The Sevan Podcast - Russell Berger | CrossFit Folklore

Episode Date: February 11, 2024

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Starting point is 00:01:02 That's what's going on. I'm finally learning stuff that you said 10 years ago some of us are slower than others like what oh not to pay attention to things people say on social media baby killing is bad
Starting point is 00:01:22 oh yeah what took me so long What took me so long What took me so long Hey you're not alone on that What took me so long Someone I told you that 10 years ago You shouldn't You shouldn't kill babies
Starting point is 00:01:40 I know fuck I know Welcome to the team thank you i'm i'm slow oh look at my look my fit my live stream to facebook just isn't working i bet you that's uh hey oh where are you i like your background background. I like your outfit. I like everything about you right now. You like my style? Yeah, yeah. I'm in my office at home. In what state is that?
Starting point is 00:02:11 North Alabama in Huntsville. Actually, just outside of Huntsville. So when I knew you, I think you moved there and you've always been there. Did you used to live in Santa Cruz for a second or no? Yeah, we lived in Capitola for like two years. Okay, that's what I thought. Yeah, we moved back here when my wife was having crazy health problems and we just needed to be near family. So that was like 2013, 2014.
Starting point is 00:02:43 You came back here. And that's where you were born? No, I was born in Groton, 2014. You came back here. And that's where you were born? No. I was born in Groton, Connecticut. Navy base. I was a Navy brat. My dad was on subs. Oh, no shit.
Starting point is 00:02:57 So we bounced all around. I ended up in a couple places in the southeast. Went to high school in Atlanta. And then my mom, her family is from Huntsville and then my my mom her family is from huntsville and my wife and her family are from huntsville so we just ended up back here and you have two kids yep and how old are they now my daughter is 15 and my son is 13 holy shit yeah that's that's how i feel i was just thinking i was just thinking about that the other
Starting point is 00:03:24 night uh last night i was telling my wife i go oh man there's gonna be a. I was just thinking about that the other night. Last night, I was telling my wife, I go, oh, man, there's going to be a time when I just can't just scoop them up and cuddle them anymore. God, 13 is getting there, right? Yeah, it's getting there. You can't just pick them up and just hold them. He'll be like, what are you doing? I'm my own kid. My son, my son's a 13-year-old.
Starting point is 00:03:46 He is, he's like. He's still a kid. He's in the teenage years now. And it's weird because all of the other kids his age, like in the neighborhood, kids that he meets who go to public school and have cell phones with social media and do a lot of crap. Public school. He's so different from them that he can't interact with them he's he like he still wants to climb trees and go fishing and play with trucks yeah uh which is i love it i don't want that to change um uh do so they think he's the weird homeschool kid or or do they like him do they kind of look up to him they're like damn he still got
Starting point is 00:04:21 his swagger i wish i had that yeah my it's funny my kids are liked by the homeschool kids and my kids will tolerate sorry my kids are liked by the public school kids but my kids will tolerate and sometimes not tolerate the public school kids like in the neighborhood they just don't they don't know how to interact with them they're like hey let's go out let's go out to the creek and throw rocks and stuff and they're like no i want to play fortnight they need a bowl of cheerios yeah so my kids trip on the other kids too the other kids really like them you're you're right the other kids really like them and my kids are really nice obviously right because they don't spend half the day fighting and competing with other kids my kids are like the fun dangerous kids in the neighborhood.
Starting point is 00:05:05 Right. Like if the first bee goes up in the tree, they want your kids there. Your kids will go up and get it. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Someone has to climb a fence. Someone has to talk to the cops or an adult. Your kids can do that.
Starting point is 00:05:17 Someone has to pick up a snake or, yeah. God, that's so cool. Yeah, your kids are homeschool, right? Yeah. One of them went to kindergarten before he was homeschooled, so he got a little experience and the other two have never been um my wife signed him up for this uh i don't know what to call it but it's like a literary class it's basically you read a book at home with your kids and then you send your kids somewhere else um for three hours and then all the kids get in the room and then they talk about the book and like yeah and uh that my that was the first time then they talk about the book and like, yeah. And,
Starting point is 00:05:45 that was the first time my kid, that's the longest my kids have ever been away from me or my wife, even though my wife was just downstairs. They were three. It was crazy. They came out like new people. They came out, they came out all shit. We spent three hours by ourselves. It was crazy. Yeah. People ask me, what do you do for a homeschool curriculum? hours by ourselves it's crazy yeah people ask me what do you do for a homeschool curriculum and i assign books my kids read books i make them write reflection papers and answer questions you can aside from the math that they we outsource you can get an amazing education from reading good books uh um do you think the public school system can be um uh in a perfect world do you think it can be saved, or do you just think that it's a mistake to just – it's going down the wrong path sending kids in large groups to be educated by the government? Yes.
Starting point is 00:06:36 So both. You think that there is somewhere where you could have some sort of education program that's solid for your kid what about this what about before we get to that what about this thing and i know people are going to be like hey the world's not set up like that not everyone can do that but there is this weird component that i didn't realize until i started homeschooling it's like you found some girl. You fell in love with her. You fornicated with her and had kids. And now you're going to send them away to let someone else raise them for eight hours a day for 15 years. my it's like i admire the guy who who uh takes his dog everywhere you know the guy who has the border collie in the jeep with no leash and it just goes everywhere with them you're like fuck that that's a good life for him and the dog as opposed to just um meanwhile his kids are being raised by the government right right uh i i something just seems off like don't have kids if you don't want to raise them to me yeah Yeah. It's, I mean, that's,
Starting point is 00:07:45 it's, uh, I mean, the family is designed the way it is for mother and father to raise their children and sending your kids off to public school. Uh, I think for most, I can understand why some people would do that. I understand there's some situations where,
Starting point is 00:08:05 uh, right. You know, if you work at seven 11 and you have a nine year old kid, bring your kid to work with you. He needs to start working the register, stocking the shelves. Um, see the guy who's, why does the guy who smoked cigarettes have his teeth missing? How come the drunk guy is really nice, but fucking smells like he pooped his pants. Like why the price of chewing gum go up from a dollar to five dollars a pack in the six years i work like just take your kid to work with you at 7-eleven why not that's called an apprenticeship yeah yeah i i want to be sympathetic towards people who maybe
Starting point is 00:08:35 just haven't thought well about this and think it's the best option for them but i i'd also like to sit down with that person and explain why I think they're probably wrong. Yeah. My kids were going to a public school that was $2,300 – sorry, a private school that was $2,300 a month. So that ends up being like $7,000 a month for three kids. And it was a Montessori school. And then, of course, there were half the kids who went there were on scholarship and got to go for free because I live in Santa Cruz. And when I lost my job, that just there was no way that was going to happen.
Starting point is 00:09:10 Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I just brought everyone home. Isn't it better? Yeah. I watched my wife teach my kids how to read and write and do math. I can't even fucking believe it. She she's like, I didn't do it.
Starting point is 00:09:20 Kumon did it. I'm like, no, you did it. Kumon did it. Yeah. Yeah. The public the public school systems are a disaster. I'd like to abol, you did it. Kumon did it. Yeah, the public school systems are a disaster. I'd like to abolish them just completely. But I don't think that's ever going to happen. But there are ways that we could make that better.
Starting point is 00:09:36 And a big part of that is localism. The communal school was the model for 100 years. You had a local community that paid a tutor, a teacher, would give them room and board, give them a salary, and they just shuttled all their kids down to the end of the town. And they sat in a one-room schoolhouse and learned together. The community controlled to an extent who was teaching and what they were teaching. How does that comport with getting rid of schools? I'm sorry, you said you'd abolish schools, but now you're saying you would have a school.
Starting point is 00:10:09 Yeah, I'm not against communal schooling. I'm against the federalization of the public school system. So the Department of Education, I can't remember when they were stood up. It wasn't that long ago, is a big part of the problem of why public schools are mostly terrible. So yeah, I don't want my kids in a public school and my kids don't want to be in a public school.
Starting point is 00:10:33 And it's crazy. I think there are a lot of people now who have started homeschooling their kids at a young age and they see the contrast. They see the way their kids behave differently, the way they're actually learning behave differently the way they're actually learning stuff the way they're getting to spend quality time with their kids and teach them values that the school system is probably not teaching maybe also undermining and uh yeah it really it's like when you walk out of a room that smells like garbage and you come back in you're like oh wow that was terrible and i just got used to it. Because I'm in Santa Cruz and my kids are always out doing things, right? I know a lot of the other parents. So you start seeing a lot of the other parents, like you'll see them in jujitsu or soccer
Starting point is 00:11:17 or just wherever at the park or at the 4th of July parade or at tennis, right? Because all the parents are like taking their kids to different places, trying to figure out what their kids should be involved in. And there's this one group of these two kids, eight and six, who are kind of on the same circuit as us. Their parents, we became friends, and their kids are sort of now doing everything we're doing. And at first they're like, man, this is a lot that you're doing with your kids. I'm like, well, you got to pull your kids out of school if you want to do this circuit. And so they ended up pulling their kids out of school, and they can't even believe what happened to their oldest daughter.
Starting point is 00:11:50 Like total problem child completely went away. And it was basically her just trying to compete with the other kids at the school and lying had set in and exaggerating and being mean to people in order to impress other people. And they said, shit, all that shit went away. All the behaviors went away. And I was like, maybe that's why it's so easy. Parenting is so easy for me. Maybe it's because, uh, I always said it's because I have discipline and structure around my kids and crazy boundaries, but maybe it's just because they're just not learning shit from other kids. I think that's probably right. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:22 We joke and say the government's raising your kids in public school. It's actually other kids raising your kids. Right, right. Good point. Right, right. 30 kids and one teacher. They're being raised in this like tribalistic youth group that's mostly influenced by TikTok. And what do you get? Like you said,
Starting point is 00:12:45 you get competition, you get performative behaviors, you get lying, you get abuse. It's just, it's the norm. It's like, I mean, it's probably like what it's like in prison. Yeah. When we say competition, I'm not talking about competition. Like you and your buddies are down at the Creek trying to see who can kill the most butterflies with rocks. It's not, yeah, it's not like that at all. It's, um, who can can who can bring a cell phone to school uh who has the most expensive shoes yeah it's crazy shit um great point by dan uh his first ever on the show but i mean i guess even a broken clock is wrong right twice a day it's not about where they go to school it's about what examples are set at home every day i i don't agree with the first part of the sentence, but yeah, man, the examples at home are... How are they getting those examples
Starting point is 00:13:30 at home if they're at school from 7 to 3.30? Right. Well, you can try and make up for it with a little bit of time you have with your kids at the end of the day when they're tired and hungry, but I'd rather have more time with my kids to influence them and shape them. And when you're tired and hungry. Right. You're tired and hungry and they're tired and hungry. Yeah. Yeah, it's, I mean, in all fairness, when my kids are home, I'd say 80% of the time they're at home, that's their time.
