Is There A SHOCKING Truth About Toxic Reality TV? Probably not. Guest Sean O'Bannon in-studio

No, listen, listen, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put y'all onto something.

This is a hot take, but I promise it's true.

This is Art Barkin, brought to you by RighthunterRightToyota out of Scottsdale, Arizona.

Coming up on today's show, Sean O'Bannon in studio.

You're really going to love this, especially if you heard the teaser

opening for this.

But before we get to that, this week, November 11th is Veterans Day,

originally known as Armistice Day, originally made in World War One.

And, you know, I'm not a veteran.

I, I'd always wish that I had served on some capacity.

I may not be here today, but still, huge respect to all my friends and family.

They're, they're veterans, a huge respect to people who are actively in the military,

regardless of what your political beliefs are.

They are in the military to uphold anything and everything that it means today

to be a United States citizen.

You know, my father retired in the Navy and, you know, let's, let's, let's try

to remember what Veterans Day is and let's make sure we keep the utmost respect

for our former military members that, if needed, have taken the oath to put

their life on the line for all of our freedoms.

This was a really packed weekend.

You know, at the last minute, I received an invite from a, from a

dear friend and I saw Predator Badlands.

You know, I didn't really, like, so I saw the previews.

I didn't really pay that much attention to it.

I, I thought Predator in the movie leading up to the previews looked kind of crazy.

It looked like just some dude with an ugly face and bad hair, unlike your

traditional Predator with the giant heads and the giant face shields.

But then when you watch the movie, you realize what it's all about.

And I thought it was actually a pretty good movie, a little goofy and silly,

but that's just what we're doing with today's movies.

I don't know if I'd say it was excellent, but it definitely didn't suck.

And it is worth seeing.

We saw it on IMAX, which is really cool.

I haven't been to IMAX in years.

And I remember IMAX just being this huge thing and the screen was bigger, but

nowadays movie theaters are just bigger in general.

And there's a lot of theaters that are just as big, maybe bigger.

But the seats were dope.

And maybe that's the selling point.

You know, anyway, the movie was really great.

Went to the Scottsdale Polo Championship again.

I think I've gone three or four times in the last five years.

And that's through the Arizona AMG club.

It helps when your friend is the president, Mr.

Josh Benjamin.

Thank you so much for that.

My wife went with me for the first time.

She had a great time.

She says, Hey, how come you don't ever, how come this is my first time going?

And I said, well, I invite you every year and you don't want to go because

there's always something else going on or you're just not that interested in it.

But I think she'll be going back if we go back for sure.

So then Saturday night, I went to the warehouse and to one of the events for

the members and friends and family called the inflate a light event inflate a light.

It's exactly what it sounds like.

It's just giant cube or not really cube.

There's giant rectangle and light box.

And they had it set up to where you can do products.

You can have headshots.

I got a few headshots.

There's a headshot coach there, which is great.

Headshots are hard.

You have to stand a certain way and like move your head forward a certain way and

do like the certain thing with your jaw.

And then I took the Honda Z.

I have enough pictures of the, of the NSX.

So I took the Honda Z, got some really cool photos of the Z sitting on the

couch, the Z behind me reading a magazine and can't wait to see how that turns out.

And then this week coming up on Saturday, Texas plays Georgia.

I know none of you really care, but I care because there's just,

there's this weird thing in sports, especially college football.

And I realized that college football fan is worse.

They're worse than diehard NFL fan, especially when you're on X, AKA Twitter.

And Texas was, they lost a couple of games.

They failed the top 25 and recently the rankings came back and they're like, oh,

we can't believe Texas is ranked 12.

How is Notre Dame ranked higher than Texas or Oklahoma or anything like that?

Right now, Texas is back in the top 10, but it doesn't matter because they

still have to play Georgia, which is number five in the country.

And they still have to play Texas A&M, which is number three in the country.

And then in between that, they have Arkansas, which is a natural rival.

If Texas goes two and one over the next three, they're going to be fine.

So even if they were to somehow have been ranked in the top five, which you

don't do that with two losses, they still would have had to go, would have

to be in the college football playoffs for sure.

So if they went out, great.

If they went two out of the next three, they're going to be fine.

If they go one and two, probably not good.

If they lose all three, they're definitely done and none of this matters anyway.

And then finally, I am one and nine in fantasy football.

My team sucked this year.

I don't think I'm going to pay attention to my lineups for the rest of the year.

Coming up, Sean O'Bannon.

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Sean O'Bannon, welcome to hard parking, man.

I'm excited, man.

I've been wanting to do this for a while.

I know we've been talking about it.

Haven't made it happen.

We're making it happen today, sitting in front of us.

So first off, we're going to hot, hot jump into this.

We're going to be trying some Japanese or just some liquors period.

Yeah.

And inside this, inside these, the bottles I have stuff that's going to

like brain control, right?

Okay.

Perfect.

So then you're really going to be an open book.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Sedate me.

I'm going to sedate you.

Why don't you tell people a little bit about yourself, not too much to where

they can look you up and harm you.

A little bit about myself.

Shit.

I've, I've lived in Arizona for what, almost 15 years.

And I was a military kid.

So I moved around a lot and when people asked me where I'm from, I always

tell them Chicago, just cause that's where I moved here from.

But I think I lived in Chicago four years in reality.

Does it make you not from Chicago?

Well, here's the funny thing too.

If somebody's from Chicago, I'm not even from Chicago, right?

Well, what part of Chicago are you from?

I'm from Naperville, which is a, it's kind of a, what?

More wealthy suburb, right?

So I'm not even from Chicago, Chicago, but I was born in North Carolina and

then moved to Texas and then New Mexico and then Chicago and then here.

And yeah, it was all over the place.

Even then, even then I didn't really.

So you're from North Carolina.

Originally, originally, right?

But what's funny then is, is we didn't even move more than once for the military.

Right.

My mom was, was active duty in the Air Force.

So we moved to Texas for one of her transfers and she retired in Texas.

The rest of the time we just moved from divorce parents being divorced parents.

And yeah, everything getting crazy.

But no, I, so I was in the pool industry for a long time.

So that's how we met, right?

Is me remodeling your, your pool in your backyard.

And so I, what I did that for 10 years about, and then I got out of that.

And now I'm in medical sales.

Best decision I ever made, best decision I ever made.

So I don't know if that's enough.

No, that's good, man.

Let's get a pour in.

And I'm going to ask you a little bit about that.

Yeah.

What do you want?

Dealers choice.

So I'm going to give you some of this Shibui 10.

All right.

It's a Japanese whiskey, lightly peated.

This bottle, my daughter gave me for, I think father's day or birthday or

something a year or two ago.

I don't drink a lot of it, but it's pretty delicious.

And I want you to try it because you told me that you don't really know much

about Japanese whiskey.

I don't either, but relatively speaking, I'm a genius in this.

There you go.

That's what I consider you guys.

I'll tell you what too.

This is my first time drinking out of a Glencairn.

We kind of do the sniff test, right?

Just sticking.

Yeah, that's why they're the shape that they are.

Really?

He's giving me rye vibes.

Well, I think what it, what you're smelling is the peediness.

Okay.

Yeah, the peediness.

So, um, we'll, we'll cheers to this Shibui 10.

Yeah.

We'll talk a little.

Defining.

Don't break.

There you go.

Yeah.

Uh, don't break my cups.

And then we'll, um, we'll get into your career.

I've got to tip that thing way for, Oh, there's the peediness.

It's almost like, yeah, like burnt wood and it keeps going.

It does.

What does that remind me of?

I've had something with a rush fire keeps going to brush fire.

You know what it was?

It was this, uh, this old lady that, um, I used to go to church with and her

and her husband were really into like making smoked cheese, right?

You try smoked Gouda at the grocery store or something like that, but they

were terrible at it, right?

So we would eat this cheese and it tasted like cigarettes.

Me and my brother were horrified.

You've just ruined my palette for this Shibui.

Did you, are you getting what I'm not, but my brain is telling me I should be.

Yeah.

So it's kind of messing with me a little bit.

I don't hate it though.

It's, it's different for sure.

So you were in the pool industry for a while.

One of the, one of the things that I felt was super unique about you was your

knowledge, obviously not of just the pools, but of the chemicals and everything

else.

Yeah.

What, what's the education path there?

Because I look at you as kind of like a chemist.

Yeah.

I mean, officially speaking, there really isn't, at least in Arizona, the

regulations are super loose, um, but I've always been that way about everything.

I'm kind of like an all or nothing person.

Um, and I just, I don't know.

I don't want to do anything half-assed.

I don't want to do anything blind, right?

Which is actually why I started, you know, working for the, the company that I

did when we were doing your pool.

Um, so to go back a little bit, I, I had gotten off my, my mission, you know, I

used to be a Mormon and, uh, so I'd gotten off my mission and I started going

to college and I was in a pre-med program.

So I always knew that I wanted to be in the, in the medical industry and I ran

out of money.

So I, I get out, yeah, I wasn't a great high school student or anything.

So I didn't have a scholarship or anything.

So I ran out of money and when I got home, as I went to school in Utah, when I

got home, um, I tried a couple of different things.

I tried sales for an insurance company.

I tried selling shoes.

I tried to write, and none of that stuff was really interesting to me.

And so my brother, who was saving up for his mission, um, was, was doing pools.

It was just the job that he was able to get.

And then, you know, barrier for entry was low.

And so, Hey, what are you up to?

You show me what you're doing.

So I, uh, I did a ride along with him.

I figured, okay, I can do this for a couple of months.

And, um, so I did and it was horrible, hated it, but I was good at it.

And I kind of got good at it quickly.

And, and I think it's because of that, that, you know, kind of thirst for

knowledge and doing things correctly that I figured out the chemistry pretty

quickly.

In fact, my brother, who was better at the, uh, the mechanical stuff as far as

cleaning the pool goes, um, they called him the net, right?

And then they called me the chemist.

And, uh, and we, we kind of grew quickly in that company and, and became kind of

the, the authorities on whatever they had to start, you know, training people

and that kind of thing.

And my brother finally left on his mission and I took over his route.

I had my route and then there was another guy who moved up to management.

I took his route too.

So I started working crazy hours, but I got a lot of practice in it.

Just kind of learned a lot and, uh, but I hated it.

You know, same thing.

Like I said, it was, it was horrible.

And, uh, so I eventually got out of that.

I did, uh, you know, sales.

So door to door pest control, um, I sold cell phones at Verizon.

I really, I enjoy sales, but it has to be the right product, right?

And, um, so anyway, not passionate about Verizon.

No, no, still have Verizon though.

Yeah, yeah.

So, you know, but, um, so I, I, my last kind of stop in, in sales was I started

doing real estate and I did it for a little bit in Arizona and, uh, and there

was this guy who I was working for who ended up firing me as the first and

only time I've ever really gotten fired.

And, uh, so I was, I was kind of sitting there wondering what to do.

I had gotten married and we had our first, our first kid and she was really young.

And I was like, oh, I got to, you know, figure this out.

And, um, my mom calls me who lived in Florida.

How old were you at this time?

I was 20, 22, maybe a little younger.

And so, uh, so my mom calls me and said, Hey, there's this lady I go to

church with and, and, uh, she needs a property manager for this real estate

company.

I know you kind of have dabbled in that space.

Do you want to see what's going on?

Okay, sure.

So, uh, lady calls me, she said what she needs.

She says, you know, well, if you get your real estate license in Florida and

start doing all this stuff for us, we'll give you the world, right?

