Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Black Male Loneliness, World Cup Controversies & Listener Q&A
27 Plays10 days ago
This Episode goes three rounds, and none of them hit light. It starts with a conversation Bruce and Jay have been circling for years. Not male loneliness in the broad sense, but Black male loneliness specifically. What it looks like when emotional suppression isn't a personal choice but a survival strategy. What happens when a man spends decades learning to provide everything except himself. And what it actually takes to feel seen when the world has spent a long time teaching you not to ask for it.
Then Bruce shifts to the FIFA World Cup 2026, coming to US soil June 11th, and makes the case that what's happening around it is way bigger than soccer. Heat risk at six major venues. A travel ban covering 39 countries, including Haiti, who just qualified for the World Cup for the first time in over 50 years. Dynamic pricing that sent ticket costs up 34% on average, with some final seats pushing near $33,000. And FIFA handing Trump a peace prize while claiming to be apolitical. Bruce connects every thread and asks the question that cuts through it all: is the World Cup still for the fans, or is it a corporate product wearing a sports jersey?
The episode closes with a Q&A, your questions answered. Why Bruce started this podcast with no name recognition and why he's unapologetic about how it's grown. What "I don't want to be right, I want to be correct" actually means, and why it matters. How Jay has made him change his mind more than once. And how he handles it when guests share things on the show that hit him in the chest.
#BlackMaleLoneliness #FIFAWorldCup2026 #MensMentalHealth #BlackMenTalk #WorldCup2026 #FIFATicketFraud #TravelBan #HaitiWorldCup #BlackCulture #UnsolicitedPerspectives #MaleEmotions #BlackPodcast #SportsAndPolitics #MenAndConnection
Chapters:
00:00:00 Black Male Loneliness, World Cup, and Your Q&A 🎙️🌍❓
00:02:13 Discovering a historic Black newspaper hidden in plain sight 📰✊🏾🤔
00:03:23 Why Black male loneliness deserves its own serious discussion 🤝🧠💬
00:06:32 Jay's Take: Systemic Barriers Make Black Male Loneliness Worse 🚧💬🔗
00:07:34 Therapy Stigma in Black Culture and Why the Wall Is So High 🛋️🖤⚠️
00:09:40 Nobody said harder they said Black men's experience differs ⚖️🗣️🤔
00:11:08 Loneliness often appears as disconnection not just isolation 💔🔍🧠
00:16:05 Why connection matters more than simply avoiding loneliness 🤝❤️🧠
00:21:51 World Cup Is Here: 48 Teams, 104 Games, and Three Big Problems 🌍⚽🔥
00:24:10 The Heat Problem: Six Host Cities Where Players Could Collapse 🌡️⚽😰
00:26:30 Trump's Travel Ban Is Blocking 39 Countries From These Games 🚫✈️🌐
00:27:37 Haiti Made the Cup for the First Time in 50 Years, Fans Blocked 🇭🇹😤⏳
00:31:40 Dynamic Pricing Exposed: FIFA's $33K Seats and the AG Subpoena 💸🎟️🤯
00:43:19 Is the World Cup Still for the Fans or a Corporate Product Now 🌍🎽❓
00:49:07 Why He Named It Unsolicited Perspectives and Bet on Himself 🎯🎙️🏆
00:57:19 Right vs. Correct: The Philosophy Behind Everything on This Show 🧠✅📚
01:10:36 How Bruce Creates Space for Guests to Share Hard Truths Safely 🎙️🤝💙
This isn't just content — it's a conversation. Subscribe, hit the bell, and drop a comment. What you think matters here.
Want the unfiltered version? The takes we don't soften, the extra conversations, the real behind-the-scenes?
🔓 YouTube Membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL4HuzYPchKvoajwR9MLxSQ/join
💸 Patreon: patreon.com/unsolicitedperspectives
Full episodes, clips, merch, and everything Unsolicited Perspectives in one place:
🌐 www.unsolicitedperspectives.com
See you in the next one. Beat Provided By https://freebeats.io | Produced By White Hot
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Preview
00:00:00
Speaker
We're talking loneliness, corruption, fandom, and questions. We gonna get into it. Let's get it.
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome. First of all, welcome. This is Unsolicited Perspectives. I am your host, Bruce Anthony, here to lead the conversation in important events and topics that are shaping today's society. Join the conversation or follow us wherever you get your audio podcasts. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for our video podcasts, YouTube exclusive content, and our YouTube membership. Rate, review, like, comment, share. Share it with your friends, share it with your family, hell, even share with your enemies. On today's episode, me and my sister are going to be talking about black male loneliness. I'm going to be talking about FIFA, and then I'm going to be answering some of your questions.
00:00:55
Speaker
But that's enough of the intro. Let's get to the show.
Black Male Loneliness: A Deep Dive
00:01:05
Speaker
all right, Jay, this is just a little snippet from our after hours. We're going to keep it somewhat tamed in this first 10 minutes that I'm going to put on the main show because I thought this was an interesting conversation. And then me and you ah ah are going to continue on this conversation where will be uncensored. So, ladies and gentlemen, once again, if you're interested in our after hours uncensored and just our after hours and uncensored, and I'm going start doing a streaming once I set all that stuff up. Sign up for our membership program on our YouTube or our Patreon channel. But the title of this article is called Black Men Confront Growing Loneliness Epidemic.
00:01:43
Speaker
For black men, loneliness is often compounded by cultural expectations and systematic barriers. And it's by Laura O'Heehn-Ho. I don't know.
00:01:57
Speaker
He and a ho. Spell it. O-N-Y-E-N-E-H-O. e h o
00:02:06
Speaker
Oh, ah yeah. Yeah. oh ho And Houston Defender. Now, where does this article come from? It comes from the New York Amsterdam News. And this is the first time I've ever heard of this. So I had to do a little research because i was like...
00:02:21
Speaker
Where am I getting the source from? So the New York Amsterdam News is a weekly Black-owned and operated newspaper serving New York City. It's recognized as one of the oldest, largest, and most influential African-American publications in the U.S. It was founded in 1909, and it has served for over a century as a primary voice for racial justice journalism and the Black press. And I was like, wow, I need to start reading this. And it's a damn shame. This is another example.
00:02:51
Speaker
this is another example of this country suppressing Black people. This is. and And we have family from New York City.
00:03:01
Speaker
You yeah lived in New York City for for at least half a year. i visit New York City sometimes. And we didn't know about the New York Amsterdam News.
00:03:15
Speaker
All right. So anyway, i thought this was an interesting topic to talk about because I've done stuff privately on male loneliness. Me and you have talked about the male loneliness epidemic, but what we haven't done is had a micro conversation of Black male loneliness. And it's interesting because the article argues that Black men are experiencing a growing loneliness crisis that goes far behind you know, simply being alone. It connects to yeah emotional isolation, to masculinity, racism, economic pressure, and the ways many men are taught to suppress vulnerability for an early age. And it starts off with, the article starts off with this Black man explaining that his father was crying at one point and apologized for crying. And it symbolizes the fact that Black men, and not just Black men, but men in general, but culturally, Black men are taught to suppress our emotions because... We can't be too emotional.
00:04:13
Speaker
One of the things I tell a lot of people in my personal life, why I'm not more animated, why I stay even keel, why you won't see me get too high or too low, is because I'm 230, 35, 240 pounds, with tattoos,
00:04:30
Speaker
If I lose my temper, I could lose my life because somebody is to call the authorities and they're going to shoot me because they're going to see me as a threat. So I've been taught to suppress that anger that's inside of me. Which, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, every now and then you can see it come out, it bubble up underneath. And I fear for anybody that sees me lose my temper because I can't control it when I lose it. But yeah it talks about how, you know, Black men are feeling unseen, you know, unheard and the in the new society, and that black men Black men, you know, men don't cry. And that a lot of friendships
00:05:11
Speaker
Black male friendships will dissipate sometimes because effort and intention is not being put in it. And I know two of my best friends, Black men, right?
