Men's Mental Health: Breaking Silence and Finding Connection

Vulnerability rarely comes packaged with laughter, but in this episode, we navigate the complex terrain of men's mental health through both heartfelt confessions and irreverent humor.

The conversation begins with our trademark banter before Mike, Rob, and Liam craft ridiculous fad diet concepts like "The Gorilla Diet" (eat like gorilla, be like gorilla) – highlighting how simplified messaging often trumps scientific accuracy. But beneath this comedic exterior lies a profound discussion about why men struggle to open up.

Mike courageously shares a deeply personal moment where he stood by a highway, waiting for a truck that never came – a pivotal moment that, had it gone differently, would have meant you'd never know his name today. This raw confession illustrates how close many men come to the edge before finding reasons to step back. "This is the longest stretch I've gone in a long time wanting to be here," Mike reveals. "That is possible for you."

We explore how traditional masculinity creates barriers to emotional expression and help-seeking, with Rob describing a moment when he was told to "man up" while crying at a friend's funeral. The hosts examine the growing isolation crisis, where despite living among thousands, meaningful connections become increasingly rare, especially with the rise of remote work and online-only friendships.

Through stories of survival, support, and second chances, we challenge listeners to recognize that vulnerability isn't weakness – it's essential for healing. Whether you're struggling yourself or know someone who might be, this episode reminds us that behind every laugh, joke, and seeming confidence, real people face real battles.

What's your relationship with vulnerability? When was the last time you checked on your friends – not just with a text message, but a meaningful conversation? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Transcript

Welcome to In Moderation

Speaker 1 0:18

Hello everybody.

Speaker 2 0:19

Welcome. It's good to start right here.

Speaker 3 0:21

Love it.

Speaker 1 0:21

Go, go, go go. Welcome back to In Moderation, You're better at introducing than we are. The show where you get a moderate dose of sarcasm, advice, and we already know we're not approved this fucker's got a soundboard.

Speaker 3 0:34

You know it's true because it had an echo.

Speaker 1 0:36

I've got lights too.

Speaker 3 0:43

If anybody says something I don't like, call them out for it. It looks like, yeah, police lights is a red.

Speaker 1 0:46

Yes, that will go over well on Spotify. Can't you get like a spectrograph thing? Have you ever seen those things where like people will put like a kiss song through a visualizer and they'll find two things that look like devil horns and they'll say oh yeah, I don't think that's true.

Speaker 3 1:01

I don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 1 1:05

OK, now I'm now I have to look at that when I'm editing this episode see what it looks like they do the craziest. Like you know. They'll have, like you know, a woman set up at like a high school, like a military recruiter, with a bunch of cans of monster.

Speaker 2 1:15

OK, I remember the monster. I was actually going to say I remember the monster lady talking about how monster is the devil, like it's calls to the devil. I don't, I don't remember like anything else about it, I am unaware of this. Oh, you haven't seen? Yeah, no, she's standing there. She's like monster and there's like a little symbol, you know, and they're like this symbol, looks like this symbol, which means the devil, like okay, and there's three scratch marks and if you do three times two, if you, you have a second monster, which everyone always says too.

Speaker 1 1:43

You know, the one is half serving of monster.

Speaker 2 1:46

I love those videos where they just put random words, random random numbers together, Like they add things up. And then you were subtract two and you add seven, and I'm like and then you have six, six, six. I'm like you just fucking put numbers together to get like what? Oh, I love it, Congratulations.

Speaker 1 2:01

You mapped. If one plus one equals two, I'll be leaving this conversation now. Hold on, let's put it through the calculator.

Speaker 3 2:08

Fate has ordained that here we are bye, mike goodbye, bye it was nice having you I can't do math.

Speaker 1 2:16

I the only math I can do is adding the number of ingredients on the back of a nutrition label and if it's more than 50, 50 brain cell challenge.

Speaker 2 2:27

Oh, the 50 brain cell challenge. That's fucking great. What jeff josh or whatever his name is, I don't remember like this, josh, it's jeff or josh, I don't remember but like guys if you, for every ingredient you lose a brain cell, then you have 50 of them and I'm just like, oh man, this spice is going to fucking ruin me right now. Right, it's going to be so bad.

Speaker 3 2:48

Like tell me you don't spice your food without telling me you don't spice your food, oh God.

Speaker 2 2:54

I love this Because you've got to make it simple, man, and those simple things are great. Oh, can I? So I went on recently. I, oh, can I? So I went on recently. I went on because it's out now, go check it out. I went on um, a hot dog is a sandwich, like the freaking mythical oh no way podcast. Yeah, yeah, it was fun, uh. And so I was like we were talking about fad diets and I wanted to. I was like, let's make up our own fad diet and I want to get your guys's opinion on this. Okay, hear me out here. The people who listen on that one probably know. But whatever, the gorilla diet, the gorilla diet, hear me out, hear me out, okay, so listen, I'm already hating this because it's going to involve bananas.

Speaker 3 3:31

No, it's well, it's really not actually going to involve bananas.

Speaker 2 3:34

I don't think they really eat bananas. Yeah, I hear, listen, listen, here's. Here's the thing. Okay, because it's people want simple. Right, you need like simple eat like gorilla, be like gorilla. That's simple. Does it make sense? No, but that doesn't matter. It's very simple and we could get our point across there. Now, here the issue is gorillas eat about 40 to 50 pounds of vegetation a day, so I've I found a workaround around that. Here's what we do. You ready? Okay, we lie. We just straight up lie about what they eat. It's it I people aren't going to check on it. We can say they eat whatever. Now we could go a little bit more towards the truth. And because they eat mostly like vegetables, so you're like, oh, yeah, all that and they eat fruit.

Speaker 2 4:18

Here's the thing. Yeah, I was just gonna say they eat fruit and they eat insects, but we could just say they eat protein. Then you just eat whatever protein you want. Then you eat vegetables, fruits and protein. People will lose weight eating that, right, if you just cut out everything else.

Speaker 3 4:32

We'll just leave the information that gorillas can extract proteins from plants better than us. We'll just put that aside.

Speaker 2 4:39

No, no, no, we don't talk about that. You eat like gorilla, be like gorilla and also they're this. There's the whole like hundred humans versus gorilla thing going on.

Speaker 3 4:51

We need to capitalize on it.

Speaker 2 4:52

I like right, yes, if you're the gorilla you're gonna beat the hundred people right, exactly, eat like gorilla beat a hundred people oh okay, um and then that one or um the gladiator diet, which is the same thing, but you eat like gladiators. Now, gladiators are just like poor peasants, so they just got like fucking gruel and shit. They got like barley they ate a lot of barley because it was cheap, right so.

Speaker 2 5:14

But they people would just be eating a lot of that, but they would still lose weight eating that. But you want to eat, but eat like a gladiator. That's like you, you know fucking masculine or some shit.

