Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh - Russell Brand Reaches ENLIGHTENMENT

Episode Date: August 30, 2022

Russell Brand came to the London studio to discuss Nirvana (The place not the band), destroying rude news people, and mans search for freedom. INDULGE! 00:00 - Start 00:55 - Support animal and Dressi...ng like Randy Savage 03:05 - Russell being Andrew’s first YouTube obsession 10:03 - Understanding addiction’s origins in all of us 15:37 - “Waking up” to your own issues 24:51 - Russell’s tactics for media appearances 28:28 - We all want and don’t want Russel to run for President 36:10 - Russell loves dressing up like famous Arab leaders… 37:38 - People want the simplest of things… freedom 50:02 - I can’t give up toilet paper to help poor people 56:12 - Power of Burning Man: potential of true altruism 01:09:25 - Channelling the God within all

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 What's up everybody and welcome to Flagrant and today we are joined by the brilliant, the glamorous, the Flagrant one himself, we have Russell Brand in the motherfucking building. Thanks. We're honored. Thank you. I hope that, you know, you've not brought me here to come up and annihilate me. That's why I came in camouflage. All reality is held within your consciousness. There is nothing that you are aware of that you do not know about whether it's the big bang or the dinosaurs or political assassinations or quantum physics all of that exists within your individual awareness that is anticipated in all of the great ideologies in islam in christianity in buddhism they tell you this it's an illusion
Starting point is 00:00:42 but you have to participate as if it is real you have to find the beauty in it you are creating reality while you are living it you are God thank you can I say something to you real quick
Starting point is 00:00:53 up front yeah go on hi this is also Bear we have Bear here hi Bear good boy why don't you cooperate it's meant to be
Starting point is 00:01:00 an emotional support animal you know what it is but I got like I went to the doctors and got an emotional support animal card and you have to support I got like I went to the doctors and got an emotional support animal card and you have to support him every day
Starting point is 00:01:07 it's an unrelenting support that you require I double bluffed myself though because like I went to get the dog so that I could take him places but then I realised when I can't take him places
Starting point is 00:01:16 I'm antagonised by it and like it freaks me out so I've actually do require that's how I found out you need another dog you can take now I need two dogs
Starting point is 00:01:25 so big to take anywhere like you can't fly with this guy it makes you nervous yeah you gotta run a private jet he's just sliding around it's gonna be a whole thing he's scampering about the place you'd be better off with a terrorist at least there's a chance because they say you can't negotiate
Starting point is 00:01:42 with terrorists but you actually can yeah just give him a treat that's what you have to do what are your needs what is the historic problem that you're trying to address otherwise what's going to happen cycle of violence they're perpetuating
Starting point is 00:01:53 a cycle of violence right so am I getting emotional support terrorist I don't know as far as but like what if he don't cooperate
Starting point is 00:02:00 listen I've got doubts about the outfit I'll tell you now. It's one of those things, I put it on and I felt confidence, then I see myself in the wing mirror in my car, and I thought, you look like Randy Savage. You know, the wrestler. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:12 We know. I keep doing that. I keep dressing, thinking I'm looking cool, but I'm always a wrestler. And then you just snap into a slim jim. No, this fit is fire. Yeah, I like the fit. I love it.
Starting point is 00:02:20 I'll take that. I see it's closed. Yeah, you got black American approval right now. Thank you, black America. So sorry for the colonial history. I apologize. I'm going to look at the floor until you say it's okay for me
Starting point is 00:02:32 to look up. You're good. We could have another conversation. That whole continent. Schultz, Dutch, fine. Talk to me. European. I think, yeah,
Starting point is 00:02:44 it's probably German. Prussian actually well he's actually Scottish you should apologise to me to whom everybody Germany
Starting point is 00:02:50 they made it when they didn't start it they exacerbated it have you seen that Doug Stanhope joke go on he goes he goes
Starting point is 00:02:57 you know what Germany did London a favour by blowing it up and they rebuilt it the same way that's funny man that brilliant man you were my first YouTube wormhole oh nice one blown it up and they rebuilt it the same way. That's fun. Man, that brilliant man.
Starting point is 00:03:07 You were my first YouTube wormhole. Oh, nice one. Thank you very much, I think. That's a compliment. That is a compliment. Yeah. I forget which special you were touring in the States, but you came and you did all these like interviews on like morning shows, daytime talk shows.
Starting point is 00:03:20 I think it was Messiah Complex. Was it? Okay, it was Messiah Complex. Yeah, yeah. And it was so interesting because like you were known enough where you were touring but some of these people that did like daytime tv and shit they don't know who you are right yeah i remember that and yeah yeah yeah it felt like they were rude but this is this is what was beautiful about it you would come in and they were kind of like
Starting point is 00:03:41 they didn't really take you seriously that much. And then you would fucking steamroll these people. Oh, you're very good at that. It was so fucking satisfying to watch. They would go, they'd judge you by the shit that you wore. And you did lean into it. You wore some wild shit. And they thought you were like this rock star dude, whatever. You didn't take anything seriously.
Starting point is 00:04:00 And then you would fucking pummel these people, charm the chicks. You're flirting with the guy even. And the guy's like, what's going on? He's crazy straight. And then you're fucking pummel these people, charm the chicks. You're flirting with the guy even. And the guy's like, what's going on? If he gays, he's straight. And then you're flirting with the girl. And like everybody's just caught in this fucking whirlwind. And then you're out. And I went on this and it was just like one video after another and after another.
Starting point is 00:04:15 And I remember going, it was the first time that I saw somebody propel themselves to superstardom without a media complex, even though you were within industry. I didn't, you didn't become famous to me from industry. That's cool. YouTube popped. And then I was like, this guy's an FX show. This guy's a standup thing.
Starting point is 00:04:36 Do you know what I'm saying? And now that's how people become successful. That's brilliant. That's good. Cause that means, I think in an indirect way, very indirect, cause it doesn't seem you're explicitly saying it at all. You're giving me some, if not all of the credit for your
Starting point is 00:04:48 rise well done well done my mighty prodigy i thought he was gonna say for for your own rise and i was like yeah yeah yeah and then you took it away i want to pay credit for stuff i'm not connected to at all. That's smart. Although if you think of the British Empire, though, that's sort of what we do. Yeah, it's on brand. It's on brand for the whole empire.
Starting point is 00:05:12 Yeah, exactly. Nice. On brand. Yeah. Now, did you go to America going, I'm going to do this. This is easy. No. Look, when I first came famous, i was doing movies and all that kind of
Starting point is 00:05:25 thing in your country and like i was really excited about it i've been famous in this country where we are now england ah your majesty like i've been famous here a couple of years when i went out there i weren't sure what to expect but it's the sort of it's the car of our culture so i wanted to sort of succeed there this is the moment remember most. They got me that gig hosting the MTV VMA Awards and at that time in your country, George Bush was president. I said to him, oh, you've got that cowboy fella in charge of your country,
Starting point is 00:05:54 that's very good to give back to the mentally ill because in our country, you wouldn't be trusted with a pair of scissors, right? And I was very pleased with myself and I made some jokes about the Jonas Brothers and all of that. Oh, they wear those virginity rings. I didn't know they wore them on their cocks
Starting point is 00:06:05 and all this stuff next day the death threats was flooding in death threats proper death threats and like it was weird because we'd had this party to celebrate
Starting point is 00:06:14 that I was doing these VMAs and the room was filled with helium balloons and by the time I got home they were you know when a balloon
Starting point is 00:06:21 is hanging at half height you know like just hovering like the party's over baby and I was just like looking at I was googling my own name and that's when I
Starting point is 00:06:28 infatuated my phone and like it was like I'd become like one of the most googled things in the world you know when that sort of thing happens no but it was not good news
Starting point is 00:06:35 it happened you keep up with that terrorist shit it's coming it's coming like and like but it was not good news and my agent I was with WME
Starting point is 00:06:44 like he goes well Russell you wanted everybody in America to know who you are and now they do and they don't like you coming. But it was not good news. And my agent, I was with WME, he goes, well, Russell, you wanted everybody in America to know who you are and now they do and they don't like you. Pretty heavy diss.
Starting point is 00:06:52 And that was the guy who was on 15% of that shit. So I came, I didn't, I came adoring American culture as much as,
Starting point is 00:07:01 you know, we're all aware of what the sort of corporate and financial aspects of American culture and how that sort of contributes to problems that all of us are experiencing at the corporate and financial aspects of American culture and how that contributes to problems that all of us are experiencing at the moment.
Starting point is 00:07:07 But still, the front of house shit is amazing. And we all want a little bit of a part of it. What do you adore about it? I think some of the greatest geniuses of contemporary art have emerged out of America. The thing that you and I do, the folk artists, like stand-up comedy, the best practitioners of it, with a few notable exceptions,
Starting point is 00:07:26 come out of the United States. The musical legacy, what's emerged from that culture, it's created things that are... Before it, there's this sort of aristocratic, jaded cultures. This is like the sort of birth of a different type of hustler intensity, true melting point point a true global society i mean the tragedy is it seems to me that it has become corporatized like no culture ever
Starting point is 00:07:51 before that everything whether you look at sport or music or comedy everything is commodity and i think that the area that like you know we if i may say are working in now is an attempt at least to have a new frontierism a new pioneering spirit to operate in a place that ain't been fully yeah to check it yeah yeah synced yeah
Starting point is 00:08:08 two syllables you took the wind out of his sails he was going and then he was like you just said that shit fuck you but you know
Starting point is 00:08:18 you've got to have different meters ain't you you've got to have a rhythm section can't all be guitar solos exactly he hit you with a ba dum bum and then he just alright number two right man Beatles, ain't ya? Gotta have a rhythm section. Can't all be guitar solos.
Starting point is 00:08:25 He's doing the ba-dum-bum-tsh. And then he just, all right, well, here you go. No, but you're right, man. It is a cool way to... Yeah, I wonder if... Hmm. If the goal is to say
Starting point is 00:08:36 the exact thing that you want to say and how you want to say it. Yeah. You can't do it within a corporate system because they have to answer to too many people, probably.