00:05:23
Speaker
One of our friends is a better friend than the other two because he is always intentionally Making effort.
00:05:33
Speaker
If there hasn't been anything said in the group chat over, i don't know, four or five, six days, because we're grown and we're busy. He'll just be like, hi, guys, saying, hey, look, we can't lose connection because we have.
00:05:49
Speaker
I've known these guys for 30 years. They've known each other for four. 35, 40 years. Like, that type of relationship kit can't be lost. But a lot of Black men, lot of men, but a lot of Black men aren't doing that. And so there's this growing sense of
Therapy Stigma in the Black Community
00:06:06
Speaker
loneliness. And I was just curious to get your take on that, because they're saying that, you know, it has a lot to do with cultural expectations and and racism and economic stress and over-policing and chronic societal pressure. It's saying it's it's not solely just the men, it's society that's causing this.
00:06:27
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. i agree. so When we talk about just the male loneliness epidemic in general, right, we know that that's, it's not about being alone.
00:06:41
Speaker
It's about a social isolation and like this idea of emotional loneliness that comes out of that. So when you compound that,
00:06:54
Speaker
with systemic racial barriers to employment, housing, education, health care, specifically psychological mental health care.
00:07:12
Speaker
Yeah, there's going to be and and like an intensified effect of that loneliness on Black men.
00:07:23
Speaker
I 100% agree. They also said that therapy still carries a stigma and in the Black community, and it does. It does. It does. And that many Black men were raised to believe therapy is only for people who are broken. And I mean, when you say broken, I mean you talk about extreme type situations, right? like and And it is a machismo thing. It's not just Black men.
00:07:50
Speaker
It is men in general, but there are cultural differences where... You, as ah as a Black man in this country, i have to operate in a certain way that maintains that I come home
Personal Stories: Campus Safety and Racism
00:08:06
Speaker
safely. And unless you are Black, you can never understand that.
00:08:12
Speaker
You can have empathy for me saying, hey, look, life out here is hard. Just like when I always tell the story of my homegirl in college, who made me walk across campus to pick her up to go to the library, because we had to work on a project together. And I was furious because it was all... I had to walk from one end of the campus all the way to the other end of the campus to pick her up to walk to the middle part of the campus. It was... And it was cold. And I was just like, yo, why can't you just meet me there? She's like, as we're walking, she's like, look around. I'm like, yeah, what? It's cold out here. She's like, no, it's dark.
00:08:50
Speaker
I was like, we're on campus. Everything is fine. And this was before I started working for the newspaper and started reading the reports of assaults that were happening on campus that go unreported. And she was like, you think these little emergency phones, because we had that in Maryland, I could get help in the amount of time that I need the help?
00:09:11
Speaker
It's not immediate. Right. So, ah yes, I want you to come pick me up so that I can get to where I need to be safely. And i was like, I never even thought about that. And even still, as I'm walking on campus, I'm a grown man. I'm not that fear of being attacked. It's not one of the fears that I have, but I had empathy for it. And I think when i read this article and some people are going to say, Black men don't have it harder than anybody else.
00:09:39
Speaker
No. Nobody said harder. Yeah. It's different. It's different. Yeah. Because there are lanes. Mm-hmm. Right? And there are levels to this.
00:09:50
Speaker
And so no one is saying, no, this isn't like oppression Olympics, but there is a specific set of circumstances and obstacles that Black men face in that compound the feeling, the male loneliness epidemic, and those feelings of emotional isolation and loneliness.
00:10:19
Speaker
That's what we're saying. And I know some of the questions people are going to ask. They're going to like, you think men or Black men are lonelier today than they were in yesteryear? Like, no.
00:10:31
Speaker
I just think that they're talking more about it. They're talking openly more about it. there there They can acknowledge what it is finally. yeah Right? Before, it was like, you know, Grandpa just sometimes would have the blues. No.
00:10:44
Speaker
He's lonely. yeah And he recognizes that now. Papa was a Rolling Stone. Why? Because he was looking for connection and not finding it.
00:10:54
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I mean, he didn't have to look for connection in other women. But that's I feel like that's one of the ways in which, like, loneliness presents itself. I think infidelity...
00:11:09
Speaker
That's not always the cause, but a lot of it is you got to understand loneliness again comes ah from a lack of feeling that emotional or social connection.
00:11:20
Speaker
That's where my infidelity came from. Sure. But if you, you know, you just get up, you go to work, you provide, but you, you know, you got kids. And so you disconnected,
00:11:34
Speaker
from your partner and you don't really have any friends, you know, because all you do is work and go home and, you know, you miss out on making an emotional connection, but you don't know that that's what you're missing out on because you're taught to suppress your emotion. So you don't even recognize that what you're crying out for is connection.
00:12:02
Speaker
Mm-hmm. authentic and real connection with another human being. Another question people might have is, is emotional suppression something men are taught or is it expected by society?
Societal Pressures on Men's Mental Health
00:12:17
Speaker
Both. Both. Yeah, it's it's both. They're taught it because it's a societal expectation. I go back, I was watching a clip of the Wonder Years on YouTube. I don't know why. It was clip on Wonder Years. Wonder Years, ladies gentlemen, was a TV show in the 90s that was based in the 60s and 70s. Okay, just, it was a good show. yeah yeah And Arnold, the main character, went, it was like a career day or something like that, and he went with his dad at work and followed his dad at work, and his dad was like a manager of like a, I don't know, a plastic company or something like that. Mm-hmm.
00:12:53
Speaker
And after following around his dad all day, Arnold asked, he was like, Dad, is this what you wanted to do when you were growing up? Like, is this what you picture pictured yourself doing? he was like, no, this wasn't what I pictured myself doing. Arnold was like, well, what did you want to do? He was like, you know those ships? I wanted to be a ship captain.
00:13:11
Speaker
You know, I wanted to navigate in the open seas and things like that. Then they fast forward to Arnold's dad's boss, yelling and screaming at him in front of the whole office because some reports weren't done properly, right?
00:13:28
Speaker
and And Arnold is seeing his father being emasculated in public and in front of him when when he actually fears his father because most kids at that time feared their father that because they would come home angry from having to work all day.
00:13:44
Speaker
He realized... why his dad would come home angry from work all day. And then he was... He saw his dad at at that night after seeing his dad being, you know, emasculated.
00:13:59
Speaker
And he saw his dad outside looking at a telescope and looking at the sky. And Arnold comes out there. They don't talk about what happened at the job. Because that's not what men do, right? He knows how his father felt because he saw it in his face, but his father didn't say anything.
00:14:16
Speaker
Yeah. And so he tells Arnold, come here, look in the telescope. That's the North Star. That's how the the the captains found their way home.
00:14:27
Speaker
And it goes back to what... And Arnold learned an important lesson that day that the man that he feared was also a man that has his own problems.
00:14:38
Speaker
Yeah. That Arnold doesn't have any idea about. And I think that incapulates... what men go through more so back in the day, but still maybe a little bit now being that provider, you don't know what your father or husband, brother, uncle is going through at the job and then have to come home.
00:15:04
Speaker
And then think about that from the perspective of a black man who does have to suppress himself, right, in order to not come off as threatening.
