AMA & Hangout with Contributors (June '25) | Yaron Brook Show
01:43:55 Share

Looking for that perfect Father's Day gift? Ditch the boring polo shirts and barbecue aprons and get him something as unique as he is. Get him a Funko Pop of his very own, customized to look just like him. Whether you're shopping for your favorite fisherman, grill master, amateur golfer,

It is Ryan Seacrest here. There was a recent social media trend which consisted of flying on a plane with no music, no movies.

No entertainment. But a better trend would be going to ChumbaCasino.com. It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket. Chumba Casino has over 100 online casino-style games, all absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. So grab your free welcome bonus now at ChumbaCasino.com. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW group void where prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply. The Radical.

Fundamental principles of freedom, rational self-interest, and individual rights. This is the Yaron Brook Show. All right, everybody. Welcome to Yaron Brook Show on this Saturday, June 7th for a Ask Me Anything session. We have a panel available here and I think we'll continue to get people joining us

As the hour progresses, I know a lot of people signed up for this AMA. We'll see how many of them show up. But yes, we'll do it as we always do. We'll start with a panel and then we'll take any Super Chat questions that people might have in mind. So let's get rolling. We'll start with Jennifer. Jennifer.

If the world were the way it should be, like all countries were free and there's not any military tensions or anything, what would foreign policy even mean? I mean, would there be such a thing? I mean, if everybody was free, the entire world was free, then yeah, there'd be very little. There'd really be nothing. There'd be nothing to do. So you'd have a military just in case things changed, right?

But there'd be no point in, there'd be no diplomacy. There'd be no, I mean, there'd be free trade, free movement of labor capital and goods. And yeah, there'd be nothing else to do until some country went rogue. And then you'd have to, you know, if they attacked you, you'd have to discipline them.

So there have to be any customs or anything, or you wouldn't even have to have that? No, no. I mean, even in the world in which we live today, I don't think you need customs, right? If you unilaterally drop tariffs to zero, then what do you need customs for? I mean, today, part of it is drugs. But if you get rid of the one drugs, that goes away. Part of it is you're not supposed to...

Bring into the country more than $10,000 in cash without declaring it. That would go away. What else do they look for? Oh, fruits and vegetables. Yeah, like what about invasive species in the country? Yeah, so maybe they'd monitor for that. Somebody would have to figure out if that's real. They're invasive species all the time. But if it was a real concern, then maybe you had something like that. Maybe you'd have...

infectious diseases but but even that i mean in asia what they have is uh when you get off a plane or you walk through customs or whatever they have these big monitors that are measuring your temperature right so if you have a fever they'll stop you but other than that you know you they don't limit you so we don't screen tourists for infectious disease even today we don't we don't really screen them for um for anything i mean you have dogs for for the drugs and

They ask you about fruits and vegetables, I guess. And they ask you if you have anything to declare. And if you look reasonably unsuspicious, then it's very easy to get into the country. And the same is true all over the world. I mean, there are very few places where it's difficult. I mean, I just walk through airports everywhere. And it's like they don't even ask you. In America, they ask you. But in London, as an American, you put your passport in the machine.

It gives you a checkmark and, you know, and you pass through the machine. You go down, collect your bags and walk out. I guess somebody's monitoring as you're walking out. In Europe, it's very much the same way. The customs is very low key. There they still stamp your passport, that primitive, barbaric, stupid thing where they stamp. And then when you leave, they look for the stamp from when you entered. So with my passport, I have a million stamps. So they're like...

Where's the stamp? Would you enter the, you know, it takes them 15 minutes just to find this stupid stamp. They are moving to an electronic system. So in, where was I? In Madrid, they've already built out all the electronic machines. And at some point, I'll deploy them. And then it'll be like London. It'll be really, really quick and straightforward. So yeah, you know, in a free society, it would be even smoother. You wouldn't even have to scan your passport. Yeah.

That would be nice. Thank you. Thanks, Jennifer. All right, Emmett. So I know you've had a couple of questions in the last few shows asking you about Trump and asking specifically, even when he's doing the right things, is he doing them for the right reasons? So I was wondering if you could elaborate on those. I struggle to see that he's doing things for the right reasons. So I'm interested in your take on that.

Yeah, I mean, it's a question of whether you're asking about Trump per se or the people around Trump or the MAGA movement or whatever. I don't think Trump has reasons for what he does beyond he either feels like it or it's something that will gain him cred with his base, with MAGA.

So, you know, he does he's done things like the executive order on affirmative action and the clampdown on DEI and a few other things that are pretty good with regard to discrimination and DEI stuff. You know, is he doing it because he has an understanding of that this is bad?

No, he's doing it because it's the left and he's doing it because the people around him who are more intellectual, who are more hooked into this kind of thing, think it's important to do. And he's doing it because the base loves it. Right. The base really supports it. What else has he done? Positive. You know, the energy policy that he's put together is is is Trump a free market guy? No. No.

so why is he deregulating energy so much? Well, partially because maybe vaguely he has an understanding that energy is important. A lot of people have talked about it, and it would be good. And he talks a lot about oil prices, and he thinks, again, that MAGA will like the fact that oil prices are cheaper. So deregulation with lower prices, that's good, he thinks, because MAGA will like it.

His people are very sensitive to prices of goods, although that's opposite of tariffs. But tariffs is a whole other issue. But he also has a whole set of donors who are people in the oil industry. And he has a lot of people in the Republican Party who are committed to the oil industry. And, yeah.

I don't think, I don't think, so I think he does it to appease them, to support them. I don't think he has a deep understanding or knowledge of the field or cares that much about it. So, you know, when he supports Israel or supports, or doesn't support Israel and supports Ukraine or doesn't support Ukraine or whatever, I don't know that there are any, there's reasons behind it. I mean, Trump is not somebody who has reasons in a sense of arguments that we can support.

pull apart and say, yeah, this is a good reason. That's a bad reason. You know, a lot of it's power play, perception, how he feels that morning. It's emotionalism to a large extent. And I think his whole negotiating style is ultimately emotionalism. The only thing, as I've said many times, the only thing that I think he really cares about, because he's talked about it for so long, even when he was not president, is trade. He hates trade deficits. He really does.

And that is motivating bad stuff even when ultimately it might hurt his base. But he somehow convinced himself it won't. And so far, the economic data is not as bad as one would have expected. So, no, I don't think he does anything good for the right reason. I don't think there is such a thing as the right reason in Trump's mind, in Trump's world.

Again, some of the people around him know better, and they have good reasons. I think the guy running Energy gets it. The Interior Secretary gets it to some extent. There are a few others, but a lot of the other people around him are just there because they're yes-men to Trump. Cool. Thank you. Thanks, Emmett. You still refer to...

The term monopoly is only referring to government-conferred official monopolies. However, this has not been the case for 50 years. I can't think of any place in the last half century that still has official government monopolies. What Putin's so-called oligarchs have is criminal gangs.

And if somebody tries to compete with one of them, he's going to send the criminal gang to break into the guy's apartment and throw him out the window. Yeah, I agree. I wouldn't call the oligarchs monopolists. You know, again, it's criminal gangs. The post office is a monopoly. It's not exactly private, but it's a monopoly. The government has granted it. It's kind of a semi-private monopoly.

uh, semi-private thing. You know, we don't have monopolies in the United States anymore. We used to have more AT&T for a while, had a kind of government protected monopoly. And that was done away with in the early eighties. Um,

But yeah, I agree with you that they just, over the last 50 years, there haven't been any. And that's, you know, that's why we should retire the wood. There's just no application for it anymore, except when we look at history and except when we look at some countries which still exist. I'm sure there are countries that have monopolized their airline, right? They have a national airline and you can't compete or they have privileges that others don't.

There are probably other examples. But yeah, I mean, to a large extent, there haven't been monopolies in the West for a very long time. But I think the essential factor is not government, but force. In other words, what Putin's oligarchs and their counterparts in Venezuela or Mexico do is use force to

to maintain their exclusive market status. And I think this is the economic essential of a monopoly. Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's forced because you wouldn't say, I don't know, I'm trying to think of examples. I think the fundamental is government force. That is, it's government sanctioned, government protected,

government-enforced force. That is, the government is implying the force. If the corporation itself is doing it or it's hiring gangs to do it, then it's more like anarchy. It's more like just gangsters, just a mafia. And I think, indeed, that Russia is much more like a mafia than anything else. So, I mean, I can see that, but I just don't... I think it confuses kind of the East India Company

And there's something fundamentally different between the East India Company and Putin's oligarchs. And it's the fact that the East India Company functioned under some kind of rule of law, bad law, wrong law, but still a rule of law, whereas the oligarchs, there is no rule of law. It's the rule of muscle and the rule of a gun through and through. So there's something to differentiate there, and I think we confuse them if we call them both monopolies. Thank you. Thanks, Adam.

Let's see. Amlan. Yeah. Hi, Yaron. Hey. So my question is kind of maybe a two-parter. What...