Starting point is 00:08:44 Yeah. Right? And if the exact thing that you want to say isn't going to be acceptable to the masses within a corporate system because they have to answer to too many people probably. Right? And if the exact thing that you want to say isn't going to be acceptable to the masses that are consuming that corporation's content, then you only have one other option, right? I think you're operating at a really interesting place with what you did with your special and all that. And I see when Louis came on and like you sort of talked about, like I was aware that he was doing stuff like that a little while ago.
Starting point is 00:09:05 And like, I've, I think this is how we're going to operate now. Like they call it, don't they? I guess you lot are all, there'll be members of your team that are across it. I'm trying to scan who they will be.
Starting point is 00:09:13 Cause they all look, is it you mate? Like things like internet free and that, like, it's like now we will deal directly with our audience. Cause like for me, it's amazing to go through something like that, a studio system movie movie to do a movie
Starting point is 00:09:26 that's been made by a big studio they take you in a room and like there's all posters of your face which poster do you think of your face is the best one I do
Starting point is 00:09:33 know I like them all all these posters of my face it's so it makes you kind of delirious and mental but as a friend of mine who's like a film star he said he
Starting point is 00:09:42 goes you realize in the end that all of that stuff, the billboards on Sunset, that's just an inadvertent symptom of someone else making money off you. That's all that is. But like sweet little narcissists that we are, we think, I'm important. I'll show them I'm not a tubby little boy anymore. But you are. Is that what you're trying to get over? The childhood obesity?
Starting point is 00:10:05 Who would come to a fucking interview in this dressing gown unless they were a fat child? No one! You wouldn't come in an house coat. In a sex worker's lingerie. Yeah, I didn't know about men having eating disorders until you. Another area where I was at the forefront.
Starting point is 00:10:32 Also pioneered. Pioneering those men's eating disorders. Hold on, hold on. This is, I think, you taking Indian culture again. No, no, it's bulimia, not anorexia. Yeah, but still, your eating disorder. We're not throwing out food we paid for. Are you crazy?
Starting point is 00:10:44 That's fair enough. Fucking fair enough. You just said eating disorder, the umbrella. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was bulimia, not anorexia. Yeah, but still, your eating disorder... We're not selling out food we paid for, are you crazy? That's fair enough. Fucking fair enough. You just said eating disorder, the umbrella. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bulimia specifically, though. Got you. Beneath the umbrella.
Starting point is 00:10:51 I understand more than anorexia because at least you get to taste it. Yeah, but you've got to vomit. That's a whole... I mean, you can speak to it better than we can, but that seems awful. If you've brought me in here
Starting point is 00:11:00 as a vomiting consultant, after all this flattery, I'm like, yeah, I did like, with that addiction modality. We've got to butter you up a little. Say some nice stuff. I'm brilliant. I watched all your interviews.
Starting point is 00:11:13 You are brilliant. How many fingers does it take? Not too much butter. You also can speak about vomiting in a way that I can. Let's get into it. Now, like I reckon the sort of, that model of addiction
Starting point is 00:11:23 is a very useful model. I feel like, see, I'm a 12-step person. That's how I stay clean from the old drinking drugs now. Once you look at how your addiction issues began, there's a sort of a biographical component where you go through your past, you look at how you was as a kid. So retrospectively, I can recognise that. The way I was eating chocolate when I was a little kid,
Starting point is 00:11:40 the way I was watching TV when I was a little kid. All them things are the tendencies of addiction and as soon as you find the appropriate object or an effective object like smack, like heroin in your country and crack,
Starting point is 00:11:54 I think that's a ubiquitous term. Cracks have been globally branded. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've accepted that. Their agent's amazing. Yeah, we all accept it fully. Like those things, they are a shortcut, the shortest gap between two dots.
Starting point is 00:12:08 But like their behavior and the tendency is already latent and present. You can sort of see it in all sorts of things. So I reckon that eating disorders, even though they're more complex in some ways because food is life-giving, and anorexia seems like a bizarre and awful reversal of the process of nurture.
Starting point is 00:12:24 I heard an anorexic person's parents say that once. It's as if they're undoing and reversing all of the things that we gave them, all of the food and the care and the love is being undone. It's fucked up as a novel. But yeah, the bulimia thing, I reckon when I was in treatment, in the first couple of days that I was in treatment, I was on a drug called Subutex, a sublincal opiate blocker that helps you come off of heroin.
Starting point is 00:12:46 And on the first night there, there was a packet of biscuits in my room and I ate all them biscuits and puked them up. And I thought, fucking, that's really weird that I've done that. And I remember that I'd not done it since I was about 14, 15, which was when I started to use drugs addictively.
Starting point is 00:12:58 So in a sense, we're all looking for an expression of something, which is why another little note within the rubric of addiction philosophy is that the genesis of addiction, longing, craving, yearning, is a very powerful force and can be directed to something.
Starting point is 00:13:14 What is drive? What is yearning? What is longing? It can be, if you live in a culture that will direct it, it's a very, very powerful force, very, very powerful source. Go on, undercut it.
Starting point is 00:13:23 Undercut it. Do the undercut.. Do the undercut. Do the fucking undercut. We'll get to that. I have a question to add on first. Because obviously what I need is caffeine.
Starting point is 00:13:35 Thank you. Go, go, go. What were you, was it society that you were craving something from
Starting point is 00:13:40 or was it, usually it's like childhood stuff, so you say you're craving something. Have you identified what it was you were craving with the with this addiction i feel like akash that there is a sort of emptiness aloneness at the heart of us why did my pronunciation elicit laughter i think he thinks you're about to call me out on something which you might be i don't know i'm not i thought you were gonna call akash empty and And if you knew how much weight he has gained in the last few months,
Starting point is 00:14:06 he is anything but empty or hollow. It's marriage, you know? It fucking fills you up. It's comfort and love. It fills you up in every way. It stretches you out. Addiction is pain. Addiction begins with pain and addiction ends with pain.
Starting point is 00:14:16 And it probably, given what you're, the most basic, the most basic, I want to say palette of emotions are going to be familial I suppose so it's going to feel like a sense of loss or lack but I don't want that to sound like a critique of my own parents
Starting point is 00:14:33 not that I can imagine either of them watching this but I don't want them to God they've suffered enough don't take it the wrong way they're elderly people we're all undercutting now
Starting point is 00:14:42 it's a race to the bottom where will we end up um so i reckon yeah i suppose it's an emotional thing i mean that's the the treatment of addiction that i am familiar with is an attempt to address the underlying cause that is normally pain sense of low self-esteem worthlessness all things like that but i find these things to be pretty common among people outside of addiction as well and actually the solutions that recovery provide are effective for you know for people that don't have an explicit addiction because if you've had that bulimia i'm sure all of us have some sort of attachment something that we're using to hold ourselves together yeah and if you find something
Starting point is 00:15:18 that operates successfully within your culture then you're all right. You know, no one cares. Stand-up comedy. Stand-up comedy, making money, until latterly pursuit of consensual sexual relationships. All those kind of things were like, they're sanctioned. But it's only when you do stuff that fucks you up in an evident or criminal way
Starting point is 00:15:36 that it's a problem, isn't it? Okay, so you remove those things. But you need to find something to transfer that addiction to, I imagine. Yeah. Okay? You wake up, if you will.
Starting point is 00:15:49 Is that fair to say? It's exactly 100% accurate, Andrew, because the 12th step of the system of recovery I believe in is having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps. It's about awakening, the suggestion being that you were in some kind of stupor. Now, if it's alcohol or drugs, I suppose that's obvious. But we can all become spellbound through attachment. We can all find things to sort of hypnotize us.
Starting point is 00:16:14 And this awakening is, yeah, an awakening to the reality of who you are in both its beauty, but also in its trauma and its flaws. And what about an awakening to like what existence is? Yes, I suppose that would also be true, but tell me more what you mean. And how we fit within existence. I guess what I'm trying to say is like,
Starting point is 00:16:30 I have certain friends who have woken up, if you will, and they got there because they experienced some traumatic shit maybe as a child or throughout their life and they were incredibly depressed and sad. And then they distracted themselves with drugs or addiction and then realize that that drugs and addiction just continued to make them incredibly sad. And they were forced because it was either killing themselves or finding a way to live within this structure that we call life. And they were forced to like
Starting point is 00:16:58 analyze life in a different way and forced to like figure out what their maybe purpose is or if there is even a purpose but they were really forced into being awakened yes and sometimes those friends have tons of empathy for people who aren't awoken yet and sometimes they don't and my question to you is do you see someone who's not awake yet and go, well, maybe they don't need to wake up. Maybe they're not suffering in the way I was suffering that forced me to go through what I had to go through to wake up and figure out a way to basically continue living because it was death or this.
Starting point is 00:17:35 No, we must all awaken. This is what I've learned from it. I feel like I'm lucky to have had the journey that I had in terms of being a smackhead and a crackhead because those things are extreme enough to warrant intervention. At some point, you have to stop it. But I think what we're dealing with now are cultural modalities that keep us all sort of loosely numbed and distracted.
Starting point is 00:17:53 Like, I find it really hard to deal with drug addicts when I have to deal with them. Like, it really bugs me and annoys me. Sometimes maybe I'll... Part of my recovery is I have to, and it's wise that I do... Help others, right? Help the others. Oh, God, isn't it exhausting? Others. Not even them. part of my recovery is I have to and it's wise that I do help others oh god
Starting point is 00:18:05 isn't it exhausting others not even them you're not actually me and I've got this sort of care and you're still existing when I'm not there
Starting point is 00:18:14 and I've got to do stuff like so I like it when it's hardcore when they're proper like down on the streets lesion covered smack head needle out the arm
Starting point is 00:18:21 missing an eye oh I'm all over them oh I'm like Jesus Jesus if it was a WWFf version of jesus like i'm over there i'm helping a man's on not too close you know like giving them everything that's required and that yeah but like what about all people have unconscious tendencies if you're not doing what you're doing consciously you are likely doing it unconsciously sometimes we don't know our motive what our motivations are all these conflagrations inadvertent and irrelevant,
Starting point is 00:18:46 even in the quotidian, some skirmish in the street or in a parking lot. What is it really? What is it really when someone gets out their car ready to kill you because you cut them up in traffic?
