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I Don't Understand... The News
32 Plays24 days ago
Thank you to Pulitzer Prize finalist/Houston Chronicle's Opinion and Community Engagement Editor Evan Mintz for trying to help me understand the news. Evan is great at offering ways to be productive during what I consider to be "annoying ass times."
For More Evan:
Instagram: mintzberg_gardens
X/Twitter: @evan7257
Houston Chronicle:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/author/evan-mintz/
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/evan-mintz-chronicle-opinion-bias-20784692.php
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Transcript
00:00:09
Speaker
Hey Evan.
Making a Difference Amid Global Distress
00:00:11
Speaker
I seem to be upset about the world non-stop. What do I do? You know, I think sometimes that you just gotta focus on things where you feel like you can have
Endorsements in Houston Elections
00:00:21
Speaker
an effect. It's election season in Houston. You endorse. We have our endorsements out. You're the endorser.
00:00:29
Speaker
Yeah, we do do endorsements. Are you as head editor of opinion the endorser?
00:00:38
Speaker
No, i did so I view it as a team effort, but really I try to think of it more like a judge that we have our standards of what we're looking for in candidates. We meet the candidates, we talk to them, try to meet with every single one of them.
00:00:51
Speaker
And you know, we have like dozens and dozens of judicial elections. And so we meet with all those judges.
Interviewing Candidates vs Job Interviews
00:00:57
Speaker
What's that process like? Is it like conclave? A little bit. I don't know. I'm just trying to make sense of this.
00:01:05
Speaker
That is insanely dangerous that the nuns have to cook with their things on near the fire. That's crazy. You know, the editorial board will be on one side and then they'll be on the other side.
00:01:16
Speaker
The politicians. The politicians. Oh, it's like a job interview with the Chronicle. Yeah, it's like a job interview. Oh, yeah. I like that power for you. And I mean, i people don't always listen to our endorsements, but this is like the really the only endorsement list on any of these races where we' like we'll tell you why we're endorsing one person. i Like we like this person because like they have more experience. But then there's this other guy like, are they good? Are they bad? And I'm trying to figure out ways to like use these endorsements and not necessarily just to do a checklist, but to really recognize that there are a lot of different types of voters out there who care about different things and help direct them to the candidates who match what they
Role-Playing Political Endorsements
00:01:53
Speaker
want. Say I'm the politician across the table, and I am. This is a fake podcast. I actually need you here to endorse me for county judge.
00:02:00
Speaker
All right, county judge it is. Okay, let's do a little bit of role playing. Okay. Not in a weird way. Politicians are pretty weird. All right, let's do some role playing in a weird way. Usually the first question we have is just like,
00:02:12
Speaker
Why do you want to be county judge? Power. power Mad with it. I need to be. That's a problem though, because county judges not have a lot of power. Here you are, why don't you like give us the elevator pitch to tell you who you are and when why you're running for this position. Okay. And you know their politics, obviously. So you know that they're going to be like, well, I want to be judge so I could put all the blanks in prison. Will they say that to you? I mean, a little bit. Hello. Hey, nice to meet
Judicial Challenges and Low-Level Offenses
00:02:37
Speaker
you, Mr. Benz.
00:02:37
Speaker
What do you see as the ah the big challenges facing our county? I could tell you some of them. You're doing an impression of Squatty Lyons. Who's that?
00:02:48
Speaker
was a former county commissioner. Oh, Harris County of needs to be cleaned up. I'm um um'm a big crime guy. I'm worried about crime in the streets. Yeah, and then like the follow-up question would be like, okay, what can you actually do as as county judge? Because that's often something we'll run into.
00:03:01
Speaker
oh shoot, I don't know. I thought you were going to tell me that, Mr. Minns. No, that happens a lot. People run for office and they'll well, I want to do this. And they're well, how are you going to use your position to make that happen? What power do I have? Yeah, what can you actually do? A lot of people go in office, I'm going to make this happen. Like, okay, but like explain, because I've watched these meetings, I know how the government works.
