From Rebel to Influencer: Jo Jo from Jerz (Joanne Carducci) on Authenticity, Responsibility, and the Power of Voice

Have you ever wondered how a rebellious teenager could transform into a social media virtuoso with a fiercely loyal following? JoJo from Jerz, better known as Joanne Carducci, joins me to unravel this enigma, showcasing her rise from high school nonconformist to internet sensation. Our candid exchange reveals the turning points and life choices that propelled both of our careers, despite our diverse educational backgrounds. JoJo graciously shares her trials, including being left behind as peers graduated and her self-made redemption through community college, before eventually finding her voice and audience online.

Jo and I then uncover the profound influence of authenticity in a world that thirsts for genuine connection. I relate my experiences of navigating life's curveballs, learning from missteps, and emerging with a commitment to personal truth. As we wade into the deeper waters of our discussion, the compelling force of vulnerability shines through, proving its capacity to eclipse traditional power structures in forging meaningful bonds. Then, the focus shifts to the weighty mantle of responsibility we bear as influencers. JoJo recounts her evolution from casual content creator to a purposeful voice countering fake news and misinformation. We dissect the legacies left by family politics and the need to craft independent beliefs, with a dash of humor through our characters, Kenneth and Becky Sue, who personify generational political divides.

As we draw to a close, the conversation embraces the human longing for connection, highlighted by a personal anecdote with President Joe Biden that epitomizes the power of presence. We emphasize the importance of every individual's voice, equating the value of your personal narrative to the impact of your vote in our democratic tapestry. JoJo's 'Are you F-ing Kidding Me?' Newsletter stands as a testament to the change one can inspire through passion and authenticity. Tune in for an episode brimming with humor, honesty, and a poignant reminder of the power within us to navigate the stormy seas of social discourse.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast, where stories about the power of focus and resilience are revealed by the people who live those stories and now the host of the Jack Hopkins Show podcast, jack Hopkins.

Speaker 2: 0:26

All right, hello and welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast. I'm your host, jack Hopkins. Today's guest is somebody you've probably seen on social media thousands of times. She goes by JoJo from Jers and Joanne Carducci has become a social media celebrity in a really quick period of time. She started her Twitter account in 2017, and, as of this recording, has about 951,000 followers. Can't we just go ahead and call that a million? Yeah, I think we can. She's also got a huge following on Instagram, on Facebook, on YouTube and, my favorite, her Are you F-ing Kidding Me? Newsletter on Substack.

Speaker 2: 1:49

Look, I'm not going to spend a great deal of time more than on social media how she got into it, why she's doing it and everything in between. So let's dive right into my conversation with the beautiful, with the funny, the dynamic and the smart, joe Carducci. All right, joe, welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast. I've really been looking forward to this to meet the person behind the articles that I read with your Substack newsletter, the posts newsletter, the post. You know it's you. You get so attached to this person online through print and then at some point, you get curious and you go I want to know this person, you know in the flesh with, through their voice, everything, the facial expression.

Speaker 3: 2:44

So here we are. Hi, it's nice to meet you screen to screen. I exist, I'm real, I'm a lot of real, unfortunately.

Speaker 2: 2:49

You are indeed. You are indeed. I want to bring something up right off the bat that may or may not make you blush a little, but I think our listeners, viewers, should know, because I think it's such a useful frame around everything else that will happen. You graduated from Emerson College and I did a little homework on this. Emerson College admissions has an acceptance rate of 43%. Half of the applicants admitted to Emerson College also submitted test scores. Who submitted test scores have an SAT score between 1250 and 1430, or an ACT of between 30 and 32. You also have to have a GPA of 3.73 to get into Emerson.

Speaker 2: 3:40

Now, my undergrad degree is from Graceland University, where Bruce Jenner before he was Caitlyn Jenner that's where he was going to school, I think, maybe even training there for the decathlon. You know when he won the decathlon in 76, I believe. But I can tell you something it's a good thing that Graceland University did not have those requirements, because I will reveal this for cast, I graduated high school with a 1.46 GPA. I went to high school to play. That's what I did. I played during the day and I played after school. When I played sports, I did just well enough to be able to stay on the football and the track team. And it wasn't until several years after I graduated that I said okay, now let me buckle down and see if I could have done any better. So I say I went to high school and college at the same time because I had total disregard for high school when I went. But you, on the other hand, you were cracking the books.

Speaker 3: 5:03

Well, buckle up, because I'm going to tell you something that I probably never said on a podcast or even tweeted about, and I'm going to tell you the truth now. I did get into Emerson, that is true. I did not get into Emerson on the basis of my great grades, because my grades coming out of high school were a freaking train wreck, because I thought I was too cool for school. I loved school, I thought it was amazing, but I was like I just don't feel like going today. And so here's breaking news I've probably never said anywhere either. I was also very badly behaved and I was lacking in simple things like discipline. I'll blame the fact that I was the youngest of five on that, but it's really just my nature. I'm not very well disciplined. I'm much better at it now than I ever was.

Speaker 3: 5:53

All of my siblings served in the military. I at least knew I couldn't do that. The utmost respect to the military, but if I know myself, which I do I'd be like I'm sorry, captain, I'm so not in the mood to do those pushups right now. So I did not, but they were all. They all served. Anyway, I digress because I decided not to go to school so much that they sent me to summer school, my senior year, which means I didn't get to walk with my class. I had to end up getting my diploma after high school because I was an asshole If I can say that on your show, I don't know, but I was not disciplined.

Speaker 3: 6:30

Yeah, okay. So I was a total asshole and I was not disciplined and I was this incredible disappointment to my father, because he used to say you're so smart.

Speaker 3: 6:38

But what's wrong with you? You could get great grades and you could. I just thought I was above it Right. So I needed a good smacking down and that was. That was a gut check. Like I'd never had watching my friends graduate on time when I wasn't so fast forward to I go to community college. I did get great grades in community college. I will say that I got straight A's, mostly community college. And then I was like, okay, what do I do now? I want to go to a four-year school. I want to find my perfect four-year school.

Speaker 3: 7:07

I was in a relationship with someone who decided to move to New York to be an actor and I was like I don't know where I fit in. I don't know where to go, I don't know what I want to do. So he went to New York to be an actor and I went to Michigan no offense, michigan, love you very much. I went to Saginaw, which I now know is you do this and I moved in with my sister and her husband and their three-year-old son, and I did that because he was the sun and moon and stars of my entire life. I had no other. He was my first nephew and I was like I don't know where else to go. I want to be around this child. That makes me happy.

Speaker 3: 7:41

My sister and her husband thought it was fine and I moved to Michigan in the winter, which is snowy and cold in a way that nowhere I've ever been was snowy and cold. And I got very depressed very quickly. I couldn't find like my people. I didn't have any friends there. I got a job at a restaurant where everyone was very nice, but they were just not my people. I didn't connect with them and I was becoming so withdrawn and I started embarking on an eating disorder which is a whole different conversation. And I was sitting in this coffee shop every day, the coolest spot in this whole town. I'd just sit there and drink coffee and this is before cell phones and stuff. So I would just write, you know, just write.

Speaker 3: 8:25

And I had found this one school that I thought resonated with me because I thought I wanted to be the next presidential spokesperson, the press secretary. I thought that was my future. So this school, emerson, had this tiny little major which was communication, politics and law. It was in Boston. I didn't have anywhere near the grades to get in, I didn't have the SAT scores to get in.

