Present Fathers with Dustin Burnham

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:18:17
Unknown
Welcome back to Elevated Thoughts. And we could not be more excited to have Dustin the Dad, Dustin Bertram joining us and be one of the co-hosts of the present Fathers podcast. Dustin, thanks for coming on. How are you, brother? I am so good. Thank you so much for having me. I have a little girl. I'm officially a girl, dad.

00:00:18:19 - 00:00:37:01
Unknown
So I'm beyond excited. It's, it's a big day, and, it all went well. I didn't know if it was going to. Is a little scary yesterday. She came about eight weeks early. But mom is doing great. Our daughter's doing great. So, we're winning. It's all good. Heck, yeah. It's good to hear. Congratulations, dude.

00:00:37:01 - 00:01:09:17
Unknown
Congratulations to you, the family. I know you've got one other son. So a growing family. Congratulations. So exciting. Mike and I are both new fathers. My son just turned one. Mike, how old is yours again? Just coming on seven weeks soon now. I can't believe it's almost two months right now. Yeah, so things are plugging along, but that's why we wanted to bring Dustin on today because you have set the example and in fact, the very high bar of bringing dads together and imparting this important messaging on guys like us, that we're going through this for the first time.

00:01:09:17 - 00:01:28:13
Unknown
Obviously, it's somewhere that you've been for a few years now and getting together and building this community of other dads. Tell us a little bit about the podcast, its mission, and you know what your experiences have been. Thanks. Yeah. So I host the President Fathers podcast along with three good friends. So you've met all of them. And it is a game changer.

00:01:28:15 - 00:01:48:12
Unknown
We've had about 100 episodes where we interview the smartest dads, sometimes moms and different people, but mostly dads, you know, we like to highlight them, everything from CEOs, to, you know, guys who have seen active duty as Green Berets and to take those skills and transfer them to being the best dad that you can be has really taught me.

00:01:48:17 - 00:02:08:08
Unknown
So much. And a lot of it is seeing what good dads don't do. That's a big one, right? So I talk to all these dads and there's certain things they don't do. Right. And so that's that's really a nice raiser for me. It's it's sometimes hard to see when things go well what's why it's going well. But when you see what people aren't doing you can put that together and realize, all right, the good dads, here's what they're not doing.

00:02:08:13 - 00:02:23:22
Unknown
And the not so good dads that need some work. Here's what they are doing and here's how we fix it. So that's that's just been really huge, learning from these guys, getting this information out there. And, our goal is to give dads the tools to be the best dads that we can be. There's not a lot of great tools out there.

00:02:23:22 - 00:02:44:06
Unknown
There's a lot of confusing messaging, and our goal is to really be as clear as possible about how to get there. And how to be a great dad 100%. There's so much messaging out there, and I've seen it with my wife and looking up all of this stuff every single day, more and more, and I'm so grateful for it because she really took the lead on a lot of this.

00:02:44:06 - 00:03:00:16
Unknown
But then I look back and I go, wait a minute. I need to also take the lead on a lot of this stuff and having that way that men communicate, right? And actually podcast has really been one of those ways. It's been personally a great resource for me. I listen to the, the Save Your Sons gentlemen on your episode.

00:03:00:18 - 00:03:22:15
Unknown
And that one was really awesome. I followed him so it was really cool to see someone who, come out from behind a profile on social media, right, and share some of these tips and how to apply them in real life. It's been really cool. But, Dustin, one of the things that we talked about and we actually became friends through X and Twitter and we've gone on to meet in real life now and talk and communicate down the phone and not through the app.

00:03:22:15 - 00:03:39:19
Unknown
That's kind of cool. But one of the things that we launched together recently. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You go to rocket launches with our kids and our families, like, come on, this is a real, real thing. Now, but one of the things that we talked about was legacy and what legacy means to you or to any dad.

00:03:40:01 - 00:04:01:09
Unknown
And that was such a cool conversation where we were able to explore the ways that some people have these traditions. They want to keep them going. Many people don't have traditions and they have to start them themselves. So when you hear the word legacy, what does that mean to you? So I did not have a dad around growing up, so I didn't necessarily have a legacy that was baked in.

00:04:01:13 - 00:04:20:12
Unknown
I have a lot of family traditions, and I'm very close to a lot of my family, but there wasn't a straightforward legacy that was was handed to me. So I spoke to a gentleman named, Nick Freitas, who I asked him, same thing. Single father, I'm sorry. He, he had a single mom, and I asked him what his legacy means to you.

00:04:20:12 - 00:04:36:18
Unknown
What do we do to create a legacy? And something he said that was really powerful to me was that you still have a legacy. It just begins with you. And that really hit me hard. Right? So we have a legacy and it's a powerful one, and we get to create it and we get to start it. So, you know, you feel bad.

00:04:36:19 - 00:04:52:01
Unknown
I mean, I feel bad for some guys who have a thousand years of legacy. My father was the, you know, the chieftain and then his father. And so you have to do this. We don't have that pressure. We can read the books we want to read. We can talk to the other dads and moms that we want to talk to and create our own legacy.

00:04:52:01 - 00:05:09:17
Unknown
And that's a big part of this podcast. One of my fellow podcasters, Brandon Blitzen, made a good point. He said, even if nobody watches our podcast, our kids and our grandkids will have it. They can go to YouTube and say, What was Dustin like? You know, when he was 40? Yeah, that weird stache. You know, he was telling bad jokes.

00:05:09:19 - 00:05:29:16
Unknown
He was making images with Midjourney. That was a combination of Star Wars and Game of Thrones. Like, what a weirdo, right? He was recording online with the day after his daughter was born, right? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And so yeah, being able to create that legacy ourself is really powerful. So it really is up to you what kind of legacy you want to have.

00:05:29:16 - 00:05:50:22
Unknown
And for me, legacy is all about one helping other dads. That's a really big one for me. You know, knowing that, I can help give them some of the tools that I didn't have and, giving my son those tools as well is very healing for me. You know, every day that I spend with my son and I show him how to read, and I teach him how to do things, those things my dad wasn't able to do for me.

00:05:51:00 - 00:06:12:10
Unknown
A little piece of me inside heals every time I give him those skills, so that that's a big part of the legacy that I want to have. There's such important lessons that a father passes on. And Dustin, it's clear to me that they never taught you how to shave this part of your face. But tying your shoes in a tie, I'm sure you have that down by now.

00:06:12:12 - 00:06:34:00
Unknown
Listen, we've had a lot of fun on this podcast as well. And I think when you focus on the mission and that way you you forget about the struggles of the growth and, oh, nobody's watching or. Oh, we just did this and it was a big waste of time. You, you go through and learn the process. And when you have a group of guys like you do, really anyone who's listening, go check out Present Father's podcast because it is a group of great guys.

00:06:34:02 - 00:06:56:08
Unknown
And you'll take away a lot, especially if you're a father or a new father or even a new mother, a new parent. So it's been really awesome. Mike, has there been anything that, you've taken away or things that you've been curious about as a new dad? So a, a phrase that really began to speak to me was, you are a reflection of the people you surround yourself with.

00:06:56:10 - 00:07:09:12
Unknown
And you know, not that my dad wasn't a good dad, but a lot of our generation, you know, sorry to hear that yours wasn't in the picture, but unfortunately for a lot of us, too, dad had to go to work at the crack of dawn and didn't come home to a lot of the time until you were ready to go to bed for the most part.