00:03:22
Speaker
um And a lot of people run for office don't know how the government works. How does the government work? Not very well. No, that's a joke. it's it's it's It works out. well Hi, my name is Sam Thickman. Welcome to the Don't Understand show.
00:03:34
Speaker
This is a show where I'm lucky enough to have people in my greater kitchen area who help me understand things.
Gun Violence and Cultural Responsibilities
00:03:39
Speaker
Understand what? Hey, what do you got? Is that like I'm a cool guy? What do you got? What you mean like a cool guy?
00:03:47
Speaker
yeah i like to think of myself like I'm like the James Dean of dipshits. Leaning on a wall just be like, hey, i don't know what the fuck's going on here. I don't think it's cool to understand things. i do think it's cool to admit that you don't understand something.
00:04:00
Speaker
I think that is something that I'm trying to get going. am might not seem cool in any normal way we're used to. maybe it's not cool. Maybe it's just brave. Maybe I'm just a brave man.
00:04:13
Speaker
Hi, welcome to the Brave Man Show. I'm a brave man.
00:04:24
Speaker
Edmonds is the editor of opinion and community engagement for the Houston Chronicle. What's the paper? Hello. I spent a couple months in the prosecutor's office before joining the Chronicle.
00:04:35
Speaker
What was that like? I did not like it. I mostly did misdemeanor offenses, and it was pretty clear that usually people end up there just because they are, like, in a poor neighborhood where there's a lot of police coverage because we are trying to get at crime and best practices say, oh, you want to make sure you flood the zone with policing, but they're just going like bop people on everything.
00:04:57
Speaker
Like if you treated, you know, student drug use at Rice the way that it gets treated in like third ward, you'd have a whole lot of angry parents. So we don't do that. People are getting ah detained.
00:05:09
Speaker
pre-trial, hadn't been convicted of any crime yet, still legally innocent, and they get held on bail for a low level offense. And it's like okay, you've got 500 bucks, you can go home. But a lot of people don't have 500 bucks to go home.
00:05:22
Speaker
And so we weren't saying like, you're dangerous or like, you're so you're safe. We're saying like, are you poor or not? And if you're poor, you have to stay behind bars. I also did some ah welfare fraud work, but it was all very low level.
00:05:35
Speaker
So Texas provides, we don't provide cash welfare, so it'd be like food stamps. Wait, so people get in trouble for low level crimes? Should I not have them here? you naked You don't work there anymore though. No. He doesn't work there anymore. No, I don't work there anymore. There's a lot low level crimes happening here. Yeah.
00:05:49
Speaker
That haircut? I'm just kidding. You gotta think, you know, and not just be easily influenced by pop culture. You gotta think? that's what we're here to do.
Social Media Algorithms and Negativity
00:05:58
Speaker
We're here to learn. Oh God, how do I get out of this? You're not in school. This is your own show. You want to be here. don't have to here. You're doing this. You invited him here. You like this.
00:06:07
Speaker
You like learning. Okay, no, this is good. Take your top coat. And leave a tip in every hatchet room in town. Why did you get into this? I find the news be so incredibly stressful. Why did you get into a job where every day you're faced with the news?
00:06:18
Speaker
I like it. I'm good at it. I think that's that's a part of it. When I was younger, I had a really bad temper and I'd get in a lot of fights. And I'm not a big guy and I would not win a lot of fights. I would start instead to write like the arguments that I would make to people in the student newspaper when was in high school rather than like yelling their face about it. yeah And it turned out I was way better at that.
00:06:40
Speaker
No kidding. you're You're a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Finalist, yeah. let's But I was part of of a team. was me and Joe Hawley. A little ditty about Evan and Joe Hawley. We had the series about gun violence. Two American kids who had a series on gun violence.
