, those are just some thoughts. And I don't have any perfect answer for you.
And if you're coming to me for some perfect answer, go to yourself.

Speaker 1 What is your thought?

Speaker 1 What do you feel? What do you know?

Speaker 1 You a magic guy?

Speaker 1 You a wizard? Then do wizard shit.

Speaker 1 Another call that came in here. Sorry to get hot.
Happy belated Father's Day, dude. And Eldia de las Papa.

Speaker 2 Hey, Theo. I just had a question.
I need some advice. I have a pretty right-leaning boyfriend, and

Speaker 2 he's not super fond of gay people.

Speaker 2 And my really close cousin, he's like a brother to me. He just came out as gay recently, and he's been acting pretty gay.
So, I'm just trying to figure out how I can mend things between them.

Speaker 2 He's my gay cousin is coming into town. I'm trying to set up some plans.

Speaker 1 Well, look, I think I wouldn't just take a gay around somebody that's anti-gay for, you know,

Speaker 1 like you, you know what I'm saying? Like, you don't fucking

Speaker 1 just take a pit bull in at a bird shop.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 that's one thing I wouldn't do right there.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 you know, I think, I mean, you could just play it, play,

Speaker 1 dude. You could play that song.
I'm going to take my horse to the updown road. I'm going to ride to Lake Angle.
Well, I got the horses in the back.

Speaker 1 You play that shit, bro. I bet they both gonna fucking grin a little, boy.
Maybe gadget, babe.

Speaker 1 And if you ain't ready to go go full knot little knot, you could fucking start off a little cotton-eyed Joe. Get out the way of cat and eye Joe.

Speaker 1 That's a fucking little, you know, that's a fucking little, you know, sometimes if you, if they drop that on at the country club, you could see who might have a little bit of fucking zest in

Speaker 1 their bandana, you know.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, those are some options, but don't be, you know what I'm saying? You ain't fucking Don King, you ain't Dana White, baby girl. Don't be out there fucking,

Speaker 1 you know, don't be out there trying to start a

Speaker 1 trans trans swimming event or something. You know what I'm saying? Don't get crazy.
You know, you ain't the NCAA. Don't try to fucking

Speaker 1 pit different people against each other just to start shit. You know, don't get like that.
So, blessings to both of them and praise God right there.

Speaker 1 Let's hear another question. Oh, we got a question here about Gayon.

Speaker 3 Hi, Theo. This is Garrett Stewart from California.

Speaker 1 Hey, Garrett, thank you for calling, brother. Onward.
California.

Speaker 3 And I was just calling to ask.

Speaker 1 Oh, secretly gay, the fella said. Let's hear more.

Speaker 3 I haven't told a lot of people.

Speaker 3 And I want to figure out how I can tell my mom.

Speaker 3 And I thought I could get some advice on here.

Speaker 3 I'm hoping she'll listen and maybe find out this way and it'll start out the conversation.

Speaker 5 But

Speaker 3 yeah, I mean, thank you for the thank you for the space to talk about this and i hope to hope to hear something about it on the

Speaker 1 okay brother yeah thank you for calling dude um

Speaker 1 and congratulations on your uh

Speaker 1 gay ship or whatever it's called gatum or whatever um being gay

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 i mean you there's different ways you could go about it you could do something you know kind of fun you could do just like a knock knock who's there

Speaker 1 I'm gay, you know, that old trick or whatever.

Speaker 1 Or you could get a deck of cards, right? You could write, I'm a gay son on each one,

Speaker 1 put them like that,

Speaker 1 have her pick one out, say, pick one out, and read it. And bam, you don't even say nothing.
She says it.

Speaker 1 And then you could be like, What the fuck do you mean? You know, you could

Speaker 1 roll switch or whatever. So that's it.
You know, that's reverse psychology, dude.

Speaker 1 So that's something, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 But I think in reality, dude, what would I do here, dude?

Speaker 1 I would sit down with her. I would sit down with your mom if you got to tell her that

Speaker 1 you are.

Speaker 1 I would sit down with her. I would say, mom, I have something really important to tell you.
And

Speaker 1 just ask her, I would say, hey, do you know, do you love me no matter what? Do you love me no matter what?

Speaker 1 And she will say yes, right? If she doesn't say yes, I would not tell her. But if she says yes, then I would keep moving forward.

Speaker 1 And then I would just tell her, say, look, I'm a, you know, I'm a gay man or whatever.

Speaker 1 Or I'm pretty much gay. That's what I would say.
Don't ever fully commit to anything. That's a trap for everything.
I'm pretty much gay, right?

