Gen Z and Gen X Have a Fun Conversation

Episode 27 gets interesting fast as Rob and Rachel are joined by special guest Isla from Gen Z for a conversation about internet culture, AI, social media, technology trends, and how younger generations see the world differently.

From old iPods and wired headphones making a comeback to Roblox, online safety, “performative males,” AI skepticism, and media distrust, Isla gives a genuine Gen Z perspective that surprises both Rob and Rachel throughout the episode.

The conversation blends humor with deeper topics about digital overload, creativity, activism, and whether technology is helping or hurting society.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Welcome to Out Loud with Rob and Rachel. This is what happens when two ADHD brains come together and think out loud.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

We got a very special guest today. Rachel's daughter, Aya.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Oh, for Twin B. I was gonna say everybody clump. Everybody clap.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Unfortunately, I think the Rule podcast happened the five minutes ago when Rachel was learning about clav and all these people and uh And not this, by the way. Not your clavicle up here.

SPEAKER_04 0:32

That's actually all I could think of in forensics when we were learning about the bones. Is him we were learning about anthropology, forensic anthropology, and we had to learn like the skeleton, and we had to play this game. And every time it would do like the clap, and you had to like click whatever like bone it was the like bone it would say, and every time it would say clavical, I was like, Click killer.

SPEAKER_05 0:56

You know what?

SPEAKER_01 0:57

That would be really cool if your teacher used that connection for our older audience who aren't as hip as I am. I mean why why don't you explain to everybody who clav is?

SPEAKER_05 1:08

But before she does, the fact that he can actually explain it just as well. Or hold up in the conversation, then she can is the funny part of this whole scenario.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Well, I can't help what coming up on my algorithm, can I? I guess I can.

SPEAKER_05 1:25

Alright, I guess you can. Go for it. Give me a lesson in what levicular is or whatever his name is.

SPEAKER_04 1:32

I'm not very educated on like the beginning of his career. Okay. I just know that if at some point he started like hitting his face, like his bones, with like metal, and in order to like crack his bones and like reshape them. And you said that's called what? Bone smashing.

SPEAKER_05 1:55

Bone smashing and and the is called what?

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Mog.

SPEAKER_05 2:00

Mogging. No, mewing. I'm sorry. Mewing.

SPEAKER_04 2:04

The jawline thing.

SPEAKER_05 2:05

The jawline. The snatching your jawline.

SPEAKER_04 2:07

People don't really do that anymore.

SPEAKER_05 2:09

Oh, that's so 2025?

SPEAKER_04 2:11

Um, yeah, kind of. I don't remember if it was 2025 or 2024.

SPEAKER_05 2:15

Close enough.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

People don't really do that anymore.

SPEAKER_05 2:17

So that's a segue right into our podcast episode today. And we thought Isla would lighten things up a little bit. Rob and I very often talk about Gen X and how we relate to the world. And we're bringing a little um and actually we had a conversation on the way here, sort of talking about which generation you fall into. And you said there's some controversy, correct? Oh yeah. Because I said you're Gen Z, right?

SPEAKER_04 2:44

Or you're Gen Z and you said you could also be considered because Gen Alpha, because there's like a bit of discourse. Usually it's Wait, well who are the millennials again? Like the 40 alpha? Like 40 and below. Like late 30s.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Right, like like 30s.

SPEAKER_05 3:03

Before 1997, I think. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:06

And then Gen Z, which is what you are, but then you said you could also be considered a Gen Alpha an alpha.

SPEAKER_04 3:12

Because you're on the cusp. Because there was like some discourse, I don't really know if it's serious anymore. It wasn't really serious. But about whether or not Gen Alpha starts in 2010 or if it starts in 2012. You knew about this also.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

No, I don't know about this, but I I know Gen X and Millennials, there's that that weird cutoff where where the people on the end of the thing of millennials, they they like to be called Gen X. They they always say, Well, I'm really partly Gen X, like because they're ashamed of being millennials. They don't want to claim the millennial gray.

SPEAKER_05 3:46

So then what do you not want to claim? Um if you had to claim one and disclaim the other, which wouldn't you care that much?

SPEAKER_04 3:54

But um it doesn't really affect my life.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Why Gen Alpha? Like why alpha? I like I like that term.

SPEAKER_04 4:01

Because it starts over. Absolutely no idea.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Why?

SPEAKER_05 4:03

Because it starts over, right? That's what I thought. What?

SPEAKER_01 4:07

I was thinking like alpha.

SPEAKER_05 4:08

What starts over? I was thinking uh the alphabet. Like I thought it was like alpha base.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Oh, yeah, duh. Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

Well, because no, you're thinking of like your sorority song.

SPEAKER_05 4:19

But I I don't know why that's where I thought it's because I well I the thing that I was talking about when I didn't had to memorize the Greek letters and say them as many times at the whole alphabet as many times as I could holding a lip a lip match and not burn myself.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Oh geez.

SPEAKER_05 4:39

So I can say you're scary. I'm actually I'm really that's so scary.

SPEAKER_04 4:43

Go on.

SPEAKER_05 4:44

Um useless skill.

SPEAKER_04 4:46

What was I gonna say? Uh alpha. So alpha, I thought it was starting over Greek. It was like, well, beta, I know is like a phase of like development. Like well, so is the next generation gonna be beta? It is. See?

SPEAKER_02 5:00

No.

SPEAKER_05 5:01

It is so it is. So it is alpha beta. So it might be.

SPEAKER_04 5:04

And then maybe gamma. I don't know. I don't know where they named it from. Oh, you're gonna be associated with gamma rays.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

What if I had chat GPT? See what it says.

SPEAKER_05 5:17

She is um an anti-Chat GPT person, just so you know. Okay. Um what you're heard. They really well at least my children hate it.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

There's a very big like divide because there are a lot of kids that rely very heavily on chat. They do rely very heavily to do their work. Um but there are also like people who are like, like, it's mostly people online, not like people that I know, but there are a lot of people that are like, it's killing everybody's like um creativity, and like you don't need it, and people are like, it's like embarrassing to be writing your essay using ChatGPT. That's good. Because you're like shaming people, what it is.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

So yeah, there's a lot of like shaming, right?