00:15:18
Speaker
But that's a lot of frustration, disappointment, anger to hold in because you can't let it out, quote unquote, in front of company.
00:15:30
Speaker
No, you can't do it. Right? But where can you let it out that's safe? Home. All right. And ladies and gentlemen, now we're about to get into the uncensored part. So if you want to know more or want to see more, join our YouTube membership and our Patreon channel.
00:15:46
Speaker
I want to thank my sister for joining me for that conversation because I think it was important. But of course, I've got a little something that I want to leave you guys with. So... Here's the uncomfortable part people don't want to talk about.
00:16:00
Speaker
The more I think about this conversation, the more i realize this isn't really a story about loneliness. It's a story about connection. Or maybe more accurately, it's a story about what happens when people spend years being disconnected from themselves. Because one of the things that stood out to me in this conversation something Jay said. A lot of men don't even recognize what they're missing.
00:16:21
Speaker
They know something feels off. They know something feels empty. They know they're frustrated. They know they're angry. They know they're tired. But they don't always know that what they're actually craving is connection.
00:16:35
Speaker
real connection, authentic connection, the kind where you don't have to perform, the kind where you don't have to be the provider, the protector, the problem solver, the strong one, the dependable one, the person holding everything together.
00:16:50
Speaker
Just connection. And I think that's especially complicated for black men because we're taught a lot of lessons early. Some are spoken. Some of them are unspoken.
00:17:01
Speaker
Keep your emotions under control. Don't make people uncomfortable. Don't look threatening. Don't lose your temper. Don't show too much weakness. Don't show too much vulnerability. Don't give people a reason to see you differently.
Authentic Connection and Vulnerability
00:17:14
Speaker
And to be clear, that's not just family teaching you that. Sometimes that's society teaching you that. Sometimes that's survival teaching you that. But eventually you get so good at suppressing things that you stop recognizing what you're suppressing.
00:17:29
Speaker
You stop recognizing what you need. And that's where I think a lot of loneliness lives. Not in being physically alone, but in feeling unseen. Feeling unheard.
00:17:41
Speaker
Feeling like nobody really knows what you're carrying. That story about the father from the Wonder Years, it really stuck with me. Because I think a lot of us reach a certain age and realize our fathers weren't superheroes.
00:17:54
Speaker
They weren't robots. They weren't emotionless. They were just men trying to figure it out. Men carrying pressures that they didn't talk about. disappointments that they didn't talk about, dreams they gave up on that they didn't talk about.
00:18:09
Speaker
And a lot of them carried these things silently because that's what they believed men were supposed to do. Work, provide, protect, keep moving.
00:18:20
Speaker
And maybe that's part of the problem because somewhere along the way, a lot of men learned how to provide everything except themselves. They learned how to provide money. They learned how to provide stability.
00:18:33
Speaker
They learned how to provide protection, but nobody taught them how to provide themselves with community, with vulnerability, which with emotional support, with friendship, with connection.
00:18:48
Speaker
And then we wonder why so many men feel isolated. We wonder why friendships disappear. We wonder why some men throw themselves into work. Why some men withdraw.
00:19:00
Speaker
Why some men self-destruct. Why some men go looking for connection in all the wrong places. Because human beings were never designed to do life alone.
00:19:11
Speaker
Nobody was. Not men. Not women. Not anybody. And maybe that's where conversations like this matter and where they live.
00:19:23
Speaker
Because loneliness isn't a weakness. Wanting connection isn't a weakness. Needing people isn't a weakness. It's one of the most human things about us.
00:19:34
Speaker
The challenge is creating spaces where people can actually em admit that, where men can admit that. where black men can admit that without feeling judged for it, without feeling less masculine because of it, without feeling like something is wrong with them.
00:19:51
Speaker
Because there isn't. At the end of the day, every single person wants the same thing. To feel seen, to feel valued, to feel understood. To feel like somebody would notice if they weren't there.
00:20:04
Speaker
And maybe the answer isn't complicated. Maybe it's checking on your friends. Maybe it's answering your phone. Maybe it's sending the text. Maybe it's saying how you actually are doing when somebody asks.
00:20:17
Speaker
Maybe it's making effort before years turn into decades. Because connection doesn't happen by accident. It takes intention. And if loneliness is the epidemic, the connection might be the cure.
00:20:40
Speaker
You know, one of my good friends contacted me. Me and her were supposed to be getting together sometime soon to work on some stuff, some business stuff and and just to hang out because it's one of my good friends.
00:20:52
Speaker
And we're trying to schedule a time to meet up. And it's like, can't this I can't do it on certain days because I'm so freaking busy. I'll get into that and because one of the people the audience asked me a question and and I'll get into why I'm so busy. but Then I'm talking to her like, when are you free? And it's like, well, on this day, I'm going to see the the FIFA, the World Cup games.
00:21:16
Speaker
She's really big into soccer. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
FIFA World Cup in North America
00:21:20
Speaker
the World Cup. That's it's going to be really interesting, especially since it's here in the U.S. And I know a couple of people going to the games.
00:21:28
Speaker
They're going to the games because they won lotteries for tickets that they had to pay for, but the lotteries were for tickets that were reasonably priced. And i know a lot of people aren't able to go to these games because of a variety of different reasons, but it's still pretty cool that it's in the U.S. Unfortunately, the majority of the people can't go to it, right?
00:21:54
Speaker
And I've been hearing stories of the reasons why, and i just bits and pieces as I've been going on and just living my day-to-day life.
00:22:06
Speaker
And we're here, right? We're here because the games kick off on June 11th, and they're here, right here in U.S. and in Canada and Mexico, right? It's going to be 40 18s and 104 matches. the whole planet will be watching because contrary to what us Americans believe,
00:22:25
Speaker
Football is the biggest sport in the world and not American football. Football. Not football. Football. Soccer. Right? and And, you know, it's going to be a huge deal. is Everybody is looking forward to it. People look forward to it. Even people who aren't fans look forward to it.
00:22:47
Speaker
But I'm going to break down exactly what's going on because there's a bigger issue going on that I don't know if people are really aware of that that's way bigger than just soccer.
00:23:00
Speaker
Don't worry. I'll explain. So, like I said, FIFA chose North America over Morocco all the way back in 2018 for us to host this World Cup. and It's expected for 5 to 10 million people to descend on the North America. Once again, it's not just U.S. It's Canada and Mexico as well.
00:23:25
Speaker
But three problems already on fire. already are existing and what I've been hearing a lot about before we even started.
00:23:38
Speaker
Heat, immigration, and ticket fraud. Now, that last one, you say ticket fraud. Yeah, i'm gonna get into it because I know that's that's almost like a ah hook to keep you going. I don't mean it to be, but it really is ticket fraud. But I'm going to tackle each one of these individual issues. Okay, so let's start off with the heat.
00:24:01
Speaker
The Global Players Union, the FIFA pro Pro, flagged six venues as extremely high risk. Okay, Atlanta, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Miami, and Monterey. Now, how many of those cities have I been to? Y'all know I frequently visit Atlanta. My sister lives down there, right? I've been to Houston, and of course, I love Miami. It's hot as hell there in the summer months. And last I checked, it's June. It's not officially officially summer, but it's summer, especially here in the D.C. area. We're starting to hit those 90-degree sweltering areas.
00:24:39
Speaker
For people that don't understand why is heat an issue, at those temperatures, players' core body temperature can exceed 104 degrees.