Speaker 1 That way, what if they come out with a cream or something or a topical a few years from now or something or, you know, because you don't know that they don't, or a peptide or something that'd be ungay in people.

Speaker 1 You want to have, you just want to have that little, you want to leave that door ajar, baby. You know what I'm saying? You want to leave that, you want to leave that door ajar, poppy.

Speaker 1 So that's what I would, then I would just tell her.

Speaker 1 And I would just let her know if it's scary to you to say that, I would say, mom, I've been really scared about saying it to you.

Speaker 1 And then I would say, do you have any questions about it?

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 1 it's a surprise. It might be a surprise to her.
Some moms are surprised about it. What percentage of moms? No, they

Speaker 1 have a gaze.

Speaker 1 Oh, it says a lot of parents know because they study their babies closely as they grow.

Speaker 1 So hell yeah, bruh.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so if they might have some ideas over the years,

Speaker 1 if you invite another little dudes up in your crib or whatever, they might have had an idea or whatever.

Speaker 1 Or you got fucking, you got a bedazzled diaper or whatever. They're going to have a little inkling.
Some parents, it doesn't say every parent.

Speaker 1 So then that's what I would ask her because it's going to be new, new to her. So she might have questions.
She might be scared too. She might be, you know, she might be kind of rattled.

Speaker 1 And then if you guys have a dad, I would say, well, how do we break this to dad? What do you think we should do? And then that way it kind of creates a little bit of an accomplice there.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I just think that's it. That just as probably learning you were gay, it's probably a journey for them to have this information.

Speaker 1 So I'm not saying that just because that people need to adapt to you or anything, but I'm just saying

Speaker 1 some people, it's a bit of a surprise. You know, my buddy told me he was gay not long ago, and I was like, damn, bro,

Speaker 1 he's gay, you know.

Speaker 1 So it's a surprise sometimes to people. You don't, you know, it's a little bit of an adjustment.
It's not bad or anything, or it doesn't mean anybody's bad. But thanks for asking about that, man.

Speaker 1 We've learned a lot about gays here over the years. You know, we've learned a lot about drug-induced homosexuality,

Speaker 1 altitude-based gays

Speaker 1 weekend gays

Speaker 1 footwear gays a lot of times you're looking at your buddy's shoes or whatever and you're like damn that your boots is gay as fuck son you'd hiccum the zest episode so it's like we've learned a lot about it dude there's full-time, there's part-time, there's

Speaker 1 Wednesday only gays, underwater gays. Sometimes you feel something underwater, underwater, you go down there, somebody's blowing you.

Speaker 1 What is that?

Speaker 1 So there's a lot there, man. Anyway, sorry to ramble, but

Speaker 1 I bet,

Speaker 1 I bet,

Speaker 1 I don't know. I bet that's a tough, tough experience for a lot of people, man.

Speaker 1 I bet it's a tough experience. So just thanks for calling and sharing about that.

Speaker 1 Let's get another call in here.

Speaker 4 Yo, what up, CO?

Speaker 4 This is your boy. I'm going to keep this one anonymous for obvious reasons here in a bit, but

Speaker 4 just want to give you a call and see if you had any suggestions for me.

Speaker 4 This morning I received a message from

Speaker 4 somebody that I had

Speaker 4 made love to about two years ago and

Speaker 4 honestly at one point she

Speaker 4 this woman she was my boss. She's about 10 years older than me, I believe.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 You climbing a corporate vagina, brother. All right, onward.

Speaker 4 Got a message this morning that

Speaker 4 she says there's about a 75%

Speaker 4 chance that her one-year-old daughter is my daughter.

Speaker 4 And I asked her, well,

Speaker 4 what's this other 25% chance? Is that just to to soften the blow or what? And she's like, yeah, there's a 10% chance that it

Speaker 4 was my ex.

Speaker 4 I don't even know if she had a boyfriend at the time when we did it, but maybe.

Speaker 4 But yeah, it was just to kind of soften the blow. And so obviously I'm going to.

Speaker 4 Do a paternity test, but I'm 25 years old. She lives in

Speaker 4 a different state, thousands of miles away from me

Speaker 4 I asked her what she would expect if I am the father and she says I'm not planning on changing anything

Speaker 4 it's it's up to me

Speaker 4 but she's gonna be happy healthy and well taken care of which I truly do believe

Speaker 4 but I I don't know I just don't know what to do like I

Speaker 4 feel like I myself had both parents growing up and I'm fucked up as is and

Speaker 4 I can't imagine bringing

Speaker 4 a baby into this world and just leaving her out there high and dry without a father

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're saying you can't imagine that right

Speaker 1 So it sounds like from hearing you that that's not part of you

Speaker 1 That's not part of the plan that you want

Speaker 1 So I think starting from there,

Speaker 1 you'll be able to figure this out, man.