SPEAKER_05 6:04

It is technology shaming which goes back to our analog digital divide. You're attached to your phone. No, no, no, no, no. Okay. You're attached to your phone. Every morning I wake up and where is your phone? On my bed. On our bed. Or on my stairs in my bed. No, it's very rarely on your stairs. It's almost always on your bed.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

You should have said I learned it from you, Mom.

SPEAKER_05 6:31

No, she keeps it on her bed too. Come on, you remember that commercial. I know, but I think don't they say that your phone can blow up? It can start a fire if you leave it on your bed.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Oh, I don't know. Mine's on my bed every night.

SPEAKER_05 6:41

That would be that.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

That would be extremely unlikely for your phone to explode. That would be a huge manufacturing error.

SPEAKER_05 6:50

And the quality of respect, it don't only have to happen once in or f in order for it to be a possibility. And you don't get a second chance to make that choice. I guess. I'm talking to both of you now.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

I fall asleep watching YouTube reels, that's all.

SPEAKER_04 7:06

So does she. Well, also, sometimes I just don't feel like I sleep on the board. The other night I have to do a big deep dive under there to get it from you. I mean, how old are you again? Sometimes I don't 14.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

I have more in common with uh Rachel's 14-year-old than Rachel. Oh, this is scary.

SPEAKER_05 7:22

Sometimes I don't feel like getting up off my bed. All you gotta do is sit up and put it down and then go right back down.

SPEAKER_04 7:30

Jill, but like yours is like right there. Like you can read over.

SPEAKER_05 7:34

I have to like get up, like Gen Alpha, Gen X, Gen Z, and every other Gen.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Gen Alpha is going back to the alphabet. You're you were right. Okay. Alright. Oh really?

SPEAKER_04 7:49

Oh, the Greek alphabet?

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yeah, yeah. Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

They just gave up on like creative names. Yeah, yeah, they're like forget millennials.

SPEAKER_05 7:57

When they started naming generations.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

What's that?

SPEAKER_05 8:00

When did they start naming generations?

SPEAKER_04 8:02

I don't know when they started like effectively naming them, but I know that we have names up to like 19 like 20.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:10

Yeah, because we have like silent generation, and then there's like oh, so they were like weird names.

SPEAKER_05 8:16

And then all of a sudden they started alphabetically.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Gen X was uh the first alphabetic. I saw a news I a news article. I might have sent it to you. Gen X are worried about this and that, you know, same crap people are worried about now. Technology taking over their life and their jobs and all that stuff. So I the first time I heard it was Gen X in the 90s or 80s. Yeah, it was 80s.

SPEAKER_05 8:39

But they did talk about, wasn't there baby boomers the movie? Like, that was the first time that I ever remember them naming a a generation. Do you remember the movie Baby Boomers? No, I don't. It was an actual movie, and I remember that there was a specific age group that it targeted and it talked about. But before that, but you said there was the silent generation. What years is that? That was like I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 9:01

That was just like the first one that came up, but and you said in the 1920s. That was no, I don't think that was the 1920s, but that was I think it comes from like when people would say like children are to be seen, not heard.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Oh right. 1928 and 45.

SPEAKER_04 9:14

Yeah. I knew it was and then it's the boomers.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

The Great Depression. Yeah. That was the Great Depression generation.

SPEAKER_04 9:23

And then the Boomers, right? And then Gen X. Gen X. And then Millennials. Right. And then Gen Z, Jen Alpha, and Jen X. Right, because the Boomers are our were our parents' generation. Uh no, your your mother's generation is Jen is uh silent generation. Oh, right. Oh yeah. Because she's 43 and 39.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Right, which is why we rebelled so much.

SPEAKER_05 9:47

Nana was 41. Oh, really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Yeah, it's it's why it's probably the reason why we rebelled. Not so much because yeah, children, you know, you eat.

SPEAKER_04 9:56

Do you think your generation is rebellious? I don't really think they particularly have to be.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

No. I agree. I like that answer. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_04 10:06

No, if there's like first of all, there's a lot of like online like shaming for like well, there's a lot of like people that will shame you for being like performative, or like you're like rebelling, like just to say that you've rebelled or like doing things to cloud that you're like a bad kid.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Yeah, that actually came up in my research today for the podcast, which is funny because going viral is now cringy, kind of. It can be more cringy. Really? Well well, going viral meaning like going viral without trying to be authentic.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

Oh, yeah. Yeah, trying to clap to if you're trying too hard, right? If you're like trying to get like a viral sound, or like like there are some people who will say things that like are like particularly trying to be like more relatable than they actually are to like try and get people to use their sounds so they can make more money. Or actually I don't know if that makes some money, but I assume it does.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:06

And it's like go back, you don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

If you don't mind, go back when when your mother asked um you asked her uh when you said you don't have to be rebellious. Because you you brought that up. I thought that was interesting. Because you already have the freedom to do so.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

So you don't have to feel like you have to be that way. Is that what you mean?

SPEAKER_04 11:27

Well, yeah. But also because like kids I think parents really want their kids to go outside, and so they're less worried about like who are you with outside and like what are you doing? What do you think that? Because they're like, as long as my child is outside and off the computer, and kids will and also there's a lot of um about um like kids being underprotected online. You can talk to anyone online. Like there are a lot of people that you can talk to on.

SPEAKER_05 12:00

So it's almost like it's becoming safer outside than it is in the room. Yeah, their own bedroom when you're outside.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

And you can talk to anyone.

SPEAKER_05 12:07

It's almost full circle, right? Like we and our generation, we were just talking about this on the way here. How uh I mean, may he rest in peace, Adam Walsh, when he was kidnapped, remember, and then all of a sudden it was like, oh my goodness, protect your kids, the white van, like the kidnapped member, the kidnapper fan, and all of that. So you went back inside and everybody was protected.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

By the way, but yeah, because I because I I I watch a lot of uh catch the predator.

SPEAKER_05 12:37

It is, I know, but but the predators are very often.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yeah, but I had the same discussion with my son yesterday, he's 19, and he he was saying uh he's almost paraning me a little bit without no, but it was funny because yeah, when I have kids, I'm not gonna let them on Roblox or anything like that because of the Roblox, I feel like less so, but Roblox has started to put in an age restriction thing where you can't talk to people like you can't do people.

