Politicized Pizza

What starts as a sleepy, bathroom-emergency kind of morning turns into a surprisingly deep dive into war, politics, privilege, and pizza.

Jen and Dagda begin with:

• Late-night work, 2 a.m. stomach issues, long walks to the bathroom, and way too much information about trash cans that are the “perfect height.”
• Moody Washington weather and YouTube fatigue, with commentary on Abba & Preach, Asmongold, and political burnout.

Then things get heavier:

• Current conflicts, oil and money, terrorism, and how US interventions can be both strategic and morally muddy.
• Iran, Venezuela, shifting stories about WMDs, and memories of Desert Storm/Desert Shield and the Iraq WMD fiasco.
• A “high school” analogy for modern politics—smart kids, lazy kids, and rumor-mill mean girls running government narratives.
• Jen’s resistance to picking a political “supreme leader,” guided instead by veterans, a POW grandfather, and her own moral compass.

They also unpack:

• Being slightly left-of-center while still holding nuance and respecting both sides’ humanity.
• A conversation with a young, very far-left person who says they “hate America,” and why that hits Jen as both offensive and heartbreaking.
• Global realities like FGM, stoning LGBTQ+ people, and child slavery—why, despite its flaws, the US is still a place with people actively fighting for better policies and protections.
• Cancel culture, how any statement about Trump/Biden/“the other side” can get you labeled and ostracized, and why they usually avoid political talk on-mic.

To cool things down, they pivot to:

• Cooking YouTube, The Steak & Butter Gal’s carnivore pizza crust (cottage cheese, egg white powder, mozzarella), weird marshmallow made from bean liquid, and gumbo history, okra slime, and sassafras/root beer nostalgia.
• Jen’s real “job”: human connection—compliments, kindness, making people feel seen, instead of trying to fix geopolitics.

If you’ve ever felt politically homeless, exhausted by news, but still obsessed with food videos, this episode might feel uncomfortably relatable.

Artwork:MoroccanSansit

#podcast #GenX #politics #leftofcenter #politicallyexhausted #wargames #humanconnection #ProundtobeAmerican

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Welcome to Everyday Life. Thank you for joining our podcast, Conversations Over Coffee. My name is Jen. And I'm Dagda. And we're gonna hit you with the explicit content warning right off the bat. This podcast does include adult situations and adult language from time to time.

SPEAKER_09 0:22

I'm an angel. I never fucking cuss.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Okay. Anyways, you ready to go?

SPEAKER_09 0:28

Oh yeah.

Sleepless Nights

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Alright, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Let there be sound. Ugh. Let there be no yawning. I saw you like think about yawning because your mouth did that weird thing where you're like, Yeah. Oh, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_09 0:48

I'm doing alright. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:50

I am sleepy. Peepee. I am sleepy. I'm a sleepy girl. Sorry. I'm not a sleepin' and a peeping. Wow. That sounded wrong.

SPEAKER_06 0:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

My bad. Well, I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn't get back to sleep immediately. So then I came in here and I worked on podcast stuff uh for two hours. Getting everything, I was telling you I got everything set up for the social media stuff for the week. And um so when I did go back to bed, then it was cold. So I had to steal somebody else's blanket and I felt so bad because he was getting up for work. Here I am hankering down, bad kid, go take a nappy nap.

SPEAKER_09 1:31

Snuggling back into the nice warm bed.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Uh-huh. I was like, I feel like such an asshole because I'm like, what time are you supposed to be getting up to go to work? And I didn't mean it like that, but I didn't want to steal the blanket while he was still under it.

SPEAKER_05 1:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

But the minute he left the bedroom, whoosh, it was mine. Well, it was still warm. You know, he'd been he, I don't know, he slept like, well, I wouldn't say sleep, but he was under the covers for like eight hours. He said he had trouble sleeping.