In a proper legal system, what obligation do people have to disclose criminal activity that they're aware of by others? So, for example, you know, a friend tells me that, you know, he did kill somebody or something like that. Is there a legal obligation? And then I assume, of course, that that legal obligation may be different depending what your profession is. Like if you're a police officer or a judge or something like that, that

You know, maybe it's a higher standard or not. I mean, that's really the question. Yeah, I mean, I don't know that I have an answer. It strikes me that you would have an obligation. I mean, now an obligation would be conditioned on, you know, is your life at risk and things like that. But if there's nothing else, I think you have a, certainly you have a moral obligation. But then the question is, do you have a legal obligation? Yeah, I'm specifically asking about the legal obligation.

I mean, there is a concept in the law that says that if you, you know, of aiding and abetting, right, you know something and by not disclosing it, that's aiding and abetting. And that might be legitimate. I think that's probably legitimate. And whether you include aiding and abetting over passive, that's not doing anything, whether you could consider that is an interesting question. But yeah.

I think the answer is probably yes. I mean, if you, you know, if you've... Looking for that perfect Father's Day gift? Ditch the boring polo shirts and barbecue aprons and get him something as unique as he is. Get him a Funko Pop of his very own, customized to look just like him. Whether you're shopping for your favorite fisherman, grill master, amateur golfer...

It is Ryan Seacrest here. There was a recent social media trend which consisted of flying on a plane with no music.

No movies, no entertainment. But a better trend would be going to ChumbaCasino.com. It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket. Chumba Casino has over 100 online casino-style games, all absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. So grab your free welcome bonus now at ChumbaCasino.com. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW group void where prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply. You know, if you see somebody mugged,

I mean, you don't have, obviously you don't have a legal obligation to go there to help, but do you have an obligation to call the police? I mean, if you don't, could you be criminally prosecuted? Probably not. Yeah, it's a tricky one. It's a tricky one. I think there's, there seems to be, like there's some obligation. Like if you know the police is looking for the guy and you've seen him and you don't disclose it, is that aiding and abetting? If the police don't even know who it is,

Yeah, I'm not sure. You have to ask one of our legal scholars. You know, just going by the words aiding and abetting to me are more like, okay, I'm actually taking some active role in assisting this person. Versus like, oh, okay, I saw this dude that looks like somebody on the wanted poster and I'm just ignoring it. Yeah, I think that's definitely, you can't be criminally prosecuted for that. But if somebody actually literally tells you, I killed somebody,

Then certainly you have a moral obligation. And then, you know, legally, I don't know. Can you be prosecuted for not doing it? Right. Yeah, I don't know.

And what about if you're in certain professions? Like one thing that's always bothered me is this immunity that priests have, for example, with their people for confession. Yeah. Right. It's like, what the hell? Right. I mean, that to me makes no sense. But, you know, I would say for, you know, I was thinking about it that, okay, if I'm a police officer and somebody says something, then I think my obligation is different.

Yes. I mean, that's your job. Your job is, although even there, it's not your jurisdiction and all that stuff. But yeah, I think it's your job. I think if you're in law enforcement generally, it's your job and you have a responsibility. Again, I don't know how, how legally you enforce it again, morally. Certainly it's the right thing to do, but what can you do? What can you do legally to somebody? Yeah. Um,

Yeah, I'm just not sure. Okay. All right. Well, I sort of stumped you. That's a good one. Yeah, yeah. It happens once in a while. It's rare. Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Michael. Thanks, Amlin. Matthew. Hey, Aaron. During the Obama years, people would often talk about how inflation was coming and they're going to inflate our way out of this, right? But it doesn't seem like we're any closer to being out of this.

It seems like we are more into this. What assumptions were they having with those statements that would have had to be true for that statement to be true? Yeah, it's a good question. And it's one I think a lot of economists struggle with. I think a number of things would have had to be true. One is the bond market, people who buy bonds, right?

would have had to be much more concerned about the deficit than it turned out they were. There's a lot of people willing to buy these government bonds, fund the deficits, fund the debt without raising interest rates, without really showing any concern of the risk involved.

Many of these were foreigners, like Japanese and Chinese. There was a lot of saving back then in Asia, and that saving basically flowed to the United States and bought up these assets. And a lot of Americans, insurance companies, pension plans, were buying these assets, and they didn't seem that concerned about the ability of the U.S. government to pay it back. So there was no urgency, in a sense, to inflate it away. And

There seems to be a little concern right now. Interest rates on the 10-year are higher than one would expect. But there's no panic. It's not like anybody – and China and Japan are reducing the amount of government bonds that they hold, the amount they're lending to the United States. But that also could just be because –

They're both shrinking countries, right? So their population is shrinking. Whatever savings they have, they need to use in order to pay out welfare benefits to their aging population, particularly Japan. So it's not clear that they're selling U.S. treasuries to buy, I don't know, euro treasuries or something like that. It might just be they're selling it because they have to, because they don't have as much savings as they used to. But interest rates are higher.

But there still doesn't seem to be a huge panic. The dollar's lower, but the dollar hasn't gone into freefall. It's still higher than it's been in most of its history. I remember when the pound sterling was $2, worth $2. Now it's $1.30, and people saying it's expensive. So, yeah.

What has to happen is the government has to come to a point where basically they can't sell their bonds in the market. Or if they do, they're only selling it at very high interest rates. And then they kind of go to the Fed or the Fed knows this independently. And it like thinks of the only way to get us out of this mess is to is to is to reduce the debt by inflating it away.

Of course, that will increase interest rates as well. So at that point, it's very, very, you know, they have a hard time. There's no easy way out of the mess we're in right now. And we keep kicking the can down the road, which means it only becomes more difficult. So during the Obama years, you could have dealt with a mess easier than you can today. You know, it's much worse right now, and it'll be worse in 10 years. So I think those are the kind of things that have to happen.

I guess the mechanics of that, would it have required the government to, in essence, refinance at the low interest rate for a long term? And then when inflation comes through, tax revenues go up because wages are rising with inflation. Is that part of the thinking here? Well, I mean, that's what they should have done. I mean, if the government had done that in the 2000 teens when interest rates were close to zero,

And if they had basically made all government funding 10 to 30-year bonds, we'd be in a lot less mess right now. They'd still be paying close to zero interest. Interest on the debt would still be low. They didn't do that. I mean, which is stunningly stupid, maybe because they were afraid that if they did that, then interest rates and long-term debt would go up and that would affect the economy in other ways. So I don't know what the thinking was, but it makes complete sense.

complete sense, you know, to fund it long term. I think the mechanism is this. Look, the government comes out. Let's say it needs to borrow a trillion dollars and it puts it out there to sell. And the markets are not buying, you know, private markets just don't want a trillion dollars of more U.S. government debt. They're afraid. So they're jacking up interest rates. So what happens is the Fed steps in and starts buying it.

at lower interest rates, right? So let's say the interest rate is heading up to six or seven or eight, and the Fed comes in and says, we'll buy it at 4%. And what that does is it's monetizing the debt, right? So it's taking this debt and replacing it with cash. That is inflationary. And unless the Fed does something else somewhere else to take that cash out of circulation, you know, which it did in the 20-teens, but I'm not sure it'll be able to in the future,

That's inflationary, and that's how you monetize the debt. That's how you get basically inflation. Now, in the 20-teens, the Fed bought a lot of government debt, but they also found ways to get banks to increase their reserves. So they added money into the system with one hand and took money out of the system with another hand, and thus we didn't get inflation.

That's a trick that they can't always do and is very difficult to do. And I'm not sure they'll be able to do in the future. All right. Thank you. Yeah. But it's complicated and it is somewhat surprising. It hasn't, in a sense, happened already, given the levels of debt that the United States is accumulating. But

People really have this confidence, and I think this is what drives a lot of people, that the U.S. can grow out of this mess. The GDP growth, that's what you mean by tax revenue growing up, but GDP growth will go way up because of deregulation, because of something, abundance, some scheme that one of the political parties comes up with. And that GDP growth will go up, tax revenue will go up because we're all making more money, and that will help close the debt gap. But that is a lot of wishful thinking.

And nobody seems to have a real plan on how to actually execute on that. Looking for that perfect Father's Day gift? Ditch the boring polo shirts and barbecue aprons and get him something as unique as he is. Get him a Funko Pop of his very own, customized to look just like him. Whether you're shopping for your favorite fisherman, grill master, amateur golfer,

It is Ryan Seacrest here. There was a recent social media trend which consisted of flying on a plane with no music.

No movies, no entertainment. But a better trend would be going to ChumbaCasino.com. It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket. Chumba Casino has over 100 online casino-style games, all absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. So grab your free welcome bonus now at ChumbaCasino.com. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW group void where prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply. All right. Thank you, Matthew. Ian. Hey, Aaron. Hey.

