Skid Row To Appalachia: The Forgotten People Of Rural America - Peter Santenello

Key Takeaway

Living abroad taught Peter Santenello the most about America. After 50 countries and two years of travel, he returned home to discover his own country was more foreign than anywhere else. His lesson: you can't understand where you're from until you see it from the outside. Today, start exploring perspectives outside your bubble—whether that's a different neighborhood, culture, or community—to gain fresh insight into your own life and values.

Episode Overview

Peter Santenello shares his journey from waiting tables in Austin to becoming a travel documentarian exploring America's most overlooked communities. After years documenting foreign countries, the pandemic brought him home where he discovered the vast cultural diversity within the US—from Native American reservations to inner-city neighborhoods—and built a successful YouTube channel showing Americans the country they don't know.

Full Transcript

Transcript of Skid Row To Appalachia: The Forgotten People Of Rural America - Peter Santenello from Modern Wisdom. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

What was your original inspiration? What drove you to do this? Uh, I was here in Austin. It's so cool because I lived here early 2000s, worked as a waiter at Fleming Steakhouse, and I just had these dreams of traveling the world. Can't wait to see the world one day cuz I didn't travel growing up. Our family didn't go anywhere. Always wanted to go to Europe. And my goal was save $20,000 in two years, go to Europe, 7 months, get a Ducati in Italy, rip that thing through the ops, send it home, have my life figured out.

Bro, that's a [ __ ] dream. Absolute dream. Absolute dream. Absolute dream. But then I went I did a winter in Switzerland snowboarding, doing every job imaginable. job imaginable. job imaginable. Um, and then flew. I'm like, what's this place called? The Republic of Georgia. I've never heard of that. I took a oneway, Republic of Georgia. landed. All the mafiosa got off the plane, which was the whole plane. The BMWs were waiting for them, sped off on the tarmac. It was me in the airport. It was so corrupt at that time.

Had to pay a bribe to get into the airport. Like had to pay a bribe if I wanted to enter. He's like, "$20." I said, "What for?" He's like, "You enter through me. $20." So when you're young and curious, how old were you? I was 26. 25 then. 25. 26. So when you're young and curious and adventurous, there's nothing dangerous combination. That's a [ __ ] dangerous combination, dude. So Georgia was like the gateway drug. That would be like where is Georgia? Uh the Republic of Georgia. So you're south of Russia.

Kofkos Cauasus Mountains Mountains Mountains on the Black Sea, Armenia right below Azerbaijan, sort of near Turkey, borders Turkey actually. actually. actually. Okay. Okay. So like on the east side, let's say. let's say. let's say. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Where Bulgaria is over here on the western side of Turkey, east side. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um Um Um but that was the gateway. And then you're like, where can I go from here? And you look on a map and you're like, huh, [sighs] huh, [sighs] huh, [sighs] Tikstan. Tikstan.

Tikstan. What's that like? And so instead of going back in 7 months with the Ducati, I scrapped the Ducati idea. I'm like, "Ah, I can always save money, but I'll never be able to travel like this again. Maybe never." So, I'm going to go all the way around. And it was 50 countries, two years. Ran out of money in Usbekistan. Great place to run out of money, I imagine. imagine. imagine. Yeah. I got cash advances on my credit card for like 25% interest. And it was the best debt I ever got in because it was like here's my moment.

And at that age, you sleep anywhere in anything. Were you filming any of this? Were you making No. No. So, I did. I did. I did. Imagine if you'd had the GoPro back then. Holy [ __ ] You know, I'm glad I didn't because I got to see the world without thinking about making content. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz I mean, you you know what making content is? It's It's not all fun and games. It's work. You have to get the story. story. story. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I was totally free at that time just to let my imagination go wild.

So, that's what kicked off the international interest. But back to Austin. And I'm working at uh Fleming Steakhouse dreaming of seeing the world and it was here and I'm looking down from my hotel. I'm like that's the place I used to work. It's closed down now. And I'm like how did that feel? Who who I think Steve Jobs said it best. I'm not going to say it as well as him, but he said like you can never see it going you can never see it going forward.

connect the dots of where your life's going, but you can look back and connect the dots only makes sense in reverse. Life has to be lived forward, but only makes sense in reverse, right? And so that was one of these big moments where I'm like, "Wow, if my younger self at 21 serving the porter house steak, which I still remember the the tenderness of the file, no, the flavor of the filt, no, the tenderness of the filt, but the flavor of the ribeye, the porter house.

house. house. That's how you sold it. That's That's what you need. I sold it better. But I can't believe I was still in my brain because my manager was banging banging banging over and over and over and over again. But as if I could have seen then waiting tables where I was this morning, well just a half hour ago in that hotel and where my life went. Wow. So it was just curiosity, a dream, a lot of luck, a lot of hard work. What do you think that young version of you would think if you were able to show him where his life went from there?

It would be way more than I could have ever imagined. ever imagined. ever imagined. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Because the world's an amazing place and living abroad teaches you as you see you're living abroad. abroad. abroad. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Um I don't know if you consider this as your home country now. I'm kind of unsure on that to be honest. I did I I was telling you I did a little bit of um selfwork before the meditation retreat a few weeks ago and as a part of that one of the questions that came up is where is your home and I found myself really conflicted when trying to answer it right right right because because because I kind of don't know I kind of don't know where home is like here this is where my business is and it's a country that I love and I certainly feel welcome here in a way that I wasn't in the UK but I'm definitely not [ __ ] American, right?

Like the second that I open my mouth, I'm evidently not American. I don't have the same cultural landmarks and and understandings and and historical uh context that that you need to kind of be able to survive. Something that's really interesting, I wonder whether you've noticed this. people who uh immigrate to other countries that speak the same language that they do natively, natively, natively, their foreignness or the fact that they're an immigrant gets forgotten and then it resurfaces itself in surprising ways. So if I go to Brazil Mhm.

Mhm. Mhm. even if you're speaking English with someone, their accent is so evidently like perverted that you're always reminded of the fact that you're a foreigner. foreigner. foreigner. Always reminded over and over and over again. But you go to a country that speaks your native language and you kind of forget for a little while. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That you're not from there because it's just seamless communication and then you try to use a reference. I try to talk about Jaffa Cakes or Cadbury's milk chocolate or the inbetweeners or [ __ ] you know Mr.

Bean or whatever and which obviously those are the four horsemen of British culture. And um then you go I can't do that. I can't do that. I forget that I'm a foreigner. You forget that you're a foreigner in a country that speaks your own language. And it's really it's good because it allows you to integrate very quickly and you don't feel as alienated, I imagine, as you might do if you weren't speaking a language, but then the alienation sort of jump scares you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It creeps up on you every so often, hits you, and you weren't really expecting it. And that's something that I've noticed since I've been here that um I think if you're in a country that didn't speak your native language, you would be very regularly reminded of that. And you would probably give yourself a a bit more grace of hey, if you're feeling a little alienated every so often, that makes sense. But then you come here and you're like, well, what are you whining about? Everyone [ __ ] speaks the same language.

You've got your 01 visa. You you got the bank accounts. You've got the health insurance. What what are you complaining about? You go, I get that, but you're still culturally displaced. Yeah, like Yeah, like Yeah, like you are still socially an alien here. Don't you feel though when you live abroad you learn more about your home country than being being at home? Dude, the that's a that's what the world taught me. That's a George Macline as well. He says the exact same thing. He moved to Dubai, learned more about being about the UK, being in Dubai than he'd ever learned being in the UK.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I thought my goal was to show the world that look, most people have an idea of the UK or France or Italy. When you go when you get on the ground, things are always more complicated, nuanced, and more more granular. But I wanted to show the Republic of Georgia. I wanted to show Syria, these places that only get negativity in the press. That was the goal. That's how this all started. started. started. Show Americans the world they don't know. You know how many Americans went on a single flight last year?

Less than half of Americans got on a plane in 2025. 45% of Americans going but 55% of Americans didn't and I think it's some insane number don't even have a passport. passport. passport. I don't know the percentage. So I I used to be a little little harsher on that but what I realize in my work now most people two weeks of vacation. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. That's Christmas. That's Thanksgiving. That's family. That's family. That's family. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You've got obligations. Like realistically Like realistically Like realistically we didn't travel growing up in my family.

family. family. Going to Europe takes time, takes money. So, I get it for a lot of people. Me personally or you, you're curious. You want you want to see what's out there. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. And I think it's it's more possible than most people think, especially when you're younger. Like your choice, my my dad was in a profession where you're getting two weeks a year. He's not seeing the world. So, I'm not going to do that profession if I want to see the world. It's pretty easy.

You can sort of line things up and be like, "Oh, if I go that direction, I'm not going to do what I want to do the most." Okay, don't go that direction. that direction. that direction. What are some of the lesserk known but amazing destinations that you think people should go to if they're looking to travel outside of the US? Like, a surprising great trip. Are you going to tell me that Syria is like a a a hot bed for a weekend getaway? Jared, can we go to the uh we we made a special setting.

So, I know that you sometimes go to some dark and mysterious places on your travels. So, we can change the vibe inside of the studio and we've made a setting. You're going to be the first person that we use this new one on. one on. one on. You put some dark music with me. Uh I think just the the darkness of the stories will probably do enough. But, But, But, okay. Would I say for anyone to to pack up and go to Syria first trip abroad?

No, definitely not. When I went was Christmas time. I flew in from Moscow 2 in the morning and it was all the lights, the green lights from above and those were all the mosques and I got in the cab and this was during George W. Bush and the cab was like the driver was like, "What do you think of George W. Bush?" And I was against the Iraqi war and I just knocked off some poratives and he loved it. It was like ah I was like f FGW and blah blah like I was like f FGW and blah blah blah.

I'm in Texas. Am I gonna have problems with saying that? Just a second. Um second. Um second. Um he he was getting excited and all giddy. And then I'm like what do you think of Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad and his giddiness firmed up. He got tense and he's like Bashar al-Assad is a good president. But it he didn't feel that way. that way. that way. And that was the first time I really realized how important free speech is. how it if you can't speak your mind then it it controls your behavior.

I saw him tense up tense up tense up and I was like here I am in the Middle East saying whatever I want and this guy's at home and is worried even in his own car own car own car that this is going to be a problem. So Damascus Christmas time Santa Claus is everywhere. Who would have thought Christian population there old Damascus met great people stayed with locals in their homes. But for Americans getting abroad, I would say you want something that's culturally very different but still easy to travel.

Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul, Turkey. Okay. Okay. Okay. That's a good middle road. If you want full-on user friendly, go to where you're from, right? Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Seamless integration. Seamless integration. Seamless integration. It's easy. Did you see I' I saw this uh news article earlier on an LGBT cruise uh set off from the US trying to land in Turkey and they wanted to experience Turkey. It's a cruise of like there's a lot of fruit going on. High levels of fruit on this on on the the cruise.

They look like they all of the guys look like they're having an amazing time. I'm sure it's really great. Um, but they arrive they arrived at Turkey and what the go they were like you're not coming like you're not you're not you're not you're not you're not coming here. So I guess there is a little caveat which is make sure that your sexuality aligns with the local local local Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. customs. customs. customs. Yeah. I love I love the Middle East. Um traveling there has been great.

Very hospitable with people. But hey, culture is different. And don't [ __ ] a dude while you're there. Yeah, I wasn't going to, but uh yeah, definitely. definitely. definitely. Very important. Yeah, that's not going to go over well. Y Y Y uh the rainbow flag in downtown uh Tyrron or Masters isn't uh isn't happening. Did you know your gut controls your energy, your recovery, how well you absorb everything that you eat, and the one nutrient that keeps it all running properly is fiber? Well, it turns out that 95% of Americans don't get enough of it, which is why I'm such a huge fan of Momen's Fiber Plus.