The promise me the world.

So, okay, you know, let's, let's try a new place.

Let's try something new.

Yeah.

I got nothing else to lose.

So we moved to Florida and, uh, Destin Northwest corner.

I know where that is.

I haven't been there.

I have a friend there.

I haven't been the beaches, man.

Incredible.

That sand like sugar.

Oh God, incredible.

I think you just sold the trip because we're trying to figure out where we're

going to go for our next family trip.

So Destin, it is Emerald coast.

Man, it's great.

So, uh, so yeah, I did, you know, real estate out there for a bit and what

ended up happening was I did everything they asked, right?

Got my real estate license was, was working really hard on the property

management side.

I was getting them tenants.

I was, you know, getting contrast with new, new homeowners.

And, uh, anyway, what ended up happening is they never ended up paying me anymore.

Never gave me any of that world that they promised me.

And, um, we just, it was really expensive to live there.

Destin's, you know, the real estate's really expensive.

And we just couldn't really afford to live there anymore.

And, uh, so it, you know, I wouldn't say we had no choice.

It does, right?

But I wouldn't say we had no choice, but at the time it seemed like that was, you

know, the best thing to do is to go back to Arizona where I had a network and I

could at least, you know, leverage relationships to, to get a job.

And so, uh, we moved back to Arizona at 50 bucks to my name, right?

It was me, my pregnant wife with our then second child and, and our little girl

who was a little less than a year old.

I was only in Florida for about eight months.

And, um, so, so we move into a spare bedroom of my best friend's house and I

swore up and down, I'll never work for anybody again.

So I took a $2,000 loan out for my mother-in-law and started a pool company

cause that was the only, you know, marketable skill that I had.

Right.

And, uh, you want to talk about having to know a lot of stuff and in Arizona, right?

The pool market super saturated.

So I really locked in and, and you know, learned as much as I could and, uh, and

just started, you know, going whole hog into the pool industry, built the company

up pretty quickly.

And after a couple of years, I switched over to construction because the money was

better and I did a, you know, some smaller projects and mostly kind of, you

know, low end, high volume stuff.

And, uh, what made me go and work for, you know, Tatum, the company that built

your pool, um, I had one project that was relatively complicated and I fucked it up.

Man, I was just, I didn't know what I was doing at that level.

And so I decided like, I need to learn how to do things at a, at a higher level,

kind of get into the higher end space, but I didn't know what I was doing.

So I decided to go be a superintendent for a builder and I hit up the company and

then they decided to hire me.

So, uh, so that's kind of how I, I, what's the word?

Reinforced my knowledge of the construction side.

And I mean, I think between those two sides, right, the service and the construction,

both of them, me wanting to, to learn the best way to do things.

That's kind of where a lot of my, my knowledge base went in.

So over all those years doing all that stuff, I did, I kind of became an expert.

And, um, I'm really proud of, of the, the knowledge I gained in that industry.

Right.

But the one thing that never changed was it was miserable.

I hated doing it.

Right.

Just cause you're good at it, doesn't mean you enjoy it.

And I think being good at something increases, you know, the enjoyment of it.

But yeah, you know, that's, that's incredibly accurate.

Yeah.

You know, I've, I've said that before, like I, I don't want to get myself fired here.

You know what I mean?

Like I, I don't love my job.

I sure as hell don't hate it.

And I'd be a fool to complain about it.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Because of that, but it's not like it's an enjoyable thing.

You know, do you wonder if every job gets like that eventually?

I do wonder that because one of the things I always say is do something you love and

you don't work a day in your life.

And I think that for most people, even some of our most successful friends that

are working every day, busing their ass, doing their dream job, they'll all tell

you that it's our hard work 24 seven.

And the dream is at some point, you know, the money will just keep coming once

you've paved the way for yourself.

But that's like residual money coming in, but that's such a rare case.

Yeah.

People talk about passive income.

I feel like it's a myth every once in a while.

You put enough money into something.

But I don't remember the exact numbers, but it feels like if you want to invest

a bunch of money and pay out, you know, dividends enough to have a really good

living at, let's say 150,000, $200,000, the millions you've got to put in.

It's just not realistic for a lot of people.

So yeah, I agree.

For most people, there's always those exceptions and the exceptions become

the rule, depending on what it is, the type of sales, because I could tell you

what I want you to do when you leave here today.

I want you to go home and I want you to write down and think about your

three most motivated friends, right?

Okay.

Write their names down, get their phone number and invite them over to my house

next Tuesday night.

I'm going to have a seminar here and I'm going to show you how you can make

money in passive income.

Is this Mary Kay?

No, it's pretty much any other, you know, once I level marketing, which for

most of them, they're actually legit, but what they don't tell you is you got

to work harder than someone trying to build a YouTube channel, which already

busted their ass.

Yeah.

So the passive income can be there, but I think it's, it's so few for so few people.

It's easy.

You can, you can say it's, it's, it's a dream and it doesn't work and feel

accurate with it because we're all still trying to struggle with shit like that.

Yeah.

Well, going back to the whole do what you love and you'll never work a day

in your life.

I feel like if you do what you love, you kind of stop loving it, right?

It gets monotonous.

It gets tedious.

You start getting all the stress of production.

You know, for, for instance, if there's a lot of truth to that.

Yeah.

Well, okay.

In high school, I was really into music and I thought for the longest time, I

was going to be a musician for the right.

I played piano, I sang, I played guitar and my first semester in college

before I left my mission actually studied music, right?

And I was on the vocal performance scholarship and all that stuff.

And I really thought this is what I wanted to do.

And the more that I thought about it, the more I'm thinking, if this becomes

my profession, it's not just music that I have to focus on.

Now I've got to focus on business, right?

I've got to focus on production.

I've got to focus on, do people like it?

Do they not do that's going to get stressful.

I'm going to end up losing the love for music, right?

And I think that's got to be the case just about everything.

Just because you love it doesn't mean it's going to make a good career.

Yeah.

I'm going to agree with you on that.

It's the same thing with me in illustration.

You know, I was a big time sports artist in high school.

And that's what I was supposed to be.

The stuff that I did best at is stuff I did for myself.

Because if it was more passion and less talent, in my opinion, my family disagrees.

My wife always says, I'm wasting my talent.

I'm like, no, I'm not.

I'm just finding other ways to use my talents because I realized, especially

when I went to the college for the first time at Kendall College of Art

Design and I was going to industrial design, which is the program where you

can design cars and things.

But also, you know, what else you design in industrial design?

Shit like this.

Exactly, right?

Yeah, and I'm like, I don't want to spend six months designing the next

coffee cup, you know, I have more to offer.

Yeah.

And so that's kind of my deciding, my pivot point of like, all right, I like drawing.

I like being creative, but this isn't my future.

Because when you, when you work, when you do your passion projects for other people,

it becomes a job, just like you said.

And now it doesn't matter what this painting looks like to me.

It matters if my customer is happy with it.

There you go.

And then I got six customers lined up.

They want a similar painting.

I don't have time to do it.

Now I'm stressed, but one thing that I talked about previously with another

guest, I found this post online and it's something about, you know, how blessed

we are to have wanted all this, how blessed we are to be doing it, how

blessed we are to be, you know, busting our ass on our dream.

And for a lot of creators, that's kind of where it is.

And so that's like the other side of it.

But just getting to that side of it where you're like, yeah, shit, this is good.

It's so much hard work.

99.9% of the people are never going to make it to that point because there's

just so many other things in the way.

Well, things like this, you know, doing what you enjoy independently.

I mean, you could, you could speak to this better than I ever could, right?

But you, I imagine you've got to do something that makes sense for your

audience, but also your audience was kind of built around what you like, right?

You kind of attracted the people who were into the same things you're into.

So at that point, now you can talk about do whatever you want and they'll stick

around. I imagine, right?

Is that, is that the case or no?

If you're Joe Rogan, I think so, right?

I mean, you asked me about him off Mike earlier, but the thing that I think

continuously holds this production back is the fact that it's, it's in the

automotive category, because how would it not?

It's the non-automotive automotive podcast.

Car people want more car talk.

And then if you're talking cars, you need to be accurate.

You know, I'm a, I'm, I'm a very casual car fan.

People think I'm a die hard car person.

I am, but not so much where I want to talk cars, this entire podcast.

I just can't do it.

I'm just not as interested as it used to be.

The non-car people get confused when we say, check your door jam.

It'll tell you what your tire pressure should be.

You know, you don't have to go to the dealership to air up your tires.

And usually when you get them back from discount tire, they way over inflate

them and you're going to fuck your shit up.

So just check that.

Oh, that's too much car talk.

So in order for me to bring those, one of those two in, I need to focus more

on that content and I refuse to, because then it's not fun.

Now I'm building content for the, for the masses instead of bringing friends

in studio or people that I barely know in studio and learning about them.

Because that, in my opinion, is what's going to make this podcast better in the

long run, even if it's not getting me 50,000 downloads and episodes.

So yes and no.

Do you get a favorite of turnover from, you know, car guys that maybe are

interested in the podcast based on the name and they're like, oh, wait,

there's not that much car talk.

I wouldn't know the answer to that, but my guess is yes.

Yeah.

And so now the podcast logo that's, you know, in studio, the first one had two

NSXs back to back on a, on a, essentially a no parking sign.

Okay.

So when I, you know, tried to get the trademark, literally it looked like it

said no hard parking podcast because the no was crossed out.

I'm like, all right, I got to make it more aggressive crossed out to where it

says no parking podcast or hard parking podcast.

Sorry.

Yeah.

But after a while, I go, okay, it's not as car-centric to accurate NSXs.

It's not Honda-centric.

Don't want to get in trouble.

Change the logo.

So then I had my infinity.

Remember the infinity I used to have because I sold it.

Oh, you did.

I did.

Yep.

I had the infinity on the logo and got rid of the NSXs or the Hondas.

After a while, I go, I don't even talk about cars that much.

Now it's just me on the logo.

Yeah.

So I can talk about whatever I want.

So now just hard parking is the only drop where someone might think it's, it's

more car-centric.

Okay.

I mean, I think you're interesting enough to keep people on regardless of what

you're talking about.

And I was looking at the, it's a mic for my peripheral vision, almost like a

piece of pizza.

I was like, what are you, are you talking about food?

But it's a, it's a.

But you're swallowing the mic anyway, right?

Yeah.

Chevy.

There's like, yeah, do it again.

Yeah.

Do it again.

You guys saw that, right?

You saw that.

That's that.

We're talking about.

Listen, I got an empty stomach.

It might come on quick.

Did you ever do that in college?

We used to, uh, we used to start drinking with an empty stomach because it was

cheaper that way to drink less alcohol to get drunk, right?

So you ball on a budget.

You've always, you've always been programmed that way then.

See, because if you think about it in a way, that's your whole chemistry

thing coming full circle.

Yeah.

Because I never would have thought about that.

I was the rule is don't drink on empty stomach because you will get fucked up

quicker, but you're probably want to throw up.

But I don't know if anybody who would say because you've spent less

money on alcohol.

That's what it was, man.

Yeah.

We're balling on a budget.

If you, if you could only afford a six pack of beer, I mean, you know, as

well as I do on a full stomach, you know, might get a buzz, right?

But you'll get full before you ever get drunk, right?

Right.

Three beers deep when you haven't had anything to eat all day and you're.

You're buzzing.

Yeah.

You're at least pre-gaming.

You know what I mean?

Then you'll gotta get a shot or two.