00:07:09:12 - 00:07:27:06
Unknown
So it's like very challenging to have that relationship early on with your father. And I thought, I get the privilege, I work remotely, I get the privilege of being with my son, you know, so I can't express the gratitude that I have. But it's also a challenge because it's, you know, what legacy do I have? Because I didn't exactly have a ton of early childhood memories.

00:07:27:06 - 00:07:42:20
Unknown
My dad was out busting his hump all day and all night and stuff like that. But I try to remember now, like, what am I going to do a little bit differently? And that's why I like, you know, surrounding myself with dads who are not, humble hours are humble and they learn from their mistakes. Right. And they're very open to share about them.

00:07:42:20 - 00:07:59:04
Unknown
So it lets me benefit from their mistakes. So I make a few less of my own, but plenty of mine to make. Don't worry. Don't worry about that. But I have to say, what I, what I love most is just, you're a guy who doesn't fit the mold. And I love that your non-linear kind of career path that brought you to here today.

00:07:59:04 - 00:08:12:03
Unknown
So I'd love to hear a little bit more of the background about the the gator hunting Dustin, you know, a former CrossFit trainer now. And that's the test full time. And the podcaster when he has a few moments to spare during the day. That's what I love to hear. I tell us a little bit more about your spare time.

00:08:12:05 - 00:08:38:17
Unknown
I read somewhere that if a man isn't reinventing himself every decade, you're really not growing and you're kind of stagnating, right? So yeah, I like the idea. Yeah. So I like the idea of, you know, looking at your life and decades and saying, okay, what was my what, my teens or my 20s, my 30s, etc. and if you can have an era of your life where you're really accomplishing something and then use that as a stepping stone to then move into the next era, you know, that that to me feels like growth and opportunity.

00:08:38:17 - 00:08:54:17
Unknown
Whereas if you're the high school hero is still talking about that touchdown pass you threw when you were 17 at, man, if you're 60 like you got it, you got to have a different hobby, you know, like move on. So, it's great to do things when you're young. But I think it's really important to stretch ourselves as dads.

00:08:54:19 - 00:09:11:06
Unknown
And my son is very different from me. He doesn't seem to like a lot of the things that I do, which initially was a little frustrating. Why don't you like pickleball and all these things that I'm doing? And then I realize it's this opportunity for me to grow and get into his stuff and learn from him. And, you know, if he was the spitting image of me and just did everything that I did, I wouldn't be growing.

00:09:11:06 - 00:09:27:22
Unknown
And so this is an opportunity for me to learn about him. So I started off, I went to college thinking I was going to be a lawyer. I shadowed in some, some law firms, and I thought I had narcolepsy. I kept falling asleep at the desk. I drew on my face, and I was really worried and thought, there's something wrong with me.

00:09:27:22 - 00:09:43:15
Unknown
And then I realized, I just don't want to be a lawyer. That sounds terrible. So I quickly audible to all my college, prep was for that. I was in the gym all the time. I loved it, and so I became a personal trainer. Did that for about ten years. Taught tennis as well. I was a tennis pro.

00:09:43:17 - 00:10:04:07
Unknown
I taught yoga. I used that to go to, resorts all throughout the Caribbean, Mexico. And they would cover your resort expenses. I learned to scuba dive and, Jamaica. Yeah. No problem. You know, don't, don't smoke the blunt the day of, you know, exactly that they were wonderful. Yeah. So that was my my 20s was all about fitness and health.

00:10:04:09 - 00:10:27:15
Unknown
Now it's more like fitness cookie in my mouth. But I used to be in shape for a long time. That was really cool. So that was my big thing. I did CrossFit competitions, all that stuff, all through my 20s. Then I realized that I wanted to, again, challenge myself, do something different. I had met my wife, and so in my 30s, that was all about medicine and anesthesia and becoming the best that I could be in that realm.

00:10:27:15 - 00:10:46:15
Unknown
And I love that. I'm a professor of anesthesia. I absolutely love taking care of patients. It's a real joy for me. And then after we had my son and our daughter, it's just been all about, creativity being the best father that I can be. This is art to me, you know? I mean, getting on a podcast, talking to you guys, creating this, the clips, all that kind of stuff.

00:10:46:17 - 00:11:16:15
Unknown
This is me finally getting to be an artist. You know, I just I've always wanted. And so, Yeah, that's funny to say. It's definitely an outlet. And Will, our show is a political show, right? So if nothing else, Mike and I get to have these conversations and spare our wives and families and maybe eventually kids for a few years of these conversations coming out at home, because we're able to kind of share our ideas and share our kind of positions and figure out what we really think by finding common ground.

00:11:16:15 - 00:11:34:03
Unknown
Now, when we talk about politics, it's not common what Mike and I do that the whole discussion thing, and staying friends, even though we believe different things. And that's one of the things that I wanted to get into you with, with your Dustin, is how do you foster at home when and actually, I don't know if we mentioned you're in Florida.

00:11:34:03 - 00:11:55:02
Unknown
Right. So Florida's become a politicized state. To the right. And now we hear our democratic government saying that the right wing extremists are ruining this country. And you hear your governor being called death Santurce. Well, I've been to Florida plenty of times. The people there actually quite lovely, in my opinion. I live in Connecticut, a deeply blue state.

00:11:55:04 - 00:12:20:03
Unknown
But my point is, it's a very tumultuous political climate. And I'm curious, how do you cultivate, a loving, caring neighborhood right in your community to make sure that your kids don't fall victim to this kind of two extremist sides where there's nobody in the middle anymore. It's a real challenge. And I part of that is understanding that certain topics with certain people are off limits.

00:12:20:03 - 00:12:37:00
Unknown
I completely understand that there are hot buttons for certain people. There's a red line, right? Putin doesn't want you putting Ukraine in NATO, and my neighbor doesn't want to talk about abortion. Right. It's the same thing. Like, you know, you don't cross that red line or there might be some nukes. Yeah. So, you know, you have to tread carefully around those certain issues and that's okay.

00:12:37:00 - 00:12:51:23
Unknown
Right. You don't have to agree on 15 different issues. But if you can find two that you can talk about and have a healthy conversation around, then you can still be friends and still have these, you know, pretty intense conversations. I came across the concept of radical centrism a couple of years ago, and it really appealed to me.

00:12:52:01 - 00:13:08:01
Unknown
We have this idea, especially on Twitter, where you can be a hardcore right winger, you can be a hardcore left winger, but you can't be a hardcore centrist, right? Why would you be a centrist? You just wishy washy and don't care, right? That's all the centrists are. I don't believe that at all. I think that, centrist can be very passionate about the ideas that we have.

00:13:08:03 - 00:13:24:06
Unknown
We just don't necessarily conform to a certain wing. You know, I'm a big believer if you think everything that your party does is correct, you're probably just not paying attention, right? I mean, there has to be a couple things where you say, you know, I mostly like this platform, but there's a couple things that don't make sense to me.

00:13:24:10 - 00:13:42:05
Unknown
And then you have to look at the other side and say, you know, I don't like most of this, but here's a couple things that I'm like that actually make sense. Gavin Newsom came out, last week and got rid of legacies in California. Amazing, right? I'm not like a huge Gavin Newsom fan, but I posted that I was like, dude is a legend.

00:13:42:07 - 00:14:05:07
Unknown
You no longer get any legacy benefits at Stanford or, Cal Berkeley, any of that kind of stuff. And I got flamed like crazy, like, oh, Newsom, he sucks, blah blah. Yeah, he does kind of suck, but that's awesome. And I don't care who he is. That's a good idea. So it's really important to be able to analyze things from first principles and whether or not you, like a candidate, should not have anything to do with whether you support their ideas.