So you mentioned earlier that the one thing Trump has been consistent on is trade and trade deficits. I think there's one other that I think he's been consistent on, which is immigration. I think he's always been anti-immigrant in some form. I'm not sure that's true. I mean, I'm not sure if you go back to the 80s, he was anti-immigrant. I don't know. I don't know enough about his biography. But, you know, he's married immigrants. He's hired immigrants. He's a bit of a racist. I think he's always been a bit of a racist.

So that might be part of it. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know enough about his history. Well, certainly starting when he started running for president, he picked up, he understood very early on that that was the wedge issue. That was the issue that could get him elected. Much more important than tariffs. And that's all he focused on, or much of what he focused on. And that in China, which I guess is tariffs in the end.

And he was very successful with that. And I think he just keeps doubling up on that over time. Yeah, I mean, the fact that he's hired immigrants and married an immigrant, I don't know if that helps because it's not like anything Trump does is really consistent, right? Even the trade stuff, the things he says don't make sense with each other. No, but that would require him to be able to think. Yeah, exactly. But on the immigration thing,

So, you know, it's great that with the whole trade thing, one thing we're seeing like from the left now, all of a sudden the left is at least temporarily pro free trade and against tariffs, you know, only last until they're back in power. But you don't really see as much on the immigration thing. You see a lot of backlash about the specifics, you know, OK, this person has been poorly treated or it's.

You know, it's not equitable or whatever other thing they're complaining about. But you don't see anything about, okay, well, this is what we should do to let in people from all over the place. It's just not a thing, which may be because the American public is very anti-immigrant. And it's definitely something that I would like to see more on.

from somebody because it's such a huge i mean i mean i'm an immigrant you're an immigrant you know i mean augustina augustina's doing a lot of good work on it that we're getting a lot of publications on it cato is very good on the issue it's one of the issues they're good on but yes i mean i i think that's right i think the reality is that that america's anti-immigrant that american people are anti-immigrant i think a vast majority a significant majority of them

And I think they were scared, really scared by kind of the – call it kind of the chaos of the border under Biden legitimately. I mean, it was ridiculous what was going on there. No – and people panicked over that. I think the Democrats have come to realize that that's a huge issue, so they are going to be more anti-immigration. They were always anti-immigration for labor union reasons, right? I mean, it was very clear –

And Bernie Sanders made it very clear that he's not pro open borders or anything like that because it lowers wages. And, you know, so he comes at it from a kind of a leftist economic perspective and he's anti-immigration. And there's really no constituency that's pro-immigration. And there's no way to build a constituency because big chunks of the left and big chunks of the right are both anti-immigration. So both political parties are going to play to that. You know, there was a...

I mean, big tech, to some extent, is pro-immigration, although their focus is primarily in H-1Bs and kind of high-skilled immigration. But they're generally the most pro-immigration group out there. And maybe they will deploy their resources. Maybe when they see the catastrophe that Trump is going to bring about with kicking out foreign students and reducing even the amount of high-skilled labor coming into the country, maybe they'll throw their

money behind politicians who are pro-immigration in one way or another. But yeah, I mean, we're going to have to go through a period where this anti-immigration sentiment changes in the country. And, you know, that's going to be hard. You had the same thing in the 1920s and you really didn't get rid of that until the 1960s. So the anti-immigration, this is not the first time in American history that

I mean, the number of immigrants, the decline in the number of immigrants in certain parts of the world in the 1920s is stunning. I mean, in terms of just the—they just slammed the brakes, and there was just no more immigration, particularly from places like Eastern Europe, Jews, and, of course, China had already— there was no immigration from China starting in the 1890s because of the Chinese Exclusion Act. So—

This is not new. Americans have always been suspicious and fearful of immigrants, and they go through better periods and worse periods. Yeah, and just one other comment on that. I think out of all the stuff Trump is doing, this and the trade stuff are the two worst long-term things for the country. Because I know if I—I'm a citizen now, but if I wasn't a citizen now—

As a skilled professional, I would be like, okay, where am I going? Because I'm not staying here. Because it's like you hear people getting busted at the border for, you know, not dotting a thing on a form. And they're like in a cell for two days. And it's like, why would I put up with that? There's, you know, the U.S. is going to lose so much skill. Yeah, and we're already seeing it. We're already seeing scientists.

European scientists going back to Europe where they're offering them a lot of money to come back. Chinese scientists going back to China because they're offering them a lot of money to come back. And that is going to there's going to be more of that the more this goes on. But I think the bigger issue, ultimately, both with immigration and with tariffs, although maybe the courts can change this, is the complete disregard for the rule of law.

and the militarization of it all. I mean, I think that the nuttiest stuff is these ice going in with bulletproof vests and, you know, super powerful machine guns and masks. They don't want to reveal their faces into restaurants where I'm sure, you know, these guys are going to put up a big fight, right? And other places. And

And it's all over the country and it's going on every day because they're desperate to reach some number that Trump has assigned them. And they're having a hard time given that very, very, very, very, very few immigrants, even illegal ones are criminals. They're just finding it really hard to round up all the gang members and the criminals. There aren't enough of them. So to make the numbers, they have to go find people who are working for a living. And the fact that this is going on and nobody cares and, you know,

And that's what do you call it? They you know, and the courts can't stop that because most of that is legal. That is most of that is within the scope. But but it is kind of it's just ugly. It's incredibly ugly. And of course, the numbers are nowhere near what Trump told his base they would be. So it's not that millions of people are going to be deported, but he's still under arrest.

numbers and he's still under Biden's numbers in terms of deportation. Now, the difference is that Obama and Biden's most of the deportation happened at the border. That is, people crossed and they sent the back and the border is pretty much shut now. So the deportations now are happening in restaurants, in our cities, in our neighborhoods. And that's what makes it so ugly. And Tara says the same thing. He's using crazy laws to give himself unbelievable power and

above and beyond anything that I think, you know, the law is intended. The executive is above the law now. And the courts are going to have to rein him in. And we'll see if they have the courage to do so and whether he abides by them. But they're going to have to rein him in. And I think what will happen is they'll rein him in on this one law. So he'll invoke another law. And then it'll be another nine months to go through the courts and

whether to rule if that law is illegitimate or not. So he's going to play this. It's going to be a shell game because there are lots of, unfortunately, lots of laws that they've given the executive way too much power than he should have, and he's going to use all that to try to evade the courts. And that's the real damage because that future presidents will look at and say, huh.

We could do that on all kinds of things, all kinds of ways in which we can interpret laws to say we have more power than we thought we did, what people thought we did. Thanks, Ian. Alejandro. Okay, Alejandro says, my connection is bad. Can you read the question from the chat? This is the chat. Okay, last week you said alcohol shaves years off your life. What are then the rational reasons to consume alcohol? Or is it just an irrational social norm? Is it...

to want to consume something that makes you less rational.

So, yeah, I said alcohol shaves years off of your lives. You know, my scientific knowledge of that fact is limited. So you should caveat by that, by I'm not a scientist, I'm not a doctor. I don't really know that. There's just a bunch of people that, you know, advocating that. They seem to be in the business of life longevity and life extension and doctors who I trust. But

But that doesn't mean they're right. Doctors have said a lot of things that turned out ultimately to be wrong. So anybody who's drinking needs to consider, you know, is how bad alcohol is and do as much research as they can, you know, to figure it out and make an evaluation for themselves. What is the benefit? The benefit is alcohol relaxes you. And in some contexts, that's really nice, right?

For many people, alcohol can serve as a social lubricant. It can make them a lot more comfortable to be with other people, where being with other people can be uncomfortable for a lot of people a lot of time. You could, I guess, go to a therapist and maybe solve that problem in other ways, which is probably better than alcohol. But, you know, that's expensive and time consuming and not sure they'd be successful and

And when you're young in particular, you know, you don't have the resources to go to a therapist. Looking for that perfect Father's Day gift? Ditch the boring polo shirts and barbecue aprons and get him something as unique as he is. Get him a Funko Pop of his very own, customized to look just like him. Whether you're shopping for your favorite fisherman, grill master, amateur golfer,

Hello, it is Ryan, and we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we? Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff.

That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino-style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere with daily bonuses. So sign up now at ChumbaCasino.com. That's ChumbaCasino.com. No purchase necessary. VGW group void where prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply. I do think the consumption of alcohol to the point of you're not in control of

you know, you end the night up throwing up and fainting in your own puke is irrational and immoral. I don't think that's good for you. I think that's bad for you in every dimension I can think of. You know, to the extent that it affects your rationality,

you shouldn't do it. But there's a point they tell me because I don't consume enough alcohol to get to this point. Plus, alcohol has this weird effect on me usually that I just go from not feeling anything to feeling sick and without getting the nice buzz that people claim they get from it. There's a claim that you can get that buzz and still be rational, but the buzz just allows you to relax, to feel a little better, and to be a little bit more social.