Speaker 3: 8:47

And I wrote an essay that captured where I was in my life and why I had this epiphany that I needed to go to that school, that that school was going to change my life. And I wrote my heart out. I wrote my heart out and I sat in that coffee shop for days writing it. I sent it. I got a call a couple weeks later from the dean who said I got to tell you your grades are terrible, but this is the best essay I think I've ever read and we want you to. If you'll do this, we want you to entertain, like a probationary basis, enrollment in our college. And I was like what Me, really? And that's it. It was my essay, um, and then I went and interviewed with them. I forgot I had to do, I didn't have to go in person and interview with them with my essay and my in-person interview. And I got in and uh, and then I fucked that one up too.

Speaker 2: 9:44

I have a similar track record at that age, by the way.

Speaker 3: 9:48

I have a feeling a lot of people do yeah, and you know what. That's okay. That's the way I look at life, honestly. I know it's going to sound like one of those things people just say, but I've done a lot of work in the last couple of years and I know that mistakes are the things you're supposed to be like. Oh God, I wish I had never and I regret that, and I don't know if regret is the word. I feel like I hadn't made all those mistakes and fucked up in the ways that I had, that I would not be the person that I am today.

Speaker 3: 10:15

So I don't look at them with that framing of like regret in the way that they shouldn't have never happened. They happened and I have to accept that, and then I have to see what I did about it. So that's kind of where I am with that.

Speaker 2: 10:27

I agree. I you said that beautifully. I've I've always felt like this, or not always I do. Now I like who I am today. I like where I've been for a while, and I have a real clear understanding that who I am today was built upon all the experiences, not just the good ones, but the really fucked up experiences as well, and so for that I'm grateful for them, as much as I cursed them and as much as I thought life was over for me when they were happening. Now I almost see them as having been almost a necessary part of this moment.

Speaker 3: 11:09

I could not agree with you more, and I think that to get to a place like that, you have to do a lot of introspective thought. You really do. You kind of have to. You have to be honest with yourself too. That's. That's crucial, because it's one thing to like to like gloss over them and pack them away and be like everything's fine, that's fine, I did that thing, it's fine. It's another thing to be like, oh fuck, I did that thing and that thing happened to me, or what does that mean about me and what am I really taking away from this?

Speaker 3: 11:34

Um, that's and that's, that's okay. You know what I mean. It's okay to be honest with yourself, like that it's good. I tell my kids, like my son in particularly, he's 14. And I say I think that the most instructive moments of my life have been the biggest mistakes I've made. They've taught me the most, they've given me the most perspective and insight and guidance, much more than any of the successes ever did.

Speaker 2: 11:58

Well, and I think that that's something that really comes out of your writing. Really comes out of your writing is there's no question that you are being you, and I think that's so important today because there are so many examples out there of people who are putting things out not to say that what they're putting out isn't good, but it doesn't feel authentic. It doesn't feel like the person who is writing it is really channeling themselves, and I would say this is true for both of us. My writing following me, it's not for everyone. You know what I mean it's but the people that it's for tell me over and over again that it's kind of that brutal honesty, that that's what they're craving. And I know you've been fed so much bullshit for so many years from so many people that when somebody is finally telling you the truth and bearing their soul and saying, look, here's who I am, here's the good stuff and the really shitty stuff, look at it all. And if you still want to hang around and read my stuff, I'd love to have you.

Speaker 3: 13:21

Yeah, and that's what I appreciate about you too. I'd love to have you, yeah, and that's what I appreciate about you too. And I think that is again something that comes with living life and gaining perspective and looking at yourself and looking at your thoughts and your choices. I think you have. You really have to live your life as authentically as possible and convey that authenticity whenever you're talking or interacting with others, because that is so lacking in the universe today. Everyone is trying to be someone or something they're not. They're trying to express thoughts and ideas that they don't actually have and then when those things invariably never land where they're supposed to, because they can't, because it's not coming from a place that's genuine and you know, we're all human beings. We know when something is coming at us from somewhere that is genuine. Well, largely we do, because now it's so much misinformation on social media.

Speaker 3: 14:16

For me personally, I went through a really large chunk of my life where I was sort of denying my own reality and spiraling downward into like this depressed cycle of just being a function of like motherhood and suburbia, and I lost my sense of who I was and what was burning inside of me was becoming really extinguished and I wasn't being true to myself and what I was putting forth was this face that was happy and smiley and everything's fine, when I was actually dying inside and just didn't want to participate anymore.

Speaker 3: 14:56

So I kind of stifled myself for so long that when I went through and I went through a separation and then divorce and then my whole life was turned upside down and it's really very different now than it ever was I made a commitment to myself that anything I ever put forward in this world whether that's an essay or a tweet or a video or a podcast or a conversation with another human being had to be 1000% representative of who I am. And that's good and bad. It's a lot of bad, like you said. I know the lumps that come with this whole thing. I get it and I'm working on all of it, but I own it and I'm always going to lead with that. I try and instill that in my children as much as possible too.

Speaker 2: 15:40

And I think what's interesting about this commitment that you said you made to yourself, when you look at the reach that you have today and it's ever growing, you know it's interesting because you might argue that you have as much of a reach and maybe a more vigorous support from the people who you are able to reach, than had you have been the White House press secretary. I mean, have you ever thought about that and compared the two and say you know, where could I actually have done the most good? And I would argue it very likely is what you're doing right now.

Speaker 3: 16:25

I had never considered that. It's a funny thing that you say that, because that's kind of like that gif of the guy's head exploding. It kind of feels like that a little bit, because it does line up with so much of how I believe life sort of works out, which sounds like a very privileged thing for someone to say. But I found that the twists and turns and curves and ups and downs, I feel like I've always been on a path that I didn't even know I was on and I don't know that that means it's exclusively fate and I'm not counting myself out of the equation, but I always thought that for me the bookends were that I wanted to be the press secretary and then one day I got to go to the White House and stand behind that podium and I thought, well, that's it right, that's as stark a bookend as you could ever get. The dream and the very strange paths to getting there in a very different way. But I didn't think about in that moment what you just made me realize, I guess, and that I should consider and give more thought to, is that it really wasn't just about me standing there. More thought to is that, like it really wasn't just about me standing there.

Speaker 3: 17:27

The bookend of that moment was kind of like well, you found a way to have an impact in a different way and I know I don't want to compare them in terms of reach or value, but but I've managed to use my voice to find my path to being able to talk to people and share with people and hopefully change the world for the better, which was the aspiration I had back then. It just doesn't look exactly like I thought it would, but that is interesting. I really made that. Had hadn't really made that comparison in my brain, but it is. It is an interesting one. To make no offense to Jen Psaki or KGP or anything, because you're great, but I I'll beat you. Okay, not, maybe not Jen. Well.

Speaker 2: 18:04

I kind of had that epiphany this morning about you, as I was kind of thinking about when we were going to meet and do the recording and it just out of the blue I'm thinking, wow, she's actually kind of doing what she had originally wanted to do and I wonder if she knows that, and so that was one of the had originally wanted to do and I wonder if she, if she knows that, and so that was one of the things I wanted to point out because I know I've probably got I haven't looked at yours lately, but I've got about a quarter of the followers that you do.

Speaker 2: 18:37

So even on my level I get up most days and I it's pretty weighty when you realize the responsibility that you have once you have reached a point where you know you've got this number of people waiting for what you are going to tweet or what you are going to say, whereas in the beginning, when I, when I first started a social media account, I wasn't thinking about what you know what I'm saying. I just you get on there and it's just kind of post something or a thought. But now, while I don't, I don't think it's fair to say I think a lot about what I write. I don't think it's fair to say I think a lot about what I write. I think a lot about the people who are going to be reading what I write. Is that similar to how you think about it or how do you approach it?