Starting point is 00:18:57 First, my whole fucking life and now this and now this and like every single bit of pain. You're willing to express it all in that moment. So if you are awake, you are able to express it all in that moment so if you are awake you are able to observe oh look i'm becoming anxious now i'm afraid now if i come into
Starting point is 00:19:10 a situation like this like a sort of a very mal environment you are all strong gifted people i'm aware like i hope that you know you've not brought me here to fuck me up and annihilate me that's why i came in camouflage should have been required i could just slink off like a leopard but like but like uh you know like i'm stay conscious i stay conscious and then i operate on these principles if i in my heart i'm not trying to be mean to anybody i feel like i've got a contract like so if i come in and i start saying nasty shit then i feel god's got my back if i'm behaving properly that's what my life's shown me. Life has shown me. I ask that question more because I find it like when I'm interviewing somebody like you
Starting point is 00:19:51 who I obviously respect, but more so than that, I don't feel like I can bullshit you at all. So I'm very specific in the things that I'm asking you because I feel like you see bullshit. So sometimes bullshit is required for social lubrication yes right so we do it in life we're getting a fucking coffee this that the other but there are certain people and you almost immediately upon meeting you i was like okay there's gonna be no room for
Starting point is 00:20:14 bullshit right now so i have to ask you the things that i'm really curious about and tell you the things that i'm genuinely curious about even if i look dumb doing it or maybe i look smart doesn't matter as long as it's pure and authentic i think it works yes you have to do that it's necessary you obviously do it to a degree naturally anyway otherwise you wouldn't have been able to enjoy the success you do either as in this format or with the live stand-up format what i feel like like i'm what people do and like you were kind enough to say about when i went on them normal tv shows where it's all graphics and glistening it's they think I like you're going to be an idiot because they think you're a celebrity person
Starting point is 00:20:49 but that's not what I'm from. That's not. I was 30 before I made any money out of this business. Before that, I was having to live in very, very different circumstances and I was born in different circumstances and they left my mark on me. Now, I'm not trying to be Ice Cube here.
Starting point is 00:21:04 I'm like from Grey's in Essexx it's sort of a bit like dull it's not ice cube your idea of like the rough life i was sort of like ice cube you know how rough it was oh my god i was straight out of compton i had to nip back i'd left the gas on back in the compton put a few coins in the meter out of compton again no it's not like I'm saying it's sort of super street. I'm English, I'm white, all of those things. But what I'm saying is there's a degree of poverty and there's addiction and all of those things. And then having to acknowledge the amount of personal failings
Starting point is 00:21:36 and learning to deal. Things like authenticity and integrity are, for me, incontrovertible ideas. I'm still wrapped up and strapped up in all manner of hopeless flaws and stuff. But what I do have now is I think presence. I'm present and I'm like, I'm watching what's happening. And also you don't have to like, you know, make excuses for your struggles just because you're white.
Starting point is 00:21:57 Like white people have to deal with a lot. Yeah, sometimes the industry doesn't buy their special. You know what I mean? There's a lot of struggle out there. Sometimes we got to listen to minorities complain. That's annoying. Every single day, we can't say anything about it.
Starting point is 00:22:10 For just $5, you can get Andrew some earplugs so that he can block off the complaining of the minority members who he's kindly put into this show. He's not putting his name in the title. It's not Andrew Schultz's flagrant.
Starting point is 00:22:24 There's all sorts of people here, two of whom are plainly not white, and even the one who is white has got a very good natural hair lift. Thank you so much. That is true. That is a good root lift. Yeah, I just got it done today.
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Starting point is 00:24:52 Yeah If you reflect and you're honest about it Do you think you leaned into being Unassuming because you liked winning them over I feel, what I feel like If I go, like As an adult looking back. Like, the Paxman interview I saw was a very similar one.
Starting point is 00:25:08 It's a political one. Yeah. But it was very, and he didn't play up the goofy as much. But it was, again, somebody trying to get him and talk him in circles. And then you talk them in circles. Do you lean into kind of being aloof? Because you know I can win that way. And the win is that much more satisfying.
Starting point is 00:25:23 Actually, I wish I could say that. Because that sounds really cool. But like it's much more this, I'm involved in a negotiation with fear quite a lot of the time. Like, so I'm not like, I don't walk into environments and think, yeah, fuck all you. Like, I'm like, oh shit. You know what I mean? So I'm dealing with the reality of that. I'm dealing with the reality of fear.
Starting point is 00:25:41 Like, not in a hopefully a high-pitched anxious way but i'm observing the fear which i've come through training and time to regard as your body is energizing now in case you have to be fast you know dealing with what adrenaline is rather than uh pathologizing adrenaline into a neurotic state but i don't feel like i'm gonna go in there and i'm gonna fuck him up although in my mind i do think when i'm dealing with someone like jeremy paxman who's like i don't know he's like maybe he's like anderson cooper or something like that he's like a political commentator and he again was like trying to get you trying to get me yeah right and also that stuff the other thing is which like is i believe in that stuff i believe that like that primarily political discourse is
Starting point is 00:26:22 carried out in a way to exclude ordinary people and even the distractional tactics of turning people against one another on the basis of race or gender ignores the crucial arguments around class that most ordinary people have more in common with one another than they have in common with the elites that govern them and that's always kept off the table while the they exacerbate our differences to turn us against one another so when i'm like actually confronting one of those people, I think, fucking no, I'm talking to him right now. So when I'm like, I try to stay very, very calm.
Starting point is 00:26:52 And then if they personally fucking do me, it's like, yeah, that's it now. I'm ready. Let's go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that's rude. I'm an Englishman. That's a gauntlet round the chops, isn't it? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:04 Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what it is, is I don't go in there sort of overly confident, but I do go in there with a sort of a set of beliefs that I sort of hold on to. So something like that morning joke. I wasn't in a very good mood,
Starting point is 00:27:14 actually, that morning. The morning joke, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that one where it's that lady with the blonde hair, Micah. You know, when I went on that, I didn't feel that good. And I wasn't particularly happy with the trousers I was wearing,
Starting point is 00:27:25 to be honest, Daniel. And like, so like when, on went on that, I didn't feel that good. And now I weren't particularly happy with the trousers I was wearing, to be honest. And like, so like when on top of that, they was started mugging me off. I thought, oh no, no. They thought that they were trying to have like, I think they thought they were going to have fun with you. Like they thought that you were going to come in, they were going to tease you. Yeah, you were going to be the clown and they were just going to kind of laugh at you. And you didn't look that happy going into it, which is always funny when you're trying to convince people to come to your happy show. Yeah, I'm terrible at that.
Starting point is 00:27:48 And, buddy, there was a moment where you just decided. You're like, okay, well, this interview is about to get taken over right now, and I'm going to tell these people who I am, and it's going to be really interesting. And they fucking folded. Yeah. They got nothing to look at, them people. No disrespect to them.
Starting point is 00:28:04 They're probably all, probably all beautiful human beings. No, didn't he kill his secretary or something like that? Well, that doesn't seem right. Was the secretary particularly inefficient? Was there a tribunal process? Was there an opportunity to discuss KPIs? They're not delivering in these ways. Oh, no, straight to execution.
Starting point is 00:28:24 Yeah. No. Enough justice on an individual level. So how can we make sure… you're not delivering in these straight to execution yeah no justice on an individual level so how how can we make sure that you don't run for government so you can still do
Starting point is 00:28:35 the great things that you're doing well because people are going to fucking beg you to do it I think he's got to watch the old ego same as you though
Starting point is 00:28:41 how do you check it it's not going well it's out of control I'm going out wearing night time clothes for southern bells Watch the old ego. Same as you, though. How do you check it? It's not going well. It's out of control. I'm going out wearing nighttime clothes for Southern Bells. I'm dressed like a Tennessee Williams heroine and a wrestler combined. I mean, I suppose how I'm going to do it is like, I remember this. This is what I fundamentally believe is that those sort of systems with an apex person, like presidents, prime minister, monarchs,
Starting point is 00:29:05 that's not representative. The centralisation of power is not a solution. So if, like, this happened before in our country, when I'd done that Jeremy Paxman thing, mate, like, there was suddenly a lot of heat, and I'd say stuff, there's no point in voting, you'll get the same sort of party anyway, they're all paid for in corporate interests,
Starting point is 00:29:20 it's all bullshit, right? And it really blew up, and they talked about me in the Houses of Parliament, in our country, and all of that. And what I should have thought was, oh is amazing i'm voicing things that a lot of people are feeling and i did feel that for a while and then i thought you're really important russell and what you think is important then it went all wrong it vibrated too quickly and i span off out of the road so like uh yeah i won't i'm not going to do that again in a sense how do all of us manage the challenge
Starting point is 00:29:45 of knowing that we are infinitesimally well perhaps I've not been able to pronounce a single word no thanks humility but this is this is the dark shit
Starting point is 00:29:53 go go go know that you are infinitesimally small but also that all reality is held within your consciousness there is nothing that you are aware of
Starting point is 00:30:01 that you do not know about like whether it's the big bang or the dinosaurs or political assassinations or quantum physics aware of that you do not know about. Like, oh, whether it's the Big Bang or the dinosaurs or political assassinations or quantum physics, all of that exists within your individual awareness. Is this something you think about? No, no, it's like, I think the trickiest thing
Starting point is 00:30:14 about like essentially waking up, and I've seen a lot of celebrities sometimes suffer this. I think Jim Carrey suffered from this. When he woke up, he got dark. When he realized, I think his coping mechanism for the world was well nothing's important nothing matters and when you start really believing that you go oh fuck well nothing matters well why should i wake up why should i go to the grocery store why should i be in a
Starting point is 00:30:33 the nihilism is crippling the nihilism is fucking crippling and there's another side to it which i think he's at right now which is like okay nothing matters but life is what we make of it and we need connectivity we need connectivity we need relationships we need community it makes us feel good to help one another and treat one another good so like but getting from nihilism to this is important what a fucking joy it is that we get to be here a lot of people don't make that jump that's fucking tough man but we have to make that jump andrew and there's a reason to make it in that that jump is anticipated in all of the great ideologies. When did you make it?