Speaker 3 5:23

So I think I got to add, like you got to have, like the, the short sword that you're like stabbing into your whatever Usually usually barley Speaking of vegetables, stabbing at your whatever, when, when you say eat like gorilla, be like gorilla.

Speaker 1 5:38

How? How much do I have to be like gorilla? Like? Do I have to be like Gorilla? Do I also have to masturbate at the zoo, or can I skip that part of it?

Speaker 3 5:45

I mean, hey, I'm not going to shame you if you're into that.

Speaker 2 5:48

Well, I still stick with. Do what works for you.

Speaker 1 5:50

Do what?

Speaker 3 5:51

works for you.

Speaker 2 5:51

We still add that in there, right.

Speaker 1 5:54

I eat a banana.

The Gorilla Diet and Fad Diets

Speaker 2 5:55

Also, we got to leave out the fact that Gorillas have a penis that's one and a half inches long. That's a real fact. Look it up. I'm not joking about that. We don't want people to be like, oh I'm going to be like that. You think gorilla like super hung? No, it's a big animal, Small, small penis. That's because here's the thing humans, compared to other animals, actually have larger penises than you should. That is because of over thousands of years of evolution, Women have chosen men with larger penises, which is why, when women say size doesn't matter, I'm like I don't know, Like thousands of years of evolution, kind of point in the other direction. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying.

Speaker 2 6:36

Look, what kind of podcast do we do here? Are we talking about food.

Speaker 1 6:40

If any gorillas are listening, are we talking about food? If any gorillas are listening, we just want you to know that you are valuable as you are.

Speaker 3 6:47

I know we're playing for your size it's how you use it cincinnati, philadelphia, new york. This, this goes out to every zoo well, personally, I'm on board with the gladiator diet because the gorilla instantly makes me think banana and fucking ass I don't even really think of bananas.

Speaker 2 7:04

I guess a monkey Like, but I don't know. I don't think of banana with gorilla.

Speaker 3 7:07

I don't know, but like dude. So on my birthday stream last week I finally did a. I tried attempting to eat a banana, yeah, which went so bad, oh. No, like it went actually worse than I thought it would. I thought I'd be able to actually masticate a little bit, maybe swallow some.

Speaker 1 7:29

no, the instant it went into my mouth I was just like oh they are an odd texture, like I'll give you that I don't think you're weird for that every everybody that watched it was like oh shit, rob really doesn't like bananas. I believe it now do you guys remember that a year ago I lost a filling on this show because I bought Banana Laffy Taffy as a bit to piss you off?

Speaker 3 7:54

specifically, that was like the first time you came on, wasn't it that?

Speaker 1 7:57

was, I think, the first time I had come on here and I lost a filling and I didn't say anything during the show because I'm like I didn't say anything during the show because I'm like I don't I don't know if this is going to derail the show. And then, of course, you had me on. What a week. And a half ago and the first thing I said was Dave Asbury's penis stem cells filling be damned, but the thing we actually, we spawned a real penises a lot we do I mean a?

Speaker 1 8:19

scientific conversation about that. Like we, we were talking about the logistics, what it would take.

Speaker 2 8:26

Are we just coping? I kind of feel like we're just coping.

Speaker 3 8:30

Or maybe we're just comfortable with our cells and our bodies.

Speaker 2 8:35

Let's go with that over. We're coping. It doesn't matter what the answer is. I'd say we go with that. When people ask.

Speaker 1 8:41

The way that I always phrase it is that a good doctor will never shy away from saying the terms.

Speaker 2 8:46

They'll just say it yeah, they just drop it and we're basically doctors, exactly imagine if your doctor was insinuating.

Speaker 1 8:53

He's like yeah, so there's, we found something in your uh in my work on your uh, you know, just like, yeah, my holding thing down there, you know you know, just say it, doc, we found a lump in your, in your.

Speaker 3 9:10

You know your gets the banana out and starts. You know, your, your.

Speaker 2 9:14

There may be cancer in your show coming to fox soon, where there's like a doctor who's just afraid to say these sort of things but always finds himself in this situation, and that's the whole show.

Speaker 3 9:25

Ok, ok, ok so so I'm mutuals with Jesse Stram who is she plays one of the doctors on Chicago Med. I'm so going to pitch this to her. I'm going to pitch this to her so she can pitch it to the writers and have, like a guest doctor, come on. That's great. So she can pitch it to the writers and have like a guest doctor, come on that's afraid to say penis.

Speaker 2 9:43

I don't think you could revolve a whole show around it, but you could absolutely have a character Like a Dr Hartman from like you know what you call it Family Guy, like that kind of reoccurring character that does stupid wacky shit. You could have that character. I think it would do very well. That would be amazing. Like every do very well, that would be amazing. Like he. Every patient always, it always ends up with something with their butthole or their, their, their genitals or whatever.

Speaker 2 10:08

And like he's just, he's just like, like he just can't say like I feel like that would fucking kill, that would kill and you could, and like you could, have it on fox because like you, know, they're not doing. They don't have to like swear or anything like that, you know, it just shows them really uncomfortable. I think.

Speaker 1 10:21

I think we got something here perfect this is gonna be the next two and a half that's.

Speaker 3 10:25

That's the entire podcast that's it.

Speaker 1 10:27

We just want everybody.

Speaker 3 10:28

Don't be your worst penises and come up with a good idea for show what else do you need?

Speaker 1 10:32

always wash, your always watch you know, pull back and make sure to get under the so so this was originally going to be just me and liam. But then I brought mike in because I decided it's mental men's mental health, but it's mental health month I mean, and who the fuck do you know is more depressed and screwed up than Mike needs a plan.

Speaker 3 11:04

I didn't say it.

Speaker 1 11:05

I did not say it. Oh, I said it.

Speaker 3 11:06

That's why you brought me here to say it, but I know you and I have definitely been going through a lot of stuff lately. Liam has a kid, so he's going to be depressed for the next 18 years.

Speaker 2 11:21

I consider myself very blessed. I have a lot of things going on, but things are still going overall very well. I've never actually really dealt with significant issues. I've gone to therapy and stuff, because everybody should do that and work through some shit, but I've never had actual, really significant mental health issues. I always feel like I just don't. I never really know. I sympathize but I can't empathize as much, you know, as I, as you know, I'd like to be able to. So I just kind of like I try and give, let the door open for other people to give their their stories, because I'm like I don't, I don't really have a whole lot, but I know, um, I know, actually the majority of our listeners are identify as female but, like even for those people, the importance of talking about men's mental health.

Speaker 3 12:09

There's the trend going around on tiktok I don't know if you got, well, you guys have definitely seen it where there's some women that are making fun of, yeah, men's mental health, yeah, that's everywhere um, it'll say like uh, you know, let's have a moment of silence for all the men that are jamming out to some rock stuff and like I get it.

Speaker 3 12:28

We hate men, I get it, but that is just adding to the problem. Because we are. We need men to feel comfortable with the ability to open up, and if you're making fun of them.