SPEAKER_04 13:11

Yeah, that was like a couple months ago. You can't message people without that aren't in your age group. But the only way to verify your own, yeah, but you can age that, right? Well, the way to verify your age is that you have to like it's like a facial scanning thing, and they tell you what age you are, so I had to do it, but because I play Roblox. But uh but it told me that I was like 17, and so I had to like redo it until it would because it wouldn't let me chat with Ellie. My sister. Twin sister. And so because Ellie got like the right age group, and I guess it was telling me that I looked older because it's AI facial scanning. And so like I can get it. That's weird too. And so I had to like redo facial scanning? Yeah, yeah, well, also the thing is that people are using like other photos like to try and like say that they're 18 and try and say that they're different ages. Right. So you think Roblox is unsafe? I think it depends on how you use it. Do you think you're safe when you play Roblox? Yeah, because I don't really like talk, I don't talk to other people. Should I not have let you play Roblox? No, I think you should have, because I only talked to Ellie on there and like people that I know. I do have to say, in my defense, usually if I play. You weren't allowed to chat with strangers, right?

SPEAKER_05 14:29

Like I put parameters in. Admit that online, right? I think that you were allowed to chat at all. Yeah, I said there and actually then it said no more chat turned off because I was scared. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:38

But usually when I'm on Roblox, I'm on the phone with the person that I'm playing with.

SPEAKER_05 14:42

That's what I said. Replace it with on on the phone chatting.

SPEAKER_04 14:45

And because I remember during TikTok, we would I mean what during um during 2020, we would go on Zoom calls with people.

SPEAKER_05 14:50

FaceTime or go Zoom or Messenger Kids.

SPEAKER_04 14:53

Well, yeah. But we also at one point were on Zoom calls with a couple people. That's so funny, the pandemic.

SPEAKER_05 14:59

So you wanted to talk about iPods being coming back.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Yeah, I sent you a reel a couple weeks ago and stuff. And I thought it was pretty interesting how um a lot of things are coming back first. The the the wired headphones are coming back.

SPEAKER_05 15:12

All right, wired headphones, and then you said some I said some expression I had never heard before. The performative male headphones. Performative male headphones.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

PMH.

SPEAKER_05 15:24

PMH, which means what?

SPEAKER_04 15:28

Uh what is a performative male? Like why are they? Well, of course, not like a specific, it has to be like a combination of things.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

So I'll list you off like the the warning signs of a performative male.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_04 15:41

So oh, hold on.

SPEAKER_05 15:43

The performative male.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

I'm a performative male because I love wired headphones. What?

SPEAKER_05 15:50

It's a person. So it's almost like that. Um what was that? Remember years a couple of years ago with the um Hydro Flask girl. The Visco girl? The Visco girl. Is a performative male the 2026 version of a Visco girl? No.

SPEAKER_04 16:07

Well, in the w no. Not entirely. Like there is like a way.

SPEAKER_05 16:13

No, tell me, lay it on me, and then I'm gonna be the judge of that.

SPEAKER_04 16:16

So I'll I'll I'll list out the features. Okay, so matcha drinking. Matcha drinking, it tastes like grass. Oh, it does. Um cable knit sweat. Boy drinks matcha. Okay. Wears cable knit sweaters or like bulky like like sweaters. Like Ralph Lauren type like sweaters. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Um It's like a masculine thing, isn't it? Like showing up the masculinity.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

It's like sort of less that, trying to appeal to like women more.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 16:47

But like looks next to it. It's kind of trying to like reverse. That's another one I think I'm not like part of that. Well, we'll get into that. Yeah, later. I need to finish the moment of mouse. Okay. Usually listen to like Claro or like Biba Doe or like notorious. I don't even know who those people are. It's like people that like mostly girls will listen, like very like soft, like oh, are they trying to like get their groove music? Um that's part of their game? Well, no, because they're also uh I don't know how like serious this girl is, but the feminist literature reading, like how old are they?

SPEAKER_05 17:24

Did you know that this person was like this? Who is this image of a person? I know, but this image of the colour.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

No, no, I never heard of the book.

SPEAKER_05 17:30

Are they sitting in Starbucks with their wired headphones on reading? No, they're sitting in libraries. Reading poetry? When they're sitting on pork beds, female literature?

SPEAKER_01 17:40

I can actually see this. Not with my sons, but some of their friends. This is absolutely who they are doing. No.

SPEAKER_05 17:50

No, it's performing. So when you bait the person in, do they find out that you're just not that way? Like what? I don't know how effective.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

We used to call it full of shit. That's what we used to call it.

SPEAKER_05 18:03

Well, because now it's like now it's a one would say out her version of that was full of shit. Like no, I know, but what did they look like? What was their game?

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Uh that it was probably in our day, it was you know, the the uh the the Italian swag, you know, and full on in the moment, yeah, guy in the street. Whatever the trend was, right?

SPEAKER_05 18:23

Like get what they know what you're I said, no idea. Oh no, no, in your life. We don't know what that is, right? Exactly. But that would be our version. It would be like the guys who went to the clubs who dressed exactly in the trendiest outfits at the moment.

SPEAKER_04 18:37

Yes, smelled exactly the way that they were. You don't want to you don't want to engage with someone who's a performative male because that's like the warning sign.

SPEAKER_05 18:44

It's like you know, like do they are they do their performative male friends? Yeah, are they competing with who has the best role? Like, um who's most performative, right? Like we said, do they take themselves seriously or do they laugh about themselves?

SPEAKER_04 19:03

No, like it's not well. I don't know if I've ever talked to one of these guys. Like, I don't know. But it's really funny.

SPEAKER_05 19:09

Like, I assume it's like are there's is there a girl version of a performative male? Because that's not fair. Equal opportunity judgers.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

I think this is a guy's thing more like so girls don't have to perform in that mode.

SPEAKER_04 19:25

I think guys now are more worried about like the way that they look too good. Like the way that girls are talking about your mom besides. So are you a lot of that like like starving yourself, not eating red pill or black pill, but there's like whatever that whatever that that matrix thing where they were like I really can't explain it?

SPEAKER_05 19:45

It was like I'm not even sure it's a really big like Can I look it up?

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Like kids are on Adderall to keep their weight off, specifically for their weight.

SPEAKER_04 19:54

What?

SPEAKER_01 19:54

They go on Adderall to keep weight off. Just for their weight. Yeah. Young men.

SPEAKER_04 20:00

Well, I have not heard about that, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Clap talks about it in listening to stuff. Well, that's why he's on meth.