Speaker 3: 19:35

Yeah, I mean again when you. Like you said, when I first started tweeting, I think my first tweet was is hello, is this thing on? I had no idea. Or my third tweet was I really just got onto troll Donald Trump and feel less insane because everybody in my Facebook reality was a Trumper. I think I asked Trump if I felt bad for him having to see himself naked or something like that. I really just got on to be a sophomore.

Speaker 3: 19:55

I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know I would find my people there or my voice there. But in the beginning and for a really long time, it was just me sort of venting and getting it off my chest and out there. And it didn't have a target, it didn't have a landing spot, it didn't have an airstrip, I didn't. It was just me, just stream of consciousness. Hopefully people will find this funny or maybe they'll think it resonates.

Speaker 3: 20:18

And I was terrified of my own tweets. I was terrified to just put my own, my own thought, but I was really good at replies. I reply, guy, till I die. But I was scared to for a while to put my own thoughts out there in the universe Like, oh God, I have ownership of that now and then, and that was part of the process of me finding my voice through Twitter, which is a whole weird thing to say, but it is true, um, largely Um, and so that has morphed very over the course of the last couple of years, I would say, where I no longer wanted to just put my thoughts out there and just vent. I wanted them to have a landing spot, I wanted them to have an intention behind them, I wanted them to have an action, and they don't always Look. Fuck. Bill Barr is not an action, although it is in its own way, but it's not an intended target although it is in its own way, but like it's not an intended target although it, is in its own way.

Speaker 3: 21:07

But, like I started thinking there has to be more I can be doing that does puts meat behind these bones, and that meant like actually getting involved in, you know, in getting myself involved in a nonprofit organization that was part of this incredible growing community of suburban women called Red Wine and Blue. It meant making change, real change in school board races that I never, ever, thought about before. But behind those words and those words are not always representative of those things, those aspects of my life Sometimes it is just, you know, Sleepy Don and making fun of him being, you know, yellow and not orange. But the other thing that changed for me, that has become increasingly important to me, especially as we watch sort of the wild wild west that is TikTok and now X Twitter, whatever you want to call it, where it's rife with so much intentional misinformation and dangerous disinformation.

Speaker 3: 22:02

I personally take it incredibly, incredibly seriously that what I am saying, what I am telling people, is correct, that it is accurate, that it has been vetted, that has been checked, that I'm not blowing smoke up their ass and I'm not pulling facts out of thin air. It's very important to me because if, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, and God knows. We can argue that all day long. People trust certain people on social media platforms to give them the truth. So you better be giving them the truth when they do, because if you don't, you're doing a disservice and you could be doing an incredible harm to society, and I never want to be that person. So I take that part of what I do incredibly seriously.

Speaker 2: 22:46

I so agree, and that's why I have been so quick and always will be. When somebody points out to me that I've posted something that was factually inaccurate or was not it wasn't on point right I will immediately delete it and say you know what? I apologize, because that's something else we live in an age of. Donald Trump has given people permission to never have to fucking say I'm sorry, and so people are taking that cue and just digging in. And so people are taking that cue and just digging in, refusing to delete a post or to say that they made a mistake. And it's interesting how many of the behavioral things of a good person I now take. In the absence of a good role model, you can just look to MAGA and don't do what they do, right, you know? I mean, yeah, a role model is good, but if you don't have one, just look at these people and don't do that shit.

Speaker 3: 23:55

And you'll probably be okay. Just do the opposite. The bar is not that high. Like, please, like, just don't talk about immigrants like they're vermin. Please just don't take advantage of someone's death to push a talking point of propaganda. Please don't intentionally lie, don't incite violence. I mean, these are basic things. Don't spread hate. I call her Tammy. Tommy Lauren is constantly going off about how immigrants are here to kill us and to poison the blood of our society. And it's in. Her grandfather was an immigrant. And it's like don't be that, don't be that.

Speaker 2: 24:34

Right, absolutely One thing. I on another podcast where I I listened to you and immediately identified one thing you and I had in common and were doing at the same time in 1987. And that is watching the Iran-Contra hearings. I had just gotten a new job and it was going to be about a week and a half before I actually started, so I had like all this time to do nothing and it just coincided with when that was on, which, to point out, as you pointed out, also coincided with the Rangers ticker tape parade.

Speaker 2: 25:13

But I watched in awe of Brennan Sullivan, oliver North's attorney, and I was spellbound by that and the reason I'm bringing this up is because we were both fascinated by it.

Speaker 2: 25:28

But you, as I recall hearing you say, from that point on you kind of went the liberal route because you would debate with your father, who was a Republican, and I and I just kind of figured out this week and thinking about it why, other than living where I live and that's kind of how everybody else voted but I kind of took the Republican path via my respect with watching this Marine Colonel stand there so stoically taking the heat for someone else, and my family had lots and lots and lots of military members, uncles, grandfathers, grandparents and that was something I grew up taking very seriously and so I'm watching this and that's what kind of sucked me into it.

Speaker 2: 26:30

Then, of course, president Reagan played very brilliantly off of that, so I kind of my mind melted all of that together right in one big thing where you couldn't really separate the two. One big thing where you couldn't really separate the two. Obviously, at some point, many years later, I left that Republican path because it was no longer a Republican path. It was nothing of the sort. But tell me a little bit about what was the pivotal moment for you when you kind of took the opposite fork in the road of your father.

Speaker 3: 27:07

Yeah, it's funny because part of the reason I think that I did it is because I'm fundamentally like a hothead and I just, I, just, I want to be, I want to be contrary. You know, I want to be, if you tell me I want to be why.

Speaker 3: 27:24

But, but fundamentally but, but fundamentally. Really, it's more than that. I shouldn't diminish it by saying that, because the reason that I watched or listened to cause sometimes it was in the car, which sounds like a recipe for car sickness and often was but I listened to those hearings and watch those hearings with my dad was because I was the youngest of five and my brother was the only boy and my oldest sister was the scholar and the other sister was the one who I mean, I love my sister, but she always needed the most attention. And then the other one was more fragile and so I was the fifth and I was like I don't have a thing, what's my thing? I don't have a thing, I need a thing. I feel like there should be a thing. And nobody was listening to this stuff. My dad seemed extremely interested in it and I was like, okay, what's this thing? And the next thing I knew I'm like this is a thing, we have a thing, and I'm like, okay, this is interesting and it all. I fell in line with what you thought too.

Speaker 3: 28:09

I, my family was military and I, my dad, worked for the Department of Defense and I was like uniforms and Reagan captured my imagination when I was a very small child. He's an incredibly gifted at order and you know I fell in love with all of that and I didn't know why, of course. And then my dad and I would eventually get in the car, drive wherever, and we would start talking about issues and politics and I would ask a zillion questions. I was just a sponge for it. At that point. I was like I just want to know more. And little by little, those conversations started you treat someone who's different from you, how you treat minorities, what they deserve and don't deserve. And those fundamentals I can almost remember it those fundamental like wait, dad, what? And then I was identifying in real time like oh no, that's wrong. And then I like identifying in real time like oh no, that's wrong.

Speaker 3: 29:28

And then I fundamentally believed these things were wrong because they're still fundamental truths to me, and that sort of clicked on a new part of my brain which was I want to know all about this political stuff and I want to have these conversations with my dad that typically did go very well in terms of arguing and then resolving or at least being peaceful afterwards.