Everybody is going to have to make that evaluation about whether it's moral, whether it's right to drink at those kind of levels where you get a buzz, but you're not completely collapsing from it. Everybody has to make their own evaluation about the rationality of that and the morality of that. I think it's very difficult to judge somebody morally.

regarding things like that from the outside. You don't know what psychology they have, what the drink is actually providing them, what benefit they get from it. I mean, I don't think smoking is immoral for everybody under all circumstances. I think it certainly can be, but that's something individuals have to make an evaluation for themselves. At the end of the day, it's none of my business. I don't care. Smoke, drink, it's your life. You have to, I mean, you have to do it.

Suddenly there's certain behaviors that could judge you as immoral from the outside, but there are a lot that you can't because you don't know the context of what's going on, right? Morality, you know, you need a lot of data. You need a lot of information about somebody on these kind of behaviors to be able to judge somebody as moral or immoral based on the behavior. So again, there's some benefits to alcohol. I mean, there's one other benefit to alcohol, right?

particularly red wine or white wine, is that it tastes great. So that's the other thing. I think a lot of cocktails taste amazing. Red wine tastes really good with good food. It enhances the flavor of the food. So there's a real, I think, a real benefit, you know, to drinking wine with food.

So you have to give that up. I often notice that I'm eating a good meal and I'm not drinking wine. I miss it, right? I've cut down my consumption of alcohol dramatically. I never consumed a lot. But I used to, I don't know, four or five times a week, I used to drink a glass of wine with dinner. And I don't anymore. I drink maybe once a week, maybe twice.

Once every two weeks, a glass of wine with dinner. And I miss it. It's not that I get a buzz. I don't. It's that I miss that combination of eating and drinking and the flavors and wine is super tasty. And when I watch movies where people analyze or documentaries where they analyze, I just saw a thing called Drop of Gold, which is a TV series about

on Apple TV about which has wine tasting as part of the part of the plot. It's recommended. I think it's a good drama. I kind of go, oh, you know, that that's cool that now I can't taste all the things that they can taste a little bit of cinnamon and a little bit of this and a little bit of that. And it's amazing what they can do because you can give one of these sommeliers, these experts, a glass of wine and they will tell you the what country it comes from, the vintage, the grape, the

And the year that it was harvested. I mean, that's just insane. But they can do that. So I can see...

So wine particularly is incredibly enjoyable. And some people like to sip whiskey, and whiskey has a great flavor. So there is the issue of flavor and its relationship with food. So, you know, there are values to alcohol, particularly if you can consume them in moderate amounts. And then the question is, particularly as you get older, is there a health issue? And do we know how big the health issue is?

And, you know, the older I get, the more I'm willing to be cautious about this stuff, even if I don't have, you know, certainty about it. So I just drink less because I don't enjoy that much. And if it's going to help keep me healthier for longer, it's not a big enough value for me.

uh, to stop doing it for other people. I get it completely. It's a value to them and they, and they don't, don't, they don't stop. Yep. Um, all right, cool. I think I got everybody. I think that was everybody first round. Cool. So let's, um, let's jump into this. Let's do super two, the two super chat questions above $20. Um, and we'll answer those, uh, again, everybody on the

watching live right now who's not on the panel can use the super chat feature as always to ask any question they like and we will get to it i'll do the 20 questions first and we'll do the the under 20 later uh so shazbot for 50 thank you shazbot another 50 if anyone can answer where does francisco danconia get the money to buy his first copper foundry so i don't know if anybody's answered this yes so i think he's not just asking

I think somebody guessed investment, but investment in what? What was he investing in? Was it stocks, bonds, futures, options, commodities? What was he investing in that allowed him to make that first money to buy his copper foundry? Emmett says stocks for industrial concerns, of industrial concerns, I guess. Stocks of industrial concerns.

So Shazbat will have to come back and evaluate whether that is right or not. And based on that, I'll either see an extra $50 or not. Thank you, Shazbat. Thanks for adding entertainment value in a quiz to the Iran Book Show. We now have quizzes. Michael, Millet is not feeding the population superficial tribalism.

He's speaking in principle and demanding thought. And it's working. I think a Millet phenomenon could happen here when a strong enough personality arises. So you're right in terms of what Millet is doing. That's why I don't think he's a populist. I think I said that yesterday on the show. He's not a populist. He's not speaking to the lowest common denominator. He's not feeding them, as you say, superficial tribalism or any other form of tribalism.

He's talking to them about principles. Now, the principles tend to be more economic than anything else, but they're still economic principles. And he's trying to educate the public about those economic principles. He does have the personality a little bit of a populist in a sense that before he was president, when he was on TV and radio, he would yell a lot and curse and go after the left like the populists do. So there was a lot of going after the left stuff.

before he got elected as an end in itself and calling people names and all of that. So he acted like that. But at the same time, he also was educating. So he's this interesting combination of the two. I mean, I don't know if the phenomena could happen here. I mean, you seem to be more optimistic than I am. The American people don't seem really interested in any kind of, you know, principled

or any kind of principled education or learning something about the world. They seem interested in just appeasing their emotions, particularly the emotion of fear. So it's going to be interesting if anybody can, if a strong enough person can go out there and make this argument and get...

I don't see who that would be right now. I don't see where they would go to get the traction. I'm not sure which political party would embrace them. I'm not sure which media outlet would embrace them. But things can change, and they can change pretty fast. It's also true that one of the reasons the Argentinians were willing to give Mille a chance was because they were desperate. Things had gotten so bad, they had tried so many different political leaders in the past, and

And basically their view was, yeah, let's give this nut a chance. And now he's proving himself and hopefully they'll give him a second chance. But I think things got bad and I don't think you can discount that. And it could be that the United States things have to get much worse. And then a character like Malia rises and rallies the people. But we will see. We will see. We can hope, I guess.

Not that things get that worse, but that somebody can arise to capture the American people with actual principles that are good principles. Good principles. Looking for that perfect Father's Day gift? Ditch the boring polo shirts and barbecue aprons and get him something as unique as he is. Get him a Funko Pop of his very own, customized to look just like him. Whether you're shopping for your favorite fisherman, grill master, amateur golfer,

Hello, it is Ryan. And we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we? Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff.

That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino-style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere with daily bonuses. So sign up now at ChumbaCasino.com. That's ChumbaCasino.com. No purchase necessary. VGW group void where prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply. All right, back to our panel. Jennifer. Okay, do you think...

I know there's a lot of context to this question, but do you think it could ever be rational to yell at somebody? And I don't mean like it's a murderer or something, you know, but like a friend or, you know, a relationship that you have, but you're really mad and you say, you know, oh, I'm so mad you did that or something.

Yeah, I don't know why not. Okay. I don't know why not. Some people are saying, well, I've never yelled at my wife ever or something. It's like, really? You know, like it seems like you're not smacking her around or something. You're just mad and you yell. That's okay to get out, right? I don't see any reason why you can't yell at people. You know, you're expressing a certain emotion, anger, frustration, and it comes out as an elevated voice. I don't think that's...

You know, suppressing that, particularly with people who you know and are close to, would be ridiculous. So I don't think that yelling is a mal. I don't see how it is. I mean, it's a manifestation of a particular emotion. Yeah, and I think, too, like you said, if you hold it in,

yelling is a lot better than obviously you don't want to hit people or throw stuff at their head or something like that, which that would be, you know, irrational and damaging. So you yell and to get that filled up with whatever it is, chemicals out of you, it's better to do that. And then you calm down and you can think then. Yep.

People hold stuff in and they throw dishes around and that's not good. Yeah, destroying property or using physical forces is a bad thing and a bad idea and that's kind of out of control. You're really out of control. Jason says, what about yelling at inanimate objects? That's fine. Whatever works, whatever allows you to express your emotions and then go back to, you know, go back to...

to being calm and cool and rational. So sometimes you need an outlet, and yelling at some inanimate object or pets or something can be useful to achieve, to get it out, to get it out. So yeah, I don't think it's inherently bad. Okay, thank you. Thanks, Jennifer. Emmett? Yes, so I don't know if you've heard the news story about...

The two young children in, I think it's North Carolina, who were walking home alone with their parents' permission for the first time. And they were 10 and 7. And the youngest one was struck and killed by a car, sadly. This just happened, I think, in the last week. And the parents have been charged with negligent manslaughter. And I'm struggling to kind of understand if...

if what they were doing was negligent. I know that when I was growing up, and that's been a day or two ago, I walked to school unaccompanied as a first grader and rode my bike as a second grader. And that was the standard policy 50-ish years ago. So things have certainly changed, and we don't let our kids go out unaccompanied as early, I think, today. But is it really...

Something that, and I think also part of the context that I heard, I haven't,

dug in too deeply on this thing but um the one of the i think the father was on the phone with the elders the elder son when the young one was the youngest one was struck and it so it's tragic in in in in every sense and yeah but is there is there negligence on the part of the parents in this case i don't see it i mean that's that's absurd it's why we have a generation of young people who have no sense of independence and have and and uh

and snowflakes that, you know, you say something that might offend them and they go bazook. So no, I absolutely see no... I think it's a real problem that we now shield kids from any kind of form of danger and any kind of form of independence. I walked to school across the street in kindergarten. So that would be... I was four, five, four, five. My mother would sit in the balcony and

in the apartment, you know, with my baby brother at the time and watch as I did it. And today she has nightmares about it. She didn't then because she, you know, what's the point of sitting on the balcony watching because there's nothing you can do. There'd be nothing they could actually do. But, yeah, I mean, I walked to school. We walked to school all of my childhood, right?