Speaker 1 12:42

they're not going to yeah comfortable with the ability to open up and if you're making fun of them, they're not going to. Yeah, luckily, I mean I've only seen these videos, these incredibly offensive videos, uh, in the context of other people reacting to them, so I actually haven't seen them organically. So I mean, that tells me that the message of positivity and like no everybody here matters is spreading more than the original.

Speaker 3 13:07

Or just that you're on the right side of social media, or that yeah, I might just be Well, I mean the woman who that main woman who did it?

Speaker 2 13:12

she got her account like deleted or she deleted everything she got bullied off the Internet yeah. Yeah, so I like, at least we.

Speaker 3 13:21

The reaction was swift and harsh, as kind of as it called for, really, because yeah, it's definitely a problem that men are brought up in the environment that they're not allowed to talk about things, not allowed to seek help. Yeah, and I mean I told that story about it Then.

Speaker 2 13:37

Yeah, I told that story about, like you know, my friend of mine who died and I was crying and like his dad oh yes, his dad was like man up, like at his own son's funeral Like I was crying and I was like shit. Like I at the time I kind of felt shame but, like later, I was like you're telling people not to cry at your son's funeral? If that's, if it's not OK to cry, then I don't know when it would be acceptable, right?

Speaker 1 14:05

Like so it would be acceptable. Right like so it's, it's definitely still crazy.

Speaker 2 14:08

It might have just been a really strange coping mechanism man. It was an older guy like I, I think. Maybe, just like you know, it's still around today, but, like you know, several decades ago was even worse yeah, I think it's even well.

Speaker 3 14:17

It's getting even more polarizing. Today we have all the social media pushing the alpha bro mentality, the uh, the andrew tates of the world I think that, though right, that's a reaction to people opening up right like don't you think that in at least some way, that's like men are becoming more, more comfortable?

Speaker 2 14:39

and then you have people who just are so against that that you need to create this like super alpha bro. So I feel like that's a reaction to it, but maybe not.

Speaker 1 15:07

Yeah, I mean, whether it's reaction or not, it's speak about this when I was younger. Perhaps it would have been easier and they're escaping that sort of red pill thought experiment. I grew up in an environment and a community where that was fine to talk about these things and I still didn't tell anybody when I got close. Even if you come up in an environment where that is more talked about or more accepted or what have you, it can still be extremely difficult to talk about, so like if anybody's feeling like they're weird or wrong or why can't I do this for myself? It's, it's a tough subject to breach.

Speaker 3 15:47

Yeah, yeah, I brought. I was brought up in a more traditional conservative environment. Um, my dad is your typical older not quite as bad as from Liam's story, but still the typical older conservative. Be a man type. And then, of course, I'm in Alberta, so we're heavily on the. You need to be a man, go hunting, don't ask for directions, and you can see it affecting a lot of the young people, unfortunately, and it's it's really unfortunate, because by the time we're done this podcast, how many people have? Well, how many men will have committed suicide?

Speaker 1 16:29

noel's been putting some good videos up lately.

Speaker 2 16:32

Right, I was just gonna yeah, I've seen that I think when you're younger you are just more impressionable, right, I mean?

Speaker 2 16:39

yeah for for better or for worse. And I think it's it's very difficult to realize these things until you're older, I think, because we get a lot of these stories right where you're, like in your people in their 40s or 50s, like I didn't realize that when I was a teenager or my 20s until later on. So it's, it's once they kind of fall into that it's tough to kind of like, hey, try and reach them afterwards, because then they just kind of feel like they need to just be a man and harden up or whatever you know. So I it's, it's I don't know it's really tough to reach people at that age, especially because you feel especially, you know, in your 20s you feel sure about everything.

Speaker 2 17:15

I was talking about this earlier today, when you're in your 20s you just feel so sure about things you're like, no, I know. And then you get older you're like, oh shit, I didn't know and so.

Speaker 3 17:24

And sometimes it's something like this that can really fuck you over later on I've mentioned before, one of my favorite feedbacks I get are from young men who are looking for role models and they come across my stuff and they're like this is this is what I need it like you're. You're not pushing that, um, that toxic masculinity, and let's, let's define that quickly. It's okay to be masculine. There's a difference between toxic masculinity and masculinity. Um, you can be a man without being a huge dick about it. I had to throw the penis in there. I mean the, the dangly thing you had to throw. You know the.

Speaker 1 18:09

You know the shit you know who's a good example of that scotty, of the very untoxic masculinity it's like that's what you it's. It's to the point where, like he's got the image and he's aware of this too like he's said this to me and he's I'm sure he said this to you guys too where he's like I look like I would be one of those you know, gun toting, harassing people for my truck conservatives. So, yeah, people are surprised when he's not him and I just went up against the homophobe a couple of days ago in his comments, who was talking all sorts of shit.

Speaker 1 18:45

It was ridiculous, but he was like surprised that scotty wasn't also homophobic.

Speaker 2 18:51

Oh geez I remember one of his first videos where that blew up he, he did a happy pride month and he just seemed like happy pride month and he ate a cupcake that was, like you know, rainbow and people were fucking furious. Yeah, because he, they people, they thought he was more, uh, you know more of the toxic rainbow what it does help, I think, though, because people see him and they kind of expect that.

Speaker 2 19:19

But then when it's the reverse, like oh, okay, so like there's somebody like this, I think that guy, I think that does. That does help, at least for for some people, right? Yeah, because you know you, you you expect to see people who are or more I don't know open-minded liberal, whatever it is, look a certain way. When you see someone the other side, you're like, hey, everyone is okay with other people being other people.

Speaker 3 19:42

That's cool yeah, yeah, dude, I remember when, freaking, you guys had your january 6th insurrection and people thought I was from q anon q, oh god, yeah, I legit had people coming into my comments and they thought I was queuing on, whether they were coming into my comments to like follow me or whatever because of that. Or there were people that like straight up, were like I can't listen to you because you're this toxic, masculine, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like the guy with the Viking hat that he's talking about.

Speaker 1 20:18

Remember the guy with the viking hat that he's talking about. Remember the guy with the viking hat and the the face paint. He went to jail for a couple of years.

Speaker 3 20:26

He was like a main character of the insurrection q anon.

Speaker 1 20:29

Shaman that guy, the q anon yeah, that's who it was that just clicked. I'm like, yeah, the beard, yep, yep, okay, so that's why they were coming at you for it. They're like you're the guy.

Speaker 2 20:38

yeah, you're the guy, yeah.

Speaker 3 20:39

You're the guy. I also had my head shaved at that time, so of course, the whole skinhead thing, which is hilarious because the reason I had shaved my head was for cancer.

Speaker 1 20:53

Cancer, white supremacy and to be a white skinhead.

Speaker 3 20:57

Oh, I had to be a skinhead.

Speaker 2 20:58

Yes, you knock two birds out with one stone.