SPEAKER_04 20:07

He's on the street. I'm sorry, he doesn't clap does it. I'm not that I'm like that knowledgeable about clavs.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Instead of Adderall.

SPEAKER_04 20:15

I just know that he was the same thing before Vicky.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Yeah, these kids are like self-medicated. Yeah, well, what's this?

SPEAKER_04 20:20

Clavicular takes like a lot of drugs.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Meth.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

Clavicular does a lot of bad things. Don't be like clavicular. I'm trying to remember. This is your brain.

SPEAKER_05 20:29

It was like This is your brain on drugs. See, back in our day, we had that commercial and it was an egg in a frying pan, and it said, This is your brain. And this is your brain on drugs.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Yeah. Any questions?

SPEAKER_04 20:44

And then what were we talking oh the the I don't remember what like the girl pill it was, but it was like the matrix thing, and it was like you have two options like be ugly and get no girls, or be good looking and get girls. Um the girls have the hands successful and the girls have the hand, the girls have the hand. Well, yeah, but not only just didn't know it. Not necessarily because there was also a huge part of that that's like girls are ungrateful, girls don't like men anymore, girls have too high standards. Well, I wonder why. I mean, like Well, because they're pushing this onto themselves, so now this is like like it was a male started thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

I I I can tell you, like, just from the other side of it, um like from my kids' generation, they were blamed for everything.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

The males.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Like I'll give I'll give you an example. I I hear all the time, like I see on Facebook and and that sort of thing, or even from other parents, teach your men, teach your young boys how to treat women. Now, do uh moms ever treat their teach teach your daughters how to treat treat young men?

SPEAKER_05 21:55

Uh not necessarily young men, but I do see a lot of girls, like moms teach your Kid, teach your girls not to be mean girls, like not necessarily having to do with men, men, right, but more having to do with other girls.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

No, I know.

SPEAKER_05 22:07

Yeah, that's very interesting. No, you're right. I'm saying I don't see that.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

You don't see it at all.

SPEAKER_05 22:11

I only ever see like more how to engage with other girls. Right. Like, don't be a mean girl, right? Like, don't don't be that's really all I see about girls' behavior. Like, don't be a mean girl, not necessarily, yeah, not necessarily how it has to do with men. Yeah. Well, also how to protect yourself from bad guys.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Right. Right, right. Yeah, which is fine. I mean, I I teach my kids how to protect themselves from bad, you know, girls, right?

SPEAKER_05 22:38

But well, because boys have to be more prote I mean, really, when you not that more protective, I don't want to say that differently protected, right? I mean, or protective of themselves.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:48

Because girls have to worry about being hurt and all but boys have to be worried about being trapped and roped in and falsely accused and like all of those crazy things. Profiles, like stereotypes, like all of those things.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

So I think a lot of things came, you know, with the movements where you just believe what the women said no matter what. Right.

SPEAKER_05 23:10

The pendulum swung the complete opposite way. Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Now, if that's the case, why would you want to get involved and just have fun? Right.

SPEAKER_05 23:21

Yeah, I mean, so so I think uh Yeah, that's so interesting.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:26

So how it how does that whole thing affect schools? Like, um how does that man like that performative male?

SPEAKER_04 23:34

Well, well, the performative male, I don't know. But it's not a lot of people. No, but like what does that look like before was like are there was a quarter zip trend where guys were all wearing quarter zipped? And you could ask them like there were a significant amount of boys that were wear that were coming to school wearing quarter zips.

SPEAKER_05 23:49

Would you say that there are more obvious boy trends in schools than there are girl trends? Yeah, because there are less like the come and go of them?

SPEAKER_04 23:57

There are less trends, I think, fashion-wise, for guys. So like when there is like a like all of a sudden 47 guys are showing up wearing quarter zips. You notice it more girls are wearing like varied trends.

SPEAKER_05 24:12

Right. And also, don't you feel like guys go all in like they embrace the two.

SPEAKER_04 24:17

Like I bought 47 quarter zips.

SPEAKER_05 24:19

Exactly. I got 47 quarter zips so that I wouldn't be like my dad back in the day, liked the shirts like that when they first started coming out. And I will never forget having to go to Macy's on like a Friday night after we went to the Colonial Diner for dinner. And he bought every color, stripes, blue thicker stripes with the white thin stripe, white thicker stripes with the blue thin stripe, a teal color, a navy cup, different styles. Men go all in, huh?

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah, no, you gotta.

SPEAKER_05 24:50

Yeah, I guess, right? When you find something you like, you just embrace it wholeheartedly, right? I think so.

SPEAKER_04 24:55

So you saw it less always filled with the quarter zip. Well, that and at one point in time, Nike techs, Nike Tech, like the zip up hoodie and sweatpants were really, really popular. And so like every guy would just show up in Nike Tech full outfit. And it's like it comes in like bright like colors. And then in like sixth grade, there were all these guys that would come in and with like bright colored shirts on, and then with sports jerseys on top. We had trends like that.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:28

We might but okay, so let's okay, back to the oh those other trends that you were talking about, the iPods and the iPods are coming back to respect. What do you think the like push behind it is the analog?

SPEAKER_01 25:40

According to the research. No, they just want to according to the research. It's not so much analog.

SPEAKER_05 25:45

They want to be niche.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Yeah, they just they just want to be disconnected from you know the notifications is a big one. Like every time you turn around, notification, notification, notifications.

SPEAKER_05 25:56

That you can only listen to music on those old things. That's the only thing that you could do.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:00

Well, also listening to music on like your iPod, I imagine you pay one time, but like if you get like if you have Spotify, like unless you pay for it, you have ads every single like they increase the amount of ads, and they're raising the prices of the subscription.

SPEAKER_05 26:16

Do you know what's interesting? What's on a lot of my iPods, the old ones that I have, I have that big one, and then I have the nano. Oh, no, and um actually mine is that really thin one. Have you seen the really thin one? I've seen you, both of them. They were in your trunk at one point. Right. So um a lot of the music that's on them were my CDs.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were able to do that.

SPEAKER_05 26:45

That I downloaded onto a computer and then hooked my iPod up so that I didn't actually have to pay for that music twice.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

And it was it was actually easier to uh to make playlists back then, I think, too. Because I used to have a playlist because we didn't have so many distractions, like our playlist was like, for some of us, was like the most important part.