Speaker 3: 29:48

But I also believed that fundamentally, his positions on so many things that were vindicative of the party at large were wrong, and I knew that that didn't speak to me and that I didn't want to be that. So that was when I was like, oh, I didn't know what these things were, but I'm not that, just like you said about MAGA. And so that's when I started to go down that pathway towards like, oh, I'm a Democrat. I now understand that a little bit better, but it just it was a curiosity about me and then me being stubborn and being contrarian, and then it was identifying what was actually at the core of who I am as a person, and I think we all have that inside of us and I think it's greater or bigger than any conditioning or environmental influence could ever be.

Speaker 2: 30:31

Right. You know, you and I have several things in common that I've identified, and one of them is I think I was probably 40 years old before I realized this, probably 40 years old before I realized this, but that so many of the choices in my life, especially early on, were made not necessarily because I was choosing this thing. It's because I, somebody else, was choosing that thing, and I'll be damned, I'm going to choose that too, right, and so I wind up over here, not by virtue of I think that's the good place to be, but because I'm not going to be there. You probably understand that pattern, I'm guessing.

Speaker 3: 31:12

Totally, I mean, and it can lead to good and bad.

Speaker 2: 31:18

Absolutely, absolutely. I explain it as the classic out of the frying pan and into the fire. You know when you're not choosing where you're going. So as I've gotten older I like to think I have anyway I've gotten better about going places by choice because I've assessed them ahead of time, other than that's just where I wound up as a result of rebellion. I want to ask you a minute.

Speaker 2: 31:45

You've got a character that you do, called Becky Sue, and I'll let you tell a bit more about it. But Becky Sue is loosely based on a Southern accent and it's kind of looking at the world through, I guess, maga or a Trump supporter's eyes. And after you tell a little bit about kind of how this came to be, I'm wondering if you'd be willing to do something, because I've got this character that's loosely based on the World War II vets that I grew up around in my community. I grew up in a rural community, about 6,000 people, a couple of hours from, like, any place significant in terms of population, so very rural. And after you describe Becky Sue, maybe we can have a short dialogue where I do Kenneth, based on the people I grew up with, as though Kenneth has come out of the grave and he's in 2024 and looking at what's happening now and we'll just have a brief exchange.

Speaker 3: 32:59

Okay, yeah, that's fascinating, actually, because I would like to talk to Kenneth. I don that becky sue would like to talk to kenneth, but but I would, so I'll do that through becky sue. Um, becky sue probably doesn't know what world war ii was. She probably thinks yeah, right she might think that that's the one after the civil war.

Speaker 3: 33:18

She wouldn't know, she wouldn't even know much about that one, uh, but it was yeah but the civil war was real nice because they weren't mean to each other, which is why they call it civil. But Becky, becky, sue, came from a lot of I would say, like a definitely an intersection of different influences in my life, because it was when other people, like Blair Erskine, were out there making videos and Blair is legit from Georgia and she's a gift to the universe. If you don't know her, but I might be frozen. Am I frozen? Because you know? Okay, sorry about that. So Blair is amazing. She was making videos on. They were going viral. She now works for the Jimmy Kimmel show. She's a writer, she's. Her arc is amazing, she's a genius.

Speaker 3: 34:01

But she was making videos. Um, they were hysterical and the good liars were putting out videos where they were going to the rallies and just just letting these people talk and like expose their special kind of crazy stupid. Um, and I was like, well, I can do a southern accent because I do believe I was born in the south. On some other life I live in the south and it's very weird, like I'm old, so I'm going to age myself with this reference, because, but there was a mini series on ABC with Patrick Swayze and it was like north versus south or something.

Speaker 3: 34:33

I forget if that was what it was called, but it was all anybody was watching and it was the lady from general hospital and the guy who ended up being on Star Trek and I don't know anyone's names. But I was like, ooh, I like the South and I'm about this kid up in New Jersey, but what so, whatever. But I was like I've always been able to do a Southern accent. So, for whatever reason and for better or for worse, a lot of people would say you can't, but that's fine.

Speaker 3: 34:54

So I was like I want to do my own character, and I don't know what that's going to be called, and I actually I thought recently that the Good Liars video was my first, but it wasn't, and my first was that she takes ivermectin, because I was like these people are special stupid, like this is stupid, stupid. And she was like she didn't know how much ivermectin to take, so she took a whole cup and the whole video. I'm like doubled over in pain because she's like I didn't know how much it takes, so I took a whole cup and um, which is like sounds like a lot, uh, so that was the first one and I was making him in my bathroom. And then I saw one of the good liars where they interviewed a lady at a rally and she does the gematria thing, which we don't know. That is, it's like maga math, where they each letter is associated with a number and it's like a more no, fascinating yeah no it's not familiar it's called gematria I.

Speaker 3: 35:46

I highly recommend you look it up because I will. I mean, it's just more cult stuff, like it's like the h, is it this number? Maybe it's literally the way they are on the alphabet, I have no idea. It didn't go that far down the rabbit hole, but so she does. This woman does, she's got the sign and everything. She adds up covet-19 and Barack Obama and she, she gets open your eyes and that's that's what she gets. And so she explains it that that the numbers add up to this and the numbers add up to that and that Ovid means eyes and the whole thing. And it comes and she's like open your eyes and something means sheep, maybe, maybe Ovid means sheep and she's like open your eyes, people, and the math never math, because numbers didn't actually add up but and that's real, that's a real thing that exists. And I was like, okay, this is beyond parody, but I'm going to try and parody it and I did and no one knew it was parody.

Speaker 3: 36:38

Well, that's when you know you're doing a really good job but like at first I'm like no, no, it's a joke joke, she's fake, she's not real, and and and then it sort of became the same where people were like, oh, she's putting down southerners. And I was like, no, I please, if I could do. I mean, I can sort of do, like you know, north dakota, but I don't think, like a megan ray would have been as funny in a way. So I was like, um, I'm gonna do the one I can do, like you said earlier, I'm gonna do it and I'm just gonna own it. And uh, that's, that's why she's southern. I don't think southern people are stupid at all. I think southern people are from the some of the most fucking funny, amazing, smart, sassy, incredible, no bullshit people I've ever met. And I think I was southern, by the way, right.

Speaker 2: 37:22

Right, oh, I, I agree, you know, I, because of whatever this accent that I have that people can never figure out I was going to be doing uh, I think they've now torn it down, but I was. I was going to be doing a presentation for a group of hotel Pennsylvania right across from Madison square garden in New York. This would have been 2007, 2008. And I'd never done anything in New York and I know I'm right downtown and I'm going. Damn, maybe I ought to see if I can kind of round off this accent, because I don't want them to think oh, here's this country bumpkin, you know, trying to teach us something. And about a week before I left, I was reading a story about Gene Autry, you know, the cowboy from the 40s and 50s television show and was a singer. And Gene Autry tried to eliminate I think maybe he was from Texas originally he tried to eliminate his accent to break into show business and he went nowhere. And when he finally gave up on that and just started talking how he talked, that's when he became a success. And I thought you know what? I'm just going to go do my thing. And what actually happened. They were so fascinated because they don't hear a lot of people straight out of rural Midwest in New York City, so that was the thing that held their attention, which made the teaching part much easier to do.

Speaker 2: 39:04

But there is, I would agree with you there is this perceived lowering of IQ. You can take somebody who has an IQ of 165, but give them a thick, heavy Southern accent and people from the northernmost areas of the country and people from the northernmost areas of the country, they're going to perceive them as less intelligent. So I've experienced that myself and it is unfortunate. But, like you said, I've met some brilliant people from the South, though we're not making fun of people from the South. My character is again based on the people I grew up around who probably talked closer to the way I talk than I would like to admit, but I'm going to kind of exaggerate it to make it sound as though they sounded. So here we are. It's.