Then you're good and fucked up.

Yeah.

So what are you doing now?

Uh, work wise or period wise?

Yeah.

So I'm in, I'm in medical sales now, um, which is, it's, it's funny.

The guy that I work for now, I met in a similar way to you did his backyard.

And, uh, that's how you meet people, obviously.

I mean, that's the only place I ever was awkward, but it works.

Yeah.

I mean, it works for, I wasn't doing anything.

Backyard finder.

So damn much.

Yeah.

Exactly.

I would start breaking into people's backyards and start meeting them that way.

Uh, shit, I might get more sales now.

You might.

Yeah.

I think it now.

So, um, I was, I mean, I, we built up a good rapport, kind of became

friends, like you and I did.

And, um, I was just, things were going downhill with a company that I was working

for, and it was kind of out of my control, right?

The owner was just being a dickhead.

And anyway, uh, I was just kind of talking to him, venting to him about how

dissatisfied I was with my job.

And looking back on it now, I'm surprised he wasn't worried about the

state of his backyard was, well, if you're sick of your job, or you, you know,

pull it back on mine, but we did a good job.

And I think, yeah, exactly.

Right.

But he, uh, he saw how hard I was working.

I was in the trenches with the guys every day.

And, and this guy, he was paying cash for everything, massive house.

He was always in scrubs and he was always home.

I mean, this guy's got a, what do you do?

And he told me he's in medical sales and he, and he, you know, whatever

product he's selling was pretty lucrative.

And, and, you know, I told him I had a background in sales and obviously

being a business owner, you get pretty good at sales pretty fast.

You have to, you don't eat.

And, uh, so the more we talked about, and I told him how I always wanted to be

in the medical field, I kind of, good.

Okay.

All right.

It was lucrative.

No judge, no judge.

But, um, no, so, so that's what it was.

He was kind of educating me on what he does.

And by the end of the projects, I was so fed up with what was going on, you

know, with the, with the company, he was happy with his backyard.

So he didn't care anymore and he offered me a job.

And, uh, he knew that I'd kind of always wanted to get back into the medical

field.

It felt like a kind of a dead dream, right?

It's like, I don't have time to go back to school.

I had three kids by then and, and now I'm running this company.

And so, uh, anyway, it was a great opportunity.

And I told you, I'm a college dropout, right?

So I didn't have a degree, don't have a degree.

And it feels like usually you have to get a bachelor's degree at least to

work in that space.

And so I got really lucky.

And so I'm an independent and, um, so I carry a bunch of different products.

And that helps a lot with being able to pivot, but being in an industry for 10

years, having to learn something new, right, is, is difficult, but you know,

to go back to the whole wanting to learn as much as I can and do things, right?

That's been a massive asset because I've learned, you know, pretty quickly, the

right thing to do, the way to move in the industry.

And so it's, uh, it's been a difficult road, kind of getting my feet on the ground.

But once I did, man, I mean, it's, you know, my work life balances a lot better.

I make more money and I get to see my kids, right?

I mean, there were times in the, in the pool industry, I was working so much.

I'd, you know, leave before they wake up, come home after they go to bed.

You do that seven days in a row.

You realize you haven't seen your kids in a week, right?

And that's, that's hard.

So this has been a lot better.

And now I'm to the point where, you know, I've got enough free time and enough

spare money and I'm hoping by, you know, middle of next year, I can start going

back to school and then studying what I want to study.

And, um, yeah, I mean, really life changing decision.

Why the motivation then to go back to school, because maybe the lack of a degree

is your barrier to entry in your field to certain things.

It's not bad.

I think this is closer to what I wanted to do than pools, but it's still not what

I wanted to do.

So we've talked a little bit about my experience with psychedelics, right?

That's a, that's a big thing for me.

And what's starting to come out with these, these new studies with how these

things are affecting things like depression and PTSD and anxiety.

It's a really cool space and something that I think is important, right?

Cause mental health is a big problem in the United States and all over the world.

But mental health treatment is dog shit, dog shit, right?

When we see these, these highly efficacious outcomes from, from, you know,

these kinds of therapies, you know, psilocybin is a big one that Johns Hopkins

has studied quite a bit.

And the, I mean, when you see these, you know, efficacy outcomes that are similar

to like the polio vaccine in, in helping with long-term depression treatment,

I want to be at the forefront of that.

And so, you know, the degree that I'd like to, to get, and I swear to God,

this is a real degree is neuropsychopharmacology, right?

Where you're, you're essentially trying to identify how a drug affects your

brain physically, right?

Physiologically.

And you're also trying to identify how a drug affects your, your psyche, right?

Maybe something a little bit less quantifiable.

But, you know, those are the things that are helping to treat depression

and anxiety and that kind of thing.

And, you know, for a long time, I thought, okay, maybe I want to work in a lab

and I want to actually be on the development side of the drugs.

But the more that I thought about it, the more I think administering the drugs

throughout a study to try and, you know, work on getting this stuff approved

federally and work on kind of building credibility around that treatment

modality, I think is way more important.

So now I'm looking at, you know, really going back to school hard and becoming

an MD and, you know, focusing on neuropsychopharmacology and, you know,

starting to administer these, these treatments for studies and starting

to get the thing moving forward.

So it's a, it's a lot of school, but I really, I'm ambitious and I'm motivated

and I think it's going to be worthwhile for sure.

Are there accelerator programs these days for undergrad?

There can be, you know, if you can finish a bachelor's degree in three to two

to three years versus four, then you're taking a pretty advanced intensive

course load and I still work, right?

I work less, but I still work.

So I haven't fully figured out all the details, which is why I'm putting it off

till probably middle of next year, but I'm getting as much research as I can

on an ASU actually has a really good, you know, pre-med program for, with,

with biochemistry as your pre-med is not technically a major, but you know,

the biochemistry background that's needed to move forward, ASU has got a

pretty good program for that.

So, you know, we'll, we'll see.

I'm kind of working out the kinks, but.

Bet your average pool guy wouldn't be able to rattle off everything.

You just rattle off.

Probably not.

Right.

Like I said, the barrier for interest is pretty low, man.

Everybody and their mother, you know, is able to do it, which is crazy.

Yeah.

Crazy to me, especially the chemicals, right?

When you're doing service.

Well, that's what I mean.

We were out there having a chemical conversation one day.

I'm like, this motherfucker is smart as shit.

Try to, try to educate myself.

But listen, if you, if you combine chlorine and acid, two main chemicals

that you use in pool service, right?

You have a big body of water, maybe not a big deal, but some jackass puts

him in a bucket to pre-measure them and mixes them together.

You get chlorine gas.

Shit they use in World War one as a weapon, right?

I mean, you can kill somebody, but some dick head can go to Walmart, get

what he needs to get to do it and you know, it's going somebody's backyard

and do whatever that's nuts to me.

Why shouldn't we educate ourselves more?

You know, not just pools, but the medical industry, right?

You need to be educated.

They always make that joke.

There's always the other doctor who graduated bottom of his class from, you

know, you might have that doctor.

You know, many of those doctors I've met.

If my grandmother was going through some of the things that these, you know,

patients are going through, I would never send them to these.

It's nuts.

Yeah.

And that's kind of like a miss.

I mean, it's great that they made it to school, but that's something

that people don't think about, right?

And there's like, well, a doctor told me this.

I'm like, yeah, you know, we were raised to believe that they knew everything.

Yeah.

And the error rate in the medical field is so severe.

Yeah.

Across practices or my nurse told me this or this nurse told me that when I was

at the, you know, the, the, um, the urgent care, I'm like, okay, they might

know a little bit more, but I can promise that they don't know everything.

So that's why people get second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth opinions.

Yep.

And just because your doctor said something doesn't necessarily make it

true, it could be that that's their belief or, you know, that's their

belief based on the stuff that they know, or that's their belief based on the

stuff that they know and they don't want to believe.

And so they think it should be another way.

Like you never really know when you're getting advice and you don't know if

they're at the top of their class or like you said, they're very bottom of their

class and that could be a dangerous thing.

When you get these old heads that graduated in the eighties, right?

Medicine has advanced a lot since a lot different.

Well, and if they're not keeping up on continuing education, which there's a

certain amount that they have to, they have to, but overall, you know, and then

the other thing too is they might learn something new, but if there's some, you

know, guy who's arrogant, which a lot of them are, right?

Okay, I learned this new thing, but that's all bullshit.

I'm going to stick the way I've always been doing things as it works.

It gets, you know, it gets dicey.

You know, from a personal passion perspective, I was excited to get back

into the medical field and into, you know, pure sales role only.

I'm pretty good at what I do.

And so I enjoyed that, but from a business perspective, I always assumed going

back to pools for a second in the pool industry.

Again, because it's so saturated and the barrier for entry is so low, it feels

like everyone else is being dishonest and maybe that's how they can stay so

competitive and sometimes, you know, tries, you might to be an honest business

person. It feels like you've got to get kind of nasty sometimes to be competitive.

I didn't like that, right?

So, okay.

So looking at the medical field, I think, oh, it's so highly regulated.

These guys are so well educated.

This is going to be a much better industry to get into, right?

You don't have room for a whole lot of dishonesty.

Man, when I tell you, I've seen some of the worst run businesses and like sleazy

people I've ever met in this industry.

It's, you know, you don't think about that kind of thing.

And even then I still enjoy it.

I still enjoy it.

I love what I do.

And it's kind of interesting, kind of getting past those barriers, working

with these docs and like I said, a lot of them are arrogant.

You get these kind of sociopathic type people.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

But, you know, it's fascinating to work with these people and around these

people and trying to figure out how to move.

It feels like kind of a puzzle every day, which I really enjoy.

It kind of challenges me.

I don't have to deal with them really anymore because I'm a full remote

employee or contractor, I guess.

But there was a time where I had to work in the hospital or sometimes

we'd have to walk over from our IT over to the clinical side and sit

down with a radiologist or we had to communicate with a physician.

And there was a whole wide array, just like you're saying, there's

the guy who's super cool and open and you pray that the champion physician is

that guy, but sometimes they're an old head.

They're going to retire in two years.

They don't want any of the new technology.

Nobody knows anything with them.

And then you have the other ones, like I said, there's a whole like room full

of guys and one's an asshole and four of them are cool or two of them

an asshole and three of them are cool.

You know, and they're still learning along the way.

And so yeah, it's for the people on the outside, just always, I mean, this

isn't really what we're talking about as much, but always seek like a

second or third opinion.

If you have any questions and don't be afraid to just question anything.

Yeah.

You know, question everything because sometimes there's incentives and it

may not be on the doctor level, but it could be on the director level or the

hospital level or whatever level.

This is a new drug.

Push it because we're getting paid to push it and see what happens with it.

So yeah, my doctor prescribed this for me because they said, my doctors

described the shibui tin for me that we're drinking right now because they

said it's the best thing for Japanese lightly pitted whiskey, but they're

being paid to do it because what they don't really know is the shibui 18 that

I'm getting ready to pour you is actually a much better thing.

Yeah.

Right.

Well, what's interesting is the Sunshine Act prevents doctors from, you know,

being induced to do anything based on financial gain or anything like that.

And my primary care provider offered me a Zempik and he was really pushing it

hard. I've lost 100 pounds and so I figured, I don't need it.

I'm already on the track.

I'm doing really well.

What the hell do I need this extra stuff for?

And so the guy that I work for, obviously much more educated on the legal

stuff than I was at the time.

It was still him and I was asking him, why would this guy push this so hard?