00:06:58
Speaker
Largely just about how like there are opportunities to do things to get at gun violence, a lot of which, like, historically Texas had done, but we have this, like, fake imagined past about what it was like.
00:07:10
Speaker
And also just a lot of stuff that needs to be done that the government can't do, but is on individuals and, like, the gun-owning community and culture, because there really is a culture around it, to set higher expectations and standards for safety, for responsibility, and particularly around mental health issues.
00:07:26
Speaker
like The government can't come down and know if you're going through a bipolar episode or a depressive episode or something. But like your neighbors know, your friends know, and like they should be the ones who can say, listen, buddy, until you're better, I'm going to hold on to this gun for you for a while. We're going to kick the... But there isn't those standards. In the same way that their ads say, hey, if your buddy's drunk, take their keys away, call them a cab. like Responsibilities on you as a friend.
00:07:57
Speaker
Oh hell yeah. This'll definitely kill my stepdad. Hey Josh, all that talk you do about killing your stepdad, that's a joke, right? We'll see.
00:08:09
Speaker
What's my stepson out there planning? Oh I don't give a fuck. I know my stepson's after me. I will be ready. Twisting this thing will definitely help me kill my stepdad.
00:08:20
Speaker
Don't forget boy, I'm psychotic. always hear Lois Lane going off about how she wants to win a Pulitzer Prize or be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. If I get this shot of Superman, can be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
00:08:32
Speaker
Does it make you happy to have a clipster in such a way? i don't i think she's a better journalist than me, but she is she does like news reporting, and I'm i'm an opinion journalist. so When did you find out you were nominated for Pulitzer Prize? I helped my editor kind of put together a package of like different series that we did and we submitted them.
00:08:50
Speaker
And then when they got the announcement, they said like, oh, wow, like Joe Hawley, you got a Pulitzer finalist for this. And I was looking at the stuff we submitted. I'm like, oh, hey, guys, like I wrote some of these. They must have like left my name off of it or something. oh did you have And so they had to call up Columbia and be like, put everyone's name on the list. Oh, yeah.
00:09:07
Speaker
This happened with Crocodile Dundee 3 also, where he goes to Los Angeles. Wait, really? It was written by four people, but it was only credited to three. So one of the writers had to do arbitration, which means you sue in the writer's guild. He'll get all the residuals even though his name's not on it, because he proved that he wrote more of the Crocodile Dundee 3 script than these two other would want the world to know that? It was called Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, and it is actually kind of fun. Welcome to Wendy's. Can I take your order, please? Let me handle this.
00:09:34
Speaker
Good evening, Wendy. Wait, the hell was Crocodile Dundee? Then what was Crocodile Dundee 2? He went back to New York. So that was the New York. goes to New York in the first one, and I think he goes back to New York in the second one, but in the third one he goes to Los Angeles. Gotcha. And we never got a fourth one apparently Paul Hoeven is a disaster work Really? He's a very difficult man. Wow. But let's not get into that. What do you say, you and me, we just forget this little incident that never took place, okay?
00:09:57
Speaker
What is that, Steven Root? ah so What was happening in that scene? what What was going on there? ah i don't want to do any of the Australian guys. so Let's flip this play door in it. Have you ever punched a man? you' just, you're a fighter.
00:10:13
Speaker
I'm not good at it. I'm scared of you now. Imagine you look like Evan Minson. You're gonna just jump over beat the shit out of me. I'm nervous now.
00:10:24
Speaker
I don't do that anymore. I get... I have a hard... Maybe I'm too emotional. I had an editor who said, whatever it is that you're angry about when you wake up in the morning is probably your best opinion.
00:10:34
Speaker
What it is it's if it's everything then? What do you do You've got to distill, I guess. You've got to think about the things that you can have an actual impact on or the things that impact you directly. You know, people get very worked up about stuff happening around the world. I think right now in particular,
00:10:49
Speaker
ah we are getting a lot of our news not through newspapers or television news, ah but through social media. And social media comes from around the world with no editors, with algorithms specifically designed to feed us the stuff that makes us the most upset. Why do they want us upset?