Starting point is 00:14:04 They're in the backyard. They're like fuck i've been with you all day I'm going in the backyard or me and my brothers are going to go in the garage and see you can jump the highest or some shit So so I mean they don't even want to uh, do you let your kids watch tv russell? We watch tv together and we only do it occasionally. Oh and uh Like we do it as like a family thing. We have one television in the house.
Starting point is 00:14:28 It's in my wife and my bedroom. And we don't actually have cable. We just basically stream YouTube or whatever video we want to watch with them. And yeah, we do it as a communal thing. Like we'll play, we'll get on YouTube and like play quiz games. You know, the guess the movie
Starting point is 00:14:43 by the soundtrack quiz game or we'll watch some stupid meme video and see who can go the longest without laughing. We'll watch some documentaries, but yeah, we don't watch a lot of television. Do you let them do any Disney stuff? Do you let them watch Trolls or Batman or any of that stuff? No, and the best part is they don't have a taste for it. They don't want to watch it. Wow, wow, wow.
Starting point is 00:15:05 It's just like good food. You feed your kids good food, and the best part is they don't have a taste for it. They don't want to watch it. Wow, wow, wow. It's just like good food. You feed your kids good food, and they eat garbage. They're like, yeah, I get why people eat that, but it makes me feel bad. It's the same thing with media. What media they consume shapes their tastes, and when they get something that's radically different and not good, they can sense it. But you had to start them off like that you had to be strict like that so so i've let my kids watch some pretty shitty tv and they're into some pretty shitty tv like um there's this movie called trolls yeah and although they've probably only
Starting point is 00:15:37 been to the movies i don't know 10 times in their life they did go to the movies and see that movie on a snowy day in Idaho and holy shit, man, they're so into it. That's funny. Like they want to come home and watch it over and over, but food, a hundred percent, uh,
Starting point is 00:15:53 they'll see a bowl of ice cream and they won't run to it. They know they're like, Ooh, that's not going to somehow they figured out better than I did that. That's not going to make me feel good. You have to balance that. Like you don't want to completely remove all of those temptations and experiences from their life because then they're gonna they're gonna leave your house and be like what's all this good stuff dad's been keeping from me forever yeah you want to figure it out on their own
Starting point is 00:16:14 yeah give them a little bit of a leash at some point well um uh on halloween they pretty much i tell them hey when we come back you can eat, but when you wake up in the morning, it's all going to be gone. And usually five pieces in, every – the last probably three Halloweens, they're sick. They're done, yeah. They're done. They're bummed. They'll even say, why did you let us do it? Mike Andridge, my kid goes to public schools. No, your kid only goes to one public school, but I hear you.
Starting point is 00:16:45 just my kid no your kid only goes to one public school but but i hear you my kid goes to public schools and our neighborhood kids also uh and our neighborhood kids also so all of them go to public school they all play outside more than video games it's the parents parents parents um i went to public school i didn't play video games uh well until they came out and and i played outside all day but that's because my mom was at work. And boy, I learned some crazy shit from those kids. Yeah. I learned some crazy shit and I saw some crazy shit and some crazy shit went down. Yeah, I just want to repeat that. Like, yeah, it's not just the public school.
Starting point is 00:17:16 I get that. But when you're exposed to bad behaviors and bad values and the undermining of your values from 7 a.m. to 3.30 each day, you really have to be very loud and very assertive with your parenting to overcome that. You're fighting a losing battle in terms of just time and influence with your kids. So you can be the greatest parent in the world. And then from, again, from the entire time they're at school, they're absorbing, they're absorbing all of the things around them from their peers. And it is going to have an impact on their behavior. Listen to this, by the way, this wasn't supposed to be a homeschooling show. Augustus Link, public schooling will most likely give you normal kids.
Starting point is 00:18:04 What do you mean? like septum ring blue hair and want to try to be normal I hear you but homeschooling will either result in very well behaved kids like savans are completely batshit crazy depending on who's teaching listen if you're smoking crack at home
Starting point is 00:18:19 and that's the reason why your kids are homeschooled yeah they're gonna end up... Not what we're talking about. But, boy... You send your kid to public school and suddenly they're wearing cat ears and they want to pee in a litter box. I live in a small town. I think, I don't know, 30,000 people.
Starting point is 00:18:42 My neighbors have donkeys. There's turkeys running wild in the streets. But I am 17 miles away from the headquarters of Apple, the richest company in the world. Never heard of them.
Starting point is 00:18:59 But I see the kids on the corner and first, I wouldn't want my kids dressing like that and behaving like that, the shit I see. Like there's no – I can't even fucking believe what I see, especially from the girls. I cannot fucking believe what I see. Yeah, girls have it hardest for sure. I mean I started homeschooling my kids because we wanted them taught from a Christian
Starting point is 00:19:25 worldview and public schools are not religiously neutral. They're teaching your kids from a, the religion of secularism. What does that mean? What does that mean? Secularism? Just, just a religious view that it's, it's sort of a self-deception. Like it's the view that you can be religion free, right? Like you can that you can be religion-free, right? Like you can be free of religious biases and you can teach the world from a religiously neutral perspective. It's not only is that not true, but it itself becomes a religion that values humanism and human reason and autonomy and hedonism.
Starting point is 00:20:00 And that's what's taught in public schools by default. It's by design. Hold on a second. I want to – we'll get to the girl thing. I want to go into that secularism thing in a second. So are you saying that everyone has to have a religion? Just like if I ask you what's in your mouth, you can say nothing or you can say my tongue or you can say tobacco. Yeah, you could say a piece of ice cream. But for someone to say I'm not religious is to say I don't have a mouth. They're just a fucking liar. Everyone has to – do you have to have a religion?
Starting point is 00:20:38 Because I think I'm just starting to understand maybe that that's a true statement in the last five years. That to say you don't have a religion, then that becomes your religion. And I'm like, oh shit, that's a true statement in the last like five years that to say you don't have a religion then that becomes your religion and i'm like oh shit that's bizarre and one more thing i'd like to throw out there is is since i wasn't raised with a religion is that why i didn't learn about values until i was like 45 like because people i hear people say always they have values or morals and i'm like i don't think I have any of those. But then recently, since I had kids, I realized I started having values. People who are religious get values. It comes with values when you're aware of your religion.
Starting point is 00:21:16 So you were correct when you said everybody has a religion. If you say I don't have a religion, you're making a religious claim. You're making a claim about religion. It is part of your worldview. Really, this comes down to how you define religion. Secularists, this secular humanism is what it used to be called. It was a self-defined religion and is now backing away from that over the last several decades. That view says that you can be without religion, but then they just replace all of the things that religion is with secular ideals and values and epistemology.
Starting point is 00:21:52 And so it is a religion. It just tries to be a religion without any reference to God. Give me an example. So so when you say the earth was created from Big Big Bang, if I say I'm not religious and then I say, what do you think? That's a creation myth. You have a story of creation. That's part of your religion. Okay. So you do have a religion. I wonder what you said. You weren't raised with values, but you, you have values. You had moral, you had a moral, um, standard by which you judge behaviors around you. You just didn't have it structured and codified and written down somewhere or taught to you in a formal way everybody has that right right right so so this is so like if i saw a kid getting picked on at
Starting point is 00:22:34 school sometimes i would cry and i those were because somehow i had values or morals that were being or i feel like i'd have to go over and stand up for the kid yeah and i mean we all never said no one ever explained to me what that is like. Hey, I guess, I guess my mom would say, treat people how you want to be treated. She'd always tell me that.
Starting point is 00:22:51 Something like the golden rule, right? We have, we all have a moral intuitions written on our heart by God. We're born that way. And we walk around with them and yes, they get corrupted by our own sin and our own uh selfishness but but some element of that exists in every human being and everybody everybody walks around with
Starting point is 00:23:13 their own moral reasoning and makes judgments about things and that those are all fundamentally religious beliefs so when your public school teaches your kid hey it is not only morally acceptable but good and worthy of celebration that this little boy is taking hormones and wanting his penis cut off because he's actually a little girl inside. That public school is teaching your kids something theological about design and about the teleology of human existence, about what a human is, and about basically about what should structure our identity. So that public school is teaching us that we have a poetic or an internal identity, like you are what you feel you are, not you are what reality around you says you are. And that public school is also teaching something about
Starting point is 00:23:59 morals. You must celebrate this behavior. That is a moral imposition on our kids. And so all of that is religious, whether they claim it is or not. Caleb, can we see what moral is just one second? I need help with some of these words. Yeah. Wow. So there's a demand on taking a moral position when they say a lesson, especially one concerning what is right or prudent that can be derived from a story, a piece of information, or an experience. A person's standards of behavior is beliefs concerning what is and not acceptable for them to do. So that second entry is the one that all people have, and it's fundamentally part of your religion. So is it a complete misnomer is it just completely not true someone says i'm not religious is that what are they really saying i'm just not conscious of my own religion that's correct or they're using a very peculiar and specific definite definition of religion that only
Starting point is 00:25:00 is those religions that they want to reject and not their own. So religion, can you look up religion too, Caleb? Thank you. So maybe religion is your internal rules of behavior? It's an aspect of what your religion is. Aspect. Religion encompasses all sorts of things. What do you believe is right and wrong? Why do you think we're here? What's the meaning of life? Where do we come from? Who are we obligated to obey when we do these right and wrong things? Where are we going when we die? All of these are religious questions, and everyone who has an answer to any of that has a religious perspective, has a religion. The belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers. That is a modern definition that is heavily influenced by
Starting point is 00:25:45 secularism which is which is the attempt to carve out this special realm of beliefs that is free from like first amendment violations so if i say i'm secular and i have all these religious views but i can convince you that that's not a religion well now i can teach it to your kids and your tax dollars will pay for it. Oh, wow. Now I'm not teaching a religion in public schools, but there's a Supreme Court case that determined this. There was actually about, I think it was in the 60s,
Starting point is 00:26:18 there was a Supreme Court case saying, hey, secular humanism is a religion. Why are we having our kids taught this in public schools? And the Supreme Court went with the secularists when they when they backed away from the definition of hey we're a humanist religion they dropped that and the supreme court said yeah they're not a religion they can teach it wow um uh there's something i want to play with you that's fucking crazy along those same lines can you pull up uh caleb on my instagram this i don't know who this is. I saw this on Instagram on Rebel News, and it's a guy from Canada. Yeah, listen to this. Listen to this.
