The tables are turned on this episode of The County Line! Ben Hardy, Philadelphia, MS native and longtime friend of mine comes through to interview me, Lee Carl. The episode portrays me in a different light as this is the first time I have been interviewed on The County Line.
The conversation is driven by specific questions Ben poses. I do my very best to be as introspective as possible for The County Line Congregation! If you know Ben, you will not be surprised by the vast array of topics we cover throughout the interview. If you are not familiar with Ben, myself, or The County Line nothing could serve as a better introduction than this episode!
We explore the immense value of sound systems in bands, crucial need for more entrepreneurial efforts in small towns, power of parks and recreation, abandoned railroad beds, rap music, mental health and many, many more captivating topics.
"Thank you to Ben Hardy and the entire County Line Congregation for your continued support! Much love and many thanks!" -Lee Carl
---------------------------------------------------
Learn more about Ben: https://www.instagram.com/bigbenhardy/
Where is The County Line:
https://www.countylinepodcast.com/
-----------------------------------------------------
(0:06) Earpieces for Sound Monitoring Benefits
(3:44) Discussion on Entrepreneurship, Restaurants, and Growth
(19:44) Improving the Park and Community Amenities
(25:41) Voicing Opinions in the Digital Age
(38:15) Face-to-Face Communication
(42:33) Music Preferences and Personal Memories
(47:15) Hip Hop and Soul Music
(1:00:22) Southern Hip Hop Artists and Patreon
(1:06:34) The Vassals and Ethan Carter's Role
(1:22:59) Tom Tom's Death and Community Impact
(1:33:40) Mental Health and Podcast Recommendations
(1:55:05) Single Parent Homes' Impact on Success
(2:09:52) Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Antisemitism
(2:23:02) Influence on Young Minds
(2:31:48) AI's Impact on Politics
The tables are turned on this episode of The County Line! Ben Hardy, Philadelphia, MS native and longtime friend of mine comes through to interview me, Lee Carl. The episode portrays me in a different light as this is the first time I have been interviewed on The County Line.
The conversation is driven by specific questions Ben poses. I do my very best to be as introspective as possible for The County Line Congregation! If you know Ben, you will not be surprised by the vast array of topics we cover throughout the interview. If you are not familiar with Ben, myself, or The County Line nothing could serve as a better introduction than this episode!
We explore the immense value of sound systems in bands, crucial need for more entrepreneurial efforts in small towns, power of parks and recreation, abandoned railroad beds, rap music, mental health and many, many more captivating topics.
"Thank you to Ben Hardy and the entire County Line Congregation for your continued support! Much love and many thanks!" -Lee Carl
---------------------------------------------------
Learn more about Ben: https://www.instagram.com/bigbenhardy/
Where is The County Line:
https://www.countylinepodcast.com/
-----------------------------------------------------
(0:06) Earpieces for Sound Monitoring Benefits
(3:44) Discussion on Entrepreneurship, Restaurants, and Growth
(19:44) Improving the Park and Community Amenities
(25:41) Voicing Opinions in the Digital Age
(38:15) Face-to-Face Communication
(42:33) Music Preferences and Personal Memories
(47:15) Hip Hop and Soul Music
(1:00:22) Southern Hip Hop Artists and Patreon
(1:06:34) The Vassals and Ethan Carter's Role
(1:22:59) Tom Tom's Death and Community Impact
(1:33:40) Mental Health and Podcast Recommendations
(1:55:05) Single Parent Homes' Impact on Success
(2:09:52) Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Antisemitism
(2:23:02) Influence on Young Minds
(2:31:48) AI's Impact on Politics
It's really beneficial and we are rolling. It's really beneficial when you're in a situation that one of two things, when you've got more than two people on the podcast, or in a situation like this where we don't have the mics all up in our grill. That way we can judge and monitor ourselves, because if you don't have the headphones on, obviously you don't know how you sound in the microphone.
Speaker 2:No doubt.
Speaker 1:And so if we're going to sit here and talk shit for two hours and we have our things recorded and we need to know that, hey, we're getting a high quality product.
Speaker 2:Being in bands for a long time I didn't, before I quit playing it was. It's a huge difference. Somebody had some click tracks one night and we were playing at the Magnolia. I mean not click tracks but in-ear pieces. So being able to hear everybody else because the monitors face out and away from the drums and the drums are obviously loud, so being able to hear them, that really up my play, absolutely, absolutely. Because you can monitor.
Speaker 2:It's common sense. But if, whoever sets up your PA in a local band, you know, if you don't have, if the drummer does not have a monitor right near them, it's hard to stay on time, because playing live not everybody keeps the same tempo that they normally have, so you got to be able to roll those punches.
Speaker 1:And it's also one of those things that I recognize dealing with all this shit with sound and microphones and volume and all of that. I've never played in a band but to your point, you said it was common sense to think about having an earpiece in to monitor your levels, whether it be yours or somebody else's, but like it makes a huge fucking difference. No doubt when you can hear what's going on from the amplifier, from whatever's being captured as a result of the microphones, and all that.
Speaker 2:And I played harmonica as well and had I had some in-ear monitors be able to hear I can tell if I'm off beat or, more importantly, with the harmonica off key.
Speaker 1:If you could hear yourself, or if you yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And I played a gig, well, played harmonica to gig one time and I was had the wrong key harmonica but I couldn't hear myself and Hannah was like that sounds bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:At least I know that now.
Speaker 1:Well, the last time we you and I spoke on the podcast, I believe Jeff Stewart and I had just gotten some new mics. These two mics are the OG, triple OGs. These are from a one day one, but these right here are better for this scenario, when we're on the couch and we need room for the cameras to catch our face and not have the mic all up in our grill, whereas those other mics sound better up close.
Speaker 2:I'm more comfortable. Just from experience with these mics, yeah.
Speaker 1:These right here. These capture a better sound from further away is what I found. I guess it's because of the round top, I don't really know but the other ones that they're the cylindrical shape and then they've got the whatever the fuck. The thing is that captures the sound. It's in the middle and if you're not talking directly into that space, you're not going to get the optimal end product.
Speaker 2:Well, if you had a cylindrical shape and a round top, what's that? Look like A pecker.
Speaker 1:Be a thick pecker. So what's up, man? You know the rhino for prez hat on you feeling pretty good today. We got the good Lord has done, blessed us with a beautiful day.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's beautiful out there. Yeah, got a little workout in this morning, got sweat a little bit, and the weather couldn't be even better, especially after maybe the first part of August, may might have been the hottest that I can recall in a long time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the hottest I can remember it's also it brings up the debate in my head like are we just a bunch of pussies, like are we just getting softer because we've had air conditioned longer, or is it? Was it really extremely hot this summer?
Speaker 2:I don't think those ideas have to be mutually exclusive. It could be both. Yeah, it could be.
Speaker 1:Excuse me, I have a, as I'm sure you can tell, I have a head cold and it has every time the weather changes drastically. It happens in the fall, it happens in the spring and the barometric pressure either decreases I think it decreases. Whatever happens when the temperature changes drastically causes me to have a head cold and I guess it's allergies. But I'm currently in that scenario right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got through a lot of that too. I've had a lot of sinus pressure last few weeks. By the way, it was there. We go Strange brew cup right there, strange brew coffee house out of Starfleet. Yeah, I need to have him on and to blow and Tuscaloosa. Yes, you know, it's funny. You've been doing this podcast three years. Probably 10 years ago we hadn't chained Reed and I have not lived in the same city for a long time. He's been in Starfleet for a long time, but he's been talking about wanting to do a podcast for at least 10 years. Talk about whatever. We just never did it.
Speaker 1:Yeah he, he must have a pretty good business mind.
Speaker 2:Well, if he's got three different strange brew coffee houses and they also have churned a spoon where they make that ice cream in front of you, they're still going. So something's something's going right with that, yeah.
Speaker 1:They had a churning spoon at the strange brew location in Starfleet one time didn't they?
Speaker 2:Yeah, still do. Originally it was, was it Coldstone?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Coldstone franchise and then, when his contract that he signed was up, then he opened up his own ice cream parlor. Yeah, that's been a while.
Speaker 1:That's something Philadelphia's going to definitely need moving forward as a, as a local, non-branded coffee house.
Speaker 2:I've talked. I've talked to him a bunch about it. You know, up at my office, you know we drink coffee all the time and I don't want to get struck by anybody. But you know we got community coffee and it is what it is. But I've had strange brew, you know, with their albino squirrel or all of their different, the blueberry, blueberry cobbler and they got many different kinds and it's a, you know, one of my oldest friends in the world and he's got great coffee. I just assumed I'd rather have that than a community coffee or Folgers or whatever we get from, from whoever we buy our coffee from. Yeah, that could be. I don't know the coffee business but that could be supplying, supplying businesses around town with strange brew coffee. That could be a little extra income right there.
Speaker 1:No doubt the thing we lack here specifically is not demand. The thing that we lack is entrepreneurial ambition on the part of our citizens. The demand for many things in Philadelphia and Shelby County is clear, but particularly native Philadelphians and the Shelby Countyans, for whatever reason, did not have an entrepreneurial spirit. If you look at a lot of the businesses that have been started here in Philadelphia that are not generational, most of them, I would argue. I don't know the numbers on this, but just anecdotally speaking, it seems to me that it's people that are non-native, whether it be Arabs, whether it be Mexicans, whether it be even Jamaicans, which I don't know.
Speaker 2:That some are down.
Speaker 1:Still they're not in the location they were in, but just to highlight, I mean we've got like eight Mexican restaurants yeah. It seems like in small towns, and all of them do good business. So that tells you that the demand for restaurants is obviously there. Then the Mexicans are capitalizing on it.
Speaker 2:Well, you were there at the Vision to Shelby meeting when they asked this committee that's trying to come up with a vision for the Shelby County for the next 10 plus years. One of the biggest things that the members of the community that did show up which was very few and it's not surprising that not that many people showed up, unfortunately but one of the biggest things that people said that they wanted was restaurants, more places to eat, and that's everybody I talked to.
Speaker 1:That's what they want more options, yeah the people of Philadelphia, in addition to industrial development and tourism and all that from just a living here on a day to day basis. People want more grocery options and they want more dining options, and that's across the board. I think that that transcends race, class, age. It's just people. It's just people. It's just people. I mean people want more options in the way of food, whether it be from grocery shopping standpoint or dining out.
Speaker 2:Well, everybody likes what they like, and so the more options you have, the more likely you already get something that you really like.
Speaker 1:I think the mayor has done a wonderful job in creating a business friendly environment. I agree I like the mayor. For example, when the Bell Bondsman Place moved in on the square and they've got the pink sign, a lot of people were have been critical of number one type of that type of business being so visible on the square. Number two the signage on the building. A lot of people bitched and mown coloring.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm paraphrasing here, but Mayor Young basically said look this, this person meets all the qualifications and the requirements to have a legitimate business within the city limits of Philadelphia, Mississippi. If they meet all of those requirements that we've had in place, then they are going to be allowed to have a business, whatever type of business it is, wherever they can afford to have it, and I think that's refreshing.
Speaker 2:You start turning away folks just because you don't like the way they do things. That could be a slippery slope and a harming this town and this economy. Yes, yes, I think just because a personal taste, right.
Speaker 1:So we, what we have to strive to do is separate religion from business and government affairs because in the South, historically, although very devout in our religion, we do allow it to prevent growth in certain areas. Look at alcohol. Look at, I mean, we, our county, still dry. The county south of us, we're surrounded by dry counties, with the exception of Lauderdale, that's. Those are tax dollars, this that are that we're gaining in Philadelphia because we do sell liquor. People that live in Carthage, people that live in Union, people that live in the cab, people that live in Louisville has liquor stores, but people that don't have liquor, they're, they're losing tax dollars. Like that's stupid. People are going to drink, we know that. Go ahead and capitalize on that and instead of letting those tax dollars leave your area. But people are still so caught up in what the fuck somebody else thinks about their religious viewpoint that they still allow that to prevent them from growing the community from an economic standpoint.