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Plus, they ship internationally. Right now, you can get up to 35% off your first subscription and that 30-day money back guarantee by going to the link in the description below or heading to livemus.com/modernwisdism livemus.com/modernwisdism livemus.com/modernwisdism and using the code modern wisdom a checkout. All right. So, you do these this huge trip around the world. Yeah. and then realize that America home country is this place that you understand maybe the least. Yeah, there are quite a few trips. That was the big one. Came back at 26 and uh just changed my whole perspective on everything and um fast forward quite a bit until 38, 38, 38, what is it?

40, no 42. Living in Ukraine, lived there for four years. My wife's Ukrainian. Okay. Uh, pandemic brought us back cuz I shot roughly 50 videos in Ukraine. Pretty much tapped out pre-war. pre-war. pre-war. Pre-war. Pre-war. Pre-war. Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah. I got some That's where it all started, actually. started, actually. started, actually. Tell me about that. Uh, started in the countryside. I was in I'll give you a little back just a little context to it. I tried to pitch a travel TV show in 2011 12 to all the networks in LA.

I was flying there every six weeks trying to pitch. I made a teaser reel. Hey guys, so I want to show Americans the world. Here's the concept. We're going to we're going to hang out with locals. We're going to get into their stories. their stories. their stories. And the response was, "Wait, who who are you?" And wait, what's the rising action in that? And what? No. Door closed. Door closed. Door closed for about a half year. So, I gave up on the whole travel concept because this was YouTube was a thing, but to make your life off YouTube, I didn't very few people were doing it.

I didn't see it at that time. Um, so I went on different ventures. I had a business that uh a small business that pretty much paid my bills, but I was always trying for something more interesting, something I love. So, I developed this app that connected people through common interests. So, you're going to Germany. You love running. You date activity connects you with that person at that time. Who doesn't like to hang out with people that have similar interests? Uh, just way over my skis. I was living in San Francisco.

I was pitching that, pitching that. Wasn't working. So, around 38, I'm sitting in Golden Gate Park Park Park trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my life. No clue. I'm like, I have to do something that's interesting and meaningful. I have my business limping me along. It's nothing I really want to be part of, but I have to do. I have to pay the bills. I'm reading books about about about philosophy and just business and trying to come up with something. My buddy moves to Ukraine.

He had a dev team over there. He had a startup. I went and visited. He's like, "Dude, why don't you just stay right now?" And uh subleted my apartment in San Francisco and moved over to Ukraine. And so the first stories started when I was in Ukraine. I had a Turkish buddy say, "Hey man, you want to learn the language? Go to the countryside." And so I went out to the far reaches of Ukraine, which is where I was is de facto Russia now and lived with this family whose apartment got bomb bombed out in the far east of the country.

They moved to the countryside had zero nothing, nothing materially. nothing materially. nothing materially. Six weeks there, six videos. We even dug a well by hand. Transformative experience. I mean, I was sleeping on a mattress straight out of the Roman O dynasty, springs going through my back. It was a Do you open the window at night and get the room down to 88° and smell the neighbors trash burning trash burning trash burning or do you close it and have a room at 94 and smell less trash?

Okay. So, very primitive conditions, but the Ukrainians loved it. They ate it up because I was doing things like selling corn on the beaches in Berdonsk cuz uh Kukarooa they say they call it. People sell corn on the beach. I was walking around and there's a corn mafia there that controls the beach. the beach. the beach. I'm I'm I'm I know exactly what if this podcast thing goes to [ __ ] I'm becoming part of the Ukrainian corn mafia. You should. Uh, the Kukarooa mafiosa was all over my shtick.

Wow. Wow. Wow. And they ran me off that beach. Just gringo selling. Yeah. But we made a video of it and the Ukrainians loved it. Right. Cool. So, so you got big in Ukraine. Got big in I got Ukraine famous. I was on all the television. Ukraine famous. Brilliant. I was all all over TV and I was like, "No way." "No way." "No way." Y Y Y this thing can actually work. And then I went to Iran and I had free range in Iran. Wow. really managed to frontr run all of the biggest kinetic flash points.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, you just got there. You were like the trans. Have you considered that you might be the harbinger of like international incidents? international incidents? international incidents? It's wherever Peter Salmonella's been, right? Oh, I they should just lock me down. down. down. You didn't stay in the Gaza Strip for a while, did you? I I put some time I didn't go into Gaza. I went to the West Bank. Okay. You recover. Okay. So, you go to Iran. Iran. Iran. So, I go to Iran. Shoot that series.

Now I Americans need a an a government minded tour. They need to be with someone the whole time and they're going to be on that tour with the person. They don't have free range. But Italian I have an Italian passport as an Italian. I could go over I'm not I don't claim Italian at all. It's just through family. family. family. But [clears throat] I could use this document and get free range in the country. So that was novel. An American getting free range of the country and I made a series there and that did well.

Then I went to Saudi right after it opened. Like right after it opened. But then there were failures. I went back to Ukraine and I had I had failures because here was the deal. Ukrainians loved Ukrainian content. Ukrainians didn't care about Iranian content. So I just lost my whole audience. audience. audience. You were audience captured by Ukraine and then I was audience uh captured by Iran and then Saudi. Right. Really? It really is the the algorithm coming to life here. Totally. And so I would get all these new audiences in new countries, but there was no thread between them.

Y right right right and I didn't have a big US audience at that time. that time. that time. Anyways, did that for a while. Pandemic hits. hits. hits. Where are we going to go? We're either going to move to Italy, but Italy was really really really Have you met your MS yet? Your your wife or Yeah. Yeah. We were together like three three out of my four years there. Okay. But did you meet her when you were in Ukraine? in Ukraine? in Ukraine? Yeah. when you were part of the fighting with the corn mafia on one hand chatting up the the future Mrs.

Santelo and on the other hand ensuring you don't get killed by the corn mafia. Pre kukarooa mafiosa I'm like I'm off to the countryside living with this family. She thought it was a bit bizarre and so did the rest of the Ukrainians cuz it was so fringe. Yep. Yep. Yep. In the cities they would never live like that. So here's this Yank guy going. So not too dissimilar to the US then. Right. You've already set a little bit of that tone of cosmopolitan life. Although this country might be weird from the country that I'm from.

Yeah. In most countries, the modernity cosmopolis thing still looks at going to the countryside as kind of a what the [ __ ] are you doing? Like this is going backward in time somehow. Yeah. But but the delta is even greater there cuz I'm going really primitive. Yep. Yep. Yep. Um Um Um and then but the pandemic brought us back to the US and then when we got back to the US I'm like what are we going to do here? I know my country from here. What's interesting about the US?

Six years later, head still down going full speed. It took off, off, off, Americans loved it. And I had I mean from from a like career standpoint, having uh American viewers versus Bellarussian or Ukrainian different game with actually you can make some money on YouTube to actually carry the thing forward. forward. forward. You're telling me that there isn't a burgeoning ecom and CPG business in Iran? I can't get my Shopify store to deliver new tonic to Iran. No. Well, it's all internal there. They're big enough where they they have every industry pretty much working on its own for the most part.

Apart from the nuclear one. Yeah. Apart from so yeah, then the US content ripped off and I remember being at my mom's still lives in Vermont. I grew up in Vermont. Moved out at 18. Um, but I went back to where I grew up and I told my buddy, my good buddy from youth, I'm like, "Hey, I'm going to go to New York City, shoot some videos with the Hidetic Jews and then go to the hoods and the projects and show that world." He's like, "Cool, but what are you going to do for work?" And that was when it was like the money the money the the runway wasn't that long.

My business got this work. Got to make this and right when I needed it to work, it worked. [gasps] So, it's been six years non-stop and all of those videos have um I try to go wide as far as I can from the Amish to the Bloods and Crypts and everything in between. between. between. What do you think most Americans don't understand about America? [gasps] Yeah. Uh it doesn't sound uh really ground breaking what I'm going to say, but just the scale and the amount of different lifestyles we have.

You you do have parts of America where there's still hunting of a whale whales every year. Reindeer. Uh you can see Russia. I'm talking about St. Lawrence Island. Siberian Eupic people. Three times the size of Maui. America. So where is that? Yeah. Way up in Alaska. So huge So huge So huge that as someone doing this full-time, I'm still discovering places I knew nothing about. Didn't know they existed. So I found that with Google Maps late night and I'm like what's that on? You're [ __ ] kidding me.

You geoged your way. your way. your way. I totally I totally I totally like just zoom it. Pinch and zoom. Zoom in. Zoom in. Okay. Two towns. There's USPS church. There's no street view. What's going on up there? I'll check that out. And then you have Miamiy's in the same country. Capital of Latin America. Two different universes. So we're all in our bubbles. Doesn't matter where you live. We're in our bubbles. My goal is to teach or show Americans about different bubbles that they might not interact with.

That could be inner city hoods. That could be the richest hoods. hoods. hoods. That could be deep with the Amish. Native culture. We have 576 federally recognized tribes in this country and they're all different. That's like a whole different parallel universe. Whole different world running on its own. You have everything from Navajo Nation in Arizona, size of New Jersey, size of Israel, basically. It's different laws, different rules. Just like Israel. Yeah. Just like Israel. And then you have Cherokee in North Carolina. You put kids from each one of those those tribes in swap them.

swap them. swap them. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. It's like a wild cultural experience for them. them. them. Native American world is like European countries. countries. countries. You can't just say you're you're European. Yes, but you're not Italian. You're not Norwegian. You got some Viking in me. You may be. Okay, but you get what I'm saying, right? Every country has and that's how the native world is. It's like different countries. They're all native. They're all like just like Europeans are all European, but Ukraine and the UK are two different universes.

universes. universes. So that's been surprising just the amount of depth we have here and how granular it goes when you really look at it closely. Talk to me about the native peoples that you've spent time with cuz yeah, coming over here I I've really enjoyed immersing myself in going to different places. I've taken a lot of big road trips, [gasps] trips, [gasps] trips, [gasps] but I've not done anything like what you've done. I've gone from like New Orleans. It's so interesting. The French Quarter downtown. Oh my god, I can get a beignet and spill it everywhere.

I'm like, okay, come on, dude. Like, what have you learned from the native tribes and the descendants of them that you've spent time with? They're all different, but there's a thread that you you they're all different, but there's a similarity as in you get in in the native world, the stories get more interesting. The pace slows down. slows down. slows down. There's you get a bit away from the capitalistic drum of the western world. That would be my initial feeling. They're they're wonderful storytellers. They can almost put you like in uh the Cyber Up.

I was with this woman, Adora. It's like she put me in a trance. I was She was like hypnotizing me with her stories. They have an ability to deliver a story and they have a great sense of humor and they all play hoops. Hoops is the basketball. the basketball. the basketball. That's what that's what keeps them together. together. together. All the tribes play hoops. It's big rivalry. rivalry. rivalry. What's their relationship or story like with what America is and has become now? Because you could imagine there's maybe some ancestral resentment in there.

Do do you ever sense that? Is that something that comes through? Depends who you talk to. So the highest enrollment in the military per capita is Native American. Native American. Native American. No [ __ ] way. Yeah. So you have true patriots, flags waving. You have some believe that believe in traditional beliefs. Other very Christian. very Christian. very Christian. You have some that are pissed. traditional beliefs be more like animal spirits type stuff. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Right. Cool. Right. Cool. Right. Cool. In getting really deep into their clans, they have different clans.

There's clan culture. culture. culture. You have places like in Navajo Nation, you get into the Hogan into the hut and you got to walk clockwise in the hut. Never ever go counterclockwise. It's going to bring so much bad to you. So if you drop your keys here like for those listening. So to my [ __ ] circum navigator to my right like don't just pick them up there like circle the whole thing and pick them up. I find that stuff fascinating but no everyone there's no consensus I would say.