SPEAKER_05 27:07

Literally.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Like it was important. Like it wasn't just something we did.

SPEAKER_04 27:11

Well, now there are like thousands and thousands. Like you can go on Spotify, type any like theme, any like artist up, and you can find thousands of playlists just like no, I know that, but these were our playlists.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Like songs that wouldn't make sense.

SPEAKER_05 27:28

It's less special now, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

So so I'll give you an example. When I used to run marathons, I used to have my three-mile run, it was all like height music, you know. Right. My my my long 15 mile runs. I used to have like uh Jack Johnson. Like I wanted to I wanna chill and relax, but I knew throughout my run, this is how intricate it got throughout my run that you know after about five miles with a certain amount of time, I'm gonna need some peps. I used to have a yeah, so so what I'm saying, like when we made playlists, it was really thought about. Like it was something like you spend hours kind of and I do I gather my spot, you know I love my Spotify.

SPEAKER_05 28:07

I love my Spotify. So you know I love my Spotify playlist, but there are times where I do want to create a different playlist off of that playlist, and it's it's more navigating.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

It is like it's it's yes, and then I the old iTunes was you you just made folders, right? So you just on the computer, so it was easy, you didn't have to listen. Exactly. You just dragged it into a folder, then you synced it up to your phone, and it was all there. That was that's what I meant by playlists, not just like uh these auto-generate. Like I really thought like I used to have one where I used to have us, like I used to do spinning.

SPEAKER_05 28:46

I used to have my own play, and it was totally separate songs than my but there are I mean, then you have like you listen to Italian music, like you discovered this she discovered this Italian singer in like 1948. His number one Airbuds listener. She literally is she called Spotify and made them. I didn't call them.

SPEAKER_04 29:03

I he I she messaged them to make them. Because one of his albums was dated to 197 1938. And he was born in 1938. Oh, that's awesome. So there's no way that he made the album in 1938. I love that album. And it's been on there since 2001.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

Oh, that's so good.

SPEAKER_04 29:19

So I literally that story is and they changed it.

SPEAKER_05 29:22

And if we didn't have Spotify, you would never have discovered what's his name? Tony Renis.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:27

Because it was Elio Cesari. Yeah, I think. See? Well, that's his real name. His thing is Tony Rennes. Oh, he has a stage name? Yeah. Uh a non-Italian state's name? No, I think Tony Rennes says Italian. What's his yeah, but what's his real name?

SPEAKER_05 29:41

Elio Cesari. I would imagine that's much more Italian than Tony. Tony Rennes sings in Italian, so it's not like he's hiding it. What were your other ones that they said were trending?

SPEAKER_01 29:49

The the the one of the biggest ones is cameras. Just traditional cameras. Where it only takes pictures.

SPEAKER_05 29:55

The small ones, the little cameras.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:59

There was some magic in those cameras back in the days. Do you does anybody in your generation ever develop pictures?

SPEAKER_04 30:07

No, you download it to your phone.

SPEAKER_05 30:09

Do you ever develop pictures?

SPEAKER_04 30:11

Have the actual photo? Yes. Like if you want to like put it on your wall or something.

SPEAKER_05 30:16

What are the like what like what are the incidences that like how often in your life have you developed once? Have I developed it? Never. You've never asked me to take pictures.

SPEAKER_04 30:27

But I don't like have a camera. You're fine.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

I know from a phone you can do it.

SPEAKER_04 30:31

Oh, you really? Well, I don't have a reason to do that. Because I have all the photos from the phone. Yeah, but I have the photos that I have of, I have photos of, but they're like like photo booth photos from bars. Right, right. And from like I have one from Dave and Busters. Like I so it's like photo booth photos. Yes. You've never wanted to develop any of your pictures. I also have like I have photos from theater. I don't have meaningful photos. I don't take many photos on my phone. So you think screenshots?

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Oh no, it's definitely gone. I mean, I that was my living.

SPEAKER_05 31:03

Like it's what?

SPEAKER_01 31:06

I mean, that was my living. I mean, yeah. I mean, yeah, like like I do some photography now. I I don't even offer prints anymore.

SPEAKER_04 31:13

All the photos are all our memes.

SPEAKER_05 31:16

Like, wow.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

No, that's so funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:19

All of the pictures on your cam on your phone are memes. Well, they're not all. A lot of them are from a lot of them are from theater.

SPEAKER_04 31:27

That one's from Sydney.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

What I do with mine is D tag the faces on your.

SPEAKER_05 31:32

Yeah, I also upload mine to Shutterfly and every once in a while. I'll have to. I mean, not as much as I should, but I they are in on in Shutterfly in albums. Every like season, I will um download them into Shutterfly and I'll do like, you know, fall 2026 or something. Or like, you know, something like that. Spring 2026, I download them from January to now.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

Right.

SPEAKER_05 31:54

I don't necessarily do much with them, but they're there for, you know.

SPEAKER_04 31:57

Well, sometimes we look back on them. And when we did our thing, we had to like when they did those like posters, with when I did one for every Adam was like, we wanted to go and print out the photo.

SPEAKER_05 32:07

Right. But nobody does it. Like, that's so interesting. So then what are they doing with the digital camera stuff? They're downloading it to their phone and they're posting it.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Yeah, but as they're taking the pictures, though, they don't have to worry about anything else. That's that's more of an immerse experience. So you put your phone on silent and just take pictures. Or not bring your phone. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:32

Well, you would definitely bring your phone because they're usually taking pictures at like the beach.

SPEAKER_05 32:36

And actually, I would imagine that in some situations, camp, um, yeah, that's why you can't bring a phone. That's why a friend you want to catch the moment, but you're not allowed to bring your phones because they don't want any access to social media or texting or anything like that.

SPEAKER_04 32:53

That camera to catch them. Right. And that was the camera that was like allowed.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Oh well.

SPEAKER_04 32:58

I don't know if it was allowed. I don't know if we ever got it like snuck it in. Well, I don't know if we like your counselors knew we were taking it. We do.

SPEAKER_05 33:05

Like we did a bunk with an international audience, just so you know.

SPEAKER_04 33:09

Well, we did a bunk tour with our counselors, the counselors knew. That's true. So I don't really know if they cared.

SPEAKER_05 33:13

So what's another one? Digital cameras?

SPEAKER_01 33:16

That was really it. That's uh camps. Well, uh, I came up with So I'm gonna ask you a question.