00:14:05:07 - 00:14:20:10
Unknown
So that that's what a radical centrist is, is someone who's very I'm super passionate about getting rid of legacy. Right. I didn't have a dad that was like, oh, I got into this college. So you get an advantage. So I naturally get a little annoyed when I'm like, oh, you got into college because your uncle went there. That's bullshit.

00:14:20:12 - 00:14:34:10
Unknown
I don't like that at all. So if we get rid of that, I'm a huge fan. So, you know, if that makes, you know, a single issue. And if a Republican came out and agreed with that as well, I'd like their idea too. So it doesn't matter to me who the face behind it is, even if it is that luscious, beautiful hair.

00:14:34:12 - 00:14:56:15
Unknown
You know that he has that. Yeah, but when you touch it, just don't don't, don't. It's it's rock hard like steel. Serious? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Last thing. Having monolithic thought in your party is the hardest and worst curse that these parties experience. And it has led to the polarization. In fact, that's something that I'm experiencing on X dust.

00:14:56:16 - 00:15:11:03
Unknown
And I one of the other reasons I want to bring you on here, you're one of the most engaging and engaged people on that whole app. I think that if you ask people with 500,000 followers and you go, oh yeah, that's from the dad. I know this guy. So you're you're a little bit of a micro celebrity.

00:15:11:06 - 00:15:30:19
Unknown
Where I'm going is I see all the time that profile left and right will have flags or emojis or titles in their profile. And one of my favorite things to do lately is piss off my followers. In fact, what I'll do is I'll post things that I know they're going to hate. I'm not a typical Republican, but boy, do I love Mao Zedong, right?

00:15:31:00 - 00:15:49:13
Unknown
Or I don't believe Ray Epps is a fad. I believe he was just a concerned citizen. Or why can't we have women get an abortion at 14 weeks? Truth be told, those are all things that I actually kind of believe. Yes, the Maoism part two and the truth is that, like, right, you kind of have to break from the party.

00:15:49:13 - 00:16:13:04
Unknown
When I see someone that has that, I set a preconceived notion, which is probably bad, but I then treat that person in a certain way. So being discerning, being pragmatic, it's really important. And, radical centrism. I don't think I've ever heard that before. That's really kind of interesting. Like, have you heard radical centrism? No, but I like how you can be unpredictable.

00:16:13:04 - 00:16:32:15
Unknown
That's I there's nothing more boring than being able. I forget what it is. I could ask you 2 or 3 questions, and depending on how you answer them, I know everything about your political beliefs and the people who you hang out with. Stuff like that's boring, right? Like variety is the spice of life. And it's just, it's a shame how everyone either tows the party line or they hold everyone to some sort of litmus test.

00:16:32:16 - 00:16:45:12
Unknown
It's like, oh, do you believe this? This, in this? Well, if not, then we can't be friends, you know? So it's it's really a shame, but I've always appreciated your ability to create communities. You have like half a dozen communities that I know about. And that's just the ones I've been lucky to have been invited to on Twitter alone.

00:16:45:12 - 00:17:04:17
Unknown
But also what you do outside of that space. So thank you for that. What you do. Yeah, it's it's so much fun. I mean, someone I like and respect a lot. You know, he runs masterclass, one of his my favorite phrases that I've heard from him is Twitter is not a content site like TikTok or Instagram.

00:17:04:22 - 00:17:26:04
Unknown
It's a networking site, even more so than LinkedIn is. So if you're on Twitter and you're scrolling to like, read threads or watch videos, you're doing it wrong. The whole point of Twitter is to make friends and meet the most interesting people in the world, right? I mean, we can talk to CEOs, we can talk to people developing large language models, and we can argue with them and be like, I think this is a bad idea, and they'll talk back to us.

00:17:26:06 - 00:17:44:23
Unknown
It's wild that we can do that. Try doing that on Instagram. That would never happen. Absolutely. It's it's really interesting. Yeah. Actually Mike you all love this. And it's to Dustin's point, my mom was begging me begging me to watch From Russia with Lev, the Lev Parnas movie. And I told her, absolutely not. I go, I've spoken with Lev Parnas and it happened to be in the Twitter space.

00:17:44:23 - 00:18:00:18
Unknown
Right? So it's kind of that way in like I've, I've interviewed and asked the question to Andrew Yang on Twitter, just out of the blue, right click and random buttons and there you are. So it is. It's a really small world. In fact, I think I'm going to delete my LinkedIn because no one goes on that site anymore.

00:18:00:18 - 00:18:23:14
Unknown
Why would you? Right. Yeah. For real, it's so spammy at this point now. Yeah. So Dustin, when we talk about, your podcast and we talk about your mission statement and we talk about trying to push these positive ideals, right. Do you have a mission that is also to grow on social media and become an influencer? That's something that I'll be honest.

00:18:23:14 - 00:18:43:02
Unknown
I have that ambition. I want to grow, following. I want to have a message that I can push out there and a platform and a community. Is that something that is important to you or are you 100% mission critical, focused? Another guy that I respect a lot, and I've had a chance to chat with extensively. Zuby. If you haven't listened to his music, probably the best rapper, in the world.

00:18:43:02 - 00:19:07:22
Unknown
He's absolutely the most talented, incredible man. And, Oxford trained, just brilliant. He tweeted last year that he thinks 95% of people cannot handle a large social media presence, and probably 80% of people can't handle a small but significant social media presence. And I read that and I thought about it. And he's absolutely right. It requires a very special kind of person.

00:19:07:22 - 00:19:24:10
Unknown
You see the burnout all the time. You see these big accounts who out of nowhere have a mental health issue, and they're gone and they're months out and you're like, well, that's weird, right? I mean, you have this big platform there. It seems like everything's fine. It gets to your head. It's really, really challenging. It's a Pandora's box that you open once you have a large platform.

00:19:24:10 - 00:19:50:03
Unknown
So if I'm part of that 5% that really could handle a large social media presence, then yes, I think I have a lot to offer. I don't I'm not convinced I'm part of that 5%. I'm I'm kind of a sensitive dude. I spent most of the past day crying, you know, and I met my daughter. I was just I mean, you know, it's just kind of part of who I am when people say mean things to me on Twitter, it hurts my feelings, you know, like, read it.

00:19:50:08 - 00:20:13:17
Unknown
God, like, why would you say that? I'm a nice guy, you know? So as as we've been starting our YouTube channel and trying to gain traction, it's one of the things I heard. And it was from, Ali Abdul, who's a YouTuber, and just, it's business and productivity tips. But he said that, you know, when you first start, you actually think about what type of person it is that's going to comment on a video with very few views, no likes, no comments.

00:20:13:17 - 00:20:31:12
Unknown
Right? It's probably kind of a weird person who's gonna leave that comment. And yeah, 90% of the time that's going to be a negative one. So even as a nobody influencer, right, you're attracting kind of the the interesting folks. And then as you get bigger and bigger and there's a little bit more traction, I think it gives more, more credence to your voice.

00:20:31:12 - 00:20:47:07
Unknown
But I love the way that you spun that. That's it. And it's not even spin. Right? It's, you have a a valiant mission here in terms of can I even handle it for the greater good? I might steal that, because that's pretty good. Yeah. And consider that it is a curse more than a blessing for the vast majority of people.

00:20:47:07 - 00:21:01:11
Unknown
It seems great, right? I had this audience. I can say cool things and people will listen. You don't necessarily want that. I say a lot of dumb things and most people don't see us. I don't have to worry about it. But if you have a million followers, every dumb thing you say, there's going to be a lot of people that see it.