So sometimes people will say hey they're not Indians they're natives or native Americans or indigenous or first nations. You know what they say they are? are? are? The only consensus is there isn't one. Depends who you talk to. Some say I'm Indian. Lakota medicine man in South Dakota said I'm the Native American cuz he was way before it was called America. His family. I grew up in America. Before we continue, most people in their 30s are still training hard. Their protein is dialed in. They sleep better than they did in their 20s.

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That's timeline.com/modern wisdom wisdom wisdom and modern wisdom a checkout. Is the vestigial resentment? vestigial resentment? vestigial resentment? There's some I mean there's some that go back to the the certain battles like wounded knee wounded knee wounded knee uh what was it 300 and something died. I think it was Kuster's army took out the Lakota, I believe it was. And that really affected the guy I was hanging out with. It was back in the 1800s. 1800s. 1800s. And then some people are like Vietnamese as in they let it go really quickly.

You go to Vietnam these days, you think they would hate all Americans. They don't. He's watching a war flick with a bunch of Vietnamese dude. American war flick. How crazy was that? Um, just really depends. And then [snorts] economically some tribes are really poor. I mean the de facto is it's worse on the rez materially economically than off the on the res. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Why? Why? Why? Just less jobs, remote areas, no not as much industry. But then some reses, it's wealthy as all could be.

Great gambling. Great gambling. Great gambling. You go to the seminals in in South Florida, they own the Hard Rock brand worldwide. I think they paid 800 million for it back in the day. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Hard Rock brand worldwide worldwide worldwide is owned is owned is owned by the Seinals by some indigenous Native American descendant people in 100%. And their tribe I believe, don't quote me on this, it's roughly 4,500 people. They started in Indian Gaming. They have agricultural operations, I believe, gas and oil operations, Hard Rock Cafe.

Rock Cafe. Rock Cafe. So, So, So, these guys are just hardcore entrepreneurs. entrepreneurs. entrepreneurs. Hardcore Hardcore Hardcore entrepreneurs. entrepreneurs. entrepreneurs. And And And you know what? I get into these communities. I always want people in my videos videos videos to want to be on my videos. Uh, I don't want to just show up on a camera and put a camera in someone's face if they don't want it. a tribal council member. I put a on my Insta I said I want to get a seminar story.

I know it was very difficult to get with them and um tribal council member reached out said I'm a council member. I can show you she watched my content. So I went there. [snorts] We're talking gates. We're talking background checks with IDs and everything. I'm in the nerve center the the offices. the offices. the offices. Well, you went to the Pentagon of the indigenous people. indigenous people. indigenous people. Totally. Totally. Totally. Right. Right. Right. And I'm like, this is the most buy the book thing I've ever done with video making.

I'm like totally official here. I I I actually feel like pressed. Yeah. I've got credentials. got credentials. got credentials. Yeah. It's like I'm doing all the right things. things. things. This woman takes me out. We show the tribe. We show the world. It was it was very much a North Korean tour as in everything just showed the good for the most part. most part. most part. And uh I got a call from their attorney right after that thing posted. They wanted that down immediately. He said something along the lines of, "Are you familiar with the case we disclosed with Wells Fargo?" Uh, I believe I forget how much they won.

It was another, it was like something like 800 million or something. And I'm like, "No, but congratulations on that." He's like, "Well, we're going to need that video." That's a little bit of a flex. It's the equivalent of North Korea showing their ballistic missiles on a parade. Total flex. Total flex. Total flex. Yeah. And my law team wasn't going to fight with theirs because, you know, I have one person that I can call that's not going to deal with those. And they've got machetes. No, they have tomahawks.

They have bill they have billions of dollars. Yeah. And tomahawks and those things. So what I'm saying is it's so widely varied. You can go to Pine Ridge. It's the poorest native res in the country where it looks poor and it looks rough. And then you have on the other end of the spectrum the seinals who are fantastic capitalists that figured out the game really well. And I believe and I don't know exactly the number but it's like 128,000 like 128,000 like 128,000 per kid every year.

What What What the revenue that that they're distributing? distributing? distributing? Yeah. So they come out of high school all millionaires. all millionaires. all millionaires. Now I don't know the I don't want to get myself in trouble on the exact number because it changes. It's hard information to get. Uh-huh. But there's that end of the spectrum and then there's then there's then there's the other end of the spectrum. So that's my point about America. The more you go deep, the more you go granular, it's complicated and there's so much rad stuff here.

You really don't know what's going on because you're busy in your own life. We all are doing your own thing own thing own thing and it gives a lifetime of discovery. It's crazy that, you know, it's easy to Can you chat to your PT? How many Americans have got a passport for me, Jared? I'm pretty sure it's like only 60% of Americans have got a passport. a passport. a passport. 60. 60. 60. Yeah, I think so. Um, and it's easy, as you said before, you can be judgmental about that.

Think about how big the world is and and by virtue of being unable or unable or unable or unwilling to get the credentials to be able to travel, you can't travel. But without leaving the country, you guys have got more than 50 countries inside of here. But half of Americans have a valid passport. State Department estimated 51% estimated 51% estimated 51% 170 million people in late 2024. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, that is [ __ ] insane. You got to think though, half half the population does not have the money to go anywhere anywhere anywhere or the time even if you had some of the money the time that you would need to take off in order to be able to travel without your obligations for Thanksgiving and Christmas and holiday.

Yeah, it makes total sense. I don't get No, I do. I do. I do. I'm a big proponent of travel for sure. But you don't actually need to leave the country country country in a way. Yes and no. Like you can constantly learn and discover and every state has its own identity. Being in Texas this time, it's like it's like its own country for sure. The big states in America, California, New York, Texas, Florida with big populations, they have their own their own gravity to them, right?

right? right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What What's the poorest place that you visited in America? Uh, technically, well, I would say two regions really stand out for talking wide regions. wide regions. wide regions. Central Appalachia. So that's like West Virginia area, Eastern Kentucky. It's out there. You got to check that out. Great people, but poor. Mississippi Delta would be the other big region. Those two sort of left behind. You don't know US cultural context. You were saying I think it's changing a little, but back in the day, any any the butt of any joke would be like the West Virginia hillbilly, hillbilly, hillbilly, right?

Looked out upon, you know, with Hollywood. It's where a lot of the coal, it's where a lot of the industry, the coal came from to build this country. And you have those regions in in the UK, too. too. too. We do. But you don't have the room. The thing that's fascinating watching your videos is just how much [ __ ] space there is. there is. there is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, when you talk about forgotten areas, lost towns. I don't know how much can be forgotten in a place that's got 10 times the population density of the US.

Right. We've got um 50 million peopleish 50 60 million people versus 330 350 or whatever is over here. But the land mass is so much smaller than the amount of people are smaller. It's 10 times denser. So everyone's on top of each other. You know, you don't drive for that long unless you're really looking for it. Yeah. You don't drive for that long without seeing something that looks like a hub. On the road trips that I've done around America, it is [ __ ] barren for a huge periods of time.

And then there's some farm that comes past or just some uh uh like caravan park, mobile home we would call it in the UK, um with [ __ ] tons of trucks. Like there's a random tractor there. Some guy's got a bike that's just in parts and then it go it just leaves and then something else comes up. So yeah, forgotten towns. I think the opportunity for that to happen in America is much higher because you don't just have this sort of stumbling effect. You really can be incredibly detached and detachment would lead to alienation and then that's going to really start to like like like drive down your ability to earn to be integrated with the rest of the country.

Yeah, good point. out there in in Appalachia. I mean, there are coal jobs now. Not as many as there were, but a lot of young people don't want to get into that understandably. So you think about those guys, the inner city kid, like living in the hood, the projects has way more in Okay. in theory. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Way more chance to tap into an economy just cuz it's literally six subway stops away. Now, you're going to have to pull up your pants. You're going to have to work hard.

You're going to have to like like get the skills. But that opportunity is there where the kid out in the middle of Appalachia, there's no real opportunity around to go get. What are people doing in these places in Appalachia? What do they do for work? There's a lot of drugs, unfortunately. Selling drugs, Selling drugs, Selling drugs, using drugs, selling drugs. The full monty. monty. monty. Yep. Um, I find it to be really extreme as in people are either working really hard and doing well for themselves, carrying along or deep in the poverty and in the drugs.

And so when do you know of the Sackler family? family? family? The pill mills. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I've watched a million documentaries. million documentaries. million documentaries. So Oxycontton, that was sort of the testing ground because all of these coal miners, it's hard work. They'd be in a lot of pain. I met up with a fourth generation co coal miner. He said he was one of the first one put on that medication medication medication on that drug and it's highly addictive. And then when the jobs left town a lot of them well the addiction became that much greater because your life's looking terrible and this thing feels great.

It's not just the physical pain it's the psychic pain because now so there's still fallout of that now. It got better with that and then fentanyl hit pretty hard around five six years ago. ago. ago. The Chinese Oxycontton. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. So, So, So, I like to highlight the problems problems in this country. We have plenty of them. of them. of them. The good, the bad, the ugly though. Lot of positive stuff. I don't just go for the heavy. I don't just want to go for the crime and the drugs.

Now, these things need to be brought to the surface, but I want someone to see my YouTube channel, look at all the videos on it, and be like, "Oh, that's that America place. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it's got its issues. I don't want to be online just being like full dopamine driven rage bait where they look at it and it's like that's awful." There is a kind of tragedy porn that you know what's what's that area in Philly that's got like Kensington. Kensington. And you know, if you want to do a a 2 million play vlog, you just go to Kensington and interview some people about how the legs falling off and no one really cares.

And I used this needle five times last week and everything's horrible. horrible. horrible. So Kensington, I wasn't going to shoot a Kensington story because it's been done so many times. Too too trit. Yeah. I want to be on the front front edge of things. I want to be able to see Russia. Yes. Yes. Yes. If I can't see Russia, it doesn't count. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So, but there's this guy, his name was Buddy. His name's Buddy. He's bringing kids off the street. He's got a a a boxing clinic and uh religious rehab.

rehab. rehab. And he's doing something good trying to change it. So, okay, I want that story now because here's a big problem. Here's somewhat of a solution. Let's show that like give a little hope in the thing. So, I did that story two years ago. I can honestly stay say after being in the hoods of Karachi Pakistan in the slums of India there's nowhere more disheartening than Kensington. No way No way No way fact fact fact because it is the on the fentanyl on the tran face down in the curb and we're just going to let this go.

Yeah. So it's more disheartening because of the prevalence of drugs and that's the sort of hopelessness. Not necessarily. It's the way we're dealing with it. So for me, compassion would be, hey, that guy's deep in on fent. He's not looking good. Uh he's bleeding. There's a wound. Like we got to change it. We got to get if to we got to change it. We got to get if I had the power be like that guy needs to be brought off the street. Even if he doesn't want to go, the best thing for him would be go into rehab of some sort, a therapy.

Nobody gets on Fent cuz their life is great. Oh, I had a great day today. I'll go do some Fent, right? It's cuz things are terrible. terrible. terrible. I mean, it is a Friday. You want to do some? Yeah, [ __ ] it. Let's go to Sixth Street and get some Fent, dude. I'm sure it feels great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um until Um until Um until you're on and then you're on Kensington and it's not so great. Most people don't realize how much being dehydrated impacts their performance.

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And a lot of these people, they like the adventure of the streets. They don't want to go into housing and not be on drugs or play by the rules. So, we're at this weird point in different jurisdictions, depending where you're at, where it's like, if they can stay on the streets and no one can remove them, then it just the problem gets worse. And so, that that's also with, you know, the ACLU, the ACLU, the ACLU, you know, freedom in America, right? I'm free to choose how I want to live my life and how I want to be.