SPEAKER_09 2:04

Anyways. Yeah, I had trouble sleeping the other night. Because I ate dinner too late. That's the worst. And then and I was a little leery about it, but I was like, well, I have to take these meds. Um, and so I was like, okay, fuck it. I'll eat these 20 chicken nuggets.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Right.

SPEAKER_09 2:25

They were good. It's been a long time since I had chicken nuggets.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

I'm saying.

SPEAKER_09 2:29

Um, and well, they they were on sale. They were like six bucks for 20 chicken nuggets. I was like, oh yeah. Yeah, my friend was like, I'm getting some chicken nuggets. I was like, okay. Oh shit, yeah, let me get them. Anyway, I fucking woke up at like two o'clock in the morning with stomach issues, and I'm like, uh and then I couldn't go back to sleep, and so I just sat in my chair.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Being all pissed off about it too, probably.

SPEAKER_09 2:57

Trying to fall back asleep in my chair, but uh it's not as comfy as the chair here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

I mean, it probably is, but I I like that chair that you use just because it's got a it's it's comforting because it gives around your body, so it like encompasses you.

SPEAKER_05 3:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

So it's very easy to fall asleep in that chair.

SPEAKER_09 3:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

So how grumpy were you at coffee with your friend?

SPEAKER_09 3:19

It wasn't bad. I wasn't grumpy.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

That's good. Did you keep trying to fall asleep?

SPEAKER_09 3:24

No.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Oh, well, that's good too. Because sometimes you do that when you're really tired and we're out to coffee.

SPEAKER_05 3:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Your eyes get really heavy and you make that big sigh. You just, you just, I'm just like, oh crap. Poor guy, so tired. But I get it. Uh yeah, I've been eating too late at night too. Like, I've been too busy, so I don't eat. And then it's like as soon as as soon as everything slows down and stops, then it's just like, oh crap, I haven't eaten in 16 hours. I'm famished. But I'm trying to get better about having having my proteins and heavier in the morning, and then trying to just do like a salad or something at night when I'm having days like that. Um, because it uh I really don't need to be having having to wake up at two or three o'clock in the morning rushing to the restroom.

SPEAKER_05 4:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

You know, luckily, I'm on the ground floor. You know, everything's one level. I don't gotta fight with anybody on the stairs, you know. You know, it's just me and my partner. We don't have any room.

SPEAKER_09 4:30

Cause I imagine you'd push a bitch down the stairs if you if you know, like well, also like my bedroom is almost above the bathroom. So I have to walk to the opposite side of the house and then go down the stairs and then walk back towards the bathroom. And it's just the knowledge that I'm doing that sometimes is too much. It's like, god damn it.

Bathroom Strategies and Battles

SPEAKER_02 4:59

I need a poop, we need a porta potty in the you should get a camper party potty.

SPEAKER_09 5:05

What we need to do is have dormers put in upstairs and have a bathroom put into one of them.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

That would be a brilliant idea.

SPEAKER_09 5:14

That's what we need.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Look, it could just be a line that goes straight down to your toilet with a long push broom to fucking flush.

SPEAKER_09 5:23

Have a dumb waiter that's just right above the toilet.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Right.

SPEAKER_09 5:28

And just drops through the ceiling into the toilet from upstairs.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

I have no- I'm down here! I'm down here. Tough shit, literally.

SPEAKER_07 5:41

So gross.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Yeah, it probably well, there are times. So my partner is a um relaxed bathroom user. Everything has to be very relaxed, no urgency to it whatsoever, which is fine normally, but there's been a couple of times where I've been like, I literally am about to go pee in the tub in front of you. If you don't hurry up, you've been in there 17 minutes, you've been in there 27 minutes, like whatever.

SPEAKER_05 6:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

And so he finally got me back on that commentary because it was uh, I don't know, maybe a month ago, not quite a month ago. He was just like, Are you almost done in there? And I'm like, Yeah, and he's like, I'm about to crap my pants. And I was just like, Well, it sucks, doesn't it? When you're waiting for somebody to be done in the bathroom. And he's like, I need you to hurry up, please, or I'm gonna shit on your lap. I was like, whoa, that's one step too far.