00:21:01:11 - 00:21:23:11
Unknown
So I think the key there is community and network, right? So if you have really good friends that you're dialed in with, right? I mean, I really think the fact that the two of you do this podcast together is a superpower. I see people doing solo podcasts and it's 1,000% harder. I certainly couldn't do this alone. I don't even know how to open a riverside, platform by myself.

00:21:23:11 - 00:21:43:20
Unknown
George and Brandon do all of it. I'm. I'm literally I'm a total boomer, so I, I actually could not do a podcast without them. I don't I don't say that like, facetiously. I actually be like, couldn't do it without, you know, my friends. So that community to back you up when you're having a tough day and when you post something and your friends and immediately say you need to log out, delete that.

00:21:43:22 - 00:22:02:02
Unknown
Yeah, you're in a bad headspace. Log off of Twitter for a day. That is amazing. That's how you survive this, absolute savage, Lord of the flies environment. That is. That is ax. Yeah. Mike, talk about your experiences on X. Yeah. No, I mean, I wish somebody would tell me every once in a while I might need to log off for a day.

00:22:02:03 - 00:22:19:04
Unknown
So you gotta have very thick skin on Twitter. I'll put you that much. I mean, that goes with really every platform, unfortunately, because, you know, you enjoy something on Instagram and. Oh, let me go just check out the comment section. It's got a thousand comments on here. And what is the top one with like 25,000 likes? It's something extremely negative.

00:22:19:04 - 00:22:35:12
Unknown
And you know, anyone who put hard work into that post, that's the thing that they're going to see, is that 25,000 other people agreed with this person saying some really nasty things about you, so you got to put a hazmat suit on to get into the comment section. Again, essential. It's truly extraordinarily both a curse and a blessing.

00:22:35:12 - 00:22:50:20
Unknown
And I think it really does take special humans to, you know, to manage that. But I appreciate your, you know, pointing out that you got to have those friends and support groups to be able to lean on, because then otherwise your whole worldview will be shaved and people get caught up in the audience capture and like, oh, these are my followers.

00:22:50:20 - 00:23:06:18
Unknown
As if like, you're Jesus Christ or something, right? Like, no, you got to, you know, they remember that you're just some popular person on the internet. But in the grand scheme of things, you're just a blip in space and time, you know? So my my first exposure to social media was Facebook, right? You had to have a, a special account with your university.

00:23:06:20 - 00:23:21:19
Unknown
I'm that old, you know. So Boomer book, and you were friends, right? You couldn't even follow someone. You had to mutually connect. So I had to go. All right, coop, we're going to be friends. And you would accept it, and then we could talk. There was no. I'm just going to follow this person to just be part of their audience.

00:23:21:19 - 00:23:45:06
Unknown
So there's this audience capture didn't exist back then. It was just friends talking. And so the idea of follower or mutuals, I hate I really to me, you know, there's this whole don't follow too many people. You have to have 100 people you're following and then, you know, you have this big audience. I think that's a terrible and it's it sets you up to either be a total narcissist or have a mental health breakdown because you're not connected to these people at that point.

00:23:45:06 - 00:24:00:05
Unknown
If you don't follow someone back and I know it's hot take, you know, a lot of people don't like this, but I really think if you don't follow someone back, that's kind of a sign that there's like a weird power imbalance, right? So if you're if you're doing it on purpose, right. If you don't know who this person is, they don't interact with you, fine.

00:24:00:05 - 00:24:15:07
Unknown
They're just to follow, you know, it is what it is. But like if if you have someone talking to you and you're following them and they're not following you back, that's a that's a power thing. You're kind of, you know, the sub and they're the Dom, you know, you know, get a dominatrix, you know, kind of kind of environment going out there.

00:24:15:07 - 00:24:44:11
Unknown
So it's a control. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. You are right. That's and actually when we were together out in Florida, you were said something pretty that resonated with me. And I was like, you know, it's been really hard to build a community because I, I tweet about news more so and stuff that maybe isn't as engaging for commentary. But I said, you know, I would love to see heading 100, 500 likes on some of these awful comments and finding these like opportunities to more so network rather than just kind of blast things out and get that little heart button.

00:24:44:14 - 00:25:02:18
Unknown
And you said, well, you got to make friends. One at a time, right? Just like real life. I'm like, oh my God, I'd even think about that. I literally have to talk to every person. And I will say, over the last 2 or 3 weeks, I've really made it a point. Anybody who comments or likes or reposts anybody on my page, I will re follow them back.

00:25:02:22 - 00:25:25:07
Unknown
And I actually have been turning on notifications too, and I'm definitely spending too much time on Twitter, but I'm building a lot of legitimate connections. It's kind of crazy how fast that happens, and I really liked what you said as well on tonight, saying it's not exactly social media, it's it's networking and when you think about it too, if you go on my, Instagram page or if you go on many, I maybe I'm the exception because what I'm about to say.

00:25:25:07 - 00:25:45:12
Unknown
But if you go on an Instagram page, you scroll down and you actually kind of get to know the person because you see what they look like, you see who they are, and you would actually think that you have this really well-rounded idea of who they are. Maybe in some cases you do, but then if you go on someone's Twitter page, it may very well be an anonymous page that you don't even know what they do or who they are.

00:25:45:14 - 00:26:05:10
Unknown
But then as you begin reading and you read their actual engagements and words and thoughts, you're you. In my opinion, you form a much more full picture of who that person is, and it's much more telling. And then you can even search keywords on their account and see what they think about those kind of ideas. And that's very, very different than any other site that you can check.

00:26:05:12 - 00:26:22:12
Unknown
And I actually think social media has the potential to allow you to connect even more deeply and more meaningfully than in person. So, for example, if I had just met you on the street, I don't know what you're pinned post is. I don't know what your banner is, right. But I can literally I can click on your profile and your Pin post probably matters a lot to you.

00:26:22:12 - 00:26:39:01
Unknown
And it says, you know, I think about this and then I know, okay, here's a really interesting thing about this person that I can connect with, right? I don't have that. I have a t shirt. Maybe you're wearing a bumper sticker in your car or a t shirt or something, but otherwise it's really it's going to take me a while to dig in and get some idea of who you are.

00:26:39:03 - 00:26:53:03
Unknown
Make a connection, not offend you. Right? I might, you know who knows what I'm going to say because I don't know who you are. Whereas if you take a second and scroll someone's Twitter page, if you see pronouns, you know you have to behave a certain way. If you see, you know, a flag, you know you have somebody.

00:26:53:05 - 00:27:07:20
Unknown
So you have all these, these hot buttons that you can say, okay, maybe talk about this, connect on this. Definitely don't touch that one. That's going to really make you mad and boom, easy to make a friend, right? Not so easy in person. So I actually believe that it's easier to make friends on social media than it is in person.

00:27:07:22 - 00:27:21:12
Unknown
I think an important takeaway, you know, and this is obviously us just justifying the low number of likes and stuff we get on some of our posts. But but you and it's very unfortunate is, you know, Cooper will point out like, oh do you see this person? Look how fast they grew or look how big their account is.

00:27:21:18 - 00:27:36:22
Unknown
And then unfortunately, like they have a podcast or they, you know, some sort of weekly content that they push out and then you go and look at it and you're like, all right, they get thousands of likes on their posts, and then they get zero watch hours on any of their content. And that's really unfortunate thing because it's very easy to gain a like.

00:27:37:04 - 00:27:52:11
Unknown
But if you can get 25 genuine likes that people leave a comment and they really believe in the stuff that you said, then it makes it all worth it and it outweighs all of the other negative comments that we get. So the CIA director of one of our best, you know, terms of, view counted on the video and stuff like that.