SPEAKER_05 33:22

What do you think is the best Gen X thing?

SPEAKER_04 33:28

I don't know if I'm educated enough on like Gen X to even name anything.

SPEAKER_05 33:33

You said there was like a Gen X. Tell us what you were saying. The Genesis Up X.

SPEAKER_04 33:38

I could strip this video. It was like, I don't know if it was like a genuine thing, but there were people that were genuinely like in the genitals, like fighting for Gen X, like to say that like like everybody else is weak, like all these young kids are weak, all these little kids are bad.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Like you guys don't know anything, like see, I I have a different perspective with Gen Z though.

SPEAKER_05 34:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

I think they're the closest thing to Gen X.

SPEAKER_05 34:06

So do I. I agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Like I love like I agree with that. So there's two sides of Gen Z. So so my uh my my my my son. I can't I can't tell the whole conversation but my son was saying, like, uh um you don't understand Gen Z. We're not gonna put up with this shit or whatever, yeah, you know, and and I liked hearing that, right? I was like then then I said to him, I said, yeah, that's a lot of Gen Z, but like the other half are just talking batshit crazy. Right, right, right. And he goes, and and he agreed. And you agree. I guess I don't think he had as many batshit crazy people, yeah, yeah. Like where everything given. Like we weren't upset, there weren't many people in in our generation, at least where I grew up, where there was a mass amount of people that were upset about everything.

SPEAKER_05 35:00

I'm gonna tell you why I think that is. Because we came off of the heels of people hating life because of the Vietnam War and all of that protest, right? Yeah. And then we came in, and I think we were just like, chill, dude.

SPEAKER_04 35:15

Right? And also, I just could enjoy life for Gen Z. There's more like online spaces you can find like-minded people who will be.

SPEAKER_05 35:24

You were saying that, which I thought was really introspective. Say it again for Rob, how you were saying how I said oh you I was one of I was reading the question.

SPEAKER_04 35:32

What and what was It was like It was like, do you think that there's more like acceptance? Yeah, like acceptance or something, or like kids are more like accepted in school. And I said or like than they were when you were in school. And I said like I don't know, but they're I don't know how it was when you were in school, but there's much more like online space that you can find where like people are interested in things that you are interested in.

SPEAKER_05 36:04

I know, but don't you find that to be isolating a little bit though? Like online. Like what if they don't live near you? Then you just like hole up in your room and you're having conversations with people who could be living in like England or something.

SPEAKER_04 36:20

True. Which then like if you go to school and you have like a keychain from like the show you watch, somebody else will be like, Hey, I love that show. True. And they'll be like, and you'll be like, Oh yeah, I found it on this from this other thing. Okay. And so like I guess you have more exposure to different things. True. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

I I I I find a lot of the Gen Z that I talk to again, it's around that 19, 20 year old range where they really understand like even even I I notice with I like I even notice for her, she under they understand like who the grifters are.

SPEAKER_05 36:54

Or they they they they get the joke. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

Grifters like an Andrew Tate, who's just kind of you know, plugging along a little bit to make the money. They're not really contributing to society much more.

SPEAKER_04 37:08

Like a bottom feeder, yeah. Yeah, like oh, like a like somebody who goes off of like other people's fame.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:14

Or like whatever's trending.

SPEAKER_05 37:17

Whatever it is, it might not necessarily be somebody's fame, but like riding the coattails of things, right?

SPEAKER_02 37:23

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:24

Not necessarily paving their own way.

SPEAKER_04 37:26

Clavicular really wrote the coattail of looks maxing of the black pill con black pill, red pill, whatever content of like the that thing. He like that's where all of his fame came from.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

Yeah, right, yeah. But but he calls everything maxing. So if you're if you're single, you're single maxing.

SPEAKER_04 37:43

Oh, that's his thing. Yeah, yeah. But you can't be single around clavicular. You can't be single around clavicular unless you hate women equally as much as he does.

SPEAKER_02 37:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:52

Oh, he's a woman hater? Well, that's what the black pill content is. Because like he's trying to appeal to the because he's trying to like appeal to other men as to show like, hey, I'm so much better looking, then you get better looking.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

He doesn't hate women because just to hate women. He proves the point. I think he hates I think there's a generation that hates women because these same men were shit on their whole life. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Because of their looks.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

No, because they're they're boys.

SPEAKER_02 38:28

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

And and to be be more specifically, maybe white men, white boys, you know what I mean? Like like like being blamed for everything. Right. Right? So what happens is a lot of his content is he'll go up to a girl who's next to her boyfriend, and he'll steal it from the boyfriend, just to prove that he can? No, not that he can, that the women aren't loyal.

SPEAKER_05 38:52

Well, also. Oh, to make the woman look like an idiot.

SPEAKER_04 38:54

That yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Well to to make it.

SPEAKER_04 38:57

Well to try and say that like women don't really like men anymore and that like they just like want to be with some it does come from like a place where like he wants to make like women feel stupid. Yeah. Because he also like he's like, the women don't have to leave. He thinks that men are like better than women, and he thinks that like men should be in all positions, like he's a very like hardcore.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

So then as a woman, I never took him as an Andrew Tate like that.

SPEAKER_04 39:22

Yeah, but like the people that he endorses as well are pretty and the people that follow him, like he comes along with that sort of he's not specifically engaging it, but the a lot of the people that follow him. I think that's accurate. Like in his comment sections, all these boys going like ha she's so stupid. Yeah, the they're like she's not she's not big enough to be doing that. And like it's like mostly like young men, young like boys. I don't like that you listen to that.

SPEAKER_05 39:49

I don't want you to see those comments.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

So much listen, it's coming across a reel every other day. That's 30 seconds.

SPEAKER_04 39:55

Does that affect girls? Well, I think it's more of girls are like that's ridiculous, like that's stupid. Like girls are more, it's like less attractive to girls because now you're just shaming a bunch of women. There's actually like a huge what's the outcome of something like this?

SPEAKER_05 40:14

Like he just gets to say that he's gonna be making $10 million a month. He just gets to say that he's gonna be a good one. Does somebody like Melanie? What happens if he wants to meet somebody one day? She does, he has a girlfriend.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Yeah, he does. And she got mad at him the other day because he was kissing other girls in front of her.