What is he being incentivized by?

He's not getting a direct kick back from the pharmaceutical company.

And what he said was, well, at their place of work, right?

If it's, you know, banner or whatever it is and the doc is pushing a drug.

No, he's not going to pay for this pharmaceutical company, but he is getting

a bonus from where he works for improving your metrics.

Right.

So if he thinks your A1C is elevated and he thinks he can get it down by getting

you on Osempic, no, he's not getting paid from Osempic themselves,

but he is getting paid from the hospital for lowering your A1C.

And that made a lot of sense, right?

The thing though is if somebody doesn't already have an elevated, which, you know,

I'm overweight, but I'm not pre-diabetic, right?

So what exactly is your, is your angle here?

And I guess, I don't know for sure, but I wonder if the guy's getting paid to

just lower A1C in general, right?

I'm sure it's on an average too, right?

So if he lowers mine, it doesn't really matter if mine needed to be lowered,

but it brings Joe blows also down if he's, you know,

if he's failing to get his A1C down.

So that kind of thing is interesting.

And it's a really nuanced situation with these docs,

but everybody's got a financial incentive to do something.

Yeah.

There's a thing and like I, so I pulled out the Shabui 18.

I wasn't joking a little bit about this.

This was given to me by a good friend of mine, Mark,

she of Pride, Exhaust and Dallas.

And this is the 18 year statement, Sherry Cass.

So as I pour this, we're going to have this next.

All right.

But in my, in my industry or my career path, there's a,

there's a thing called meaningful use.

And that basically is sort of what you just described where,

thank you for a few years with the EMR that I work on,

for those hospitals that have gone live on that EMR,

there was an a meaningful use initiative, which kind of tracks how they're

not necessarily doling out prescriptions, but just the overall care and orders.

So it's like, okay, does Sean really need a CT head, chest and abdomen?

And why are we ordering so many of them?

So then they sign like this, this score decision making score as well.

So it's like, if they're, if they're landing based on your versus your symptoms,

right, if they're, if in your diagnosis, if they're ordering stuff that's more

with a higher score in line with your diagnosis, then you get more points from

that. And it's really trying to cut down.

And I guess laziness and abuse when it comes to ordering.

It's like, you come in, you got a headache.

Well, all right, well, let's give them the full CT or MRI cocktail.

I was like, no, no, no, let's just, let's just figure out if he needs

an advanced imaging, but it's kind of the same deal where you're incentivized

to, to take better care of how you're ordering this stuff.

So the hospital gets paid.

And if the hospital gets paid, then you're going to get paid.

Yeah. Yeah.

First off, this, I like, this is really good.

So you like the Shibui 18.

Yeah. I was going to ask if it's Peter, but it doesn't taste like it is.

Delicious, isn't it? Oh, my God.

It's in sherry cast.

Yeah. It's got like a caramel almost in it.

Or butters, maybe it's butterscotch.

Delicious. God, it's good.

This has never left this room.

Really? So you saw what?

It might leave it to me.

I did all that here.

After hours, of course.

Yeah. Yeah. OK.

Nights and weekends, of course.

Yeah. What time is it right now?

It's like 7 p.m.

Have you heard about this wiser initiative

that's starting next year?

Let's talk about it.

So Medicare wants to reduce waste, right?

As they should, because I do think I think that spending

way, there's no waste, fraud and abuse.

It's just the political thing, right?

Holy crap.

But Medicare wants to start doing these pre-authorizations

for just about everything now,

which is going to significantly lengthen the amount of time

for approvals to happen.

So patients are going to have to wait longer to get stuff done.

And it's sad that we have to implement something like that.

And even as somebody who profits

from the sale of these things, it's I get it.

I get it.

And yeah, the whole medical necessity thing

is a big issue right now.

And I'm interested to see how the medical field changes.

Like I said, I'm an independent now.

And I work with a distribution group who

kind of helps me get the products.

And that's the guy that I work for.

He kind of runs that distribution.

But I'm glad, because if I were working for a specific company,

pushing a specific product, and that's always qualified to do,

I mean, as things change with coverage and Medicare

and that kind of thing, I'd be in a bad place.

So yeah, it's interesting, but we're

going to have to pivot quite a bit.

I wonder if next year I'll be selling the same thing

that I'm selling right now.

I had a guest on, actually, I went to go visit him at his home

out of state.

And he was talking about his life kind of coming up

and doing medical sales with devices.

And he worked for a specific company.

And he was our top seller.

They brought him down for a conference

and all that kind of stuff.

And the president, and I don't know if he's the vice president

or somebody else that kind of controlled the company,

asked him, hey, what do you think about our presentation?

What do you think about this product?

And his response was, I think you're going to jail.

And they're in jail right now.

He got out when he could, but it kind of brings a full circle

to kind of what they're pushing you.

Is it what you really need?

Is it legal?

What kind of hoops?

And then with this new initiative,

who knows what's going to happen with that?

What are they going to change?

Yeah, ain't no telling, man.

Ain't no telling.

Well, and on the sales side, that's scary, right?

On the provider side, that's scary.

On the patient side, that's what I'm really worried about.

We've started conflating health insurance with health care.

That's messed up.

Yeah, good point.

I've got a podiatrist that I work with

who has this patient who's got these bilateral wounds, right?

He's also got bilateral edema.

Well, his mom and his grandmother

both had to be amputated, right?

I don't remember if I said the guys that, but he's 35, right?

So they can't seem to figure out these wounds.

He's been revascularized, I don't know how many times

and nothing's really working.

He's at the point now where the only other treatment modality

they have is not being approved by Medicaid.

This guy's going to lose his legs, right?

He's 35 going to lose his legs and all insurance is worried

about is we don't want to pay the claim.

Everybody's going to make money.

Yeah.

But at that point, especially Medicaid,

which is a government agency, right?

It's like, listen, man, I know you have the money.

You don't want to save this guy's life.

And that's what I mean is that's not health care.

That's health coverage.

That's health insurance.

They don't get a shit about patient outcomes, right?

Well, the doctor sitting here horrified.

Like I've got the tools to do this right now.

But right.

And if the doctor does it without getting paid,

he's going to lose his ass, right?

So everybody's really in a bad position.

And that's the most likely outcome is this guy's just going

to have to lose his legs and deal with it.

It's fucked.

And then you take that situation and you multiply it.

Umpteen amounts of times or hundreds of amounts of times.

Yeah.

You know, and that's, you know, they're talking about using AI

to help make some of these decisions, you know,

these first level decisions.

And that would be a first level decision that would probably

automatically, hell, they could already be doing that now.

You know, it's like, when you file a claim for your car,

immediately, like it going to go to a claims adjuster.

But if you answer the question incorrectly with the person

taking your call initially, it's not even going to go to the

claims adjust.

It's going to bounce.

You know, there's no gray area.

It's just, okay, did you, did you notice this?

When did you last notice this four days ago denied?

You have three days to report it.

Yeah.

And then you can't change your answer.

Well, what's almost scary than that is, is, you know, Medicare

is doing these automated responses things and, you know,

they have certain codes, right?

That'll ding and say, okay, that's an approval.

Oh, that's denial.

Okay.

Well, I've got a doc and I'll, you know, say any names,

obviously, but they're using one code that they know is going

to get approved, right?

But the other code is never approved.

And so they come to me and they say, Hey, can you, you know,

guarantee that we're going to get paid on this?

Can you guarantee our reimbursement, whatever it is?

And I'm telling them, no, well, the claims are getting paid.

Why wouldn't you?

I don't really care if they're getting paid.

The scary thing is, are they going to come back and take it?

Right.

Because now you're going through an automated system using the

correct code is digging it going to prove you're going to get

paid great in four years, right?

When they come for an audit, now it happens.

Now you're going to lose all the money.

The scary part about that is, you know, let's, let's say it's

by that time a million dollars, two million dollars.

That's a lot of money for the doc to lose.

Maybe they won't lose their practice.

Maybe they will, but they're definitely going to have to cut down on staff.

Now other people are losing their jobs, right?

They're definitely going to have to cut down on patient care.

Now the patient's getting worse outcomes, right?

Like all this stuff, it's, it's got this, you know, this, what do you call it?

This cascading effect where everyone else on the bottom of the hills

getting fucked and it could have been prevented by number one, Medicare,

you know, approving, having a more robust approval, you know, system.

And maybe people led instead of AI led and number two, the doctor

being more robust in their, you know, knowledge of the process and their

desire to do the right thing.

And it's just, I don't know, man, it's, we'll, we'll see what happens.

But I think there's going to be a lot of changes trying to figure this stuff out.

Yeah.

I mean, there's a lot of wild shit going on.

Um, obviously right now was recorded as we're in the middle of this big shutdown

and it's with the snap benefits and what they show on TV and depending on

what your social media feed and your algorithm is going to tell you one story.

And then what you look at, it might tell you something else.

And at the end of the day, it's like the people are being held

hostage between two sides that are just fighting over line items.

I was trying to explain to my mother-in-law, I go, okay, well, everyone

thinks it's this thing, but it's either, but it's really this thing.

And it's also this other thing.

So a group A says, okay, here's a list of my demands.

And then group B goes, okay, they go down the list.

They go, uh-uh, uh, item eight, item 10, item 12 and item 14.

Absolutely not.

So we're going to cross that out and we're going to give it back to you.

And we want to do this, but you have to accept it.

And so group A, the first group goes, nope, we don't want to do it

because you crossed out our items.

And that's really what's going on here between both of these sides.

And at the end of the day, you know, the administration gets blamed for it

because it's under their watch.

At the end of the day, it's under their watch, but the reality is the

administration themselves isn't the one making the choice.

It's all these people in Congress that are still taking paychecks and

playing with people's money.

And on top of that, the reality, and I've been saying this for years,

multiple presidents ago, we know this, there are people that are abusing

this shit out of the system.

And I've had a good conversation with Wes, my buddy, Wes, you know,

if you want to forgive my student loans, I make good money.

My wife makes good money.

But if you want to pay that shit off, yeah, I'm not going to be like, no,

man, we make good money.

We're just going to pay it.

Yeah, yeah.

No, we're good.

And you can, you can give it to somebody else who needs it.

No, hell, no, hell, I'll take that, right?

Oh, yeah.

And it's like people, if you give people handouts, they're going to take them.

Few people are on such a moral where they have so much money, they're like, no,

thanks.

Yeah.

All right.

So if you give me money to pay the rent, like in the event of like a COVID

era thing, right?

If you give me a stipend, if you, if you say here's $2,500 to, you know, and I

don't, we don't qualify for half that shit anyway, but there's a lot of people

who do qualify for it.

They get the money and they don't need it.

Yes.

Yeah.

And I remember commercials, I would say, Hey, bring your, bring your check in

and put it as a down payment for a new car.

And it's the same thing with tax season.

You hear bring your tax money in, buy a new car, or I have friends on social

media or people I see on social media, it's like, Oh, I don't need the money.

I'm going to buy a new bumper.

I'm going to buy a new body kit.

I'm going to put this down on a set of wheels.

It's like, listen, man, pull guys, reading good around COVID, getting those

steamy checks, I'm telling you, right?

That's the waste part.

It's not your fault.

It's not my fault.

You're giving it to me.

What do you want me to do with it?

Yeah.

So then that's why, you know, the whole point and all that is everybody that's

on assistance needs to, people need to be vetted more and people need to be

checked on more.

I don't know if, have you had a file for unemployment?

No.

I have.