Speaker 1 I wish I had more of a suggestion to to you. Actually, I'm going to open this up just to callers.
I know maybe that's impersonal because it's your call, but I think this is important.

Speaker 1 If somebody's in this situation, if you've been in this situation before,

Speaker 1 what did you do?

Speaker 1 And if you made mistakes and you were in this situation, what were those mistakes?

Speaker 1 You know, I think this is an opportunity to share those. And we can do a follow-up call on the next solo episode where we'll package some of those answers up for you.

Speaker 1 But just hang in there right now, man. Hang in there, take care of yourself.

Speaker 1 And I would just try to also live in, like, you know, get information so you're gathering, you know, you have real-time information. What's going on?

Speaker 1 Is this really, you know, if you have a paternity test, is that really your child? You know, figure those things out so that you can be at least operating from a place of real information.

Speaker 1 And then you're not just living in your head as much.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 I can't tell you a ton because I don't don't have experience right there.

Speaker 1 But I have had experience thinking that I might have had someone who's pregnant and that can be very tough. It can be scary.
It can be very scary.

Speaker 1 Even if that person's a great person, it still can be very scary. And especially if you're going to be in a place that's far away.

Speaker 1 But everything is.

Speaker 1 If there's a problem, you can usually fix it, right? If there's a situation, you can usually figure it out. So, and even by calling, man, I think it shows kind of where

Speaker 1 you're at. You're already in a space where you want to start to figure this out, you know, for yourself and possibly for your future child.
So,

Speaker 1 yeah, thank you for calling, man. And yeah, we'll put some together.
It might be a few weeks before we get that episode out.

Speaker 1 Just let you know, it could be a month to that next solo. But, yeah, but love you, bruh, and hang in there.

Speaker 1 And thanks for calling.

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Speaker 1 That's better H-E-L-P dot com slash Theo.

Speaker 1 Let's take one more call right here.

Speaker 3 What up, Theo?

Speaker 5 My name is Alex. I'm from Cleveland, Ohio.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 5 I was just asking for some advice with a girl from Latin America. I never been with a Latina before.

Speaker 5 I don't know if you have any experience with one, but I met this beautiful girl from Colombia a few nights ago at the club.

Speaker 5 And it was this whole romantic experience. You know, I bought her a drink.
I was making her laugh.

Speaker 5 Before you know it, we're doing the tango.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Dancing.

Speaker 5 I was even speaking a little Spanish. I don't know what got into me.

Speaker 5 I had game I've never seen before out of myself. But now it's a few days later.
I've been texting her. I want to take her on a date.
But I feel this pressure to be the guy I was that night.

Speaker 5 And honestly, now that the dream's out of my system, I don't think I got it anymore.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
I would just, thanks for that call, man. I would, here's what I would do.
I would just take her on another date. And she already knows that that happened, right?

Speaker 1 So I don't think you got to replicate that.

Speaker 1 I think you take her to do something else to take that pressure off. Go for a walk, go to a bingo hall, and do a bingo night over there.

Speaker 1 What else could you do? Go for lunch, right? Do a completely different environment.

Speaker 1 Because I've done this a lot in my life, man. It's like, man, if this date with this girl, if it's not perfect, I don't stand a chance with her.

Speaker 1 I either do or don't stand a chance based on who I am, though. I mean, it's easy for me to say that

Speaker 1 just because, like, I've learned that in my own life.

Speaker 1 But, um

Speaker 1 but that's really what it comes down to just say hey the other night felt awesome felt magical right

Speaker 1 i'm nervous i can't replicate that tell her that right out of the jump

Speaker 1 now

Speaker 1 you already have that magic night you made and now you're a real guy you're right there you're in a real space Because otherwise, dude, we spend this time, dude. I've spent so much time.

Speaker 1 This has to be perfect. I'm going to fucking get this.
I'm going to rent this van or whatever. I'm going to do all this shit.

Speaker 1 You know, we're going to get a couple oysters or whatever.

Speaker 1 You know, all of this fucking shit, this van oyster bullshit. And then I end up, I can't, nothing's just like, I'm, I'm just, I've already

Speaker 1 lost because I set the expectations too high. So that's what I would do.
Just be real with her. And if it doesn't work out, it's not because you didn't do things magical.

Speaker 1 It's just because it wasn't going to work out.

Speaker 1 That's it. You know, do but be creative.
I think that's appreciated. But that's it, man.
Don't make it so it's impossible for you to even

Speaker 1 do.