Speaker 1 21:02

Cancer and fascism same disease.

Speaker 3 21:05

My hair is only allowed to go to white children.

Speaker 1 21:09

Can you imagine growing out your hair for one of those donation things and you give it to them with the stipulation that the kids have to be white? Oh God. Well, thank you for this donation. You've been growing your hair and taking care of it for five years, perfectly. You just make sure it goes on to a white kid's. Why is this like a very grown man?

Speaker 3 21:31

if anybody listening is working in the cancer wig industry and you've had that happen, send us an email.

Speaker 2 21:37

We'd like to talk to you. It's just like the baker who wouldn't bake for, like the gay couple. You know, I won't make.

Speaker 1 21:43

I won't make wigs or it's it's getting to the point where that's gonna be. We're going to long for headlines like that. Remember when it was about a cake, not about, but that's the thing.

Speaker 2 21:56

that's the thing, though, is like I think they, the people who really push that, like helped him right and got him like legal help and whatnot they were just trying to set a precedent they didn't really care about. Like they obviously don't care about like, oh, you know, a cake for a gay couple, but that gives them the precedent for the future to be like well, now, we can not give people of color, gay people, other other things, these things Right, so it's really just about getting the legal framework in motion. So you're like well, according to court case 342, we didn't give a gay couple this, so let's not give them this as well. So it's all. Just, you know, it's all, it's all planned out. Yeah.

Speaker 1 22:34

Yeah. How does anybody, any small business owner, have the freedom to racially or sexually discriminate in this economy?

Speaker 2 22:46

I kind of feel like it's a plan to be like just to get the homophobes on your side, maybe like I don't know. You remember when Chick-fil-A was like no gay people, and then people came out in droves to like support them. Because they were like, yeah, we also don't like those people doing those things, like I mean, it's a fucking wild tactic, but it appears to work. That was a thing down there. Yeah, oh, totally.

Speaker 3 23:09

Chick-fil-a was like no, we don't know about that or maybe you like heard about that in passing, but they were donating to anti-gay charities, which how is that a thing that?

Speaker 1 23:19

can you have a charity that is against a thing In America, the America Brothers?

Speaker 2 23:24

You can charity for anything bro.

Speaker 1 23:28

US something or other. I posted a comment on a video recently where I had said most of you who are mad about most of you who are supporting the ice raids could not pass the us citizen citizenship test. Like there's just not a shot. You're gonna pass it everyone's like.

Speaker 2 23:46

Well, I don't have to because I live here I'm like, oh okay, I don't know if I could pass it. Yeah, what are some? Can we like google? Can I google some of the questions and just ask and see like let's see.

Speaker 3 23:55

Let's see if I can uh could become a.

Speaker 1 23:58

Yeah, googling the citizenship test right now.

Speaker 3 24:02

Let's see if I can actually pull this.

Speaker 1 24:03

Test your knowledge. Yeah, what is one right or freedom from the First Amendment?

Speaker 3 24:09

The Second Amendment is the right to bear arms. Right? The First Amendment would be wouldn't that be free speech? Freedom of speech, you got it, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 24:18

Yes, one for one. You're be free speech freedom of speech.

Speaker 2 24:21

You got it right. Yeah, yeah, yes, one for one, you're already a better american than I'm a citizen now, that's it, uh.

Speaker 1 24:25

Second question identify one branch or part of the government uh judicial, judicial legislative yep and the other one and the other one, yeah and the other one. If the president can no longer serve, who becomes president?

Speaker 3 24:39

would that be the vice president? Dick cheney, dick cheney comes back and he's still he's still whoever which president dies.

Speaker 1 24:47

Dick cheney comes back and becomes president president gets cycled out every four years, but the vice president is appointed dick cheney just sticks around man, 200 years old, he's still going henry kissinger times two oh god, don't say that name rob, can you like bleep that out in a way that you can still tell what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 25:10

no, I don't want them to know.

Speaker 1 25:11

I want people to be confused I just I want his name to be profanity. How many justices are in the supreme Court, Rob?

Speaker 2 25:19

Oh God, when was the Constitution written?

Speaker 3 25:22

I Supreme, okay, supreme Court. Remember, he's Canadian, you're nine.

Speaker 2 25:28

Wait, no, what I said. When was the Constitution written?

Speaker 3 25:34

No, mike asked about the Supreme Court. Okay, I was like wait what?

Speaker 2 25:37

The Constitution was written in 9. Ad, it's 9?.

Speaker 3 25:41

BC or AD.

Speaker 2 25:43

It's very important.

Speaker 1 25:45

We like this guy's nerve, we'll let him pass on that one too, the Constitution?

Speaker 3 25:53

I don't know.

Speaker 1 25:56

I can almost guarantee you would have gotten in on name one section of the United States government. I'm almost certain that would have gotten in on name one section of the United States government. I'm almost certain that would be the one.

Speaker 3 26:05

How many Supreme Court justices are there?

Speaker 1 26:06

Democrats Fucking Republicans. No, you've already failed.

Speaker 3 26:11

How many Supreme Court justices is there?

Speaker 1 26:13

Nine.

Speaker 3 26:14

Nine, I did get that right, oh sweet.

Speaker 2 26:16

The Constitution, I wouldn't have gotten this. 1787 is when the Constitution was written.

Speaker 1 26:21

You and I both already had no clue. Monkey brains would have said 1776, and we would have gotten sent. Yeah, we were like the year it was founded.

Speaker 2 26:28

We also wrote it. It was a busy year for Americans. It was a lot going on.

Speaker 1 26:31

They wrote Star Wars that year.

Speaker 2 26:32

What's the capital of the United States, rob, what's the capital?

Speaker 3 26:41

Oh, I know this, it's Surrey BC.

Speaker 2 26:44

Yes, yes, yes, I'm in Great Well, I'm probably not. I still probably wouldn't pass that.

Speaker 3 26:51

I'll just be a citizen of something else. I am now an American citizen.

Speaker 1 26:52

You're more of an American than we are. I'm a citizen of New Zealand.

Speaker 2 26:55

I'll see you guys later.

Speaker 1 26:56

I'm going to be a Kiwi, go from one country.

Speaker 3 26:59

Kiwi or Hobbit, one or the other.

Speaker 1 27:01

The United States You're too tall to be a Hobbit and New Zealand Are the two countries On the planet when you are allowed To run commercial Advertisements For medications that are prescription only.

Speaker 3 27:12

Oh it's.

Speaker 2 27:12

New Zealand. One or two, the other one? Fuck, it is the other one.

Speaker 1 27:15

I should have picked a different place now you're going yeah, you're still going to get boner pill ads over there damn, I guess this blood pressure, dementia, everything. You can see that suddenly makes sense.

Speaker 3 27:26

Like I, I never see these medication commercials, except for when my dad's watching, like certain channels, and of course they're american channels. And now I'm like, oh, it's not legal there.