Starting point is 00:31:06 In Islam, in Christianity, in Buddhism. They tell you this. It's an illusion, but you have to participate as if it is real. You have to find the beauty in it. You are creating reality while you are living it. You are God, the Father and I are one. It's like trying to tell you simultaneously, yes, it's meaningless, but you invest it with
Starting point is 00:31:25 meaning you create purpose the dow you are the path that you are walking so in a way jim carrey's got no excuse for going all dark no but he's doing the mask not that one with a scratchy poster we want ace ventura not when you go all scary i mean like jim jim carrey bona fide a genius hey like proper old school fucking physical comic genius vibrating on a very, very high frequency. His fascination with Kaufman, a situationist. Kaufman's work is about, oh my God, none of this is real. It's ridiculous.
Starting point is 00:31:54 We could just do anything. We can make chaos. You can suddenly stop participating in the sanctioned rules of reality. It will fall apart because it's consensual. Faith is a component of the fucking stock exchange, of economics, science itself at its most fundamental levels. The level of quantum physics requires consciousness and belief
Starting point is 00:32:12 in order for it to collapse between waves and particles. You know, so what the challenge we have is to invest it with meaning while recognizing it's meaningless, or as Christ says, in the world, but not of it. And I can see how, my personal opinion, on my own, I go fucking it. And I can see how, my personal opinion,
Starting point is 00:32:26 on my own, I go fucking mental. I fall down a hole into the solipsism and the nihilism. I lose my connection. I lose my erection. I become unbearable.
Starting point is 00:32:34 I become unwearable. I can't live within it. I need meaning. I need connection. And the only place I can find it is if I sort of think, oh, fucking hell, Andrew's a human being
Starting point is 00:32:41 the same as me. He's got the same life as me. He's got a past. He's got things he's having to carry. Every single person I look at, they're the same as me.'s got the same life as me he's got he's got a past he's got things he's having to carry every single person i look at they're the same as me they've got to carry on living their life and it don't seem like that when i'm lost in my own solipsistic self-obsessiveness but like that's why that 12 step stuff's good andrew because on one level it says awaken awaken to the fact that your life in the past was unlivable and now the secret be of service to others don't live a life you know and I'm not
Starting point is 00:33:05 I by have no means got this cracked because I still spend a lot of my time thinking I want this I don't want that the devotee of my preferences dedicated to what I want
Starting point is 00:33:14 and what I don't want but thankfully I've got this fucking system that continually reminds me why are you thinking about yourself all the time give us a shit you're going to die
Starting point is 00:33:20 you're going to die it doesn't matter why wouldn't you run for office become the elites you hate become those elites get in the system and change it but good You're going to die. You're going to die. It doesn't matter. Why wouldn't you run for office? Become the elites you hate. Become those elites. Get in the system and change it.
Starting point is 00:33:29 But good, it's a great question. I'm curious your answer, but please don't. Don't you think that what we should do is people have to have the ability for amplification is try and find people that we think are legit
Starting point is 00:33:41 and then like, give them some heat and shine. Legit sociopaths. Okay. Okay. What if we audition them? But what if it's this? What if it's like we exercise our demands to a point where they have to fulfill them,
Starting point is 00:33:57 they being the elites or they being the people that are in control. And I think that's the only way to make change, right? Is that we just go, we want this thing so bad. That's why I loved the idea of not voting. If everybody not voted, if we didn't vote in mass, it would be the loudest way to say this system is not working for us. This two-party thing is not working for us. Don't they want us to not vote in America? Isn't that the whole thing right now?
Starting point is 00:34:16 No, no, no. They want their people to vote. They want old people to vote. Republicans want old people to vote. Liberals want their people to vote. That's who we want to vote. We want the other side to not. If everybody's like, yo, this electoral college is fucking stupid nothing is
Starting point is 00:34:28 actually going to get done you're all the same and everybody was like we're not voting it would be so globally embarrassing that things would have to change at the very least yeah and particularly if you coupled that with don't vote don't pay back any of your debts like stop paying all debts immediately stop paying all tax yeah. Stop paying all tax. One person don't pay tax. Yeah, you're going down. But a thousand, 10,000,
Starting point is 00:34:51 100,000 people, stop paying. Join this movement. We're not doing it out of nihilistic selfishness. It's not just some libertarian whim to save a little bit of cash back on an ATM. This is, we're not cooperating with your system anymore.
Starting point is 00:35:04 Your economic systems are faith-based. These are our, and I like the use of the word demands because it's gangster, but it should be a manifesto. Uh-oh.
Starting point is 00:35:12 Uh-oh. Uh-oh. In America, we're not allowed to say that word. We're not allowed to say manifesto because it's,
Starting point is 00:35:16 all right, constitution, new constitution. There we go. New constitution. In fact, the principles are already enshrined.
Starting point is 00:35:23 Just do the fucking shit that's already written down. Allow people to have control of their own communities, control of their own lives. There has been no vision in politics, I think, since the death of the great ideas of the last century, since the death of fascism and communism. No one is saying this is how we could live.
Starting point is 00:35:42 You can organise and run your own lives. People don't think that they could be spending their time in leisure. We're all defined by our work. Our education systems are about preparation for the labor market. You're written off at that point. I have a question about that. In terms of spending your time. I'm talking about embarrassing, and you're talking about Fight Club.
Starting point is 00:36:03 Let's shame the politicians. Let's kill them. Let's blow up the credit unions. I don't see you as president. I see you as like a dictator. I think you'd do way better. You're dressed like Gaddafi already. I feel like you would do perfect.
Starting point is 00:36:16 And I think it ended really well for him on that weekend at Bernie's Jeep ride where they jostled his dead body about in the desert. Am I still in charge? That was going to be a female security. You know what I mean? That was his issue. That was his whole thing.
Starting point is 00:36:29 He only had hot models vlogging him. Like, that's not going to work. You know? CJ, have you ever seen, like, Colonel Gaddafi addressing, like, some Arab summit where it's, like, all the leaders of the Arabian nations? They're going, listen, we need to fucking step up because the West's getting proper leery, you know?
Starting point is 00:36:44 So, like, they've killed Saddam Hussein. I don't know who's going to be next. listen, we need to fucking step up because the West's getting proper leery, you know. So like they've killed Saddam Hussein. I don't know who's going to be next. Well, we do now. Poor old Colonel Gaddafi jostled along all naked and dead. Shouldn't have happened. It's out of order. It's a human being with rights and feelings.
Starting point is 00:36:55 I apologize for that. But you did put him in a comedic position when you said I look like a dictator. That's what we do here. That's what we do here. That's why you're just delivering. I mean, you get it. You're the guy who went to MTV,
Starting point is 00:37:04 dressed as Bin Laden on September 12th. You get it. And I loved it. It was too soon. I loved it. It was too soon. That was too soon. Had you done it today?
Starting point is 00:37:12 Comedy's timing. It would have killed. You don't do that yet. That was too soon. I apologize again. But in hindsight, with 20 years past or whatever, pretty funny.
Starting point is 00:37:21 I mean, yeah. Ballsy if nothing else. That's exactly the argument I made in the tribunal. I said, in 20 years time, there will be streaming services that will look upon me
Starting point is 00:37:34 as a kind of profit dictator. Then who will be laughing? I think we gravitate towards leisure. Yeah, leisure. Leisure, leisure. Leisure, leisure. Potato, potato. Yeah, people want to chill. I think that if you look at the course of history, you see ancient societies and what they
Starting point is 00:37:52 gravitate to. And I'm shocked that like the British haven't figured this out yet because they've been around the world. They'd seen everything in the world and they still keep working for some reason. But like you look at a town, you look at the Greece, the Greeks, the Greeks are literally just going to go, OK, we're not going to work. And then Germany's like, do we have to bail them out again? They're like, can you? And they're like, fine. And then they just keep not working. They don't change a single thing because they understand it's fun to hang out with your family, eat nice cheese, drink nice wine, enjoy the beach.
Starting point is 00:38:20 Italians, same thing. This idea that the French take fucking months off in the summer to do something. This is like novel to Americans because we're young, we're immigrants, right? We're trying to get the money. I think eventually we all gravitate towards the things in life that we actually do value, which is time with the people you love
Starting point is 00:38:36 and indulgences, but not to a point where they are addictions. You can't, like indulging in a sunset, can you get addicted to it? No, but it's important. What a lovely person. Because what you're describing, of course, is freedom, that indulging in a sunset. Can you get addicted to it? No. But it's important. What a lovely person. Because what you're describing, of course, is freedom. That people want to be free.
Starting point is 00:38:50 And what I really, like as a touring comic, what I've noticed when you're, like, and it's mostly in my country because I've not been out traveling and stuff, but like what I've learned from people, is people want to be left the fuck alone. They want to be left alone. Just leave people alone. And now that sort of tends towards the kind of,
Starting point is 00:39:04 in your national political rubric, the kind of Republican right-wing small government stuff. But without, like, the argument between the communists and the anarchists is that without some sort of centralised state power, the people have no true representative against the might of corporate and financial interests. But, of course, where we find ourselves now is that the state and the corporate world are essentially in alliance
Starting point is 00:39:25 so that people have no representation anyway. Well, you don't need the state, you need, I guess, the unions as the equal and opposite reaction to corporate power. I reckon you're right, Andrew. I reckon that there needs to be a confederacy of delegated power where the true democracy can operate. So this community,
Starting point is 00:39:42 like where you have true confederacies and assemblies where people say this is how our community want to run things this is how but there are there is a necessity for some municipal governance there is a requirement for the roads need to be run there needs to be some understanding of military of law and order but my my sense is that and when they've tried these experiments there's been some success is that if you allow people to govern their own communities they do it relatively successfully. And the thing that perhaps agitates me more than anything else about our current establishment and our current system
Starting point is 00:40:12 is the assumption at its heart of misanthropy, that people are not good, that people are stupid. What is misanthropy? Misanthropy is a hatred of people. Okay. Meaning that they don't like us. They think we're stupid. They think we're dumb. They think we can't run our own lives. That's what bugs me hatred of people. Okay. Like the meaning that they don't like us. They think we're stupid. They think we're dumb.