And the law when it's not when it's written up differently in different places or not enforced enforced enforced doesn't allow for the system to really remedy the problem. Is fentinel the biggest drug problem in America in your experience? Yes. Yes. Yes. Tran's pretty ugly too, but I'd say fentanyl and meth are the worst. But tran, if the distribution can get there, will maybe be as bad or worse. Tran is awful because they'll get wounds. I was in in Kensington. Some guy was on tran. He had wounds and there was just like they're like flies festering on the wounds.

People decomposing while decomposing. Yeah. So that's what I mean. While mean. While mean. While it's poor in India for sure it's poor in Pakistan like we have resources here but it's just the lack of humanity. Now, there are people like Buddy trying to help, but it's this hiccup where nobody can really solve the problem. Then there's harm reduction, which is bring needles out because the theory behind that is give someone a fresh needle, they're not reusing and spreading disease. And I'd say on the the argument for harm reduction from the people, it's it's really impossible to get in with them.

I've tried. Um, the argument is, hey, if we have someone coming into our facility using clean needles, then maybe we can get them into rehab. Maybe we can sell the rehab on them. But there is a homeless industrial complex in the country. There are a lot of people making a lot of money. Who's making money off homeless people? Okay. So, um, there's a lot of housing involved with building out houses. How is the housing involved in homeless people? people? people? Yeah. Isn't it wild? They're building What do you mean they're building in LA on Skid Row?

Just a [ __ ] Bass Pro Shop selling tents. Like what is this? They give out tents. There's some There's some grift. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. There'll be money to give out tents, but that there is housing like it that is very expensive housing in Los Angeles built for homeless people. Okay. It's a little bit of an oxymoron, but go on. It is. Yeah. So, there's that griff. There's a lot of NOS's that get There's a lot of NOS's that get money from this from different organizations, from the state, from the feds to sort of remedy the problem and the problem's not necessarily being remedied.

remedied. remedied. I mean, I saw living in San Francisco, the tenderloin has always been bad. Have you ever been there? Uh, I'm not selling you on America, Chris, am I? We We're going on how my channel's not all dark and I just keep going into the drugstore. drugstore. drugstore. That's okay. That's okay. Uh, I mean, dude, I mean, I've walked through SF. When did we do Naval? Last March, and that was the first time I'd been to SF for Michaela Peterson's wedding. Uh, and then I hadn't seen the city at all, and then I went to go and do the Naval episode, and we were walking through the financial district.

It's this huge [ __ ] equinox equinox. Yeah. equinox. Yeah. equinox. Yeah. Uh, and it's an old bank. You've got these crazy steps up to the front of it. We wanted to get a training session in before we were going to go and film and it was closed on a [ __ ] Saturday. It is so driven. The cosmopolis in the middle of SF is so driven by this group of people that do the 9 to5 or the you know 9 to9 or whatever that it's closed on a weekend and we oh well there's another one two miles away.

I'm good to get a walk in. I want to walk. I want to see the city. And I as you walk from one equinox to another, you just very quickly see the financial district fall away and the human feces begin. And I I I it's so to me that it's how stark it is. And this seems to be one of the sort of through lines. I know you did this thing in the Hamptons which I thought was [ __ ] fascinating. It's not just across the country how big the inequality can be.

Yeah. It's within very small spaces. It's when you walk three blocks difference and it feels like you're in a different city. Yeah. To be fair, San Francisco's gotten better. We left in 21, my wife and I. It's gotten better since there. New new mayor, new DA. It's cleaned up a bit. Things are always changing. But yeah, it's to me it's unacceptable. Well, that's why I try to highlight these socioeconomic differences, too. Like what you're saying, like not to do the tragedy porn thing, but to this is what we can fix.

Yeah. And it's not necessarily a solution I'm offering is just showing um the book I don't I don't Can I Can I talk about the book? Plug it as Dude, where should people go to read this amazing [ __ ] memoir that you put together? Okay. Your fellow Americans and I'm going to put you in that basket, Chris. Is that cool? Perfectly. Perfectly. Perfectly. I'll cut cuz you you've embraced country. The country's embraced you. Drive a Camaro. You do? You do? You do? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, nice.

'8s. Oh, no. New one. Scumbag. Sorry. Scumbag. Sorry. Scumbag. Sorry. Okay. No. Scumbag is 80s. Oh, okay. Fair enough. Doing burnout. Doing burnout. Doing burnout. Yeah. I'm elev I'm elevated hick, I think. Yeah. think. Yeah. think. Yeah. Okay. So, it's a lot of the content from the channel, a lot of the backstory. So much happens when the power buttons off. Um, in Amish country shooting a series, like everything, it's nuanced. It's complicated. The Amish have the Schwarz introuvers, which are the most conservative. You'd think of the Schwarz introuvers when you think of Amish.

No phone, no electricity. It has the beachy. Those would be the most liberal. They drive around. Okay. What makes them Amish? [sighs and gasps] Yeah. And you don't really get a plaque or anything. Um I guess you just say, "I'm Amish." And you play the game as in, "Have you seen how they cut their their beards?" their beards?" their beards?" Yes. Yes. Yes. Right. Right. Right. Yes. Like you wouldn't be able to be Amish looking like you're looking or or me like I'm looking. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Be unacceptable. Y but you you're part of the church. You're part of the Amish church. You live by their ways and but you also have some technology depending on the type of Amish. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So in the book stuff like the cat I'm in an Airbnb in the countryside, Amish country. Cats are meowing outside. I don't know why there are cats outside, but I go out to feed them. Door closes behind. behind. behind. I'm in my underwear. Sun's coming up. Go to open the door.

Oh, shoot. My phone's inside. Code is on my phone. I got to shoot a video. I hear the the hooves coming down the road. The steel wheels of the carriages. The Amish are coming. And I'm in my underwear like one of those dudes with a metallic blanket. You know, I'm reflecting pasty white to the world. And so there are two questions in my head. I mean, there's there's there's two ways to go about this. I walk to the most conservative Amish people's house, the Schwarz and troopers in my underwear, bald, naked pretty much, you know, pass their kids and say, "Hey, can you help me get into this house?" Or I got to break through the window of the house where I'm staying.

And so I throw a big rock through the window. And why you would too? Why are they scary? Just think I mean you're you're a ripped good-look guy, but even you showing up to an Amish home, some of the most conservative people. You think you get shot? No, they would shoot you. It would it would just go wrong. I think I don't think it would go well. well. well. Okay. I imagine It's so out there. I imagine news doesn't travel that fast in the Amish world, though.

It does. It does. It does. Okay. Okay. Okay. They're like aspen trees. They're all connected. connected. connected. Okay. Yeah. Seriously. Yeah. They know what's going on. They're more connected than we are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Faster than the internet. Um, Um, Um, so call the people obviously. Hey, sorry I broke your window. I'll replace it and whatnot. There's a lot of that stuff behind the scenes of video making which when the cameras are off the thoughts that come through what I've learned on the journey and also how I started into this after high school taking a road trip across the country and a lot of historical context in there and just an overall pro.

Got it. We're in difficult times, a lot of doom and gloom. You can get that all day long on the internet or turn on the TV. Here's a here's a space to go. That being the book or the audio book. You can open up 10 separate chapters, easy to read. They're all separate on their own and smile about America and learn something and connect connect with your fellow Americans. fellow Americans. fellow Americans. So, the publisher reached out because they saw the channel and they're like, "Do you want to do uh something off your channel?" channel?" channel?" They're thinking to zag while everyone is zigging right now.

There's a lot of heaviness, a lot of doom and gloom in the country. Just think of the western world overall. Maybe all the world, I don't know. Um, they're trying to think front lines. Hey, hey, how can we go the opposite direction here? And that's what my book is. Nice. Wholesome. Nice. Wholesome. Nice. Wholesome. Yeah, I I'd like to think so. I get in a little heaviness, but not too bad. It's mostly uplifting, positive. Give me some more stories about the Amish. The Okay, here's one for you.

You'll like this being English. I'm English too in the Amish world. Everyone here is English. Okay. Anyone that's not Amish is English 100%. 100%. 100%. Including the Japanese. Black Japanese. Black Japanese. Black Japanese. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Female. You're English. Oh, that's fantastic. You're not them. You're English, dude. And they said that the Imperial colony had died. No, we're still going strong in the in the Amish. Go [ __ ] yourself. yourself. yourself. So, you're English. I'm English. Yes. Yes. Yes. And Italian, apparently. Old Order Amish. can't drive, but they're out in the countryside.

They need rides really bad. Okay. So, I meet this guy, his name's Marcus. I'm like, "Marcus, I'm making videos." And he's like, "Hey, I can bring you into my buddies, my old geyser buddies, playing shuffle board in an Amish barn out in the sticks." I'm like, "Man, that's going to be cool." I got to drive an hour to Marcus. It's another 45 minutes to his buddies. I go to Marcus's place, pick him up. Oh, howdy, Peter. How you doing? doing? doing? Oh, hang on. So, he's okay to get in a car, car, car, but not to drive a car.

He can't drive. He needs He needs English to drive. This is English. English. You have to drive. So, this is like Shabbat a little bit for Jewish people. It's like we can't turn on or off the light, but if we got somebody else that can turn the light on or off, which I did a video on that, too. I got in Shabbat. But, uh, okay. So, pick Marcus up. Y about halfway through the drive, I'm thinking, great time to start the video. Rolling Hills, Holmes County, Ohio.

Beautiful. Marcus is a character. I bring out the camera. I'm like, he's like, "What are you doing?" I'm like, "I'm just going to start the video." He's like, "Uh, I don't. No, let's not do that right now." So, I'm reading the room. Okay, cool. Go to the event with the shuffle board. [snorts] Feeling it out with his guys characters. Great scene. A lot of yelling. They're speaking Pennsylvania Dutch. What the [ __ ] is that? Which is their language. It's German. It's like a form of German. Yeah, that's their native language.

They call it Dutch, not to do with the Netherlands, but like Deutsch. Where did that come from? Came from the motherland from Europe, right? right? right? They came to the US to flee religious prosecution. prosecution. prosecution. Persecution. Persecution. Persecution. And William Penn in Pennsylvania said, "Hey, come on over. You guys are great with the land. You're great with farming." and they could live to their own tune in America. There are a lot of carve out carveouts for them. And that's a part of my book. Neither here nor there.

People in America, Chicanos, Amish, Siberian, Eupic, who are American but living in their own universes. universes. universes. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Okay. So, get the event. I'm not feeling the vibe. I got to feel the vibe. And ends up I don't shoot a video. And then I try I'm a little bit confused, but whatever. I'm just going with it. drive Marcus home, 45 minutes, drive back to my place, an hour. I tell an Amish guy a couple days later, he's like, "Oh yeah, he totally played you.

The Amish bum rides from English and he just roped you in. He wasn't going to do a video. He finessed you. He was doing no video with you." you." you." And I laughed. I thought it was great. You thought that it was on you that you hadn't maybe made everyone feel as comfortable as you should have done, but the video was never on the table. Was never there. Yeah. You see, you look at the Amish and you say that's primitive technology, but you just got completely sch smoozed by him.

him. him. Schmooed. Yeah. And before the pandemic, I did these videos like right around the beginning of the pandemic. Oh, no. In the beginning, it was like everyone was like, "Oh, the Amish left behind. They're they're not keeping up. That would suck to be them." Then the pandemic happens. Everyone's like, "I want some of that." They're making their own food, hanging out together in the countryside, not worried about a thing. So, the book gets into those those stories just like the videos. What about the intense Jewish communities that you've been to see?