SPEAKER_04 40:30

Well, yeah. He's like making her feel stupid as well.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:34

Does he treat her like well, yeah, because he's like, I can get any other girl, I don't need you. That's his whole thing, is like he can get any other girl.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

He doesn't say that, does he? He just behaves like that.

SPEAKER_04 40:44

But yeah, like that's what he like gives off.

SPEAKER_05 40:47

That's what he like kind of wants to show her.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:49

So from you, like, what do you say about her? Like, what does that make you think about her? I'm curious.

SPEAKER_04 40:54

She's not like an attractive girl. Well, I don't really know much about her. A little bit, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

But then hold on, honestly. She can get anybody she wants to. It's not a one-way.

SPEAKER_04 41:06

She's an attractive girl, she's a rapper, she's like rich. I think it's I don't know about her. Well, a lot of people think that it's like he's only dating, like they're only dating for like clown.

SPEAKER_03 41:17

Right.

SPEAKER_04 41:17

Because he'll say like things to her and it'll be like, oh, like that's staged. Like that sounds like something that's the other thing.

SPEAKER_05 41:24

You never know what's real and what's not real.

SPEAKER_04 41:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

Yeah, no. I I I I I think him compared to the other, he makes it clear that he's doing it for real like that when the camera's on.

SPEAKER_04 41:37

He's like doing it. I mean, he might say like stupid things, like there are recordings of him like saying like stupid things, but not as extreme as he is on like he's not actually like smashing his bones, like well, he is actually probably taking all these drugs and stuff and doing all these bad things. But I don't think it's as extreme as he makes himself out to be. I think he wants to influence other men, he wants to be like at the top of the food chain. But I don't know if he like truly believes this. I think maybe that's what other men like he thinks other men want to see.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

What what's interesting about him is he is actually educated about breaking down a man's looks. Like he's like, like he knows.

SPEAKER_04 42:23

And he'll like he'll like you have like a negative cantile tail, like he'll like name like like bone features.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

And he's autistic, admittedly, he's autistic, so he's owned things.

SPEAKER_04 42:34

He's autistic. He doesn't have a diagnosis.

SPEAKER_01 42:35

No, I know. That's why I said he thinks I was thinking about it.

SPEAKER_04 42:38

He thinks he's autistic.

SPEAKER_01 42:39

Yeah, but he he he he could be a mistake. He probably could be, yeah, yeah. But he'll say, Yeah, how how far your eyes are apart from each other. Like a guy goes, right.

SPEAKER_04 42:48

How high your eye like tilts up, like it'll be like stupid. He'll get you on like a technicality, he'll be like, nope, that brings you down two points. He rates the guys?

SPEAKER_01 42:58

Yeah, he rates the guys.

SPEAKER_04 42:59

Well, because guys want his approval.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Well, they're just but some of them just think it's well some of them are like this is like so he'll he'll break it down the and he'll rate some uh he'll rate a guy a six, alright. And the guy will be upset. He's like, What do you mean I'm a six? He goes, six is good. I mean, five is average. So if you're six, you're above average. Right. But but he he just he just zones out like in that ADHD hyper focus, like he's joking all of a sudden when he's breaking down someone's look. I'll pull something up as he talks.

SPEAKER_04 43:30

Uh like that's like he's like nerding out about that. Like he like that's like he like is actually like interested in that. Like he if he probably wanted to, he could probably become like an esthetician or something, or like some type of like plastic surgeon or something, like or like a personal trainer or something to like make guides like look like he actually did, he actually came out with like a like a like a looks maxim guide. But it's like thirty bucks and I don't think anybody but I don't know how like serious

SPEAKER_01 44:05

You want to see one? Would you like to see one? Nobody was like buying another one. No, it's nothing bad.

SPEAKER_04 44:13

Oh, he was on a he was on a podcast with Logan Paul recently, too. He wasn't very nice. Well, Logan Paul's not at all. Logan Paul was like at some point 6.5?

SPEAKER_03 44:26

Not even a seven. I'll be honest with you, it just seems a little low.

SPEAKER_04 44:29

Personally, when people ask me what I think I am on a scale one dead, I say eight when you're Well, that's a huge understood. Yeah, he'll say all this with like a straight face dead pan. Oh like he's like, this is like what he thinks. Like he's not like he's not like, oh, like what do you want to hear? Like, um, let me make this man feel better. Like, this is like what he thinks. Like, this is like seems to take it very seriously. He's like genuinely like like good.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:03

Alright. A little bit. Like, wow, okay. Um, what do you think the best quality of Gen Z is?

SPEAKER_03 45:14

Ooh.

SPEAKER_04 45:15

Um, I don't know. I would have to like can we get like a category? Sure.

SPEAKER_00 45:22

I got some. Okay, go.

SPEAKER_05 45:23

What do you all right? What do you think the best technological um thing about Gen Z is? Like their contribution the best technological contribution that Gen Z offers.

SPEAKER_04 45:37

They make YouTube videos. Tutorials on how to do things. Okay. If you ever wanted to like change a tie, like I could watch a YouTube video and change a tire. Okay. I could like watch a YouTube video and fix my computer. I could like watch a video and build an IKEA chair. Like, if you ever needed a tutorial, you could find one. What were you gonna say?

SPEAKER_01 45:58

Um just the best one of the best qualities of Gen Z, I find, is that they're not fooled easily. They're really not.

SPEAKER_04 46:06

Like the ability to determine what's really fake, especially when it comes to AI.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

Real time.

SPEAKER_04 46:11

It's like like the things that you that Nana will be sitting there hysterically laughing at, or even like some things you'll look at, I'll be like, that's AI.

SPEAKER_01 46:20

I I'm full one, I'm full two, and I'm like AI.

SPEAKER_04 46:24

Yeah. I just got thrown under the bus. And a lot of people will post things and be like, and be like, um, and people will be like, oh, this is like something that's happening, and people will be like, that's AI. Like, we're not stupid. That's AI. Obviously, we know.

SPEAKER_01 46:40

And I think because of that, right, one of the unattended benefits is too um not just fooled by that type of stuff, the visual stuff or AI stuff, but fooled by media.

SPEAKER_04 46:52

Yeah, because you have to know what's real and what's not real, and people's spectrum.

SPEAKER_01 46:55

Yeah, but understanding, but it's all almost all false information. That's that's what I'm saying. Like it's almost it's all a bias. So biased.