At every grade level, and that always involved crossing streets. The only time I guess we didn't, I didn't, was in London when I was first and second grade. The school was far. Yeah, so we didn't walk. You know, in third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, I mean, every grade we walked. I mean, there were no cars in those days, and Dad took the car to work early in the morning. We didn't have two cars. You walked, and you rode your bike, and...

It is Ryan Seacrest here. There was a recent social media trend which consisted of flying on a plane with no music, no movies, no entertainment. But a better trend would be going to ChumbaCasino.com. It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket. Chumba Casino has over 100 online casino-style games all

absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. So grab your free welcome bonus now at ChumbaCasino.com. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW group void where prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply.

Looking for that perfect Father's Day gift? Ditch the boring polo shirts and barbecue aprons and get him something as unique as he is. Get him a Funko Pop of his very own, customized to look just like him. Whether you're shopping for your favorite fisherman, grill master, amateur golfer,

Yeah, I mean, I think it's just... And not only did we do that, I mean, we played soccer on the street, literally on the street, like two rocks would be the goalposts.

and because there were no parks, and a car would come and we'd take the ball. And once in a while, somebody could almost get run over. And maybe a mother would stand on a balcony and yell at us to get off the street. But we would play. I mean, and nobody stopped us. And we did that for years. And now, you know, if I go back to that street and I see where we played, I go, God, that's crazy. How did we do that? But, you know, it was, I think it's part of

It's part of what encourages us to be dependent, to think about risks, to deal with them and to know and to gain the self-esteem that comes from knowing you can be out there in the world and you can deal with them.

I kind of felt like this was almost like an ex post facto prosecution because how, how would a parent know that that is negligence ahead of time? Because that's the standard today in the culture. So there are a lot of cases where there'll be a seven year old walking back from school or something. And another parent will call the police on the parents whose child is walking and they'll be arrested. Or if a kid is playing in a park by himself without parental supervision. Yeah.

You know, somebody will call the police and they'll arrest the parents. So, no, this is a phenomenal culture. It's not a duration. This is the rule now.

And if you're a parent, it's scary because you don't know exactly when it will apply. And if you want your kids to grow up as independent, then it's tricky. Which reminds me, I said yesterday you need to spoil your kids and have them independent. Maybe spoiling is not the right word. My wife told me it's probably not the right word we should be using. You should do all the things I described you doing.

But spoiling is probably not the right word because it comes from spoilt, from spoiling, from doing something, you know, destroying, right? Spoiling is destroying. So it's not a good word to use. But the sense of, you know, life's going to be, you know, you want to make their life as pleasant and as happy as you can. And at the same time, allow them to be independent. They should be able to walk home from school. Thank you. All right. Thanks.

Shazbat says Christopher Smith gave the answer playing the stock market. Shazbat is giving partial credit. But Emmett actually said stocks for industrial concerns. So I think he got the full answer. You're the judge, Shazbat, so your money. Thank you. All right, Adam. I have two follow-ups, one on your remarks just now. When I was seven years old,

I was riding by myself on buses and trolleys all over Warsaw to get to the zoo, to museums. I guess that's one of the advantages of living in a police state where every fourth person is a police or secret police agent. But... I did that at seven in Israel, which was not a police state. And my wife...

We'd go on a bus when she was that age with a younger brother who was like four or five and take him on the bus to somewhere. And no, no, you know, nobody was concerned about it back then. It was how we grew up in Israel. Now, again, Israel was a relatively poor country back then. So people didn't have two cars. People didn't drive their kids around. There wasn't the concept of helicopter parents just did not exist. Nobody could afford a helicopter.

And the other one is for Ian's point. Many two-career immigrant families of physicians, engineers, technicians, nurses had arranged to bring in their parents, and the parents overstayed their visas and took care of the kids in the house while the two-career immigrants

families would put in long hours. But starting with the Obama administration, they were warned that they have to self-deport or else they would be deported and couldn't come back to the U.S. And many of them did that. And now we have extreme shortages of professionals in the health professions and all the STEM professions.

Because the people who are still there are working shorter hours because their parents have gone back home. And this has gotten in California so extreme that some doctors are now saying,

having Saturday hours to see their long-term patients and they're no longer accepting new patients, just like doctors in England. And you don't see any billboard advertisements for doctors anymore. If I look at videos of Poland, I see as many advertisements for doctors as we have for lawyers here in California.

Yeah, no, I think you're absolutely right. It's it's you know, the Trump's immigration policies are going to have all kinds of ripple effects on people's lives. You know, as people get deported, there'll be more family separated. More people will leave. Different kinds of people will leave.

And it's hard to predict. We're not central planners. It's hard to predict how it all plays out exactly. But one thing we know is none of it is good. It's all bad. How the bad gets manifested, it's going to manifest itself differently in California than in, you know, places that maybe have less professional immigrants, but are still dependent on child care. And now your gardening business, you can't afford to run it because you have to you have to stay home and

It's just going to make people poorer and it's going to make our economy less successful. Whether we can measure it or not, whether we know all the stories or not, it's happening every day. And a lot of people now are just living in fear and just think about how that – I mean you could be deported to –

I mean, theoretically, you could get deported to Libya or to Sudan or to South Sudan they were talking about or to El Salvador or to, you know, Mexico. This guy deported to Mexico supposedly accidentally. So there's no end to it. And yes, the ripple effects of this are going to be felt throughout the economy, throughout our social lives. It's just going to be horrible. It's just horrible. And...

The fact that people are not up in arms about it just suggests how we've succeeded in dehumanizing the impacts on these immigrants. Thank you, Adam. Let's see, Matthew. Yeah, I guess I wanted to get your opinion on marching bands a little bit and talk about that. I'm guessing marching bands originated in militaries at one point. I'm not sure where, but

I get the impression that America has kind of taken marching bands to new heights. Maybe I'm wrong about that because I haven't spent too much time outside of America. Yeah. But, yeah, I don't know. Take a minute to talk about marching bands and what you think. Yeah, I mean, I don't know a lot about marching bands. Certainly there's a lot of good music that's been written for marching bands, a lot of classical music.

classical music composers wrote music for marching bands back in the 19th century. So they obviously existed. I think they were mostly for military ceremonies or other state-like ceremonies. But, you know, there's a lot of beautiful, beautiful music that was done for it. In the U.S., you get marching bands and all kinds of

you know, ceremonies or what do you call it? Parades. You get them, of course, at football games and other sports events. So I do think there's a lot...

There's a lot more variety maybe in the United States, both in terms of composers and in terms of the uses of marching bands. I haven't seen them used quite as extensively in other countries as we do in the United States. They're fun. The music is always, it's marching music, so it's upbeat, it's rhythmical.

And, yeah, I mean, my guess is Trump's military parade. There'll be some marching bands. Or maybe not. Maybe just tanks. Maybe just soldiers goose-stepping. Who knows? What do you think it is about the American culture that has integrated them so much more than other cultures? You know, I think Americans...

have, and I don't know how long this has been true, but it's been true for at least, for about 100 years, I think at least. We're wealthier, we have a lot of spare time, which we like to, we like to

What do you call it? Spend that time sporting events and watching parades. And I think it's a benevolence. We like the flair of the whole thing, the joy of the whole thing, the excitement of everything. You know, you have the Macy's parade in Christmas. I mean, in Europe, you have Christmas markets and you have things like that. But there's something about the U.S.,

Maybe because we're more commercial and parades sell. After all, it's the Macy's. It was called the Macy's Parade in Christmas. So there's a certain element. It's good marketing, right? So the emphasis of marketing. But we also spend a lot of time at sporting events, more so than other countries. We have, what is it, four major sporting events.

that Americans are really engaged with. Europeans really only have one, mostly, sometimes two, depending on the country. You know, we don't have more leisure time, but we have more, I guess we devote more of our leisure time to things like that. And it probably comes from the sense of life, the looking for joy and a sense of community and shared values that

you know, happen at these kinds of events. All right. Thank you. Sure. Um, would you, in, in some ways and, um, and not in a positive way, but just kind of, uh, objectively, would you say that communism is actually more honest than fascism? Because at least in communism, it's like, okay, the government's owning it, they're running it and they're kind of responsible.

For example, I look at health care, the health care system in Canada versus the U.S. In the U.S., everybody blames everything on the private insurers and hospitals and all this stuff. Here, there's much less of that because, okay, the government's clearly running it. Yeah, I mean, I definitely think that's right. I think that socialism is, communism is, it's in some sense honest about its goals. It's honest about the means and execute it. And it's clear who the culprit is.