00:27:52:11 - 00:28:09:23
Unknown
But of course, you'll get, you know, about half of the comments are negative ones. But you know what? That's the most engaging stuff that we had. And that's something we got to be proud of because the other half are people who really enjoyed the crap out of it, you know? So I'm gonna take that in in stride. And, Mike, there's another part of that, though, that you kind of touched on is the audience capture factor of that.

00:28:09:23 - 00:28:24:22
Unknown
Is that right? On my Twitter right now, if I go over and I tweet that the 2020 election was stolen and they're going to do it again, I swear, you know, I will get that 100 likes because that's what my audience truly believes. And I'm I'm thinking about actually toying with it. And maybe you guys could tell me what you think.

00:28:25:03 - 00:28:43:15
Unknown
I think I'm going to put a post out there, or maybe a video of me speaking and say how a lot of my beliefs on election interference has changed in the last year. After looking at it after four years and being so staunchly thinking that this is what happened X, Y, and Z and amassing thousands of followers on X thanks to things that I wrote.

00:28:43:17 - 00:29:06:16
Unknown
I think I'm going to go ahead and change that. And I'm going to, as we call the war in Ukraine, a war of attrition with my followers to see if I can outlast them with shooting truth bombs out there. So what do you guys think? Do you think that this kind of forward approach is going to come off more authentic and have a better result in the end, or is it better to just get huge, succumb to this audience capture and blast off?

00:29:06:16 - 00:29:21:17
Unknown
What your followers want to hear are are you a personality based account or are you an issues, based account? And that's kind of what it comes down to, right? Do you want people to know you as coop, or do you just want to be like a political account and they both have value, right? I mean, there are definitely accounts that I follow.

00:29:21:18 - 00:29:34:19
Unknown
I don't care who that person is at all. I just know they have great ideas about crypto or they're like, they have like one thing that I really follow them for. And if they suddenly started showing me like pictures of their family, I'd be like, I mean, this is cool, but that's not why I follow you, you know?

00:29:34:19 - 00:29:52:03
Unknown
So it kind of depends on on what you want to do. In my case, I have kind of a personality based account, so you have no idea what I'm going to tweet about. I might tell you, you know, a story about the crazy flight nurses. You know today that that help my my daughter. I still can't believe that she wasn't my daughter for 20 minutes.

00:29:52:03 - 00:30:11:22
Unknown
That's the weirdest thing. So when when they fly your baby to a you at a different hospital, you sign over, your custody of the child briefly, and then you get it back when they get back there. So those ladies have had thousands of babies, essentially, that were theirs. Briefly. Are you signed custody away because you can't go on the, the helicopter with them?

00:30:12:00 - 00:30:30:18
Unknown
Yeah. So I might I might tell you about that. I might tell you fun facts about anesthesia and where people have put foreign objects. They shouldn't be, you know, or I might give you some. I mean, you never know if that's so fun for me, right? Because it's so random it out all over the place. And have I grown slowly and not as many followers as I could have been?

00:30:30:20 - 00:30:49:12
Unknown
Absolutely. Are you supposed to niche down and just talk about a couple things people are really passionate about? Absolutely. Is that fun fact? No, it's not fun at all. It's terrible. Yes, but that's not exactly the point. You know, because I look at a lot of and especially, you know, what's sent to me algorithmically is I get a lot of these left leaning accounts, but some are just so boring because it's okay.

00:30:49:14 - 00:31:10:05
Unknown
As soon as any event happens, I already know what they're going to tweet in the next, like five, ten minutes. And then sure enough, that's exactly it. And it's got thousands of likes on it. But again, what do all of those retweets and, you know, comments on there really amounted because at the end of the day, not that we're trying to monetize anything, but we're trying to get people to watch our content, the long form content, the person that puts their heart and soul, what they're producing in there.

00:31:10:10 - 00:31:27:21
Unknown
People don't tune into it. So that 26,000 likes that you have on there is really shallow and it doesn't mean anything. Right? You just you're just fulfilling this, this pre-prepared preconceived notion of something that's not really, you know, so I definitely agree with you on just saying what you think you you should say, you know, and be the personality you want to be.

00:31:27:23 - 00:31:52:12
Unknown
Yeah. And if you got if your audience's attention is five seconds, you're going to lose that audience very quickly. But if you deeply connect with your audience and their watching your whole boring, four hour long, horrible, Elevated Thoughts podcast, I mean, they must really like you. There's got to be a reason that they're into that. So when we see folks watching the full hour because you know how expensive in terms of attention time one hour is today, we're extraordinarily grateful to those folks who do.

00:31:52:17 - 00:32:12:12
Unknown
Okay. It felt like four hours was really only an hour. Wow. Not so bad. Depends which one you suffer to do justice. You ask the favor of slowing it down by a quarter speed. So it looks like we have better, viewing metrics. Now, we appreciate that. And one of the interesting things we found, honestly, is, is, is the niche down is important to build the audience because when you I actually let's talk about it a little bit.

00:32:12:16 - 00:32:31:07
Unknown
And you just got your subscriptions activated this week on so, so recently I was saying I've been engaging directly more so I've subscribed to a few accounts, I've been trying to join their subscriber bases, and they all have group chats or they have different kind of, I don't want to call it gimmicks, but gimmicks that they do behind their paywall.

00:32:31:09 - 00:32:49:17
Unknown
Why don't you tell people a little bit about what your plan is with your subscriber base and, what you might be offer in the group? Yes. Am I is a little bit different. I, I don't really want to make that much like my goal is not to make a lot of money from social media. I have a job that I love, and if I make a few extra bucks doing that, that's great.

00:32:49:17 - 00:33:04:22
Unknown
But the idea for me is that if someone's willing to subscribe to you, that means that they've really tied into what you're doing, and it gives you an opportunity to connect a little bit more deeply. You get their email address. That's probably the best thing about having subscriptions, right, is that, you know, you can come in a newsletter, all that kind of stuff.

00:33:04:22 - 00:33:21:10
Unknown
So my goal is to provide really unique and interesting content that doesn't necessarily belong in the main timeline. Right? There's some medical stuff that I can talk about. I can take a selfie in the, you know, things like that that I wouldn't necessarily blast out to Twitter at large. But if it's 20 subscribers, you know, we can talk about some of that kind of stuff.

00:33:21:10 - 00:33:36:14
Unknown
And that's a really special thing to have that tight knit group of people. So for me, we're doing a book club end of the month, we picked Bram Stoker's Dracula. You can get it for free on Gutenberg. So we're all going to read, Dracula. I may have to delay it a little bit with the baby, but we'll see.

00:33:36:14 - 00:33:54:07
Unknown
I don't know, I'm going to try to still make it work, but it sounds like you got a lot on your plate, right? Yeah. I'll talk to the wife. We'll see. But in theory, had we not just had an emergency C-section eight weeks early, we were going to do a book club over spaces, which to me, especially in a subscriber only tiny little spaces is a really special, tight knit, you know, kind of thing to be able to do.

00:33:54:12 - 00:34:12:20
Unknown
Ultimately, there's certain things that belong in the main timeline that anyone can comment on. And then there's things that belong in a tighter space. And I've actually toyed with taking the account totally private for a while, just to kind of see what different things I can do that, but instead, now that subscriptions are open, I can keep the account public and then have a private sort of members only section.

00:34:13:01 - 00:34:29:00
Unknown
You know, we can talk about some really interesting things. So so that's my goal there is to do kind of inside the O.R., really unique medical information. And then, book clubs and, you know, a few of the things that I want to go that route versus just like, I'm going to reply to your stuff if you subscribe to me.