00:11:06
Speaker
and That's just what gets engagement. well What about being happy? We like we like to feel good also. Yeah, people say that. oh know People like to be angry. But that's what motivates people, what gets them to act, is to be upset about something.
00:11:18
Speaker
And so it just so happens that social media feeds us a lot of news that is very distressing. So tell folks is like, if this is something you would not know about, were it not for this, you may want to think twice about it. Is this something that's happening where you live?
00:11:33
Speaker
Is it in your city? Okay, is it not your city? Is in your state? Okay, if it's not your state, is it like a national issue? Like, no, this person at this school I've never heard of in a place I've never gone and never will go to did something that I don't like. It's like, well, that's something that maybe gets you upset, but it's perhaps not where you should be putting all of your interest and your focus. All right, anyway, have you ever changed your opinion? Have you ever changed
Evolving Political Strategies
00:11:57
Speaker
your opinion on something? Oh yeah, constantly.
00:11:59
Speaker
Look how interesting, though, editing is. Because how rude did it just seem like I was have it just now? all right, anyway. But because of editing, I was rude.
00:12:09
Speaker
right, anyway. What you didn't see it was the before part. Look. I am an L.A. guy moving to Texas to start a podcast. Now, that is true. Okay, okay, okay, please, officer, that it is true. I am starting a pod. I am a white male starting a pod, me as.
00:12:22
Speaker
But Joe Rogan has a coconut head. All right, anyway, have you ever changed your opinion? Have you ever changed your opinion on something? Oh, See, I wasn't being rude.
00:12:32
Speaker
I was just moving on from something I'm not supposed, I was probably not supposed to say. Legally, but also morally. But look, doesn't matter. they didn't say it And I wasn't rude to Evan? And nobody should ever be rude to Evan. Have you ever changed your opinion on something? yeah, constantly. Is that awkward?
00:12:48
Speaker
Not really. Well, you publicly admit it. Yeah, I publicly admit it. Right now? Yes. Which one? I used to think that the most effective political tactic ah was to gin up turnout, was to play to your base so that you could get better turnout.
00:13:03
Speaker
And since I've read the studies that convinced me of that, I have read other studies and seen other candidates who did well through moderation and trying to pull over swing voters.
00:13:14
Speaker
And I've now been convinced that actually that is a better way to win. It varies from race to race and candidate to candidates. And, you know, there are nuances involved in that. ah But yes, I changed my mind on a lot of that.
00:13:26
Speaker
yeah I changed my mind on tenor. Mm-hmm.
00:13:33
Speaker
I didn't understand one word. And then I watched it again. We need to save them here and now.
00:13:42
Speaker
And you did like it? Well, I still don't understand it, but I liked that I didn't understand it. he knows!
00:13:50
Speaker
Awesome, man. Now we're gonna play it backwards. Send me money. I'm Evan Mintz, the opinion editor of the Houston Chronicle, here to ask you a question. Does Houston need a new city logo? Why is RFK Jr. gone to Texas?
00:14:02
Speaker
Is legal weed pro-MAGA position? Vice is spying on your medical records. We have four different types of content that we do. So we have like the unsigned editorials, those are just supposed to be the institutional voice of the paper. And those are focused really like on Houston issues. You know we want things that are focused on like narrative change, ah like what is going on at City Hall, what's going on at Commissioner's Court, owning that narrative so that, you know, folks just weighing in on social media don't have the first voice. to We have breaking news right now. we have breaking news right now. we have major breaking news right now. have breaking news right now. The United States is at war with Iran. He is a guy on TikTok who every five minutes is like breaking news, breaking news, breaking news. Every like, he is constantly breaking news. Right. I mean, are we at war with Iran? This guy says we're at war with Iran. He breaks, everything's breaking news this guy.