00:24:50
Speaker
At that temperature, you don't sweat anymore. You have a lack of muscle control. you can barely walk. Your cognitive process is affected. And in the worst case, you lose consciousness. This is the reason why heat thing. In 2022 in Qatar, the World Cup was moved to November. It was done specifically to ah avoid this because heat is going to affect these players. And we knew that it was going to be hot this summer because every summer has been hotter than the last. Global warming. But every summer has been hotter than the last. So we decided, and FIFA,
00:25:31
Speaker
to hold in the summer months, and there's six cities, six or seven cities, where people are in, ma these players are going to be a major risk. Now, if you're a competitor and you love sports, you know that's going to put people at a disadvantage. You know that you're not going to get the purest form of that sport because the heat is going to be so incredible that these players are going to be, you know potentially passing out, losing the consciousness. That's a big deal. And we knew,
00:26:00
Speaker
We knew this was going to happen. No summer has been colder than the previous summer. They've only been getting hotter. It's only been getting colder every winter. Well, don't know if this winter was as cold.
00:26:12
Speaker
I don't know. But them summers, boy, these summers is getting hotter and hotter. So that's one issue. Another issue is immigration. More importantly, American politics. And I know you're saying, Bruce, come on, man. This is my sports. Why are you bringing politics? Why you always got to bring politics into everything? Well, politics is affecting this World Cup.
00:26:37
Speaker
Let me explain. Trump's travel ban now covers 39 different countries. Fans from those nations have largely cannot attend the U.S.
Challenges for Fans: Immigration and Pricing
00:26:49
Speaker
matches because of a the immigration policies, right? Well, unless you're white South African, because we're letting in all the white South Africans because there's supposedly some genocide on white South Africans that doesn't exist. Elon Musk is pushing that because he's a racist, but let's that's neither here nor there. So...
00:27:11
Speaker
There's bans on 39 different countries, of which are represented at the World Cup. They can't even get into the country to attend the games.
00:27:26
Speaker
What is one of those countries? Haiti. Haiti qualified for the World Cup for the first time in over 50 years. And most Haitian fans cannot come watch their team play because of the travel ban of the American Immigration Council.
00:27:42
Speaker
and And what is the ban actually for?
00:27:47
Speaker
They said crime.
00:27:51
Speaker
The Haitians are criminals. Just like Latinos are criminals and Muslims, all the people from the Muslim countries or the countries that that practice Islam, they're all criminals. Anything other is a criminal.
00:28:07
Speaker
Here's the problem. It's a lot of others that are in that are from these countries that are participating in the World Cup. They can't get in to the USA. Can they go to Mexico and Canada? Sure. ah If their countries are playing in those countries.
00:28:23
Speaker
If their teams are playing in those countries, they could go. But if they're not, they can't go. Right. The administration originally required visa bonds for up to fifteen thousand dollars from fans and dozens of countries before backing off after attendance concerns. Look, I'm going to get into ticket pricing later.
00:28:46
Speaker
But. There is. a Look, FIFA is still a business, right? they so They still need people to come to the games. And soccer is cool in America, but it's not as cool as football. You can't guarantee people are going to come to the games just for their experience.
00:29:03
Speaker
Also, because of the ticket prices, like going to get into that next. But this is one of the most aggressive immigration crackdowns in modern American history, and the world is taking notice of everything that's going on, we are, we are, us, Canada, and Mexico, are supposedly welcoming in the World Cup and vast nations and people to come and participate in the World Cup and experience North America.
00:29:41
Speaker
But we got an immigration ban. That is banning a lot of people who are fans of their teams that are unable to enter in the country.
00:29:52
Speaker
That's the connection between politics and sports. Yes. As you are sitting at home watching these games of the American men will be knocked out early. don't even know if the American men are even in it. We know the women are because the women be the women's national team be on it. Right.
00:30:09
Speaker
Right. As you're sitting here watching it just for your enjoyment because it's the World Cup and you watch it every four years, there are people who are serious fans who save up to be able to come to World Cup, to be able to to see their teams play.
00:30:31
Speaker
Can't even get into this country. Never mind the fact that it's been talked about since that man entered into office. They're probably going to be ICE agents at these games.
00:30:45
Speaker
So even people in this country who want to go see the games, who might be undocumented, they're going to stay home. Why?
00:30:57
Speaker
ICE is sitting out front waiting for you. Don't sit up there and say, Bruce, you're ruining my sports. I'm not ruining your sports.
00:31:08
Speaker
I'm just bringing be it just bringing the issue to your attention that, yeah, you may like this enjoyment, but it's coming at a cost to other people.
00:31:20
Speaker
And if you're cool with that, if you don't want to have any empathy or anything like that, cool. Okay. Don't worry. I'm going to connect it to how it could impact you. But let's get to the other part, the ticket a fraud, or more importantly, the money.
00:31:35
Speaker
FIFA used dynamic pricing for the first time ever. Prices on over 90 of the 104 matches went up between October and April, with the main ticket categories rising an average of 34%.
00:31:50
Speaker
four percent Some seats for the final are going for nearly $33,000 ticket. the affordable tickets The $60 tickets, there's only about 1.6% of them for the total inventory.
00:32:10
Speaker
New York and New Jersey attorney generals have now subpoenaed FIFA. Fans were allegedly misled about seat locations, categories changed after purses, and artificial ah scarcity manufactured to drive prices.
00:32:27
Speaker
FIFA's explanation They're just adapting to the North American market. But you know what that tells me? That's a tell. They came here to extract, not to grow the game.
00:32:40
Speaker
While America is trying to grow bigger and national interest in soccer, greedy corporate entities are trying to extract every dollar can from the American consumer.
00:32:53
Speaker
This is at the same time that we're in an affordability crisis. So, We win this bit. ah We get the greatest sporting event that there is in the world.
00:33:09
Speaker
And that's the World Cup. I know Americans going to like, what about the Super Bowl? No, it's the World Cup. Bigger than even the Olympics. I personally believe it's bigger than even the Olympics.
00:33:22
Speaker
But i might be all I might be wrong on that one. I might be. I would love to see the ratings right to compare the two. But we asked for this. We asked for this.
00:33:35
Speaker
And in one turn,
00:33:40
Speaker
we don't allow people in that are actually fans to come to the game. If you can get into the country, the tickets are priced so high that you can't even get to the stadium.
00:33:53
Speaker
And if you can get to the stadium, guess what? Because we decided to have it now, and not moving like Qatar did, you might see some players pass out on the field.
00:34:07
Speaker
Look, Trump wanted this global PR of hosting the greatest World Cup ever, his words, while policies around it are actively making the world feel unwelcomed.
00:34:21
Speaker
But na FIFA isn't innocent in this either. They even handed him a FIFA Peace Prize because you know Trump wanted that Nobel Peace Prize and he can't get it. So FIFA gave him a Peace Prize. I thought they were supposed to be apolitical.
00:34:35
Speaker
Right?
00:34:38
Speaker
The real question with all of this is, is the World Cup still for the fans? When you allow us Americans capitalism to take hold.
00:34:50
Speaker
Oh, man. We are going to make sure to extract every dollar that we can from everybody. We see it across the board.
00:35:01
Speaker
But to me, what the World Cup has done the World Cup has put America under a microscope. Not our stadiums, not our infrastructure.
00:35:14
Speaker
Us, who we are, what we value. and how we treat people when the entire world is watching. Because the World Cup is supposed to be a celebration of different countries, cultures, and people coming together around one game.
00:35:33
Speaker
And America has always claimed that's what we are too. The great melting pot. At least that's what the promise was.
00:35:44
Speaker
But here's an uncomfortable part people don't want to talk about. The reality has always been a little bit more complicated because throughout American history, there's almost always been a period where the dominant culture gets nervous whenever a minority group starts growing, starts succeeding, or simply starts becoming visible.