Speaker 1 You know, I do that sometimes. Fuck, I make shit like,

Speaker 1 oh, dear God. All right, let's get out of this.
We got to get done here soon.

Speaker 1 Let's take one more call.

Speaker 6 Hey, Theo.

Speaker 6 Just want to congratulate you on your success, man. I'm a huge fan.

Speaker 6 I just had a question, man. Well, not a question.
Just I wanted some advice, man. So

Speaker 6 I'm 28 years old. I'm an Army veteran.

Speaker 1 Thank you for your service, man.

Speaker 6 Veteran.

Speaker 6 Recently got out like a year and a half ago. And

Speaker 6 I went through a divorce, man. And,

Speaker 6 you know, that's that.

Speaker 6 The problem is that

Speaker 6 I have two kids, man.

Speaker 6 Both of them have autism and and

Speaker 6 mom decided to step away from their life, you know, and it's just me raising them alone.

Speaker 6 I was just wondering if you can just give me any advice you got, brother, like

Speaker 6 just how to deal with that, man.

Speaker 6 You know, trying to do things alone and

Speaker 6 if you just had any advice, man. But

Speaker 6 I just want to thank you for your... for your podcast, man.
It's been extremely helpful.

Speaker 6 And yeah, thank you. And hope you reach out back, man.

Speaker 1 Praise, brother. Thank you for the call, man.

Speaker 1 Thanks for calling. And just,

Speaker 1 man, that's a journey you're on, dude. Congratulations, bro.

Speaker 1 Congratulations on, you know, showing up. But, man, I want to say happy belated Father's Day to you.
And I applaud you, man.

Speaker 1 I applaud you.

Speaker 1 for showing up for those kids for being able to have let them have somebody they can look in the eye in the eyes, and they know that that person is there for them.

Speaker 1 That that person is a caretaker,

Speaker 1 that that person thinks about them when they're not around.

Speaker 1 You know, I think as children, we take that for granted, even, and we should, because it shouldn't even be a question.

Speaker 1 But I commend you on that. I know it's your job as a dad, right? That's part of it, but man, maybe as men, we're not saying that shit to each other enough.

Speaker 1 You know, I don't know.

Speaker 1 But yeah, having dad there when

Speaker 1 you try to learn to ride the bike or you want to do fishing or whatever.

Speaker 1 Or if y'all like doing a video game or reading your kid a story at night, you know, or even picking your kid up and helping him get to the second or third step.

Speaker 1 You know, now make your kid do one of the steps. Some people put their kid all the way to the fourth step.
Bitch, put that bitch on the third step. You know what I'm saying, bro? Life ain't that easy

Speaker 1 you know or set if they crawl and set that bitch on the south side of a speed bump let him work

Speaker 1 let him work

Speaker 1 but i'll say this it makes me feel good just knowing that there's a man out there who's out there battling to do his best with his children

Speaker 1 and um

Speaker 1 this is also kind of interesting we're making uh these cat william

Speaker 1 uh nutcrackers

Speaker 1 and we're gonna make a packaged pair just like me and cat William had talked about about doing it

Speaker 1 and they're gonna be

Speaker 1 one of

Speaker 1 him one of me and you could just get him if you want that's fine I will not be upset but we're gonna sell him and the proceeds we're gonna go somehow to help parents of children with autism

Speaker 1 so we just started looking at the prototypes

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I don't know what that looks like, right? I don't know how. I don't know if it'll be in what way or something.
But when that comes along, man, maybe I could have you help us out somehow. Or

Speaker 1 I don't know. Maybe we can think of something to do,

Speaker 1 you know, in that space. But

Speaker 1 yeah.

Speaker 1 Now, we're hoping to have them plan for the end of the year. I don't know how it all works, but I do know that we've already gotten back like

Speaker 1 drawings. We haven't gotten back an actual item yet.
But I do believe that we're making progress. So

Speaker 1 there you go. That'll be something.

Speaker 1 That's not advice, but that's my belated Father's Day gift to you, is that if we can get this to fruition, then let me see if I can't find a way

Speaker 1 that we can,

Speaker 1 or do like, do a nice thing for you or something. I don't know what it is yet.
Yeah, but just know that people are thinking of you, man.

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 1 know that I think a lot of us go through the day and

Speaker 1 you know, I think most people, this is the funny thing.

Speaker 1 most people I'll run into, they say, I want to be helpful to people.

Speaker 1 You know?

Speaker 1 Most people are, that's what they are thinking of that.

Speaker 1 And I think that's what's in the heart of most people, man.

Speaker 1 But happy, happy belated Father's Day, brother. And praise God.
You might also be Mexican, so you sounded a little bit Mexican. I'm judgmental when it comes to voices and shit.
You know that, bruh.