00:14:51
Speaker
And it's stressful to me. I can imagine. Is he actually breaking news or he read it somewhere else? Yeah, he this is what I'm asking. Is all news being presented breaking? i mean that's i i see that sometimes and that's distressing because not all news is breaking. It may be new to you. And I think there's something that when folks look at social media, they like they want the newest thing, the great thing, and things to seize you.
00:15:14
Speaker
ah But that's not a really healthy way to go through life, I think. News has incentives right now, because everything is digital, to try to get people to read your stuff and pay for it. A lot of the incentives of that are to do headlines, to do coverage about things.
00:15:26
Speaker
They get people worked up. It's very provocative. Sometimes, you know, we'll work on articles and we'll kind of joke, like, we're making people eat their spinach. This is a spinach piece. No one wants to eat it, but, like, you've got to have coverage of these important issues. Popeye would. Popeye's on the other side of a fight. He's going to need that spinach. Yeah. Makes you strong.
00:15:47
Speaker
What was Bluto doing? Was he murdering Olive Oil? He's not like trying to date her or like cuck Popeye? wants to kill this woman? Hell no. Fuck him up, Popeye. Fuck him up! Yeah! I will no longer allow any excuses made for Bluto's behavior.
00:16:03
Speaker
And I will no longer tell women he's the celebrity I look the most like. I'm going back to shirtless, tie-only Bob Hoskins and her friend Roger Atten. People mostly don't want their spinach, they want their desserts, they want the things that get them going.
00:16:16
Speaker
And so how do you like strike this balance as a publication? And as a newspaper, you have this obligation, this duty to the
Media's Focus on Negativity
00:16:23
Speaker
public. There's that distinction. Social media, there's no duty to the public. If you are a social media influencer, if you're a podcaster, you don't any duty to the public.
00:16:31
Speaker
You can do whatever you want. Whatever I want. All right. Okay. Things are about to get a little interesting. Here we go!
00:16:47
Speaker
All right. Okay. That's true. I can do whatever want. The biggest bias in media isn't like liberal or conservative, it's negativity. And so try to get the stories about policy that works well. What do you mean by that? You you don't report on the planes that land safely, only the planes that crash. And so it perverts people's perspectives on policy, on the world they live in, on what's actually happening.
00:17:08
Speaker
And I'm trying to figure out a way for us to really identify these places where like the the city, the county, whoever, like did a new policy and it worked and it worked well.
00:17:19
Speaker
And so now we can say like, hey, you're probably not paying attention to this because it's boring and effective, you know, even before social media, if it bleeds, it leads on TV. Hey guys, we've got some disturbing breaking news. A stepfather and stepson are engaged in a deadly shootout. Here's a clip.
00:17:43
Speaker
Boy, I don't need you to call me daddy. Not when your mama already does. Every year, people think crime goes up. Even when it's down, people think crime is up, except for after 9-11. After nine eleven well everyone was like, no, no, no, like crime's not a problem. Terrorism's a problem.
00:17:59
Speaker
We went insane after 9-11. We really did. It's interesting to look back on that, because I feel like we didn't grow at all. I feel like if that happened again, we would go even more insane. Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?
00:18:16
Speaker
Were you in the yard? He doesn't really respect the ones are on stage in LA as much. doesn't really respect the ones who are on a stage in l a as much This is a breaking news story, a serious news story. plane has crashed howard stewart called it into the World Trade Center. You're kidding! The World Trade Center is on fire. The whole thing is on fire. Yeah.
00:18:39
Speaker
You're right. I mean, not a little fire. A second plane just crashed into one of the- Stop it! Oh no. Wait a second, what happened? Oh my God. just happened? What just happened?
00:18:49
Speaker
Look at that! the whole World Trade Center just collapsed. yeah on channel seven Where's KC going? and He has no family to go. KC, you have no family. Get over here. And Howard, and obviously, if you want to go, we'll we'll fill. I got nowhere where to go. See, I feel like that's breaking news.