Speaker 2:Well, one hard fact that people might not like is with that bail bonds business. It's needed. We've got a crime problem around here and people need to get bailed out of jail. You know, less crime means less people having to get bonded out of jail, so that might negate a need for that business, but there's a need for that. So I'm all for it being there, whether I like or don't like the signage, and I think it's the signage from people that I've talked to. That's the biggest issue. It's more so than that business being on the square. I know everybody wants the idyllic downtown square and we've got a great square. I don't think that signage or that business takes away from how great our downtown square is and there's still growth that's going to happen on our square and I think this the Congress have a country music being there.
Speaker 2:I think it's it's starting to prove people wrong that that thought that nothing good was going to come from that Congress being downtown. I think if you, if you just pay attention a little bit, you can see how that's economically, that's improved everything for us and the buzz that's going on. I mean, who would have thought that Dolly Parton would be coming to Philadelphia, mississippi? That's a she's an icon. Yes, she is. She's on up there. You know, with like With Willie Nelson, you know people like that. It's pretty incredible. You saw what happened when she came. The businesses got behind it, they started decorating, they started ordering Dolly T shirts and Dolly coffee mugs and you see citizens dressing up in their quote unquote Dolly outfits and going to you know, and during the day they're downtown shopping, and so it's easy to see how that the Congress of country music has affected this town positively.
Speaker 1:Without a doubt, I think a lot of reservations from people in the community came from their ignorance of Marty Stewart's stature in the country music community. Right, they just didn't know how much of an influence he actually has been, is and will always be in country music. So therefore they didn't recognize the significance. There are still people that don't recognize the significance of Marty Stewart and I think that's where a lot of the reservations and the hesitation came from. But you're right Now, you don't have to.
Speaker 1:I mean, we can walk out my front door right now and walk up the hill and see very vividly the impact, the positive economic impact, that the Congress of country music and the LSD creator is having and continues to have in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1:We have an opportunity, as those gentlemen were saying the other night at that vision, to show the meeting that we went to. We have an opportunity to really, really, really capitalize on a lot of to use the word he used unique economic characteristics, the confluence of these economic characteristics. We are on third base. We can hit a grand slam. I'll say this we're at the plate, being economically, our towns at the plate. The bases are loaded. We're capable of hitting a single, double, triple, knocking one, two or three runs in, we're also capable of hitting a grand slam. The final piece of that is to bring the education system all under one roof, and whether that's done by school choice or school consolidation, that's the final piece. That's gone spur. I mean if that happens and you don't have to live outside the city limits to send your children to the show, the central you will see the economic boom come full circle.
Speaker 2:We will fulfill our potential from an economic growth standpoint if that happens this is off that subject a little bit and I coach my daughter's seven year old softball team and soccer and, lucky enough to, she made the All Star team this summer and Cody Brian and had a tournament here, and so that was. I don't know the numbers, but that part was full of people and the tournament here was first. Second week in June it was hottest blazes out there. We played our first game and then we had a roughly two hours before we had to play again and I was so hot. I live, you know, two minutes away from the park, so I leave, go home and I go home to sit in the shower and just go down between the park and my house in Willing Hills there is there's a dollar general and there's Nancy's shortstop.
Speaker 2:I go to you know I'm on you, my you may or may not can tell on YouTube, but I'm wide as a sheet, I'm just, I'm a ginger I'm. You know my friends say I walk outside and I might get moonburn. It doesn't make you a bad guy though. No, I don't think it does. So I go looking for SPF 100 because I got to have it, and go to dollar general and it is packed and majority of those people you know got on their Laurel softball shirts or people from that came into town for that little tournament. They going into dollar general there at Nancy's north side and that's just in that little strip right there. So talking about opportunities, if we can and we've got a great park right now, but they just they're just starting volleyball at Booker T pretty soon for eight to 14 year olds, I believe, and you know they're contemplating ways of making the park better. And I think you know when you say, when people look at this town, if they're looking to move here for a job, they're going to look at the hospital, they're going to look at the school. So look at the park. That's.
Speaker 2:The park is another opportunity, you know, and there was Northside Park. Put out a post on Facebook talking about you know what can we do, and a lot of people talked about a splash pad or or more, you know, trails. For what's a splash pad? It's a. It's an area about as big as this room, maybe a little bit bigger, or water just spurts up out of the ground, you know, like sprinklers, like kids playing in the sprinklers, but instead of doing it, you know, in your backyard with a sprinkler. Then you can go to the park and they've got. You know, just like they got different things to play on, to playground. You got different. So it's like a kid thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, so kids can play in the water.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's a good idea and I've seen them, and you know, in other places, taking my kid to them in other places.
Speaker 1:A lot of people play disc golf out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I go out there at least two or three days a week and every time I go they are playing. Somebody's out there playing disc golf.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know pickleball is is pretty popular these days. They, they redid the tennis courts and now you can play pickleball at the tennis courts out there, oh really, so there's, you know, our park is. I think our park is pretty top notch already, but there's also ways to, you know, invest in other things, like a splash pad or, you know, a walking trail that's not already there, bike trails. I think that could help attract people when they're looking to move into this town. No doubt, um, and the reason I thought park is because I'm out there so much.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know, typically I'm out there coaching to at least two days a week, sometimes three days a week, so that's what I see. And then I just think about this summer, when that, when that, uh, the tournament that my daughter was in, that I was coaching in, when that was out there, uh, what that brought in. And there was another tournament, uh, later on this summer where they had more people, and so that's another uh opportunity and another tourist attraction. But that's a pretty big staple of what people look for. Excuse me, when, uh, when, coming into town, if you've got something, if you've got a great park, that's a, that's a big win, that's a big, big drawer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a notch in your belt for sure. What I think about moving forward is how can we? Yes, the parks and the parks are very important and also a part, an extension of the park system is trails throughout the community for biking, hiking what have you? We have some abandoned railroad beds around this community that are doing nothing. They're just growing up. Let's take those tracks up and put a long leaf trace type. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:That's a great idea.
Speaker 1:You know, throughout the county or throughout East central Mississippi, we can come in the one. The long leaf trace runs from Hattiesburg to Bassfield and it's just an old railroad beds All it is. I mean, we got an old railroad bed. I know that runs from at least Philadelphia to Sebastopol. So I mean, and that to me would not be extremely expensive. I mean it's mostly, I would say, probably destruction more than construction. Right, when you're talking about a railroad bed, because then things are, they're well built.
Speaker 2:No doubt, no doubt. I mean some landscaping. You know, weed eating and getting everything. Oh yeah, Looking a whole lot better, and that just makes the town look better when you clean all that up. That's another, another eye sore in certain, certain parts of the town. You go by the railroad track and they're grass that are six feet tall.
Speaker 1:Why do you think so few people showed up to the meeting the other night?
Speaker 2:Who knows? I don't, I don't know. I hate to be negative, but a lot of people like to talk, you know, or more talk and less you know, less action, I don't know. I think that's enough. People knew about it. And that's not me criticizing anything. I think that's a component. But I, I think people like me and you and there, you know, many people in this town really pay attention and care about what's going on, community wise. So our antenna is already up and we hear about it and that spurs us to say, hey, maybe I can go and at the very least hear what's going on and if I got an idea, then maybe I can. I can contribute and voice my opinion. And I think they listened to everybody that talked the other night and they valued everybody's opinion that spoke up.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was. No, it was not a dog and pony show Absolutely not. It was very interactive. It was very constructive and very productive.
Speaker 1:I think there's an issue with people just simply being afraid or embarrassed to voice their opinion. I think there's a lot of insecurity in the, in the populace, not just in Philadelphia, Mississippi, but nationwide, as it pertains to representing oneself in person. Because we've become so accustomed to having the accessibility to express ourselves virtually through a device. There's there's very little emotion attached to putting something out there on a device, like putting updating a status on Facebook or putting a caption or a comment on Instagram or voicing your opinion on Twitter. There's way less emotion and accountability associated with expressing oneself that way, as opposed to walking into a physical building, being with people physically and being comfortable with yourself in that scenario voicing your opinion. It's a totally different ballgame and I just think we are our people in general have less experience doing that as a result of the advent of technology and social media and it's just a side effect. I don't think people are intentionally not participating, I just think it's a byproduct of how we've come to communicate.
Speaker 2:I'd agree with that Social media. While you know it has helped a lot, there's a lot of things that has hurt. If, let's say, I get on any social media platform but I know you're on Instagram, so if I got an issue with the County Line podcast and I think it's crap and I get on there and say it, that's a whole lot different than me bumping into you at the grocery store and be like hey, your podcast sucks 100%, 100%.
Speaker 2:I don't know what your content is. I don't know what you're going for. It's boring. I don't care about it. Yes, that is how I feel, you know, because it's just, it's a whole lot different when you might have to face real consequences for your state and your opinion. Instant. Yeah, because you could smack me in the face. I could.
Speaker 1:I could yeah.
Speaker 1:It's I think that's the biggest thing. I think that's the two biggest components which you mentioned was not, I don't know, that the marketing was as high powered as it needs to be. I do think a potential solution to that would be contact all the churches and have them do an announcement on Sunday morning. You know, I think. I think that's the way you reach the most people in the Shelby County is at church, whether it be the church's Facebook page or physically in the church, because pretty much everybody I'd say a majority of people are associated with the church in some way. Not saying everybody goes to church every Sunday, but majority of people are receiving some sort of communication from a church in some way. Are they connected to somebody?
Speaker 2:And let me ask you this Okay, so what was and we'll get into my questions in a second, but this can kind of start that out what were your numbers like before you decided to Get back on social media and make that real push? What's, what's the difference between before you made the ultimate big push? What were the numbers like before and since? Regarding downloads, yeah, or downloads, or popularity, popularity and and more people being aware of your podcast Night and day.
Speaker 1:Me Night and day. Meaning what Meaning Prior to getting on social media. So let me back up to the beginning. So when we first started the County line May of 2020, we came online with an online presence. So when episodes started being released on the streaming platforms, there was social media presence coinciding. Coinciding with that. I was running it personally, doing it myself, and inherently with that comes seeing people's opinions on social media. And about two months into it this was during just after George Floyd this was during COVID.
Speaker 1:So things are wild, right, Leading up to the 2020 election, and so the country was in turmoil at that point it was in turmoil, things were were going to hell in a handbasket and I got tired of seeing it. I got tired of hearing it because I was not experiencing what was being depicted online in everyday life, so like there was turmoil in the world, turmoil on the news, but really and truly in Philadelphia, mississippi, think it was not like the world was ending, you know, so I became. I started coming to the realization that what's going on online is that's a whole another world, it's a different world.
Speaker 1:It's a different world than where my feet are so, long story short, I pulled everything off of social media because I got tired of seeing the stuff that was being put on social media as a result byproduct of me pushing the podcast on there. So numbers came out of the gate doing like 2000 downloads a month.
Speaker 2:All right, Let me ask you, let me jump in real quick Go ahead. So you say downloads? I've got no podcast experience so I stream it. I've got a Spotify membership and that's how I listen to your podcast and others. Primarily, but not only some people, got Apple Music, so I stream it on Spotify. Does that count as a download, or do I have to actually download the episode to my phone?
Speaker 1:The way I understand that, ben, and I'm not an expert, but the way I understand that is as a play is a download. Okay, so if you, you know, for example, if you don't, if you're not downloading every single episode in its entirety to like, to where you can listen to it offline, for example right.
Speaker 1:That's not a download. That's not what's being calculated as a download. A download is whether you're downloading, so to speak, the episode or not. As long as you're listening, those are being calculated as downloads. That I can see on my end. Okay, that's the way I understand it. Now I don't know if that's 100% factual. If that's the way it works, that's the way I understand it.
Speaker 2:So, as the way you understand it, a download and a listen are the same thing.