SPEAKER_03 6:37

He came out of the bathroom one day and I was over by the garbage can. I'm like, are you done? Are you done? And I just ran and he's like, What the fuck are you doing? We're gonna. I'm like, I was gonna take a shit.

SPEAKER_09 6:49

I mean, that's one way to do it.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

Well, with this garbage can, it's actually the perfect height, so I could if I needed to. Anyways, enough poop talk. Yeah, no, other other than feeling like I I I need a nap and could use a little more sleep. I think I'm doing good. I mean, they said we were gonna get snow today, and yeah. I don't I I don't see it happening.

SPEAKER_09 7:12

Well, when when I heard that, I was like, mm-hmm okay but check it out. Look it does occasionally happen at this time of year.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

Yeah, I mean when we look north, it's all gray where it was just sunny an hour ago. Now look out, look south. It's all sunny where it was just gray. It's like it's like our weather is like having a bad PMS day or something. I don't know what I want to do.

SPEAKER_09 7:35

It's Washington, it's always like that.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Right. So have you watched anything good lately?

SPEAKER_09 7:41

Let me see. The last I think the last time I watched something was the last right before the last time we talked about watching stuff.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Yeah, otherwise you've been kind of just sticking to the YouTube and the Yamad and ABA and Preach and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_05 7:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

I just can't do YouTube that much. I just can't. I mean, we did my partner and I did catch up on Neebs, uh, because they they have a a group of people doing a competition right now, but I just can't watch that much YouTube anymore.

SPEAKER_09 8:08

Yeah. Well, especially like some of the YouTube channels that I watch um have a tendency to follow um political stuff. Yeah, and that gets fucking old fast for me. There's a reason I don't watch the fucking news.

SPEAKER_03 8:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 8:27

Um well and preach and Asmongold all have kind of moderate views, they're not too far to the left or the right, yeah. Which is kind of like me. Um, and they tend to have funny commentary when they're talking about stuff. Yeah. So it's not all super serious and super fucking aggro bullshit.

YouTube Overload and Wacky Washington Weather

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Well, it's it the news lately just sucks, anyways.

SPEAKER_09 9:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

I mean we've got more companies laying off people because AI is becoming more predominant. We have got a war going on in oh, surprise, surprise, the Middle East again. And it's all over oil and money. I'm sure it's over other things.

SPEAKER_09 9:23

Yeah, there's a lot more to it than just that. I mean, so if you think about it, the two countries that we have recently militarily interacted with, let's put it that way, um, are both suppliers to our biggest competitors with oil.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_09 9:44

Um and so there's the strategic aspect of that, of let's deny China and Russia fucking oil, as much oil as possible. Right? So there's that.

SPEAKER_08 9:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_09 9:57

Um also those two countries that we've interacted with most recently are also two of the biggest um supporters of terrorism. So there's that. However, there's also other stuff going on, right? Like these are distractions from the other political horror shows that are uh unfolding with like the Epstein files and stuff.

SPEAKER_07 10:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 10:23

So they're distractions from that. I mean, they s they serve multiple purposes and they can serve additional ends on top of all that. So who knows exactly what's fucking going on in the heads of the of the leadership.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Um I mean, maybe it comes from a very good place. Like, uh, maybe this presidency run is like before I go for my grandchildren, I want to make sure terrorism stopped. Maybe that's the thought process.

SPEAKER_09 10:56

It could be but I don't think that's necessarily one of the things that I heard recently, and I was like, oh yeah, that totally makes sense. Um, is that this current uh presidency seems to be more concerned with their um legacy or their fucking the way they're perceived than necessarily what's best for America, let alone what's best for the world.

SPEAKER_07 11:25

Sure.