Starting point is 00:40:26 They think we can't run our own lives. That's what bugs me most of all. That with the whole censorship of the left thing, that people aren't able to watch something and go, oh, that's probably a joke or that's not a joke, but I don't agree with it. You're almost infantilizing people. Infantilizing us, keeping us numb and dumb and consuming.
Starting point is 00:40:41 So we're just a node at the end of the line. All you are is you're just there to consume sugary food and sugary shit. No control over your own community. And what you described there, that model where people just live their lives according to their fucking will and their freedoms and spend time with their family, that's not ridiculous. That's what basically everybody wants, I think. But how do you afford that?
Starting point is 00:41:01 How do you afford it? Because the countries that are doing that are not in the best economic state, though they might be in the best emotional state. Well, because you have to look at what the economic history of that situation is. And like there was a, after the 2008 crash where the Democrat party bailed out the banks in a way that was a fundamental betrayal of the entire ethos that they purported to
Starting point is 00:41:19 have. And in my opinion, laid the pathway for Trump's ascendancy. What happened in Europe at that time was there was a rising of populist British party not British
Starting point is 00:41:29 excuse me European parties there was Syriza in Greece this dude called Yanis Varoufakis and his partner they were elected on a popular mandate
Starting point is 00:41:36 of basically we ain't fucking paying them banks back they can all fuck off and they got the people elected them they went to the EU the EU went
Starting point is 00:41:43 you've fucking given us that money it's over and that Yanis Varoufakis who ran it you should have him on one time like when he came on he said that when he went to the eu he said he realized no one in in the establishment has any real power except for the power afforded to them by their role i.e the president of united states or the head of the eu if he just goes free money or if he goes like you know there's a spring break you know like you can't do that shit. You can only do what is prescribed.
Starting point is 00:42:08 That means the system will always preserve itself. If you ever try to act against the interests of the system, you will be removed from your position. That's the whole point of, I'm not saying this to say it's, but yeah, it has to be that way. That's the point of a government. I can't allow a person to usurp the government. That's a coup.
Starting point is 00:42:22 Yes. It's inherently not going to happen. System is self-preserving above all else. So when you grant systems more power, it exacerbates and continues. This is why something like the pandemic was interesting because it inherently granted more power to the government that will unlikely be rescinded. State power increased.
Starting point is 00:42:39 Corporate opportunity increased. The wealth transfer took place. Any situation that's beneficial to the most powerful interests in the world is you know by definition advantageous and it's i don't know would that mean that they would prolong it would they see it as an opportunity do the government and financial interests act in accordance with the will of ordinary people these are all questions for people to consider and i suppose really it's not like we're... There's a philosopher called Mark Fisher.
Starting point is 00:43:08 He's a British political philosopher. He dead now killed himself, so I suppose his ideas didn't work on a personal level. But like... Hey, it's tough at the top. But like, you know, David Foster Wallace, he was a pretty good writer, but in the end, I'm out. You know?
Starting point is 00:43:23 Even he couldn't read that whole thing infinite just too literal like uh mark fisher says that he coined the term late capitalism is that we cannot even envisage a culture beyond it we can't even imagine what it would look like that's its greatest triumph to rob us of the ability to sort of go well what if it was like european people and we just fucking eat long into the evening and we hang with our kids? And then immediately we do their argument for them. But how do you economically underwrite that?
Starting point is 00:43:50 Hold on a minute. How did the most resource-rich continents and nations in the world end up the poorest ones? How the fuck did that happen? How did that happen? It was the British. We did it. But that shows you that imaginary faith-based systems usurp practical ones it don't matter gold is fucking diamonds and gold and agricultural land
Starting point is 00:44:12 yeah well the rich people in some cold country in northern fucking europe yeah the one interestingly where their use of christianity is the individualized protestant work-based one rather than the catholic uh communal exactly all right we're gonna take a break for a second because listen the coffee y'all drink is pussy i mean it's from the bottom of my heart some of y'all drinking coffee right now it's pussy bro you still drinking coffee from the dude on a horse what's the colombian guy's name on a horse still horse coffee it wasn't he on a horse al colombian coffee what's that i think it's colombian yo we're not drinking that coffee no
Starting point is 00:44:54 more dude folgers yeah suck taint no i like folgers listen no no no you drink fol, you suck taint, bro. Folgers got no adaptogens. Folgers got crazy jitters afterwards. Folgers got no neurogenesis. Listen, bro. Folgers got no C8, C10, MCT oil, theanine. Listen, Folgers don't even got coconut extract, bro. And there's mad coconuts where that fucking horse guy was at Listen My point is this
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Starting point is 00:45:46 If I had Strong Coffee Company, there'd be a horse on my back like, yo, chill out. Chill out. Chill out, horse. Chill out, horse. Why don't you hop on my back? We'll walk up and down the hills. You can't carry me. I can carry you because I got motherfucking Strong Coffee.
Starting point is 00:46:02 This is the best coffee on the motherfucking planet, and it's powdered. You snorted it? I didn't snort it, but you could. Okay. You could do whatever you want. I don't know if you can. You don't know if you can? You don't think when we're at Burning Man on the motherfucking playa,
Starting point is 00:46:16 you think I'm pouring that shit in water? No. Caterpillar rails. Oh, we call it coffee out there? Okay. My point is, I've had four sips of this, and I'm literally about to bench press a Samoan woman. Wow. I'm about to go in, and I'm about to steal something from Walmart, and a Samoan woman is going to try to stop me.
Starting point is 00:46:36 I'm going to lift her up, and I'm going to dig a hole six feet on the ground minimum. Not going to kill her or anything like that. Okay, good. But we together will have a pig down there or one of her family members. Listen, listen, listen. What is the point? The point I'm trying to make is
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Starting point is 00:47:05 Don't do it. Whoa, chill. I just hit the thing. My point is right now, the coffee, your coffee, when you go, oh, can I have a latte? Sucks that. If you want your coffee to stop sucking that,
Starting point is 00:47:21 okay, and start getting sucked, this is the type of coffee that gets sucked okay look at all this and it's powdered bro oh i grind my own beans do you you also grab your own ankles is that another thing that you like to do for a living, maybe. Professionally. Strong Coffee Company. Look at all this shit right here. Coffee that gets sucked. StrongCoffeeCompany.com.
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Starting point is 00:48:14 I'm sick and tired of motherfuckers not taking their health seriously when all you got to do is drink a goddamn green juice in the morning and you can be sexy. Okay?
Starting point is 00:48:24 Would you like to be pure sex? Would you like to literally walk down the street and be pure sex, girls dripping like snails? Would you like to see women leaving snails trails on the sidewalk? Escargot. Escargot, as Alex said. Literally, escargot.
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Starting point is 00:49:48 to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance and turn women into snails as you walk down the street dripping, soaking wet. Let's get back to the show. Here's what I find tough to reconcile about that. I can complain about that, but at the end of the day, I'm not giving up my toilet paper. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:50:08 You know what I mean? Like, my life is fucking good. I benefit from the system. You benefit from the system. Everyone here, some less than others, benefits from the system. So how do you say, oh, this whole thing needs to burn down when you know at the end of the day, you're probably not willing to give up the shit that you got from this. This is interesting. I saw you talk about this as well but i think this is interesting point i think you were talking to maybe taibi about this and he wrote
Starting point is 00:50:32 this but um this idea that you could use fear to motivate people in elections in the past and the fear meaning you don't want your life to get worse, do you? If you vote for that guy, your life is going to get worse. And then for the working class, life got so bad that they're like, it can't get worse. Yeah. I'll vote for that Trump guy. Yeah. Because something's got to change. Even Obama ran on like change. Hope.
Starting point is 00:50:55 Hope. Which, sorry, side note, I saw your truths when Trump got elected. He said a lot of that stuff, which I very much agreed with, which is like, you can't, he said this, I'm stealing your stuff, but like trump uh basically the news was like hey if you elect trump things will get terrible but for so many people yeah they were all they were like things are already terrible so fuck you i'm gonna vote for this guy to see if something changes so that's exactly to your point and that's something i really aligned with what you said yeah so it's like you can't i think that's the great failure of the if we will will, the they, the elites or whatever.
Starting point is 00:51:25 The great failure is they let the poor people get too poor. If they keep them at a level of comfort, they won't – You learn to love your slavery. What's that? That's my question with the freedom thing. It's like how intrinsic to humanity do you think it is that we need freedom or do you think we can just learn to love our slavery and learn to be placated? our slavery and learn to be placated. Evidently, Mark, we are a highly adaptable species and this is perhaps to our detriment because we will adapt to whatever conditions we have to survive in. People adapt to war, famine. But for hundreds and thousands of years,
Starting point is 00:51:55 hundreds and thousands, maybe longer, I'm sure you're interested in the same kind of content I'm interested in that look at different historical human narratives. We lived in tribal communities of 30 to 150 people and in our closest primate neighbours when they hit 150 they split. But we're not designed
Starting point is 00:52:11 to live in concentrated centrally led hierarchical cultures. I'm not saying hierarchy full stop is wrong. I'm saying that broadly speaking one of the things we could be looking to
Starting point is 00:52:21 when engineering social models is how do we live for hundreds of thousands of years? What things would we like to keep? The toilet paper, the phones. What things do we want to get rid of? The tyranny, the government interference, the inequality, the imbalance, the propaganda, the dumb entertainment, the bullshit, constant bullshit. The big houses away from the cities where you can get away from everybody.