00:36:07
Speaker
The Irish experienced it. The Italians experienced it. The Chinese experienced it. The Japanese experienced it. Muslims experienced it. People from India experienced it.
00:36:20
Speaker
Latino communities are experiencing it right now. And Black people been experiencing it since our birth. Hell, the people who already here before the Europeans arrived experienced it first.
00:36:34
Speaker
The cycle isn't new. The faces changes, the accents change, the targets change. But the pattern stays remarkably consistent.
00:36:46
Speaker
America loves the idea of diversity until the diversity starts looking different than what people expected. And that's what makes some of the politics surrounding this World Cup feel so contradictory.
00:36:59
Speaker
Because on one hand, we're telling the world, come celebrate with us. We're telling the world, this will be the biggest World Cup ever, the greatest World Cup ever, a global festival.
00:37:11
Speaker
But on the other hand, we've created conditions where a lot of people around the world don't exactly feel welcomed. And nowhere is that contradiction more obvious than Haiti.
00:37:23
Speaker
That's the part of the story that sticks with me the most. Let's think about it. Haiti hasn't qualified for the World Cup in over 50 years. Let me explain that again. 50 years. I'm not 50 years old.
00:37:36
Speaker
Right. I'm close, but I'm not 50 years old. Some Haitian fans have literally spent their entire lives waiting for this exact moment. Parents who never thought they'd see it.
00:37:50
Speaker
Grandparents who never thought they'd see it. Kids who finally get to watch their country compete on the biggest stage in sports. And then many of those same fans are told they can't come.
00:38:03
Speaker
Not because they don't love the game. Not because they don't support their country. Not because they don't belong. But because policies have effectively shut the door before they ever had a chance to walk through it.
00:38:16
Speaker
And if that doesn't hit you emotionally, let's put it in terms Americans can understand. I told you I'm going to make it hit you. Imagine telling Chicago Cubs fans in 2016 they couldn't attend the World Series after waiting 108 years. My grandfather lived his entire life being a Chicago Cubs fan and never saw them play in the World Series.
00:38:42
Speaker
Imagine if he was alive in 2016 and he wasn't allowed to go to the game. Imagine telling Boston Red Sox fans in 2004 they couldn't watch the team break the curse of the Bambino.
00:38:56
Speaker
Get this one, you New Yorkers. Imagine telling New York fans right now that after decades of waiting, After years of disappointment because of Michael Jeffrey Jordan most of the time, after finally having a legit shot at winning an NBA championship, they aren't allowed to be there.
00:39:15
Speaker
American sports fans would lose their minds, and rightfully so, because sports aren't just games. They're memories. They're family tradition.
00:39:26
Speaker
They're community. They're stories grandparents tell grandchildren. They're the moments people wait their entire lives to experience together. Now imagine your country finally qualifies for its first World Cup in more than half a century, and many of your supporters can't be there to witness it.
00:39:46
Speaker
That's bigger than logistics. That's bigger than paperwork. That's bigger than soccer. That's a statement. And whether people agree with these policies or not, the message much of the world hears is simple.
00:40:02
Speaker
Come celebrate with us unless you're from the wrong place. That's a problem when you're trying to host a global event because hosting the World Cup isn't just about providing a venue.
00:40:15
Speaker
It's about providing a welcome. And right now, those two things don't necessarily match. That's America. But I'm not letting FIFA off the hook.
00:40:28
Speaker
Cause let's be clear. They don't get to play innocent in this story. This is the same organization organization using dynamic pricing to squeeze every possible dollar out of its fans.
00:40:39
Speaker
The same organization facing questions about ticket availability and pricing
FIFA's Priorities: Sport vs. Profit
00:40:45
Speaker
practices. The same organization that handled Donald Trump a FIFA Peace Prize while insisting they're somehow above politics.
00:40:55
Speaker
Make that make sense to me, please. Try. Because FIFA always claims to be apolitical until there's money, power, or influence involved.
00:41:07
Speaker
Then suddenly they're standing right next to politicians, corporations, and billionaires. When FIFA says they're simply adapting to North American market, what they're really saying is they saw an opportunity.
00:41:19
Speaker
And that's what bothers me because soccer in America is still growing. The sport is bigger than it's ever been. The national team has more attention than it's ever had. Young kids are playing the game at record numbers. This should be a moment to bring new fans into the sport.
00:41:36
Speaker
Instead, too much of the conversation feels like it's about extracting maximum revenue from people who already love it. And we know this story. We've seen it before.
00:41:48
Speaker
Concert tickets, Taylor Swift tickets, Beyonce tickets, NBA final tickets. Knicks fans are flying to San Antonio because it is cheaper to fly to San Antonio, buy tickets, go to the games in San Antonio than it is to go in New York City.
00:42:08
Speaker
Super Bowl tickets. Can average fans buy Super Bowl tickets? very hard. Every major event eventually reaches the same port point where ordinary people start asking, who is it actually for?
00:42:23
Speaker
Because if the average fan can't afford to attend, if the average family can't participate, if the people who built the culture are priced out of the experience, eventually you're not selling fandom anymore.
00:42:38
Speaker
You're selling exclusivity. And those are two very, very different things, especially right now, because Americans are already dealing with an affordability crisis.
00:42:50
Speaker
Housing costs are up, food costs are up, insurance costs are everything costs more. And now the world's biggest sporting event arrives and the affordable tickets make up a tiny fraction of the inventory while the premium seats sell for tens of thousands of dollars?
00:43:08
Speaker
That's not growing the game. That's harvesting the audience. And maybe that's the bigger theme connecting all of this. The heat, the em immigration policies, the ticket prices, the corporate greed.
00:43:21
Speaker
All of it points back to the same question. Is the World Cup still for the fans? Or is it a corporate product that just wears a sports jersey? become Because America asked for this responsibility.
00:43:36
Speaker
We campaigned for it. We wanted it. FIFA chose North America because we told the world we were ready. Ready to host, ready to organize, ready to showcase ourselves. Ready to welcome millions of visitors from every corner of the planet.
00:43:54
Speaker
And now that moment is here. The world is coming. The cameras are coming. The attention is coming. And whether we like it or not, The World Cup is going to act like a giant mirror.
00:44:07
Speaker
It's going to show the world who we are, not who our commercials say we are, not who our politicians say who we are, not who FIFA's marketing department says we are.
00:44:20
Speaker
who we actually are, how we treat visitors, how we handle differences, how we balance security and hospitality, how we prioritize people versus profit, how we represent ourselves when the entire planet is watching,
00:44:37
Speaker
The games are going to be incredible. The atmosphere will probably be incredible. The moments will be unforgettable. But when the final whistle blows, people aren't just going to remember who won the trophy.
00:44:50
Speaker
They're going to remember how they were treated. They're going to remember whether they felt welcomed. They're going to remember whether this felt like a celebration of the world's game or just another corporate product wearing a soccer jersey. America asked for this moment.
00:45:07
Speaker
The world said yes. Now we have to prove we deserve it. And right now, we're only half delivering.
00:45:24
Speaker
All right, for this last segment, I'm answering some of your questions from the audience every now and then. I like to do, I don't know, Q&A, you know, give the audience an opportunity to ask me any questions that you want to know an answer to. a lot of you guys have been with us since day one, and this is episode 321. So for that, thank you. Some of us, some of you guys joined on episode 320.