The fascists, part of what fascism does, and you see this in China, for example, is the pretense of private ownership, the pretense that you're in control of your life. And while that, you know, can give you a little bit more freedom and, you know, and you can create wealth and you can do things that you can't do under socialism, it's more dishonest and it's easier to misplace the blame on what is going wrong. Right. That's right. Yep. Okay. Thanks.

Ian? I don't have a second question, but I do have a recommendation. I've always said to people that I think hockey is the best sport to watch, and the Stanley Cup finals are going on right now. Edmonton Oilers against the Florida Panthers tied 1-1, and it's some great world-class hockey. And this isn't your old-school slap-shot hockey with people fighting every second thing and blood all over the place. This is just great sports at a super high level, amazing to watch.

And if people are curious why I think hockey is the greatest sport, you know, ask me if you run into me at Ocon or something. Yeah, that's great. I never got into hockey, but I'm told that to really appreciate hockey, you have to go to a game. You have to see it live. You have to see it in person and that in person it is super exciting and unbelievably fast and fun.

And the sportsman, the athleticism is just phenomenal. So it's one of these days I'll have to go to a hockey game. I'll have to go to a hockey game. If you go to a hockey game or watch… Come to Ottawa. You're on. We'll go together. There you go. Or go to Edmonton and see some good hockey. Yeah. I can't argue that one. But I will say the other thing is…

to sit watching with someone who knows hockey because even watching online where the camera tries to focus there is, I was sitting with my wife last night and explaining certain things because there's stuff that happens. Okay, this is happening off the camera that you can't see. Yeah, that's important. Yep. You know, this is what they're doing. This is what they're setting up. And, you know, it's good to get a little background. If you didn't grow up in Canada where hockey is on TV, you know,

Step into the world of power, loyalty, and luck. I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse. With family, cannolis, and spins mean everything. Now, you want to get mixed up in the family business. Introducing the Godfather at choppacasino.com.

Listen.

Looking for that perfect Father's Day gift? Ditch the boring polo shirts and barbecue aprons and get him something as unique as he is. Get him a Funko Pop of his very own, customized to look just like him. Whether you're shopping for your favorite fisherman, grill master, amateur golfer,

Oh, sliced. Or just the world's greatest dad. We've got all the fun accessories to make your figure come to life. Build the perfect gift at Funko.com. Pop yourself. Visit Funko.com. 24 hours a day. Yeah. It's our national religion here. Yeah. Very cool. Let's see. Alejandro.

Hello. My question was, what are your thoughts on this idea of fake it until you make it? And so the example that comes to mind is someone like Thomas Edison who decided that he faked having a light bulb to get money and stuff, and then he made a light bulb. And this was kind of the inspiration for that. Theranos lady who named her machine Edison because she was basically doing the same thing, and it kind of failed for her. But I struggle to think...

If she had succeeded, she would have been like a hero and people would have overlooked her lying and she'd be a visionary who blah, blah, blah. Like like what are how do you analyze that? Yeah, I mean, I would generally say that it's wrong to to fake it. It's wrong to lie. It's wrong to to to present something that isn't real.

And I don't know the exact details of the story about it in the sense, I don't know exactly what he said to people, whether he really just lied to them in a sense that he had something that working with, there was not. I, I, I, I think it's very wrong. And, um, the consequences to pay the theory on, obviously a lot of people lost a lot of money because of what she did. Now,

You could argue the venture capitalists were a little sloppy in terms of trying to back up her science as well. But clearly she lied and people lost money and ultimately she went to jail for it. People sometimes succeed in spite of doing that. But it is...

It is problematic. There's a good scene in Tucker, in the movie Tucker, again, a movie I highly recommend, Francis Ford Coppola, about the Tucker Auto Company, where he does something similar, where he, the car is not really functional yet, but he presents it, you know, he brings up the curtain and, you know, presents it as if it's functional.

And, you know, Tucker suffers consequences. There are consequences to all of that. So I don't think it's a good strategy in life in any respect. I don't think it's a good strategy in business. It's not a good strategy for raising money. And, you know, to the extent that people actually do it, I think there are real consequences to it, among others,

difficulty in raising money in the future for other projects because people realize you lied before and you might be lying now and how do you differentiate uh so yeah i i would be against it i think honesty is a principle and you have to run it through and sometimes sometimes it's hard because you know you can do it but you can't yet prove that you can do it so you have to find other ways to convince people that you can indeed do it without lying to them all right thanks alejandro uh robert

You took a moment to unmute there. Yeah, the only question that comes to mind, because it's political and the news and you've got all that covered. I was curious, and this may have been asked of you once before, but I can't remember. If something happened where you couldn't do what you do for a living anymore, say your vocal cords got weak and you couldn't speak for more than a half an hour at a time or something, what else would you do for a living if you had to choose another profession? Hmm.

I could always do stuff in finance. I could retire. Amy, what else could I do? I could write instead of speak, although I don't like writing. Yeah, I mean, there's a ton to do. Yeah, I mean, ultimately, I would write instead of speak. I would find ways to communicate through writing instead of through speaking. I'd still want to engage in the same stuff. And if I couldn't do that,

You know, I could always, I could revert to doing something in finance where I didn't have to speak. Okay. I was curious because I was listening to Jean Maroney, one of her old talks where she mentioned, you know, central purpose, people kind of get distracted.

stuck trying to figure out their central purpose, what I want to do for the rest of my life. And she said, well, no, you got to revisit that central purpose might change every 10, 15 years. I mean, I've had five, six careers. So I I've had many different central purposes. So, uh, my history affirms that. I mean, I was, I, I, I, I've been a professional student. I've been a civil engineer, a construction manager. Uh, I've been a professor, a finance professor, uh,

I've been the CEO of a, of a, of a diamond Institute of being a public intellectual. So yeah, I mean, I've, I've had lots of different central purposes and, and I, I've had, I've usually had more than one job at a time. It's rare that very rare in my life that I've only been done one thing. Now I don't recommend that necessarily. I think having a central purpose and really focusing on one thing is important, but,

But again, it's not the end of the world if you don't. And if you juggle more than one or if you switch them over time. So I tell people, forget about this idea that you have to pick now for the rest of your life. Pick now for the next few years. Take a shot at it. If it doesn't work, switch. There are lots of things you could be doing in life. Lots and lots and lots of things. And I enjoyed every one of them. I enjoyed being a civil engineer. Civil engineering was fun.

You get to build stuff. It's amazing. And being a professor is fun. And running a hedge fund is fun. I did that too. That was also a career, right? So...

You know, I did art supply for a while too. I did art supply. You know, we just, we sold out. So yeah, I mean, don't limit yourself. Don't limit yourself. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think, you know, your advice about risk tolerance has been, I hope it's been as valuable for everyone as it has been for me and thinking about that because it's, it's a missing element for a lot of folks. I think so. And I think we're talking about you and she ever, we talking about,

kids crossing the street by themselves and stuff like that. And part of learning how to deal with risk is at a young age, having the independence to take on some risks. I mean, I did stuff when I was a kid that I know I would be horrified if my kids did. And I feel bad about that because I shouldn't, but I do. And, you know, it's better that parents don't know. I mean, to this day, I tell my parents things that I did as a young kid or as a teenager, and they're horrified by what I did.

But they didn't know, which is good. It's better that they didn't know. I mean, all kinds of stuff, you know, from climbing, you know, walls I shouldn't have been climbing and jumping off of stuff and all the way to driving like a maniac on the beach. I don't know. So all kinds of things. So, yeah.

Well, that's a good reminder, too, that honesty usually, but not always, demands that you offer information, that you volunteer. That's right. That's right. Yeah. You don't have to tell them everything. Yeah. There's absolutely no reason, particularly when you're growing up. Your parents don't have to know everything you've done. It's better they don't in many, many circumstances. Excellent. Thanks for that. Looking forward to Boston. Sounds good. Me too.

All right, let's see. I think we covered everybody in the panel. So let's do... No, you haven't. Did I skip you, Adam? Yes. On the second round? No, I thought it was the third round already. I haven't got the third round yet. We'll do a third round after I do these four questions in the Super Chat. Okay, Observateur Persch.

Can someone promote an evil individual monetary politically? Can someone promote an evil individual monetarily, politically, et cetera, without being complicit in the evilness? Sorry for choosing a French alias to protect my personal identity. I'll consider changing it in the future. Thanks for your insights. Don't change it because of me. Can somebody promote an evil individual monetarily?

without being complicit in the evil, yes, if they're doing it innocently, that is, if they didn't realize they were evil, if they didn't know it was evil, if they honestly looked at who it was, they did the investigation. Because if you promote somebody, here's the important thing. If you promote somebody monetarily, politically, et cetera, it's incumbent upon you to devote the time and resources and effort to

to figure out if they're evil or not, because you don't want to be promoting evil. But if you do that, and you come to the conclusion, mistakenly, that they're not evil, and then when you discover that they are, you condemn them and walk away, then I would say, no, I don't think that makes you evil necessarily. But to the extent that you do the research and you evade when you do the research, that is, you pretend that they're not evil when they really are,

To that extent, you are complicit in the evil. And in that extent, you are being immoral. So, again, determining whether somebody is being immoral or not, which means complicit in somebody's evil or not, really depends on ability to tell whether they evade it or not. Now, take, for example, the example of Musk and Trump.