Starting point is 00:52:40 Quack! I'm not picking on you. That's my genuine struggle with this is I believe all of these things, but I also know I like nice watches. I want to take care of my wife and kids and other people. Sorry.
Starting point is 00:52:52 We're going to be comfortable first. That is interesting. Human beings are individualistic. Of course they are. Part of the reason I'm so devoted to these ideas is because I've not met that many people that are more individualistic than me, that are more like,
Starting point is 00:53:04 do not fucking tell me what to do. don't like you know and like my starting position anarchist calisthenics break rules every day so that you just stay in the habit of breaking rules i'm not fucking doing that why why why why should i do that that's how i operate you're flirting with me now i see you're stepping it up. What, are we in the third quarter? Where are we? So like, but like, of course, that's what I'm saying. What I, for me, what that suggests, Akash,
Starting point is 00:53:32 is that what we have to do, mate, is not have top-down dictatorial systems. And like to your earlier point of why don't you run for some kind of office is because those systems create people that occupy those systems. And what I believe we need are a new set of systems
Starting point is 00:53:45 and i also yeah i recognize that i'm compromised i'm compromised by it's called i am sybaritic i like luxury i like comfort i grew up poor i like shit i want stuff you know but i recognize that the reason that i want the watch or the attention is because there's some deeper deficit. And once in a while when I'm about to drop a load of cash on some stupid thing, I think some little voice in me says, do you think you would feel better if you were to do something worthwhile with this? And I'm just about ready to start testing myself on this altruism of like, would you feel better?
Starting point is 00:54:20 I say it to my wife sometimes. And because she's less mentally ill than i am she like what if we just let like loads of homeless people live in a house wouldn't we feel better than if we went on another luxury holiday and she you know i wonder like we are told like these things why you need a wife these are thank god i'm not alone i didn't do well out there andrew like you know like the like the those same spiritual doctrines or templates that we referenced when we were talking of how do you navigate nihilism versus purpose when you recognize that you are infinitesimally small in limitless vastness, you create the meaning. Well, by some other crazy, wacky coincidence,
Starting point is 00:54:55 also in those books, they tell us that we should be of service, that we should devote ourselves to service, that that's a way that we will find purpose and meaning. And also that we are flawed. And also I like to remind people in pursuit of real change that we're not trying to create perfection. We're just trying to make something better than this. Just better than this. That's all we're aiming at at first is to improve on this. And if we think this is the ceiling,
Starting point is 00:55:20 then things have got more desperate than I imagined because I think that it's possible for human beings to do better. I don't think it needs to be about believing in one centralized figure, although you need people that are good communicators and that can make this stuff funny and accessible and comfortable being honest. You need that. It's collective. It's truly a collective endeavor. How do you think your workspace should be run? How do you think your community should be run? What do you want to see? Trust people. It's the opposite. And once in a while, there will be crushing blows of disappointment
Starting point is 00:55:46 when people are bloody idiots, as they sometimes are, as I sometimes am. You know, like, what I believe is, and what I was taught is, we're all fucking crazy, but not on the same day. Not on the same day.
Starting point is 00:55:57 So, like, to look at different models. So you can keep toilet paper. Okay. And watches. Free play. Minimum of free play, but we're going to be so abundant, we'll be wiping our asses on Rolexes.
Starting point is 00:56:09 We'll be throwing Cartiers away. Have you been to Burning Man? I didn't go because of the drugs. Even though they say there's a lot of people they're not drinking or using, the drugs and the hedonism. I'm all right as long as I don't see too much of it, Alex. If I see the hedonism, I get nervous. That hard for you there oh yeah but there are there are kids there they're like
Starting point is 00:56:30 you know people go with their families there's older people there that aren't really using but there's a lot of people using and that might be like triggering but a lot of what you talk about is yeah it gave i don't know when we went i've went a few times it gives you a lot of faith in humanity if everybody's on drugs for a week, people are really good to one another. And that is like the cynical look at it. But when you leave, you're like filled up a little bit. It's like the closest that I felt to kind of like being awake.
Starting point is 00:56:52 And then it goes away and you get caught back up in the rat race and the things that you want to achieve, et cetera. But if there is a way for you to like pop in and see what humans can not only, not only like achieve in terms of like interpersonal relationships but
Starting point is 00:57:05 like also build like these people just decide to go to the desert with very little communication with one another and build a city where there's no money you can't buy anything but iced coffee it functions dude this is the craziest thing about it you were talking about earlier about like people being left up to their own devices in the weirdest way it's like shockingly conservative but nobody there would admit it right like it it's or libertarian if you want to call it because it's basically like there's no fucking police really running around there's no security there's no rules there's absolutely nothing and people are building these structures nobody dies one guy ran into a fire that was on him he was planning on doing that right he took the name too literally literally burning but like the idea that you could go to this place
Starting point is 00:57:50 and like people are doing all these drugs etc but they say that you are relying only on yourself and when you rely only on yourself you go oh shit there's no safety net i better not take too much of that because i could pass out in the desert and die oh shit i better take some food because i'm gonna everybody has a backpack full of water when you are self-reliant you take more care of yourself when the government or somebody is out there looking after you you push it a little bit i feel like the system only works though because there's abundance and there's also a week well wait wait go uh start with the abundance thing it's a function of time also but like once there's genuine scarcity like all of of a sudden all the, the hugs and kisses go away.
Starting point is 00:58:26 No, no, no, no. A hundred percent, 100%. What, what it looks at for me,
Starting point is 00:58:30 I'm looking at it as not a way that we can live life. You cannot live life like this, but it is what humans are capable of. So that to me really just opened me up. I was like, Oh my God, like in the right circumstance with abundance, humans are willing to share and help oh yeah it probably
Starting point is 00:58:47 existed like that in communities but but keep in mind keep in mind like i i'm from new york where with abundance people hoard still right so i'm like every second i walk out of my house someone's trying to find a way to get money out of me hey you want to support the environment hey you want to do this and then i go to this place where with abundance they're like hey can i feed you hey do you want to take a nap hey do you want a massage and they And then I go to this place where with abundance, they're like, hey, can I feed you? Hey, do you want to take a nap? Hey, do you want a massage? And they're not asking for any money from me. And it was this fucking huge shock to my system to see that humans even wanted to do this for one another. Will it go away in a week? Absolutely. Is there like a very tuned down version of that that maybe we could get to? That would be awesome. Yeah. And it shows that a value
Starting point is 00:59:23 system other than an economic one, or at least a financially motivated economic one, is applicable. And also that we can be bold in the types of visions we have. I suppose when we're utopian in our thinking, in our conversation, the practical part of us thinks,
Starting point is 00:59:38 oh, that can't happen. Like you say, it's only for a week. Anyone can pull it off for a week. Anyone can pull it off for an hour. Maybe I won't even get home from london without breaking some of the principles that i've like espoused about enthusiastically in a chair for an hour you know maybe i will shout in traffic or be impatient with someone certainly there will be examples of selfishness but at least we have an ideal and what i return to is the idea of having a set of spiritual principles and values that are
Starting point is 01:00:04 broad enough for people to approach them in their own way and the spirituality is the idea of having a set of spiritual principles and values that are broad enough for people to approach them in their own way and the spirituality is a kind of a personal declaration not you should be doing that or you shouldn't be doing that just like this is how you might live this is how philosophers used to take it in the classical world it's almost like you don't know something's possible until you see it and then once you see it now you believe it can be attained do you know what i'm saying so like if if maybe before that i didn't know it's possible for until you see it. And then once you see it, now you believe it can be attained. You know what I'm saying? So like if, if, if maybe before that I didn't know it was possible for somebody to just give me something and not want anything back and to find joy in giving me something. I literally didn't know that that was a real thing. And I'll be honest, I was,
Starting point is 01:00:38 I was quite drawn to, um, uh, priests because of this. Cause every time I spoke to a priest, even in adulthood, they were just like curious and thoughtful and like ask questions and like, but it didn't feel like they were trying to get anything from me. I was too old for them. You run into the wrong priest.
Starting point is 01:00:58 Here's another question. Would you like to sit on my lap? Here's another question, although short's a little tight. I didn't feel like true altruism existed before going to Burning Man. And to y'all's point, maybe we're cynical
Starting point is 01:01:09 because we haven't been. Yes. But I guess the nice thing about seeing it, and I've spoken about this before, but even seeing it myself, and unfortunately, I got this feeling through a drug,
Starting point is 01:01:19 but maybe you experienced it through drugs as well. It's like, instead of the drug making me just feel good and everything was just about me, me, me, I did Molly and I found out what it was like to feel like full and have extra joy. And with the extra joy, I was calling my parents and saying how great they were.
Starting point is 01:01:34 I'm calling my friends. I'm just sharing the love. And I was like, oh, is this what humans do with abundance? Is this what humans actually do when we have more? And if we're constantly put in this position where we have to strive to get more, where we don't have a nice enough watch, we don't have a nice enough car, we don't have a nice enough house. And once we do get that house, there's somebody with an even nicer one. If there is, I don't know what the system is, and I don't even know if it's a psychological change. But if we're put in the position where we have enough, and that enough is set much lower, with this extra, we will share. Well, to maybe this is Russell's point in the end, to the, in the end, maybe the abundance is emotional. It's not physical. You need what you need.
Starting point is 01:02:14 But if you feel emotionally abundant, then you give, if you don't feel emotionally abundant, no matter how financially abundant you are, you're just feeling the void. But if you feel emotionally abundant and you have enough to survive, then you give, I have enough to survive. I feel emotionally abundant. Why don't I give? And that is the idea of like a priest or like a mother, Teresa, whoever. That's why Catholicism or Christianity works like unconditional love from the
Starting point is 01:02:35 father. You get filled from God. Now what do we do? And that's why people say it's a control, not like you say all religion is to control the poor people because it fills them up and I can still keep being abundant. Oh shit. I can keep all being abundant. Oh, shit. I can keep all this money when they're filled up emotionally. Optimistic view, cynical view.