00:45:49
Speaker
three twenty Right? And you just want ask a question. Some of these questions I sift through and i will touch briefly on them because they've been asked before. But once again, you could be an audience member that just came in the last episode. So you don't know the answer to that. So for some of these, I'm going to just do a brief little response to.
00:46:11
Speaker
For some of them, I'm going to get in depth. I'm not going to, I didn't. Some of these questions were really personal. And Yes, I have people come on here that talk about really personal stuff. Why wouldn't you share your personal life, Bruce? Bruce, I do sometimes, you know, I do sometimes, but y'all not, y'all be asking really personal questions that I'm just not going to give you the answer to. It's just not going to happen. um ah Certain questions that and imply that include other people, like one of the questions was, why did I get divorced? Well, that involves somebody else, and I don't want to put their personal business out there. It's not really hard to find out who that person was, technology and research and all that other stuff.
00:47:02
Speaker
So no, like that's, that involves somebody else when it just involves me or it involves another party that doesn't mind me telling the story. That's fine. But when it just involves me, i mean, but when it involves somebody else, I'm not including that story. So some stuff I'm not going to tell you because I don't want to personally reveal that story.
00:47:23
Speaker
much personal information about myself, but other times it's gonna be there's other people involved and and they might not want their story to be told. a lot of people have stopped talking to me. They weren't that close to me.
00:47:37
Speaker
But a lot of people have stopped talking to me because they're like, I don't want to be content of your show. And I'm like, you don't have to be content of my show. And a lot of a lot of people that know me will say, is this off the record? Because I do bring a lot of my personal life into the show.
00:47:55
Speaker
Cursory stuff, stuff on the outside, not the deep stuff that I feel emotionally. I'm just not good at opening up about that stuff regardless. But, you know, a lot of people have been like, hey,
00:48:06
Speaker
Can you, can this be off the record? And I'm like, okay, I get it. I bring a lot of content from my personal life and I include people, but I never give names, but I can understand why people would be hesitant. And because of that, I'm notm not going to tell their stories without their permission. So...
00:48:23
Speaker
certain questions about my personal life that involve others I'm just not going to answer. So I'm just going to go through a few of these, maybe five to seven. There were over 50, and some of them were redundant. Some of them, like I said, were too personal, weren't going to answer. But the five to seven, depending on how long-winded I am. And this intro was already long-winded. So let me get to the first question. And and actually, I'm taking two questions and answering them because, to me, they're connected.
00:48:53
Speaker
The first question is, bro, who told you to start a podcast and why did you listen to them? LOL. Like what made you think this was going to work? And ah another question that I think fits into this question is, okay, so unsolicited perspectives. Did somebody actually tell you to shut up one day or you just named it that for the vibe?
00:49:18
Speaker
All right, let's let's go for the first question. I mean, the the second part of of me combining these two questions. Why did I name it Unsolicited Perspectives? Nobody has ever told me to shut up.
00:49:31
Speaker
i I am very opinionated in my personal life, but I keep a lot of stuff to myself because I try not to come off as lecturing or be that, well, actually person.
00:49:47
Speaker
So getting my opinion is unsolicited, right? And it gets to a point where this isn't unsolicited anymore. you Like if you, some people, like I said, have been coming here for 300 episodes, they get it. But a lot of time when we're talking about, if you were just talking to some ah Joe Schmo on the, kind or Jane Schmo on the corner, you know, and you really wouldn't necessarily ask for their perspective. So I thought it was catchy.
00:50:18
Speaker
And a lot of times when people don't want your perspective is because they're being presented with truth that they don't want to accept. So I think it has multiple meanings and and and that's the reason why I love the name.
00:50:34
Speaker
Who told me to start a podcast? And and did I listen to them? who Who made me think that it was going to work? Well, I told myself to start a podcast.
00:50:47
Speaker
I thought it was going to work, and I have been right. Here I am, episode 321. We're monetized both audio and video.
00:51:00
Speaker
And oh, by the way, not to pat myself on the back, I came in with no like name recognition. None. I knew who I was except for those people that personally knew me. And yeah, the people that personally knew me, it was about 50 or 60 people. i sent out a link to the very first episode.
00:51:20
Speaker
lot of it was just friends and family and and people that... know me in the professional world and like kind of some of the things that I had to say. Think that they think that I'm funny. I'm the least funny one in my family, but they think that I'm funny.
00:51:41
Speaker
Wildly successful, not having any name recognition started from scratch. So Why did I think this was going to work? Because I always believe in myself. and And work. What's your definition of work? What's your definition of success? Am I the Joe Budden podcast? No, but I wasn't Joe Budden to start off with, right? Like Joe Budden had a name. Am I the Breakfast Club? No, that's a radio show that turned into a podcast. And that still does a radio show.
00:52:07
Speaker
You know, am I Joe and Jada? No. Am I Cameron and Mace? No, those were celebrities that started their own podcast. So if you're measuring me up against them, There's no comparison, right? Like they came in with name cachet.
00:52:22
Speaker
But the fact that I do long form content talking about tough issues and both audio and video, we have gained so much traction that we are monetized. And oh, by the way, somebody listens or hears us in every single continent on this planet.
00:52:47
Speaker
Yo, that in and of itself is a hell of an accomplishment. And I'm proud of myself. I'm proud of my sister. I'm proud of all the guests and everybody that has helped me do this.
00:53:00
Speaker
So, yes, you may think that it was stupid for me to start a podcast. And you don't have to listen or watch the show, right? it' It seems like it's not for you. And that's okay, right? That's okay. It's not for everybody.
00:53:15
Speaker
But don't knock me because you don't believe that you could do something like that. Don't hold me to your limitations. And that's what you're doing by questioning why I did this.
00:53:28
Speaker
and and that and And this wasn't one of the questions that I was going to duck. I wanted to answer it because I wanted to throw back in your face that this podcast is successful. And whatever metric that you want to measure it in is successful, right?
00:53:43
Speaker
More than, i don't know, three, four, 5,000 streams, audio every episode, up to about a thousand views on YouTube every episode.
00:53:55
Speaker
And you got to realize these bad boys are hour long. An hour long. Can you hold somebody's attention for longer than 10 minutes?
00:54:06
Speaker
That's all I got to say. that This is a lesson that I have for people out there that are starting something, have an idea about something, whether it's a hobby, which this is what this is for me that's turned into a little bit more than a hobby, or it's your dream.
00:54:24
Speaker
If you hear negativity from people, realize some of it might be valid. Number one, recognize some of it might be valid. But a lot of times it's other people putting their limitations on you. They couldn't see themselves doing it, so they can't see you doing it.
00:54:43
Speaker
And, you know, your vision is your vision and it's nobody else's. All right, let's see. What's another question? After all these episodes and all these conversations, has anything somebody said on your own show actually made you change your mind about something? Yeah, my sister constantly is giving me a different perspective of looking me at things. And I'm just like, huh.
00:55:09
Speaker
A lot of the interviews I do, it's not a, um it's more of a listening to their work experience. if you pay attention to interviews, if there's something that I my question or I don't quite understand or that disagree with, I will push back.
00:55:26
Speaker
I don't just give people free reign, but most of the time it's it's my sister. Or it's the research I'm doing where it's not what somebody said, it's what somebody has written. The research that I'm doing and I want to talk about something, and I'm doing the research and I'm like, oh, my opinion or my idea of this particular situation wasn't exactly what I thought it was because I've been given new evidence. So,
00:55:56
Speaker
I would say completely changed my point of view. There have been some people, but mostly it's my sister that I'm just like, oh, okay. And that's part of the reason why I have her on the show, because we agree on ah many things, but not everything. And when we disagree, the majority of the time, we're on the other two ends of the spectrum. And you hear in real time, two people going at each other that have different opinions.
00:56:26
Speaker
giving what we hope ah is intelligent critiques on each other's opinion and come into a consensus. And more times than not, you will hear me relent if if ah she's definitely proven me wrong. And there's been more than a few times that she's proven me wrong.
00:56:47
Speaker
I had gone through this and there was a follow-up question. And let me see if I can find Oh, okay. Here it is. and And I think this was a good follow-up question from that.
00:56:59
Speaker
You always say you don't want to be right. You want to be correct. I think I understand. But can you explain that, like, what's the actual difference to you?
00:57:11
Speaker
Okay. ah You know, I'll take a stab at this. You know, when when I say that, a lot of people give me pushback. Well, if you're right, you're correct. No, not necessarily true. The greatest example that I can can give to you to start off this conversation of why I say I want to be correct, to not right, is because a broke clock is right twice a day.
00:57:36
Speaker
So you can be right and wrong at the same time, right? the The clock is broke. The clock for the other 200, no, for the other 24 hours and 58 minutes, it's absolutely wrong.
00:57:53
Speaker
And the only reason why it's right is by accident. It's just what it stopped at that particular point. So a lot of times when people, and it's ah it's part of the reason why this is going to be a little bit of a tangent, follow me.
00:58:11
Speaker
One of the questions that that criticized me is that you often don't have different people with different ideology. The prime example was you never have any right wing people on your show. Why don't you debate their words their words in this question? The great Charlie Kirk. ah like I can't. but But why am I not more like that?
00:58:39
Speaker
I did not start this platform so that push people could push their falsehoods. I'm not a debater. I'm not here to debate you.
00:58:52
Speaker
I'm here to learn from you and hopefully you learn from me. Am I going to be wrong sometimes? Yeah. And here's where I say that I'd rather be correct rather than right.
00:59:07
Speaker
Because you can sit in your position and you can find stuff to back up your position. A lot of these people that are... ah of that elk, the Tucker Carlson's things of that nature, who say these outlandish things and are wrong the majority of the time. You can always find some type of information to fit and frame your argument. You know how I know this to be true?
00:59:33
Speaker
Because one of my majors, one of my degrees is in history. What you have to do to get that history degree is essentially write a book. What I mean by that in every one of my 300 or 400 level history courses, all required at least one 30 page paper each semester.
00:59:57
Speaker
Now you say that you take eight to 10 of those courses, that's close to 300 plus pages that I've written on history.
01:00:08
Speaker
And when you're writing a paper, you have a thesis statement. The thesis statement is the overall theme of the entire paper. You spend the entire paper to prove your thesis statement.
01:00:21
Speaker
Now, your thesis statement can say one thing. It can say the sky is blue. You can have a thesis statement men to say the sky is red. Your goal in that paper is to find information to prove the thesis.
01:00:38
Speaker
That doesn't mean that your thesis is correct. Right? edge just It's just that you found information to back up what you were saying. So in essence, they'll say, see, I'm right.
01:00:51
Speaker
But they're not correct. Because they didn't get all of the information, put it together, or they ignored the information that disproved their argument and decided to rely on only only things that would make them appear right.
01:01:09
Speaker
So... When I say I want to be correct and right, I understand the definitions of the words. Literally, I'm not speaking the exact definitions.
01:01:23
Speaker
Metaphorically, the point I'm trying to get across is that I want to learn. So I walk into situations with a certain amount of information and I have an opinion formulated based on that.
01:01:39
Speaker
But if people present information to me that disproves my opinion, I have to reevaluate my opinion and come up with a different conclusion.
01:01:53
Speaker
Now, maybe their information is false. maybe it's Maybe it's true, but I'm open to the idea that it could be true and that I might need to reevaluate because once again, i don't want to be right.
01:02:09
Speaker
I want to be correct. I'll tell you an example of a person that just wants to be right in a debate or an argument. You know, these people, you're going back and forth with them. and You got their points.
01:02:21
Speaker
They have their points. You have your points. At some point in time, it's going to devolve. And the person that, is standing on BS and is fighting to be right, or is gonna start to personally attack you. I got a friend like that.
01:02:40
Speaker
I got a friend like that. And I always know, oh, okay, I got you. You're wrong, but you don't wanna admit that you're wrong. You wanna be right. I never want to do that.
01:02:51
Speaker
I want to be correct. So that's that's the best analogy that I can give to you. That's the best explanation. That's what I mean by that. And the reason why I don't have those people on the show is, one, I'm not going to give those people a platform for their falsehoods.
01:03:09
Speaker
A lot of these extreme right-wing people fall into a sphere of misogyny, racism, Islamophobia, conspiracy theories,
01:03:21
Speaker
anti-vaxxers that just isn't true based on history, scientific fact, et cetera. I'm not giving them a platform so that y'all can hear us fight and argue.
01:03:35
Speaker
It's not going to happen. If there was somebody that was an intelligent person, and And I know I'm taking a knock at all these people because you can't you can't have all the information that we're providing in the world and have these type of views. I think it's it lacks critical thinking and you just want to be right. Or being grained in whatever ism that you would probably want to deny that you have.
01:04:02
Speaker
but you definitely got it. So no, I'm never going to platform those people. Am I going to have people that talk about controversial things or things that I think that are interesting? And and if I think that I don't agree with them or they didn't make a point that doesn't make sense to me. Am I going to push back? Yes. You've seen me do it. And these interviews, you've seen me do it.
01:04:24
Speaker
Okay. But if you're looking for like a, y'all are too, a lot of people are too young for this crossfire or a political version of CNN or a political version of first take, which is a sports talk show where people are yelling back and forth. Nope. Nope.
01:04:44
Speaker
Not going to happen. There's plenty of other outlets for you guys to go ahead and watch that. This will not be that outlet. This is running longer because I'm jibber jabbering. All right, two more.
01:04:56
Speaker
Does Jay ever bring receipts after an episode drops like, see, I told you, and has she ever actually been right? Nothing comes off the top of my head. And like, most of the time, we finalize our positions in the moment of the conversation.
01:05:14
Speaker
um Because we the way both of our mind works, it is taking in information, giving information, processing, thinking about that it but in real time. So there hasn't been a time where not that I just absolutely remember remember where it was like, it was this moment. Hey, I told you I was right.
01:05:38
Speaker
She always accuses me of doing something like that. And maybe I do. Maybe I don't. I don't know. But my sisters write lot. Not all the time, but a lot, and I'm right,
01:05:55
Speaker
The majority of the time, I believe. Let me rephrase that. Correct. I'm correct the majority of the time. But no, that's not that's not our relationship. We've had some knockdown drag outs where some audience members have been like, are y'all okay? We're just fine. That's that's a, that's it if we're around each other, that's just what we're doing. That's me and my family. Me and my family have always, my parents like, to defend your position.
01:06:23
Speaker
defend, okay, defend your position. you don't You don't know as much as you should know? Go research. Go look it up. That was the house that we grew up in. So, yeah, no, that doesn't really happen. All right, last one.
01:06:37
Speaker
This one is kind of personal, and it's a two-parter. And, okay, I'll answer this question. This will be the last question. The first part of the question is, huh, yeah, okay.
01:06:52
Speaker
Yeah, i' I'm debating in real time whether I really want to answer this, but yeah, I'll answer it.
01:07:01
Speaker
You got the podcasts and the fitness thing and consulting. Like, what does Tuesday actually look like for you? What falls apart first? When life gets crazy, I don't understand like, what is a Tuesday? Oh, you mean just like in my life in general, what does a Tuesday look like? Busy. Yes, I do have this podcast. It's turned into a full-time job because I do everything. I do the producing, I do the editing.