So when you file for an employment, you have to, whatever state you're in, you

have to sign up with the state and then you have to check in every week or two.

So when you, when you send in your, I haven't worked in the last two weeks,

you know, where have you applied?

Have you refused any jobs that have been offered to you?

You know, that's all the shit you have to do just to stay on unemployment.

Right.

But you don't have to do that shit when you're on a lot of these government

assistance programs.

True.

And they need to implement that stuff to kick the lazy motherfuckers off.

And so the people who really need it can stay on.

Yeah.

Well, I think a lot of it is, is people being vindictive too.

Right.

It's, oh yeah, there's a lot of that to me.

I'm going to fuck them.

Yeah, there's a lot of that too.

Why don't I take it?

Listen, I've been guilty of that.

Right.

I was on access for a lot longer, which is, you know, Medicaid people who aren't

in Arizona, but it's, it's, I was on that for a lot longer than I needed to be.

Right.

Cause you know, you do your right office and whatever it is.

And so it's like, I was forced to, or this is concerned.

I only make 20 grand a year.

I got a family of whatever.

So I can get access.

Why wouldn't I, right?

They're fucking me.

I pay my due rights.

Yeah.

Anyway, so it's just what people do.

Yeah.

The reality is like people who understand that people like us can see that.

And at least we know what we acknowledge it.

So then we're not so as resistant or so angry when it's like, oh, shit.

You know, finally, you know, the, the, the free meal is up, but it was a good ride.

It was a good ride.

Yeah.

For people who refuse to see that, they're like, hmm, this is bullshit.

Yeah.

It's like, is it though?

You know, yeah, yeah.

Were you getting more than you deserved anyway?

Maybe it's time to start, you know, paying the Piper guys.

You get used to a certain lifestyle, though, but I think a lot of it is, you know,

people want to keep as much of their income as possible.

Why not?

Right.

You tell somebody you make 80 grand a year.

Well, that's gross.

What do you actually make?

Right.

They want to keep as much of that as possible.

And if they can, why wouldn't they?

And here's one thing about the United States that I'm not crazy about is.

I feel like we pay our fair share in taxes.

Other countries pay a lot more in taxes to be fair, right?

But a lot, you know, involuntarily.

Yeah.

Well, but those social safety nets, I think we get some of them here.

But a lot of them, housing is a perfect example, right?

I think in order to get, you know, low income housing or whatever it is,

it's not an incredibly easy process.

And more people get denied than I think people realize.

You know, health care is another one where it's, yeah, yeah, you can,

you can get Medicaid, but the income threshold is kind of unreasonable, right?

Like it's basically unless you're homeless or you work at McDonald's.

And even then McDonald's now, just to stay competitive in the market,

it might be paying too much for you to qualify for access.

So it's like, technically, these things exist.

And trust me, there are plenty of people taking advantage of them.

But I wonder if people would be incentivized to take as much

advantage as they did if, if we had more of those social safety nets.

And if we've got to pay more in taxes, it's, it's a hard math problem.

Right.

Well, if you pay more in taxes, are you really keeping more of your money?

Then, you know, if you had to pay for everything out of pocket,

you know, groceries costs an arm and a leg, rent costs an arm and a leg,

mortgages costs an arm and a leg.

Do you remember when people used to say your mortgage is going to be cheaper

than your rent? That's not even the fucking case anymore.

Yeah. The rents are so out of, like we couldn't buy now.

Yeah. If we wanted to, it just would be ridiculous.

We'd have to pay out the wazoo.

It's nuts. Yeah, it doesn't, it doesn't really make any sense.

But I mean, I mean, you're right on all those things, you know, and it's, it's,

it's like, well, as far as taxing, right?

You know, paying your fair share of taxes, like we get taxed,

but then there's also the consumption tax, which is what a lot of countries have.

We don't have a consumption tax here where they're not charging these

these people based on their income, they're charging them based on what they use.

So if you travel abroad and you buy a Glen Caron and you look at the receipt,

there's a tax on there and it's not a sales tax, it's a consumption tax.

And they replace it.

So, you know, that's something we, that way you're taxed for what you want.

Yeah. You know, not what you make.

And we can't, I don't think we can survive with that

because we're not made up that way, but a lot of other countries are.

Yeah. If we were to change any of that,

so there'd have to be a lot of infrastructural changes, a lot of infrastructure.

It's just, I don't know if it's realistic, but to your point,

like I was telling you, I'm into these model kits, these Gundam model kits, right?

And they're all from Japan.

We're about to pivot to Gundam and Nerdism.

There you go. Look, this is a perfect segue, right?

So, but they're from Japan.

So when I'm buying them, depending on the, on the retailer, I got to pay a tariff.

You're going to Hobby Link Japan?

I love Hobby Link, I love Hobby Link, right?

And, and it's not always a direct tariff on the receipt,

but, you know, the price of the kit goes up

because the distributor has to pay a tariff or whatever it is.

And at first I'm annoyed, but also it's like, I could just not buy the kit.

I don't need it, right?

So it's like, at that point, it's like, that's the, that's the price to pay, right?

So I can bitch and moan about it all I want.

But at the end of the day, it's like, it's not necessary.

And so those are the kinds of things that I think it's easier

to kind of swallow the idea of paying the extra price.

But anyway, we could talk about, you know, the, the...

No, but you're 100% right.

And that's one of the things I've always said, if you want it, you don't care.

Right.

If it's just an ideal that pisses you off, now you care.

Yeah.

Because, you know, we talked about this for our, in a sex event, in a sex bow,

you know, we're trying to keep the cost down.

But if the cost goes up for that specific location, that's not 400.

Now it's 420 or 425.

That's not going to stop anybody from doing it.

Right.

They're still going to buy it.

People are still going to buy tickets.

People are still buying Jordans.

People are still buying.

If you want it, you'll pay extra for it.

Yeah.

It's the same like we've been drinking this liquor, right?

This store has it.

I'm used to paying $200 for it.

I'm not, but I'm just saying as a point.

Yeah.

But now I'm hanging out with you.

We're going to a party tonight.

There's other stores, the only store that has it.

And now it's 280.

Oh my God, dude, that sucks.

But we, we, we want it really bad.

So we're just going to pay it.

That's how it goes.

As you pull on your wallet, man, fuck this.

I can't believe and you pay for it anyway.

The behind you, the mini real world drive Kyosho remote control, white NSX.

Right.

That's it.

Yeah.

It's so I was at a, I was at a car meet and I'm like, cool.

They have this cool NSX, you know, is that an RSC shop?

And I go, I want that one.

So I'm standing in line and there's like 30 people behind me, right?

So I go to check out and they're like $240 or whatever it was.

I was like, fuck, I thought this would be like $49, but I wanted it.

And I bought it anyway.

Yeah.

So that's one of those deals.

This is the same case.

So your Gundam model kits.

Yeah.

Let's talk about that.

Let's talk about Gundam and why, what got you into that?

We've had a few conversations about just anime and things in general.

Yeah.

And that's why you're here today.

It's not to talk about consumption tax and other shit.

Yeah.

Talk about the fun stuff.

Um, I've always been into Gundam since I've always been into anime, right?

And, uh, when I was a kid, you know, me and my brother would get on to Nami.

We watched Gundam Wing.

We watched Erica seven.

We watched by this point, like 90% of the people that were watching

listen to this podcast have already tuned out because of our last conversation.

But the cool one is still here.

That's right.

Yeah.

Um, so I've always been into that stuff and, uh, you know, mostly it was

watching the anime and playing the video games, right?

Every once in a while you get an action figure for Christmas or something.

That's cool.

But I don't know that I was into the idea of building models until very,

very recently, but I do remember this one particular one.

And, uh, I don't know if it's useful to say the specific name.

Who's going to know what it is?

It's the new somebody's going to know, right?

Yeah.

It's the new Gundam and, uh, man, I think was sweet.

The design of it was rad.

And I saw that they made a model of it, right?

And I was probably 17, 18 at the time.

And I was like, that one, if I get into this at all, I'm doing that one.

And obviously, you know, time went on and I didn't do it, but I'm trying to

remember exactly what made me finally do it again with all these.

Oh my God.

Yeah.

You almost get embarrassed.

Like, oh, I'll play with these, you know, plastic model kits, these toys, right?

And everybody, they're not toys.

Yeah.

They're not toys.

They're models.

They're collectibles.

They're models.

The way that I was justified, as I say, your grandpa built trains or he built

Mustangs or whatever.

And that was cool.

Right.

I've got a giant robot piloted by a child soldier.

You tell me what's cooler.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um, but I'd be lying to you if I said, I remember exactly why I finally decided

to pull the trigger and buy a kit, but I did.

And, um, it's addictive.

It's, it's relaxing.

Right.

It's, it's, it's challenging.

And then by the end of it, you get a cool looking thing.

Here's the funny thing.

It's not an action figure.

It really is.

It's a model.

You can't play with them.

They fall apart.

So you do this whole build.

Yeah, man.

I mean, you put, you know, 20 hours into a kid or something like that.

And you slap it up on the shelf and just stare at it.

That's all you do.

So on the surface, I think what I think about it is like, this is stupid,

but at the same time, I don't know, it's, there's something gratifying about it.

And being into the franchise in general too.

It's like, I grew up watching this thing.

Now I've got it on my shelf.

I get to look at it every day.

It is, it's cool.

I really enjoy it.

It's addictive.

That's a problem.

Well, it's like the Robotech stuff I have over there, right?

I mean, I have these two up here, you know, the hook G, Robotech, Macross stuff.

And it's like, why?

They're impulse purchases are cool.

Yeah.

You know, Zeke, my grand, the oldest of the grandkids comes in,

he points at that stuff and he's like, Oh, this is really cool.

And you mean, you know, you have small kids and you know what that really means.

That's just like, I wish you could take this out and play with it.

Yeah.

You know, the other day he's looking at one of my NSX's over here goes, oh, man,

I wish you would take that out.

That way it would be the same as the other ones and like not 30 seconds after that,

he's out there like just launching these things off the loft.

Yeah.

No, it's staying in the box.

He's scaring the hell out of you.

Yeah.

My youngest is, uh, he's two and he's fascinated by these things and he knows

the word Gundam Gundam and he'll grab them.

Terrifying.

When this mother, you have a case like that glass one over there.

I need to get it in closed case.

What I've got now to keep him away from airtight, by the way, is you get all

that shit in there, collects dust, which is now here.

The dust is bad, but, you know, now I've got, you know, a floating shelf.

So it's high up where he can't get it.

So, uh, but yeah, I mean, for a while he was terrifying, but like just last night,

my, uh, my oldest, she's five.

You're going to be six soon.

Uh, she just built her first one and, uh, and she loved it.

Didn't need any of my help.

You know, we had done one together where I mostly did it and she's watching,

but now she was ready to do her own.

And, uh, she did it all by herself and she's thrilled about it.

But it's a small, they call them SD's or it's a smaller, they're a little

more stout, right?

So she's running around the house with it, playing with it and posing it and

all this stuff.

And I'm like, thank God it's not one of mine.

Right.

But I mean, it holds up well, but she was stoked about it.

So I'm, I'm, I'm excited that my kids are starting to take interest in what

I'm, I take interest in, right?

And it, you know, it should be, it should be both ways.

Or I take interest in what they're interested in as they get older.

I will, but, uh, yeah, it's, it's cool.

Kind of sharing what I, you know, got into growing up.

And so my poor kids are going to be nerds, you know, but, uh,

but yeah, so looking over there, right?