Starting point is 01:02:50 That's it. So then what happens when you replace religion in America with money, knowing that there's always going to be somebody richer, there's always going to be somebody with more things, and having the most things is what makes you feel the most fulfilled. You're going to have that scarcity. You're going to have people robbing each other. Like you're going to have people committing violent acts to attain some of those resources. Yeah, it's a weird thing. Like we've completely shunned religion in America. And we feel like we're like these philosophers by saying like, oh, religion doesn't make sense or whatever.
Starting point is 01:03:19 Whether it makes sense or not, which is what you were saying earlier, if it provides emotional stability to people where they actually treat one another better, isn't that a better system? If you meet and spend real time with a truly religious person, you will never knock religion again. You just won't. Because you'll be like, oh, this is the good it can have? God bless you for being religious. Good for you.
Starting point is 01:03:41 That's what got you there. But just like any system, they will fucking abuse it. Just like with capitalism, we'll get abused. Just like with communism, it gets abused. We're abusers. That's what got you there. But just like any system, they will fucking abuse it. Just like with capitalism, we'll get abused. Just like with communism, it gets abused. We're abusers. That's what humans do. So it's like, how do you- It's like the internet.
Starting point is 01:03:52 Any tool that's powerful can be misused. God is the most powerful idea on earth. Of course it can be misused, but that doesn't mean you get rid of it altogether. You still see the good in it. You in particular with the internet see the good in it. Whenever I think about like, ah, this whole thing is shit, get rid of it, I'll think about great. You in particular with the internet see the good in it. Whenever I think about like, ah, this whole thing is shit, get rid of it,
Starting point is 01:04:07 I'll think about great points you've made about the internet. Not only our livelihood, but like other things that it's brought. And I'm like, I guess it's not all bad just how you use it. I think religion is the same thing.
Starting point is 01:04:15 It's incredibly powerful, so it can be misused in the worst way, but used at what it's supposed to be, it's a beautiful thing. See that what you're saying, it seems, is that religion is something that can only be applied it's a beautiful thing. See, what you're saying, it seems, is that religion is something that can only be applied to spiritual ideas.
Starting point is 01:04:28 But in fact, religion is a sort of a set of principles that can be applied anywhere. And to your point about money there, Andrew, is that when Nietzsche says God is dead, people forget that what he means is God is dead and there's not enough water in the world to cleanse our hands of the blood that we've spilled, that man is religious. So if you take away the idea that God is dead and there's not enough water in the world to cleanse our hands of the blood that we've spilled, that man is religious.
Starting point is 01:04:46 So if you take away the idea that God is a set of values that are about altruism, kindness, mutual support, a set of principles that make it easier to deal with the fact that we're alive and we're going to die and everyone we love is going to die. So here are some ideas that have consistently been found to be useful.
Starting point is 01:05:01 And I really love your point that when you're around a religious person, you feel its value. You feel its value beyond rationalism and materialism. The Enlightenment gave us a set of principles, many of which were incredible. It gave us what I believe to be the false markers of progress around science and medicine, technology and medicine. Because we have progressed so evidently, unignorably and indefatigably in these areas, we are unable to see that in some areas we have stayed the same or even possibly regressed. If you extract these principles from our life, love, kindness, care,
Starting point is 01:05:33 you create a kind of nihilistic abyss is what emerges. And you see that when you talk about your experience at Burning Man and how it gave you a vision for how things might be, it brings, I believe, an important point to the forefront. We're told that our cultures and societies are neutral. They're not neutral. It's not just like this is what it is.
Starting point is 01:05:53 That's a set of values that have been arrived at because they are beneficial to a certain set. Remember when we touched on the pandemic a moment ago? Sometimes we think the system is broken. Well, when you think the system is broken, look at who it's working for really well. And if you find that it's working really well for the most powerful interests in the world,
Starting point is 01:06:12 do you think that that is a coincidence? Or do you think that the system is perhaps a reflection of their intention? And when you see an alternative vision, like the famous example in our culture, you know, there's nylon, you know, simultaneously they invented that tech across the Atlantic. That's why it's called New York, London, nylon.
Starting point is 01:06:28 I didn't know that. That tech was simultaneously, as if there is some ethereal connection, some unitary force that underwrites all apparent separateness, that consciousness precedes material, that consciousness does not emerge from evolutionary processes. Evolutionary processes emerge from consciousness. These are the ideas of Bernardo Kastrup.
Starting point is 01:06:50 He's another good guest you could have on your podcast the other example and it's dumb in a way no one could break the four minute mile then one geezer broke the four minute mile then another one does the next day oh yeah you can do this i think calculus was the same way right was it really like both they came up with at the same time simultaneously in different countries never talked to each other if consciousness is non-local if consciousness is something we arrive at a certain point in our evolution but the idea of a frequency that we can all be strung along like flags upon a string then then it's something that we're all simultaneously accessing and this point of modeling of like creating communities that function well to demonstrate to the problem is is whenever anyone starts a cult it always goes the same way you find out that the leader's got a bunch of watches
Starting point is 01:07:26 and he's fucking everyone. And you're like, oh no. That's why it's so disappointing when people that use those values, they care about the same things. They care about the values of sex and materialism. They don't really care. I suppose that's why the idea of asceticism emerges.
Starting point is 01:07:40 If you can live without sex, if you can live without drugs, if you can live without material pleasure, then perhaps you drugs if you can live without material pleasure then perhaps you're right not suggesting that everybody has to do that yeah but to demonstrate the value of those principles and ideas i think i said it was a very lovely conversation between the two of you about like the you know all these things are about utility how do you use it democracy could work well america can work well internet can work well god can work well it can work well and if we had to like restructure society, if you had to like sit down with a bunch of people and go like,
Starting point is 01:08:08 what is the best system to get the best out of people? The best treatment of people. Even if you want to just extract all their resources. But like what was the best way to control these people? Making them value God. Being like the coolest person in the city is the guy who shares the most, cares the most, like wants to help the most. That makes you the coolest guy.
Starting point is 01:08:29 Oh, he's the most helpful. Value the immaterial and I'll value the material. It's a brilliant system. I don't know why they went away from it. Why is there this push away from religion? If you were a rich guy that is just greedy and wants to take all the money from it, why would you shun God? If anything, double down on it. Yeah, the people who misuse it, I think, turn those people off.
Starting point is 01:08:49 But yeah, I was even thinking Christianity, the idea of Jesus eating with like the sinners and you know the line better than I do. But like the compassion that teaches, if God is eating with these people and breaking bread with these people that are supposed to be untouchable and that's like, oh, how can I, why would I be above that? Why would I be above being compassionate toward these people that are supposed to be untouchable. And that's like, oh, how can I, why would I be above that? Why would I be above being compassionate toward these people? The issue with religion though, like governmentally, is that it's ascribing power to something beyond the government.
Starting point is 01:09:12 So you have to somehow hijack that or have something like church and state, like unity. Or manipulate it. Because you can't change what God says. It's like in China. It's like, the religion is the state. Yeah. Okay.
Starting point is 01:09:24 Okay. What about this? We've seen, um, uh, forget what I was watching when you were talking to, and we were talking to, uh, about like channeling. I don't know if it's God. I don't know if it's a higher power, but like, I remember certain moments in my life where I've seen something and I felt like that person was attached to a higher power for that moment in time.
Starting point is 01:09:47 I mean, I remember my brother who's had, you know, a lot of trouble with mental illness, schizophrenia, that kind of stuff. I remember he was playing drums in a jam band at the Blue Note, and he went on a riff. And I thought that, I thought he was God for a second, man. Like, it was like, I've never experienced anything like it. And the entire room is like watching this happen. And he is operating with this band,
Starting point is 01:10:13 but clearly to everybody else in the band who has played with him all the time, saw it happen. And they were like, what the, it was his solo. And they were like, what is happening right now? And he was so lost in, I think he had his eyes closed. I don't even know if he knew what was going on. And I think you see this happen. Sometimes you see it happen in sports. Sometimes you see it happen in music. Sometimes you see it happen in comedy. I'm sure we can all think of like moments where maybe we even felt like something is happening. I'm not in control of all this. There's something else going on. And what do you think that is?
Starting point is 01:10:39 I think that there is a unitary force under things. And I think when you get out of the way, it comes through you. And I think when we're describing genius in athletics or arts, what we're describing is that process exactly of channeling, that the person just gets out of the way. Because when you see it in sport, you think, how does that person do that?
Starting point is 01:10:53 That's impossible. That's what genius is. It's the defiance of a rational undergirding. You know, we'd like to think, oh, well, if you train and if you do this and if you do this, and then you will arrive at this point of excellence. But sometimes people are just amazing.
Starting point is 01:11:07 And sometimes it kills people to hold onto that because there were so many examples in particular, you know, like, why do you think all them people are killing themselves and becoming drug addicts? It's a very bright thing to hold onto that. It's a very hard thing to hold onto that, particularly if you live within a model that denies its existence. What would God really be?
Starting point is 01:11:20 All the ways that we discuss God are symbolic ways of discussing God due to the nature that it's necessarily beyond language. But what would it, it's a bit like a father. It's a bit like sort of a light. It's a bit like the force of consciousness. It's not like any of these things actually, but we know it when we see it and we know it when we feel it.
Starting point is 01:11:38 And we know when you feel that something is more important than you, when it comes to you through love. And what is love really? I believe love is the bodily acknowledgement of oneness you love a sports team you love a pair of shoes you love your wife or your child or whoever it is and you feel in that moment like that molly moment that you described you thought that i've got so much i just want to love them i just want to love them i'm connected to them i'm not separate you know but our culture doubles down all the time on the worst values the greed the selfishness the separateness the competition all of those things can be useful assets and we've all
Starting point is 01:12:09 had to in various ways learn how to use that stuff in order to not be crushed you know because if you don't know how to do that you will be crushed so like but like what is god really unity a loving oneness does it have a charge is there an energy to it? What is this phenomena really? Well, it seems from some of the conversations that I have recently that the material model no longer holds up. You cannot describe and define how the universe emerges and functions using solely a material method because of some of the obvious examples in quantum physics, because when someone takes psychedelics, you would think that there would be more neurological activity, not loads less of neurological activity. Does that happen?