Starting point is 00:26:55 Listen to this. Do you view this as a parental rights issue at all? Well, I'd like to say, first of all, there's no such thing as parental rights in Canada. There are parental responsibilities. And in Canadian family law, the primary responsibility of parents is to support and affirm their kids. Children have rights in Canada. And these kind of policies restrict the rights that children have in Canada. Do you view parental rights as an issue at all?
Starting point is 00:27:21 Play one more sentence, Caleb. Here we go. A rights issue at all? Well, I'd like to say, first of all, there's no such thing as parental rights in Canada. at all play one more sentence caleb here we go a rights issue at all well i'd like to say first of all there's no such thing as parental rights in canada one more parental responsibilities one more and in canadian family law the primary responsibility canadian family law so did he just say the government owns your kids not the parents when he says that's right run by canadian family law So what he just said is the only rights you have are the rights that Canadian government has agreed to give you. Yeah. Your rights are not based on anything outside of what we say. That's some crazy word fuckery. Randall Garrison.
Starting point is 00:28:01 Hey, you know how people will talk about the Second second amendment and be like yeah it's it's for hunting and sport this is why we have a second amendment so when this guy comes and takes your kid you just fucking yeah there's a second amendment so that you can defend yourself against statists like that and so you can uphold the first amendment um what is a statist someone like him who is uh i'm presuming this guy's religion is worship of the state. Like we are – so think about it. Where do your rights come from as a human being? I guess a cooperation from other – my neighbor not coming over here and beating me up and taking my shit. So that's an application of your rights. Like that's how you can see you have them but where do they come from they don't come from your neighbor
Starting point is 00:28:48 because then your neighbors could all get together and say yeah we have rights but that sevon guy he's not human he doesn't have rights yeah so i don't know where they come from they come from your creator they're inherent in in you by design this is what the declaration of independent independence acknowledges that by design we are created. That's not true, though. That's just like a supposition, right, that we make? Oh, no, it's true. You don't have to agree with it.
Starting point is 00:29:15 But if you don't ground your rights as an image bearer of God in you inherently as just the fact that you're a human being who breathes and exists. is just the fact that you're a human being who breathes and exists. If your rights are based on anything else, then you end up with what that guy just in that clip said, which is actually no, your rights come from the government. And if your rights come from the government, then we can just determine at whim which ones you have and which ones you don't. This is why abortion is a problem.
Starting point is 00:29:53 Before you go too much further than that, you're touching on something, which is the reason why in the last 10 years I've really accepted Christianity. Even though I'm not a Christian, I understand the crazy importance of it for my freedom. I'm like, okay, I haven't been called by God. Um, there's no one talking to, uh, I'm open to it. I just haven't been called at all. But so can you go back and touch on that more? Why is it, why is it important that we, uh, why is it important that we have this, what I call a supposition that we have, Why is it important that we have this, what I call a supposition, that we were born with rights? Yeah, so we're created with inherent dignity and value as image bearers of God, every single person on earth. That supposition was the basis for things like what our founders put in the Declaration of Independence, that we have inalienable rights given to us by our creator.
Starting point is 00:30:44 Yeah, that's the word, inalienable rights given to us by our creator. Yeah. That's the word inalienable rights. And so when you recognize that your dignity and value, your humanness, that the image of God in you comes from something external to what any of us think about it. Yeah. Then when I stand up a authoritarian government, I can't say, Hey, you know, you know, those rights that you had, well, we've changed our mind, you don't have those anymore, because they were never mine to give to begin with. So something like abortion is a great example of this, we're, we're killing
Starting point is 00:31:13 small human children in their mother's womb. And really, what the any argument what you want to make for why abortion should be legal. It all boils down to, I want to consider that child as something less than I would consider other human beings. That child has less rights than all of the rights that we all enjoy as, as people outside of a womb. And it's the same process. That's the same logic that's behind what the Nazis did to the Jews. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:42 We're human, but they're not, they have different rights than us. Is what is that why they call it um reproductive rights because they and and stuff like abortion instead of baby killing because that's too it's obfuscation yeah they don't want to talk directly about what's really being said which is like that guy like the guy in the alpha news clip he he's he's really saying the government controls your kids, but he doesn't say that he calls it as protecting the rights of the kids. Yeah. And yeah, that's really enforcing enforcing the law on your kids. The government will enforce the rules on your kids, not you.
Starting point is 00:32:28 you have some rights but those rights are all subordinate to the state's right to raise your child and make decisions as to what's best for your child and so at any point i know that your kids have rights it's like it's word fuckery yeah yes yeah it's it's muddying the water so that you as a parent don't have your have red lights start going off in your head warning warning we can talk to your kid about chopping your kid's dick off you cannot talk to your kid about not chopping their dick off basically yeah man canada's canada's really fucked up huh yeah i don't know how people live there it's a mess here's the thing i don't think that they think it's going to happen to them so so i don't know if you've had i've now had i've three uh people in my sphere who've uh this state's tried to take their kids from them
Starting point is 00:33:19 or they've had or they've had cps come yeah oh so check this out. Did you hear the story of the Muslim guy? You know one of them. No, but tell me. I can't wait to hear this. So there's this Muslim – I think he was a physician. He was white-collar, worked in – he was in Oregon. I think it was – no, Washington State. That's what it was. He was in Washington State. Yeah, one of the guys I know had to flee with his 15 year old daughter from washington state and and now she's like 17 and she's like thank you dad for taking me so this dude uh he had a son who was a little bit on the spectrum had some behavioral issues some you know something was going on lockdowns happened from covid and so the kid spends like eight hours a day just sitting alone in his room watching YouTube videos, decides to stop sleeping, starts to have problems, gets sent into the hospital and
Starting point is 00:34:11 put in a psych ward. This is all lockdown, so like parents can't see him. Well then the hospital sends a letter to the father and says, hey, we wanted to let you know in the progress of your daughter's treatment and starts referring to his son as she. And so he gets wind of this and starts talking to the care team. Turns out that they've decided to like full on gender therapy, hormonal treatment, looking at surgery in the future.
Starting point is 00:34:41 They've fixed this child's problem by determining that he's actually a woman. So the dad plays along like, oh yeah, absolutely. But, you know, is there any way we could do this outpatient? Like, could I come get my daughter from the hospital and then we can follow up with the gender treatments as soon as possible? You know, we'll go to the appointments. And the hospital's like, oh, yeah, since you're being cool about it, let's do that. Guy gets his son out of the hospital and leaves the state the next day. Gone.
Starting point is 00:35:10 Like, just ghosted him to go take care of his son who was being abused by this hospital system. That's the way to handle that, right? You go to a psych ward, and instead of them addressing your issue, they exacerbate it. They go along with it. You now are – you really are Abraham Lincoln. We're going to call you Abraham Lincoln.
Starting point is 00:35:32 And the young girls have this way worse. Crazy, dude. Young girls have this way worse. Have you read Abigail Schreier's book, Irreversible Harm? No. Abigail Schreier. You have to read that book. So this was a book that a lot of people tried to get banned off Amazon. She's not a Christian. She's a pretty
Starting point is 00:35:52 secular, liberal in the 2000 cents, not the 2024 cents. And she basically, she's a journalist, she wrote this book on the phenomena of transgender ideology and how it went from something that affected less than 1%, I mean, like 0.1% of males historically, to increasing by something like 3,000 or 4,000% and really predominantly affecting adolescent girls. So no longer was this a disorder that was onset at birth and affected males, but it's a disorder that's onset at 16 year old girls and is also socially contagious. Oh, I own the book. I just haven't, I own the book. Okay. Well read it. Listen to it. So what we're dealing with, with this transgenderism, and she makes a fantastic case for this, is it is a social contagion. It is a disease that's much like anorexia or disassociative disorder that is basically a socially acceptable way of teenage girls experiencing tons of anxiety and hormonal problems expressing that to get attention. And that sounds really dismissive. I don't mean it to sound like that. It is a real significant problem and requires these young girls need help. But she does a really good
Starting point is 00:37:17 job of showing that pretty much everything we've done to help them has made things worse. has made things worse um i can't remember where my sphere i heard this story but it was a lesbian couple and they had uh they had adopted their first kid or they had their first kid and it was a boy and then um they started you know they raised him non-binary and started like turning him to a girl and then they then they got another kid i think it was a daughter and i may have some of the details messed up but somewhere along the line they were telling me that they realized they were doing it because their friends told them to do it and that they had really fucked their son up wow and it was wrong yeah self-awareness fucking crazy right and to be able to admit that and so like they spent like i heard the story a couple years ago so they spent about they like this the first three years they
Starting point is 00:38:10 just basically let the boy become a girl right they just took him you know like a dose and took him down that path you know and um and for those of you who don't know what i'm what i'm saying is it's when you take your kid to the um uh halloween store and he says hey i want to be elsa and instead of just like ignoring him or not saying anything or like moving on or like maybe pulling out the spider-man costume you go oh my god that's so cool you want to be elsa and then and then you overcompensate and you buy him the elsa dress and the elsa shoes and then the day after halloween you let him wear him to school again and then you start we posted on instagram so all of your very progressive friends can applaud you and you buy him the Elsa dress and the Elsa shoes. And then the day after Halloween, you let him wear them to school again.
Starting point is 00:38:45 And then you start rewarding him. And we posted it on Instagram. So all of your very progressive friends can applaud you. Yes, yes, yes. I just wanted to tell you that's how it – I mean, I don't know where – maybe that doesn't – well, that's how it goes down everywhere with kids. That's how you raise kids. So, like, when Russell's kid's in the backyard and they pull out the baby gun and they put on their safety goggles, Russell goes, hey.
Starting point is 00:39:05 And they go, what? They go, good job, dude. I really like how you put it on. I really like it. Okay. When Russell's kid is sharpening his knife and he puts the knife sharpener away, Russell goes, dude. And the kid goes, what? He goes, I'm really impressed.