Hello, it is Ryan, and we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we? Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff. That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino-style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere, with daily bonuses. So sign up now at chumbacasino.com.

That's ChumbaCasino.com. No purchase necessary. VGW group void where prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply. Trump's evil, Trump's irrationality and immorality is, I think, so obvious. So, you know, that to devote the kind of, it's not about voting for him. You could still vote for him. But to devote the kind of efforts and resources and partnership and all of that

and evade what's obvious. And the reality is, if, you know, to my satisfaction, Musk has not come clean yet. So I can imagine the circumstances where the answer is, where the answer is, you can be innocent. I don't think you can be innocent with regard to somebody like Trump.

OK, same observateur. Do you think Trump cares about how his actions harm or hurt others? Aside from pragmatic self-preservation, if Trump doesn't morally care about how he hurts others, wouldn't he be conceptual evil? Yeah, I don't think he cares about how his actions hurt other people. I don't think he cares one iota. I don't think he cares two.

Whether people die because of what he does or whether they go to jail for the rest of their lives or whether he just ruins their lives where they are. I think he is evil in that sense. And it's all about pragmatic, you know, it's not even self-preservation. It's what are the people I care about think of me? That's what he cares about. He cares about appeasing his emotion, but he does not care about other people.

At all. And as a politician, I don't know what he was like personally, but as a politician, you can see it in just the way he just treats the death of individuals, the destruction of their lives, sending them to an El Salvadorian prison for the rest of their life. He really doesn't care. He really doesn't care. And he doesn't express any sentiment of caring, right? Any idea of caring. You just do what you have to do.

All right, Michael, thoughts on day trading. I know a few people who saved up enough to quit their day jobs and day trade full time living. Is it legitimate if you know what you're doing or does it always amount to gambling? I mean, no, I don't think it always amounts to gambling, but I think most people don't know what they're doing. I think you can get lucky for a while and think you know what you're doing. But I think most day traders, an overwhelming majority of day traders are

don't know what they're doing and will ultimately lose the money that they've saved and ultimately lose in the marketplace. There are some that are very talented, are very able and can pull it off and can do it. But it's rare.

to be able to trade in the marketplace against, because you're trading opposite people who are much more knowledgeable, have a lot more money, have a lot more resources, have developed and spent their entire career on this. It's rare that somebody can outwit those guys, but it's not impossible. Some people do. Some people do. So for most people, it's gambling and gamblers get lucky and gamblers can make a lot of money gambling.

For most people, it's gambling. Overwhelming majority of people, it's gambling. The rest, they have a special skill, but that's very, very rare. Shazbot, I was looking for New York stock market, but here is another $20 for Mary Ben's answer. So close. I didn't see Emmett's answer. Yeah, his answer is in the chat of the live show. All right, let's do another round. We'll make this a quick one.

So this is the third round. We'll start with Jennifer. Okay. Let me just say, when I was a kid, I used to crawl in the winter. When the creek would freeze, I'd crawl on the ice on my belly, like through the drain pipes and stuff. That was pretty crazy. Anyway, my question is about being a Luddite. You know how people are often Luddites? Yep.

And do you think it's because, I mean, if you're acting, if you're not thinking and you're reacting like an animal, animals are afraid, you know, like even parrots, like the smartest of animals, they're afraid of a new toy or something, you know. Do you think it's more that or just because they're lazy and now they have to learn how to drive a car when before they didn't have to worry about it? It's a combination of all of the above. I think at the base of it is,

You know, people who are at the perceptual level who don't reach, who don't achieve the conceptual level consistently. Newness causes fear. And I think that drives much of this. It's, I mean, if you don't get the win-win nature of trade, trade can cause you fear. The winners and losers. I don't want to be the loser, right?

And so the perceptual level mentality, which Iron Man talks about, is a cause for a lot of the issues that we have today and a lot of the attitudes people have today. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, Jennifer. Emmett?

Well, as Robert alluded to, Boston is coming up awfully fast. And I'm wondering if you can give us any sneak previews. And I know that the Ayn Rand Institute is a sponsor of the Euron Brook show. So I didn't know if you had anything going on. And of course, I'm practicing to be the guinea pig for Diane for the East Coast swing that's coming up. So I'll give a plug to that. That's going to be on the agenda. Yeah, I mean, I am in the dark. I have no idea what's happening at the Ocon. Yeah.

I know I'm giving a talk opening night. Like they've got me giving a talk at 9 PM after everybody's had some booze. So I was wondering about that. I don't exactly know how this is going to work. I'm also going to be tired because I've got a board meeting all day that day. So I, the whole thing is a little shaky, but, uh, I will be giving a talk on, you know, and it's not light height. It's not a light hearted talk, giving a talk on the nature of Western civilization. Um,

So that'll be fun, I guess. I think I know what I'm going to say, but I'm working on that, among other things. There will be poker. Poker is always a highlight socially.

So that's exciting. You know, one of these days I need to win the tournament to have bragging rights. I made it to the final three people, I think, last time or something like that. But I made it to the final table in two of the three years. And the one year I didn't, I made it to the second to final table. So I've done well. And there's always a big group that hangs out and stays late to watch the poker. So definitely if you're coming to Ocon, do that.

Uh, there is, um, there's a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a

I don't know. I mean, I'm looking at the program. I've seen a bunch of the talks that are going to be delivered because I've given feedback on a bunch of the talks primarily by the junior fellows. You're going to see a lot of new faces. A lot of the kind of junior up and coming intellectuals are giving talks, a lot of new material. So that's going to be fun. So they're doing like a TED talk thing where it'll be 20 minutes, three speakers, each has 18 minutes to give a presentation.

And so you'll be exposed to a lot of people, a lot of talks, a lot of content. Those are going to be fun. I think it's the first year we're doing that. Yeah. And again, Boston is a great place to be in the 4th of July. There's a lot going on in the city. Fireworks are fantastic. You know, so make plans for the 4th of July and make sure that you're taking advantage of the fact you're in Boston. If people can arrive a day or two early or stay a day or two late,

you know, do their kind of what it calls the Liberty Trail or whatever it's called, where you go to Lexington and Concord. Freedom Trail. Freedom Trail. It's really fun. It's really good. There's some good sculptures on the way. Daniel Chester French has the sculptures of the Minutemen, which are really good, really good. If you actually have time and want to go to Western Massachusetts, Daniel Chester French has a

His workshop where he did the sculptures is kind of a little museum for his work, and he's one of the – maybe the greatest American sculptor. Maybe. I'm not sure, but he's up there, top three for sure. He did the Lincoln Monument. Lincoln Monument is Daniel Chester French in Washington, D.C. But he has some beautiful, beautiful works out at that museum. Anyway, Boston's a great place. The art museums in Boston are really good.

There are two of them. There's the Boston Fine Arts Museum, and then there's the something, something. There's this collection named after a woman, I think. Anyway, look it up, art museums, and it's great. That one has a lot of Sargent paintings, paintings by the 19th century, early 20th century painter, American painter Sargent, who was excellent. So there's a lot of good art. There's a young Columbus painting.

at the Boston Fine Art Museum, a little sculpture of Columbus sitting in the wharf as a boy looking out into the distance. It is wonderful, just a wonderful sculpture. Anyway, lots to do in Boston. It's a good city. And the beauty of it is, of course, that it's summer. You don't have to dredge through the sludge and ugliness of Boston.

All right. Thanks, Evan. And if you want to attend and you want a discount, 25YBS10 is the discount code for people listening to you on Bookshop. Adam.

Hello, it is Ryan. And we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we? Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff. That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere with daily bonuses. So sign up now at chumbacasino.com.

That's ChumbaCasino.com. No purchase necessary. VGW group void where prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply. Yes, you often mention a transition immigration policy where anyone with a job offer would be offered immigration.

Poland tried that for several years, and some of its consuls set up companies in Poland, shell companies whose only function was to give phony job offers to people who had bribed the consul in question and got visas.

and I understand the total number of visas issued in this way was about 300,000. Most of the immigrants who had bribed consuls once they arrived in Poland and found out there's no welfare moved on to Germany, but at least one actually complained to the police because he spent his lifetime savings in Swaziland

bribing the consul. And once the investigation started, those consuls absconded and are still claiming diplomatic immunity from extradition. And so far, only one of them has been extradited back to Poland. Yes, I wouldn't use consuls. I would use employment agencies.

which would have a reputation and, and you know, they would be employment agencies that work with large companies and small companies or whatever. And then I would have a law that says they can't get welfare. So if they show up under false pretense, not a real job offer, they won't get welfare. They can't go to Germany from the U S so there's no way for them to go. So they'd have to go back home. So I, I still think it's a workable model and,

I think it's workable for Poland. They just have to clean it up and get rid of the fraud. But it seems like it should work for any country. The difference is that in the EU, once you arrive in Poland, you can go anywhere. And there are some countries out there in the EU giving you welfare just for showing up, like Germany. And it used to be Sweden. Sweden doesn't do that anymore. But Germany, I think, still does.