Speaker 1 27:37

They have regulations as they should bro.

Men's Mental Health Month

Speaker 2 27:40

Bro, there was a fucking ad during the super bowl, the bowl of super. There was a. There was okay. No, you're mike, you're thinking of a different one. You can talk about that one if you want to. I'm thinking of another one. Okay, but you can go on to talk about the ozempic bullshit if you want. I am talking about there was, um, a stool softener specifically for people who are on opioids, for, like, yes, it was for people who are constipated because they got opioids that's that's such a fucking like, that's it's not.

Speaker 2 28:12

It's apparently so much not a niche that it can be aired during the super bowl and they can pay millions of dollars to advertise this. I'm like we're so cooked as the kids would say we're so fucking cooked as a country, could you imagine?

Speaker 1 28:29

you just pan over to the stands and it's a bunch of people who are completely out of their minds on opioids and they're constipated as hell and constipated, but not for me they hear me, they see me oh my god I couldn't, I couldn't believe.

Speaker 2 28:44

I was like this is I'm so, we're fucked.

Speaker 1 28:46

We're so fucked the united states imports 80 80 of the world's opium comes straight here to the united states I miss our butt.

Speaker 2 28:57

Wiser ads we.

Speaker 1 28:58

We have 2% of the population, 2% of the world's population, or a little bit less like 1.5, something like that. 80% of the world's opium is coming here and we've got at least 50%, if not more, of the world's drug commercials.

Speaker 2 29:16

We've definitely got more we definitely got a little more got more like 75 percent, maybe 80 percent.

Speaker 1 29:25

We're importing a lot of 80 percent's over here and then that's very impressive I'm very proud.

Speaker 3 29:29

I'm not sure I want to be a citizen anymore. Oh, it's too late, too bad.

Speaker 1 29:33

You're already that's why we made the test so damn easy. We could snap you like a not getting out.

Speaker 2 29:38

The fact these immigrants want to be in our country is telling. We should let them.

Speaker 1 29:43

Well, they see our news and they want to come here, and I don't think we're tricking them over here.

Speaker 3 29:47

Let's be honest, they're just trying to make their way up to Canada, but you guys stopped them, so America, land of the free home of the stool softeners caused by opium, let's go get in oh man yeah, there was another commercial during the super bowl that really pissed me off yeah, I know

Speaker 1 30:07

that I'll talk about this one forever, because this company has has emailed me what? Two or three times now trying to get me to sell their bullshit for them. They start off by saying some good stuff, like it's oh yeah, difficult to lose weight. Yes, it is super difficult to lose weight. So many americans are having trouble with it. Yes, yes, we are. And there's a crooked pharmaceutical industry that is treating symptoms rather than causes and it's keeping people sick and and confused and scared, and at that point point I'm a little bit hard.

Speaker 3 30:39

And hepped up on opiums.

Speaker 1 30:40

And opiates can't shit for shit. Ordering my stool softeners, I'm plugged up like I just took a bunch of Metamucil and went for a 5K and then they say, well, there's one solution here. And I'm thinking, well, they're going to talk about how we should be making lifestyle. What are they about to sell us? Are they about to sell us? Are they about to sell us like a pill that allows us to do these things consistent? No, they're selling GLP-1 medications. Yep, glp-1 medications. They're selling on this thing. And is it well? With glp-1s, you don't have to do any of this shit. You never have to look at a vegetable again. Fuck. You just take our, our thing wherever you want to inject it in your eyeballs, behind your ears, in your ass, in your ass, wherever you want it.

Speaker 2 31:25

And it's I, yeah and it was really the like uh, pharmaceuticals bad, they are out to get you. Would you like to buy this product from?

Speaker 1 31:34

us.

Speaker 2 31:34

It's like what a fucking turnaround you just did but you can have our needle instead.

Speaker 1 31:40

And then, yeah, right, they zoom in real close on the needle and needles like yeah, come on, guys, give me a try, don't worry about it little googly eyes on it everyone's like ah, you know, I was kind of nervous about the needle, but then as soon as he started talking he got cute yeah, that was an interesting, I was let him in me yeah, that was, that was an interesting one.

Speaker 3 31:59

Yeah, see, the only super bowl commercial I knew of was seals kiss from a rose the bomb blast kiss from a rose.

Speaker 1 32:08

Have you not seen this?

Speaker 2 32:10

I don't know. I probably have, but I'm not sure what you're talking about.

Speaker 3 32:13

You probably blocked it out because it's traumatic.

Speaker 1 32:16

These young people. They're all on a boat hanging out normal horror movie setup. And then somebody's like look over there on the rocks. And then they pan over and it's a bunch of seals, including a seal with seal's face on it, singing Kiss from a Rose, but like a weird owl version about baja blast.

Speaker 2 32:37

Wow, we've really hit late stage capitalism, haven't we?

Speaker 1 32:40

this is a recession indicator. Cecil singing about baja blast oh, and that's that was the whole, and the thing is it's yeah, they may have only played like 30 seconds, but you can look up a full three minute version.

Speaker 3 32:53

Yeah, there's a full version of it.

Speaker 2 32:55

Start to finish, even with the bridge. We've got Shaquille O'Neal's face on gummies and Seal singing as a seal about Baja Blast. This is we're doing great.

Speaker 1 33:05

We've got to get some Shaquille and Seal brand Baja Blast gummies.

Speaker 2 33:10

No lie, shaquille and Seal fucking go together real well they do.

Speaker 1 33:13

I think we could they do. It feels really good.

Speaker 2 33:18

I like that. I don't know what they're selling, but I'm buying. I'm selling their partnership together. Like.

Speaker 1 33:23

I'm going to a pitch room and you know I'll be taking Hear me out, hear me out.

Speaker 3 33:27

They could sell tequila and call it Sequila Se. You could sell tequila and call it Sikila, sikila.

Speaker 2 33:34

Sikila. Oh, I don't hate it, but it's a bit of a stretch. It's a bit of a stretch.

Speaker 3 33:40

I feel like we got to workshop it a little bit, we'll workshop it. Ai could never do this.

Speaker 1 33:45

This is how we know we're AI proof. There's no way an AI would spit this out.

Speaker 2 33:49

It's getting to, maybe a couple of years ago. It's too smart. I would come up with something better. Who knew that idiocracy?

Speaker 1 33:57

would be a documentary about how we can beat ai. We have to become as dumb as possible.

Speaker 3 34:02

That's how it sounds like the us is on their way great here.

Speaker 1 34:07

Hold on, I'm about to sound as dumb as possible. Hey everybody, have you tried drinking saturated fat and eating only steak? Are you on opiums and also haven't pooped in a while? Well, do I have a pill for you? A lot of people have fit all of those bills by the way, if anybody's flirting with the idea of carnivore, just like, say goodbye to pooping. Now part with that as you will, and it's that'll.