00:19:04
Speaker
Reporting nine eleven happening across the street. So unless you have something like that, you just don't need to be breaking news in my face that often. I have a hard time debating people. yeah i get I get irritated really quickly and I want to like call them stupid because they've just said like maybe the dumbest thing, most schizoid, most like race, you know, nobody wants to be called racist, but guess what? They are. They might have said the most insane thing to me and I'm supposed to keep engaging and in a debate with them. Am I just really judgmental or is there a way to like lock in with these people? Because there's a two-party system and the other, i won't say which party I'm talking about, but the other one is like very hard to talk to. What do I
Effective Political Debates
00:19:39
Speaker
do? I think a lot of it, like one, is just to try to keep it focused on like the hyper-specific thing right here that you're trying to get at, the policy question. and folks will try to pull you off from some other issue, or bring something up, and just don't relent. And if they try to get you off, say, like that's a different conversation.
00:19:53
Speaker
Right now, we're just talking about this right here. And then the other thing is to try to frame it up in a way where it doesn't seem like a partisan issue. Bring in like other validator voices, you know, if you know, bring in folks they would trust otherwise. say Well, they agree with me or they said this, like, isn't that interesting to show that this isn't like a ah team thing.
00:20:13
Speaker
ah But this is like a this is something separate from that fight. And then also, you know, you can never change. someone's mind right away. It's really hard to change unless like they're ready to have their mind changed.
00:20:25
Speaker
So often what you've got to do is just think like, how do I build trust with this person? How do I engage with them normally so that when it's like finally time to weigh in on something, they'll go like, huh, I didn't think of it that way before.
00:20:39
Speaker
Like, I like you as a person. And so when you say something I'm not going to be like, screw you. I'll be like, oh, this isn't like political opponent. This is my buddy. And they're telling me this. People don't like to be called a fucking idiot. Yeah.
00:20:51
Speaker
i I mean, and apparently I lose the debate if I say that. This is the challenge of being alive with people. You've been divided into two tapes for a temporal pension movement.
Critique of the American Two-Party System
00:21:00
Speaker
Two-party system, is that a problem? Yes, it it it is a problem. And it's it's funny because I think in American politics we do everything backwards.
00:21:08
Speaker
Like, you look at other countries, you have multi-party systems. And then, so like, you vote for your little party and then they're like okay, well, we're going to try to cobble together a coalition here. it It has its own problems. But at least folks are like oh, well, like, you know, I voted for my like little party and they got one guy up there and he's going to use his vote to get like this little thing.
00:21:26
Speaker
But like, I see that process working. yeah And in America, like that coalition building happens before the election. It happens like folks trying to get their issues through a party. So like it used to be that like there were a lot of pro-immigration folks in the Republican Party. That's how I built this life. You no longer value. A lot of like these Bush Baker Republicans who are like, well, you know, immigrants moving here, particularly a place like Texas, like Houston, like they're why our economy is growing and they're working and they're contributing. And like, this is all great stuff. For whatever reason, we've seen like a real sorting going on and really like reorientation.
00:22:00
Speaker
And so now rather than having like different perspectives across parties, like we've redone the way that the coalitions work. But can we change things if we do it differently? We'll see if like stuff changes later. What's happened's happened.
00:22:15
Speaker
ordered my hot sauce an hour ago. You this thing, good news, bad news for Houston. Yeah, good news for Houston. You want to do a little run through? going to say some things and you tell me if it's good news or bad news for Houston. Yeah, let's do you're going to sue my ass for even attempting this. No. Okay. like should Should I?
00:22:28
Speaker
Should I trademark this? Yes, you should. oh man. you Haven't yet. I haven't. I haven't yet. Welcome to my segment, good news for Houston by Sam Fickman, trademarked. I'm like the Thomas Edison of podcasts.