Starting point is 00:39:20 I really like that. That really helps me that I don't have to always be putting your shit away. Thank you, dude. Like I owe you one. I love you. That's kids are. That's how you raise a kid. And so when you do that, when the kid puts a butt plug in his ass kind of understand how what it's like raising a kid when you when we see those kids we know that they were abused we know what the parents did to them so what did you intend to talk about on this interview um you what was what was your um what would you say your job was at CrossFit? I always man, you were like the cool when you worked there, I just loved I have this friend, Jeff Holman
Starting point is 00:40:14 he was my friend in the second grade third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, all the way through high school but I loved going to school because I'd see him so I loved going to work to see you, I'd be like, oh Russell's gonna be there oh Russell's, oh I'm gonna talk to Russellsell oh he's gonna say some fucking funny shit or you were really creative you were really smart i just like being around you what but what was your job what did you like
Starting point is 00:40:34 what did you do you were always busy you were always busy you were always uh uh influencing the ship you you you were but only that, but you were a creator, which is kind of crazy. Like you had an executive role, but you were also a creator. You weren't like like, you know, like these current executives, they can't do anything. They can't hold a camera. They can't they can't actually do anything. So that's a good question. I always have trouble describing what I did because I did a lot of different stuff. Yeah. So I was a trainer and a good question. I always have trouble describing what I did because I did a lot of different stuff. Yeah. So I was a trainer and a flow master.
Starting point is 00:41:10 Holy fuck, I forgot about that. Yeah. Yeah, you were a trainer and a flow master. Crazy. Yep. So I was a flow master, trainer, worked in the training department for many years. That's kind of where I got started while also doing a lot of writing for the journal. And then I worked and you were a good athlete right weren't you close to going to the games a couple times i went to the games in 09 missed it by a couple points for like two more years after that and i think i quit i just gave up in 2012 i was tired of like going to regionals and not quite hitting the podium yeah and uh got injured just probably probably one of the best things that ever happened to me was stop to stop taking competitive fitness too seriously which is not good personally you did crazy shit like the
Starting point is 00:41:58 other guys in the early years like you would row with a 40 pound vest or some shit for an hour just weird shit like that right probably. Probably stuff dumber than that. Right. Okay. So, uh, so yeah, that worked for Greg,
Starting point is 00:42:09 um, directly doing a lot of just oddball brand issues. And then later, like a lot of, a lot of work trying to disrupt the schemes of our competitors and their, uh, and their industry sponsors like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo.
Starting point is 00:42:32 So a lot of you disrupt their, their schemes schemes. Yeah. Yeah. So like the fitness industry by and large was composed of, uh, proxies for PepsiCo and Coca-Cola. So the NSCA,
Starting point is 00:42:43 the ACM, they wanted to make cross-state training illegal. They didn't like us, but they couldn't compete with us. And we were telling people not to drink sugar. And that was hurting the bottom line of their platinum sponsors. So they would scheme. And I would do investigative journalism.
Starting point is 00:42:58 I uncovered the NSCA fraud case that led to that massive lawsuit. And then at the same time, I was like acting as a designated corporate representative in lawsuits testifying before juries and uh and then all the way on the other end of the spectrum like making media um running the overheard press just doing satire news stories all kinds of stuff and you even did the piece with uh carrie peterson where you guys went to uh jerusalem right yeah yep two pieces never saw the second one because i got fired but always wanted to see
Starting point is 00:43:31 braylon tender oh wow look at that isn't that new zealand holy shit look greg carrie me and you look at you oh man you had a selfie stick before there was a selfie stick that was your selfie stick you handed me that i'm trying to push that off on me like i'm not taking credit for that i still have glasses where do i have those glasses here no yeah it was in the new zealand airport i feel like uh braylon tender fitness competitor leviticus 1928 that's not real right what's not real that name no well that's not real for sure but levit oh you shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves i am the lord what about it he's calling out your tattoo maybe no i'd like to hear him articulate that because i guarantee he doesn't have any idea what that means or how to make that into a cogent argument yeah yeah braylon
Starting point is 00:44:25 yeah you get this all the time from uh the sort of fedora wearing uh basement dwelling atheists yeah they'll just quote something random from the old testament mosaic law yeah and then say well how come if you're a christian how come you don't do that well it's because we're in a completely different covenant. And so much of that law was designed as a shadow or a type to point forward to the realities of the new covenant. But if you don't understand that, you don't understand the story of the Bible, you're not going to get it. But they're not actually interested in hearing the story of the Bible. They don't want to understand the way the law is used today.
Starting point is 00:45:04 I'm trying to understand. Is Leviticus, that's Old Testament? That's the Old Testament, which is, it's God's law. And in the New Testament, tattoos are good. Yeah, they're neutral. There's freedom to tattoo yourself as you want. But hey, that's not to say you can't tattoo yourself in an idolatrous way. That's not to say you can't put a pagan symbol on your arm and be sinning and doing that, because that's essentially what that means in Leviticus, is that God was telling the people of Israel who he had a particular purpose for, don't mark yourselves with the pagan symbols that the people in the Canaanite lands around you are doing, because it will cause you to become
Starting point is 00:45:40 spiritually corrupted. You'll follow after their gods and you'll worship the gods that I'm trying to get you not to worship. There's a lot of laws that were particular to Israel for that purpose, their purity and their separation from the Canaanite pagan religions around them. That's just not relevant to us today because that law is specific to Israel and fulfilled in Christ. So, Froning's Galatians one one you're good with it yeah i mean you can still get a tattoo for a simple reason like i honestly if i could go back i wouldn't get these tattoos because i know i got them so people would look right i got them for i got them so i could have attention and um i wouldn't do that it was kind of you know just something i did
Starting point is 00:46:20 as a young christian and i'm probably more mature now. But that's not to say that there's something – there's not some way you could get a tattoo that would be perfectly fine. That's interesting you say you got that for attention. Isn't that why most people get tattoos? I don't think most people know why they get tattoos i think that they come up with like they have some sort of reason like i really like that or it's to remember my trip to the olympics or yeah but i don't think any most people are conscious enough i think most people think they are their thoughts yeah and they're enslaved to them um and they can't distinguish the thought the difference between the thoughts that just arrive in their head versus the ones they actually consciously think.
Starting point is 00:47:10 And so I, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what they think, but I know when you ask them, it's fucking weird. It was weird how quick you were to say you did it for attention because I, I don't think most people know. I think they just make up some reason that popped in their
Starting point is 00:47:28 head i don't think most people know sure how about this one uh wow we're uh oh so we can eat meat too leviticus do not eat any meat with the blood still in it uh-oh that's old testament too yeah my wife's been eating my wife's been eating some really raw meat lately. Like there's blood on it and shit. It's probably not blood. What is that red stuff? I think it's like enzymes that, you know, like you seep out of your ribeye when you cook it. It's not blood.
Starting point is 00:47:57 Okay. All right. Yeah. So when you buy a steak and it's like floating in red shit, that's not blood? Those are enzymes? What are enzymes? It's like a – so shit. That's not blood. Those are enzymes. What are enzymes? So the juice that seeps out of your state, I mean, maybe there's blood in it. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:48:09 But I know that a lot of that is enzymes from the muscle. Like that's how you do like a wet aging to a steak or to a cut of meat. You put it in a bag like that. You suck all the air out and you just let it sit in its own juices. And those enzymes will break the meat down and make it more tender. Okay. I don't even know what enzyme. That's all over my head.
Starting point is 00:48:31 Going back to the tattoo thing, people will say stuff like, my child died so I got this tattoo on him. Yeah. And it's like, no, that's actually, that's the story you're telling yourself. Yeah. That's not really –
Starting point is 00:48:50 I have one of those. My brother committed suicide, and I got his birth date and death date on my ribs. Oh, okay. Why do you think the real reason you did it? To manage – like I know someone would say for your memory, but is it to manage your pain or it's all you can do or it's acting out? Someone would say for your memory, but is it to manage your pain or it's all you can do or it's acting out? Or is there a reason? What's the thought that comes before I did it to remember my brother?
Starting point is 00:49:13 I didn't know your brother died. How old were you when your brother died? I was in my mid-20s. Damn. Yeah, this was 2011. Did he kill himself? Yeah, he committed suicide. Holy shit. Yeah, he overd 2011. Did he kill himself? Yeah, he committed suicide. Holy shit. Yeah, he overdosed on Tylenol PM on purpose.
Starting point is 00:49:31 Oh, fuck. Did he have kids? No, he was younger than me by two years. He was 21. Damn, dude, you've been through a lot of shit. Yeah, I mean, this was so long ago. When I think about it now like I think I probably got the tattoo because I just wanted to do something like I felt like I had to I felt like I had so little
Starting point is 00:49:51 control over any of it I think I think I probably just felt like hey here's one thing I can do and it's like a permanent mark on me it's going to make me feel something and I'll feel like I did something and he'll feel like I did something And he'll be there Like his memory will be there Like stuck to me forever So I can't forget him I mean I think that's what I was thinking
Starting point is 00:50:14 This was so long ago I can't have just most people on the show And we just shoot the shit Yeah is that what we're doing now? You didn't plan all this? No, I didn't plan any of this. I didn't plan any of this. It's so crazy that some people have the – I think some people have the inability to shoot the shit because they're guarding – oh, I see a squirrel outside – because they're guarding something. Did you look outside to see if you could see a squirrel? Like if we were getting an omen?
Starting point is 00:50:43 I was going to say, like, I have one too. I have chickens outside my window. my daughter's chickens are running around do squirrels uh integrate with the will you see just a squirrel hanging out next to a chicken they oh the chickens will chase it down like they want to kill it oh okay they probably eat it if they could why do you think that um a lot of people just can't shoot this shit i think it's just because they're they're guarded or they don't know how to talk about stuff or they're afraid they're afraid of like what might come out of their mouth it's 2024 do you realize how absurd it is that you do a live podcast do you realize like how many people are afraid to do what you're doing because of what they might say and what might happen to them socially and financially and economically.
Starting point is 00:51:26 You say the wrong thing. You say it on the internet, and suddenly you're banned. You're fired. That's why I love your show. It's so rare to see a live show like this. You just say what you think. So once a week, I get a – on average, once a week, four times a month, I get a note from someone else. So I'm just – this isn't true about you, but I get a note about someone else that says – someone will be like, hey, Sevan.