Speaker 2 34:31

That's your future a lot of people are probably excited about that, like, oh shit, I don't have to carve that time out of my day, just keep going.

Speaker 1 34:39

I'll just bank it for a week or two at a time. I'll take a suppository. I'll make a deposit carnivore. Have any of you taken a bite into a stick of butter before?

Speaker 2 34:53

Yes, for a video and it was not good.

Speaker 1 34:56

It's awful, isn't it? It's butter, deceptively very good. Anything you put it on anything you mix it with fantastic.

Speaker 2 35:03

But this is the thing Sugar good, butter good, mix it together good On their own. Ugh, I'm not just going to have spoonfuls of sugar and biting into sticks of butter, like no, it's bad.

Speaker 1 35:20

It's hydrophobic, so it coats the inside of your mouth, makes it waterproof and it tastes like throw up all day. So you're just stuck with a throw up taste that you cannot wash out, that's lovely. And carnivores are doing this, Like really?

Speaker 2 35:28

For their health, though, for their health, though, okay. Oh, if it's just for your health. Yeah, that's further obviously.

Speaker 1 35:35

Why else would they do the Mental Health Month yeah?

Speaker 2 35:40

We got pretty off topic, though. Whatever we talk about, we're going to get off topic, yeah.

Speaker 1 35:45

See, we can joke about it because we've been there, because we've experienced it. I think we're getting closer to a place where people are not so afraid to talk about this anymore. It's almost the norm to have had a situation where you've either experienced this or had thoughts about it.

Speaker 2 36:04

It feels like and I think for for a lot of people though, it's just for different, but for different groups there's there's still like the group that's it's hard to reach. They are just like for different, but for different groups there's there's still like the group that's it's hard to reach. They are just like.

Speaker 1 36:14

No, absolutely not not talking about that at all there's always going to be outliers and again it's difficult to talk about it in the first place. But like I. I built my whole platform talking about feelings. I cried a bunch in so in videos that did very well, and I did not expect that. I also didn't expect that every comment that I'd receive from it would be super, super positive for the most.

Speaker 3 36:37

You'd get every once in a while somebody would be like, well, he's soft or he's a weak or whatever, and then every other comment responding to it would be like no, sorry you, you haven't been able to talk about it like we have I will say that I love the fact that, uh, the combination of I look like this, I grew up outdoors, I've done all this stuff, so whenever I do get the um you're not manly, you're soft stuff which is very rare, because people are inherently, like, afraid to say that to somebody that looks like this. Um, it was actually just recently. I had somebody, of course, on one of my posts, be like oh he's, he's not a bodybuilder, he's not big, he's not tough, he's definitely not healthy, all this stuff and I just get to reply with okay, what have you done with your life? This is what I've done with my life. I've summited three mountains in a day. I've volunteered in the fucking amazon not the, not the outside of the amazon, in the, in the middle of the amazon.

Speaker 3 37:41

I've spent a third of my life camping. I've done it all. What are your achievements compared to mine? And they have no response to that.

Speaker 1 37:49

No, they can't handle it.

Speaker 3 37:51

Yeah, I never get that conflict of identity, because I basically look like somebody pretending to be a youth pastor it's, it's um interesting if they ever mention, like, uh, hunting or fishing or whatever, because that's very typical, especially, uh, you hear women talk about um. If they're on a dating app, most men will have a picture of their kill on the hunting or their fishing picture or holding up a fish, and it's like these are my trophies. Look at how big of the fish I caught, look at how big this deer is. Like, oh, that's cute, you still take pictures with your dead animals.

Speaker 3 38:32

Yeah, I stopped doing that when I was eight. I found out that I can do better stuff in life, and that's not to put down people who love hunting and stuff. Obviously, if you love hunting, you want to record your your stuff for posterity, um, or not posterity, but like uh, just to remember it by all means. But if you're trying to use it against somebody else, like no other people have other experiences that they're going to value more than that, and that doesn't mean that their experiences are worse than yours.

Speaker 2 39:03

The worst is like the trophy hunting, where they like pay for an animal and they release it and they're like I'm gonna go chase it like, and it's usually some like endangered fucking animal too. I'm like, wow, that's wow.

Speaker 1 39:12

You, you really just fucking don't give a shit yeah, that's just embarrassing too, I I wouldn't be able to tell anybody that I did something like that because it's what a coward like.

Speaker 2 39:24

You know why we have that's actually why we have teddy bears. You know that, right? Oh yeah, we hunted them to extinction. No, it was after teddy roosevelt. They gave him a bear tied up and he was like uh, no, I'm not gonna shoot a bear tied up. And they're like what do you mean? He's like he's fucking tied up. Why would I, I'm not gonna shoot him. And then a toy company heard that and they made a teddy bear. Oh, and he hated it. Oh, never, never, you call him teddy in person. He fucking hated that shit. He was theodore roosevelt, motherfucker, but now we all call him Teddy later on the History of the Teddy Bear brought to you by In Moderation.

Speaker 2 39:55

I, like some, I enjoy listening and reading about Theodore Roosevelt, interesting character.

Speaker 3 40:01

Anyway. So, mike, are you interested in opening up to what's been going on in your life lately? It inspires some people. Inspires some people to talk.

Mike's Survival Story

Speaker 1 40:10

I've been in a bit of a funk lately, really have. I've been in a bit of a funk lately, I really have. I've not been doing my podcast, I've not been doing live streams, I've not even been putting up as many videos.

Speaker 3 40:23

I know I've been bugging you to live stream.

Speaker 1 40:24

Yeah, I haven't done much of anything in a while. I haven't had a whole lot to say Historically speaking, and I don't think anybody would assume this about me unless I said it, but I consider the communications part of my job to be an occupational hazard something that I have to do.

Speaker 1 40:45

It's a part that I need to get my point across and to help people. I don't particularly love being on camera. I don't think that I'm as concise as I'd like to be. I think I meander from time to time, but from time to time is generous, but it's. It is just the necessary medium to get this by, and I'm saying all the things that I know I needed to hear when I was in much tougher situations. But you want me to tell you a quick story about when I started making videos here. Sure, because this kind of lines up.

Speaker 2 41:21

Unless Liam has to go, unless you got to go. No, you're good, go ahead.

Speaker 1 41:24

All right. So I started filming videos. It was May 25th 2023, two years ago and I had poured over what to talk about for weeks. I thought well it's, is this going to be important enough to be my first video? Is this not going to be important enough that people won't want to come back, not even considering for a second? No one's going to even see this, it doesn't matter. And? But I was filming these things both one to just talk a little bit about my journey in a manner that I hadn't before, but two, and perhaps more expediently, I was trying to leave a legacy that I was here and I was making videos for about a month or so, and then it came to pass that I'm like, I'm, I'm done, I'm out of here. It was like mid June ish. This was my second time that I'd been quite that close. And, um, I'm.