00:34:29:00 - 00:34:48:08
Unknown
Right. That's that's kind of, I, a lot of people are doing that. That's fine if you're trying to grow. But, that's my goal is to, you know, kind of have the members only area within the subscriptions. Well, it's pretty cool bringing a book club. I mean, you have this uncanny ability to bring positivity and, you know, good, good attributes into every and everything.

00:34:48:08 - 00:35:02:04
Unknown
And it's like, it's a little bit foreign to me. And I kind of learn from you, brother. It's, It's a good way to be, to be honest. Make me happy. So you won me over. You said book club. You just, you see my little library behind me that you may have just earned another subscriber tonight. You know, I gotta keep me in the in the loop on this bam!

00:35:02:04 - 00:35:22:01
Unknown
Stroker. I hope you join us. Yeah, it's. I mean, Dracula's not just a scary guy who drinks blood, right? There's all these themes and tropes behind it, and it's actually really appropriate with the election coming up. So I'm super excited to talk about, you know, some of what some of the stuff means. Let's let's dive into that. So we did mention radical centrism before, I think before we we were in the lobby of the podcast era talking about it.

00:35:22:06 - 00:35:36:13
Unknown
Let's talk about politics and something that, a phrase that I share a lot with and I say is everything is political. And I don't mean like, you know, we argue about, you know, whether the left or the right. What I mean to say is, you know, in your in your office, whatever your career, your job, whatever it might be, everything's political.

00:35:36:13 - 00:35:53:20
Unknown
Right? You got to know, like you said, when you approach your person for the first time and you're talking to them, you get to know them. You get to learn those hot button issues of them. That's all politics. Everything in life is politics. And it doesn't have to be in the scheme of the right versus left. But it's all about advancing, you know, some sort of action.

00:35:53:20 - 00:36:11:04
Unknown
And I also say that politics is the science of action. Anything you want to get anything done, you got to learn how to maneuver politically to get the pieces and people in place to do it. Does. Now does that mean, you know, does everything have to you have to fall into this camp, and I can't be friends with Cooper because we're in different, you know, political camps?

00:36:11:08 - 00:36:30:11
Unknown
Absolutely not. So I like to hear a little bit from you is how do dads especially have differing views? How how do you make it work? How do you come together? And despite those form a community of, you know, being a good dad first versus, you know, your party first? I think it comes down to, never putting ideology ahead of biology or friendship.

00:36:30:12 - 00:36:46:23
Unknown
Right? So, I mean, I have friends who've, oh, you voted for Trump. I'm not going be your friend anymore, or you're going to vote for Harris. I'm not gonna be your friend anymore. That's insane. Right? Never end a friendship or not. Talk to Uncle Larry because, you know, he doesn't believe January 6th was, you know, the end of democracy, right?

00:36:47:01 - 00:37:03:04
Unknown
That's okay. You can still be friends with Uncle Larry, even if he thinks that. Right? There is nothing. You know, if you think that we need to raise interest rates a quarter point and I think we should lower them, we can still be friends, right? It's not that serious. Right. And so I think that's that's the key to it is it has to be intellectual in nature.

00:37:03:04 - 00:37:26:03
Unknown
And we can't get offended. And what's happened is we've lionized, getting offended, this righteous anger of I'm offended by what you've said. We've made a virtue when in fact it's a huge vice. Getting offended is a vice. It's a weakness. And it means that you can't separate the emotion from the issue and that's a weakness that is 100%.

00:37:26:03 - 00:37:48:04
Unknown
In fact, you know, if there's something I have, I have a hard time being friends with someone on the right or the left who gets offended easily. I can't tell a joke. I have to censor what I say. That's not fun, right? That's a huge bummer. So I don't care if you're super liberal or super conservative. If you can can take a joke and you can give one back and you can not get offended, then we can be friends, right?

00:37:48:08 - 00:38:05:19
Unknown
We can disagree vehemently. Yeah, but we have to be able to have those those ground rules where, hey, we're on a podcast, we're all friends here. I don't think that I disagree strongly, and I'm actually a little bit of set that you think that. But we're still friends, right? And most of us can't do that. Most Americans have gotten away from that.

00:38:05:21 - 00:38:20:17
Unknown
And I don't know if we've been manipulated or it's just the nature of, you know, how things have moved. The Overton window has shrunk, right? The what is the Overton window that everything you can talk about without people getting offended? There's literally a term for that. Right. So yeah, the wider the Overton window is, the happier I am as a dad.

00:38:20:17 - 00:38:38:21
Unknown
And so as dads, what do we care about? We care about barbecue. We care about sports, we care about fun things. And we can talk about these things while we're doing those activities. So for me, my friendships are activity based. Generally we podcast together, we play pickleball together, we cook together, whatever it is. You know, we our friendship is not based on our ideology.

00:38:38:21 - 00:38:55:21
Unknown
It's based on activities. And so that's the real key for me is if Crazy Uncle Larry is barbecuing with me and he makes a mean steak and he's crazy, I'm still going to eat a steak. And I really don't care. I'm going to laugh about it and I might respect him a little bit less. I'll admit that if he has really crazy ideas, I'm going to respect him a little bit less.

00:38:55:21 - 00:39:26:17
Unknown
But does it make his steak any less delicious? It certainly doesn't, and I'm still going to eat it. Why is the fat on this steak all yellow, uncle Larry? There's. That's right. What we what we have is a social media speed scrolling click economy that is monetized through fear porn. And. Right. What what? I think if you were to ask a Gen Z or, you know, my kid's too young to ask him what he thinks about the government at one years old, but they I think that what we need to remind people is that this is a robust system of checks and balances.

00:39:26:23 - 00:39:45:11
Unknown
The one of the number one hot button issues in this election is abortion. I honestly believe that nothing is going to change with the abortion legislation over the next four years. I truly believe that they're not going to codify Roe and they're not going to frigging make abortion outlawed. So what are we talking about? Let's not talk about it.

00:39:45:13 - 00:40:03:18
Unknown
How about that? We don't have to do right? I mean, that would be very convenient for the Republicans because it's the top Democrat issues, but they're not going to get it, but they're not going to get it, Mike. How do they get it? It's you're absolutely right. I mean without that's what they're probably counting on is an extraordinarily strong blue wave coming, you know this election cycle.

00:40:03:18 - 00:40:22:20
Unknown
But short of that you're 100% right. Is, pragmatically speaking, there isn't a, you know, a route to there. And this is this speaks to the one of the episodes we did of political theater. Right. So up until recently, the abortion issue was the Republican fundraising. You know, Jim, this was what's going to get money and or votes at the booth.

00:40:22:20 - 00:40:38:05
Unknown
And now it's kind of amazing how in a single election cycle that has flipped entirely. And I'm down here, I'm you're a fellow Floridian. I'm sure you see it all the time that the commercials for amendment, you know, I believe it's a three. Was it right for four is the abortion amendment, four is the abortion three is pot?

00:40:38:05 - 00:40:58:19
Unknown
I think it either way, both of them are perfect examples. You always see vote yes commercial on either amendment. And then immediately following is another vote no commercial right after. And both and they're both very convincing. I'm like, I need to really read into this. That's great ads. Yeah. Both these special interest groups are going around the clock to make the issue as obtuse as possible for you.