Speaker 2: 40:02

Howeverny came back to life. He's crawled up out of the grave and this is a world war ii veteran, a republican, who's had a couple of days to read the newspapers and see what's going on in the world now and kenny is going to kind of give his assessment and then becky sue can kind of jump in and have an exchange with him. Well, I'm going to tell you one fucking thing when I was a kid, we didn't have all this bullshit of men laying around with men and females getting underneath the covers with another female and doing God what knows is going on under there. And this bullshit have you seen? This stuff of men putting on a fucking wig, lipstick and a dress and high heels and claiming to be a goddamn female? Now they say all that shit is about identity. That's how they identify Shit. I'm going to tell you what that is. That's straight up, fucking crazy shit. That's not half banging your head off the rubber wall stuff.

Speaker 3: 41:13

You know what I mean oh well, I I don't know about you, but I read trump's bible and that's the best bible there is. There's no better bible, and it it's new. You might not have seen it, since you've been done in the ground all those years being eaten by worms. In his Bible he lays out all the Ten Commandments and Amendments too, and he said that there's only two genders. I don't remember. Boys and girls is the genders, and so it ain't right for boys to lay with boys and girls to lay with girls. But as far as them people dressing up and getting all fancy and calling them drag queens I thought those were strippers. I don't know, that's what I know them to be is strippers. My cousin Chet, he needed one and he's a baby daddy and yeah, she'd make a good living. But I don't know why that's called drag. It's not really a drag, it's kind of fun actually.

Speaker 2: 42:07

Well, I've heard about that and they tell me. Of course, I've only been up here for about three days now, but they tell me that they go and they have these things called drag races or something of that sort, and that's where they parade around and they fancy themselves up like a woman and I around and they'd fancy themselves up like a woman. And I'm thinking to myself, why, in the hell, when you's born a man, you, you, you I mean you know what a man's supposed to do why would you want to like your woman? I, I, I don't get, but I will tell you what I've read on this president, trump fella, he, he sounds like the kind of man that ain't going to put up with a lot of bullshit. He's not going to.

Speaker 2: 42:49

Those drag races are going to be over. That shit ain't going to be happening anymore. Get that man back in office and we're going to dry up all this LBZTR or whatever in the hell they call it. That's going away. That's going away. We're going to stop. Look all these mexicans coming over the border taking our jobs. That shit'll be done. You know what they'll do. They'll put their ass on a bus, ship them back the fuck to wherever they come from and the ones that want to still try to come across. He'll shoot their ass.

Speaker 3: 43:20

That'd be all they do, that he'll shoot their ass well, my favorite president and yours, donald J Trump, he loves America so much that he raw dogged a porn star for you and me and he also stole our national security secrets and put him in his chandelier shitter, because that's how much he loves America.

Speaker 3: 43:39

And he wears a little bit of makeup. Okay, he does maybe a lot of makeup, but that's what makes him a man, because it makes him look tan and even though he ain't actually tan, he's a man and I know that rhymes because I went, I finished the eighth grade, I'm the highest grade earner in my family and them rhymes. So I also just want to say he's a real patriot because he's sitting there right now. He can't use his cell phone up there in New York City. He's got to be awake in court right now, while the porn star Raw Dog for you and Me talks about his toadstool peen and I just I think personally that that's why I'm so glad I have that Trump Bible, because he just tells it like it is. He's a patriot and a family man who has sex with porn stars. That's fine.

Speaker 2: 44:28

Beautiful, beautiful. Now, while that does not represent every person in the area that I live in, or even most of them, I've got to tell you I do still know people today who would have that conversation that Kenneth just had with Becky Sue. I really wanted to do that skit, that exchange that we just did for this reason, that exchange that we just did for this reason. While it's in jest, I want people to understand that that kind of thinking still very much exists in the deep MAGA cult pockets. It does. And when you examine the lack of depth in terms of how far they peer into an issue and just how surface-like the conversation is and it's built upon bits and pieces of things they've heard on the news or on social media or their friends tell, told them, and they construct this thing and then they talk about it as though it represents the truth and then vote based upon that yeah, well, the secret and that's right.

Speaker 3: 46:01

The secret sauce for MAGA, for Trump, is that it reinforces, reinforced originally and reinforces perpetually, through disinformation and through flat out lying, the biases that already existed. It confirms them for these people. So that and I don't mean these people like as an insult, you know, and it's not just the deep pockets of MAGA, because I so I'm surrounded by peers in New Jersey in a, in a red district Thank you very much for flipping that district, tom Kane, but it's also just very red here who do the to do the same thing without identifying themselves as maybe and in Texas I know Texas they don't usually identify themselves as MAGA, they're just Republicans or conservatives, right.

Speaker 2: 46:41

Right.

Speaker 3: 46:41

But, but the but, what's baked into the cake here is the power that reinforcing that bias has. When you tell somebody that it's okay to think these hateful, baseless hateful thoughts about others because inherently like again, this speaks to people just inherently being afraid of others because they feel threatened by them. But when you play upon that, as we've seen throughout history and as we've seen since Donald Trump came down that escalator, that's a power that nobody else can approximate. You can't put that toothpaste back in the tube. And I'm going to mix every metaphor there is, just so you know, because I've already done three, but it's true. And so they're seeking the messages that reinforce that already bias. But they're not just seeking them, they're being targeted with them and it's very, very intentional and it's all about fear, power and control. Because if you're not offering them anything else and they're not, and they're not maybe even paying attention to what else they should care about, because they don't have the bandwidth, they don't have the time, they're too busy, they're too tired, whatever the fuck it is, they don't want them paying attention anyway. So they're not paying attention to the real stuff. So this stuff it's being fed to them all the time about kids doing their peepees and kidney litter boxes and CRT and DEI and drag queens coming for your kids in libraries all this bullshit is being fed to them. They're sharing it out because it just keeps reconfirming their already existing bias.

Speaker 3: 48:07

And then they don't have to feel shame and that is all of it. Like that's, that's all it is, and you can do anything. You can get someone to believe anything, as long as you've gotten them to a place where everything they've already learned from you makes them feel better about the stuff that somebody else used to tell them they couldn't say or couldn't think that woke stuff, like don't say the N-word, like that's the kind of stuff that is so powerful and I get it. I know again. I know people here as an educator. When we had new standards coming in related to conversations about diversity, somebody was like an educator was like oh great, so kids can what identify as rocks? Now they just be like oh, hi, I'm a rock and I'm like wow, no, um, or yes. Like if, sure, but no, that's not what we're talking about. But that's the, that's the level of interaction they want to have with reality, because the reality doesn't suit all that other stuff that confirms their already pre-existing bias.

Speaker 2: 49:10

I think you nailed it. Just last night I posted something very similar. I said you know, I often hear people asking the question or making the statement how in the world can Trump supporters actually believe all of this BS that he's putting out? How can they believe that? And then I said, look, forget about whether they actually believe it or not. That's really irrelevant.

Speaker 2: 49:42

In fact, I would argue that a lot of them do not believe the election lie, they don't believe all of his nonsense, but they'll never admit they don't believe it because, as you said, it gives them permission to be the worst form of themselves, form of themselves, the, the form of themselves that they've always secretly wanted to be able to be. But the rules were different before trump came along, and, even if you were already kind of a stanky, kind of behaviorally screwy person, you had your limits because society had this framework built around you that said, ah, you can push it up to here, but you don't go past that. And Trump came in and took all of that fencing down and said no, no, no, no, no, no. You push it as far as you want to, it's okay. And so it's convenient, at the very least, to pretend that you do believe his lies.