Yeah, the Hidics, and again, they're different sects. You have the the Satmars would be the most conservative, and then you have the Labich, which I did a Shabbat dinner with. We had to get approval from the rabbis for me to get in there and shoot that video. Um, the wife shops at Gucci. Okay. So, you have Gucci to so conservative it's like the most Spartan living living living homespun. homespun. homespun. Yeah. In Brooklyn in like the center of urban America. So, that's fascinating. Um, look, I think Shabbat's cool.

I I totally respect that. I think it's awesome. We did a the guy that does the ads for my show, Sky, one of my best friends, had uh his bachelor party is a couple of years ago and he decided to do it in Houston. He likes He likes He likes Asian food, Asian culture, and that was it for the theme for the weekend. We did Shabbat on the Friday evening. I want everyone to kind of be here in the moment. I want everyone phones away. We'll do food.

Um, so I'm like, I've never done this before. The I guess it's secular Shabbat, you could call it. It's basically just don't use your [ __ ] phone for Friday evening and we'll eat some food. Food arrives and he got two pounds of crawfish. I'm like, that definitely doesn't [ __ ] work. Also, there's 25 of us and you got 2 lb of crawfish. That's like 100 gram of edible food. Um, so immediately I broke Shabbat, got my phone out and ordered pizza for everybody. I don't give a [ __ ] about your about this thing.

Um, but we did that and we did a a Jeffersonian dinner where you have a single question and you sort of circling the room and I can see the allure of it. I really can. You know, an equivalent of a a lot of people are doing a digital Sabbath now on a Sunday where okay, I'm just no screens for, you know, 9 till 9 on a Sunday. Sunday. Sunday. after coming back from a 7-day silent meditation retreat with no screens, having little doses of that I think make complete sense.

So, you can do regardless of whether you're religious or not or a part of the culture or not, I think that there's a lot of like cultural technologies, social technology that you can take and and bring into your own life. Why wouldn't you want to? Yeah, maybe the light switch thing might be a little bit much, but okay. A period of the week where you don't think about work. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A period of the week where you're just being present. A period of the week where you're away from from screens.

Like, who thinks that that's a bad idea? No. No. No. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to get there. Yeah. Yeah. Um the Appalachia thing, just going back to that, I was watching a video of you speaking to some kid who had the most insane history knowledge. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Who was that kid? because he was giving you a an entire history lecture about the difference between the Greek the ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans and how he had beef with the ancient Romans.

Romans. Romans. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because of this slaughter that they'd done in like 404 AD. I like yo if you're holding on to beef from the [ __ ] like 3rd century. 3rd century. 3rd century. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's very impressive. And he was like 16 years old. Yeah. I that was he was on the side of the road. I saw these guys fishing and that video is actually the best performing video on my channel and I almost almost almost 34 million views is no joke. Yeah. And I almost I almost didn't do it.

I was like struggling to get it going. But that's one of those videos where I'm like, "Okay, I got a long road trip. Who I meet up with along the way and what happens with them determines if it's a good video or not." And you have to put your extroverted feeling out sensing. So I see these kids off the side of the road, turn over, we get into a conversation, and then he drops that and he starts singing for me, too. And he his main point was he wanted to show the country that we're all not just drugs and alcoholics and coal miners, that we have we have something more in us.

And that sophistication as well. Yeah. And you realize like labels are simple and stereotype they exist for a reason. But reason. But reason. But you can't judge. I mean this if this work has taught me one thing is to judge less. Like that guy was a gem. He was just dropping it. I I couldn't keep up with him. I'm like, "Yeah, that sounds good." Cuz I didn't I didn't I didn't have that historical knowledge. Jared, you ever considered that you might have a drinking problem? I don't consider a lot, Chris.

Well, you drank an entire case of Athletic Brewing and Cole last night. But they're non-alcoholic, and that's not a problem. Sorry, man. I I just kept chugging. Wait for the regret to creep in. Never happened. See, most people like Jared don't want to change what they drink. They just don't want the next day to be a complete write-off. And that is why I'm such a huge fan of Athletic Brewing Co. They make the best NA brews on the planet. [snorts] You can find Athletic Brewing Co.'s bestselling lineup at grocery or liquor stores near you.

Or best option, get a full variety pack of four flavors shipped direct to your door right now. Get 15% off your first online order by going to the link in the description below or heading to athleticbwing.com/modernwisdom athleticbwing.com/modernwisdom athleticbwing.com/modernwisdom using the code modernwisdom at checkout. That's athleticbwing.com/modernwisdom That's athleticbwing.com/modernwisdom That's athleticbwing.com/modernwisdom at modernwisdom at checkout. Nearbeer terms and conditions apply. Athletic brewing company fit for all times. Bottoms up. Bottoms up. Bottoms up. What was that story in the Appalachian company town where some widow lady had to had 7 days to remarry or leave or something?

something? something? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, in company towns not that long ago, I don't know if it was like this in the UK, but they were paid in script. Script was company money. It's like a special currency that could only be used in companyrun stores. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Okay. Okay. And for your housing and everything. It's a horrendous way to control the people that are working. Yeah. You're not leaving. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or if you want to leave, your money's useless. useless. useless. Yeah. So if a wife passed or shy a husband passed in the mines, the wife had to bounce out of town or get her kids in the mines immediately or else you're losing everything cuz the company owned all the real estate and they need workers in that real estate.

It's getting perilously close to a type of slavery. of slavery. of slavery. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like indentured servitude. Thousands of of these places. Do you know we still have company towns in America America America that use the currency thing? Not the currency, but almost everything else. else. else. Okay. What what is a company town? Company town company owns the real estate. It provides all the employment. Everything revolves around the company. So, uh, again, one of those nights I'm looking at Google. Baghdad, Arizona. What? Baghdad, Arizona.

Who would have thought? Okay, I looked into it. What's this town? Freeport McMorren owns it. Copper mining. They own all the real estate there. Everyone there works in the mines or still or still or still still or some ancillary business connected to the mines. And uh I checked it out and I'm thinking old company town. What's it like out there? People are all tied into this thing. Well, I get out there. The average wage was above the average in America. 90. It was 90 grand, I believe.

Rent 350 bucks. Threebedroom, two bath. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, this is looking up. Everything's good at the moment. the moment. the moment. Yeah. Summer workout facility, pool, daycare for kids, school's great, no crime. Why? If you commit crime in a company time, you're out. Company's booting you. booting you. booting you. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. And so And so And so it's not for me. I don't want to be in that mold necessarily, but I totally get it. it. it. In these times where inflation's kicking up, you know, more stress, I would say with like trying to make the bills, child care, all that.

all that. all that. What control is is in a company town other than everybody has to work for the company? I'm trying to think about, you know, there was hard power before with the currency thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um what are some of the other ways that uh pressure is applied to the people that are working? Yeah. You you get fired, you're out. Obviously, if you're old once you retire, you're out of town. Yeah. [snorts] They're not going to save that that space for retirees for somebody that isn't being economically economically economically contributive to this project.

Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Right. I suppose that's interesting when you think about the fact that being able to own your own home now or or rent an apartment as long as you can make payments. You don't have to have any allegiance to anyone, right? You don't have to. It doesn't matter whether you move from Google to Proctor and Gamble or from Starbucks to to [ __ ] predonj uh all of that's fine. You just the house is independent. But for almost all of human history, if you were in some surfom thing, if you had to have fieldalty to wherever that the local baron in the UK, medieval times, uh you know, if you had lords, if you were playing land registries and [ __ ] like that, like it's kind of a economic engine even if you're living on a farm.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay, so there's some ouse on the farm and you look after the pigs. you're the pig guy and then you stop looking after the pigs. It's like, well, guess what? You're out of the house as well because your your your housing was attached to your economic output. Yeah. output. Yeah. output. Yeah. Not just your capacity to pay. That was all part of a single. So, I suppose this, this, this, you know, historically is not that strange. What feels weird is to now think about having your house and your social structure because being kicked out of the house is hard.

But losing every friend you've ever had and every person that you've ever known in this probably incredibly insular environment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey 65, congratulations. Now [ __ ] off. None of your friends are going to be able to go with you. And insular also geographically these are like are like are like middle of nowhere. Middle moren is another one. two big ones in Arizona and people are trying to get in get in get in because look, the pay is good. They save up money and get real estate out.

A lot of the ones that are thinking through it, they they do their time and they buy real estate outside and retire in that. Okay. Okay. Okay. Desert Arizona. It wouldn't surprise me if if if people are innovative and if there is this this this understanding that you work in this place and then when you retire you're going to get kicked out. That will begin to be a pathway conveyor belt to well why don't we make a retirees town that's not too far away and this has all of the things that we want and then that begins to be the kind of of of tradition that people go through.

do. And right now they're doing well cuz copper is doing well, right? What about East LA? East LA is great. I love the Chicanos. They're cool. Um, one of those again, new country in my own country experiences. Didn't know anything about Chicanos. Really got in with these guys. true 100% Chicanos as in English is the native language with a Spanish accent. Why? It's the culture. A lot of them are bilingual, but Spanish. Spanish. Spanish. Yeah, but a lot have been here generations and they grew up speaking English, but they have a Spanish accent.

It's wild. It's wild. It's wild. Cool. Okay. Uh, look, the car culture is awesome. They love that. I get it. Yeah. The low riders, the taco. It's a culture. It's it's it's connected. connected. connected. It really is connected. Well, it's its own universe out there. And again, it's one of those he either here nor there. The chicanos will say when we go to Mexico, they call us American, but when we're in the US, they call us Mexican. They're in the uncanny valley of Mexicans and Americans.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right in between. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I made a few videos out there with them. Actually, a chapter in the book about the Chicanos. And I that I just that's what's so rad about America. You have all these different existences coexisting. And my wife says it's a build your own bowl country as in pick your protein, pick your vegetables, pick your dressing. So pick your culture, your addiction, fentanyl or pick your geography. What do you want? Mountains, you want oceans? Dude, I mean, you want your culture.

You want your politics even? Like, choose your own adventure almost. adventure almost. adventure almost. It's [ __ ] cool, you know, for all that there's problems in this place. And it's the misogynistic capitalistic hellscape that's trying to keep everybody down. I understand. But I flew back from when I flew back from SF and just the change that journey from SF to Austin, the change in the landscape looking out of the window. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is [ __ ] unbelievable. Like this is it is everything. I have seen everything on route.

The only thing I haven't seen is snow. In fact, I probably didn't maybe see some snow like San Bernardino Valley if we went over that way. I don't know. Um Um Um yeah, you can there's [clears throat] places that you can snowboard and ski in [ __ ] May. [ __ ] May. [ __ ] May. Yeah. and and it's just it's so varied and that is what makes it cool. I remember when I first started coming out here, man, I mid20s, I started coming out as part of these author projects that I was doing and I would get flown out to Norfolk, Virginia, and it was just a like military, it was right on the bay, so I'm seeing all of the huge military ships coming in and out.

And there was one weekend where we were staying at the Sheraton downtown in Norfolk, Virginia, right on the water. And there was a Powerboat convention going on. Uh like [snorts] every dude had a mustache. Every woman, no matter how old she was, had bleach blonde hair, platinum, super. I was like, "This [ __ ] rules. This is the sickest [ __ ] I've ever seen in my life." Yeah. life." Yeah. life." Yeah. And then the next year I went to Baltimore and it was the 4th of July and I was in downtown Baltimore right where the historic ships are right on that bay and the [ __ ] are firing cannons.

Fourth of July there's all of these fireworks going up. I was just on my own. I was like, "This is amazing." And I posted a a a photo on Facebook and put my phone away and I was having a beer or whatever just on my own. Walking about like wideeyed, bushy tailed bing. I was like, "Fucking all right, fair enough. Get my phone out. It's late US time, so there's no one awake in the UK." And I basically had no friends in the US. All of the people that were running the event were saying, "What are you doing downtown in Baltimore?