00:40:59:00 - 00:41:27:18
Unknown
And, I think that's why it's so important is in the to not get so married into the politics and the emotion of it, because when you look at these commercials, they are extraordinarily emotional. They're supposed to make you angry either way. And, you know, it's fine when maybe it was just a little bit. But when you look everywhere is, you know, you got to get people angry too, because it activates them to go out and and participate in this type of activism where it gets them to vote and it gets them to watch this type of TV show, even if like, you watch, you know, I call it not reality TV, but reality

00:41:27:18 - 00:41:47:18
Unknown
TV because it's completely fabricated. Yeah. People love to hate watch it. Right? Because at the end of the day, we're like, look at these pieces of crap I've got. It's so much better than they do, right? Is that healthy? Probably not. So I think long term we need to start moving away from those things. Agreed. Yeah. As much as we can remove the emotion from the issues, we're all winning in that kind of environment.

00:41:47:18 - 00:42:03:07
Unknown
But it's very hard to. Right? I mean, I'm a big Dallas Cowboys fan, right? I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that right now because we're so bad this year. But I if, if, referee, calls a play that I, you know, is probably totally fair, but it goes against my team, I'm going to be mad about it.

00:42:03:07 - 00:42:19:23
Unknown
Right. And if something I totally didn't deserve, you know, there's like some weak penalty doesn't count, goes in our favor. I'm like, yeah, let's go. And it's the exact same in political parties when I realize that, you know, when when people start saying that the ends justify the means, we have a lot of problems, right? I've talked to friends on the left about this.

00:42:19:23 - 00:42:32:14
Unknown
I'm like, hey, you know, I didn't really like that. Kamala Harris got coronated. I wanted to have some choices. I wanted to be able to pick Andrew Yang. Yang, Yang, let's go. I like that dude. Ranked choice voting is awesome. Yeah, yeah yeah. And they're like, yeah, but but he's she's better than Trump, you know. So he's such a supporter.

00:42:32:18 - 00:42:48:15
Unknown
And I was like no I don't like that. No. And I don't like that at all. And then the guys on the right, you know same thing are like oh that this, this certain example where something kind of was a little under the table, but it's fine because Kamala Harris is going to end free speech. And so we start to support Trump.

00:42:48:18 - 00:43:05:13
Unknown
And I'm like, no, no, no, I don't like that either. You know, like we need to we need to stop just supporting our team and allowing those 15 yard penalties to go against people. We need to call the refs on it and say, hey, that's B.S. that that wasn't defensive holding. It's a great metaphor though, because. Right, that's exactly what we don't have.

00:43:05:13 - 00:43:28:13
Unknown
We don't have a system of penalties for this kind of malfeasance by politicians. I guess the argument would be, oh, you vote with your your opinions and you vote them out of office. But yeah, if they're on day one and they do something absolutely terrible, there really is like no repercussions. I and we were joking last week on the episode and maybe I wasn't joking, but this, I forget his name, but the the mob boss of the longshoremen union, right, came out.

00:43:28:13 - 00:43:45:10
Unknown
He goes, I'm going to cripple the economy. They've negotiated with this guy in good faith. Like they should have taken this guy to jail. He's threatened the whole country, the whole world's economy. Take the guy to jail. That's not allowed. You know what I mean? So. But, dude. Yeah, right. And what did they do in the end? I don't know if people even know this.

00:43:45:10 - 00:44:06:20
Unknown
The strike was lifted in like four days, and they agreed to renegotiate it in the end of January 2025. Yeah, yeah. I wonder what's going to happen in January 20th, 2025, right. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Conveniently. Time. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but you know, DeSantis also sent in the National Guard and said we're going to have the Guardsmen do the job of the strikers.

00:44:06:20 - 00:44:23:02
Unknown
And then magically it was fixed like two hours later. So might have been a timing issue, or it might have just been like, oh, wow, maybe the National Guardsmen can do longshoreman jobs and we can actually make this happen. So that is no longer politically expedient to keep up the strike. You know, that's how it usually goes. Yeah, exactly.

00:44:23:04 - 00:44:45:14
Unknown
Well, I guess longshoremen is one of those jobs that's traditionally masculine. I bet you there's not very many women in it. And, Mike and I, we both work in traditionally masculine roles as well, and kind of this blue collar job, it's definitely been an interesting thing to see as we stay on this politics theme. That kind of blue collar middle class has almost shifted to become more right leaning, as opposed to left leaning.

00:44:45:17 - 00:45:03:21
Unknown
And, Dustin, when we were setting up for this show, we had kind of said there was something you wanted to reveal to Mike about maybe how you'd voted in the past and talk about some of how you have kind of broken from tradition, because you're one of those examples that maybe the Trump campaign would love to highlight. All right.

00:45:03:23 - 00:45:21:15
Unknown
Yeah. And I wouldn't say have broken from tradition. I fully expect to vote Democrat again in 2028. I voted for Obama, Hillary Clinton, I voted for Biden. I don't think I've ever voted for a Republican in any election, ever. I've always. I went to, the first like, gay wedding ever in like 2008 up in, Connecticut.

00:45:21:17 - 00:45:41:21
Unknown
My personal hero. And the reason I got into anesthesia had been dating his boyfriend for, like, 20 years, wanted to get married the moment he was able to get married, they went, I mean, you know, like, I, I've always considered myself very progressive. And it hurts my heart to see the direction that that the modern. I don't even moderate the current, you know, route.

00:45:41:21 - 00:45:56:00
Unknown
The Democratic Party has gone and I think it's going to be fixed. I think they're going to lose and it's going to be repudiated. The mistakes that they made, some of the excesses on the left. And I can go back to voting Democrat again in 2028 like I have done my entire life. That may not happen. I really don't care.

00:45:56:00 - 00:46:17:10
Unknown
I'm happy to be a Republican for ten years, and I have to be a Democrat for ten years. Again, I'm an issue based voter, and I, I respect people who are willing to vote outside of their party. Right. So I'm not excited to vote for Donald Trump, but I will because he's him as president is safer for my son and for my daughter than Kamala Harris as president.

00:46:17:10 - 00:46:40:04
Unknown
I genuinely believe that. And people might disagree with me, and I respect that in good faith. But I think for me, foreign policy is the number one issue we need to be voting on right now. That's the main thing that a president can affect. And I genuinely believe that our military industrial complex right now is sending us on a path to World War three and potentially ending my son's chance to live a good life.

00:46:40:06 - 00:46:58:02
Unknown
And Donald Trump is kind of crazy, and he might do something I don't like either. But the risk of him pushing that red button is materially lower than someone within the Harris administration doing it. And so that's that's really my one hot button issue is I don't want someone pushing the hot button and blowing up the world. It's as simple as that.

00:46:58:04 - 00:47:18:17
Unknown
So that's where I'm at. So I would say that I do disagree. I do think that she's less likely. But that's not to say that they're not willing to go to very far means to, you know, teach Russ a Russia lesson or they have more chops to prove. Right. Obviously, she has a lot of doubt. So she might feel more, you know, she might feel more backed into a corner where I have to respond strongly.

00:47:18:17 - 00:47:49:03
Unknown
Otherwise I'm going to be criticized as being weak on China or weak, you know, in this in the Middle East, etc., etc.. So I do kind of actually understand your position there. But what I think is kind of interesting is, is your story. There's I know a lot of Democrats. Right. Were not very pleased with the candidate. I know that there's a lot of, you know, it's, it's it's the writing in between the lines there that even those who are voting Democrat this election, it's going to be a if they don't win, it's going to be a real big challenge for them over the next 2 to 4 years as they go through the

00:47:49:03 - 00:48:07:14
Unknown
post mortem, because your traditional Democratic voting base is not in alignment with the party anymore. They took advantage of, oh, this is the very progressive, you know, swell that we're going to ride here. But those folks don't show up at the voting booth. They aren't as committed to the community actions as they, you know, they're online personas would make them believe.