Speaker 1 42:22

I'll get into a little a couple of details here, but nothing gets violent. I was standing on the side of a road I've never told this story Waiting for a truck to pass, because I assumed, you know what, if the truck comes by? One, it'll be quick. Two, the person won't be responsible for it. Three, it'll all be insured. I mean I will fuck him up for life. For sure that's going to happen, but at least he's not going to prison.

Speaker 1 42:51

And I stood there for like five minutes and this was a sort of a spur of the moment. But it built up to a point where it's like that felt where it was and I had had a explosive blowout argument with somebody and that's it done. And a truck never came by. Five minutes on a very busy highway in New Jersey no trucks, nothing. And I stepped back, tired, done. Then a Walmart truck went by. If I had stepped back 10 seconds later or something like that, you guys wouldn't have seen me about two weeks later when I had that first video go viral where I'd taken my shirt off at the beach for the first time.

Speaker 1 43:27

One of the reasons I did that was because I'm like well, I'm here still. How crazy is that? Why don't I try doing something I've not done before? And that got me 50,000 followers right off the bat. You guys ended up finding me. But had I just not had that split second decision to be like, you know what I'm almost? I almost want to stay here because I'd be mad at the people who would win if I wasn't. That's the reason that you guys know me, that I'm able to tell this story right now, and if anybody here that's listening right now is in a similar spot, just know that I couldn't have imagined any of this. It was almost two years ago to the day here that I I'd be doing what I'm doing here and you know what?

Speaker 2 44:14

I bet you there are, I bet you there are people listening that at least resonate with that somehow oh yeah, I'm like would a truck really work.

Speaker 3 44:21

Is that gonna work? When you were talking about that, I was just thinking like for me, similar thing recently is that I have that train that's two blocks over that way. Um, I try to edit it out whenever it comes by. I went during the podcast, which is a pain in the ass, um, but if you're watching me live stream, you'll. You'll hear it go by, and there's just every once in a while I think about what if I just step in front?

Speaker 1 44:51

of it lay down on track. It's almost like a what's, what do they call it? An invasive thought where it's, we're not even we're not thinking, oh, how nice would it be. It comes to you. Yeah, like if, if anybody here has ever been like at a theme park and a roller coaster gets close enough that if you reach through the fence you could touch it, and you have a thought in your head of, like, what if? But yeah, the immediate conscious thought is what the fuck are you talking about?

Speaker 2 45:16

I, I think we all have those sort of thoughts, just like, yeah, how, what would happen if? And then you have this extreme scenario, but it may, right immediately you're like, well, let's just not do that for. But yeah, there's definitely a difference between that and then sitting there and planning it out and thinking about it, which you know.

Speaker 1 45:34

In the moment that you decide it. It almost does come along like something else tells you to go about it, Even if you spend all that time. The first time that I went about doing it I packed all of my things into boxes with notes on everything you know. Here's where to send this, here, throw this out, don't let cops touch this all that kind of stuff. And the only reason I didn't end up going through with it then was because I had a friend knock on my door that night and because we we never used to call, we just knock, came in. We hung out for a little bit, she went to the bathroom and when she came back she noticed my door cracked open and saw all my stuff packed and she was like you, you moving, what's going on? And I broke down and that 12-hour conversation saved my life there for a couple of years yeah, I had that uh there's a lot of planning that that it was.

Speaker 3 46:30

What was it? November or october we were. We were supposed to be doing a um, a group roundtable podcast and I didn't show and I had taken down all my stuff. I'd taken down my social media, I'd taken down all my streaming setup, I'd cleaned my office. And it's crazy to look back at that and be like, wow, you were that close. I was there for that.

Speaker 1 46:55

I believe James Capola was there. If I'm not mistaken, alex Allen was there, perhaps.

Speaker 3 47:01

Yep, you Alex.

Speaker 1 47:03

James, and of course Liam was not there yet because the rest of us.

Speaker 3 47:08

That's right. That's right.

Speaker 1 47:09

We spent a while talking, because we were waiting for you to come back and we were also waiting for Liam to be able to show up. And I think after like an hour, we finally broke and we're like all right, well, but we didn't, we didn't expect that, we weren't thinking anything, thinking that that was the case because it didn't. Nothing had indicated it, but hardly does anything ever. And you know, then, through mutual friends of ours, we, you know, we tracked down your roommate and everything and checked on you, cause we're like well, actually, no, all this now.

Speaker 2 47:42

This is weird. I remember we were sitting there like we're like, well, let's see what we. Then Alex, went through and I found your roommate through social media and we were trying to get a beat on what was going on there.

Speaker 3 47:55

Well, a big thank you to you guys, and also thank you, alex, for doing that.

Speaker 1 48:00

Yeah, because we're like he's all the way in Canada. We can't just drive up there, dang. How the hell are we supposed to get up there?

Speaker 2 48:06

I was like I'll drive over there, but I'm like I like that, that's. You know, that's a long way.

Speaker 1 48:10

Quite a distance, but we'd do it if we needed to, I'd have to sneak across the border. I don't currently have a passport, but it's a long border.

Speaker 3 48:20

And like you were talking about. Well, you're just getting in line at the border and you're just like I'm Canadian, eh, bud, yeah right Maple syrup Ice hockey.

Speaker 1 48:30

I have affordable health care.

Speaker 2 48:35

Oh come ice hockey.

Speaker 1 48:36

I have affordable health care oh, come on in. Why didn't you say that? What's a co-pay? Oh, you're good. Yeah, go right there. Co-pay okay, like two people pay for something.

Speaker 2 48:41

Yeah, come on in yeah, I think you're talking about, mike, with, like, your friend being there, and that's what we've talked before on this podcast, right about how people just feel more isolated now, even though you have. You might have thousands of people around you. You might be in an apartment complex with thousands of people, you don't know any of them, so you just feel more isolated and you don't have that friend there to talk with you, to help and that sort of thing, and that's what I think this like what, uh, this month people have been have been very open, like, hey, if you know you need help, like I'm here, let you know, let's talk. I think that's that just that can help someone, um, and, at least, if nothing else, at least we maybe that's something we get out of this yeah, if I'm being honest, that's the majority of what I'm going through right.

Speaker 3 49:29

There is that feeling of loneliness, isolation, um, I've mentioned it before. I grew up with social anxiety, right, which made it hard to make friends, hang out with friends, and then for the last two decades I haven't had much in-person contact with people. Uh, dating life is shit because I don't know how to flirt. I'm also scared of flirting, even on the apps. You know I'm like you're interesting, but I don't know how to message you. What do I say?

Speaker 1 50:06

If ever I'd gotten a match, I would have said I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get in your way. Let me just get my way on out of here.

Speaker 2 50:14

Yeah, moving on. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, and yeah, it's just been just been fucking lonely, yeah and then you go through a breakup and you don't have like those friends around you.

Speaker 1 50:24

That makes it worse and it's just yeah right yeah, and we all work from home now, which increases our chances of like you mean for being right.