Do not go past 49th Street. Do not take a turn down there." It's like, "What do you mean?" They're like, "Just don't go to 49th Street or whatever." And I was like, "Well, now I'm [ __ ] going to 48th Street." Okay. So, go all the way up. And on every single street corner, there was a cop car with two police officers. So on every intersection you would have one, two, three, four cop cars like on the corners of every I'm like how many [ __ ] cop cars have you guys got?

And they were just sat there and I was even that didn't go to 40 50th Street or whatever. That's [ __ ] fascinating to me. And then did this huge road trip went to um [ __ ] what's the place just near Dollywood. It's like a ski lodge town. Begins with a G. Uh Gatlinburg. Okay. Okay. Okay. I went to Gatlinburg. uh Tennessee and this is like a aspeny like Swiss ski lodge town that happens to be beautiful weather in the middle of summer. Fourth of July Nashville Broadway like it's it's [ __ ] awesome, dude.

Like for people that I guess haven't traveled, haven't been able to get outside of their home state and see just how much stuff there is to do. Like this sounds like I'm shilling for the [ __ ] American tourist board or whatever, but it's just it's [ __ ] cool. It's really good and I'm I'm glad that I'm here. So, what do you where do you think things are going? Where do you see things in uh in five years? Are you are you optimistic about things? Are you thinking something has to come to a head or or or I don't know.

I the America is very divided thing seems less true than America is very isolated. I think people are more isolated than they are divided. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. And that can cause people to kind of become quite deranged in the way that they see themselves in the world. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah, if you don't touch grass that much. I had this question on a Q&A. This guy was asked a question of um you say I say that the bar is very low for most men and that you know if you're a well put together guy with a stable job who's nice and takes care of himself, you're in the top like 5% of all men.

I'm like I think that's true. And he's like and yet I see all of this stuff online about how a guy needs to be six foot tall and make six figures a year and be emotionally intelligent. He's got to done 10 years of therapy and all all of the like I think this is what happens when you spend too much time on the internet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think the internet takes the most caricatured extreme versions. It's like WWE WWE WWE for sociality, for sociality, for sociality, right?

right? right? And it turns everything into this kayfabe pantomime and everybody starts performing. And um what I think, what I hope is that we can continue to sort of push people into real world experiences. Like stuff like your travel vlogs, I think are really great at reminding people there is a [ __ ] world of adventure out there off the screen. Adventure is not a station at a local [ __ ] yoga retreat that's 30 minutes from your house. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Adventure is taking a left down a road that you don't usually go down.

I'll never forget I did um as part of this I want to see the world thing when I was younger. I did uh Thailand on my own. I did Bali on my own. The Thailand trip. It was my final full day on Kosamui. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh no Kottowo. Sorry. Kottow. Kottow. Not Kosamui. Not Kosamui. Not Kosamui. And um me and my $1 per day moped which had one break on it and was definitely going to kill me. And I was I was basically just uh doing tai boxing the whole time I was there.

I was going from gym to gym just fighting cuz I thought that would be fun to do and it would give me a community of people and I'd feel less alone. That worked out great. Final day I was driving the trip from the smoothie place I like to go to back toward the gym. But I'd already trained. I was like there's a turning here on the left. I'm just going to see what's down this road. And that took me two and a half hours. cuz I nearly ran out of gas and one point opened out into this elephant sanctuary that I didn't know was there.

I wasn't signposted. Saw that pitched up for a bit. Just sat and watched things. Pulled back off and then there's a guy with a huge truck with all of these uh rolls of sort of bark spun up and rolled tied up behind him. I looked like a scene out of Final Destination, like Thailand's Final Destination. and it's all going to fall off and kill someone. And I was like just watching this person thinking, I wonder what that guy's wonder what I wonder what that guy's afternoon's going to look like.

I wonder where he's going and I wonder what he does and I wonder where he lives. And there would be I just the opportunity to see some [ __ ] real [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is not being fed to you at the velocity that you're used to. I don't know. I mean, I can't tell you basically anything that I watched on the internet last week, but I can tell you a story about Thailand that I remember doing 10 years ago. Yeah. Like if that isn't how you make a richer life, I kind of don't know what is.

And this doesn't mean that you got to travel all the way to [ __ ] Thailand. Thailand. Thailand. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, no, you're fully right. It's there's the on the ground reality and the online reality reality reality right now and the delta is massive. And unless you're getting that on the ground reality to balance it out, you know, this thing starts taking everything seems catastrophic. Look, next five years, what do I think is going to happen? I would like to think that we're going to get some degree of push back against the level of onlineness.

I wouldn't bet against people's ability to actually be able to look after themselves. Um, and I think that people are way more resilient than we give them credit for. Mhm. I would be worried about what is happening to young people with technology usage, but Australia and the UK have now both got under 16 bans for social media. Um, even if you can work around it with a VPN or something, I think that's going to be good. And it wouldn't surprise me. America, unfortunately, the freedom thing actually works against you with that that sometimes maybe you need a bit of dictatorship, dictatorship, dictatorship, maybe you need a little bit of bureaucracy and and um some sort of top down telling right of what because people hate the idea of losing freedom.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But also along with freedom the optionality can mean that most people kind of they uh gravitate toward the path of least resistance. Sometimes that's something that they want but they isn't good for them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Something they want but don't need. Yeah. Um I think it'll a lot will depend on what happens internationally over the next couple of years because that is causing a lot of people to feel quite uncomfortable. One of the biggest niches or most of the biggest trends in finance on YouTube about six years ago were uh slow investing, 401ks, dollar cost averaging.

And if you look at 2026, it's all vibe betting, poly market, kshi, get-richqu crypto, and I think that speaks to the sort of short- termism that people are feeling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I don't know if the future's promised to me, so I'm going to kind of just make immediate reward. Um, I hope that that stops because that's a real recipe for [ __ ] disaster. [ __ ] disaster. [ __ ] disaster. That's that's a great point. I call it the RPT. Do you know what the RPT is? No. No.

No. Okay. Nothing against Russians, but the Russian package tour. So, Soviet Union falls in ' 91. Okay. These people have been behind the wall for decades. All of a sudden, travel opens up to Nalia, Turkey, Shamalshek, Egypt. So, you have these flights from for people that never were able to leave their country, Chalabinsk, Ufa, Chalabinsk, Ufa, Chalabinsk, Ufa, uh, Novi, Siber flying to these all-inclusive package tours. So, you go, you get your food, your hotel, everything's included. Well, if you've ever been around an RPT, [gasps] [gasps] [gasps] it's like take everything off the table, stuff your pockets mentality, okay?

okay? okay? Because they've dealt with so much scarcity and you never know what tomorrow brings. tomorrow brings. tomorrow brings. And I I I there's I'm doing saying this with some humor, too, okay? So, not everyone's participating in the RPT, but my my wife short-term is there's the upt Ukrainian package tour. There's the Chinese package tour. It's just sort of a joke of the package tour where it's like I paid for this, I'm going to get all I can get. And I feel like the RPT is sort of taken over culture even here in the West as in let me get my thing quick.

There's nothing longterm here. Y Y Y get it off. I feel like the whole country is run like the RPT right now. It's like I'm going to make my MO. Here's my meme coin. I'm going to bank. Get out. Nothing long term. And nothing good really comes from short-term thinking. Like you didn't get to where you're at from short-term thinking. That's a long grind. Same with me. Even to get the visa, dude. Even to come to the country, it's a very long grind. If it was short-term, you would have given up, gone done something easier.

So I totally agree like our especially young in this country need to realize that it's not all social media obviously and social media shows RPT mentality. Anything that's worth something is long game. I mean, it took me until I mean, I was trying to figure out my life at 38. I was stressing in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco reading everything I could get my hands on. Like, Like, Like, WTF am I going to do now? Well, now you've got a huge YouTube channel and a book deal and Right.

But that's that's from long-term thinking, like having hope. And at the very least, I'd be an old man and be like, "At least I went for it." I if it if it didn't work out. I upped my entire life and moved countries on my own with two suitcases at 34. at 34. at 34. I you people who say you should have got your life sorted out by now assume that development comes with age and not work. And the whole age thing is it's like that makes sense if you know the day you're going to die.

If I'm dying at 100 and I have kids at 48, who cares? But if I'm going to die at 50, you better have them earlier if you want kids. And that's just like this whole you have to do something by a certain timeline thing. I I threw that manual out at a young age. young age. young age. So I understand it that seems to be a little bit of a a contradictory pattern to some of the stuff that you did when you were younger, which is I'm not going to be able to travel like this in the same way perhaps in the future.

Yeah. So, it feels like you did have an understanding of part of the timeline that is that fair to say with that amount of freedom like fully untethered, no relationship I was in, no commitments. Yeah. I was sort of foreseeing maybe I won't get that chance again. again. again. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What uh what's actually happening on the American Mexican border? What's the truth truth truth right now? right now? right now? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, Okay. Um, Okay. Um, I did a follow-up video because I've done I don't know, five, six, seven videos.

No, seven, eight videos down there. Right now, it's chill crickets. No one's coming over illegally. No way. No way. No way. Nah, nothing. So, I started doing border videos when I was moving from California to Florida and someone reached out and said, "You got to come down to the border." And I was in the middle of a move, driving across country. I'm like, "Nah, I'm not going to do that. I'm too busy." And my wife was like, "Detour. "Detour. "Detour. Do it. Go do it." We got to Florida.

I dropped my bags, dropped her, and went right to the border in Texas. So, not far from here at Macallen. And so, I went in with some preconceptions of, you know, why would you want a border wall? That's I don't I don't think that's the right way to go about this. And then after spending time there during that trip, I left. Yeah. You want a border wall down there? there? there? Why? Why? Why? Uh look, if the wall's 30 feet, migrants are going to get a 32ft ladder and they go, it's not stopping everything obviously, but for customs and border protection, it pinches everyone.

It may they put their technology on the wall. They can see better. They can manage it better. You have to see these landscapes to understand how vast they are. Do we do you know how much of the border is covered by protective fencing now? [sighs and gasps] I don't know. Um California, most of California. Um California. Um California. Um a lot of Arizona, not all of Arizona, not all of Texas. It's got to be one of the longest conjoining borders in the world, I have to assume.

Coast to coast perhaps, but there are a lot of Canada will be more actually. Oh, that Yeah, that's the longest border actually. Canada. Yeah. And I've done a story up there, too, which was interesting. But um Oh, yeah. There it is. Uh for the US Mexico border, roughly 7750 m of it, nearly 2,000 m of some form of primary fence or wall, about 35 to 38%. That is not one continuous wall. Much of it is replaced earlier barriers, and the remainder is covered by terrain, patrols, sensors, and other enforcement measures.

The US Canada border is overwhelmingly unfensed. overwhelmingly unfensed. overwhelmingly unfensed. That's that's nothing up there. Okay. So, I went down. I'm like, I left that first trip. Yeah, you should put a wall up there. The second trip I went to West Texas where the Rio Grand is, and if you put a wall up there, you give Mexico the whole river. It would destroy those places. So, I left that trip being like, yeah, you wouldn't want no wall. You wouldn't want to put a wall there. Then I went to Tijana and there are two walls between Tijana and California.

Two mega walls. mega walls. mega walls. Is it one to keep the Mexicans out and one to keep the Americans out? No, double double double Mexicans. double Mexicans. double Mexicans. Double front. Double front. Double front. Okay. Okay. Okay. Because if you didn't have walls there, it'd just be a full bum rush right to the north. Um, Um, Um, Arizona is interesting. So, every sector there, I think 20 sectors in the United States where like there's the Yuma sector and the Tucson sector. They're basically different border jurisdictions.