00:22:40
Speaker
Um, good news or bad news for Houston? We go through things that are happening or I'm making them up, and you tell me if they would be good news for Houston or bad news for Houston. Okay, because some of some of these things might not happen. This is true or false. This one's true.
00:22:51
Speaker
Astrodome, sitting in a parking lot for 40 years. Good news for Houston. Why? Because we have a ruin. Great cities have ruins, and we have a ruin. But should we do something with the ruin? No, nothing. But its like, you visit Stonehenge. That's a tourist. We need to make it easier to visit this thing. You don't need to do anything with it besides make sure like there's no asbestos in it. This is the Astrodome. What are they doing with it? Nothing. It would be too expensive to tear down. It's so over-engineered.
00:23:21
Speaker
Over 50% greater than any previous structure in the nation. And it leaves such a big hole in the ground that would be expensive for them to fill up. That's why they don't tear down? It would cost tens of millions of dollars to tear this thing down, so it's cheaper just to let it sit there. That's awesome. They asked to tear down, was like, I was built in destructa. It was. Kill me, you'll have to go into financial debt. If you want to take me down, I'll take the city down with me. County.
00:23:46
Speaker
Valid Harris County. This ultimate playground for the boys of summer prepares to welcome Astros and fans to Enron Field, our new downtown diamond. Texas redistricting. a bad Bad news for Houston. gone It's bad because people already don't know who their representatives are, and that's going to get moved around a whole lot.
Redistricting and Partisan Tactics
00:24:07
Speaker
You're going to see a lot of local interests diluted as they draw these weird districts that link like Harris County out to Liberty Whose idea is that the drawing? Or is it based on something? It's based on like... It's a drawing to try to maximize Republican officials. Who's holding the pencil? They they have ah these experts and computer programs that can look at ah voter statistics and demographics and really try to figure out how they can maximize their turnout ah while still comporting with the Voting Rights Act. So it's blatantly like partisan. Yes. It's blatantly like we're doing this because we want more votes. Yeah. about hundred percent
00:24:46
Speaker
100%. That is 100% allowed to say that. Why? Because they want, I guess, power. Donald Trump told them to. So that was like the number one reason why it happened in Texas. to Donald Trump said, I want you to do this. and they went, OK. But the other reason is that they can maintain a majority in the House of Representatives in the next election so that like Democrats can't have hearings about like why Donald Trump sent birthday letters to Jeffrey Epstein, I guess. They're like neutered all the time. i feel neutered. feel the theater i feel emasculated as a democrat sometimes i'm gonna cut that because ah it's emasculation it's not it's not important to be masculine never mind here's a couple things i don't understand if you can help me with that would be great if not it's okay there's these old-timey photos where people are building like skyscrapers yeah and they're always like eating lunch on a steel beam or something or like hey like doing all this stuff what is going on back in the past i don't know Where people like had better balance or just more confidence and they weren't gonna fall. I read stories about how they hired a lot of like Native American folks to help with building these skyscrapers because for whatever reason they didn't have a fear of heights.
00:25:47
Speaker
Whether was like a culture thing or the genetic thing, they're just like, oh yeah, they can like walk this beam and like they won't freak out, they won't get vertigo. You know what, I'm calling bullshit on these fucking photos. i think they were photoshopped.
00:25:59
Speaker
They have photoshop. I think they did. That's the next level conspiracy. only They had photoshopped back then. Keep going Evan. Follow the money. To Adobe. The Native Americans.
00:26:10
Speaker
So yes, I understand now. It was the Native Americans being used as labor make buildings. yeah Sounds like the country I live in. um Okay. Here's another thing that is ah in an unequal ballpark to that.
00:26:22
Speaker
You see these people washing windows, even still. People are washing windows on the side of like the... That's too dangerous a task for what it's accomplishing. So I had a roommate in college who for his like senior project made a robot window washer.
00:26:36
Speaker
This is what needs to happen. If if you have ever washed a window outside of like a building that's more than five stories, I think the government should give you like five million dollars and say like, we shouldn't have made you do that. Yeah. And we should enlist all these robots immediately.