Starting point is 00:51:52 I'll be like, hey, what's up? And he'll be like, I'm friends with Russell Berger. I'll be like, oh, yeah, cool. How are you doing? Been a minute since I talked to you. Let's say it's Carol, someone named Carol. And I'll be like, yeah, and go, well, I was talking to Russell, and he's tripping on some shit you might bring up. I go, like what? And he and he goes well he doesn't know and i go uh dude i'm not like a monster i'm not
Starting point is 00:52:12 gonna be like i'm not gonna like like i'm not gonna have like the ceo of like some company on and then start asking what is uh hey i heard in high school you said you made a racial slur i'm like i'm not that guy. I take the temperature of the room and I roll. I'm not a gotcha guy. Well, see, I know that, but I think people are just so paralyzed about this kind of thing because of what they've seen other people go through.
Starting point is 00:52:37 I don't know. I've never had that problem. Right. Well, you were one of the first to get canceled. Yeah. You stood up against baby killing. Do you ever talk – have you – since you got fired from CrossFit, have you had any interaction with Jeff Kane or Olivia Leonard? Not once.
Starting point is 00:52:53 And I normally never say their name on the show, by the way. It's very rare. Normally I say the ex-CEO or his mistress. Yeah. I never refer to them by name. I like those titles better. I never refer to them by name. I like those titles better.
Starting point is 00:53:11 Yeah, because I don't want to give him fucking any attention. God, what a people. There are people in the company who I talked to regularly within days and have never stopped. Oh, since you got fired? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Greg is one of them. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:53:26 Isn't that a weird people isn't that what kind of special person is that that you and him he could fire you and then you guys still be friends i mean firing you was gnarly yeah yeah you have you have a family and and you are so loyal and just like all this shit um but you just stay friends with like i would stay friends with people i've people in the cup who've done really fucked up shit to me I mean not like you know, like not like stuck their thumb in my butt when I wasn't looking but just like, you know Made hardship for me. Um, i'm still friends. I used to would talk to you too What do you think that is about us that like well just keep going Like why not just hate those people like fuck you like that's what most people do fuck you
Starting point is 00:54:03 I'm, never talking to you again. You're an asshole. And then just rage, rage, jihad on Greg for the next 20 years on the Internet. This one time Greg bumped into me and knocked me down the stairs. And like, you just keep telling that story over and over. Yeah, there's just no, there's just no value to holding a grudge like that. You know, all that's going to do is, is make you miserable. What's the benefit? But you you were loyal you had a family you'd been around forever you'd been in the biggest fights um you couldn't you were irreplaceable so everything you're saying you can be like
Starting point is 00:54:38 fuck you're a dick dude i was a good dude everything you're saying is a reason why i think it was was wrong to fire me. Right. But like, if I made a list of the people who I knew who've done wrong things and even wrong things at me, I wouldn't be able to talk to anybody anymore. I've done tons of wrong things to people, things I'm aware of and things I probably have not even aware of.
Starting point is 00:55:00 And so I just, I try and give grace to people because I know I need it. And if somebody is willing to try and mend a relationship i'm happy to do it too so holding a grudge is weird yeah yeah uh i think it takes a lot a lot of pride to hold a grudge um which is funny because i'm i'm prideful too but like that's just one area where I've – in God's kindness, I'm not bent that way. You were in the military? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:55:35 In the Army? Yep, 1st of the 75th Ranger Regiment. As a Ranger Regiment, that means all the guys were rangers yeah yeah first first battalion ranger regiment um we were a ranger battalion and um and what's a ranger like do they have a special skill yeah it's part of the uh ususak special operations so it was uh a regiment of you know three different uh look at me camo. That was my last mission in Iraq before I got out of the army and I camoed up like I was in the movies, just as a joke. I don't think that green is dark enough.
Starting point is 00:56:16 Well, I mean, we were in the desert, so the green was pointless. And it was at night, so it was just a joke. It was just me clowning around last night in Aramadi before I left on my flight home for good. Yeah, Special Operations Group has a selection. You have to go through Ranger School and this selection in order to be in any leadership in Ranger Battalion. And all the guys you roll with are Rangers? It's not just one Ranger and then 10 other like other dudes oh we had other dudes we didn't have any regular army oh there's my son when he's little um we so we would roll with like air force j tax we would roll with fbi hrt guys
Starting point is 00:56:58 we would roll with we would be attached sometimes to seals or – I'm trying to think of the right words to call them that aren't maybe still OPSEC – Delta Force. So we would attach to those guys. We mixed with the country. Right, but you're not like – a ranger is a kind of soldier. It's not like – I think of like – I don't know. Maybe I'm just showing my ignorance. But I think if there's a team of 20 guys there's one guy that's Like the radio one guy that's the medic
Starting point is 00:57:28 And one guy that's the But but they were still considered rangers Oh yeah they had to go through all the same selections We okay okay so it's a kind Okay so it's like a seal in terms of like All this there is a seal who's running the radio But they were all still still so it's all Just yeah yep and what
Starting point is 00:57:44 Did the army did the army have a special use for those guys? Yeah, I mean- Or was there supposed to be a special use for those guys? So during GWAT, our special use was just breaching doors and balling people up at night. So we just- You would go by helicopter? It depended on where we were. Uh, sometimes we would do vehicles early on.
Starting point is 00:58:08 Like we would just, we would just run jammers to try and keep cell phone IEDs from blowing our cars up. And we'd ride around at night and drive under IR so nobody could see us. And we'd ride in panders because they were a little bit more built up, but mostly near the end of like the last couple of years I was in, we only flew. It's just safer. So we would fly in and we would land a couple of kilometers away and they would quietly walk on to the objective.
Starting point is 00:58:32 And we would, we would, uh, ball guys up without ever waking them up. We would just, they'd be shaken awake with a muzzle in their face and we would zip time and take them home. Oh,
Starting point is 00:58:43 much safer. Yeah. I mean, you can blow doors and zip time and take them home. Oh, much safer. Yeah. I mean, you can blow doors and run in and fill in hostage rescue style, but people get shot doing that. So we stopped. Did you, did you take guys who needed to be questioned or did you take guys who were
Starting point is 00:58:56 just bad guys need to be put in jail or yes. Yes. All that. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. We were mostly rounding up Al Qaeda cells. If you remember the old, um, there was like a lot of stuff in the news about chlorine gas bombs in like 07.
Starting point is 00:59:12 Like we spent my whole deployment chasing those guys down. We finally found them. The guys who are making that and doing that. You don't bring them back. They stay, right? Yeah. I doubt they saw freedom again. They're probably in Guantanamo Bay getting their picture taken by National Guard soldiers. Oh, you think that you guys actually captured them? I was thinking that those guys just got killed.
Starting point is 00:59:37 Oh, no. We would bring guys back and interrogate them and then send them off to be processed and hand them over to the regular army. Crazy. guys back and interrogate them and then send them off to be processed and hand them over to the regular army crazy tell me about um uh i i do want to ask you more i feel like a lot of people don't understand the god thing i want to come back to it yeah and i'm so glad i understand it i just wish i could articulate it better i want to come back to it about how everyone has a god so like be careful what you put in that spot yeah even if you don't like people like fuck god like there's no god that's silly but like hey dude like you better stick one in there even if you don't like even if you don't believe in god you don't believe in the one in the sky you better stick that one in there or else you're gonna get fucking don lemon and you're not even gonna know you have don lemon and you're gonna be fucked like so but i want to come back to that um tell me about the NSCA case about um like like I
Starting point is 01:00:32 know nothing about it about the very first about how you got the ball rolling like with the one you called William Kramer and all that yeah I think it started when i saw the study got pre-published and uh people were already writing about it in headlines study shows crossfit dangerous and uh what did that stand for the nsa is a national strength and conditioning association okay and uh then i get a i can't remember if I think I, yeah, I Facebook messaged or something, the owner of the gym where this, I found out where the study took place and found the gym where they had done the data collection and the workouts. And I called up the owner.
Starting point is 01:01:15 I was like, Hey, what's, what's going on? This, this is weird. Like, I don't think CrossFit hurts people like this. Are you doing something weird? Or did something happen in this study? And he was like, yeah, it's, it's complete. It's complete crap. They made it up. And so that sent me down a rabbit trail of finding the study coordinator, interviewing her, recording that interview. She claimed basically that there were a handful of people who didn't show up at the final test stage of the study. And so they had no data on them. And those people were then
Starting point is 01:01:46 marked by the study's author as having claimed to have been injured. And so I interviewed the corresponding author of this study. And I did it in the CrossFit offices in Santa Cruz. I recorded it on my phone. And I asked him a bunch of questions about it. And he was pretty quick to say, yeah, but you know, obviously coaching quality or type of movement, something's dangerous here because look at this, 13% of people got injured. And I was like, yeah, hey, about that. How did you know they got injured? And he said, well, they told us when they came to the lab that they couldn't complete it because they were they were injured or they'd had overuse injuries like yeah but you said five or six of them whatever percentage of it was you said they didn't come to the lab they dropped out like yeah because they were
Starting point is 01:02:34 injured like well how did you know like they did you do like hey raise your hand if you're not here because if they're not at the lab how did you gather data on them as to whether or not they were injured or not he couldn't tell me he just he was flabbergasted started getting defensive and got uncomfortable it's not even a hard question right yeah it's just basic logic like he would have been like oh uh dude they that you should have seen how fucked up they were they were on their back writhing they didn't even say that nothing the the fatal flaw of this study was it purported to give injury data for people who didn't show up for data collection. You can't take data on people who aren't there.