00:48:07:19 - 00:48:27:03
Unknown
And it's funny to see in such a short amount of time, the Democratic Party, which used to be the party of either the union or the blue collar worker, and now you see something like I forget what union it was, but nearly half or more of their entire base said that they're probably voting for Donald Trump, that Teamsters, the Teamsters was the Teamsters.

00:48:27:03 - 00:48:43:12
Unknown
You they didn't want to misspeak. But that really does speak to the weaknesses in the Democratic Party and really should be a wake up call for them, that they're very much at alignment with their core voting base. So your concerns are appreciated and heard and shared amongst many other Democratic voters. So it's something they're going to have to deal with.

00:48:43:15 - 00:49:03:04
Unknown
I remember what I was going to say before, and it was that in last week's episode, we actually covered a statistic dust. And you are in the minority here, prioritizing foreign affairs over domestic, where 20% of Americans say that they prioritize foreign affairs, whereas 60% are prioritizing almost an exact split, domestic affairs, the border and the economy.

00:49:03:10 - 00:49:25:02
Unknown
So you are one of maybe maybe that's an indication that it's a more informed thing. I always say that people who are active on X or active on Twitter, I feel like you are among the most like top 1% engaged political folk. If you're active on X because you know that you're partaking in reading and the both sides of this information and you're commenting and engaging.

00:49:25:04 - 00:49:47:13
Unknown
So it's very interesting to hear you say that. It's it's, it's probably what I'm gauging my vote on as well. And it goes back to what I said about checks and balances. Just not so much is going to change, but a lot of things could change over there. And, it's really important. But yeah, I guess I guess your point about the military industrial complex and Kamala about to hit a red button or her administration is very interesting.

00:49:47:13 - 00:50:05:15
Unknown
It's something that Mike and I talk about a lot, how Russia is almost being snubbed, in a diplomatic way where we're not even engaging in a conversation so much. Biden hasn't even been to Russia since his whole term has started or spoken with him, I'm pretty sure. And that's very scary, right? That's just not what I see as president.

00:50:05:19 - 00:50:26:16
Unknown
They describe Trump as not very statesmanlike, but how is it it's not statesmanlike to avoid your enemies and label them a supervillain either. Mike and I spoke with professor Red Jenko, right. And he spoke how the Soviets and the Russians always wanted to be legitimized as a nation or as a superpower. And the Americans have always kind of said, get out of here.

00:50:26:16 - 00:50:49:12
Unknown
You're not that important. And that's essentially what we've been doing for years now. That's kind of on the Russians. I mean, ever since Gorbachev did that Pizza Hut commercial come on like that, you know, we totally owe them. It's all been downhill since then. Yeah, exactly. You that it's so funny that you brought up that example because it actually is in the book, too, where, you know, he he tries to think of like, oh, this is going to legitimize me.

00:50:49:12 - 00:51:03:14
Unknown
You know, I'm going to be in this, you know, commercial for this international brand. And it did not play well domestically at all. He was a lampoon. And for it and even this sunk his ratings even further after. It was a really cute commercial, but it was like, yeah, it was not very out of place. Yeah, yeah for sure.

00:51:03:16 - 00:51:18:15
Unknown
Well, in my opinion, what we've done is we've legitimized them the other way, right? We've shown that we are frightened of them and we are scared of them. And actually what we just saw a few days ago is now North Korean troops are landing on the ground in Ukraine. And that's a significant escalation as well. So that's that's kind of scary.

00:51:18:15 - 00:51:38:02
Unknown
Although what I wrote was watching the North Koreans get off of a plane into Ukraine is like watching clowns unpack from a clown car with their squeaky shoes and little horns. I don't know that they're going to really be able to do much, but hey, that's definitely an escalation. And I think that people that, you know, NATO countries are watching this happen.

00:51:38:02 - 00:52:00:12
Unknown
And that's not a good thing. Yeah, yeah, it's really, it's scary to see these massive alliances between countries, right? I mean, the last time we saw 50 countries take on 50 countries, nuclear weapons did not exist. Right? And now they do. So, you know, mutually assured destruction has been wonderful for the past 50 years. But it works when there's like four countries with nukes right now, there's like 20.

00:52:00:12 - 00:52:19:16
Unknown
And there's probably going to be 50 soon. Right? Because they're easier and easier to create. So at some point, you can't expect rational behavior from 50 different actors. And so mutually assured destruction breaks down and we're going to be in a lot of trouble. It takes one crazy person to, you know, create a lot of problems. So I'm a big fan of Reagan.

00:52:19:16 - 00:52:38:21
Unknown
Could have done it way back in the day. He wanted a Star Wars program. Never happened. Right. Let's make it happen. With Anduril and a Star Wars program is the, shoot nukes out of the sky. Okay, okay. So it's possible to do, there's a couple different companies working on it. I'd love to see Space-x or Anduril, you know, create a, a nuclear bomb defense system.

00:52:38:21 - 00:53:06:14
Unknown
I think it's possible. And it may, you know, potentially change the nature of geopolitics in a positive way. So we'll we'll see how that plays out. Interesting, interesting thing I would like to highlight is that the nature of warfare has changed from what we've seen, what's going on in Ukraine, Russia conflict. And what should be really interesting is the impact of drones on the battlefield now, because what used to be this armored vehicle or tank or even, you know, aircraft now could be undermined by a cottage industry drone.

00:53:06:14 - 00:53:31:17
Unknown
And now you talk about swarm drone armies and what that's going to, you know, change the face of the battlefield. So it's kind of interesting, the nature of things, and how fast the changing this is, how the point of nuclear weapons right before even we had nuclear weapons. Right? We didn't have AI. These things are making a lot of decisions on a lot of levels that a human is only looking at and cross-referencing and verifying for maybe 10s at a time, and the AI has made a decision to it.

00:53:31:17 - 00:53:51:16
Unknown
But if you leave AIS in a kind of game theory situation, they always escalate and go to nuclear war way too fast compared to what humans have historically done. Thankfully. Yeah, that's a great point. And so, that is a real risk, you know, that we don't even blow up the world. And actually it's just an AI that goes haywire.

00:53:51:18 - 00:54:05:12
Unknown
You know, it doesn't mean that was the plot to Terminator. I was right to say that real Terminator, like there is a company called Skynet. I don't know why anybody let that happen. There should have been a law made against being a real Skynet company, but it's out there. That's the really terrifying thing about it. Well, you can just tell.

00:54:05:12 - 00:54:24:15
Unknown
Hosted the we robot and it looks like exactly out of iRobot, the name, the like look of the Optimus bot, the toaster looking truck. I was like, oh my God, he copied the movie. Hopefully he didn't copy the end of the movie. So hey Dustin, we've been going for an hour already. Believe it or not, I couldn't be more grateful for your time here.

00:54:24:15 - 00:54:44:01
Unknown
Before we wrap it up, is there anything else that you'd like to share with us? Or maybe you could just tell us where people can find you? Yeah. Come find me on Twitter at, at Dustin the D&D. Or check out the Present Fathers podcast. We're on every platform Spotify, YouTube. And of course, we post all of our episodes on X as well, so feel free to check us out.

00:54:44:03 - 00:55:00:11
Unknown
Awesome. And well, we were really grateful to have you again. We'll definitely keep on your, your, keep on your timeline so we know what's going on with the new baby. Congratulations again. We love you very much, man. And, this has been elevated. Thoughts.