SPEAKER_05 47:05

It used to be news, but a a driven agenda.

SPEAKER_01 47:09

Right. So what news is what news is now, it's someone's opinion.

SPEAKER_05 47:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 47:14

And it's there's a mixture. There's a mixture of truth, 50 let's say 50% truth, 30% uh uh assumptions. Well, that's why there's and then the rest the rest, you know, just lie, all mixed in. Because there's 50% truth, their assumption, you you can't it's hard for some people to break all that down.

SPEAKER_04 47:36

But that's why there's a big thing of like you have to like go to multiple news outlets with different perspectives so that you can like cross-reference. Right. And then like you know what's true, what lines up is what's probably true, and what doesn't line up, you can I guess decide for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 47:54

Right. Yeah, I I think also is that they they don't I don't think they trust the I hate using this word because it's so mainstream media.

SPEAKER_04 48:06

Like, yeah, they don't trust the media.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

Right, the mainstream media, and I get a lot of information. Now you're gonna you might roll your eyes at first, they might they get a lot of information from from the internet, like YouTube personalities, but the th but the true journalists who do that, the good thing about them often is that they're not paid by any groups.

SPEAKER_04 48:27

Yeah, they're choosing to spend their time compiling articles and stuff, right? And then they'll tell you, like, this is what type of thing.

SPEAKER_01 48:33

They don't have to be influenced by anything.

SPEAKER_04 48:35

Yeah, yeah, and they usually form their own opinions.

SPEAKER_01 48:38

Right.

SPEAKER_04 48:39

So, one last question for you on our Out Loud podcast.

SPEAKER_05 48:42

Thank you for coming to visit us. Are you hopeful or scared for the future in our country? I want to know that as a 14-year-old. In our country? Yeah, in our world. In our generation, in our world, in your generation.

SPEAKER_04 48:59

Like in what sense?

SPEAKER_05 49:00

Just the way that our world is right now.

SPEAKER_04 49:04

Um Are you hopeful that it'll get things will get better? Both. I think that's I'm very hopeful that because I've seen a lot of people, like, a lot of people are fighting against the building of um AI powers center uh data centers. Okay. Like a lot of people they're building a lot of AI data centers and it's ruining the water quality in those areas, and so a lot of people are going to their town council and they're fighting about it.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

And it's working.

SPEAKER_04 49:32

And yeah, and so that's like there's a lot of activism coming out. There's a lot of people trying to like correct systemic uh like imbalances. Okay. Like systemic racism, systemic misogyny. People a lot of people, there's like people who are trying to like counteract that and like sort of even the playing field for people. And there's also just a lot of activism in general because it's easier to reach a large audience online. Okay. But also, like, I don't know if it'll be enough. Yeah. Because, like, even like in science class, like our science class is focused on right now, like biology is focused on like how do we save the environment. My Spanish class is focused on how do we save the environment. Interesting. What's wrong with the environment? We're learning about how like how to like say it instead of we're also learning about like Mexico uses like each person in Mexico uses six thousand plastic bags a year or something, or like twenty-five thousand plastic bags a year. Um, or like each family. But it's like there's a lot going on with that. I am hopeful, but I don't know how far hope can go if it's like continuously going downhill.

SPEAKER_01 50:56

But is it is it going down? I I always look at like like your parents' generation. That's the Vietnam generation.

SPEAKER_05 51:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 51:04

Right. Like, like, you know, you your mom's generation.

SPEAKER_05 51:08

Well, my mom's generation wasn't the Vietnam generation. Mine was younger, was over they were older than that.

SPEAKER_01 51:14

Right, right. But they they were still within the thing. And then uh, you know, years your mom's generation, my parents' generation, certain people couldn't drink out of certain water fountains.

SPEAKER_05 51:27

So, like, so so really think about uh it's important to recognize how far we've come.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

Yeah, especially for a country. I always like to say, we're we're 250 years old, right? We're like four people. That's a regenerate four, like three, you know, three people like lifespans, right? Yeah, three people. There's countries that are 2,000 years old and they're actually we watch a lot at home.

SPEAKER_05 51:53

We watch Finding Your Roots. Did you ever watch that on PBS? It's a great show, and it brings on famous people, not necessarily actors, it could be, you know, there was a writers last time. Writers, there's um um journalists there could be. There's um and it was Amy Tan, actually, the author Amy Tan from the Joy Luck Club. Her family tree goes back 2,000 years in the Chinese dynasty. Like she had no idea. Oh wow, they literally traced her family tree back 2,000 years. She was like, I can't believe it.

SPEAKER_01 52:24

I think that's easy to do now.

SPEAKER_05 52:25

Well, it is, but the point is is that her family's that old, like that goes that far back. Like that's not in one place.

SPEAKER_04 52:32

Like, yeah, you know, what that's wild. It is easy to do because I was able to find the census of the year that your dad was born with his name on it.

SPEAKER_02 52:39

Oh well.

SPEAKER_04 52:40

But like, that's the only reason I know that he was born in 1939. But it's still like how far we've come, we've definitely like there's definitely it's definitely not as bad as it used to be, but there are like lingering problems that I think because they're so much better than they once were, it's not as obvious to people that they're there, and so they uh say, like, oh, but it's come so far, but it's still there. Yes, yeah, of course, and it will continue to be there until you acknowledge it and change it. And like I think that that's a big thing as well. Being able to see like underlying problems, being able to read between the lines, being able to like know what is influencing people's opinions, like why they're saying what they're saying, and like why they think this is also important, and like what places generation is capable of doing that. Yeah, because I think that's I do too.

SPEAKER_00 53:38

I have a lot of hope for you guys.

SPEAKER_05 53:40

I'm not sure what I actually do. I'm not a hater for you.

SPEAKER_01 53:44

I'm not no, I mean, my our your cousins, like we we have like, yeah, like I I listen, I I'm a hater when it comes to millennials, but not Chinese.

SPEAKER_05 53:54

Yeah, not chinese. I mean, I don't really have an opinion for millennials actually. I think you're right.

unknown 54:02

You're right.

SPEAKER_01 54:02

Yeah, we raised them.

SPEAKER_05 54:06

Thank you for joining us on Out Lab. I loved having you here.

SPEAKER_00 54:09

That was awesome. Thanks everyone. So much fun. Next week. Come again.

SPEAKER_05 54:13

Bye.