Starting point is 01:03:10 And so we started pursuing this. That was the lead author? That was the kid? That was the corresponding author, the lead author. So his supervisor for his PhD, Stephen Deaver. Why didn't you – what was his name? Stephen Deaver. I've never didn't you what was his name devon deaver steven deaver i've never figured out how to say his name oh so so he wasn't the actual author he was the he was the supervising he was an author like his name was on the paper but you know how that stuff works in academia like
Starting point is 01:03:37 you get your name on whatever you can get your name on but he he oversaw the study because he was uh mike smith's phd supervisor okay so um yeah we started investigating we we were super people look like when we talk about them can you see their face in your head like yeah steven was like a skinny triathlete looking bald guy kind of had like a yes he used to write for outside magazine, did he? He has that look, yeah. He has that look. And so we felt pretty confident about this and so I called the NSCA's journal. I called their journal and got William Kramer, the editor
Starting point is 01:04:15 in chief of the journal, on the phone and I let him know, hey, we're pretty sure this is all fabricated injury data. You should probably look into it. These are allegations of fraud like you call the editor of the journal the nsca's journal you called him william kramer i'm on the phone had the phone record documented just to be sure gave him notice and he said yeah we're not interested they didn't do anything like you're like hey what's up uh did you tell him i'm
Starting point is 01:04:44 russell burger from crossfit uh i don't remember if i gave him my name or not i don't know that They didn't do anything. Like you're like, Hey, what's up? Uh, did you tell him I'm Russell Berger from CrossFit? Uh, I don't remember if I gave him my name or not. I don't know that he asked. Okay. Um, but I definitely shared with him all the data and I told him that we'd interviewed people who were involved and there were some I just remembered something about you. You, when you were a ranger, you were an interrogator. you you when you were a ranger you were an interrogator uh yeah like not formally i i did some uh courses with uh an old cia spook who came to ranger battalion and taught us how to interrogate people and so i i also spoke iraqi dialect arabic because i went through this language school and so they would just use me on the fly like i was i was a shooter but like we'd clear a building and they'd be like, hey, Berger, come ask this guy where he works.
Starting point is 01:05:26 So not like – Habibi. Habibi. Come on. Okay. So you call Kramer and you're like, hey, they don't actually have injury, daddy. Can you look into it? And he said, eat a dick. Yeah, that's a good Cliff Notes summary actually. That's crazy. Okay. So then what happens? So then we sued him. Oh, by the way, actually. That's crazy. Okay. So then what happens? So then we sue them.
Starting point is 01:05:47 Oh, by the way, so this is the thing. Look it. This is like he doesn't understand what we're saying. God is fake. Like he doesn't understand like we've gone – we're not talking about whether God – dude, you know we're not talking about whether God is real or not. That's what I mean. I don't think people get what we're talking about. So here's the thing.
Starting point is 01:06:04 What's his name? David Weed. David Weed knows God exists. He does? Yeah. Yeah. There is no such thing as a person who doesn't know God exists. Oh, interesting. Okay. Go on. Remember we talked about God imprints moral standards on his heart. He shows us something about moral reality so that every person knows to some extent that there is a right and there is a wrong. He also does that for us, showing his own existence. So there's a book in the New Testament. It's a letter to the church
Starting point is 01:06:37 in Rome. So people call it Romans. It's actually on this poster behind me. So Romans talks about this and the author of Romans says, God has made himself clear both in creation. So in the way the world is obviously designed and ordered by a creator, and he's made himself clear by his imprinting on us. So we're image bearers of God and we can't escape that. So we know moral right and wrong. That knowledge is corrupted, obviously. But we also, in our hearts, recognize God as our creator. And so somebody who says, I don't believe in God, they're suppressing that truth, scripture says. Imagine like a beach ball in a pool. You know how it wants to float, but you've got to actively hold it down to keep it under under the water yeah that's fun i like that game they're suppressing
Starting point is 01:07:28 their innate knowledge of god because they don't want him to be real they want to reject him so that they can do what they want to do they want to worship idols they want to sin and live for themselves let me go back to this other thing though though. Two things. One, I don't think that's what we were talking about. But it was nice of you to come down. I think we were talking about big – I want to say that we swam upstream from it. Like, hey, as a human being, if you don't believe in – there is a place in you that it does have a moral code, and you can fuck with it. And so if you're not sure what the right moral code is, be careful. Don't,
Starting point is 01:08:07 don't just not choose anything and say it's not real because one will be in there and you won't be conscious of it. There is a moral code in us and do you want it from Don Lemon and CNN or do you want it from God? But like, even if you don't know which one's real, you better pick wisely. Right. Because one of them ends up with someone getting their penis chopped off and one of them ends up with like you helping your neighbor change their tire that's my point my point is everyone knows god exists and so they either they recognize that or they find some other god to worship they make it he doesn't yeah he doesn't realize that yeah
Starting point is 01:08:43 he's made a god of his own imagination, who I guarantee believes all the same things he believes, approves of all the things he wants to do, and disapproves of all the things he doesn't approve of. He's made a God in his own image, and he won't call it a God. He doesn't believe it's a supernatural deity. But, you know, somebody like David is going to say, oh, yeah, I know it's right because Of nature or my reason or my empathy
Starting point is 01:09:06 Those are just words for his God That he's made up I seriously don't think he understands No It's self deception And so you can't really expect too much Understanding from somebody like that Satyam
Starting point is 01:09:24 Yaha What's up Satyam Yaha What's up Satyam You can't have a J and an H Next to each other I don't know if you can do that do you Hey you know what Can you do that in the bible Is there any rules about two consonants next to each other Leviticus 19
Starting point is 01:09:43 You shall have no consonant names without vowels uh do you believe in robert bigelow aerospace company who did partnership with nasa and he claims that skinwalker ranch has ghosts and they presented proof what's skinwalker oh dude we could have a whole episode on this so check this out you know what he's talking about my daughter has tripped on this stuff she so she's super smart for a 15 year old girl she's like she's reading uh rfk's book we will go back to nsca just so you know we will go there we'll get there yeah yeah we'll go back so my daughter's reading like rfk's book on the wuhan cover-up she gets really interested in things and researches them. She researched skin Walker ranch and knows like every detail about it. Uh,
Starting point is 01:10:29 it's this, this, this place, like this ranch, that's got all these weird paranormal things going on, ghosts and UFOs and skin Walker beings. I can't remember. I feel like Utah or no Wyoming.
Starting point is 01:10:44 One of those rectangular States in the Midwest. Okay. Awesome. Okay. I can't read. That's too small. It says you, Oh, sorry. And Utah County, Utah. Yeah. Utah County, Utah. If you want the too long, didn't read it's just demons it's just it's just evil spirits messing with people who become fixated and fascinated on that stuff oh so you do think there's something going on there oh yeah it's pretty well documented it's it's pretty hard to argue materialistically like all there is in the universe is matter
Starting point is 01:11:23 and time and chance and see some of the stuff those guys have produced. I don't know. But if you're a Christian, you got a worldview that already makes sense of that, right? There, there are spirits and principalities and powers that operate in a realm we can't see. And sometimes they break through just to mess with people who like to stand in the desert with video cameras. I had a UFO guy on. Did you? I didn't see that one. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:11:51 He wrote a book, The UFO of God. He thinks that UFOs are basically, I mean, I'm summing it up, but the whole alien thing is just angels and shit like that, that it can all be explained by the Bible, right? Which is different, it sounds different than what i'm saying just to be clear okay yeah well your shit incorporate is incorporated into the bible too yours like there's demons his is like he got angels he got he got oh yeah this one ufo of god it's just crazy when people try to say that there's proof of shit and then i'm looking at on UFO of God.
Starting point is 01:12:26 It's just crazy when people try to say that there's proof of shit and then I'm looking at the proof and I just struggle because he's showing me pictures and shit and I'm just like, for some reason, that's not enough for me. That makes sense. That's kind of by design, right? Elon Musk is like,
Starting point is 01:12:41 hey, the reason I know UFOs aren't real is because our technology has gotten vastly better and the pictures are all still grainy and out of focus i i think the whole purpose of of evil spirits demons higher powers whatever you want to call them uh nephilim i think the purpose of them interacting with us like that is just to get our attention and make us fixated on these false views of reality. I don't believe in those either, by the way. You believe in what? I don't believe in demons. I haven't seen any.
Starting point is 01:13:14 Yeah. Do you believe in God? No, no. Okay, so it's all part of the same materialism for you. There's just time and chance and matter there's no spiritual realm there's no beings outside no there's shit that i don't know for sure okay i just don't believe in like like i i i don't believe i don't believe red actually means stop but i think like it's good that we all agree on it well that's not what you told me earlier what what i tell you earlier
Starting point is 01:13:45 Well I asked you where you think we get human rights Which is sort of a moral question too right So we could reframe it like instead of red means Stop we could say killing babies is evil You don't think it's Evil you think it's evil because everybody Agrees it's evil or you think it's evil because Of something objectively true
Starting point is 01:14:01 Outside of what we think about Yeah something like that yeah something that I'm not sure about But I don't believe in evil either Do you think abortion is evil? No Then what's wrong with it? It's just wrong You should not do that
Starting point is 01:14:18 You should not kill babies Is wrong a synonym for evil? Maybe I don't know Maybe I'm open to it I just don't. Maybe. Okay. Maybe. I'm open to it. I just think evil is intellectually lazy. Just like I think saying God is fake is intellectually lazy.
Starting point is 01:14:41 I think I see what you're saying. You could use labels like evil in a way that's just kind of sloppy. Yeah, I hear it used all the time. Make a rhetorical argument. Sound sloppy. Yeah, I hear it used all the time. Make a rhetorical argument, sound good. Yeah, I hear that. But I think you know that abortion is not just wrong because of some social agreement. No. Or because of pragmatism. It's wrong because of something inherent,
Starting point is 01:14:57 and outside of what anyone thinks about it, there's something... I don't want to live in a world where it's okay to kill babies. Yeah. The general, like how you do one thing is how you do everything. Yeah. Like, just,
Starting point is 01:15:07 just like, I don't want to live in, I don't want, I just don't want to live in a world where it's okay. I don't want, here's the thing. Also, what I think is worse than killing babies is justifying it.
Starting point is 01:15:17 Hmm. I mean, that baby, that baby would grow up poor. Anyway, we would have more crime if we let everyone have their babies. I'm just like, fuck dude.
Starting point is 01:15:29 I don't want to go like that to me is like Epstein Island shit. I'm not just, I'm not, I don't want to talk about that. I don't want to be involved in a conversation where you're justifying doing fucking horrible shit. You know who, you know who doesn't do that?
Starting point is 01:15:41 Who? The women at the abortion clinic. So I've, I've done some uh some work at outside of an abortion clinic here in alabama where women would be going in i just feel like hey do you can you talk to me for a minute can i talk you out of killing your baby like i will adopt your child just let's have a second to talk and uh the women who go to the abortion clinic will tell you no i'm i'm here to kill a baby. And it's because I want to.