You know, Zeke's like, Oh, especially the, the brown one, the VF1D, the, the,

the orange and, and Tam on over there, I guess.

Oh, I want to play with that.

It's like, that thing has like 200 parts points of articulation.

There's no way I think it'll be busted in two seconds.

Yeah, exactly.

No, no shot.

Now, is that a model or you bought a pre-built?

No, those aren't models.

Those are actually all three of those.

I can change them into all three modes.

Okay.

In Robotech, do they call that Gerwalk mode or is that just for Macros?

It is Gerwalk.

That is the weirdest looking thing.

But the more I look at it, the more I'm getting into it.

I actually thought about you.

Bandai just announced a couple more Valkyrie kits, the VF1 Valkyrie.

I'm getting that for J for Christmas as a model kit.

You gotta put the time.

Well, there's a lot of stuff in here.

There were gifts from other people.

So, you know, if you can afford it, you hook it up and we'll put it over there

in the case.

Oh, yeah.

But yeah, all of those, except for the one in the back corner that a friend

of mine bought for me, you founded it like some sort of a thrift shop or whatever.

Yeah.

And he brought it over.

Did you get a chance to get into the Macros?

I haven't watched any of it yet.

So I'm finishing up a couple Gundam series that were in my backlog like three

or four months ago.

It's on the list.

That means it's not going to happen, which is cool.

I get it.

It took me a couple of months for you to, for me to finally watch the

Transformers thing that you told me about.

And I've already forgotten.

I got to watch it again.

I've got, I think I've got what, two more Gundam series in my backlog and

the Macros is up next, which I think I'm going to start with Macros versus

Robotech, unless you think something different.

It's up to you, man.

Yeah.

I mean, there, I haven't gone through the original Macros.

I'm a Robotech kid.

That's what we had here in the United States when I was like little.

Right.

And, you know, you know, Macros, I guess for the, for the critics, uh,

wasn't introduced to us for years, just because it was so hard to get.

Right.

Yeah.

And the, you know, Harmony Gold, not to go down that rabbit hole, but

the people on the rights, the Robotech.

What a crazy story.

You know, they're very, they're very litigious.

I've been there.

I've been to their studios on Sunset Boulevard in California.

Um, they invited me there and I got a tour of it and it was really cool.

Uh, but now I don't want to say I'm friends with them, but I do have their

numbers on my phone and I have at times texted their creative director,

Tommy, you know, to be like, Hey man, someone's making an illegal copy of my

car and he's blown them off the face of the earth pretty much.

Really?

Yeah.

So your car was, was it efficiently, officially licensed that

literally on the NSX?

No, that's a custom design.

So you don't have to officially license a custom design.

You know, that was, that was me that designed it.

But, you know, as a super fan, you know, it kind of carried on.

It was at Anime Expo in 2018 and then Tommy, you know, there's a

Robotech, always has a Robotech panel.

So then Tommy came over and I got a picture of him sitting in the car.

Um, in fact, I think it's on a poster somewhere or picture somewhere in here,

but he was sitting in the car and then when I went to the panel, they're like,

yeah, somebody here has a car.

They, you know, did our delivery and I kind of went like this in the background

and I just became kind of friendly with them.

And so it's not officially licensed.

In fact, the funny thing is they don't like me when they post it because they

still post it, which annoys a lot of people when I get it.

Uh, but when they post it on, on Twitter X, you know, they always say VF one,

they refuse to say VF one S.

Okay.

I don't know if that's for licensing purposes, but it is a VF one S NSX,

right, which is my license plate, you know, uh, but they just, they refuse

to call it a VF one S.

So, so obviously I know more, a lot more about Gundam than I do about

Macross Robotech.

So VF one is the Valkyrie, right?

What is the S?

Uh, school leader.

Okay.

And that's just a particular, okay.

School squadron.

The Valkyrie, that's a mass produced unit.

Yep.

Oh, okay.

That's just like our, you know, military jets here.

Yeah.

You know, it's all the, all their jets are all Valkyries or their attacks in the

Robotech world, just like we had the F 14 Tomcats and everybody flew in F 14.

I get why isn't F 15?

Do they have like the one off, so in Gundam, you have the mass produced units,

like the Zaku and the goof and that, but then you have the Gundam, which

there's only one.

You have multiple Gundams, right?

But that particular model, there's only one, right?

It's, it's, it's equivalent to like a nuke, right?

You send that in and that's when you got to get shit done, right?

Yeah.

Did they have that kind of thing in Macross Robotech?

What they have is like the, that one that's in Gerwalk mode is a VF one D,

which is actually a two seater.

It's extra, extra space on the inside.

So the VF one A, VF one D, and the VF one S, I want to say this and VF one J.

Right.

So the white and red ones of VF one J and their heads are different.

So their lasers are different, but they all get equipped with the same

payload or armament.

They all can have this super with the big old jets on them so they can fly in

the space and you'll see when you start watching it.

Like all of them are capable of that.

There are some that have satellites on them and maybe they're special, but

there's not like a, we got to send the heavy hitter out there.

What they do is they just equip them with their, with their, their, their,

this is very nerdy guys.

I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry.

They have their, their super strike mode is what it is.

So they have super strike armor.

And so technically all of them could be equipped with that.

And it's just one wearing like a shit ton of armor, but it's the same thing.

They have something similar in Gundam, but again, it's not mass produced stuff.

Right.

You get a full armored Zeta, double Zeta, full armored, right?

So, okay.

Yeah, I'm interested to see the parallels, man.

I'm excited to watch it.

And they just have what they do is, and I don't know how, how it is in, in Gundam,

but I'm assuming there's different mech.

When you say the army, right?

So there's different mechs.

It's not just the Gundam wings or the Gundam, whatever.

Right.

So they have like tanks and they have like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's the same and they're all being piloted by people.

There's two different things.

Yeah.

Right.

Like in the original Gundam, you had the gun tank, gun cannon, GM, right?

Those are those mass produced units like I was talking about.

You know, let's, they make them in the tens of thousands or whatever it is.

And the Gundam is the, the one that's, you know, can wipe them all out.

But even then they have specialized versions of certain units, right?

Sharr is the main villain of the original Gundam.

He's got a specialized Zaku that can compete with the Gundam.

Right.

So it's, yeah, it sounds like in some ways it's similar.

In the Robotech universe or the Macro, I would just say Macross, not Robotech period.

Okay.

But in the Macross universe, because there's so many different ones, right?

I'm sure.

And one of the iterations of Macross, there's probably the super whatever fighter.

Is there one whole continuity throughout the whole series?

Or is it just, are they all, what's the word siloed?

I'm thinking of a.

So Macross, yeah, they're, they're broken up.

It's almost like DC comics.

Oh, okay.

Everybody's version of Batman.

Everybody's version of Superman.

Everybody's mini story that doesn't have anything to do with the next artists or whoever's mini story.

And it's because remember watching that, the history of, of Robotech.

Macross is the same deal.

Like the people on the back end of the studio is on the different rights, different artists

go to work for different houses because they weren't paid or they want to get paid more.

Right.

And, you know, there's a company called Big West that's always been fighting with, with

Harmony Gold and so, but what makes Robotech great is they just took three different

animas and smashed them all together, which is nuts.

They were able to do that and they added extra episodes to the first generation in

order to meet the requirements of American television back when they were doing it,

which isn't even a requirement today.

Yeah.

The syndication rules and that kind of thing was a syndication rules.

You would send me that video and I watched it and a lot of it went over my head.

I feel like what I need to do is I need to watch the series now and then go back and

watch it again.

So I get a full appreciation of what's going on, what transformers got involved.

There were toy licensing deals and it was, what a story for that.

Yeah.

Cause when you're a kid, none of that matters, right?

Right.

You want to watch the show, watch the cartoon, play with the toy.

Yep.

And when you're an adult, you realize it was never about you as a kid.

It was all about selling toys.

That fucks me up, man.

Right.

It's me up too.

Everything.

Everything you've ever, it was never about the TV show.

Yeah.

It was always about selling the toys.

Well, you learn that with Disney too.

Do you see the Mandalorian?

Yeah.

You get Grogu, little baby Yoda, right?

People called him and you find out that that was, it was purely a merchandising

opportunity, right?

They didn't write him because it made the story better.

They didn't put him in there because it was purely like, oh, we're going to sell

toys at this and sure as shit they did, right?

It's, yeah, you just blew a lot of people's brains.

I didn't know that, but I haven't looked into it, but it makes a hundred, it

makes perfect sense.

But that's, that's a lot of stuff.

Pokemon, right?

Pokemon, the video game came first and they made the anime after it.

What do they start doing?

Releasing toys and plushies and everything, they increased video game

salesmen, all this stuff that we grew up with as kids that, you know, as weird as

it sounds to me, I feel like in a lot of ways it shaped me as a person, right?

Just, you know, anyway, to find out that it's all for a merchandising

opportunity for a multi-billion dollar corporation, it is kind of like.

I was used.

That's the thing.

I was used.

And it messes with me.

For me, I grew up in the Transformers G.I. Joe era and I didn't, I always assumed,

I mean, G.I. Joe to me was always just a, either a separate episode or a

continuation of a few episodes.

Yeah.

But then when you start looking at the history of the G.I. Joe cartoons, all

it was was a bunch of mini movies that were broken up into episodes.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

Again.

With anime, it seems to be the opposite, right?

You have an anime that gets released, 50 episodes or whatever it is, and then

they make movies afterwards or to condense it, which I imagine the ideas of

people who want to get into something that's years old.

They don't want to, you know, start from the beginning.

You know, they, people got jobs, right?

I'd rather sit for six hours and watch all three movies and get it

condensed down, right?

So yeah, it's, uh.

What's your favorite anime that you're, that you, you're into now or just overall?

Cause my answer is going to be different cause I don't really watch it anymore.

And I don't have anything against it.

Yeah.

I just don't have time and the stuff I find then when I, like there's one

called arcane, which I heard is great.

And I don't even know if you can really call it anime because it looks.

Is that the legal legends thing?

I have no idea.

Maybe.

Yeah.

Maybe.

I don't know.

It's, I never was in the league of legends, but I think one of the big ones is

has something to do with legal legends.

Yeah.

I know arcane is, there's a, there's a legal legend.

I've heard the same thing.

I haven't watched it because similarly I'm not really into legal legends, but

as far as anime goes, full metal alchemist is fantastic.

Um, everybody knows that one.

There's another one called Steins gate.

You ever seen Steins gate?

No, I don't think so.

That's gotta be the best, the best portrayal of time travel I've ever seen in

like media in general.

I'd highly recommend it's a slow burn.

I don't know if you like that kind of stuff, but man, the payoff at the end is

fantastic.

That's a really good one.

Right now I've actually kind of taken a little break from anime.

My girlfriend's into reality TV watching Jersey Shore.

I'll tell you what, it's fascinating to watch these people's lives fall apart.

Get out of my studio.

Oh man.

Have you ever seen any of that stuff?

Unfortunately.

Yeah.

Cause my wife loves it.

What is it about women into reality?

I don't know.

They say they like the drama, but I think it, you know, controversial.

I think it kind of starts shaping them a little bit because I can see that.

Yep.

They want the lip jobs.

They want the BBLs.

They want this, they want that.

And that's all these because she watches, not necessarily Jersey Shore,

because it's a little older one, but like, you know, the 90 day fiance,

the love islands, the real housewives on the blank.

Yeah.