Yuma sector, when I went there, there, there, 140 nations were coming through. It was wild. Um, we had an OTM policy other than Mexicans. A lot of people don't know this. Like Mexicans could not come over unless they were really good. But the cartel controlled that whole situation. A lot of Indians got Indians on my video from Delhi. Fly Delhi, Mexico City, Mexico City, Mexalei. Cartel picks them up at the airport like Epcot Center without the name tags. brings them to the gap in the wall, gives a US phone, get to the US side, dial 911.

Our customs border protection comes on them and I was there for it's in one of my videos. Quarter half mile down, Sinaloa cartels running the fence, the young girls, all the stuff that's definitely going to get busted on. But at that time, we had to process. It's it's very confusing topic and unfortunately both sides have used it as a weapon. Mhm. But at that time it was pretty much fair game to claim asylum. Depended what the country you're from. But if you're from India and you could say, "Hey, uh, political persecution.

I need to leave. It's dangerous for me to be in India." We had to process them. Buses would come in, pick them up, bring them into a detention center, and then off into the interior, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, all over the country with an asylum court hearing. Hey, come to this court hearing. And the the the courts are so backed up, not enough judges. Some are five years out, some are seven years out. So the the the word on the street or the word in the world was game on, green light, come on.

You just have to pay the cartel the right amount of money. So, it was insane. I should have just I shouldn't have done my [ __ ] 01. I didn't need to do my 01. 01. 01. Yeah, you didn't. [snorts] And then you'd see the fallout in places like Chicago where all the police stations you had Venezuelan migrants just sleeping out on the floor. Like you walk into a police station, it was just sleeping bags, kids toys, kids playing. And the all the police officers were just like hating their lives.

That was the asylum place they'd been assigned to. just we weren't the these cities weren't ready for this influx. These places weren't ready and it was just a mad influx. And so I don't blame the migrants cuz it was green light. I would have done the same. I'm in Honduras, six grand to the cartel. I'm going up. I'm making 10 times as much money much money much money and living a better life. But the influx was insane, unsustainable. I thought my channel was going to get demonetized for sure on that topic and maybe shadowbanned, but it wasn't.

Thank God. I've never had a problem with YouTube. Knock knock knock on wood with that. But I thought it was going to have an issue. And I would get in with the sheriffs cuz the sheriff's can This is a really cool thing about America. We have local law enforcement. You have city of Austin law enforcement, right? What county are we in? in? in? Travis. Travis. Travis. Travis. Okay. There's the sheriff's department. Both doing law enforcement operating completely different. The sheriffs are voted in by their constituents.

constituents. constituents. The only people that oversee them really are the voters. Okay? Okay? Okay? Where the local police, city council, it's it's tied into local governance. So, I can never get in with police departments. The only one Glendale police basically Phoenix, shout out to Glendale police. They let me do my thing. Other than that, nobody. But the sheriffs, sheriffs, sheriffs, if you get a good sheriff, like I got in Yuma County, Yuma County, Yuma County, Sheriff Wilmont, like straight out of the music, uh, straight out of the movies, handlebar, mustache, got the cowboy hat on.

Unreal. Unreal. Unreal. And he brought me and the camera and the audience into stuff that no one was getting access to cuz Customs and Border Protection had a gag order. No one could speak speak speak and it was insane. So the problem right now, whatever media you're watching, you're watching, you're watching, every everything's got a bias. Everything's got a bias. And so some people didn't even know there was a situation really going on. Other people think like America's going to blow up tomorrow. Yep. Yep. Yep.

And there's no real place to go where truth is the northstar. At least I haven't found it in media. I don't know where you go. You have to you have to read wide. You have to watch wide. So again, So again, So again, a lot of the benefits you have in this country, freedom is one of those amazing uh limited restrictions, but also massive optionality and the inability to coordinate, right? Like you can't get top down with that. The same thing where I don't think that this is the case in the UK, right?

you have North Umbrea Police Constabularary, which will be for Newcastle, the the city that I was from, North Umbrea being the county, and uh it's one cohesive unit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there'll be divisions and whatever else in that. But this means if you've got the sheriff and his guys, then you've got Austin PD and their guys and then there's probably some [ __ ] with like Travis County as well too trying to coordinate that because you've got these systems that are all trying to interlock and there'll be a little bit of power struggle and it doesn't take much.

Anybody that's worked in a company that's grown quickly or anybody that's been a part of a startup or seen any business that's trying to grow, as soon as you go from founder plus founder and assistant to assistant plus founder and assistant to someone, it doesn't take long before the dis economies of scale really come online. All the coordination, the communication problems, things get missed, everybody's doing the [ __ ] Spider-Man meme thing where they're looking at someone else whose job it's supposed to be. Sure. That's what you have in a country that's like that.

And because it's so new, there can be little power grabs. Oh, we'll build this, we'll build that. And before you know it, why why haven't we pruned this area of this particular bureaucracy? Uh, and the disadvantage that we have in the UK is that because it's been around for so long, we've accumulated loads of pomp and circumstance and [ __ ] Like there are all of these I went when I graduated from university both times there's this insane procession of stuff. There's a a mace bearer. There's a dude carrying a [ __ ] medieval weapon and everybody dots their caps in different orders to people based on hierarchy.

And it's like cool and kitschy and you know old and waldy or whatever. Know this old university thing. But like that's also the way that the police is run and that's also the way that people are voted in and that's also the way that the House of Commons works and that's also the way the banking system works. So because it's old, you have a lot of the [ __ ] that's been pruned is good because things that weren't able to contribute have been gotten rid of, but there's also loads of superfluous like horseshit that's in there, too.

So it's just again the only two countries that I can speak on with any degree of non-expertise is the UK and the US. And what I see in the US is like a huge coordination problem because it's so big and so sprawling. And there's been I don't want to say a power grab, but you guys have had to build quickly. Mhm. For 2 [ __ ] 50 years, dude. Three lifetimes, Three lifetimes, Three lifetimes, dude. It is nothing. There's nothing nothing nothing trees in my garden that are older in the UK that are older than this [ __ ] country.

country. country. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's it's not a surprise that it's a challenge. And then changing technologies, technologies, technologies, you know, whatever's going on geopolitically, people coming across the border like it's [ __ ] well, gnarly. It's messy. The good side of that would be, hey, without those sheriffs, there's no way any of us would have s seen what I could show show show if it was all it was completely uh top down in that sense. Now, in America's founding, founding, founding, the the the crown, the king didn't want us to move past Appalachia.

Too much to manage, too many skirmishes with the natives. Yeah, natives. Yeah, natives. Yeah, I mean that's what it's such a massive thing to manage where if you don't have some of these autonomous things working in the in the spirit of America's America's all the crazies, you being one of them. of them. of them. Correct. Correct. Correct. Right. You came here without like no guarantee. guarantee. guarantee. You had your thing going. So you had some some footing, some foundation, but think of most that came here.

They're like, "Hi, family." How long was the journey journey journey for the original migrants that came to America a few hundred years ago? Like it would be 6 weeks on a ship or something from [ __ ] island, from some port, probably an island or on the west coast of the UK. Yeah. Uh, my family came over in 1918 on a boat from Italy from Naples. No English, 18 years old was my it was great-grandparents. So, great-grandparents. So, great-grandparents. So, great-grandmother, great-grandfather, great-grandmother, great-grandfather, great-grandmother, great-grandfather, they all came into Hobok in New Jersey.

I mean, the first European No, no, more like a little bit newer than that. It's like 1800s. Try like Try like Try like because I have to assume that that would have been the 1800s. Most immigrants from Europe and America spent four to eight weeks at sea by sailing ship. Okay. By the late 1800s, steam ships had made it faster. Even one to two weeks on a ship. But that at the start of the 1800s, hey dude, do you want to go to this place that you have absolutely no idea what it's like?

It's basically undeveloped. There isn't much going on. There was a revolution recently. Maybe it's over. I think so. I'm not really too sure. It's going to take between a month and two months. Survival. Yeah, maybe. Um, want to go? Like, that is why this country is filled with people that are risktakers. Like, they're the they're the progeny of people that went, "Fuck it. Let's get on that [ __ ] for two months. Let's do it." And then the ones that went west into native land. Like, how sketchy would that have been?

So, it attracts that. It always has. And you're the latest iteration. That's true. What um tell me about this thing you did in the Hamptons because you know when you're thinking about rural offgrades, offgrades, offgrades, you know, I don't immediately think of the Hamptons as being in that mix. So H the Hamptons uh met up with this guy Jimmy Ding. Ding because he fixes surfboards. The dings on surfboards. Great name. Great name. Great name. Uh we started at the dumps. So, think of the most bougie, one of the most bougie zip codes in the country.

We started at the dumps because Jimmy's old school local. And so, what I wanted to show is like you can label the Hamptons. I always thought of starch, linens, helicopters, helicopters, helicopters, big pads, but there's a whole working class that lives there in many of these wealthy places, right? So, I just got into his story. fascinating guy, grew up there, fisherman, and you see a lot of the tension that exists in these places where the real estate shot up so much. How do you hang on, right?

How does a guy like Jimmy in what um period of time did the real estate go vertical? Well, it was always a place for New York City's elite to get out of the city been desirable for a while. Yeah. But there was enough land and space back in the I believe his family got a place back in the 50s or 60s dirt cheap to get a a normal home [snorts] and now it's just through the roof and it's everywhere in the country and I think in the UK too, right?

Correct. Yeah, it depends. It seems like it's a worldwide phenomenon. phenomenon. phenomenon. It depends where you want to live. Um the UK is an interesting one. So I'm from the most northernly town that isn't Scotland. I'm as far north as you can go. uh it in Game of Thrones which is loosely based on the war of the roses from like uh the 1000 no thousand AD Winterfell which is the [ __ ] freezing cold dark miserable place that the Starks are from that's based on Newcastle. So that's Newcastle and then there's a wall right there's the ice wall that's Hrien's wall and that's not far from us.

So there is a there was there is a wall that's still there that was meant to keep the barbarians out and they were the Scots. And if you were to spend maybe now $150,000 so $200,000 something like that maybe 180. 180. 180. Mhm. You could get a very nice family home, probably semi- detached terrace in a, you know, it be a 1900, early 1900s build brick. It'll be really nicely, but it's not going to be super cool, modern, but it'll be kitschy and really, really nice.

And there'll be enough space, especially for something in the UK. If you take that amount of money and try to go to London, you've got two years of rent. Yeah. Right. Or three years of rent, maybe if you're lucky. It is the UK I think is the whatever fifth biggest 10th biggest economy in the world something like that. So people look at the UK as a rich country but the UK is a poor country that surrounds a very rich city. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. And the city is London and the city is really the city of London.

Yeah. And that is the financial hub. And then you've got this sprawl out into Westminster and then London and Greater London. And then you get outside of the M25 and it starts to fall off a bit more. And then you get to Birmingham and Manchester and Newcastle and so it's affordable depending on where you want to be. to be. to be. Is there a lot of tension between the the London crowd and the rural crowd? Not particular [snorts] at least maybe the rural crowd when it comes to sort of farming and stuff like that that wasn't something I was integrated in.

It certainly felt to me growing up in Stockton on tease which is 50 mi south of Newcastle. uh famous for having the UK's widest high street and the highest teen pregnancy rating in the UK and then it lost that part of that or were you I wasn't I was desperately trying to contribute but I was a horrendously uncool teenager uncool teenager uncool teenager and then [clears throat] I never thought of London as being a part of what I was a part of. Okay. Okay. Okay. I it didn't feel like a part of the same country.

It was, I guess, and I maybe I went when I was like 17 or 18 a few times, times, times, but I but I but I it really is south versus north cuz the the shape of the country is so particular, right? It's long and thin. And you talk about south, no one's talking about east versus west. Like there is a difference between people that are from Liverpool and people that are from Newcastle or people that are from Manchester and people that are from Leeds, right?