Starting point is 01:16:08 They don't say like, yeah, it's not a baby. It's just a clump of cells. They don't say like, yeah, this is just my reproductive choice. I'm just doing something good for society. All of those ridiculous arguments, you just see that stuff online. You see that from people who aren't part of the process. The women who are going to the abortion clinic, in in my experience seem to know exactly what's going on so then they're devastated the rest of their life like right because they have to live with that
Starting point is 01:16:32 uh i yeah i mean sadly crazy ways that leads to drug use drinking fucking just doing other crazy shit yeah no one does no one's ever at peace like you don't you don't come at peace with it well unless you walk away from that face it head on what yeah you don't walk away from that without serious and i think correct shame and guilt and uh the old i mean one time when i was talking to women one of them was coming out of the abortion clinic. And I said, hey, I know what you just did. And I know you're going to feel bad about it. And I want you to know that you don't have to continue to live in shame and guilt. There is forgiveness for you for this terrible thing you did in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Starting point is 01:17:19 And she pulled a gun on me and threatened to kill me. No shit. Yeah. She pulled a gun on me and threatened to kill me. No shit. Yeah, and what that shows – like, okay, think of your commenter a second ago. Is that a crazy story? Do you have that on video by any chance? No. I probably should have for legal reasons, but no, I didn't have it.
Starting point is 01:17:41 So your last commenter, God's fake. What's the big deal? You don't pull a gun on somebody because they're saying some fake, silly belief. Like she knew I was right, that she was deeply ashamed and felt deep guilt for killing her child. And she just refused to acknowledge it to the point that all that rage and all that anger at what she did in her own heart, she just poured it out towards me. And it's sad. It's deeply sad. And I mean, I feel really bad for women who've done that and have to live with that and don't know how. Don't have a recourse of processing it. Yeah. Look at Satyam again. Okay, here we go.
Starting point is 01:18:20 Stephen Hawking said, he didn't say it, his computer said it, but details, shmeetails. Stephen Hawking said- Did he say this from Epstein Island? Stephen- The view is great here. Stephen Hawking said, before Big Bang, no time was there, so God can't exist. Yeah, cool story but michio kaku said it's wrong because time is the fourth dimension of string theory out of 11 so it can't be absolute these are two
Starting point is 01:18:54 different religions with competing creation narratives that i'm just not interested in uh wow hey we're all over the place Weren't we talking about the NSCA Yeah yeah I love this show I'm so excited I'm so stimulated right now I'm like just self stimming This is like just public intellectual masturbation Definitely
Starting point is 01:19:15 I wanted to talk about the Putin interview So we don't Oh yeah We're going to have to do a little bit Maybe plan for another episode someday. Yeah, we should do it sooner. Is it hard for you to get time? No, not at all.
Starting point is 01:19:32 And you have your own podcast. Yeah, kind of. It's not – it's like a hobby podcast, so I publish stuff like a couple weeks in a row, and then it will go away for a while. I'd like to do them regularly it's all theology yeah i like theology caleb how much money is this guy sending us what is that is that like six six cents or what is that what can you tell me oh man you kick burger to the car that's three dollars that's three? You already looked. That's amazing. You're over here like, I got to show this guy's comments.
Starting point is 01:20:08 I pay Caleb in all the money that's donated. So he calculates every piece. What is that, like 200 rupees? Satyam Jaha. Thank you, by the way. I don't mean to. It's just funny, but I love your money. Thank you.
Starting point is 01:20:24 Please keep sending it. Do you know that the CIA official reports says that quantum physics can prove spirituality and occult? And scientists proved it. And CIA released a report on it named CIA Gateway Process. Open it now. For three bucks? Oh, look at Caleb. Caleb's like, yeah, keep sending it.
Starting point is 01:20:45 Oh, my goodness. Oh, it's Russell's buddies who did it from the Army. Oh, goodness. Okay. That's good. Okay, thank you for anyone. Tonya Bowers, God loves you and forgives. Amen.
Starting point is 01:21:03 Amen. All right. all right so so just to i want to come back to this but just to put a bow on it so when someone also in a practical sense when someone says god is fake then that's their god basically their god is um but and i also liked what you said about you know what's right and wrong inside of you. And so who are – how do you know that? And whatever your answer is, that's your God. So if it's CNN told you or you think you just came up with it yourself, then you're your own God. But we're trying – I'm trying to define God.
Starting point is 01:21:43 Yeah. And what you're saying is – And that's not my – Go ahead. That's not my idea. That's what the Bible teaches. Right, okay. It's true. own God, but I'm trying to define God. That's not my idea. That's what the Bible teaches. It's true. The Bible teaches it, but for me, that's not enough that the Bible teaches it. It's also you
Starting point is 01:21:55 have awareness of it? Sure, and your experience of it. You see people doing it. I see people stop at the red light, but I also know that that's not true. It doesn't mean stop. It's ascribed to that so that we don't get in car accidents. It's just a practical delusion we practice. It's called a social construct. A social construct.
Starting point is 01:22:36 It's like what some people would want us to think gender is. Right. Except it's real now. It's a red light. It's really a social construct. But the red light is real. Yeah. Just the ideas behind it aren't.
Starting point is 01:22:49 And I'm cool with that. And so some people have conflated. But what I'm saying is, do you have awareness of God? Like you have awareness that the light is red? Or do you just ascribe to, or are you just maybe, have you been tricked and someone told you it means red or red means stop and so you believe that as real are you asking me personally or what yeah you personally you personally russell yeah i have an awareness of god's existence that's uh as clear as me seeing a red light like okay okay it's real sebi russell and hopper Talk Putin Seve Russell
Starting point is 01:23:26 Oh shit Jason Hopper That would be fun You don't know who Jason Hopper is Yeah I've seen him on your show Oh you have okay The other day Yesterday he called into the show
Starting point is 01:23:41 And he was just on the bike And pedaling Doing some zone too. And he's like, hey, what about that Putin interview that's coming up? And I'm like, I mean, I thought this dude just read the back of boxes of cereal. I was so excited. I totally misjudged him. So.
Starting point is 01:23:58 I need to donate just because I feel bad for this guy, Russell. Good luck to you. I pray you find some facts in your life someday. Russell doesn't even get that money. I get it. Who's he praying to? Okay. So what were you going to say?
Starting point is 01:24:15 Something? I don't know. I think I was trying to say like the fact that we know. So people who would say like all morality is just social constructs, people who say killing a baby, murder, theft, the only reason any of that is wrong is just because our society just agrees it's wrong. Right. That's self-deception and nobody really believes that. Right. Talk, talk to anybody who says they think that and then ask them like, okay, well, what if we in society just all agree that people who look like you and have your fingerprints and DNA are subhuman?
Starting point is 01:24:50 Can we kill you? Oh, no, no, no, no. That would be wrong. Right? Like it's just a thought experiment. As soon as you start trying to act like morality is nothing but social contracts and illusions of social consensus, you actually lose the meaning of what morality is and what everyone knows morality to be. Like things are wrong or things are right regardless of what any amount of people think of them. And you can ask somebody like that,
Starting point is 01:25:18 hey, was it cool in Nazi Germany for the Germans to kill the Jews? Because pretty much everybody agreed, the majority agreed that Jews were subhuman. Sounds like based on the social contract theory of morality, that it was morally acceptable for them to do that. They'll say, oh, no, no, no, no, it wasn't. Right. Like, it's just not a real view. Nobody really thinks that.
Starting point is 01:25:38 And the fact that they don't think that shows that they know there is a law giver, there is a moral power who gives us, and we're obligated to obey certain things that are right and wrong. They're showing their knowledge of God. But Russell, why can't they, why can't those people, let me ask you this. Why, why spend, fuck, I got to go on five minutes. Why, why do those people care to argue like i used to argue that god doesn't exist too and then i real i realized i guess i don't know why i did that but now i see
Starting point is 01:26:16 like the incredible value god has like even if i'm not a uh believer why can't they see that like why can't they see like i see it like so it's such a high functioning tool to keep human beings involved in i mean they point to all the like silly they'll be like but the catholic church molests kids or this war happened because of this and i'm like yeah dude but like we're not beheading women in the street we're not trying to normalize pedophilia we're not beheading kids we have clean running water like how can they can't just they can't just plug it in um uh oh hold on a second hey dude i'm on the podcast with burger can i call you back yeah fuck i should have i should have listened and called in hey do you want to do a show, me and you and Russell
Starting point is 01:27:05 Talk about the Putin interview? Yeah, maybe, sure Alright, alright Alright, I love you, I'll call you soon Bye Um, just, that's me Like the same way you got a tattoo to show off I answer just to show off
Starting point is 01:27:20 I like that, good flex Why can't they do that? Why can't they just be like... Why not just plug it in because it works? I think they do. A lot of them. These guys know in the comments,
Starting point is 01:27:36 they're interested in saying God isn't real, but like... Who cares? I don't care anymore if God is real or not. I'm not, I'm not, it's not about me anymore. So I think people who take it like a hobby to argue God doesn't exist.
Starting point is 01:27:50 A lot of that's just self justification. Like they're, they're really just trying to prove it to themselves. Um, but there it's wild to see, like there are a whole bunch of famous atheists and secularists who were for many years like railing against christianity who have kind of found they have allies with a lot of christians now because they've rejected the wild swing towards progressivism that the rest of the world
Starting point is 01:28:20 is is running after so that you know you you find yourself arguing things like, yeah, actually there's only two genders and it's rooted in biology. And suddenly you're in the conservative Christian camp, right? So guys like Richard Dawkins, who are, he's a famous atheist, is arguing views very similar to what a lot of Christians have been arguing for decades. Why do you use the word gender? Because that's the word they use. They'll say there's more than one gender. But when I think of, for me, there's two sexes and there's multiple genders. Just like there's multiple iterations of the Sasquatch or Godzilla, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:28:56 Like, depending on which movie you see, Godzilla can do different shit, right? Some he can shoot fire. Some he shoots electricity. Some he's, like, he's different sizes. There's no continuity in it. It's just imagination i think if gender is the imagination word and sex is like the the sex is the stoplight is red gender is it means stop you know what i mean it's just bullshit but but like to me that the word gender is just imagination but for you you use it
Starting point is 01:29:21 no no i'm using that word the way that somebody who would argue for the idea that gender is a gender is a spectrum. Yeah. I'm using it the way they would use it, which I think is incorrect. So, so gender is, uh,
Starting point is 01:29:37 the way we have gendered language. Yeah. Yeah. Social contract just made up shit. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's a way of expressing the binary of sex
Starting point is 01:29:46 without referring to a physical human being right right so like his and hers that's gendered language actor actress that's gendered language the idea that gender refers to some spectrum of different psychological states that are only measurable in the in the mind of the person who feels them that's just nonsense that's the way i use it i use it like um like uh like so if someone asked me what my gender is i'd be like i don't have a gender why would i why would i even have a gender why the fuck would i like i'm not i'm not choosing that shit remember greg used to use the example of like the fake cowboy versus the real cowboy. You remember that?