And, you know, the difference of, and I, because she's like, you like them

because you know, I was like, well, that's what you watch.

So I, I, I always pay attention to everything that's going around me.

You know, there's a mean I like it and I'm not sitting there eating popcorn,

watching it.

I might be in the kitchen or I might be in the bedroom doing something.

Now it's on my phone, but it's such toxic television, the real housewives.

I mean, I'd rather they watch the Kardashians, which I can't stand either,

but I have nothing against the Kardashians, that type of drama.

That's just, it's rich people having rich people problems.

But I can see how some of those problems are relatable.

Yeah.

But when you have a bunch of well paid because people get paid to do these

shows and they're just sitting there arguing and bitching, Bill Burr has

an excellent, like a small comedy skit about, but, you know, he's talking

about the WNBA and he brings in what sells tickets or what's what ratings.

And he talks about the real housewives and he's right.

All they do is they get paid to sit there and break each other down

about what they look like or what they don't have or how shitty their

husbands are.

Yeah.

But to me, that's toxic television, at least with these love islands and

these 90 day fiancees and these love is blinds.

You're watching people meet and fall in love.

Yeah.

You know, and it's like, that's the whole princess meets the prince story.

Yeah.

So I get, I guess I understand that it's still annoying to me, but

it's a different type of annoying.

I think that kind of stuff, it does, it loses meaning after a while because,

okay, Love Island is a perfect example as a dating show where these people

are getting on, they're supposed to meet the love of their life.

And they're not just people.

There are these very young chiseled men and these eight to 10, eight out of 10

to 10 out of 10 women.

Which will, sidebar, you look at these people long enough and you realize

they're not as attractive as they seem.

It's funny you say that, it's the initial hit.

It's the initial hit because we've all been places, right?

Where you see someone, you're like, oh my God.

And after a while, you're like, oh, yeah.

First of the slow prime where it's like, she's kind of cute.

You know, after a while, it's like, wow.

How much better is that, get another personality?

Well, to that point, and this is what I was going to say is these people are

narcissists, let's call it spade to spade.

Right.

And I think what happens is, right, even if they find love, shitting on last,

right?

So, so I'm watching this and watching it and you get invested in their love

story and all this stuff.

And it's like, what's the point halfway through the season?

I know, right?

Like, oh, they're going to walk off the on together.

Cool.

They're going to last for two months on the outside and then break up.

And it kind of loses its mystique, right?

Or Sarah's going to end up hooking up with Joey on the night where she was

supposed to hang out with David.

Yeah.

You know, and then, you know, they're going to, you have all those breakups

and it's like, oh, my God.

And then Joey's mad at Sarah, y'all just met two days ago.

What do you, that's what's funny to me is these people fall in love so

quickly, start throwing out the L word.

It's like, man, on the outside, you would have never.

Yeah.

So it's the summer feeling.

It's the summer camp fleeing effect.

Yeah.

And you almost have to suspend your disbelief to get through the rest of the show.

We've been talking about this for five or six minutes.

I think it's hilarious.

This is going to be the clip.

This is going to be the viral clip that's going to take this podcast to the

next level.

Talk a shit about reality TV, talk a shit about reality TV.

Yeah, yeah, but it is, it's, it's fascinating sometimes.

So, but I will admit now I'm kind of, it's, it's good.

I really do.

I enjoy it.

I don't know what it is about it.

Maybe I enjoy watching people's lives fall apart, but once we're done with

this, which I'm, I'm kind of, you know, antsy about it.

We got to, we got to watch a gun to my own blooded orphans, which I think you

might enjoy.

It's much more, you know, kind of grounded and gritty and realistic.

And I don't know.

So, so anyway, once I finish that stuff, I can imagine I was like in any of them.

I just have yet to start any of them.

Yeah.

They're slow and a lot of them have similar themes.

I feel like if you've seen one, you've seen a lot of them, right?

They have, you know, minor nuances and that kind of thing.

But at the end of the day, it's about child soldiers fighting war, war is bad.

What are the ramifications of war?

You know what I mean?

Um, but you know, the different settings and the nuances of the characters

keep it interesting.

I do.

I think it's a great franchise and there's hardly a bad one.

Do you know if there's Gundam parallels to what's been going on in the real

world when they're making them?

And I asked that because, you know, one of my returning guests on here,

Nick Kingsley was telling us, and a lot of people knew this, I didn't, but

about the beginnings of Godzilla.

He was weirdly very well educated on the beginnings of Godzilla.

And do you know what that is?

Yeah.

So Godzilla, like the monster versus all that stuff.

No, I mean, I know you know what Godzilla is, but the origin of God came out

of the atomic bombs.

That makes sense.

It does.

Right.

But it's like, and so Japan was forbidden to necessarily talk or write about

that stuff.

So they started creating these stories and that's why Godzilla, and so I

wonder if there's some sort of parallels of what's going on in the world going

on right now, because, because, you know, maybe not right now, but maybe

originally because the Japanese culture from what we've learned, like to tell

stories about their trauma, their trauma.

What's, what's interesting about that is, you know, did you ever play

Final Fantasy when you were younger?

I didn't.

Massive trope in a lot of, obviously know what it is.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Final Final Fantasy 700 or something.

So yeah, I think they just finished six.

Yeah.

16 was the last one they released.

Yeah, that's great.

That's crazy.

But what's interesting about that is it kind of introduced or at least

popularized this trope of killing God, right?

That's the idea is you start off as this humble farm boy and then you move

throughout the story and by the end of it, you're killing God and people make

jokes about it.

Now I was watching this video.

I'll have to try and find it and send it to you.

You might find this interesting, but it said something about, and especially

Final Fantasy seven, which is the most popular one in the franchise, right?

The, the corporation that you're fighting against, right, is, is kind of

environmentally unfriendly.

They're destroying the earth.

And then by the end you're, you're killing God who started, you know,

working for this, this company.

And anyway, the allegory that I guess it was trying to get across is, is number

one, you know, saving the environment from corporate greed.

But number two, the fact that this corporation created this monster that

ended up becoming God, I guess it's an allegory for these massive corporations.

Kind of what's the word?

You know, subjugating people's freedom in Japan, you know, the work life

balance and that kind of thing.

The work culture over there is like horrific, right?

And that's their version of kind of letting out their, their anger.

And so, yeah, I think with Gundam in particular, actually there's, there's

one of them called Gundam double low and the main character is, is supposed

to be Middle Eastern, right?

Um, and so a lot of it was about, you know, kind of the war in the Middle

East and that kind of thing.

And, and what children in a war torn country ended up turning out like

when they're older, right?

So I think there are some, some parallels and just like you said,

Japanese media tends to adapt these stories based on whatever horrific

shit they've got in opposition to at the time, right?

Yeah, there's definitely parallels as far as what's going on right this second.

Probably who knows?

Well, no, okay, right this second, maybe not.

I mean, it wasn't long ago that we were in the Middle East, right?

You know, fighting for barrels of oil or whatever the hell it was.

I think what it ends up being is you get these corporations, you get these

countries that are rich and of course the, the, the congressmen and the,

the presidents and the dictators and whatever it does running these countries

who are rich kings, right?

Where the hell's your gun at?

I know you're not in war, right?

But you're sending out innocent people to go and die to meet your, your

financial needs or whatever it is.

Gundam deals with a lot of that stuff, right?

So yeah, I think there, there are some parallels.

We're going to talk a little bit about cars here after.

So right now I'm going to pour you a Brooklottic, the classic Lottie.

And this is an unpeded, a single malt.

Scotch.

Correct.

Scott, this is my first time with Scotch.

No kidding.

Pop my cherry over here.

This is a, well, this is a good one to break in on.

There's a lot of people start off with McCallan or Glen Fittick because they're

very medium or light, depending on who you are.

Scotches and they're easy to drink.

This one tastes peaty, but it's not, but I watched a documentary on Brooklottic

and that's how I learned about this.

Yeah, yeah, every time they have a bunch of them, but Brooklottic, the

classic Lottie is, is I guess one of my favorite Scotches to go to.

And I don't, I've, what I found is I got started on Scotch and I don't

hardly ever drink it anymore.

Now it's just like bourbon in, in, um, in Tequila is what I drank 90% of the time.

Kind of, oh, what's your favorite bourbon?

Oh, I don't know what my favorite bourbon is.

There's several I like.

Um, there's the ones that I could daily, um, probably not healthy, but there's

things that you could daily, which are also things you can mix in.

And there's things that you could just handle every once in a while.

Yeah.

You know, I have, you know, I like, um, I like some, like, uh, like Eagle Rare is

good and it's not expensive.

I've heard about it.

I haven't tried it yet.

We got that downstairs.

You know, it's like 40 bucks a bottle, whatever, you know, the Yeesh.

Taylor's are good.

Obviously we talked about that downstairs.

I like most losers, you know, uh, I like Blanton's.

I like Blanton's gold a lot.

Yeah.

Um, I wouldn't daily it because it's hard to get and it's kind of expensive.

When you get it, it doesn't make it overly special.

Do you tend to like the higher proof stuff?

I kind of like more of the, yeah, I got, I got friends that just, they love the

barrel string stuff.

Um, I don't really, but I find that I have a kind of a bad reaction to it, you

know, with the, the Asian glow or flush, a lot of that stuff.

What is that?

Um, you're a chemist and you don't know about, oh, come on.

We're gonna have to open up this whole different door here.

The hell is flush?

Yeah.

Well, well, for a lot, it's, it's actually an ALDH2 deficiency, which is an

enzyme that breaks down alcohol and other things.

So when you don't have that, obviously, as your body turns alcohol into sugar,

um, and that's why if I have a sugary drink, that's the real reason why I

stopped drinking sugary alcohols, my body can't handle it because it's

trying to process the sugar and the alcohol at the same time.

And it becomes a, a bottleneck and I start turning red sometimes.

And I start, you know, it can affect your breathing, depending on what it is.

Some beers do that, but not nearly as much.

Some wines do that, but not nearly as much.

What happens is I get really tired and I'll swell up and like nothing we've

drank today has caused this for me, right?

But I'll swell up sometimes.

Um, but what happens is if I get tired, I, there's almost nothing I

could do to stay awake.

Wow.

It's crazy.

Hmm.

That's why I tell people, I said, I can't sit and drink.

So we can go to a club.

Yeah.

And if we get a table, that's cool, but the quality of alcohol you're

going to get when you have a table is shit, unless you're super rich.

Yeah.

Uh, then I, if I'm, if I'm up and moving around, that effect isn't going

to hit me nearly as much as if I'm sitting there.

I'm likely to not off even after one or two drinks and people will think I'm

drunk, but I'm not interesting.

But once I'm through that cycle, I'm good to go.

Yeah.

I can run a marathon.

I get that one with pot.

I'm sure it's not the same, the same, uh, mechanism, but it, first off,

people in the course of TV, that doesn't mean that's the shape of the plant.

But, um, even if it's a energetic weed or a sleepy weed, yeah.

What do you think I said?

Pop.

I'm like, really?

Like, oh, that's weird, but no judgment.

No pot.

You know, it's, it's, it doesn't matter what kind of pot it is.

Right.

They tell you it's, it's, oh, this is an energetic strain.

This is a sleepy strain.

This is whatever.

If I sit down and just do nothing, I'm knocked out, but if I'm out doing

something, it almost like improves the experience.

Like I like to, to hike high, right?

That works great.

Sounds safe.

It is.

You gotta not handle your weed.

No, but, um, yeah, I never experienced that with alcohol.