Speaker 1:Yes, essentially so.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry to interrupt you, but yeah, go back to it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So we were doing very good numbers out of the gate. Number one it was new. Number two we were on social media. So then I stopped doing social media and became really inconsistent with the production of the episodes.
Speaker 2:And you also jumped in at the. Probably the apex of when people were listening to podcasts online was when the quarantine and all that was happening.
Speaker 1:Yes, that is definitely another contributing factor. There were a lot of different factors that went into those numbers being what they were, but nonetheless, I dropped off, social media became wildly inconsistent and the numbers just went to the bottom, you know, and they stayed that way for about six months, I guess, and then I got back into it, did it for about three months consistently and then took probably another four or five months off. I can't remember at this point, but I took another break, so I was inconsistent. So that time period there's really no way to get reliable data because I was so inconsistent. Now, starting at the beginning of this year, 2023, I was in a relationship with the girl and I had not been focusing on the podcast at all. We broke up and the podcast became my girlfriend and ever since then we've been doing episodes every week and we have gotten back on social media and our numbers have surpassed what they ever were prior to the second time getting on social media. I mean, we've doubled our numbers, so it's had a huge impact.
Speaker 2:What's been your biggest episode so far In terms of downloads?
Speaker 1:Yes, cb Ray, cb Ray. By far. It went viral in this area. Yeah, and that's really the only example I have of anything just catching fire, like even Roy Jones Jr Tofer.
Speaker 2:None of them have, none of the more high profile guests have caught fire in so rapidly as that episode and for people that are listening that don't know, when he says CB Ray, that episode was about school consolidation and she gave her opinion on school consolidation and so locally I would assume you got listeners that you may not have had before and may not have had since, but since you're from Philadelphia, living Philadelphia, and that's a Philadelphia issue and you get a local person giving her own opinion on it, then that's small towns. You know gossip and how that goes. That lit the fire.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, it definitely lit the fire. There were a lot of factors there that contributed to it becoming so viral, if you will, so quickly. The issue resonated with a lot of people. The content of particularly Phoebe's explanation struck a chord with a lot of people, and you know it. Just, it got in the internet and it started doing circles. It started hopping here, there and everywhere.
Speaker 2:Right. Have you talked with her since that episode?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, not particularly, not specifically about schools or anything like that. But yeah, we, we talk when we see each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well that, but have y'all talked about the episode and what kind of fervor that generated? Yes, and I'm not trying to stir the pot at all, I'm just asking, right.
Speaker 1:No, I think after the fact she wishes she would not have done it or maybe said some things in the way she said it. But I tell her, I say you know, look, Phoebe, you got, you have. First of all, you had the nuts to come give your opinion and let thousands of people hear you, hear how you really feel. If that's how you feel, then you should have nothing to worry about, because the fact of the matter is she let her voice be heard, Whereas those thousands of people who shared it were tuned in and they were having their own opinion behind closed doors. But there ain't no secret about how she feels and I respect that they were on the social media world rather than the real world.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Voice in their opinion. That's right. I got all the respect in the world for Phoebe and I wish you know that more people from the community would actually come in and voice their opinion, because that's what it, that's what it's all about, right? But a lot of people will see me out and you know, know generally, that I do have the podcast and they'll say, lee, when you go, let me come on the podcast, I say, look, it's an open door policy whenever you want to. You know you name the time, you know the name of the day and the time and we'll make it happen. But very few people follow through on that request.
Speaker 2:So there's a difference between, I think one problem in society today. There's a difference between you. Can you and I might get into a for lack of better word heated argument over an opinion on something. That does not mean I have to hate you or be pissed at you all the time or think you're a bad person, and I think a lot of times in society they, people, can't differentiate that and I think legacy media helps us help stir that pot and divide people one way or the other. Just because our opinions differ don't does not mean that there's not a common ground. We're both humans and we can. Once we get you know to a certain point in the issue, we either move on or that's how we feel. But personally we can. We can still be friends Right, it's so or respectful to one another it's so bizarre how we allow the media to communicate to our neighbors.
Speaker 1:For us Like, for example, if you know somebody who leans left in a small town it doesn't even have to be a small town anywhere, all right, and you know yourself you lean right Then we automatically assume in a lot of cases that whatever we hear from legacy media is automatically what that person who leans left thinks, without even having a fucking conversation with that person. And vice versa. We have to communicate with one another, like we're doing right now, not saying everybody's got to put it on a microphone and broadcast it to the world, but before we make assumptions about how our neighbors think, we need to first have a face to face conversation with them and get to know them, as opposed to just looking at the media and assuming, first of all, that they take that in but second of all, they hold that ideology that's being pushed by that media outlet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just labeling people just liberal, conservative. Well, that's a human being and I, as a spiritual person, I try to look for the best in other people and also not judge them, because if I'm just, I mean, I've got plenty of stuff that I've struggled with and I got my own issues. I got plenty of them. So it's easy to cast your, it's easy to look at somebody and pick out what's wrong with them. I think it's harder to look through the issues you have with them and see a human being that has just as many probably struggles as you do. They may be different, but they're trying to make it in this world just like you are.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and what I've found is having conversations with people and being willing to engage with them sincerely and in a genuine manner Is makes people embrace you and really give you who they are, as opposed to just staying surface level with the person. If you really show that you're genuinely interested in the well being of them, then they will return that, they will reciprocate that energy and you know that's, that's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2:Look at the question just popped into my mind. I got some notes here and I'll get to that in a second, but we used to talk about having conversations with people and I've had conversations with you out, obviously outside of here. Let me find that question, find it Bull. Why do you stand so close to people and have an in person conversation? I mean, you don't, do you not believe in respecting people's personal space?
Speaker 1:I think a lot of it has to do with me being tall and having to especially in crowded places, having to like bend down to their ear so that they can hear me.
Speaker 2:But what about bending out like to their mouth and face? That's a little bit different than their ear. Well, I also like to make eye contact.
Speaker 1:I like to see eyes, because those tell the true story. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I've never really noticed that about myself until you said that Is my breath state.
Speaker 2:I don't recall because usually I'll back up. No, I remember being at the fairgrounds one night when Daniel Sharp was out there playing and there was some music going on. But I was on the front of the cabin. You know, a bunch of us behind the cabin having a conversation and I don't know if you remember this, but you were talking about coming on the podcast and somebody was saying something you said to me you're like, you're very measured in what you say. You remember that? Yeah.
Speaker 1:I do. You are very measured, very measured, and that is a. That means you've given a lot of things a lot of thought. Yeah, I'd agree with that, because there are some people there are a lot of people that when having a conversation with them, it can't go past a certain level because either their IQ isn't there or they just haven't explored a lot of topics from a thought process standpoint. And so when someone's measured and they have an opinion on a lot of different things, that tells me that they've done a lot of thinking about a lot of different things. So it's a compliment.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it. I didn't. I didn't take it as bad on the thing. When you said it. You were like it looked like we're about to make out, so I backed up. That's the only.
Speaker 1:I'm very intimate Ben.
Speaker 2:No, that's fine. I just didn't know if you remember that Is that the night you had the Ricky Williams jersey on.
Speaker 1:It is yeah. Shout out Ricky Williams. He's underrated and overlooked.
Speaker 2:I don't have a doubt. Have you seen the 30 30 run? Ricky run.
Speaker 1:I'd love to have Ricky Williams on the county line.
Speaker 2:Oh man, that would be. That'd be crazy. I think he's very intelligent and very misunderstood.
Speaker 1:They fuck up Ricky Williams because they do him in snips. They edit his shit when they when they interview him. But it's not just him, that's a lot of people, but they particularly do it to people who are lightning rides or polarizing figures. Yes, they do it to everybody, but like somebody like Dion, they'll clip him up. Ricky Williams they'll clip him up because they do have good soundbites. They also clip up Bootsy.
Speaker 2:And I meant to. You said Bootsy, and that's going to lead into my first question. Last night, going to pick up my daughter from a birthday party, stopped in the convenience store to get a drink and I saw some Bootsy chips. Uh huh, have you had those? Absolutely Louisiana heat. Yeah, that's it. I meant to bring some today. I just forgot about it till now. Them bitches are good, but my idea maybe two months ago, probably longer. Uh, I've made up some questions. I thought you know the podcast has been around for three years and some people new listeners might not know who you are, so I thought maybe I asked you some questions about yourself. Absolutely, uh, but for listeners, everybody that listens or knows you personally knows your I would. I would guess you always said hip hop and country your favorite, your favorite two genres of music, genres of music. I guess hip hop would be your favorite. Yes, uh, when do you first remember hearing hip hop? What are your first memories of hip hop? Eminem? Uh, probably 99, 2000s, early Eminem Are we talking about like 98?
Speaker 1:Okay, Like when I was four or five years old. Uh, uh, listen to the radio.
Speaker 2:Eminem on the radio yeah. Clean out my closet. Yeah, I didn't think Eminem would be on the radio now. Uh, in 98, I was an unstartful in college when you were four but you know had those CDs and you know I didn't what it was. He was on MTV and that was a big deal. When MTV was me it played music.
Speaker 1:It could have been a little later. It could have been early 2000s, it was before. It was before he went to. Uh, what was the group D12 or some shit?
Speaker 2:Yeah. It was before all that I wasn't a fan of it's just me. I didn't, didn't really like D12.
Speaker 1:No, I just like Eminem, straight Eminem. Yeah, just give me Eminem, I don't need nobody else. But that's, that's the first. That's the first hip hop I remember, uh, but then also keeping in mind, everything I'm hearing is coming from 105.7 to beat, right Up until I'm 12 or 13 years old, when we had LimeWire, yeah, and then we could explore the music. The serial killer of Computers, many, many computers. Yes, sir, it will eat you alive son.
Speaker 2:What about hip hop? Resonated so much with you back then.
Speaker 1:The lyricism Okay, the lyricism, the beats, um little did I know what resonated with me the most about hip hop, and particularly southern hip hop, is soul music. Mm, hmm, I didn't have soul music in the house. That's not what my parents listened to. So I didn't, um, with the exception of Barry White. But I didn't have a lot of experience with soul or southern soul. But I did through hip hop. So I listened to it backwards, so I I liked hip hop Then you got into R and B and soul.
Speaker 2:Uh, when I say R and B, you know that's what they called my understanding Long time. You know Otis Redding, aretha Franklin, you know. And then, uh, what people have used as R and B changed over the years. But but soul music are you talking about? Like the Motown stuff, or you talking about southern soul?
Speaker 1:I'm talking about both, but as far as hip hop samples go, soul music Okay. So William Devon and um be thankful for what you got. That song, I think, is like 1976, but it's sampled on a Ludacris song that I heard Luda before I even knew William Devon in 1976 existed, so I fucked with that song because I liked the beat. Well, later on I heard William Devon thankful for what you got and I was like damn, this is where it originated. And so then I started exploring more soul music and recognized that I resonated with hip hop a whole lot because I fucked with soul music.
Speaker 2:Right Veer off just for a second. You said Ludacris, uh, you know, back in college playing Madden I don't know what year it was, but uh, round the time that roll out by Ludacris came out and you go on there. You know, you're sitting there playing your games and, uh, you know you, you choose your offense. They have like four up top, four in the bottom, which one? And uh, we always pick roll out so we can start singing. Roll out, yep Cause, so we start going. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And I knew it, I knew what time it was so what?
Speaker 2:uh, so soul music was a big reason that resonated so much with you then. Uh huh, what about now? I found talking with people, uh, white people that, have you know, used to listen to rap, hip hop, and it is a certain point of people that I know, majority of them white folks uh, they get a certain age and they just quit listening to, quit listening to hip hop all together or only listen to stuff that they listen to when they were grown. You know when they first started. You know when I first started listening to it.
Speaker 2:It's cause my brother was playing, it was NWA and a two life crew and then LL Cool J. You know a lot of the older stuff. High school for me it was Dre, the chronic and doggy style, and then you know it grew from there. But a lot of white folks around my age, white guys around my age, seem to quit listening to hip hop either all together or just anything new. Why do you think you? It's continues to resonate with you now and you listen to it, I would assume as much now and as you did when you were 15, 16, 17 years old.