00:26:51
Speaker
And these people should be able to retire because they should not have had to do that. We got to lock in on this for a second though and let these men not have to like risk death to do like a squeegee. That's a lot of risk. Okay, well it seems that a lot of the dumb questions are left, so maybe we'll skip some of them.
Gardening as Digital Detox
00:27:07
Speaker
um You're a gardener. Yeah. Why do you garden? I like to do things that get me off the internet. It's a hobby that feels productive in a way, where like I'm doing a bunch of stuff and then afterwards I get like watermelons.
00:27:20
Speaker
And also, like it looks nice, and I feel like I'm doing something to make the world a little bit better in my little plot of it, where rather than just having like my usual St. Augustine grass, like, oh, I made sure to put in like some some host plants for these butterflies, and then I see like the caterpillars. Grass has names? There's types of grass? Yeah.
00:27:39
Speaker
Oh, God. I need to learn about this. St. Augustine grass. Augustine grass. It's like the grass that you see everywhere in Houston. The saint of walking. Yeah. It's it's like impossible to kill. It takes over everything. Like real lawn heads hate St. Augustine. It's like it's a bad grass. Like it's the Houston grass.
00:27:56
Speaker
and You gotta rep the Houston grass. Right. I don't want a lot of St. Augustine. Wait, what do you garden? A lot of tomatoes. They're fun to grow. There's a lot of different varieties. I can grow stuff at home that I can't get at the store. How long does it take for that? You said you had a way you to do this and you get a watermelon. How long does it take for that watermelon?
00:28:14
Speaker
It's like two months. I'm i'm hungry now. Not not that long. I got these, so I've got these like little watermelons like this big. I'm hungry now. What's the best vegetable? Best vegetable? Best vegetable. Best vegetable? Best vegetable. Oh. Would you call tomato a fruit or a vegetable?
00:28:27
Speaker
I would call it a vegetable. Okay, okay we talked then to and tomato. What do you recommend people to grow if they're like, I have no clue about any of this stuff. Where do i start? You can start with like herbs. Mint. Mint is like really easy to grow.
00:28:40
Speaker
more like Evan Mint. I'm recording this after. I was too much of a coward to say it to his face. It also depends how much light and like space you have. Something else I really like about it too is that ah gardening in Houston, you know, if you're a like MAGA gardener in Houston- I'm a gardener.
00:28:57
Speaker
And you're going to have more in common with like a you know Bernie Sanders gardener in Houston than you are with someone you agree with politically in some other state. Folks would be like, Evan, like I put up with so many opinions of yours that I hate in your Twitter feed to see those gardening pics. So there's like something like kind of heart ah heartening in a way to like see these trees that I've planned to like grow over time and see like my my garden change and and grow and these fruits grow. yeah And it feels like that even as like other stuff is going on in the world, like I've got this little thing right here and it feels rewarding. Is it interesting to watch these things grow? ah well Can you explain this whole biological process to me? How we were born, we live, we die. we're How are we even different than a plant in a way? You summed it up.
00:29:41
Speaker
Are we different than plants? Well, yes. You know, we have a different cell structure. Oh, shit. Yeah. so they they largely grow through ah through chlorophyll or chloroplasts are filled with chlorophyll. Chlorophyll? More like borophyll. Right? Fuck yeah.
00:29:59
Speaker
Hell yeah, man.
00:30:10
Speaker
take the w ri on ball of status from head to toe my jury shop sellmo g grilles joys foring baby now you know That ain't an igloo, that's my watch and that ain't snow, baby, that's my chain. That's not a ice tray, that's my teeth and that's not a snow cone, that's my rain.
00:30:23
Speaker
That ain't Kool-Aid up in my cup, I stay sippin' that purple oil. I stay flippin' the slab on foes cause I'ma hustle till I'm in the soil.