Speaker 3 50:35

You meet friends on like social media but, like you, don't have anyone close to you, like you yeah, you know exactly in person and it is great and I wanted to go visit you guys this year, but then you fucked up your your travel for canadians we fucked up a lot of things.

Speaker 2 50:50

That was just one of them, okay well, that's the thing that affects me.

Finding Connection in Isolation

Speaker 3 50:53

Can you like not fly in here now? Uh, I mean, it's a travel warning, because there are canadians that are getting stopped and but that that's primarily when they drive across your border. Patrols are setting up checkpoints and stopping cars and all that he's got to pretend to be American. So what? Well, I passed the citizenship test, so I'm all in there. We go Tell them about the copay oh there we go. I'm not kidding, I know what copay is.

Speaker 2 51:27

I'm trying to pay my copay, all right? Oh yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1 51:30

If they ask you if the best cooking fuel is propane or charcoal, which one do you choose?

Speaker 2 51:38

How much King of the Hill have you watched?

Speaker 3 51:40

I'm going to assume it's propane.

Speaker 2 51:42

Yes, you are Propane and propane accessories and propane accessories.

Speaker 1 51:46

They're bringing back King of the.

Speaker 2 51:47

Hill eh, they are. They are, I believe, because everything's coming back. We're in the age of everything coming back.

Speaker 1 51:53

King of the Hill, star Wars, fascism, everything's coming back. We're in the age of everything coming back. King of the Hill, Star Wars, fascism. I'm ready. Oh man, Love Star Wars.

Speaker 2 51:58

Wait till they're all going to roll it into one show. It's going to be fucking wild.

Speaker 3 52:02

And it's going to have a guest doctor on it that's afraid to say penis.

Speaker 2 52:06

I'm telling you, man, this I don't know if that is better or Shaquille O'Seal, but both of them fucking kill. Both of them are fantastic ideas. If we don't make something off this, I'm going to be very disappointed. Rob do not release this episode until we've secured the copyrights To Shaquille O'Seal and this doctor that we made up.

Speaker 1 52:26

Three years from now, when we proceed to protect this idea. This is an episode we recorded in 2025 about the crack company that ended up failing and falling apart and claiming the lives of two of their three founders. Who might they be, oh man? So Men's Mental Health Month.

Speaker 2 52:43

So Men's Mental Health.

Speaker 1 52:44

Men's Mental Health Month. There is help available everywhere you go. They've got 988. You call that one, they've got 988. You call that one and it's much easier to remember than the name of that song where the guy remember who can relate.

Speaker 2 53:03

I don't know.

Speaker 1 53:05

It's like the suicide hotline song that would be an American thing yeah, and it's the name of the song. It was meant to have people like remember what the suicide hotline number is but, like most people, don't even know their mom's cell phone number 011-8999-81199-919-7253.

Speaker 2 53:25

I remember 877-CASH-NOW. You're in a crisis and that's the only thing you can remember.

Speaker 1 53:31

You're like no, I don't want Empire Carpet, Please, I'm having.

Speaker 2 53:35

I think it was daichi wetworth I'm pretty sure, that was like people scale on a bus 877 cash now, because they just did it over and over. 877 cash now, over and over and over. I'm just trying to watch fucking. Uh, you know prices right here. Come on watching prices.

Speaker 1 53:52

Right, how do you dial?

Speaker 3 53:53

9-1-1 again.

Speaker 2 53:54

Oh yeah, 877 cash, now cash now 877 cash now and people listening know people like I remember that fucking commercial.

Speaker 1 54:01

They played it so much do you know what your mommy and daddy's phone number is?

Speaker 2 54:06

we can get you home 877 cash now I don't know, I might not know my mother's phone number, but I know the number to jg wentworth they can get me there.

Speaker 1 54:18

They're on the phone trying to get my money out of mommy all the time.

Speaker 3 54:22

Men's mental health but as, as mike mentioned, there's there's numbers to call, regardless what country you're in and heck we're, we might not be there in but you can always come hang out with us on live streams and stuff. I live stream over on Twitch Tuesday, thursday, wednesday, sunday, and I'm trying to get Mike to start live streaming. Liam sometimes joins in and plays some repo.

Speaker 2 54:49

Oakley is starting her daycare next week, so for three days a week we're actually gonna have uh help, which is gonna be uh fucking extremely helpful, because we've been just us.

Speaker 1 55:02

we've been kind of drowning in that well, in honor of men's mental health month, I am formally announcing here this is a in moderation podcast exclusive my return to regular streaming. I actually genuinely have had people asking me why I don't do it anymore. No, I'm not nearly in the mindset that I was in some of the stories that I told today. We all have rough moments, but not in the last several years have I two years now have I even ever been close to feeling like that, and it's taken a lot of work. It's taken a lot of effort. I've had to explore a lot of difficult topics and I've had to make a lot of difficult decisions and moves and uproot my entire life and do things entirely different. It was was very scary, but I mean so was just facing down the barrel of I don't want to be here anymore every day.

Speaker 1 56:00

This is the longest stretch I've gone in a long time wanting to be here. That is possible for you.

Speaker 2 56:04

I feel like Scotty says that a lot like lots of things are going to be difficult. Choose your difficult or something like I'm not a good motivational speaker.

Closing Thoughts and Pride Month

Speaker 3 56:12

Go listen to Scotty, but it's something like I'm not a good motivational speaker and go listen, scotty, but it's something like that. Yeah, that's uh. Like I said, it's not the same as being in person, but we we like to have a lot of fun on streams, so everyone's welcome to come just hang out and and smile as we make fun of each other and because what are friends to come play repo.

Speaker 1 56:30

Mike absolutely hated repo, so we're gonna it was the only game I think I've ever returned. I said I'm like I need to repo my money from this purchase because it was. I don't know. Maybe I need to watch it again when I'm not in such a sour mood.

Speaker 3 56:44

We're not going to force you to play it, but we are going to keep bugging you to play it. No, I'll do it.

Speaker 1 56:47

I didn't give it enough of a chance. I've stayed kind of away from being on screen for more than a minute Because I'm like how much of the you know, mike, the fun character, can come out today and not great at me. But also I just want to mention, before we go, happy Pride Month as well, because two things can coexist. We're not ignoring one for the other. I wish that had been at the very beginning, because, for whatever reason, there's contention, despite the fact that so many people that are in the.

Speaker 1 57:22

LGBTQ community are struggling with mental health issues, many of whom are men or mask presenting people.

Speaker 3 57:29

Yeah, the whole idea that both things can't simultaneously exist is insane.

Speaker 1 57:36

But you know, there'd be a lot less mental health issues in the LGBTQ community if people would just stop fucking bullying them. So you can stop mental health from getting worse right from your home. Stop bullying people that are different from you.

Speaker 2 57:50

And don't be your worst. And two things can coexist, and two things can come together to become Shaquille O'Neal.

Speaker 1 57:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Amen.