Speaker 1:I think it's. It continues to tell a story. Again, the lyricism is what really and the utilization of the English language in that way is really what resonates with me the most about hip hop. I just like country music, my second favorite form of music, genre of music. It has history. It has very rich history, as we know, with the Congress of country music and Marty Stewart, and all of that interests me just as much as the history of hip hop. So, with hip hop only being 50 years old, I've got pretty much a front row seat to watching a genre evolve and just watching that history unfold and evolve over time and see what the changes are. I mean, rap today is the best it's ever been as far as the talent of the rappers, I mean. And that's, you know, that's, I would say, an obvious component of today's rap game, because anytime something evolves it gets better and better and better.
Speaker 2:So I think, personally, I would disagree with that. From what I listen now, I don't listen to as much hip hop as you do now. Well, much as much newer hip hop as I do Newer hip hop today as I used to. Yeah, from what I hear, I don't personally. It's my opinion. I don't think it's better today than what it used to be. That's my opinion and, again, I'm not as well versed in newer stuff now.
Speaker 1:What would be your reasoning for saying you don't think it's better?
Speaker 2:Well, there's and I hate to use broad generalizations yeah, there's a. I'm not sure who said it was. Somebody said all generalizations are false, including this one. So I'm not trying to throw out a generalization, but and I've heard Snoop talk about it, but there's a lot that I hear and I haven't dealt into it and all of it sounds a lot of it, not all of it. A lot of it sounds the same, Not all of it Now, but again, my, I limited my exposure to it. So, and I and I also think lots of times you'll find with a lot of people, when they look back when they first get in music, what they grew up on, that's nothing's ever going to be for that person personally, what they ever grew up on, and that that's across.
Speaker 2:That probably has the biggest thing to do with it, because you know, you know, for me it was when I really started getting into music as a whole. You know, in that like take the early 90s, you go with, you know NWA, dre, ice Cube, cypress Hill, and you know, keep going in and here comes outcast and there's a and then the South took over and we still uncontroll that yeah.
Speaker 2:But that's what you know. That's that was when I first really fell in love with music probably was the early 90s, and so Snoop Doggy, Dog Doggy style that album is, to me, the best rap hip hop album of all time. I'm not blind to the fact that most people, have you know, feel nostalgic about the music they fell in love with when they first fell in love with music. So that might be the biggest reason. Now it might not be a popular opinion and I might be an old head, but I don't. You know, I don't think Drake was as good as Tupac. That's me.
Speaker 1:I'm older and I just but I think, I think a good way to measure someone's greatness is to look at the spectrum in which the people, the spectrum that they're fat, the spectrum of their fans. So like Tupac reached, I would say, a lot of people, but I wouldn't say he's reached as many and resonated with as many as Drake. So what does that?
Speaker 2:say Well, in that line of thinking, you think maybe Taylor Swift's better than Dolly Parton?
Speaker 1:Um better, what Well? I mean better singer or better entertainer.
Speaker 2:either I mean if Taylor Swift probably has touched more people in a short amount of time, relatively speaking, or then maybe Dolly has over her whole career, right, I realized Dolly has got what 40, 50 years. Taylor's been around 15. Mm, hmm, uh, and clearly I mean people watch Kansas City Chiefs games because Taylor Swift's going to be there watching.
Speaker 1:Travis.
Speaker 2:Kelsey. So I don't. I don't necessarily think just because somebody resonated more with a large amount of people and sold more albums like in my this example, taylor and Dolly Mm. Hmm, uh, I and I'm not I don't think Taylor Swift would would be considered a greater artist than Dolly. I don't think that at all, but I don't think that's one way. It applies to your what you just said.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I say what you're saying. Um, do you think Lil Wayne's better than Tupac?
Speaker 2:They're pretty close. I think Lil Wayne's great, Uh, but again nostalgic. Do you think Biggie's better than Tupac?
Speaker 1:No, I don't you think Lil Wayne's better than Biggie?
Speaker 2:Uh, I prefer Biggie, so but yeah, but great, greater is always subjective. Um, that's a tough one. Uh, lil Wayne, in my opinion, is better than Drake.
Speaker 1:Uh yeah, I think Lil Wayne is number one and I think Drake is number two, and just skill from a skill standpoint.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this is a whole. It could be an hour long conversation on what you're judging by. So, uh, as far as the MC, uh, I think Tupac's better than Lil Wayne, but that's not all, that is. Uh, when we talking about hip hop, it's not just, as you know, the lyrical flow and the lyrical content I mean cause. As lyric, you know, uh, spitting bars. Not many people, if any, are gonna be a lot better than than Eminem, true, but that doesn't mean I think he's the greatest rapper of all time, right? So there's there's different, uh, there's different way to judge all that. There ain't no doubt I'm not knocking Drake or Lil I like Lil Wayne a lot.
Speaker 1:Also. When having a conversation like this, it's also important to consider how much one has consumed of each artist, Right? Because, the more you know of anybody, the more you're going to like them. That's right. So then it becomes that much more subjective.
Speaker 2:That's right so again, for you know I'm 46.
Speaker 1:So have you ever listened to much Kevin Gates? No, what about Boosie? Yes, I would encourage anybody out there who is not familiar with Kevin Gates, uh, to go listen to him. He's very talented, Very talented, Very talented. I'll take it out Bad and Rooge and New Orleans. South East Louisiana has got some. It's a hot bed for rappers. At least in my generation. It has been from freaking um cash, money and Master P all the way up to NBA young boy who's running the game now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I haven't listened to much NBA young boy either, so I can't speak on that.
Speaker 1:Very, very talented. I'm not a Kodak boy. A little, a little bit, I'm going to have to put you on, I'm going to have to put you on man. Yeah, you ain't got to, you ain't got the right sources.
Speaker 2:I know. That's why you know I've made some playlists for you. You can make some for me and let me folks. I need it. You know, modern folks right now, hip hop artists that I need to check out.
Speaker 1:Something fun that I've started doing is creating hip hop playlists based on cities or based on regions.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So I've got New Orleans, I've got. Well, I did South Louisiana to encompass New Orleans and Baton Rouge, memphis, memphis. Who you got in Memphis Project?
Speaker 2:Pat Yo, gotti Young, dolph Key, glock, three, six, eight ball there you go All all one of my favorite albums eight ball and MJG sitting on top of the world. You know Space Age Pimpin Hell. Yeah, I know Space.
Speaker 1:Age Pimpin.
Speaker 2:So that's me showing my age and kind of I fuck with all them boys in Memphis.
Speaker 1:I know they can't hardly get along the North and the South, but they've been making some good music. And then, of course, atlanta the South they got nothing to say. South got a whole lot to say. Do you know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about Andre 3000. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I wish he. I don't know what he's doing. I wish he'd come out. I was thinking about him.
Speaker 1:The other day I was listening to Outkast and thinking to myself I mean he could, he could have put out so much more music. But I think he is so weird like in a good way, yeah and so artistic that he doesn't just want to put out a whole bunch of shit.
Speaker 2:I think we were talking about Outkast, somebody that's underrated and undervalued. Big boy, because Dray is incredible. Andre 3000 is incredible and his personality, his quirks are so different, so, like I think he's better than Tupac Dray, yeah, me too he's. He's number one for me, andre 3000. Yeah, that's mine. But big boy I don't think gets enough credit. You go back and just listen to him. He's incredible. Without big boy it doesn't work.
Speaker 1:No, and it's not just because he's country, and I mean he's Southern, as it gets. You know, andre 3000 is from the South, but you can't hear it like you can hear it with big boy, and then big boy's talent is next to almost none, and even after Outkast I mean the stuff that he's put out I fuck with it all the way up till now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they wouldn't be. They would not be as successful, in my opinion, if it was just Andre 3000, because I don't think enough people would give it a chance because it's so different, he's so different. It's not your cookie cutter selling albums kind of Rapper by himself. I don't think because he's so different.
Speaker 1:And they did a great job of explaining that. What you're talking about on Equimani, yeah, they, they express themselves fully and big boys over here doing his thing and Andre 3000 is over here on his weird shit, but together on Equimani they put that together and it's I mean, it's amazing. That's my favorite Album of theirs. I got to take a break.
Speaker 2:I take a leak. All right, take a quick break, yep.
Speaker 1:All right, all right.
Speaker 2:Sounded all right there.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, you got me, yeah, I got you, and we back rolling.
Speaker 2:So, talking about these, these questions, had an idea some months ago when I first talked to you and about asking you questions about yourself, and so Bring it on. Benjamin, on the episode titled Support the Count of Line, released on March 30th 2022. You asked people to support the show via Patreon. Yeah, so my first question is between that date and when you really started the social media push, between that date and how did it go before 2023, and how has the Patreon support gone since your your bigger foray into pushing the podcast?
Speaker 1:So right now we've got four Patreon members you, sue Ellen Smith, justin Clearman and Nicole Bounds. Okay, that is the most we've ever had and I love y'all dearly. That's really been. We just picked up Nicole here recently, but but you, sue Ellen and Justin Clearman, y'all been there since fucking day one, son.
Speaker 2:So when I first wrote that question, you know, on that episode you said you support Patreon, you get a free t-shirt Hang out one time and you give me that free t-shirt. We should, huh, we should, we should look on that. But at the end of notes and I believe on the episode of that particular episode you said if you got enough support on Patreon that we get to hear the mixtape black sheep. You recall that, yes, so do you still got that in the can?
Speaker 1:Yes, I have. So what black sheep turned into what started as black sheep turned into the vassals work. Okay, that's how that's played out, but we haven't reached our goal on Patreon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I've been surprised subscribing to Patreon since you first made that call. Absolutely, I thought maybe I could hear black sheep, but I actually you've heard some of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some of it is still unreleased, unfinished. Now, that's not my fault, that's Ethan's fault and that's Daniel's fault. Not, and it's really not even Daniel's fault. Daniel's done all the shit he's been asked to do and I've done all the shit I've been asked to do. The only motherfucker that ain't done what he needs to do is Ethan Carter. You know what's crazy?
Speaker 2:is how that worked out. Uh, with my questions. So I got two questions and both of them regard what you just said. So who are the vassals and what's going on with the vassals? That's my first one.
Speaker 1:The vassals consist of myself, lee Carl, ethan Carter, also known by many other nicknames, and Daniel Sharp, and they, that group, formed April of 2022. Thanks to you, uh, introducing myself and Daniel to one another and um, so we made a couple of songs that were original vassal songs that were created by us three from scratch, but there are also vassal songs that started as black sheep songs, and then we picked up a, the third vassal, and we merged what the black sheep had been working on into vassals were the black sheep was not a song, that was a group, that was a project, a project between you and Ethan.
Speaker 1:Yes, Okay, unnamed.
Speaker 2:Okay, so it's crazy. So, speaking of Ethan Carter, tell me about how your friendship began, what he's doing now and when do you expect him to be back on the podcast, ethan Carter?
Speaker 1:and I probably first encountered one another I don't know probably six or when. I was probably five or six and he was eight or nine or something like that Childhood. He's two years older than you, he's four years older than me, okay, so we we encountered one another through schools and we lived in the same neighborhood, right up the street from one another, same church, so we, we had a lot of overlapping social institutions, if you will. And, um, then when I got to high school, he or middle school, he's five years older than me Damn, he's old. Um, when I got to middle school, I started being on the same sports teams with Mike and so, inherently, us living in the same neighborhood, I'd be hopping rides, and credit to him.
Speaker 1:He did take a lot of the younger guys under his wing and made them feel welcome, although he fucked with all of them. Uh, he did it. In a way he really, he really does love people, you know, and that showed he took it. You know, he took us in his youngsters and when we were in middle school he was in high school, showed us the ropes, so to speak. So he was really somebody that I looked at as a big brother figure for a long time it's.
Speaker 2:it's weird that you say that he's five years older than you. The off-dynamic when I'm around you is like you're his older brother. I know that's funny how that works. That's strange. But both y'all act sort of give off that the vibes and you know sending a host, and the vibes that you're his older brother because he'll do something and you'll kind of scald him, wave your finger like quit, all that I have to.
Speaker 1:I have to or else he'll get out of line. He fucks with me all the time he calls. He calls me like a onary old, onary bastard Because he I mean he still has the spirit of a teenager. I'm not saying he acts like a teenager. He handles his shit, he handles his responsibilities, but in his heart he's still a teenager.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I understand, I see that and I am too, and so our friendship has evolved.
Speaker 1:So he graduated and I was still in high school. I had plenty of friends, you know, that were my age or around my age. But then throughout college, when I was at Ole Miss, he was at Bethel and Keaton and Lightimer and I lived together and Ethan would come Clay, clay, live with y'all. No, clay, he lived around the corner, okay, he lived on Beanlin, but Mike would come down and party with us and chill and whatever and feel a tight crew, always, always. And we've just stayed in contact throughout the years and our friendship has grown closer as we've gotten older, particularly because we've been friends for so long. But also we have similar interests in sports and music and chasing women and doing shit that single guys do. We're the last left of our, I guess, that five-year window that either lives around here or that's not married. There may be a couple of y'all out there that I'm forgetting, but because our lives have taken similar paths in the way of not having a family, having a certain level of freedom, we tend to end up in the same vicinity.
Speaker 2:I'm looking at my phone now for the calculator, so I don't feel like doing math. I was 34 when I got married. Good for you, Benjamin. So a lot of my friends got married way earlier, but I was 34, so you.
Speaker 1:fine, I am. Look, I'm in my prime, dude, I'm in my prime. I'm not going to say that life doesn't get lonely, because I'd be lying if I said that I don't get lonely sometimes. But being lonely doesn't the fix to being lonely doesn't necessarily have to be go get married or go get in a relationship. There are other ways to deal with that and I'm thankful that I recognize that, because it allows me to explore who I am further and in the long run, I think that allows me to give whoever I end up with as a partner the best version of myself For me it well, my whole life.
Speaker 2:but you know, 18 to 30, had I been married I would have been no good, for whoever I was married to. I wouldn't say I've got my own stuff figured out now. I wouldn't say that you got to work on stuff every day, but pure as hell not in my 20s. No, I would have been no good. So you're fine. What's Ethan doing now?
Speaker 1:Ethan has taken a job in the Jackson area and he's been doing that for a couple months now, I think, and living over there he's. He started in Madison. Now I think he's got a place in Jackson and he's back and forth between here. He's. He's got to make. I want him to start making appearances on the podcast for the Patreon subscribers. Okay, that's the. That's a role that I would like to see him take on.
Speaker 2:Okay, so would he do that? Would it be? Would he strickel be on Patreon or would he be able to Depends? Okay?
Speaker 1:It depends.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's a wild card.
Speaker 1:So we would. What we would have to do is do a couple of episodes and not release them. You know, let's say, do three episodes that we intend on releasing but just see how those episodes go and how they turn out and the nature of them, and then determine okay, do we want to keep this same theme and keep it behind the paywall, or do we want to totally change the theme so that we can put it behind the paywall and on streaming platforms?
Speaker 2:So have you reached out to my cousin, your friend Clay Johnson, and said what up with that? You know, don't eight and five dollars a month. What's up with that? No, you should tell them.
Speaker 1:I said, dude, no, I no, I'm not going to do that, because I'm joking, right, just cause it's my cousin, well, he ain't going to give me five dollars if I ask to be in his face for it. So we love you, clay. Shout out Clay. But something that I have gotten better at is just recognizing how effective a call to action to an audience is. When I first started I was very reluctant, and even I still am to a certain extent now. But I haven't had to learn and recognize that just because you ask somebody to do something doesn't make you thirsty, doesn't make you seem desperate. That's just simply you communicating to your audience what you want, and people recognize that. I was overthinking it too much and still do to a certain extent, but we're getting to a point where we're going to start taking on sponsorships. We're in that process right now and so people will be seeing that coming in.
Speaker 2:I'd say probably next couple months and you got a like a tier worked out working on that right now.
Speaker 1:So I'm just I'm just making calls right now I've had one, one business bite and say that they're interested. I'm going to try to get a couple of surefire options and then determine how I want to do it. Do I want to just create one price to have an exclusive sponsor of the county line, or do I want to break it up and do a tier system like you're talking about in some form?
Speaker 2:Are you going to do like Joe Rogan or Ben Shapiro, say, this episode sponsored by athletic greens. Are you going to do that in the middle of the episode? Or you have a banner, or have you worked all that out?
Speaker 1:That's what I'm going to have to figure out. Okay, that's what I'm going to have to figure out and once so, once I figure out how I'm going to structure the sponsorship package or the sponsorship plan and advertising, will it be more of an advertisement or will it be a sponsorship, you know? Will it be an advertisement where we just have ad space and we charge different prices at different points of the episode to have your ad, or do we want to just say this entire episode is sponsored by such and such and such and such? Because I think you can, I think there are a lot of different ways you can go about doing a pricing structure, and so, of course, then you start looking at profitability and what makes you the most money in the least amount of time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:I would also assume that your potential sponsors. It would only make sense for, if it's a business, for that business to have some kind of relationship with your listeners or with your podcast.
Speaker 1:For sure I don't want to have any ads on my shit. That is not somebody I know. Now I'm not saying that one day, if good, or the sunglass company comes to me and says, hey, I want to do it and do some ads with you, I'm not going to say I'm not going to turn them down, but I'm going to build a relationship with a product that I have personal experience with, obviously. But what was your question? I forgot.
Speaker 2:I just said, I would think it would make more sense.
Speaker 1:I know where I was going. I think that one of the ways to do it as far as sponsorships go is have built into the plan that the owner or representative of that brand have episodes and have multiple episodes to build that relationship with the audience.
Speaker 2:Okay, Ethan's probably been on here Six times more than that. Another frequent county line guest.
Speaker 1:So I am.
Speaker 2:That I don't ask you about on December 27, 2021. Tommy Warren OK, tom Tom was killed. Tell the folks listening about Tom Tom, your friendship and what kind of legacy he leaves behind.
Speaker 1:Rest in peace, Tom yes.
Speaker 2:And before you get started, I never met him, but he was one of my favorite guests. The episodes were always great.
Speaker 1:He was the ultimate entertainer. Like who he was, was an entertainer all the time. Like Tom Tom, not even trying, just being himself, was an entertainer. Tom Tom and I met in elementary school. He was three years older than me he's my sister's age, so three grades ahead of me and we were always either at North side or West side or at a sporting function primarily, but Tom Tom was also in the band. So school and sports is how Tom Tom and I knew one another. Of course, we played on the same teams in high school and then we continued our friendship on after high school, intermittently, mostly through Facebook or social media.
Speaker 2:Kind of how it goes with a lot of people after high school right. Friends people, you're friends with it just.
Speaker 1:And so growing up he was always this is so cliche, but he always had a smile on his face and he was always putting smiles on other people's faces. More importantly, to those people at least and that's you know I did not know anybody who disliked Tom Tom had a beef with Tom Tom. That's why his death to me was so shocking. I was like because when I first heard that Tom Tom got shot I was like what? I was like who the fuck would shoot Tom Tom? Like why, who, for what reason? It just didn't make any sense. It was so antithetical to his nature, like I did, it was hard to believe that he would be involved in anything close to something like that. Now we know that he was called in crossfire, wrong place, wrong time. So that was a huge shock.
Speaker 1:But he was a huge influence on the county line because early on still am struggling for guests at certain points but entertaining people, and early on Tom Tom was very. He was motivation for me because when I first started thinking about who I wanted to have on just people that I knew just getting started he was one of the first people that came to mind. I was like there's no way people won't enjoy here in Tom Tom, because that motherfucker is hilarious. So I just asked him you know, hey, you want to be on the podcast. He was like hell yeah.
Speaker 1:So I get over to his house and Tom Tom been working on music and so Tom Tom started letting me, he started playing some of the stuff that he had been producing and recording and making in the way of music at his house over there and he had a. He had a chicken coop where he had to, literally a studio set up in there recording both the whole night. And he's one of the biggest motivation for me just even trying to rap, because I saw what he was able to do and how he was doing it and I wanted to try it, and so that's that's how he became a very frequent guest on the county lines, because he was a motivation, you know, to keep it going as an entertainer and, as you know, somebody that really wanted to, really wanted to do something outside of the norm in the way of you know how he made a living he would have. I mean, I have no doubt in my mind if you look at Too Smooth and Cole right now, tom Tom be right there beside him.
Speaker 2:He was, he was, he was well on his way, and not to Too Smooth and Cole the last two episodes that they did on two or three with you, I think.
Speaker 1:I think they've done three, maybe four apiece. Okay, but in different instances. So like Cole was on there, with Tom. He was on there with Tom one time together I think they've with Too Smooth and Cole. I think it's three Okay.
Speaker 2:They are also some of my favorites. The way y'all the three y'all interact is as natural as can be and that's not me saying the other ones aren't, but it feels like me hanging out with my friends from high school. That's what it feels like, except somebody hit record somewhere and didn't tell anybody about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well it's. It's interesting how we have different chemistries with people, and particularly around here. I talk with Cole and smooth differently than I conversate with you or Daniel or you know, just because obviously we have different experiences with one another, but going to school together, having a lot more interaction there, it's just weird how the different conversations are different with different people and you interact with them differently.
Speaker 2:And your experiences with those people, those specific people. I act. You know you go with my oldest friend in the world, andrew Wyndham. How we act around each other is different than how I act around other people. Just right. Right Experiences from what you you know. I would assume the same thing with you and Ethan, because y'all got your little yeah all that stuff y'all do that. I would assume majority of people that listen may not know at all that that gibberish is.
Speaker 1:But it's definitely gibberish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you know, shut up. You know. I'm sure a lot of people don't know it. I don't know what that means. I don't have to know, but it's. But you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, shout out to my boy, my boy Kiki. I saw Kiki and Oxford two weeks ago.
Speaker 2:I was with.
Speaker 1:Keaton Lane. Okay, I was with Kiki and Ethan, ethan and I slept in my truck.
Speaker 1:And it does not surprise me at all. Not at all. Yeah, we went up there with zero plan and it showed we got separated at like 530 on Saturday of the LSU game, like before the game, after the game. So when the game started, majority of people that were in the grove went into the game. So Ethan and I look at each other and we're like we want to watch the game but we don't want to go in, we don't want to stay in the grove, whatever. So we'll go to the square, we'll get into the bars early, we'll watch the game there, let the night play out. So we walked from the grove to the square. We got separated on that trip and I don't know what he did. We didn't see each other. Our both of our phones died and he ended up on the square, as did I, but we don't know what bars we went to. It's like his memory. It's like somebody drugged us when we left the grove.
Speaker 2:It's like somebody drugged you or you drugged yourselves. One of the two, maybe a little bit about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it was a good time, we had fun. But that was the second night. The first night I don't remember what we did. It wasn't anything crazy or anything, but we uh we ended up getting locked out of the place we were supposed to be staying. They locked us out and so we just had to end up sleeping in the truck. That's how we were slumped out in the Tahoe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that doesn't sound very much fun. It was what it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I'm sure we did have a cooler beer. We had a cooler beer and a little of that devil's lettuce. Yeah, no-transcript.
Speaker 2:So, going back to the time, time, what's? What kind of legacy do you think he leaves behind?
Speaker 1:Well, of course, no death is good, but the death of Tom Tom, it seems since then, speaking anecdotally, anecdotally, with with no data to back this opinion up, it seems that the gun violence, particularly in the black community in Philadelphia, has decreased since his death.
Speaker 1:So in that way his death has benefited the community, because I do think a lot of people who were not paying attention, or maybe even who were not paying attention, to the level of gun violence in Philadelphia, recognized that people are shooting aimlessly, primarily juveniles, and a very good person got caught in the crossfire of it and I think it made people who were participating in it recognize that they need to chill out and but I also think it allowed the community as a whole to recognize that, hey, we need to pay attention to what our youth are doing, we need to recognize that we have a problem here and we need to address it.
Speaker 1:But I think the biggest thing is the people that were participating in it backed the fuck up because they recognized that they took somebody that didn't didn't deserve to die Not saying anybody does, but he damn sure did and he was very influential in the community and everybody liked Tom Tom. He's a great dad, husband there for his family. You know, it's no secret, in the black community there aren't a lot of stable households with two parent households, and he was a. He was an example of that and we lost him because of senseless violence. So I think in that way his death has benefited the community. But obviously you don't want to ever lose anybody, especially not anybody like Tom Tom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was 19. When I was 19 years old, my best friend got killed in a car wreck and that that was kind of a pivotal point for me and it turned me. Then it didn't turn me. I allowed it to turn me down a road. Well, I struggled with with mental health issues for a long time Depression, anxiety and all of that was in me, but I allowed it to To dictate how I've lived a lot of my life. So, talking about mental health, you've talked about mental health on numerous episodes and, and addressing specifically the first episode, we told your story how you began to first address your anxiety and depression. How are people, including those closest to you, responded to you telling your story In a very positive way? Do you hear a lot? Do you hear? Have you gotten a lot of people reached out to you since you? Yes, you've talked on it. Yes, I've had more people reach out to me.
Speaker 1:More people reach out to me about that than any other thing I've spoken about or any other guests that I've had on. That's great.
Speaker 2:And Well, that leads me to that you know who Ryan Clark is. I don't believe he was safety for LSU and oh yeah, and the Pittsburgh Steelers and I thought you meant like dude living down the road or something. No.
Speaker 1:I, yeah, I know who Ryan Clark is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's got a excuse me, besides being on ESPN on NFL Live. And yeah, he's got a podcast on with you with two former NFL players called the Pivot podcast. Yes, I've seen that. Ok, so it's him and Fred Taylor and One other guy I feel bad on, I can't remember his name, he played for the Dolphins, but they have conversations, long form conversations, variety of people Shaq, ric Flair, lil Wayne, ice Cube, snoop, the Rock, dion, dustin Lynch. Oh, one podcast.
Speaker 2:Ryan Clark was talking about three questions that a friend of him asked, asked him the day before that friend took his own life, and those questions are are you good, are you OK? Do you need anything? For some of us that battle daily and anxiety and have battled it or continue to battle their days, we can't get out of bed when the weight on our chest is almost we can't breathe. The strongest of us fight the biggest and baddest and most relentless demons Needs something and admitting it, it needing something and admitting it is a sign of weakness. I mean a sign of bravery, not weakness. So, having said all that, are you good?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I'm good. I appreciate you asking. I am Always going to be stressed, no matter the circumstances, whether it be my occupation, my living situation, the podcast not performing the way I want, whatever, whatever the stress indicator is, I'm always going to be stressed. I'm stressed at baseline, but how do I cope with that? It's up to me to ensure that I do the things that I need to do to manage that baseline stress level, and I'm doing that. Is it a struggle? Hell, yes, a struggle, but life ain't easy, life ain't easy. And coming to that realization that life ain't easy, Life ain't fair, and just accepting that but then also striving to be the best version of myself, is one of the most liberating things when dealing with Mental health or just life in general, because it's so enormous. The enormity of it is fucking crazy, but I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I appreciate you asking.
Speaker 1:Having conversations like this help I'm a true believer in Quote unquote getting it off your chest. Again, I'm not suggesting that everybody has to sit in front of a microphone and a camera to do it, but if you're listening to this and you're struggling, it will help you to tell somebody whatever it is, whatever you know is is Making you suffer. It will help you to tell somebody about it, even if they don't even say anything back. So you're good, are you OK? I am OK Again. I don't ever want to make the mistake of Becoming complacent. And so there is. There's a fine line between Pushing yourself and being hard on yourself, and for me, finding that sweet spot is the biggest thing I'm struggling with. But it could be way worse. It could be way worse. You know, I have a tendency to be very hard on myself. Like the external forces are no More harsh than the internal forces that I impose on myself, I feel that you see, what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the biggest obstacle most of us have to overcome is our self, and I think I'm doing a decent job of that. But that's always. That's always going to be. The biggest struggle is how. How do I determine if I'm being too hard on myself or I'm not pushing myself?
Speaker 2:Do you need anything? I?
Speaker 1:need. You know what I want for my birthday? Is that a big booty? How? All I need for my birthday is a big booty. How to change? Yeah?
Speaker 2:The first time you said it sounds like you said big booty, whole, definitely don't need one of those, all right. Well, good, little bit lighter. What are three books that you'd recommend somebody 1984.
Speaker 1:By George Orwell. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. And how to win free how to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Why 1984 is very relevant to a lot of the issues that we're facing in society today that humanity is facing. We can learn a lot from someone who was experiencing tyranny and projecting how that was going to impact the future, and he was very accurate and a lot of the subject matter in that book is extremely relevant to a lot of questions that we're trying to answer today. Outliers is very informative in the way that it highlights the fact that although people are extraordinary, they still have to be lucky to achieve high levels of greatness. For example, Bill Gates. He was born in Washington State. Well, in that state, in Seattle, it's no secret that that was the home of the advent of computers and supercomputers. So he had access. Is he brilliant? Yes, but he had access to these resources at such a young age. That avoid Benjamin. Yeah, you can pull it back. Pull it back to your pivot.
Speaker 2:That's good, right there.
Speaker 1:He had access to those computers. So was he brilliant? Yes, but at the same time he was lucky that he came up in that area, so he was an outlier. In that way, it's very. It also tells a story about the correlation between NHL players that were born in Canada and their birthdays. Very interesting book and informative how to win friends and influence people. I've learned more from that book than any other book I've ever read. I ain't ever read the Bible All right Three podcasts that you'd recommend.
Speaker 1:Midwife Crisis podcast. Two girls from Mississippi, a porch talk. Another podcast from Mississippi. Who am I missing? You tell me, trying to get all my Miss Suvie people. What about the man up podcast? Man up podcast? You know those three podcasts are all in the same vicinity geographically Rough draft podcast. That's a Holly Rumbarger and I forget the name of her host. Co-host. They're out of Hattiesburg, so always the people from Mississippi. I want to recommend them, but on a larger scale. Joe Rogan is the best in it. I listened to him a great deal. Chris Williamson has a podcast called Modern Wisdom Very, very good podcast, I reckon. I highly recommend that if you are a cerebral person, you like to think, you like to learn. If you don't, I don't suggest it. But he covers a broad spectrum of topics and he's very smart and he does a good job. He's been doing it a while. I think he's got 600 episodes or something crazy like that. What episodes is for you?
Speaker 2:Possibly 125. Okay, you've done 125 already, or this would be the 125th. Yeah, there are 100, 123 are out.
Speaker 1:I've recorded 124. So theoretically this would be 125. If they put out in that order, gotcha Favorite stand-up comedians?
Speaker 2:Not necessarily one, but Richard Pryor, Cat Williams, Dave Chappelle, Cedric the Entertainer.
Speaker 1:I think I'm going to go with the Cedric, Cedric, the Entertainer, Miss Pat Ron White, Joe Rogan Bill Burr.
Speaker 2:He's on my list. I wrote down mine.
Speaker 1:Burt Kreischer. I'm trying to think historically.
Speaker 2:He's definitely on mine.
Speaker 1:Martin Lawrence, mike Epps, red Fox I don't listen to. I don't recall a lot of women comedians. I like women female comedy, but I just don't. Nikki Glaser is good Um Seinfeld, I like all the greats. You know what about you listen to Steve Martin? I haven't. I know who you're talking about, though.
Speaker 2:You need to listen to his stuff in the 70s, his early stuff. Well, anything that he does, it's great. He does a tour now. He plays band jams. He's a great singer. He's a great singer. He's a great tour now. He plays banjo. But he does stand up, tour and play some banjo with Martin Short, uh-huh, and Movies you got. Well, let's tell you what. Let's skip movies. Since you're a football guy, what's your Favorite football movies?
Speaker 1:Favorite football movie. Remember the Titans. The Titans by far Not even close. The second one I don't even know Friday Night. Lights. Yeah, I mean, I'm not crazy about it, I'm crazy about Remember the Titans, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's that real shit. Did you watch Friday Night?
Speaker 1:Lights TV show Intermittently, Like if it's on. Well, I mean, at one time it's all anybody I knew was watching. So I'm guilty by association in that way that I saw a lot of Friday Night Lights at different points throughout the series, but I never once sat down myself and watched it from beginning to end in sequence. So I don't I wouldn't say it's one of my favorites. No, Nor the movie either, Except for when Tim McGrath beats his son up.
Speaker 2:Ha ha, ha, ha, ha ha. Uh, what's the concert you'll never forget?
Speaker 1:Um, hank Williams Jr and Jackson, mississippi Coliseum circa 2009. Mississippi State beat Florida in the swamp that night and we were hammered at 15 years old in the Coliseum going ham watching Hank Jr with a Saints jersey on. And they started doing Maroon White in the Coliseum once everybody found out that State had won and then we drove drunk around the State Capitol that night. Um, acted like idiots Because we were idiots and um, but yeah, kid Rock, hank Williams Jr, 2009.
Speaker 2:Uh, in New Orleans 2001, up and spoke concert. Dr Dre, eminem, snoop Dogg, ice Cube was on the tour, but he was not in New Orleans. Damn Cube, yeah, but Nate Dogg, one of my. I mean, if you don't love Nate Dogg, I ain't got nothing for you. I mean, I don't know what to tell you, nate. Nate Dogg lived in Mississippi for a little bit.
Speaker 1:Ham, snoop Ray J Brandy, all from Mississippi originally. But why does that get missed? Like why doesn't? I mean? Obviously Snoop grew up in California, but was he born here in Macomb?
Speaker 2:I don't, I had to look that up. Somebody's not. I don't think he was born here but lived here for a while. Oh, okay, Could be wrong. Could be Nate Dogg.
Speaker 1:I think Nate Dogg, afro man, same thing. Afro man was here at a couple of different points, if I understand correctly, as a child and then later as a young adult.
Speaker 2:I've seen him in concert probably six times.
Speaker 1:I would love to see him in concert.
Speaker 2:Up and Smoke was my in 2001, right in the middle of that heyday. That was my favorite before Katrina. Yeah, not long ago, daniel Sharp gave you an album by the Doors. Have you listened to it? I?
Speaker 1:have not, it's sitting right there. In that case, I have zero surprise on my face.
Speaker 2:What other music, what music other than hip hop or country have you listened to lately that you're really vibing with Jazz soul.
Speaker 1:Those two primarily. I like listening to the piano and I like listening to the saxophone. There's a girl by the name of Cleo Soul. She has a lot of songs that I've been listening to lately. She's I forget what country she's from Somewhere in Europe, I think. Kenny G, I folks with Kenny G, I like Kenny G. Oh, kenny G, I like. What's this man's name? Maputo James Maputo. Hold on, let me get this man's name right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Cause I like listening to him. Let's see, you walked in earlier, didn't know that. I must have thought I didn't fuck with Elena's.
Speaker 2:Morse, it was just surprising to hear it.
Speaker 1:This guy is the guy I'm looking up. He's. I think he plays the same. Okay, so it's a song by Bob James and David Sanborn. David Sanborn is the guy that I've listened to. I've heard David Sanborn, but the name of the song is Maputo by Bob James and David Sanborn. I've been jamming on that bitch and I also listen to.
Speaker 2:Is that kind of like I kicked the wall and all Maputo I?
Speaker 1:don't know. I don't know if it's Maputo or not. I don't know if it's Maputo. I hadn't thought about it in that way and I really hadn't. It's not a. There aren't words. So you like instrumental? Depends on what it is. Yeah, like I like instrumental, I think that's an instrumental Maputo, maputo. And then also like listening to Hot 8 Brass Band. Yeah, I've been listening to a lot of them. They're in the steady rotation. I mean they're at least a couple times a week Did.
Speaker 2:I send you that about New Orleans. There was a Galactic and juvenile and the.
Speaker 1:I saw that with all the New Orleans rappers yeah.
Speaker 2:And the dirty dozen brass band doing a song. Did I send you that video?
Speaker 1:Yes, you did. I saw it. Juveniles made a resurgence, has he? I mean, I feel like. I mean, I've always felt with juvenile, but it just seems like his popularity stagnated for a little while and here recently it's like juvenile has been everywhere, all over the internet.
Speaker 2:I hadn't seen him in a while, but he didn't go to jail. Have you seen the juvenile Tiny Desk concert? Hell yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:BG just got out of jail. You know who BG is. Uh-oh, let's see.
Speaker 2:New Orleans rapper.
Speaker 1:He and Boosie did a song. My dog, my dog, my dog, I don't get some of that he just came out with it last month because BG just got out of jail, okay, and Boosie been holding his ass down son. He been holding him down while he been in the can, and so Boosie got the first track when he got up out that bitch cuh.
Speaker 2:I'll take BG, my dog.
Speaker 1:It's BG and Boosie, okay, and it's a picture of Boosie with his arm around BG on the cover.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, send that to me.
Speaker 1:I'll send it to you right now Say less Of all your close friends.
Speaker 2:which one of their wives or girlfriends do you dislike, and why?
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a tough one. I'm joking.
Speaker 2:I didn't expect you.
Speaker 1:Look, I won't tell you who it is, but I'll tell you why. Tell me the why, okay. So you asked which one of my friends, wives or girlfriends. I'll just make a general statement of what I dislike about my friends, girlfriends or wives, when I don't care for them very much, when she tells him what to do all the time and is unreasonable and does not care about his opinion but also can't go with the flow. Not saying she's got to be a tomboy, but be able to have a conversation with men. That's a problem I think we have. Men have trouble having a conversation with women and vice versa, which I'm sure that's an age old problem. But shit, when a woman can't carry on and have a conversation with a room full of men, she probably ain't going to make it very long. You'd be surprised, yeah, but generally speaking, do I think some of my friends have gotten married, have settled, so to speak? Yes, but I don't think that's just my friends, I think that's society in general. Yeah, I never lived people that settled.
Speaker 1:I was listening to a podcast the other day by a friend of mine who I met on a podcast the other day by Chris Williamson or Williams Modern Wisdom, and he had this lady on there Her name escapes me. Her last name's Kearney, I think K-E-A-R-N-E-Y and they were talking about the detrimental impact the prevalence of single parent homes is and is going to continue to have on society. She said that the trend is that people are getting married less, so therefore the birth rates are lower, so we're having fewer children. So our age, our overall age in America, is getting older. But she said that more people are deciding not to settle just to get married. More people are of the opinion that if it's not the one, then I'll just live by myself. Fuck it. Which is encouraging, yeah, but you're going to have less people. We need more people in America. We need more younger people. We need more young Americans. We need more young Philadelphians. You can't have more older people Fuck no that's too expensive.
Speaker 2:I mean no, I mean literally you cannot have more. How can you have more older people? You can't. They've already been born and they went from young to old, so you can't. You're not going to birth an old person.
Speaker 1:No, but you can like that was just me. Certain numbers of old people. Can the amount of old people skew the median age?
Speaker 2:I knew what you meant. I was just being literal dickhead.
Speaker 1:No, you can't have more old people. Thank God we got enough.
Speaker 2:What does success mean to you and how do you know when you have attained?
Speaker 1:it.
Speaker 2:Money.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's it, that's not it, but that's a big component. Okay, I think it's a big time because money will allow me to do things that I want to do. I really want to do. What I mean by that is helping people. My ultimate goals can be reached with a certain level of money. I'm not saying that I'm not impacting people now, but my impact can be felt greater to more with the more money that I have. That's a component of success. But also almost an equal component is knowing that I'm providing either a service or a benefit to a certain amount of people. You know, right now we're sitting at about 5,000 listens a month or downloads a month, and that's a lot, you know, and everybody that listens that means a lot. But being able to reach 5,000 people a month should not be taken for granted on my part. You know that should be a recognition of success. So there are a lot of different components of success, but you know, number one are we are, am I helping somebody and is it fulfilling to me than that success.
Speaker 2:What's your biggest failure and what did you learn from that experience?
Speaker 1:My biggest failure is hmm, I really don't have something that sticks out in my mind is being my biggest failure. I try my best to not view a whole lot as being a failure.
Speaker 2:Well, let me reword that have you learned more from failures in your life or have you learned more from successes?
Speaker 1:I've learned more from coming up short. I wouldn't say failure. Not attaining the goal is how I would phrase that and frame that in my mind. To me, failure is so extreme or black and white.
Speaker 2:Whereas life is more gray. I understand that it's all about perspective, so you've learned more from shortcomings than from windfalls. Tell me about the three most influential people in your life and how they impacted you.
Speaker 1:I'm going to utilize the marriage of my parents as one person, because that's really what it represents. That's the number one most influential institution, if you will, in my life. And then I'd say from there it's a conglomeration of people. You know, I don't have somebody that just sits right there behind my parents and influence in my life. I would say a mixture of very close family and friends fill up that number two, three, four, whatever you know. However you want to rank it.
Speaker 1:Coaches, preachers, fathers of close friends, leaders, particularly men in the community, have had a huge impact on me because they recognized and then expressed to me at an early age that they thought that I was a leader or I had the characteristics that a leader has, and so they instilled in me that I had potential, I had a lot of potential that I could fulfill, that it was up to me, but they identified it and relayed that to me, and so that has always been impactful in how I've carried myself, because they told me that people see me that way, and so that allowed me to be hold myself more accountable and more responsible for how I conduct myself and recognizing the weight that a person who is a quote leader, their words has, and so the men, the strong men that I have in my, that I've had in my life, have relayed that to me, and so that's been very eye opening and almost like a cheat code, so to speak, to not have to go through some bullshit, because I already recognize that people see me a certain way, generally speaking.
Speaker 1:And then of course, I mean the women in the community, the mothers of my friends, the women that I spent a lot of time in their house they know who they are as a child did a very good job raising us, particularly boys, because we were hail, we were held to deal with. There was a lot going on in the way of mixture of personalities and all of that that they had to put up with, and I commend them for it and thankful every day for it. But, yeah, I'd say my parents, and then the parents of my close friends and then, of course, coaches and preachers and people like that, have been most influential. You know people in my immediate community for sure.
Speaker 2:What was one of the most best or most worthwhile investments as you've made.
Speaker 1:My house my house For sure, financially speaking, particularly at the price that I got it and the age that I got it I mean the age you were when you bought it Right, that's been one of the most beneficial purchases or investments that I've had so far. And you know, in a place like Mississippi, you can do that now here, if somebody waits much longer, they're going to have to pay double for a house that's $65,000 right now in Philadelphia. What year did you buy it? 2020. November of 2020.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you might have. It might have been right before the interest rate skyrocket.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I got 2.9.
Speaker 2:Yeah so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good, but I did for somebody out there who's maybe not very financial literate or personal finance literate. Getting the equity built up in this house at a low interest rate allowed me to utilize this house as collateral on further borrowing. So my interest rate did go up, but the fact that it was so low whenever I got in the increase as a result of getting a line of credit, that interest rate relatively speaking long term is still not that high. So really I got a deal for sure on the front end. Now Dave Ramsey would say I did the wrong thing by going to get a line of credit and using my house as collateral. But to do some things in life you got to take some fucking risks, and so making that purchase when I did allowed me to further better myself.
Speaker 2:So I think you probably, I would assume, today you haven't been around that many people. So well, let's look back at yesterday. Yesterday were you honest all day.
Speaker 1:I think so.
Speaker 2:Were you kind to everyone you talked with yesterday.
Speaker 1:The only person I wasn't kind with yesterday was Jerry, because at 6 am he has a blower in my front yard going full fucking blast. I sleep naked. So I jump up out of bed and I go to the front door and I've got a pillow over my privates, over my balls, and I open the door and I start flicking the light on the porch trying to get his attention. Is it still dark? I said, jerry, what the fuck are you doing? I just get these leaves off the yard. I was like, jerry, it is 6 am, two more hours until you crank that back up. 7 15. Warrr, other than Jerry. Yes, I was kind.
Speaker 2:Did you do something for someone else, something good for someone else yesterday?
Speaker 1:For sure.
Speaker 2:What's giving you hope right now?
Speaker 1:People, People are always my greatest source of hope and inspiration by far. Yeah, building the relationships and friendships with family and friends that are closest to me and then building new friendships. All that and then observing. You know people are where everything emanates from. So I can go read a new book, listen to a new song, watch a new movie that's created by people, and so I know you're going to the AI direction. No, what you got.
Speaker 2:My opinion is that everything does not come from people. I think who created people is where everything comes from. Yeah, that's my opinion on a religious level?
Speaker 1:Yes, for sure, yes. But here on and right in front of me, in the real world, the shit that I can see, the relationships and the friendships with physical beings, is really what gives me hope and inspiration.
Speaker 2:What are you deeply grateful for right now?
Speaker 1:Family and friends. Family and friends, that's always been the most important and that will always be the most important.
Speaker 2:Talking about podcasts, early there's one you ever heard of real ones, with John Bernthoff. You know who John Bernthoff is. Do you ever watch the Walking Dead?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You remember early on Shane.
Speaker 1:Yes, I remember Shane's bitch ass. Yeah, so Shane got dusted, so they trusted.
Speaker 2:He that's the actor who plays Shane so and he's been in some of the other stuff. He was the Punisher and the Punisher series and but he got a podcast. He interviews people he knows called real ones. You all check it out it's. It's really good. He had a shyly buff on there you know I'm talking about, and shy went through some stuff publicly a few years ago. Anyway, there's a story on there that he told. I thought in this way, at least my part of it.
Speaker 2:Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said we're so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate. The farmer said maybe. The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and then even everybody came back and said oh, isn't that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses. The farmer again said maybe.
Speaker 2:The following day his son tried to break one of the horses and while riding it he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said oh dear, that's too bad. And the farmer responded maybe the next day the conscript conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again, all the neighbors came around and said Isn't that great? Again he said, maybe the whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity and it's really impossible to tell whether anything happens in it is good or is bad, because you never know what the consequence of the misfortune, or you never know that what will be the consequences of good fortune. I agree with that. I thought that was a cool story. So yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker 1:So why did you want to come interview me, Ben?
Speaker 2:I thought it'd be. You might have some new listener you may or may not and I thought it'd be a good way. Most of the podcasts I know the people who own or run or host the podcast are usually interviewing other people, and I thought it would be a good idea Let your listeners possibly, if I ask decent enough questions, find out more about you.
Speaker 1:I think that's a tremendous idea. I am glad that you took it upon yourself to come up with the idea, then express it to me, because, as I think about it, you are right. I am often in the seat of host, and, although I do give my opinions and let my thoughts be heard, I'm often guiding the conversation, and often or I always give the guest the time. That's what the long form is all about, is allowing someone to get their thoughts out, and so there is a component of getting to know me that's missing, and so I think it would be good if we did this ever so often, so that the audience does get to see me from a different perspective.
Speaker 2:It's kind of funny that it happened like this, because I had the idea and I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of it, but I listened to a porch talk, but I had this idea several months ago. And then I go on a porch talk and this Alan has somebody that wanted to ask him questions. I didn't I don't recall any of those questions, but the guy was trying to get to know Alan. Right, I just thought it was funny that I also had that idea.
Speaker 1:and who else better to do it than Benjamin Netton Hardy?
Speaker 2:That's right. I think a little bit differently than a lot of people, so I just thought it'd be a curveball.
Speaker 1:That shit in Israel is crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's scary One, it's horrible, it's just horrible. What's going on? Murders and rapes of people going on. That's horrible Right off the bat. But then you know, now they, you know some radicals have called, called yesterday for a day of jihad, not only across the world, including in the United States, and which would mean Acts of terror and people dying. So so for Hamas, was that supposed to be today? It's supposed to be yesterday. So there were several schools and what was there?
Speaker 1:Was there a market significant increase in terror?
Speaker 2:attacks in the United States or in the United States.
Speaker 2:Not that I'm aware of, that's good, but Gavin Newsom, in California and in New York they had several I know. In New York from what I heard they gave everybody Thursday off, not everybody, but the majority of them Thursday For real. So Friday everybody was at work protecting houses of worship, schools. Some, many parents shows not to let their kids go to school and I would think not necessarily all Jewish but primarily Jewish parents held their children home from school in, you know, in fear of somebody attacking a place of worship or Jewish why do?
Speaker 1:why do people historically hate Jews?
Speaker 2:I don't know the answer to that. I'm sure that they long. That would probably be another two hour conversation.
Speaker 1:So I mean I know that there's a religious, a huge religious component, but does it like why the fuck did Hitler not like Jews, and is the reason that he didn't like them the same as Hamas? Because I can't imagine that being the case. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know how to connect those two dots other than evil.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, but I wonder like and I'm not expecting you to have the answer to this- I'm talking, I'm thinking out loud yeah. Hey, why? Why would Hitler in Germany have the same vitriol and the same evil as Hamas towards the same people? I mean, that baffles me. It's been going on for centuries.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's what's and what's going on over there is. It is already and could very much determine, you know what happens in the next few years. But it could be another world war. Yeah, throw in, you know, iran and Iran needs to be dealt with.
Speaker 1:They're the problem. They're the fucking problem. They need to be dealt with Now. I'm not saying America needs to deal with them, because I don't think we should deal with nobody. I think we got enough shit here at home that we need to worry about working on ourselves more so than doing anything anywhere else. But it always comes back to Iran Ultimately funded them, you know, especially when you're talking about Hezbollah and Hamas, which are both Muslim terrorist organizations, and the way I frame Hamas in my mind is like the way that they patrol and control that society in that area of the world is in the same vein. I'm not saying it's the same, but it's in the same vein as the way the KKK controlled our part of the world. It's a similar mindset.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Control through terror.
Speaker 2:Mm, hmm. What a lot of people have expressed concern about is, with the amount of people that are coming through our southern border, that there might be Hamas or, even worse than that, hezbollah sales coming through our southern border and have been here for a while and that could lead to Attacks.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't doubt it One bit on our homeland, I wouldn't doubt it. One bit. But I can tell you one thing they better not be in Mississippi because we got that. We got that firepower for the ass and we would notice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and in Spal town, mississippi, yes, we would notice now the New Orleans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, new Orleans, that'd probably be even more notice or more noticeable than New York City or Houston, texas or Chicago or Chicago or Los Angeles. There's melting pots where you've got millions of people stacked on top of each other. Right, nobody's paying attention to what the person next to him is doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's it's a concern, yeah it's a concern I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm interested in how Israel responds, because you, you have to, you have to, well, have to go, fuck them up right now.
Speaker 2:I know they cut off all electricity and power and water to Gaza and they give you know so we can cut that back on if we get our hostages back.
Speaker 1:They've also told all Israel has also told all Palestinians to migrate south to Egypt.
Speaker 2:Yes, and Egypt is not letting him in, right.
Speaker 1:They're the really. This is harsh, but really the solution. If you really want to Cut Hamas off, you just got to bomb it.
Speaker 2:What's now no kit. Yeah, what's hard about that is, hamas is setting up their their headquarters below hospitals.
Speaker 1:I understand that they're just gonna have to and I'm not saying like what they do it or don't do it.
Speaker 2:There are severe casualties and every ward, and I don't I Don't say that Like I'm heartless and I don't feel that that there are innocent people in any conflict that die, but it, you know, the longer they're allowed to be alive and thrive Hamas is, the more In general, the more innocent lives are gonna be lost.
Speaker 1:And I don't understand. Another component of this story that I understand is the support for the Palestinians in the United States. I understand that Hamas does not equal Palestine right. I understand that. I understand that not all Palestinians are of the Hamas sect.
Speaker 2:But To ridicule Israel and basically have opposition to Israel for retaliating, it would be like if Israel was Alabama and Palestine is Mississippi and the KKK, like you just said, is Hamas and KKK attacks Alabama. Alabama turns around and attacks Mississippi and somebody else says you know, we support, you know.
Speaker 1:You see what I'm saying. It doesn't. Yes, I understand exactly what you're saying.
Speaker 2:It doesn't make a lot of sense it seems to be.
Speaker 1:It is a what I think one media outlet described as a flashpoint on college campuses is the support for Palestinians. Dude, I think what's going on in the colleges is freaking a disaster like I think our Public is be. Our educated put college educated public is being misled. I think they're being given a certain curriculum and people are becoming Under its spell.
Speaker 2:I'm not a conspiracy theorist a bit it would make sense. But the advent of social media, and if You're gonna play a long-term game, start with trying to, first you divide people and then, if you want to change an area or countries, mindset long term, you start with the young people. Get them while they're young and Push whatever agenda that is. And you so you, you get the, the intellectuals at these universities to start indoctrinating these young people and over a long period of time you've Divided and and crushed what a and accomplished your goal of pushing your own agenda 10, 20, 50 years down the road. You start start a while back. So the absolute yeah, I agree with you. A Lot of college campuses. Right now, there are some wild and crazy ideas being being put forth, and then not only put forth, adopted and supported.
Speaker 1:Yes, I mean, you have what I. What I found is, I think, a lot of people who go through college young people and we don't have a huge problem with it in Mississippi because our ideas and beliefs are so opposite of what's what the liberal woke ideology consists of so like there's a huge contrast between what a lot of our young people are taught as as as children, and then what they're exposed to at the colleges. So it's not as extreme in our colleges, I don't think, but the fact that it's going on at these colleges and it becomes, and primarily the northeast and the west. And these young people are naive, they're malleable, they're still developing and and very susceptible to any idea, but the fact that they're being shoved one ideology, they're being told what to think, they're being told what's right, as opposed to being given an environment in which they can do that Exploration for themselves, like it's intended to be, as a disgrace there's a lot of, I believe, self-worth that some people get from social media with their posts, and it particularly younger people.
Speaker 2:You know there was no social media when I was born mm-hmm, you were born when 93. Okay, so there's no internet then. You know, when you were ten, you weren't Taking selfies of yourself and then posting it on Instagram and getting likes, getting those dopamine hits. A lot of kids nowadays self-worth is wrapped up in that those dopamine hits and those likes. And so, as they get older, if they post something that's About there, if they say, okay, you know, I'm a 18 year old American in college Was happen? You know I'm anti-Israel, I'm pro-Palestine, and they get 20,000 likes. That's gonna that what they're being fed. And then those, those From people around them, and then those likes to just further. That further illustrates that that doctrine that they're being taught, that's where they need to, that's what they need to follow right.
Speaker 1:There's so many different variables that make it so difficult to figure out Really what's going on that it's crazy. Between technology evolving technology, with a social media, the internet, the terrorist organizations, whether it be Hamas or the cartel, fentanyl being synthetically produced in China like the, the media outlets having all these different agendas, the politicians having different agendas, how you can fucking Photoshop shit and you can just turn. You can, you can make whatever fucking narrative you want to make, and there's so many different narratives out there and unreliable sources, or suspect sources at best, that you know it looks like the, the Democratic Party, that it looks like our media is the communications wing of the Democratic Party, but then they'll call you a conspiracy theorist if you pose that being a possibility.
Speaker 2:Not to get to inflammatory three years ago. This is October, so October of 2020. If you said on social media, a Look, coronavirus came from my lab, then you probably got deleted from said social media Now, unless I'm wrong, that's fact. Yes, so it's.
Speaker 1:It's crazy the election interference, to highlight the power of social media and media in general. Election interference, in my opinion, was not done at the precincts. It was not done because of all the mail, invalid mail, invalid initiatives. It was done by Facebook, instagram, youtube and the media outlets Deciding what information that you see when you get on.
Speaker 1:Was was accessible to the users. They killed that hunter-biden story. They killed it. I followed that shit from the from the day that it was reported all the way till now, and I've taken in a lot of different sources of information. That is a real story. There is real smoke associated with a fire in that story and they purposely suppress that story so that Joe Biden would win the election. That's election interference. That's bullshit and that's that's the crazy thing. Ever since then, I'm like they can, they can. They can decide what world we think we live in.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm or they want us to live in, so deciphering what information that you want to Get your facts from. Get your facts from Quote unquote fact Uh-huh, the sign what's true and what's not.
Speaker 1:It takes a lot of work. Yes, it takes a lot of work. You have to be committed to Doing a lot of research. You have to be committed to doing a lot of different Taking in information from a lot of different sources. You got to read shit that you don't want to read, just to get the other side of the story, so to speak. I hate to put it that way, but like there's a lot of shit put out by MSNBC with when I'm reading and I'm like I'm rolling my eyes, but I have to be true to that and read stuff that I don't want to read or I don't agree with to be fair, or to try to be as fair as possible.
Speaker 2:You need got to get the whole story and that just one side or the other, because there's bullshit on both sides, no doubt.
Speaker 1:And so you know, take, take both with a grain of salt, go do, do our own research, and even even saying doing research, okay, well, where's that research comes from? Most of us, wikipedia. For most people, that's the, that's the highest thing on the SEO. So who's putting the information into Wikipedia? There you go you know who's controlling the narrative within Wikipedia, so we had to be careful about how much stake we put in a certain sources content, was it?
Speaker 2:was it you that Was talking about the chat. Gpt about looking at the. Was the oldest members of Congress?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I mean, chapter GPT is the same thing. We had to. We had to be. I mean, there's nothing you and I can do about it, ben, like whoever's, in putting the data into the artificial intelligence right now, they're gonna get, they're gonna keep doing it, if we know it or not, but we do need it, the more we make people aware of what it takes to, generally speaking, inform this new technology. We need to do that because we don't want somebody putting a bunch of bullshit, bunch of lies and all this artificial intelligence, and then Everybody's running around thinking that you know, it has to be Columbus Day instead of, in our indigenous people's day instead of Columbus Day, or you know whatever these. This is the history that they're trying to change, they being these people with the woke ideology. We can't let them have sole control of this artificial intelligence, because that shit's running, gonna run our lives in 10 years and and all of our, all of our information is gonna come from there.
Speaker 2:Well, it's the same time, I also think you Got radicals on the far right too.
Speaker 1:That, yes, but they don't have as much control.
Speaker 2:I agree with that, but they spin a narrative and I'm up. So what I'm saying is I think Majority of people somewhere around the center I Think so too, but whether they are or not, what we need no matter how pretty or ugly it is is the absolute truth.
Speaker 1:That's what, that's just what we need, and then we can make our judgments and decisions Based off of that, rather than somebody's Version of the truth right now, good and evil are At war big time, not only in America but across the world, and the layers are being pulled back as we speak. As it pertains to our government particularly, there's a there's a fight going on between Establishment and anti-establishment, and that's what the next, that's what the 2024 election is gonna be. It's gonna be Establishment versus anti-establishment. Now what that looks like, and who's who's in the general election and who's what their party is, who ultimately becomes elected? Because RFK jr Coming at you know, dropping out, saying you know, fuck y'all Democrats, y'all gonna treat me like shit. I'll run on an independent ticket and y'all stick it up your ass, because that's gonna help Trump more than by it will, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So it's gonna be interesting. Benjamin, let's leave it right there. Yeah, that's good. Don't be a stranger. Yeah, I'll be listening. Anything else, you don't tell everybody. No, caroline congregation, we love you and we love being hearted. Peace you.