So you have to clean up the welfare state as well, particularly in Europe. In the U.S., it's less of a problem. We give less welfare to immigrants than the Europeans do. Thanks, Adam. Matthew? Yeah, I think it's in Christianity where they have a line about the meek inheriting the earth. I guess I don't understand that. What's the context there? I

Isn't heaven supposed to be the goal? Isn't that a punishment to inherit the earth? And isn't that materialistic? Yeah, I mean, you're trying to be consistent. That's not what religion is about. I mean, ultimately, the idea is that in spite of their meekness, you know, I don't think inherit the earth means...

They're going to dominate or they're going to win in the world. They're going to win in the end. And, you know, and the end, of course, is heaven. They will, you know, as far as I know, I don't think the intention there is that in reality they will become, they will dominate and they will become rich or whatever. I think it's more pay attention to them because they're important. You know, you're rich.

Your morality is going to be dependent on how you treat these people. And therefore, you need to pay attention to them. You need to sacrifice to them. You need to give them stuff so that they can, because they are the ones worthy in a sense of inheriting the earth. They might not inherit the earth, but they're the ones who are ultimately worthy. There's another saying somewhere about

the worthiness of the poor, right? And Mother Teresa always quoted that. You know, the poor are virtuous by the fact that they're poor. And, you know, that's part of this idea of inheriting the earth, right? I don't think it's literal. It's a metaphor. It's not literal that they will actually be successful or should be successful. All right. Thank you. Sure. Amlan, where is he? There he is. Amlan. Yeah.

So just a very quick, lighthearted thing. So you've said before several times that people in Israel drive quite aggressively. Yeah. Admittedly, only on a couple of weeks of driving in Israel, I actually found them pretty boring. Oh, were you in Tel Aviv?

I was in Tel Aviv, yes, among other places. I was actually expecting more of a European style of driving and unfortunately it seemed to be more North American, like slow and not moving. I don't know. I was just there last week and it was terrible. Okay, I'm going to have to go back then. It was like Italians but without the skill. That's the way I view them. They're aggressive without the skill and

To avoid accidents. You have a lot of accidents in Israel. Okay, okay, fair enough. I will have to do another experiment on this one. Maybe they've mellowed. Maybe I'm not noticing. Maybe I've mellowed and they've mellowed too or something. I don't know. No, mine was a few years ago now. It's possible it's gotten worse. Yep. Take care. Okay, thanks. Let's see. Who haven't we done? Alejandro.

Hello, so I guess following up on the honesty question, obviously if someone's threatening you with violence, it's okay to lie, right? Like if you're hiding an escaped slave or hiding a Jewish person or something like that. But what is the morality of lying to escape irrationality that's not physical violence? So for example...

I don't know if someone discriminates against someone for being Jewish or something like, and they ask you, are you Jewish? Like, would it be okay to say, no, I'm not like, it's not physical violence, but it's more like a, like lying to avoid irrationality. Yeah. I think, I think if somebody, if somebody is clearly rational, if somebody is trying to get a value from you that they don't deserve, or if somebody is, um, you know, uh, uh,

butting into business that is not theirs, I think it's appropriate to lie, assuming the lie is not doing the reverse in a sense of providing you with the value. So you don't automatically owe people the truth or information. There are certainly circumstances where the appropriate response is none of your business. That's probably better than lying. But there are some circumstances where you can't do that. But, yeah, to escape lies,

Complete irrationality to escape crazy people, to escape, yeah, I mean, lying can be appropriate. You have to be careful to be sure that that's what's going on, that you're not using that as an excuse to lie, right? But yeah, if somebody's going to discriminate against me because I'm Jewish and I don't owe them that information, and if I have to answer, then lying, I think, is appropriate.

If I know somebody is going to behave in an irrational way to avoid that, I think lying can be appropriate. But again, beware, you know, because I think people use that. I'm not suggesting it's subjective and way open to interpretation. All right. We have a few Super Chat questions. Observateur Pirsch has a number more. Thank you again for all these $50 questions. This is great.

Um, he writes no question, just adding to the potential of discretionary fund. I appreciate that, uh, for wine purchasing. Personally, I have PTSD and alcohol in moderation is more acceptable than pills. Yeah. Uh, thanks for you being you honestly. I appreciate that. Thank you. And then he says, then his second question is what makes you happy? I mean, a lot of things make me happy. Um,

You know, giving a great lecture, doing a good show, you know, hanging out with my wife and my son, just being alive sometimes. That's enough, right? Being alive and being able to appreciate all the beauty around me. So beauty makes me happy, you know, beautiful art,

you know, going to amazing places, eating great food. I guess what makes me happy is achieving my values at the end of the day. It's achieving my values. So, and those values are all kinds and all over the place. And, you know, not all are equal in terms of the kind of happiness they produce, but they're all necessary for the achievement of happiness.

Hello, it is Ryan, and we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we? Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff. That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino-style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere, with daily bonuses. So sign up now at chumbacasino.com.

That's ChumbaCasino.com. No purchase necessary. VGW group void where prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply. Thanks. Thanks for the questions. All right, let's go through a few of these. Michael says, is the truth not for everyone, only for those who seek it? I don't know what that means exactly, but the truth is for everyone, whether they know it or not. But the truth is for everyone. The alternative is to live a lie, and that's to live wrong.

you know, closer to death in the direction of death. Michael says, any plans on going on destiny show soon? Your next interaction with him should be a lot more interesting since he'll be willing to engage in what you disagree with. I mean, I'll try. Um, I need to come up with a good topic that he might find interesting. Uh, so we'll wait and see what's going on in the world. I'm super busy right now with preparing for the Jordan Peterson, um, courses and for Ocon. Um,

So it will probably be, so I'm not sure exactly when it will happen. Maybe in July sometime. Michael, what was the talk Alex Epstein just gave in Alaska? I don't know the details. You can find it online. I saw just a bit of it. I think it was a talk to some energy conference about why solar and wind and his defense of fossil fuels, some kind of talk like that, and why solar and wind are not

are not solutions, are not good energy sources, why they're problematic, particularly in the world right now. Stupkowski, even in a voluntary consent, consensual context, private orgs should not engage in paternalism and individuals should not seek out service, such services out, agree or disagree. I don't know what you mean by paternalism. I don't know what that means. Should, um,

Insurance companies tell you that you'll get a lower premium if you exercise. Yeah. Is that paternalistic? I don't think so. I mean, it is in a sense. It's telling you how to live, but it's giving you a financial incentive to do so. And it's in the insurance company's incentive to do so. So I don't know. It depends what you mean by paternalistic. I'm not sure exactly what is meant by that. Giving people advice about how to live better. Yeah, it's a good thing. Why not? Why not?

Helping them live better, providing incentives for people to live better. Yeah, I think companies have an incentive to do that, and they should do it, as long as it's voluntary. Robert says, I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun. Catherine Hepburn, okay, that's going a little far and assumes virtue and values, but I totally feel that. Yeah, there's something right about that, right? If you fully understand what being means. Living as a human being is fun.

Living as a human being is fun. All right, guys. Thank you, everybody. Really appreciate everybody on the panel. Thanks for your support. Thanks for the questions. Thanks to all the super chatters, particularly Observateur Pirsch and Michael, who asked almost all the questions. Here's another one by Michael. Are people passive-aggressive because we are perceived to live on a zero-sum world? Being direct, open, and honest is not regarded as an effective strategy.

You know, I think there are a lot of reasons why people might be passive aggressive in that sense. One of it might be that they perceive the world as a zero sum. Lack of self-esteem could be another. Lack of confidence that comes with self-esteem. Lack of self-assuredness that comes with self-esteem. So there might be multiple causes of it, but certainly believing that they're winners and losers and everything's zero sum is a big part of it or could be a big part of it.

Thank you, Michael. All right, guys, I'm probably going to do a show tomorrow, I think, on the rise of Catholicism. Catholicism is big these days. A lot of people converting to Catholicism, particularly young men, are turning Catholic. So we'll talk about that. I've got some data and an interesting news story. And maybe I'll include Jordan Peterson's engagement with the atheists, maybe some clips on that. We'll see.

But I'm thinking of doing that tomorrow. So we will do that. I will see you all then. If not, then Monday. Bye, everybody. Have a great rest of your weekend. Bye. Bye, Iran. Bye, Jennifer. Whoops.

Step into the world of power, loyalty, and luck. I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse. With family, cannolis, and spins mean everything. Now, you want to get mixed up in the family business. Introducing the Godfather at ChapaCasino.com.

Test your luck in the shadowy world of The Godfather Slot. Someday, I will call upon you to do a service for me. Play The Godfather, now at Chumpacasino.com. Welcome to the family. No purchase necessary. VGW group void where prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply.