Behind the Bastards New Year Q&A Part Two
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January 02, 2025
TLDR: Robert and Sophie answer more thrilling questions on the podcast.
In this episode of Behind the Bastards, hosts Robert and Sophie dive deep into a variety of listener questions, offering insights and discussions that range from personal anecdotes to broader socio-political commentary. This engaging podcast episode is designed for fans and newcomers alike, bringing a mix of humor, serious analysis, and, of course, the unique perspectives of the hosts.
Key Discussions and Insights
Craving the Truth About Kratom
- Kratom and Its Use: Robert offers a candid take on kratom, describing it as a substance many use responsibly, yet it can lead to dependence, especially for those with a history of substance abuse. He emphasizes the importance of careful use, suggesting beginners might consider tea over concentrated extracts.
- Dependency Risks: He explains that while kratom is less harmful than opioids for many, there’s always a risk of escalating use. Listeners are encouraged to understand their relationship with it, similar to marijuana versus alcohol consumption.
Future Podcast Episodes
- Sophie’s Thoughts on Research: Sophie highlights the challenge of tackling complex historical topics, like the Iraq War and systematic injustices in America, due to the extensive research required. Robert passionately expresses his desire to explore these topics, demonstrating the depth of thought behind their content.
- Listener Engagement: The hosts discuss their plans for future episodes, including topics they feel passionate about and those that require more research, showcasing their commitment to producing well-informed content.
Personal Stories and Growth
- Host Backgrounds: Robert reflects on his transformation from a conservative Texas upbringing to becoming a radical journalist. He emphasizes the role of empathy and understanding diverse perspectives in his evolution.
- Collaboration and Teamwork: They discuss the foundation of their media company, Cool Zone Media, explaining how collaboration among various hosts enriches content and prevents burnout.
Cultural Commentary
- Pop Culture Influences: Topics like favorite firearms and nostalgic discussions about music genres such as ska provide light-hearted moments amidst heavier topics. They touch on personal favorites in music and how initial experiences shape lifelong interests.
- Relevant Literature: The conversation shifts to impactful books, with both hosts recommending works that shaped their political views and passions, such as Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Engaging with Current Events
- Rojava Developments: Robert provides insights into the ongoing situation in Rojava, expressing concern for the future of the region amid ongoing conflict. He emphasizes the dire conditions and the importance of understanding the political landscape.
- Questions and Answers: The interactive format allows fans to inquire about diverse subjects, from personal hobbies to broader socio-political themes, illustrating the breadth of their audience’s curiosity and engagement.
Conclusion
This Q&A episode of Behind the Bastards is not just a reflection of the hosts' humor and sharp wit; it showcases their commitment to facilitating meaningful conversations about personal experiences, societal issues, and the complexities of history. Key takeaways include:
- The careful use of kratom and the potential issues tied to dependency.
- The importance of understanding extensive research when tackling historical topics.
- Personal growth stories that shape the hosts' perspectives.
- The relevance of literature in informing social and political views.
Engage with Behind the Bastards for insightful discussions that blend humor, history, and critical thinking, making it a must-listen for those who appreciate deep dives into the complexities of human behavior and society.
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To have a murder as Christian as Jade Beasley doesn't happen very often down here. In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death, her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Bagley is guilty. They've never found a weapon. Never made sense. Still doesn't make sense. She found out she was pregnant in jail. The person who did it is still out there.
Listen to Murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you want a shortcut to the best version of you? Here it is. Feed the Good Wolf.
I'm Eric Zimmer, host of The One You Feed. Every week, I talk to brilliant minds and brave souls about the art of small, powerful choices. Our listeners say it all. This is a lifeline. Transformational. The best antidote to a bad mood I've ever heard. Join the pack and start feeding your best self. Listen to the One You Feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Joel the holidays are a blast, but the financial hangover. That can be a huge bummer. If you are out there and you're dreading the new statement email that reveals the massive balance that you may have racked up, well, you could use our help. That's right. I'm Joel and
I am Matt and we're from the How To Money podcast. Our show is all about helping you make sense of your personal finances so you can ditch your pesky credit card debt once and for all. Make real progress on other crucial financial goals that you've got and just feel more in control of your money in general. You know it for money advice without the judgment and jargon. Listen to how to money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey y'all, I'm Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford, host of Therapy for Black Girls. This January, join me for our third annual January Jump Start series. Starting January 1st, we'll have inspiring conversations to give you a hand and kick-starting your personal growth. If you've been holding back or playing small, this is your all-access pass to step fully into the possibilities of the new year. This is the Therapy for Black Girls starting on January 1st, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
I'm Jason Alexander and I'm Peter Tilden and together our mission on the really no-really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor what's in the museum a failure and does your dog truly love you we have the answer though to really no-really.com and register to win $500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign Jason bobblehead the really no-really podcast follow us on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast
Hey, Robert. Hey, Sophostophiles. Softer Demerong, the ring of the softer dlingen. I was trying to do like the ring of the nibblungen, but Sophie, I don't actually know how to make that work. Also, not really a joke.
Just me putting your name into things. How are you doing? Are you good? I was doing well. Okay, that's good. I was doing well anyways. We're back with another Q&A episode. Thank you to those who ask questions on the Instagram.
Robert, can you start the folks out with a nice, nice, Cratum Lemonade recipe? People want to know. I don't have a nice Cratum Lemonade recipe. I have been doing Cratum so long that I don't give a shit. I just pour it in water. I pour it in soda. I mix it. I don't give a fuck. Don't do that. It's gross.
Literally any liquid substance at the airport. I'll say this. Here's what I'll say. I'm going to give you first the responsible advice and then I'm going to give you the person who uses Kratum advice, right? The responsible advice is that Kratum is something that can and then the vast majority of cases will be used responsibly. It is not easy to become problematically addictive to for most people. If you are someone who is inclined to abuse painkillers, it is very easy to develop a dependency on Kratum.
Now, a dependency on Cratum is not nearly the monster that a dependency on opiates, especially heroin is. And if you are dependent on opiates or heroin, Cratum can allow you to get off of that, because if you stop taking heroin, you get horribly dope sick, Cratum stops you from being dope sick, and it is, I think, critical to remain widely available largely as a result of that.
However, if you start taking Kratum and you take it every day, you will need to take more and you will notice potentially, this has never really been my case because I take breaks regularly. I've never had any issue going overseas for a couple of weeks and not taking it, you know, taking three or four days off every week or two. Some people do. You should be aware that that's a thing and that it is a capital D drug.
I would say it's not as safe as marijuana, although if you have a family history of schizophrenia, it certainly does not seem to have any of the kind of ability to incite psychotic breaks that that does. But it's harder in your body than particularly consuming marijuana in a way that doesn't involve smoking. But it's not as hard on your body based on all of the evidence that exists, for example, drinking, particularly if you're talking about someone who's using Cratum Daily versus Drinking Daily, you're almost certainly better off using Cratum Daily.
I think that's a generally responsible way to categorize it. The ways that you can do it is you take a powder that is just the ground up flour. It is very hard to hurt yourself with just the powder. You would have to take such a massive quantity of it. However, just like with marijuana, people now make extracts and those extracts are extremely concentrated. It is much easier to harm yourself if you are using an extract or to take much more than you want. Now, cratum, an overdose does not tend like if you take far too much cratum,
It doesn't do what like heroin does and cause central nervous system depression that'll stop you from breathing, at least not in any of the quantities that, you know, I've seen documentation on, but it can be really bad and unpleasant. So I would say if you're going to do it, do something like get a tea, stay away from the extracts. Once you start going down that road, it's very easy to develop much more of a dependency on it. That's my Kratum speech. Okay. Robert. Mm hmm.
What's one episode you really want to do but require a fuckload of research and 4 million episodes to cover?
The Bush administration and the war on Iraq, and part of why I haven't, is just like it's been covered. And I do think maybe now, because there's a lot of Gen Z people who listen, who maybe went around for that, I'm probably overestimating how familiar people are with the shit around that. So maybe that is the kind of thing to get onto now. There's just so much to talk about in so many bastards. But it's one of those things I've gone back and forth, should I just do a John Ashcroft episode? Should I just do a Dick Cheney episode? Well, how do you do that episode? And then like,
not cover the rest of it. I just have it, yeah. The map context needed, right? Yeah. Like Nixon is the same way. And this was, that's not really an excuse what I just said because the same is true when talking about like Kissinger's crimes because those Kissinger episodes were also like partly Nixon episodes because you can't talk about what Kissinger did that was evil without talking about a number of other evil guys. So I will and should do that. It's just all episodes like that are always so much work. And I've picked by battles
Usually every now and then I will based on like, oh, I think this is really important for a specific reason to get out at this time, right? Like a lot of the fascists and focus ones we've done. But usually it's more like, what do I want to read about right now? What am I interested in? Because if I don't do it that way, if I don't let the primary thing that drives me week to week be, what do I want to read about and write about, then I will burn out. Sure. What episode are you most proud of from this year?
Uh, probably the Lawrence of Arabia episodes. Really good. I'm deeply proud of James Stout series on it could happen here. Oh, I thought you were talking about my episodes. No, we are, but I'm just saying. Okay. I'm deeply proud of James's series that he did reporting from the Darian Gap from the Darian Gap. Excellent stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Some of the best work anyone's done for us. I love those apps. Yeah. I also, they were the hardest for me, but your episodes on troubled teen wilderness camps were
Yeah, love me some troubled teen wilderness camps. How did you get from being a Texas ROTC kid to an active war zone journalist to a gas station drug reviewer and avid podcaster? Wow. Wow. People say I love that. I guess there's a few ways to talk about that. So like the first thing I'll just note on the war zone stuff, people make a much bigger deal of that. Like it comes up because war comes up and particularly some of the wars that I've covered come up. So I bring it up.
when I think it's relevant, but like becoming a war zone journalist, no one paid me. I just bought plane tickets to places and reached out to people who lived in the area on the internet before I landed. Like that's all. It was not like a, I think people talk about it as if there's some like special forces training you've got to do. And no, I was just like a guy who landed with his girlfriend and a camera. And that's how we did most of it until like, you know, outside of like Syria and Myanmar. That's how I did most of my war zone reporting.
In terms of like how I stopped being a conservative kid from North Texas who wanted to be in the military, I mean a lot of it was encountering drugs at age 19 and then also starting to make friends with young women my age and slightly older than me who I realized were much more fun to spend time around than the army. Sure. And yeah, all of that, you know, kind of
collaborated in a radicalization process, you know, not even much of a just like stop me from being like a proto fascist little kid. I was mostly just sort of like in terms of temperament, a libertarian, but I would always vote Democrat because the Republicans were obviously maniacs. And I was just like, I don't agree with the Democrats about everything, but I guess I'll vote for them because these other people are crazy. And I didn't really think a lot about politics until, I mean, it was Ukraine.
And following the Syrian refugee trail in 2015 and then Iraq in 2016 and Standing Rock in 2016, you know, I'd been at Occupy in New York at 2011 for a little while, but it was really, I mean, Standing Rock was kind of one of the most radicalizing single things I experienced where I started being like, yeah, generally a progressive, I guess, with some libertarian tendencies to
And I wouldn't say I was an anarchist at that, but I started reading more and thinking more and recognizing it like, well, I agree with a lot of this analysis more. It was still years before I really identified strongly in that direction.
Yeah, a couple of people kind of asked me with my upbringing how somebody said like, basically, how did I become in charge of cool zone media and like leftist podcasts? And, you know, the short of it is I grew up with a Republican dad, a moderate Democrat mom, and I grew up in an area where most of the people were your standard libs with a lot of, a lot of Zionism, honestly. And
I think what radicalized me was my insane empathy. I'm like a very, very empathetic person. And so consuming content and reading history and meeting people, it's just the more that I consumed and the more people I got to meet, the more left I became.
And I feel like we approach a lot of our content from a place of empathy. And that's the kind of things I want to put out in the world. I got deep. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I got deep.
Yeah, I just, uh, obviously the people with the most money in the world are the kind of folks who volunteer at Food Not Bombs and, you know, for their local libraries. So I decided I wanted to really cash in on that demo, you know? Yeah, for sure. It was idiots like Ben Shapiro trying to get money from broke oil billionaires. You know, it's the librarians who really have walking around money. That's how you get rich. And speaking of getting rich, it's time for ad breaks. Yeah.
To have a murder as gruesome as Jake Beasley's doesn't happen very often down here. In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death, her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence, but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Bathley is guilty.
This case, the more I learned about it, the more I'm scratching my head, something's not right. I'm Lauren Bright-Pacheco. Murder on Songbird Road dives into the conviction of a mother of four who remains behind bars and the investigation that put her there.
I have not seen this level of corruption anywhere. It's sickening. A few steps many, many times, you have blood splatter. Where's the change closed? She found out she was pregnant in jail. She wasn't treated like she was innocent in the beginning at all. Which is just horrific. Nobody has gotten justice yet. And that's what I wish people would understand. Listen to Murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Inside you, two wolves are locked in battle. One thrives on fear and anger and doubt. The other, courage, wisdom and love. Every decision, every moment feeds one of them. Which wolf are you feeding?
I'm Eric Zimmer, host of The One You Feed. I've been there, homeless, addicted, and lost. I know the power of small choices to turn your life around. On this podcast, I sit down with thinkers, leaders, and survivors to uncover what it takes to feed the good wolf. This podcast saved me. It's like having a guide for the hardest parts of life. The wolves are hungry. What will you feed them?
Listen to the one you feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 2025 is bound to be a fascinating year. It's going to be filled with money challenges and opportunities. I'm Joel and I am Matt and we're the hosts of How To Money. We want to be with you every step of the way in your financial journey this year, offering the information and insights you need to thrive financially.
Yeah, whether you find yourself up to your eyeballs and student loan debt or you've got a sky high credit card balance because you went a little overboard with a holiday spending or maybe you're looking to optimize your retirement accounts so you can retire early. Well, how to money will help you to change your relationship with money so you can stress less and grow your net worth. That's right. How to money comes out three times a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for money advice without the judgment and jargon. Listen to how to money on the iHeartRadio app.
Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
All January, I'll be joined by inspiring guests who will help you kick start your personal growth with actionable ideas and real conversations. We're talking about topics like building community and creating an inner and outer glow. I always tell people that when you buy a handbag, it doesn't cover a childhood scar. You know, when you buy a jacket, it doesn't reaffirm what you love about the hair you were told not to love.
So when I think about beauty, it's so emotional because it starts to go back into the archives of who we were, how we want to see ourselves, and who we know ourselves to be and who we can be. It's a little bit of past, present, and future, all in one idea, soothing something from the past. And it doesn't have to be always in insecurity. It could be something that you love. All to help you start 2025, feeling empowered, and ready. Listen to therapy for Black Girls starting on January 1st. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together... On the Really No Really podcast... Our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions, like... Why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the woolly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer.
And you never know who's gonna drop by. Mr. Brian Cranston is with us today. Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to really, really, sir. Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening? Really, no, really. No, really.
Go to ReallyNoReally.com and register to win $500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition signed Jason Bobblehead. It's called Really No Really and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. And we're back. Robert. So late. How you doing? Oh, you know, pretty good.
Cool. Do you think that most of the USA's divisive issues and over-manipulated economy would be solved by breaking up into smaller individual countries by region, example, North-South? No. It sounds like a fucking disaster. Look up the partitioning of India.
Just look up the partitioning of India and then think about the fact that India was not a massive part of the global economy as opposed to something going the way the partition of India went in terms of the violence, the death, the political upheaval, and also it being the entire center of the world's economy and a significant amount of its like food and medicine. Yeah, seems like it would be bad. Robert, favorite Warhammer Legion Legion's characters?
Okay, so if we're talking about like, they use the term Legion, so I assume they're talking about like a great crusade through Horace Heresy era. Let's see. I really like the paint scheme and the look of like the Legion era iron warriors a lot. So I would have to say from aesthetics them, but I don't really find any of like the fiction that focuses on them, particularly interesting. And I guess then I'd have to go with like dark angels or the space wolves. Yeah.
So when asked the same person asked my current favorite hobby that is just for fun. Well, it happens to be the NBA season and I play fantasy basketball and I take it very. More hammer for nerds as I call it. Sure. And I take it very seriously and I love it. I fucking love it. It's amazing. She does. She's unhinged about it. It frightens me. It does frighten him. And I got LeBron on my team this year as he gets older. It just, I needed him on my team one more time.
Um, Robert, what's a journalism story that if you didn't have to do your day job that you would love to cover? If tomorrow aliens came down and said, we're getting rid of all of the fascism and authoritarianism and giving you all free energy, fixing the climate, making sure every refugee has food and water. There are no more problems. I am going to spend the rest of my life trying to kill Bigfoot.
This is not a question, but I've seen this a couple times. People want to know if you're going to do any Australian bastards. I don't think anyone in Australia has ever done anything bad. Yeah, seems like an island that never made a bad person. So not worth looking into, probably. Yeah, I assume we will. It's just like there's a lot of countries we haven't done bastards on, but definitely we'll get an Aussie. Don't worry, folks.
Part of why I haven't is the dollop guys do such a good job of hitting Australian, weird pieces of shit. So I do think like there's a good place for people who like the kind of thing I do to find that. The dollop has a lot of great fucked up Australia stories. Any plans to do an Oprah series or episodes? Yeah, working on them now.
Yep, that was asked a couple times. Robert, what's your favorite firearm? I don't know, like they all do such different things. Like in terms of the one I own, I guess the one that I shoot deal with, in terms of like from a, I guess emotional standpoint, the very first gun I ever bought was a 1917 Lee Enfield Mark III, beautiful old World War I era bolt action rifle, just like an actually attractive
like piece of history. I have a Mauser C96 that is enjoyable for the same reason, although not a gun that can safely be used unless you are directly on a range because sometimes when you attempt to take it off safety it fires. So it is not allowed to be in the same room as bullets unless we are at a gun range, but is a very fun piece of history as well.
I really like the gun that I carry as he three sixty five excel six hour great handgun super comfortable super easy to conceal i shoot it almost every week and feel very comfortable with it you know i think i could.
handle most of its basic functions in the dark with my eyes closed aside from aiming. I feel good about that. In terms of like what I enjoy shooting most recreationally, nothing beats an AK-74. I've got an AK-74 with a wooden foregrip and a wire folding stock. That thing is a hoot.
The people want to know, how did we start cool zone media? What's the cool zone media story? Just kind of us constantly being behind on everything. And then it happened by accident. No, that's not true. I said that.
Part of the genesis of it would be that when 2020 was going on, you and I had not really envisioned much beyond, you know, we've got worst year ever. That's doing well. We've got bastards. That's doing well. We had finished the Women's War. Yeah, we're going to keep doing probably every year. We'll do one or two rubber to go travel somewhere or two places, do one or two limited 10 episode series and we'll keep doing bastards. And, you know, that'll be it. That'll be good. Then the riots happened and
One of the things that occurred with that is, you know, I covered that very heavily, both in terms of articles that I wrote for a variety of publications in terms of stuff for, you know, what was at the time, our regular news show and ambassadors. And by the end of the year, I was absolutely burnt out. And to the extent that I became aware of, like, I won't be able to do this the next time something big happens. Like, enough of me has been spent
And also it shouldn't be me like all go crazy all develop even worse takes like it's just bad like one of the things I have an issue with and I'm not going to like bring up names or critique people but I think it's always a mistake when you build a news network centered or like a news platform centered around a guy. Yeah.
So we were started talking late in 2020, early 2021, and we need to bring in other people and develop them and give them platforms so that whatever the next big things are, we have people who are able to cover them with the dedication they deserve without just burning me or another individual person out by putting too much on their shoulders at once.
So that was kind of the thinking that led us there. Yeah. And I heard radio asked us if we wanted to have our own imprint, remember? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, and then the company was like, hey, we'll offer you more money if you do this thing that sounds like a nightmare and have a daily new show. Hey, you want to make a daily show? And we said, I would rather kill myself. And then they said, but you can hire your friends. And then we said, well, actually, that sounds a lot better.
They were like, hey, you've been pumping out content multiple times a day for the last year. This is like end of 2020, early 2021. They're like, hey, you've been doing this thing. Want to do it? Times a million? Yeah. That seems healthy. We did, but we got to hire a bunch of our friends. And that's nice. And you know, a lot of the people we love have salaries and health insurance. So a win is a fucking win. It's time for fucking ads. Okay.
To have a murder as gruesome as Jake Beasley's doesn't happen very often down here. In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death, her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence, but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Bathley is guilty.
This case, the more I learned about it, the more I'm scratching my head, something's not right. I'm Lauren Bright-Pacheco. Murder on Songbird Road dives into the conviction of a mother of four who remains behind bars and the investigation that put her there.
I have not seen this level of corruption anywhere. It's sickening. A few steps from me. Found many times. You have blood splatter. Where's the change closed? She found out she was pregnant in jail. She wasn't treated like she was innocent and being at all. Which is just horrific. Nobody has gotten justice yet. And that's what I wish people would understand. Listen to Murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Inside you, two wolves are locked in battle. One thrives on fear and anger and doubt. The other, courage, wisdom and love. Every decision, every moment feeds one of them. Which wolf are you feeding?
I'm Eric Zimmer, host of The One You Feed. I've been there, homeless, addicted, and lost. I know the power of small choices to turn your life around. On this podcast, I sit down with thinkers, leaders, and survivors to uncover what it takes to feed the good wolf. This podcast saved me. It's like having a guide for the hardest parts of life. The wolves are hungry. What will you feed them?
Listen to the one you feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 2025 is bound to be a fascinating year. It's going to be filled with money challenges and opportunities. I'm Joel and I am Matt and we're the hosts of How To Money. We want to be with you every step of the way in your financial journey this year, offering the information and insights you need to thrive financially.
Yeah, whether you find yourself up to your eyeballs and student loan debt or you've got a sky high credit card balance because you went a little overboard with a holiday spending or maybe you're looking to optimize your retirement accounts so you can retire early. Well, how to money will help you to change your relationship with money so you can stress less and grow your net worth. That's right. How to money comes out three times a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for money advice without the judgment and jargon. Listen to how to money on the iHeartRadio app.
Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
All January, I'll be joined by inspiring guests who will help you kick start your personal growth with actionable ideas and real conversations. We're talking about topics like building community and creating an inner and outer glow. I always tell people that when you buy a handbag, it doesn't cover a childhood scar.
You know, when you buy a jacket, it doesn't reaffirm what you love about the hair you were told not to love. So when I think about beauty, it's so emotional because it starts to go back into the archives of who we were, how we want to see ourselves, and who we know ourselves to be and who we can be. It's a little bit of past, present, and future, all in one idea, soothing something from the past. And it doesn't have to be always in insecurity. It could be something that you love.
all to help you start 2025 feeling empowered and ready. Listen to therapy for Black girls starting on January 1st. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.
I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together... On the Really No Really podcast... Our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like... Why they refuse to make the bathrooms door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the woolly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer.
And you never know who's going to drop by. Mr. Brian Cranston is with us today. How are you, too? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to really, really, sir. Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening? Really, no, really. No, really.
Go to ReallyNoReally.com and register to win $500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition signed Jason Bobblehead. It's called Really No Really and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. We're back!
a lot of people asking your how you approach research and how you format your episodes. If you have a template, if you put something into, I know the answer to this, but just why you're half smiling, if you make some kind of a guide for your episodes or a way to process.
The gist of it is I have a doc. I read through. So first, if there's a book and there usually is or more than one book, I read through the book or relevant portions of the book. Sometimes you don't have to read the whole book because it just deals with your guy for a couple of chapters and I highlight shit. I copy and paste the highlighted shit and I organize it by generally, if I have my shit together and I will have like a childhood, young adulthood.
Early career major crimes yada yada yada and all paste in the different parts you know with a list of life which source it's from and i do the same thing with like. Highlighted and cut and pasted portions of articles and i organize that by time frame and then i have that doc in one window.
and I have a word doc in the other, and I go through it and I like write it. I look through like, okay, it's early life. Here's all the different sources on his early life. And I look through them and I'm like, these are the different things that I find most interesting from every source. And I just kind of write them out in a way that makes sense. I try to make sure I quote every source that gives me a significant amount of info one or more time so that I'm making it very clear.
This is where the original info came from because I'm very rarely doing all of the original research on these guys. So I want to make it clear that like, you know, if I'm, you know, this portion where I'm talking about this part of his life, it, you know, generally came mostly from this source or for this source and this source, right? You know, that's how I try to do it. Robert, what's your favorite animal and or dinosaur?
My favorite dinosaur was always an iguanodon. Big iguanodon guy, huge iguanodon fan. Love him. Love him. Because, like, it's the dinosaur equivalent of, like, a fucking Guido pull in a switchblade in a New York alley. Like, that's just cool that there were dinosaurs who had that vibe where they're just like, hey, motherfucker, I'm just gonna cut your ass, you know? I love a fucking iguanodon. Look them up. Big sharp knife thumbs. Cool dinosaur.
Robert, what's your favorite part about working with it? Is it okay for me to say Guido? I'm a Guido. I think I'm allowed to say Guido. Yeah. I have no idea. I'm allowed to say Guido. Robert, look at how Italian I am. Look at how much of a unibrow I grow if I don't shave for a day and a half. Look, I get to say Guido, okay? I have to deal with all this grease in my hair. I get to say Guido. I'm allowed. You don't know me. I have no say in this. Robert, what's your favorite part about working with Sophie? That is an actual question.
Oh, you're my favorite part. I guess that you know what you're doing and handle all of the things that I would never be able to handle. That? Yeah. Is that a sensible thing to say? I have no idea. I don't know the answer to that question. I only know how to do the one thing. So I could ask all the time by people what it's like working with you. And I say, you are the best business partner that anybody could ever ask for.
Oh, that's nice. That's what you were supposed to say, by the way, that I'm a perfect angel baby. I was trying to be specific about the nature of our working relationship, which is that I do one thing and you do many things. So true. So true. Robert, would you consider doing more South Africa episodes?
Yes. I mean, definitely. Sure. Yeah. We'll do more. I need to actually do probably before the next South Africa episode. I need to do like maybe Ian Banks, like a more dedicated Rhodesia episode. Like Rhodesia comes up a lot, but I haven't just done a... I mean, we did Cecil Rhodes.
But I haven't just done like, I think Ian Banks was his name, the last president dude of, or Ian Smith, sorry, Ian Smith, what was it, Ian Banks? Yeah, Ian Smith, the fucking leader of Rhodesia. We'll do him soon. Yeah, we'll do another South African guy too, but I think we're going to do Rhodesia next first. We got asked if there was a guest we've had on that we'd love to have on again, Paul of Tompkins.
Paul have Tomkins. We'd love to have Paul back on. We'd be happy to have Ed Helms back on for one that's a little bit more fun. I'd love to have Lisa mostly back on too. So funny. I want to say something about Ed, because we get offers from like famous people a lot. And without like naming any names, sometimes we make attempts that don't wind up as episodes because when they realize what the show is and how
different this is that they need to sit here for two or three hours that we're going to be really going into detail that often we're talking about things from like a more radical political lens. They get uncomfortable because it's, you know, maybe something they view as dangerous for their career, whatever. And Ed Helms, who I don't think really knew much about us coming into the show.
He said he listened to a couple episodes. He listened to an episode maybe, but he sat down and I come in with fucking a harder episode to be a fun guest on Curtis Yarvan, and it is immediately down to clown. So I was, you know, I have respect for that. Absolutely. Yeah. Robert, what are your thoughts on the developments in Rojava?
It's too early to tell where things are going to end, but obviously, I mean, it looks like the Turks are going to be allowed to continue to bomb as Israel has been bombing Rojava and the United States isn't going to do anything. It's unclear if the US is going to even stand up for Kobani in any meaningful way, but it's also, I don't really want to say too much because all of this is happening right now.
I'm very concerned, you know, obviously there's no chance of things getting better in Syria period without Assad gone. So I'm glad that he's gone. But what that means for Rojava is still very much unclear to this point, you know, it's
It's a scary time. I would say the one thing that I can say that is comforting to those of you who are likewise scared is that it's really always been a very scary time. There hasn't been an easy or very safe period of the revolution and they've continued holding on. So what are some of the most impactful books that you've read that you think listeners should read?
The dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, if you also haven't read the ones who walk away from Omelos, which is a short story, read that parable of the sewer and parable of the talents by, oh God, and I'm spacing on a name right now.
This is nothing against Octavia Butler. Octavia Butler. Sorry, I'm just bad with names, folks. I love Octavia Butler. I want to recommend Mia from where it could happen here show. She recommended reading Whipping Girl by Julia Serrano and oh my god, it's an incredible book. Yeah.
Also, oh, we both read this book. Who's the, uh, I'm forgetting the author's name. Cultish by, um, I want to say Amanda Montel. Amanda Montel. Cultish was quite good. Cultish was quite good. Anything written by Margaret Kiljoy ever heard of her?
Oh my god. Why are there so many feet questions, people? Here's one I haven't brought up in terms of books. Read the water knife by Paolo Bachagalupi. I'm saying his name wrong. But the water knife is just excellent, excellent book.
I just want to say, there is an absurd amount of feet questions in here. Why do you want to know my foot size, you fucking weirdos? No, don't answer those. Nobody who asks you questions about feet on the internet has a good reason for doing it. What is wrong with you? Don't do better. Jesus Christ. Just go to wiki feet like the rest of the freaks. I will say I do think wiki feet is one of the last bastions of like intellectual honesty left on the internet.
Robert, how did you get into scott people what and like what's your favorite scott man that was asked a couple times you don't get into scott finds you baby and scott found me one beautiful day when I was 19 years at well 17 years old something like that when somebody posted I become a fan of the band real big fish because of the movie base get ball which I enjoyed as a kid.
And I posted about it online and someone said, kid, let me show you something better. And they sent me a link to where there was a torrent for somewhere in the between. I think it was somewhere in the between. Might have been Keysby Nights. That was my first streetlight manifesto album. I don't know. It was one of the two, but streetlight manifesto is my favorite.
Band? Probably. Thomas Kalnaki is probably my favorite songwriter. It goes back and forth between him and Warren Zevon. And in terms of bands, it goes back and forth between Street Light and the Cat Empire. I don't know. It kind of depends on my mood sometimes. Mm-hmm. What are the best non-mainstreamed news sources for your otherwise? Non-mainstreamed news sources for your other. I mean, it depends on kind of like what you're looking for. I always recommend JK and Rand's Popular Front.
Yeah, of course. Of course. Jan Rehan's popular front. If you want to keep up with like the conspiracy, right? You can't do better than knowledge fight. The QAnon Anonymous people are good. Outside of obviously Ed Zitron's great tech journalism, the guys at 404 media do do really good stuff. The defector I like as a I'm interested in a lot of these new, you know, newer outlets. Yeah.
That's some of what I'd suggest. Obviously, there's certain things that like the BBC, there's certain things they do very well. War crimes in Africa, you can often find some really good coverage first in like BBC's Africa Eye. There's certain things Al Jazeera does very well and obviously like certain things that they don't. So there's no like, this is the best one place to go for all of the news in the world. Because that really doesn't exist.
It's more a matter of like coming to an understanding of like the shortcomings of and also coming to an appreciation of like which specific journalists are worth following from place to place, you know? Yeah. And finally, Robert, what's cracking my peppers? I don't have an answer to that. It's just a thing I said once on a podcast for reasons that elude me. It was one of your best. I have to say. Thank you. I really enjoyed that one. Last question. Chappell Roner, Sabrina Carpenter.
Do you know who I did those people are? I've heard of Chapel Rowan.
Ron, people are angry at her for some reason. She didn't. She didn't endorse. She didn't endorse Kamalaires. Okay, because she didn't. Are we reliant upon Chapel Rowan to fix American politics? Because I don't know here, but that seems like an unfair burden to place upon someone who I'm going to assume is mostly known for singing and dancing. Yeah. And I'm more or less what she does. I'm not saying that to be mean.
My answer to that question is, Robert, do you remember the concert I said I went to by myself like two days after the election results? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was Sabrina Carpenter in that. Where you got sick? Yeah, I got sick after going because, you know, too many people crowd, even with masks. That was Sabrina Carpenter, and she was great, and it restored my faith in girlhood. So... Okay. Well, that's good.
Yeah, I guess I'll say Sabrina Carpenter too then. Sure. Any final thoughts or should we get the fuck out of here? Yeah, let's fucking bounce motherfuckers. Okay, bye friends. Robert loves 40% of you. I love 32% of you. Can't prove either of those things. Nope.
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In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death, her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence, but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Bagley is guilty. They've never found a weapon. Never made sense. Still doesn't make sense. She found out she was pregnant in jail. The person who did it is still out there. Listen to murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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