Speaker 3: 50:47

Right and I think that that convenient word that you just used sort of nailed it right. Because ultimately it's easier. It's easier for anybody to give into the darker impulses in our brains and minds and hearts. It's easier to be angry, it's easier to hate. I know that sounds crazy, it's not inherent. Kids don't just come out hating. But as adults it's easier to be angry, it's easier to hate. I know that sounds crazy, it's not inherent.

Speaker 3: 51:10

Kids don't just come out hating, but as adults it's easier because it's convenient, because that's that you didn't get the raise you wanted at work, whether that's because you didn't excel in school, whether that's because the high school hottie wouldn't bang you, whatever it is, it's not really your fault. And built into all of this is this excuse system where it's like oh, it's their fault, it's that person's fault, it's a drag queen in a state I've never even been to, a thousand miles away, that is to blame for my child identifying as non-binary, like this is what they do and it's laziness, sadly, because America look, americans are a lot of Americans are pretty lazy, but like we don't want to challenge ourself, we don't want to challenge our fundamental beliefs and ideals, we don't want to do the work, like we talked about at the top of this, where we have to really be introspective and own who we are good and bad, all of it. So again, it's self-perpetuating in that way and it's so powerful. What it does at the same time, which is also so intentional, is it keeps them at this stasis where they never seek more they. It keeps them at this stasis where they never seek more.

Speaker 3: 52:23

They aren't seeking more information. They don't care about banned books. They're not seeking more knowledge. They don't care about newspapers disappearing. They're not seeking more information about the rest of the world, which is again suppression. They're not seeking a higher education and they stay where they are. And then that leaves their options limited for anything else, and so that leaves them relying on those people who keep telling them this isn't your fault, I got you, I'm going to take care of you, and they don't need to know what that means. And while they're saying that, they're taking away your social security, your Medicaid, your Medicare, they're raising your taxes and slashing the taxes for the already super rich guy who owns the meatpacking plants and all over your state, and they don't know and they don't care because they're never reaching higher. And so it's just again the whole thing. Just it's like a hamster wheel and to break that cycle we really need people who are out there telling the inconvenient truths all the time, just driving it home all the time.

Speaker 2: 53:19

You really nailed it down there with this one particular concept. I saw a weight loss commercial one time. The opening line was the spokesperson saying this. They came out and said are you overweight? Well, it's not your fault. Now, that's what every overweight person listening has been wanting and hoping to hear from someone, and the commercial knew that and comes out and gives them exactly what they've. And then the brain says maybe there's a solution. And so that's the same thing that Trump and the whole MAGA movement has done. It's taken that responsibility from people. They've opened their speeches in one way or another, although maybe covertly and indirectly, with are you tired of all the bullshit in this country? It's not your fault, which opens up, then by that, very much implicates, then implies someone else as being the problem and puts you as the solution. Now just tell me what I have to do to solve this problem.

Speaker 2: 54:39

And there's something else, and you mentioned earlier that after your divorce I think it was that you experienced a period of depression. I've experienced depression in my life and so I think something we can both identify with when you are in that funk, that low energy funk, like fuck it, I don't care that. A flash of anger is very energizing. Something pisses you off and all of a sudden, that person that couldn't move is standing erect. You've got fire coming out of your ears and, in terms of productivity, maybe not on the right stuff, but your productivity and energy level goes sky high because anger breaks you out of that funk. And that's another thing the MAGA movement has done. It's energized people by giving them things to be angry about, and yet it provides no direction other than the channeling of anger. No solutions, no policies, no directions it's all about. Here's why you should be mad. Oh, now that you're mad, we want you to channel that anger into these people.

Speaker 3: 55:53

I mean, you don't even have to imagine that You're right on the money here, because they tell us all the time that that's the case, because what they do all the time is talk about the border, the border, the invasion of the border Lake, about the border, the border, the invasion of the border lake and riley murder, the invasion of the border. And then the border bill comes up, the border bill. They've been asking for the border bill, they wanted and they're. And they're like no, no, no, no, no. What are you doing? We don't want that. We want the border bill. We don't want you doing anything about the worst. Come on, dude, you're ruining the whole thing.

Speaker 3: 56:20

The vibe is like we're mad about the border, you can't fix the border, because then we can't be mad about the border. Same thing happened with abortion. Same thing happened with IVF, where they're like abortion has to be against the law and we need a ban. We need a ban. And you give them the ban. They're like god damn, we didn't want to talk about the ban, wait and then IVF's like oh my god, what are you doing?

Speaker 3: 56:37

god? We're not supposed to tell them we're doing the IVF thing. So like it's like they create, they need, they need the chaos, they need the, the, the, the crazy. They need the stuff to make people mad about, to fear monger and scare about, so that they have those flashes of anger, so that they're blinded by them so much that they don't see past their own anger always, and hopefully we can help battle that.

Speaker 3: 57:06

But it demoralizes the other side because it's the flood, the zone with shit, steep banning theory that is so deflating and constant and perpetual and overwhelming. And people tell me all the time I can't do it, I can't do it, there's too much. Every day there's something new, and then there's something new on top of something new and we forgot about the old thing. That was new. And it's like I can't keep up, I'm overwhelmed, I need to pull away and that's the objective. So like so it's two pronged, it's more than two pronged.

Speaker 3: 57:30

I do say this a lot, but I think about this thing as like a sea monster, like a kraken, but like a kraken octopus with more than eight tentacles, so it's like a bazillion of posts. I don't know I'm making shit up, but the point is it's, it's part of this, it's all part of the same beast, right? So that's and I'm not giving them too much credit, but I'm not. These fuckers have been working on this shit for generations, right, and this isn't by accident. This is it's like aliens in the and I am a mixed metaphor fan, as I've already said, but aliens in the War of the Worlds movie with Tom Hanks, tom Cruise, not the other Tom they put the things in the ground and then the things come up and they're born and they were already in the ground, so, like, it was not such a big deal for them to sprout out of the ground.

Speaker 3: 58:11

This is kind of where we are. It's not by mistake, it's not by accident, it's not overnight. It's been a long, slow build and it's not done yet. But we have to be cognizant of it too. Like, and that's where humanity is the antidote to all of it. Right, that is what they don't want us to have, because once we have that and we hold on to it and we can see the threads that connect us rather than divide us, then we can work together to actually continue to move forward. That's why they so desperately need to destroy that, because humanity is the cure-all to everything they're trying to push.

Speaker 2: 58:46

I agree completely. I want people to know about your newsletter. Are you F-ing Kidding Me? It's a newsletter I highly recommend. I think everybody should subscribe to your newsletter. I think everybody should subscribe to your newsletter. Again, it's Are you F-ing Kidding Me?

Speaker 2: 59:06

I think one of the things that I like about it is it's long form content. Joe from Twitter right, because even though we can and I think that's one of the things I'm known for I write some long ass tweets. You know, in the expanded form. I pay my little 11 bucks to Elon a month just so I can do that. But I realized early on I was not necessarily the king of sound bites. I needed a little space to kind of spread my wings. But one thing I like about Substack that I'm sure you do as well it's a place to spread your wings without the fear of what mood Elon is going to wake up in that day and then jerk the rug out from under your feet or implement a new rule. You can't do this, you can't write that, you can't have it that long. It's a place of security. So tell the listeners a little bit about are you effing kidding me? Your newsletter.

Speaker 3: 1:00:15

Thanks, and I thank you for those kind words. It's that means a lot to me. It's a very special experience I've had with Substack One. I did not expect I really. The word I use often is cathartic, because it is and it is as you said, in many cases, in most cases, my tweets in long form which is how I feel about it when I'm going to go on a rant about, you know, maga, or trump, or or the court case, today, I'm going to write about how, uh, man, the rampart sorry, rammed the man parts how stupid, endlessly stupid, trump is like. We lose sight of how stupid he is often as we talk about all the other things about him. But the gettysburg address thing, I mean the gettysburg I call it. Yeah, he's a gettysburg address oh my god and it's it's like it's gone.