01:07:27
Speaker
I do the hosting. I do all the the social media clips. it's ah It's a lot of work. and But I actually enjoy the back end. I enjoy almost the production. The pre-production and the production more than I actually enjoy doing the show. And I do enjoy doing the show. But the pre- and post-production, i think at the heart of me,
01:07:48
Speaker
I'm a producer. i think that's what I really am. And that kind of makes sense because when I was in the wrestling company, another one of the things that I did, I was a behind the scenes producer and writer. I, I,
01:08:02
Speaker
I know it sounds crazy. i know I'm in front of the camera and y'all are like, of course you like attention. No, I don't. I just knew that I needed to do the show. I meet people and have friends or have people in my life all the time. And I'm like, you would be great on your own podcast. You just need somebody behind you that knows how to direct you. And I was like, I think I can, I think I can do that. So I think I'm more of a producer than anything.
01:08:28
Speaker
Has my other stuff ah suffered? The consulting business has suffered. I'm not taking nearly as many clients as as I used to. I think I've done maybe like three or four jobs this year. By this time, because we're in June now, it's half the year, i would have least tried to have done You know, double that, um ah even though that's very time consuming, but double that. The fitness, me running a day-to- day to day, that's my that's how I make my living. That's how how I get paid paid. The business consulting can be very, very good to me. I haven't really.
01:09:07
Speaker
every Every part of my professional life gets its own energy, with fitness being the main one, because without that, I can't do anything. Now, if this podcast takes off,
01:09:22
Speaker
And take off as in it starts becoming a real livable income. Some things probably going to change. But for the time being, the thing that doesn't ever take a backseat will be the fitness. The show has taken a bit of a backseat. That's the reason why we're doing Tuesday episodes every other Tuesday, because I was just burnt out. It was just too much that I was doing with all the other things that I got going on. And I was starting to get annoyed in my personal life and people close to me were starting to catch you on. and I was having a bit of an attitude being snarky. So I'm managing it better now, but maybe six, seven months ago for that time period, I wasn't managing that well.
01:10:04
Speaker
And the last question is people come on the show and they tell you so many really personal things. I like how you always give space for the conversation to breathe. how How did you, i get how was this per se? Like, how did you get there?
01:10:24
Speaker
So I guess they're referring to the fact that, you know, some people will come on here and they'll tell a life story. and it'll be something traumatic that happened to them. And I sit and listen.
01:10:36
Speaker
and And it's a couple of different things. One, I feel very strongly in my personal life to have empathy, right?
01:10:48
Speaker
I want to always give somebody the space for them to speak their truth, even if I'm not in the mood to hear it. On the show, I'm always in the mood to hear it. I'm talking about in my personal life.
01:11:02
Speaker
Even if I'm not in the mood to hear it, I can be stopped in the middle of the street and a stranger would tell me something completely personal that I'm like, yo, know this is a real awkward conversation. I don't want to be here. But in that moment, in that moment, they chose me to say something that they needed to get off their chest. When people come on the show, I take that same same mentality. I am giving them this space.
01:11:27
Speaker
And sometimes they say things that, look, Julie Cruz, who I did not read the book before doing an interview. I try not to. I do a research on them, but I try not to read the books ahead of time because I don't want that to taint me learning about stuff and asking questions in real time.
01:11:47
Speaker
When she told me what happened,
01:11:51
Speaker
That hit me in my heart that she would have to go through that. And that's not the first time. There's been many stories of people telling me the things that has happened to them that hits me in my heart.
01:12:01
Speaker
And in that moment, though, that there that a person is opening up to you, you don't ever want to come off in a way that they feel like, oh, I made a mistake by opening up to this person.
01:12:15
Speaker
So I always thank them for trusting me with that very personal thing that happened to them.
01:12:26
Speaker
i I give the space to breathe And then after the empathy, which I try to have just in my life in general, and people should often try to have, even when you're not in the mood to listen to somebody or hear what they got going on, just give them that space to say what they had to say because you never know afterwards how that's going to affect a person. So I always want people to leave an experience with me feeling better, not worse.
01:12:58
Speaker
And then the second part of that is understanding. Having empathy is just having feeling for a person and what they're going through. After that, I might not be able to understand what they went through, but I want to attempt to try.
01:13:15
Speaker
And in doing that, and attempting to try to understand what they're going through. And this is just my own... This has not been studied. This not in the psychology books. Maybe people would say this ain't the way to do it, but this is just the way I do it and it's been effective for me in my personal life and on the show.
01:13:34
Speaker
By trying to gain some understanding it further cements to that person, hey, this person was safe to share what you just shared with them.
01:13:47
Speaker
It was safe to tell this person that. and and and And doesn't everybody want to be safe? Right? So how do I handle it? Hey, this has been a couple of times where I've really been in thought.
01:14:02
Speaker
And felt a certain way after interviews, not because the person was, you know, bad, but because what they told me, i I felt really bad for them. But a lot of times when people say these things to you, they don't want your sympathy.
01:14:18
Speaker
Right. They're speaking their truth and they just want you to listen. And I'm talking about not just on the show in your personal life. They want you to listen. an attempt to try to gain some understanding of what they've gone through, went through, or going through.
01:14:37
Speaker
And I just try to hold that. That's something from my personal life that I bring on to the show. get people safe give people safety and space so that they know that I'm always going to have their back.
01:14:50
Speaker
And this is not something that's going to be salacious. I'm not going to try to take advantage of them for clicks or likes or views or anything like that. I genuinely want to hear their story because I believe their story is important to be told and that everybody can learn.
01:15:09
Speaker
from a story because we can all learn from people. That's how we grow as people. And me, I'm always striving to be a better person tomorrow than I was today. And that's just, so that's just That's just who I am.
01:15:24
Speaker
All right, that's the end of them questions. Like I said, I wasn't answering them super personal questions, but I gave y'all a lot longer explanation in this segment than I really intended. This was always only supposed to be like a little short segment, but it went a little longer.
01:15:38
Speaker
But that's okay. I haven't done one of these in a long time. And so hopefully. you gain a little bit more understanding of me. But on that note, ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for listening.
01:15:48
Speaker
I want to thank you for watching. And until next time, as always, I'll holler.
01:15:58
Speaker
That was a hell of a show. Thank you for rocking with us here on Unsolicited Perspectives with Bruce Anthony. Now, before you go, don't forget to follow, subscribe, like, comment, and share our podcast wherever you're listening or watching it to it. Pass it along to your friends. If you enjoy it, that means the people that you rock will will enjoy it also. So share the wealth, share the knowledge, share the noise.
01:16:21
Speaker
And for all those people that say, well, I don't have a YouTube. If you have a Gmail account, you have a YouTube. Subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can actually watch our video podcast and YouTube exclusive content.
01:16:33
Speaker
But the real party is on our Patreon page. After Hours Uncensored and Talk is Straight-ish. After Hours Uncensored is another show with my sister. And once again, the key word there is uncensored. Those are exclusively on our Patreon page. Jump onto our website at unsolicitedperspective.com for all things us. That's where you can get all of our audio, video, our blogs, and even buy our merch. And if you really feel generous and want to help us out, you can donate on our donations page. Donations go strictly to improving our software and hardware so we can keep giving you guys good content that you can clearly listen to and that you can clearly see. So any donation would be appreciative. Most importantly, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for listening and watching and supporting us. And I'll catch you next time.
01:17:22
Speaker
Audi 5000. Peace.