Starting point is 01:30:31 Like, hey, the cowboy doesn't get up in the morning and put on chaps because he's trying to look like a cowboy. He puts on chaps so that when he's riding his horse, fucking branches don't fucking cut up his legs. He doesn't have spurs to look like a cowboy. So like I don't do – I'm not doing anything to convey my sex. Yeah. I'm not waking up in the morning like – I mean I did buy a Milwaukee tool bench and fill it with camera gear instead of tools. But I was young. It's the little things. That counteracts the damn button.
Starting point is 01:30:55 I walk around the house with a saw, but I don't have a battery for it. Battery. You think they've reduced it? Ask your wife how to use it. Do you have any battery-operated tools? Just a drill. Okay. Oh, fuck.
Starting point is 01:31:12 I'm agnostic and running a scientific spiritual research program in India. Scientific spiritual research. To prove God through science. Russell, would you like to join my spirituality beyond religion community? You know what's funny is... Join it in spirit. I would think this is a crazy joke except for the fact of just like,
Starting point is 01:31:31 look where the money's coming from. Yeah, he seems serious. Is this guy CrossFitter, Satyam? Beats me. Okay, let's finish here. Wow was fast 90 minutes the the nsca case didn't you didn't you weren't you on the phone with i i feel like i can't tell if i'm making this but i feel like i was outside your office looking in the window one time and you were actually on the phone with um it's probably deeper with william oh was it yeah i would i did that interview for like an hour in a in a side office in scotts valley and and didn't you can didn't you catch him saying some crazy shit i thought it was william
Starting point is 01:32:21 kramer you caught saying some crazy shit uh no that was we we caught all of them saying some crazy stuff in the discovery in the lawsuit but steven deaver was caught in a lie trying to say that he measured the injuries of people who didn't show up for measurement and that's how he knew they didn't show up for measurement just logically incoherent uh and he couldn't answer it and he started stumbling over his words and getting uncomfortable And that's how he knew they didn't show up for measurement, just logically incoherent. And he couldn't answer it, and he started stumbling over his words and getting uncomfortable, and then he suddenly had to go. That interview is still transcribed, I think, in the CrossFit Journal. Can you believe the CrossFit Journal is just like check this out i don't want to say that we we had some huge success with it too but the 15 000 affiliates all have to have a journal link
Starting point is 01:33:13 on there and that's never been utilized yeah do you want to see something just really crazy look at this um oh okay i'll have caleb do it caleb type in um uh will you go to youtube will you open up a youtube page and then just type in the word um crossfit do you remember when we used to rule uh youtube like we we own youtube and google dude you'd be so sad all that hard work is just so I don't know I don't know why that is buttery bros, Sevan podcast look Sevan podcast oh there's one, holy shit there's one so
Starting point is 01:33:54 oh one hour ago, interesting okay keep going, Andrew Hiller CrossFit Games, Kettlebells and Cocktails Jake Douglas Smart Gear, Training Think Tank RP Performance James kettlebells and cocktails, Jake Douglas, a smart gear training, think tank, uh, RP performance,
Starting point is 01:34:08 uh, the CrossFit podcast. There's, there's the placeholder for CrossFit, but sometimes I'll type it in and you'll scroll down 50, uh, spots and you will not see a fucking CrossFit video. Look at all the other people who dominate the space.
Starting point is 01:34:23 Now, Hiller, Justin Medeiros. I mean, they've completely lost the control of the largest search engine on the internet. You think that's on purpose? No, I don't. But I think you do.
Starting point is 01:34:41 You think Coke bought CrossFit? Or the Beverage Association. You think, you think Coke bought CrossFit or the beverage, your beverage association. You think they, I have, I have some theories. All right. Uh,
Starting point is 01:34:53 ladies and gentlemen, Russell Berger. I hope you really enjoyed it. I'm going to the skate park. I know everyone hates me for that. Russell, I fucking love you. This is better than I thought. I did.
Starting point is 01:35:02 You have fun. I did. I miss you. Oh yeah. Good. It means a lot to me that you'd come on my show. All right fucking love you. This is better than I thought. Did you have fun? I did. I miss you. Oh, yeah. Good. It means a lot to me that you'd come on my show. All right. Thank you, brother.
Starting point is 01:35:09 I'm going to go work out now. Okay, cool. I'm going to go sit in a van for an hour and drive over the hill, take my kids skateboarding, watch my T-count drop. All right, brother. I'll be in touch. Let's do this again soon. Sounds good.
Starting point is 01:35:22 Take it easy. Later, brother. Russell Berger. Holy shit, brother. Uh, Russell burger. No, Holy shit guys. Holy. What a treat. What a,
Starting point is 01:35:29 did I fuck that up? Caleb? No. Like I made a small, how do I make as big? Oh, no. How do you do that?
Starting point is 01:35:39 It's the fourth layout. Oh, wow. Do you like him? Yeah, he's cool. The fourth layout. Wow. Do you like him? Yeah, he's cool. Russell, in my community, our research collects all good and common thing from all religions so that we can prove spirituality through science. I am Hindu religion.
Starting point is 01:35:58 I follow all religions' spirituality. Base morality is present. Trevor Gentry. Base morality is present Trevor Gentry base morality is present in every human being that is born since the beginning of time does society and culture impact that base morality and development absolutely I think that's what Russell was calling corrupt right
Starting point is 01:36:17 yep yeah that's what it sounded like why does Don go on the cock and balls front tails podcast but won't come on your podcast. I, I shouldn't say he wouldn't come on my podcast. The last two times I invited him, um,
Starting point is 01:36:30 he said to circle back around and, and I did. And, um, I wouldn't say, I think maybe just the timing was off. I don't know. Um,
Starting point is 01:36:39 I think John will lead actually didn't, uh, pretty fucking amazing job. Um, I do not think, uh, Nikki, I think, do not think Nikki did a pretty fucking amazing job. I do not think Nikki did an amazing job. I've said everything I need to say about that. I don't want to be mean to those guys, to Nikki or John. I'm glad they did it.
Starting point is 01:37:06 I listened to some stuff. There's so many takeaways in there. That were interesting to me. I do think there's a bunch of shit in there. That I think that Don said. That I personally don't believe. He means sincerely. And then there's a bunch of stuff in there. That I'm very thankful that he.
Starting point is 01:37:23 Is transparent about. very thankful that he um is transparent about so uh but they but they have a serious uh media problem that they're that they're not paying attention to and it's getting worse every second it like every like every second it's getting worse and worse and worse i i suspect uh financially that there may be point past the point of return media-wise. I'm curious how they're going to steer the thing. I do see that his leadership, from watching
Starting point is 01:37:54 the interview, his leadership seems stronger than ever. I was happy about that. I'm happy about the games. I'm not nostalgic about the past anymore. I'm kind of past all that. I'm not nostalgic about the past anymore. I'm kind of past all that. So at least I think, unless I'm in denial.
Starting point is 01:38:13 But I like Don. Yeah, I like him. Trevor Gentry, it's so fun to talk about this. Everyone needs to wrestle with the idea of God, and if they do it honestly, at worst, they will be agnostic. Pure atheism is completely illogical and irrational. Well, here's the thing where I'm trying to take the conversation. There is no such thing as atheism. It's where it's word fuckery. what's in your mouth and you say you don't have a mouth i think the way we operate we all have a religion and that's that's what's unsettling about the fact that people who say that they're not religious because then they are and they're not conscious of what they've put in that to plug in as that placeholder and that's the part that's a little unsettling for me that i'm starting to get my head wrapped around whether it's unsettling or not it's just not a fun way
Starting point is 01:39:05 to live your life i like so much uh like how much cooler is my life than this dude's life exponentially yeah and and one of the and one of the ways it's like that is because I'm open to that kind of stuff. Like I don't have to be – I'm not – I'm open. Oh, I wanted to show you just one quick thing also. Can you pull up Keith Knapp's Instagram? Shit, my wife's going to kill me. I'm coming. I'm coming.
Starting point is 01:39:40 We pulled up Keith Knapp's Instagram. I'm coming. We pulled Keith snaps. I'm coming. This is the guy. Can you play his last video? This is the guy yesterday that was fired from CrossFit. He's opening up a CrossFit gym.
Starting point is 01:39:58 He's in the space. It must be weird for him, right? You're the director of marketing, and then you get fired while you're opening a gym but anyway let's let's go ahead and play this here we go what's up guys i have received so many calls and texts over the past day and a half that i had to say something that yesterday my role at crossfit hq was eliminated most of the calls and texts i have been getting are asking what happened. I was just made aware that the position that I was in was no longer needed and it hurts. I have believed in this thing since 2008 when I did my first CrossFit workout
Starting point is 01:40:34 and I still believe in it today. I believe that CrossFit is the cure to the world's most affecting problem. It's why I'm opening an affiliate. I'm so blessed to have the community of people around me and I'm so thankful for that. I'm also a little bit scared. I've got a wife, I've got four beautiful kids. The best thing that I know how to do is to just work. I have so many people that I worked with there that were like brothers and sisters that I love dearly.
Starting point is 01:41:05 And then I'm so grateful to have known and to have worked with. Wish them all the best of luck. I wish everybody on the leadership team the best of luck. All I want to see for CrossFit is absolute success. This role that I have was a dream job. I'm devastated and heartbroken, but I'm picking up the pieces. A number of people who've reached out and said they're praying for me and my family is just overwhelming. I thank you guys so much again for listening, for being a part of this journey with me, and I love you. What's up, guys? Keith Knapp, he'll be having his grand opening soon.
Starting point is 01:41:42 You'll be hearing more. I was talking more about his grand opening. Just so you know, when I got fired, he said a lot of people called him and text him. I can't think of anyone that called me and text me. I think like one person. Nobody like fuck you, dirtbag. Satyam Sevan do you know that religion can explain transgender people more good because a transgender woman told she is female soul in a male body
Starting point is 01:42:15 so you should treat transgender women as women Satyam only confused people make decisions My brother Only confused people Make decisions That's it
Starting point is 01:42:34 Path to God Love you bye Caleb thanks dude

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