Speaker 3: 1:01:01

It's gone from the news cycle. Of course it got hit, it got made fun of, but it's gone. And it's like, yes, okay, let's just pause a minute and talk about, like let's just focus for a second on this one component of this person. He is so fucking stupid. Can we ask?

Speaker 3: 1:01:14

the president of the united states of america, not be a fucking moron like. Like is it, is it? Just all? Settle on that, um, so I'm going to write about that today. But back to the subs deck Um, I, I, it's.

Speaker 3: 1:01:28

It's become this amazing experience for me, in large measure because the community that's there. I could cry oh God, don't cry, don't cry. They're amazing and supportive and kind and wonderful and they're readers, which is great, and they get the snark. They understand that, but it's not always what I want to do when I go on there and this is the thing that is so special for me is that they've been so supportive and they've embraced this other part of my reality, which is who I am as a person and my journey and my truth and sharing the ups and downs and darkness and being depressed on Christmas because my kids left, and just bearing it all out there.

Speaker 3: 1:02:01

And maybe in some cases, what motivates me to do it is when I'm feeling a certain way or I've been through a certain thing that impacted me in one way or the other. I feel this like compulsion to maybe pass it forward, to not pass on the trauma or the pain or the suffering, to pay it forward in terms of if one other person out there can feel seen in something I write, you know, about a trauma, about being raped, or about losing my dad or my dog or, uh, about my mother's abusive relationship with all of her children. Um, I didn't have somebody like that in my life coming up. I didn't have a place that I felt like, oh, that person sees me. I didn't have a place that I felt like, oh, that person sees me. I didn't, and I think I lost my way in many ways as a result of it. It's not to blame, it's just what it is and that's okay.

Speaker 3: 1:02:49

But I put stuff out there that is very, very raw and very, very honest and truthful about my personal life, because I feel like if people are paying attention to what I'm saying for better or for worse, maybe, just maybe, I can do something good in another way. That isn't just about you know my political voice. So I put a lot of stuff on there like that and it's some of the stuff that I'm the most proud of, but also it helps me to sort out those those emotions for myself. It's like a journal entry that I'm sharing with the world and hopefully it does reach someone who's like wow, I didn't know that I wasn't alone. So that's the big thing about the subsect that is so special to me and I'm gonna cry.

Speaker 2: 1:03:32

And you do that masterfully, I might add. And the thing that you said about you said your subscribers, or the. The thing that you said about you said the uh, your subscribers, or on Twitter followers. Isn't it interesting? Because it's exactly how I think about them. I think of them as extended family. I mean there's like this cohesiveness, and on your newsletter you referenced it and I get some of those as well.

Speaker 2: 1:04:03

For 25 years, I primarily helped people with emotional traumas, anxiety, fear-based disorders. That was kind of my thing, right, and so my newsletter addresses that, with the connection being that the outcome of this election is going to be largely dependent upon how good we feel the closer it gets to November, because when we are in a funk, when we are low energy, when we are like fuck it, as a population, we have a tendency to not do things like vote. We have a tendency to not do things like vote. And so, to the degree that we can mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, have everything tightened up going into this election, I believe the voter count will be considerably higher. And when somebody, when you write something and you almost get an immediate response from somebody that says, oh, I so needed to hear this right now I know you do because it evokes tears from you. I too, I don't take that lightly. I don't walk away from that, blowing it off, and that's where I come back to talking about that sense of responsibility we have that I mean, I never in a million years, never thought I'd ever be sitting at almost a quarter of a million followers on Twitter. I don't know if you ever dreamed of having a million social media followers probably not that many. But when you are nearing that, or when you get there and you go, man, I've got a task here before me that doesn't just influence me and maybe my high school buddy anymore. There are real life human beings with children, with families, who may vote or not based upon something I say or write, and for that I'm so very thankful, for social media and the ability to play a role, to get up and go. I'm so glad I was born at this moment because I get to do this right now. I get to be a part of this.

Speaker 2: 1:06:28

And you know you mentioned going to the White House and you talked about meeting. I love how you asked me. You just said could I get a hug? When you met President Biden, you said you know how would it be possible to get a hug? And you said he did give you a hug and the thing that stands out about that from what you said and from what I've heard other people say, there's a difference between being seen and understanding that somebody is present with you in that moment and the way I heard you describe it. You had no doubts about whether he was present with you in that moment. Can you talk a little bit about President Biden and how he is face to face?

Speaker 3: 1:07:14

Yeah, I will say I got owned, and deservedly so, for tweeting that when someone asked what he smelled like, that he smelled like a hot chocolate. I don't know if someone might with the kids, and the lights are flickering and you know what I stand by it. I was drunk when I said it, I meant it when I said it. I mean it today because it's, like you know, evocative of that feeling. And that feeling is the feeling, you know, when I say it, it if you've been anywhere that's snowy and your kids have had a snowstorm night and they know they're not going to school the next day and it's like really blustery out and you're the lights are flickering and you have video games and hot cocoa and it's there's only one feeling in the whole world like that and I and that you know it doesn't have.

Speaker 3: 1:07:52

it's like, it's like a, it's like a umami kind of thing, but like joe mommy oh, my god, I just coined Joe mommy. Okay, I'm just letting you know, joe mommy, tm is happening, but it's like that's Joe, that's going to come, joe, but like no, that's that's Joe Biden, and that's this thing, this intangible thing that doesn't isn't captured in a single word. It really can't be in my, in my opinion, because you don't expect that from anyone anymore. Really, you don't expect that. No, not at all.

Speaker 3: 1:08:21

Everybody, you know, no matter how much they love you, no matter how much they think you're awesome, they're thinking my phone. They're thinking that the score of the Mets game. They're thinking what am I going to make for dinner? They're thinking did I leave the dishwasher running? They're thinking a million, trillion things, whatever it is. We live in a world now where we're all kind of like running at all. The cogs are going at the same time and you just know someone isn't fully dialed in. Sometimes you'll have a special moment with somebody that you will feel fully dialed in, but generally speaking, that's a unicorn. So you don't expect to meet the president of the United States of America outside of the White House, not like he's walking on the street, like literally, you know, outside the whatever garden that is I forget cell phone on the cell phone. You don't expect to meet him. Well, he's just talked to some other person and he's about to talk to some other person and you're thinking, oh wow, that's, he's talking to them for a long time. What the heck? Maybe he knows them. And then it's your turn. You don't expect that person to just dial in and be like what tell me about you? Oh, okay, you, okay, you're from New Jersey, so immediately use your name. But not like, not even just like in a Polish politician-y kind of way, like I'm listening to you, I care about what it is you want to tell me.

Speaker 3: 1:09:33

And I wanted to tell him about how, when I was a kid, I saw a Time magazine and he was in. He was one of the candidates for president way back then and I was like that's my guy. I picked him and I didn't even know why. I just picked him, which is a terrible thing to tell him, but I did and I've been a Biden stan since. It's ironic, but I will say that I'm a Biden stan.

Speaker 3: 1:09:53

But he had this wonderful conversation with me, did not seem to have an exit plan for it. He wasn't trying to rush it. It wasn't like he was looking at the next person. It wasn't like he was worried. Someone moves him along for him because he wouldn't move along. Honestly, I think he would be stuck. He would not stuck, he would be deliberately talking to one person for the whole time.