Starting point is 01:12:48 Yeah, under neurological scan, if you give someone a powerful psychedelic and they go, oh my God, I was in this world and I met this orb of light and these Faberge eggs of pure consciousness were talking to me and I met Mohammed, peace be upon him. Under a scan, what's happening is nothing. So what's happening is the removal of the systems of restriction and there is god that is that makes sense that makes sense when you're
Starting point is 01:13:12 saying get the person out of the way yes oh shit so when you're just like i guess i'm curious like with channeling how can you trust that you are channeling some type of like positive cosmic deity that's there for good and not some type of like and i don't want to like ascribe like demonic because that puts it in like a judeo-christian sense but like some type of negative cosmic energy like you know like you mentioned just in like the beautiful example of your brother in a flow state doing that drumming but that's what some people call it as well yeah what you've also mentioned is that your brother has problems with mental illness and isn't it curious that it's the you know dictators and the mentally ill the people that claim that god is talking directly
Starting point is 01:13:47 to them you know and like what i feel like is that we all of us when it says do not worship engraven images the engraven image that we worship is the image of the self i have created this little inner deity called russell through trauma and memory and biochemistry and this has become the most this is my god what What Russell wants is my God. When this is suspended, even through the use of narcotics or breath work or meditative practice, there is nothing. There is like a vibrant nothing that could be anything or a super state of potentialities,
Starting point is 01:14:16 which is how the quantum field is sometimes described, a super state of possibilities. The horrifying truth, if you ask me, mate, is that it is neither good nor bad until we make it so when we talk about the Tao when we talk about the agency of the individual when we talk about the great British painter and poet William Blake who saw angels in the trees and tried to illustrate them both from through his brush and through his pen he says like when he done these engravings of the book of Job Yah Yahweh, who is God, of course, and Job are depicted as the same being.
Starting point is 01:14:47 God and Job look the same. This is a Jungian analysis by a person called Edinger. And he says that God and the ego are being depicted here. Job is the ego. Yahweh is the higher self, the highest attainable self that is already present within you. Because where would the enlightened man be except within you? It's not anywhere else. It's within you and accessible. Yahweh shows Job, here is the behemoth that I have made as I made thee.
Starting point is 01:15:13 The behemoth is a dumb carnality. It's all mouth and sinew. I know the behemoth well. I know what appetite is. Here is the Leviathan that I made as I made thee, this deep, deep, this serpent of the deep. It is suggested in this text and in these illustrations by William Blake that we must become good in order to make God good. God is beyond good and evil in Nietzsche's phrase. God can be all things and indeed is good things. That's why the rather moot arguments of, oh, why would God make this creature
Starting point is 01:15:39 that does this or allow cancer and all of that? Because in the limitless oneness where all things are connected, there is no register. If there is no space and time, how can there be any context at all? Because everything is absolutely unified. For a moment, when you get the ego out of the way,
Starting point is 01:15:53 you channel it. It's present. It's in present. We've all got access to it. That's one of the messages of Christianity. It's one of the messages of Islam. It's one of the messages of Buddhism. Don't give it to some other person
Starting point is 01:16:01 and tell them, excuse me, will you look after me? It's there always. So it could be either. It could be a demonic or demonic or evil jinn force. It could be any of those things. That's why these myths consistently address these possibilities. That's why I believe that any political systems that we devise have to honour spirituality, but the robustness and the trans-denominational nature of spirituality, We might all have different ways of getting there. And someone like you is not going to want someone like me
Starting point is 01:16:28 telling you what to do. And I think most people feel that. I don't want no one telling me what to do. I don't like it. If I choose to follow some system, whether it's political or religious, then I will. But I don't want centralised forces dominating that landscape,
Starting point is 01:16:41 whether they're financial, governmental, cultural or corporate. Bring this shit down. That's what America was meant to be anyway. It was meant to be federalized. Everyone was meant to, all these nations that established it
Starting point is 01:16:50 were meant to run their own states. Allow people to run their own communities. This is what I feel must be the principle. And the reason we do it is because no one
Starting point is 01:16:58 has no more value than anybody else. Well, first of all, I love that these ideas are resonating with you because it is the foundation of Hinduism. Like everything,
Starting point is 01:17:06 it's everything that Hinduism is. I told you I'm a Jat, bro. Yeah, I love that these ideas are resonating with you because it is the foundation of Hinduism. Like everything, it's everything that Hinduism is. I told you I'm a Jat, bro. Yeah, so the Jats are sick, but that's close enough. That's pure Hinduism. Yeah, okay, fair enough, fair enough. I actually really admire that you study Hinduism. I think it's beautiful when other people study other religions. And I love that you are very conscious of your ego and you are always watching it now my question to you is how do you reconcile that with the first 30 seconds of all
Starting point is 01:17:30 of your youtube videos now hello there you 5.8 million away because you've got to generate a little bit of heat you've got you've got to get people going we don't get rid of toilet paper bro you keep a little bit of toilet paper i I was riled up listening to that. I was like, this is the truth? Vaccines? Have us meditate, yo. Let's do some truth. We've got to do all of it.
Starting point is 01:17:54 We've got to do all of it. We have to awaken them. It's all of our responsibility. And even over the course of this conversation, we've seen how there are different contributions that we're all making. I don't think I'm any better at being you than you are. There's no way. You are the best person. You're a miracle at it.
Starting point is 01:18:05 You're marvelous at it. You're doing such an incredible job. And like, I want to be left alone to kind of be me and look for opportunities to collaborate and cooperate. And I feel like, I think we're finding them right now, aren't we? Here's my thing is you really are so brilliant and so influential. And then to say truth is a politic, as opposed to truth is the God within,
Starting point is 01:18:26 is the Atman, is what Greg achieved, which is we are all God inside. And Greg achieved that for a minute. It was beautiful. That's truth. Yes, I agree with you. And I just think you're so influential
Starting point is 01:18:37 and so smart and have such a grasp of it that when you call the things you're about to say about the vaccine or whatever, although valid, I agree with a lot of it. It's just not truth. Truth is this thing that you understand very well. Yes. Truth is a very, very complex idea. But if you think about that, those kind of that kind of content
Starting point is 01:18:53 doesn't exist in a vacuum. I'm like trying to address a very particular problem that there are certain narratives that are being offered. And I believe it's part of my role to create populist connections between diverse communities including in my opinion blue collar communities in my country and in your country so that people start to recognize hold on a minute there are other ways of approaching this and I'm always careful to say you do whatever you think is right I don't think I know more than you your child is different than mine you've got different grandparents than me. You've got different ancestors. Because this is where we're lucky as stand-ups.
Starting point is 01:19:28 We get to look in their eyes. We get to look in their eyes. And I tell them, I don't think I'm cleverer than you. I know you're sick of being spoken to like you're an idiot. I know you're over it. And I see that this is how we conduct our discourse. We're comedians. We're not better than them.
Starting point is 01:19:42 We are them. We're a certain part of their spirit. I don't say nothing on that channel I don't believe in. And even collaboratively, the people on my team who I'm wise enough not to put on camera, Andrew, little note for you there. Like, you know, they don't agree with me. So, like, I'm continually having to go, well, this is what I think. They go, no, this study says this, this study says that.
Starting point is 01:20:01 I actually agree with a lot of what you say. And it's a small thing, but it gets, as a Hindu, it means a lot to me that truth is not, especially because you know, truth is not something to be told. It's something to be sought from within. That's beautiful. I will honor that piece of advice.
Starting point is 01:20:15 And I will honor that note. I'll take that on board. Thank you. You helped me to grow. That's a beautiful thing. Listen, Russell Brand, thank you so much. Thanks for having me on your amazing show. You're so brilliant. I appreciate you for taking the time, man. This is Russell Brand, thank you so much. Thanks for having me on your amazing show. You're so brilliant.
Starting point is 01:20:25 I appreciate you for taking the time. I love it. This is awesome. I'm so glad I came here. Thank you for coming to our country. You're beautiful. You're brilliant. Thank you.
Starting point is 01:20:32 Thank you for coming. Thank you very much. Okay, everybody watching at home, now that we're in this beautiful studio right here, not the one we did the KSI interview in. That was a fucking dump. It was basically like a Hampton Inn that we made into something that was respectable.
Starting point is 01:20:44 God bless this team. But now we're in this decadent, ornate studio, not built for podcasting, okay? Built for much more elevated things. This is Fiction Studios, and it is absolutely beautiful space. And a lot of people come here, they record albums, they record fucking anything. It's a recording recording studio and they were nice enough to accommodate us and then went above and beyond so we could have this beautiful space and we just wanted to shout them the fuck out nathan at fiction studios make sure you ask for nathan okay he looks like one of them twins from matrix 2 uh and he's a good man and you should you should ask for him if you ever need to record out here literally anything but you have this amazing space you could do it in. So check them out.
Starting point is 01:21:25 And then also, the way that we got in touch with it was through Yaz and Hot Patch. Now, Hot Patch is essentially Airbnb for recording studios. So Val and Yaz made this whole thing go down with Nathan. So if you're ever trying to, especially if you're in London, I think they got a place in Dubai now. They're out there in Korea. We're trying to get them over to the United States so they can work with WTF. But Hot Patch has got your back. UK people, you need a studio where you can record your podcast, record music, whatever the fuck it is you need recorded. You go through Hot Patch. Okay. We're partial to
Starting point is 01:21:58 Fiction Studios, but they have like thousands of different places you could also record at, but recorded Fiction Studios. But if they're not available, you can record at some of them other bum-ass places. Just don't do it at the Hampton Inn or wherever the fuck we did that one. Anyway, point is, we love them. They did a fucking great job for us, so make sure you guys support them as well.

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