Speaker 1 But Feliz Papa.

Speaker 1 Let me see what that means, actually.

Speaker 1 Feliz Papa.

Speaker 1 Happy dad.

Speaker 1 Happy father.

Speaker 1 So, El Dia de Feliz Papa.

Speaker 1 Happy Dad's Day yesterday. Oh, oh, yesterday.

Speaker 1 Yesterday, dos. I'll say that.
Two yesterdays. Yesterday, dos.

Speaker 1 Elfia,

Speaker 1 El Dia de Feliz Papa, Ayer

Speaker 1 Dos.

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 happy Bladed Father's Day to Rhett Powers. That's the man that took me in when I was young and uh and gave me a place to stay, um,

Speaker 1 you know, in high school and stuff like that, and has been a role model to me. Uh, Charles Alder, he was a teacher of mine that I had when I was young.
He passed away a few years ago, but uh,

Speaker 1 he like was the only, he was like the first person to ever even

Speaker 1 like talk to me,

Speaker 1 like, talk to me like, uh,

Speaker 1 I don't know

Speaker 1 you know he really cared about me um

Speaker 1 there's been a lot of men in my life I could you know I'll forget I don't want to get into like a naming spree

Speaker 1 and a lot of men who have filled in the blanks

Speaker 1 you know sometimes I go you know if there's something going on I'll call this friend's dad or I'll call this person who's a little bit older than me Or sometimes I even get little pieces of fatherhood from friends, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, Yeah, I think sometimes it's like building, you build that relationship inside of other pieces of fathers that are still here or moments that are still here.

Speaker 1 So anyway,

Speaker 1 yeah, just learning to use my voice, dude, it's crazy this late in life.

Speaker 1 And maybe that's me just having a cop out. I have no idea, but I'm going to keep...

Speaker 1 I'm going to keep showing up. Let's do that.

Speaker 1 Praise God, man. Be good to yourselves out there.
There's a new song right here, and we might have to edit this out if they don't clear it for us.

Speaker 1 But this is by Evan Bartells, and he has a new album out that I want to support here. And

Speaker 1 this is Evan Bartells, the album to Make You Cry, which, yeah, dang, it's the last thing I needed, but it is what it is, baby. But this is a voice.
This is somebody using their voice, right?

Speaker 1 So, anyway, I don't know. But you guys be good to yourselves, man.
We got some exciting episodes coming up. I'm grateful.

Speaker 1 I want to get more grateful. I want to be more grateful in my life.
I'm going to ask God to help me with that this week. I'm going to ask myself to help me with that.

Speaker 1 Sometimes I'll try to put it all on God's shoulders, and I don't do shit, you know. So, I'm going to try to pull up for God.

Speaker 1 Praise God, baby. Here we go.
You guys be good to yourselves, man. You deserve it.
Happy belated Father's Day, gang.

Speaker 1 said the cancer came back

Speaker 1 after two years of leaving me alone

Speaker 1 and my wife passed back in December

Speaker 1 since then I've been here on my own

Speaker 1 He spoke like a Southern Baptist preacher

Speaker 1 Sang like a Pentecostal choir

Speaker 1 Said he always done right by that woman

Speaker 1 And ain't no man could call him wife

Speaker 1 Some nights when his spirit got heavy

Speaker 1 He'd dream of that lost promised land

Speaker 1 Said it looked like back home in Virginia

Speaker 1 but he'll never see them all here.

Speaker 1 He said, I blame it on the damn tobacco.

Speaker 1 I blame it all on the booze,

Speaker 1 and I blame it on the fella

Speaker 1 sitting up in heaven

Speaker 1 giving me the right to choose.

Speaker 1 He said I reckon I'll die on a Tuesday

Speaker 1 And I hope the sun's gonna shine

Speaker 1 And I can't take it with me

Speaker 1 So I drink it right here my whiskey my beer and my wine

Speaker 1 And he spoke like a Southern Baptist preacher

Speaker 1 Sang like a Pentecostal choir

Speaker 1 Said he always done right by his mama

Speaker 1 And ain't no man could call him a liar

Speaker 1 But some nights when his spirit got heavy

Speaker 1 He'd dream of that lost promised land

Speaker 1 Look like back home in Virginia.

Speaker 1 He said I'd never see him or heels again.

Speaker 1 And I'd sit at the bar while he's talking,

Speaker 1 just like me and him was old friends.

Speaker 1 And promised I'd always remember

Speaker 1 the life of a good man

Speaker 1 Now, only

Speaker 1 sad and nashville, I said,

Speaker 1 And I get stone.

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