Speaker 3: 1:10:10

So we have this amazing moment and then I'm sort of you know, thank you, thank you, thank you by the nice people who do the thing. And next who do the thing, and next it's my friend joe. Joe, joe and joe, I'm not kidding. And joe has something he wants to tell joe and joe. Joe, joe, not me, joe, joe, that big joe, the big joe, the head joe. He dials into my friend joe and now it's just that. It's just tell me about your grandfather.

Speaker 3: 1:10:33

Oh, really, well, I have something to add to that and nothing else is. Nothing else is off here, over there, is that, and I don't mean nothing else. Like he's not cognitively there, I mean nothing else. Like he doesn't want to deviate from this moment of your attention and your time and your story. He values that so much. That's what's missing in society. We're so devoid of those simple interactions that are so deeply satisfying and connecting that they can withstand anything. And that's what's not here, and that's the humanity of this person, that that we should want someone like that in a position where they're modeling behavior for the entire country and signaling our country's behavior to the world.

Speaker 2: 1:11:19

Conversely, like the other guy, any other information about President Joe Biden someone listening to that story, that personal story of yours, that connection you had with Joe Biden and the connection that he created with you, that alone would serve as a pretty damn good reason to vote for Joe Biden. Of course, there's lots more in terms of reasons to vote for him, but after what we've come through with Trump, that's a pretty damn solid reason. Yeah, it's somebody who can connect with their fellow human beings, right.

Speaker 3: 1:12:14

Somebody who wants to you know, Somebody who wants to.

Speaker 2: 1:12:18

Wants to. It wasn't a chore, wasn't? Oh shit, here comes somebody else that wants a hug or a picture or to say, hi, that that like, yeah, I want to do this. Let's wrap up with this, because I I know this is something that you see a lot as well. Sometimes I'll get a comment to a post where someone will say something like this Well, I'm not a big account like yours, but right, they diminish the value that they bring to the table based on number of followers. So I'm interested in hearing I know what my take on it is, but I want to hear your take on just how incredibly important it is, whether you have five followers 50, 500, for you to tweet and message as though you have a million, especially during this last six months leading up to the election.

Speaker 3: 1:13:23

I mean what it comes down to is like it's very the analogy can be drawn that it's like our votes, right, so nobody gives a fuck if my vote is out there versus my neighbor's vote, their votes they count the same right. They make the same impact when added together or not, and it takes all're votes. They count the same right. They make the same impact when added together or not, and it takes all our votes. So it takes them all, in concert with each other, to make change, to accomplish something, and our voices are very much like that. Maybe someone else has got a bigger platform and they can reach more people, but it doesn't mean that that person who doesn't have that platform's voice is any less valid, any less important, any less motivating for somebody else or just themselves to feel seen. Because once you feel seen and empowered and like you've spoken your truth, then you're going to want to engage, you're going to want to talk to somebody else. Probably You're going to feel validated in what you have to say and what's on your mind, and it doesn't matter, like I said, it doesn't matter if if, if you know, 10 people or a million people hear it or see it. It's really about you. It's about you empowering yourself, because we all have to do that.

Speaker 3: 1:14:38

That's the thing about this. We, the people, idea it's bringing everyone together to make this massive number of people make the change that they want to seek, and you can never diminish your power in any of that, and believing your voice is sort of required in terms of empowering your ability to change the world. And I just think don't ever, first of all, don't ever, count yourself out and don't ever think you know all. Don't ever count yourself out and don't ever think you can't reach a million people. Someday. You probably could if you did spend time tweeting 5,000 days of the week, like I do, which I know that's not math, but also, yeah, every feeling, every thought, every moment that you question, it's all valid, and the more you lean into understanding that you have power in your voice, the more you're going to find your voice empowered, and so that's the message I guess I would say.

Speaker 2: 1:15:30

And that's such a great point because if you put somebody who just opened an ex or Twitter account today beside Barack Obama yes, barack Obama has a bigger megaphone, but they each count as one vote in November and ultimately, as we look forward to November, it's that one plus one plus one plus one as many times as we can take it out that we're after. I've got to tell you this has been a blast, and so much so that I hope maybe in the future, sometime, we can do this again. I want to tell everybody go out, go out, in fact, just do it now, as soon as you've watched or listened to this, and subscribe to are you effing, kidding me?

Speaker 2: 1:16:26

Joe's newsletter. I subscribe to it. I've got my own, but I subscribe to and read hers. I think you should too. You'll be better for it. You'll learn a lot, you'll be entertained and you'll see why it was destiny for her to go to a great college like Emerson and why, even though she didn't have the grades that every other high school student might have had, they recognized, but she's got. She's at that level of the students who did have it, based on this essay alone. Now that's, I mean, that's pretty cool and that's why you should subscribe to her newsletter, because her writing got her into a prestigious college, and her writing will also get into your head and heart, and you'll be glad that it's something you sit down and read each week. So, joe, thank you so very much. Um, I had a great time. Maybe in the future, too, kenny and Becky Sue can get back together and talk about the issues of the world. So I will see you next time and in the meantime, keep the keyboard flying.

Speaker 3: 1:17:52

Thank you for those kind words, though Really, truly like. This is my passion project. It's the love of my life, next to my kids. It's really. It's my heart and soul and I really appreciate that you said those kind of things about it. Thank you so much for that.

Speaker 2: 1:18:06

Thank you, and I'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 3: 1:18:08

And this was a blast.

Speaker 2: 1:18:11

It was. It was agreed. Bye-bye, all right. Look, I hope you got into that episode as much as I did, because it really felt like I was sitting down with somebody that I had known forever. Joe and I resonate. I mean, we're vibrating on many of the same frequencies and we just kind of forget each other frequencies and we just kind of forget each other. And it was really the first time I'd ever ventured into kind of something kooky or humorous and just being goofy on an episode.

Speaker 2: 1:18:50

But I thought it was very important and in fact it was very important in that little skit to give you an idea in an entertaining way about some of the attitudes that still very much exist in rural America and that aren't really hidden. They're not, they don't try to disguise them. They're not, they don't try to disguise them. It's just that most of America does not cross paths with these pockets in rural America and have the kind of conversations and interactions with people that allow them to hear and experience this stuff. Now, much of what I was demonstrating in that skit was from when I was a kid in the 70s and some of the people who were around in my community then and kind of the way they talked then and kind of the way they talked. But rest assured, I do still encounter some of those people today, and so I really wanted you to know about the people we have out there who are still influencing today's generations with the language they used and the beliefs that they have about things, because a lot of people think that just doesn't exist any longer. They think that's just the stuff of movies. I can assure you it's not. I can assure you it's not.

Speaker 2: 1:20:39

Look, if you do nothing else, when you leave this podcast episode, go to Substack. Pull up Joe Carducci's JoJo from Jurors, her Are you F***ing Kidding Me? Newsletter. Check it out she is a colorful writer and I'm sure you will be entertained and educated at the same time. And be sure to go to Twitter and follow her at JoJo from Jers, and then you can find her on Instagram and threads and facebook and youtube and every place else that she is. And also be sure to check out my newsletter at jack hopkins nowcom.

Speaker 2: 1:21:33

That's where I talk about all things psychological building resilience, building confidence, shoring up your emotional makeup and your mental game so that, with everything that's going to be coming at us and everything that's already coming at us this political season. You'll be squared away. You'll be able to meet it head on and not find yourself curled up in fetal position, scared and wondering you know, are we going to make it? Yes, we're going to make it and we are going to prevail. But to do that we've got to have this screwed on tight, and that's my forte. I did it for 25 years with people from around the world. Check it out, jackhopkinsnowcom. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode of the Jack Hopkins Show podcast. We'll see you next time.