I didn't even know that was a thing.

Well, my friend, Johnny, who was just in studio is a speed hiker.

Okay.

He drives his NSX everywhere.

You'll have to check that episode out.

I thought you were about to say he drives his NSX hiking, like in the

rocks, no, he takes it camping.

Like he literally camps out of his car.

Stock suspension.

Yeah.

And he's got a van.

He's got a truck, but he just prefers, you know, and he pitches a tent next

to his car, you know, within a hundred feet, but he gets up and he'll hike 10,

15 miles to get back in his car and go to his next destination.

And he's always high.

Well, I've found so many potheds getting into the hiking and that kind of thing.

By the people in the psychedelics, man, you haven't lived, you've gone and

seen Mount Mingus on mushrooms.

Guess I got a lot of living to do, huh?

You sure do.

I'll let you live it too.

You put me onto whiskey.

I'll put you onto drugs.

All right, deal.

Um, so what do you think of the Brooklottic classic Lottie?

This is good.

I don't, I think I like it less than the second one that we tried.

What's the, something 18.

So that's a Shibui, Shibui 18.

That's been my favorite so far, but I did, I do notice what you're talking about.

It doesn't smell peaty at all.

When you taste it, is it got that kind of smoky thing going on?

Yeah, which is funny because it's not peated.

It's not quite smoke though, is it?

What, if you had to describe Pete taste to somebody who'd never, who has no

frame of reference for what that is, how would you describe it?

I would say it's kind of like rye without the aftertaste.

Hmm.

Okay.

Try again.

I don't think that's, that's quite all right.

Well, I'm not the chemistry or you are and you're a rye forward guy, but I would,

I don't know if I could describe the taste.

I mean, most people say it tastes like a campfire, but that's the heavily pitted

stuff. Again, this isn't pitted.

Right.

But it reminds you a little bit of like the Lagovulin or I have downstairs

or the more pitted stuff.

Like the, the first one was pitted, but slightly, right?

Yeah.

This tastes similar.

It tastes similar without the Pete because, you know, they, they take it

and they burn it and then then in the barrel, and then that's how it gets this

flavor. So I would guess I would, I would say it tastes like the smell of maybe

burning damp peat moss in the middle of Scotland, which I've never done or been

to say that sounds appetizing.

Yeah, I would describe it.

I think that's why I was going to ape whatever you said, because you want to

say smokey, at least I do.

I want to say, but it's not, it's not smoky.

And Burt doesn't quite say it either.

It's in my head.

I'm thinking of like, I mean, a campfire was perfect, right?

Like kind of a, a log after the fires out that tries to smoke cheese and it

tastes like cigarettes.

I don't know what that was about, man.

But no, I think the image in my head is the log after the fire goes out, right?

That black, craggly, that's what that was.

It pops up in my head, but yeah, it's, it's a, it's somehow a unique flavor while

still familiar, how pretentious does that sound?

But I like it.

So you would take a sliver of that, and then there's always like a little bit

of unburnt wood underneath because it forms that crust and you just drop it

in there like you would an ice cube.

There you go.

And then take it out and that's what you have left.

Maybe I'd do that with some four roses, Pete, some four rows, but

just sticking burnt wood in it.

Yeah.

Do you like the four roses?

What did your go to, uh, bourbon?

I think four roses.

The, I don't tend to like lower proof whiskey and it's, it's not about anything

other than like the mouth feel, right?

It's, you try this 80 proof stuff and it, it feels like water, right?

It's not quite rich enough, but, uh, four roses has a, I think it's 90, 95 proof.

Somebody's like the single batch stuff, probably 40 bucks a bottle,

similar to what you, and it's, it's really easy to drink.

It's nice, it's smooth, uh, on the rice side, like I said, whistle pig.

I've really been enjoying whistle pig.

I have some incredibly high proof bourbon in the closet there.

Um, I can rinse out your cup.

Yeah.

So what we'll do is, uh, let's, let's talk Honda's really quick.

Yeah.

Um, you know, one of the first conversations we had, cause you saw

the unisex in the garage and you start talking about cars and stuff is back in

the day, you should kind of tinker with shit, right?

Yeah.

Tell us a little bit about that.

Cause I know neither one, I know you're not really up on whatever's going on today.

Right.

Yeah.

Old stuff.

No.

So my dad was always a car guy and he worked on Volkswagen's actually poor guy.

Um, poor guy.

Yeah.

He'd say the same thing.

Yeah.

Um,

no.

So anyway, yeah, as I was, as I was coming up, you would kind of get these

old shit box civics, right?

These old, like, uh, these B and D series engines.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yeah.

Bad civics.

No, they were just busted.

Right.

And, uh, I never learned anything about bodywork or interior work or anything

like that, but he would just, really what it was, he would just teach me how to

refresh an engine, right?

And, uh, and so as I got older and stupider, right, I think really what got

me into cars before my dad ever, or rather what was I, what am I trying to say?

My dad was showing me cars, but it didn't really land that much for me until I

saw Fast and Furious.

Then I was like, Oh, I like that.

That's cool.

Right.

Yeah.

Um, and you remember those, uh, those EG coupes at the very, very beginning, right?

When they're, they're robbing the truck.

I think I've got three out of the Spoon engines.

Yeah.

I'm very familiar with that.

Yeah.

Those things were cool as hell to me.

And, uh, so anyway, I just, I started tinkering with like B and, uh, B and D

series engines, and then when I was 15, 16, something like that, I got

interested in preludes and I didn't have any for myself and my buddy had one.

And, uh, it was in, you know, the H 22 that they had most preludes and we were,

you know, messing with it, trying to see if we could get any, and we couldn't

get any more umph out of it.

And we were stupid kids.

We didn't really know what we were doing, but his dad said that, Hey, I'll pay

for a turbo kit, but you guys got to install it.

And we did, and it was fun as hell, but we didn't do any other mods, right?

No suspension, no tires, no, no LSD, no anything like that.

And it, you know, it drove like shit, but it sounded cool.

And once you got hooked up, it was fast, right?

And so I think that was the extent of me actually like working on them,

working on them, but since then I've always just been interested in them, right?

Honda and BMW, I think those are kind of the two things that I'm really kind

of well versed on.

What do you like about the BMWs?

Cause their design language has changed quite a bit over the years.

Well, the new ones, Jesus.

You know, the, the, the G series, I don't know, he's not really cool, but

you know, the G generation, three series, I think has kind of lost me a little bit.

Have you seen the renders for the new, new generation?

I don't know.

Is it another rodent?

Another rodent.

No, it's worse.

It just, it looks like an old man car, but somehow uglier.

It's just, I don't like them.

But I think what I like about the BMWs, what's an old man car?

Give me your top three old men cars.

Top three old man cars.

And then where are you drawing the line for old man?

That's fair.

Okay.

The, the Ford, what the hell is it called?

It's big.

It was almost like the Ford's answer to them, to the Monte Carlo.

What is that called?

Back in like the 80s.

Anyway, any old Ford, let's go.

I was going to say any Ford.

Yeah, any old Ford Ford.

Yeah.

I think about like the, the older EMGs wasn't a Thunderbird.

I'm going to feel stupid trying to remember this thing, but no, I think

the old, the old Mercedes, you know, E classes, right?

Anything before the S212, you know, E series, I think kind of gives me old man

vibes and you know, BMW, I think like the, the old seven series, right?

Those are, I don't know.

They, they, they all feel like Lincoln's a big Lincoln's a mobster, Lincoln's.

You said top three.

I think there's the beats, the Lincoln, but no, I mean, yeah, I think the mobster

Lincoln's the old like Chevy, the Chevelles and that kind of thing.

Yeah, they feel old, right?

But no, I think what, what I like about BMW is obviously they're engineering,

right?

But I think what that really means is they just know how to make an engine

smooth, fast, and no one wants to admit it, but reliable.

Here's what I've learned about reliability.

When people say, no, listen, listen, I'm going to, I'm going to put you all

onto something.

This is a hot take, but I promise it's true.

When people talk about reliability, I think what they're talking about is how

much abuse can it stand up to before it breaks.

You think about a Toyota, what do people always brag about?

My Toyota hit 500,000 miles and all I had to do was change the oil.

I'm glad that your Toyota could handle that much abuse, but regardless

of the manufacturer, that's not how you're supposed to treat a car.

And if you look at like rates of failure for Porsches and that kind of thing,

well maintained Porsches don't really break down, right?

The old first gen, second gen Cayens, right?

They have a really good rate of reliability.

Look at the high miles, but you just got to keep up on the maintenance.

And the maintenance is expensive.

BMWs same weight, Mercedes same weight.

These are taxis in Germany, man.

They're putting on miles like you would believe, you know what I mean?

Those are facts.

Yeah.

And that's what I'm saying is, and I think when you're talking about BMW,

they, everybody has stinkers, right?

Toyota has stinkers.

Everybody has stinkers in their lineup, but for the most part, BMW engines

are really well engineered.

They're really intelligently engineered as far as, you know, service and that

kind of thing go, not all the time, but, you know, for the most part.

And if you keep up on the maintenance, man, they run forever.

I think the problem with BMW has always been electronics.

Yeah, that's fair.

Yeah.

That's the thing that, that is the Achilles heel.

I think of the brand.

Yeah.

I don't, I don't know that much, but I don't think I've ever heard of

like BMWs having bad motors and shit like that.

It's just, they have bad auxiliaries.

Yeah.

The water pumps always break.

I'll do it.

Yeah.

On the high performance engines that you hear about these rod bearing issues,

but again, it's how much are you taking care of the car?

How hard are you driving it?

A big issue is people will get in there, get in there, you know, M three.

I think E 36 had less of an issue.

E 46, E 90, F, F 80, right?

They get in these, these high performance engines.

They don't let them warm up, right?

They immediately pull out of the drive and start ripping on them.

I got a BMW.

I'm going to go fast.

Yeah.

And they throw a rod bearing and say, this engine shit.

It's like, is it, you know what I mean?

So like I said, I, I've come to the conclusion that reliability when people

talk about it colloquially is, is a matter of how much abuse can it stand up to?

Don't abuse your fucking car is probably going to last a while, right?

It's not like Nissan.

Nissan, regardless how you treat, especially the newer ones, right?

Regardless how you treat it, that transmission is going to fail at 50,000

miles. It's just how it is, right?

Yeah.

I don't think these German cars are that way.

And then we'll end on this.

I mean, did you hear about the, the Toyota Camry recall?

No, like a recent one?

Yeah, they sent a recall out for the people with the 90s cameras

because they figured it's time to trade them in for a new car.

No shit.

No, no.

Yeah, that's a longevity joke.

Have you, have you heard about that Tundra?

Toyota's gotten their, their museum now.

Some guy took his, his Tundra to like a million miles and we're going to

bought it back from him.

Oh, no kidding.

Yeah.

No, that's cool.

Yeah.

It's like a flex for them.

I wonder if he did anything more than just change the oil.

Probably.

Hopefully.

Yeah.

You got to change that everything at that point.

Right.

About 250, 300,000 miles, I think with most vehicles, unless it's a diesel,

right?

Everything gets changed out.

She even dies.

Sean O'Bannon.

They just have me, dude.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Let's go drink some high proof bourbon.

It works for me.

All right.

Get fucked up off camera.

Well, another month, another closing.

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Now it's stripping time.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

Shut up.

Is There A SHOCKING Truth About Toxic Reality TV? Probably not. Guest Sean O'Bannon in-studio

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