Going left to right, but no one really gives a [ __ ] like it's just people with different silly accents. But north to south, soon as you get below Birmingham and you start to get toward London, that's when things there is definitely a sense that oh, these are two different cultures. Don't forget they're two kind of different climates. climates. climates. Like it is different to go. It's not that far. It's 3 hours on a train, a pretty quick train, but it's, you know, 400 miles, something like that.

And that difference is difference is difference is not insignificant when it comes to the weather. like to go from the northeast where we are to the south coast because also we're next to the North Sea. That's the coldest sea I think in the world and it's really [ __ ] dangerous. But yeah, um there is definitely a detachment. Um if you're not in London, you are not really considered much by the press. Press stories aren't bothered about what's going on in [ __ ] Rotherham, right? They don't care about whether Stoke on Trent has got some issue that's occurring locally, socially.

It will be on local news, but it's not going to break out on national news. So, it is it is all of the money and all of the attention is just focused on London, and that's fine. What about Isisle of Man? Is that when you have big bucks and you're trying to avoid the taxes? I don't know whether there's a tax haven out there. I know there's a big festival. I've been to I spent a little bit of time near there and it's a retirement place for a lot of people.

I know that's interesting. I mean, dude, if you look at even the UK, the [ __ ] heedes, these islands off the north west of Scotland, my map. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, the Can you pull up Google Maps, Jared? We can just do it on the big screen. Just search Heb. And um it is so [ __ ] cool up there. like uh um I got to get out there. Fred again did a tour of Storway I think it was. So Storway is one of these islands and um yeah just the the amount of variety that you do have in in a place that's got such population density is pretty [ __ ] cool.

Yeah, the heedes. So look at that, dude. Look at where that is. So zoom in for me Jared Jared Jared Kirkwall. What's up there? Yeah, so look at this dude. So that's the heedes there. And it's just such a So this was halfway between what the um the fingers I think were from Game of Thron me the only reference I can give you is [ __ ] Game of Thrones things. Um but yeah, all of that that's the aisle of sky that you can see there. S KY.

Um I bet the accent really changes out there, huh? On some of those islands. I don't know. I'm not Scottish enough to be able to tell you what the difference would be between them and somebody that's maybe from Glasgow. Go across for me, Jared. Just pan east. Okay. So, Bericapon Tweed top right. Okay. Okay. Okay. There. That is the border. So, you can see the border sort of cutting through. Then it cuts down to Northland National Park and there's an which is a place that I would go and uh go to like there's some national parks the equivalent of national parks in the UK.

The difference between Beric upon Tweed, Anek and Dunbar is Anek completely English accent. Bericapon Tweed is 20 miles away. You're like, there's something going on here. And then by the time that you get to another 20 mi away in Dunar, it is completely Scottish. So the difference is so [ __ ] stark. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Remembering that this isn't like driving across the border from France to [ __ ] Switzerland or something. This is you being in the same the same money, the same everything, but just is so And then pan down a bit more for me.

And then you can see there's Newcastle. So that's the place that that I grew up in. And then Stockton ones below it, which is where I actually was born. So yeah, the north of the UK is kind of fascinating. But dude, it's you keep going down and you keep going down. There's Leeds. People are kind of interested in Leeds. There's Manchester, Liverpool. Okay, there's some ports and [ __ ] that going on there, but no one gives a [ __ ] Sheffield, no one gives a [ __ ] Nobody cares at all.

Keeping going down. Stoke on Trent definitely no one gives a [ __ ] Nottingham nothing. Birmingham kind of a little bit. I guess Manchester a little bit. There's some stuff going on. You're still going down. You're still Peterbrra absolutely nothing. Cambridge, Oxford, Luton, St. Alburn's. Okay. And then you get to London, right? You've got the M25, which is that ring that goes around the outside of it. And if you're outside that, people kind of don't really care all that much. There's some bits like people give a [ __ ] if there's a big deal in Manchester, maybe Birmingham, but you get away from this and people really don't don't care.

They don't even go out to do, right? Uh, no. No, not really. I don't think in Dover. in Dover. in Dover. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, did you know there's an island in the United States in Maryland that some of the old-timers still speak a form of Elizabethan English? Elizabethan English? Elizabethan English? No, but I completely endorse it. Yeah. So, I met this guy. I made a video with him. He's actually in the book, too. His name's Jerry. His family's been there 374 years. And he's got You're going to love the accent.

accent. accent. Is there a video of this guy? Can we get video of him up? Okay. What do we search? search? search? Smith Island. I would just type in Peter Santinelo Smith Island. A lot of Brits watch my channel, too, and they're like that. That guy sounds straight out of Leeds. I forget where where where where Oh, this is going to be [ __ ] fascinating. Allow me to diagnose. He's a water man. That's a British term, right? This one. His family lived on that one. Yeah, that one.

Hey, how you doing? I mean, this guy, he's a yarn. What's a yarn? Let me Is that a British word? Yarn, which means which is like a old English word for friend that means friend. friend. friend. Yarn. Yarn. Yarn. Yeah, yarn. Hang on. Is this the guy? Is this the guy that you're thinking has got an English accent? accent? accent? Yeah, I guess not. No. No. I'm sorry. It's southern. Southern Boo. It's very [ __ ] southern. There might be a little something going. Few words come through.

All right, let me see someone else. Let me hear this. These guys talk. Four or five days would be a good soak time for them now. them now. them now. Yeah, guess the kitty fish is eat them all. all. all. They eating an oyster. I don't know what he's saying. They're eating oyster, too. The man had it on there pictures. He had oysters, big clams, and a lot of crabs. Okay. So, I I mean, they look like lovely gentlemen. Um, I wholeheartedly I wholeheartedly support a like accent driven recolonization of this country from from England.

But that is that is [ __ ] cultural appropriation if ever I've heard it. If you think that that guy sounds English, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. [gasps] [gasps] [gasps] Not pissing on the parade. Jerry Jerry's a great guy. Let's Let's see that guy. Let's see that guy in the black t-shirt. Last chance. Scoot back. Press that. Yeah. Or is that the same one? That's Jerry. Go. Okay. So, maybe it's a bit of a stretch. He he says some some old English words. Okay. I don't care about the words.

What I care is how they're said. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's not what you say, how say, how say, how it's got a bit of a Carolina brogue to it. it. it. Yeah. Well, look, me with my smoking pipe, I can that might help. Um, after all of the different communities that you've spent time with, time with, time with, Yeah. like Navajo, Amish, you pick. Which one could you see yourself most living with full-time, do you think, man? man? man? [sighs and gasps] Uh, you have to up six and you have to spend the rest of your days somewhere with a community of people.

Where would it be? I like being a free agent so much. You know what I mean? I I respect and honor all these groups and I could admire what they're doing and the the families that that's been in a place for 10 generations. That's really cool. But I've always had friends from every background background background and never belong to a specific group and that scares me for some reason. Like just being in that group dynamic. Do you feel displaced a lot of the time from that?

from that? from that? No. I I I I it's almost like I belong everywhere and belong nowhere at the same time. Like I like learning and like getting into different groups, but to be one to be Amish maybe two years, but then after a year two you're like, do you think this would be harder? Obviously you did this before you met your misses, but do you think this would be harder if you didn't have the unit like the the you and another person relationship unit thing because it feels to me like it could be quite destabilizing.

You you might feel a little un uncertain and grounded. 100%. So my wife edits. So this is our baby this whole thing. This channel family a family affair. Family affair. We got a mini dog. So that's like that's the extent of it. So we we we But you and a GoPro. It's me and a GoPro. I figure out the story. She edits. Wow. Wow. Wow. Um but we worked and did some Ukrainian workforce. They're hardworking people. It wasn't my intention, but it turned out that way that we're just it's we're fully in it together.

So, we have that bond. But totally, if I had to hire an outside editor and it was just like sending files of video off and working that way, I think you're right. I think it would be destabilizing. destabilizing. destabilizing. Destabilizing. But I [snorts] come we we're very tight. I mean, okay. The only two other people, we have a guy that does translations in Thailand, American guy. guy. guy. Mhm. uh just to do the translations for videos in a in a virtual assistant in Thailand that no Philippines that takes takes my emails and puts them in monday.com for organization.

That's it. Do you know Ryan Tran? Do you know him? Yeah. So Ryan got rid of everybody. It's just him. Just him and an iPhone. Are you ser? He does who edits him? You serious? Correct. The guy that's doing numbers not far off Mr. Beast. Wow. Wow. Wow. Is him an iPhone. His wife's there, but just I think largely hanging and just like kind of a for moral support. Good for him. Him him with an iPhone. And uh yeah, he's he's just in because here's the deal with this.

This works. I got the logistics of it. Got to get to the location. Got to figure out the story first. It's a day of shooting. You can either be more of a creator or more of a manager in in the video space, I think. Correct. and I don't want to manage like it hurts the quality of the video. I remember I had someone working for me and she was great. She set up a lot of stuff in the channel but there was drama before going out to a video and my password Facebook password was given to a marketing company and I'm like oh like dealing with chaos and then we had to blow up the video and then I wrecked the video cuz I went out there and I was late and everything got messed up.

So, I need to be in my own head and space a long time with no interruptions. interruptions. interruptions. There's an essay called manager mode versus maker mode by Paul Graham, who is the main guy at YC. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it is kind of a fundamental frame that everybody needs to know. You cannot be in maker mode if you're in manager mode. manager mode. manager mode. It's it's actually impossible. And basically basically basically as soon as you get drawn into admin, executive function, planning, logistics, operations, as soon as you do that, no matter what it is, yeah, yeah, yeah, your capacity to get back into blue sky sort of fluid thinking, just vibing with it, man world is basically impossible.

And this is the trajectory. I was literally talking to Ryan Long about this today. this today. this today. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. This is the trajectory where people get things wrong when they try to build a business. And it's a temptation. They they get things wrong. It is a a hurdle that you need to get. It is a series of hurdles, an endless series of hurdles you always need to get over. It's at each one of them that you fall at. It slows things down and it worsens the quality of your output.

100%. 100%. 100%. It's dangerous. It's dangerous. It's dangerous. And some people have the skills that they can flip between both quickly. I I don't have that. I'm yet to meet anybody that is great at going from manager mode to making maker mode. Within the same day, I think you can degrade from starting off making something and then there's a catastrophe and you fall into logistics mode. I don't know a single person I've never met a single person who can start a day off in manager mode and become maker mode after lunch.

It it straight up is a one-way street. Yeah. And this is why if you're going to organize your, you know, if you're a burgeoning executive or, you know, an online PT or something and you have calls or you have to do client check-ins or whatever, just pick a day or a bunch of days and have those written off start to finish. I just I'm in pure aderall and neutonic energy like cranking out all of my productivity and then I leave myself time that's sacred. Or the alternative if you can't take entire days is to have your morning because you can go from maker to manager but you can't go from manager to maker.

Yeah, that makes sense. That's the way to do it. Peter Sinello, ladies and gentlemen, dude, you absolutely [ __ ] rule. I think your content's amazing. I really applaud you for trying to bring lightness and, you know, levity to stories that people think is a little bit more dark. Uh, where should people go to get everything on you on everything? Just Peter Santaneloo. Tough name to spell. So, Peter Sant and I'll usually come up. I got a website with everything. The book tour coming up. I don't know when you're posting this.

Got a book tour. I'm all over the country signing books. Unreal. Unreal. Unreal. Got the book dropping. Got the videos on YouTube. YouTube. YouTube. So, So, So, you're the man. That's where it's at. I really appreciate you and what you do. So, thanks for thanks for the great content. All right. Goodbye, my beauties. See you next time, dude. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. [ __ ] you. Thanks. Thank you very much for tuning in. If you enjoyed that episode, another one that I know you love, it's just here.