SPEAKER_09 11:25

Um which I don't know. There can be multiple reasons for what's happening, and there probably is, and like the reality of it is that the leadership of Venezuela should have been removed a long time ago, although by their own people, but that's another story.

SPEAKER_06 11:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 11:46

Um, and the leadership of Iran should have been removed many decades ago, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Um but your little hamsters going squeak, squeak.

Globally Conflicted

SPEAKER_09 11:58

There's so many potential negative outcomes for this, uh, for what's just happened, but there's also at least as many positive outcomes, right? So and you can't tell which ones are gonna come to fruition. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Yeah, I mean you you Venezuela, I don't know, we'll we'll see how that ends up going. Uh, you know, but as far as Iran goes, uh I don't see it getting any better because the leader that was just killed is replaced by his son, yeah, who's been living what his dad's been preaching his whole life. So I don't see there being a big regime change there or whatever. I don't know. Uh just godspeed all our soldiers that are over there dealing with it.

SPEAKER_09 12:43

Yeah, that situation is not finished. Um, I mean, I understand one of the things that I watched, there's a dude that I follow. Um, his name is Andrew Bustamante.

SPEAKER_07 12:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_09 12:55

And he's an ex-CIA operative. And um he pointed out that last year, so every year the federal government puts out a bunch of reports on their plans and what's going on in the world and whatnot, right?

SPEAKER_04 13:16

Right.

SPEAKER_09 13:17

And he pointed out three in particular reports that they put out just last year. One of them was from the CIA, one of them was from the White House, and one of them was from the Department of Defense or whatever. And all three of them said that Iran wasn't one of their top priorities. And in fact, one of them specifically said, and this was before we went over there the first time and blew up a bunch of their WMD stuff, um, that they were nowhere near getting a WMMD. So first they're telling us no WMD, then they tell us WMD, then they tell us we took care of the WMD, and now they tell us we're back with a WMD. What the fuck? Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Yeah, it's like one hand doesn't know what the other hand's doing.

SPEAKER_09 14:03

Yeah. And I mean the Iraq situation was largely told to us that it was because we were looking for WMDs, right? And then we spent years over there and never found any. So, I mean, this is a different administration, but still, like, jerk it some more, bro.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

It well, right? Here's the thing that bothers me. It's almost like being in high school again. So you've got the people who are doing their due diligence. I'm doing my research and I'm writing everything down factually that I found. Boom. You got that group, and then you got the other group going, um, yeah, I don't think it's that big of a deal because I don't want to do it. So they're done.

SPEAKER_05 14:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

You know, sophomore years high school for some people, anyways. I had to throw it.

SPEAKER_09 14:51

Not a single fucking article of homework done.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

And then you've got the mean girls. Um, hey Veronica, like, what do you think about those Iraqi guys over there? They got debut MDs. Girl, I don't know. And they're just perpetuating rumors.

SPEAKER_04 15:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

There's there's no there's a little bit of fact, a little bit of fiction. You know, every rumor has fact and fiction in it.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Uh literally, fact and fiction. Uh rumor I heard recently was about a store closing, which which is true, but that's only part of it because that that is a fact. It is closing at that location and moving to a new location. So there's fact and fiction in every rumor, and it literally is like we've got the smart kids, we've got the lazy kids, and we got the mean girls all sitting there doing their own thing. And the mean girls are really ramping it up because this mean girl is gonna say, it is factual, and this one's gonna say, no, this is factual.

SPEAKER_06 15:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

Well, yeah, it's very easy in in a country of any size, it's very easy to have all of your components for WMDs. And that's I know somebody who went and did Desert Storm, and their take on it was that, well, they did Desert Storm and Desert Shield, so we're going back a few decades.

SPEAKER_09 16:11

Yeah, that's a day or two ago.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Shut up. It's like 9,000 days ago, but whatever. Kidding kidding. Anyways, no, I'm not. I just did quick math. No, I'm not. Anyways, but the thing was is that they didn't find any WMDs there at that time. But what they did find was in different locations, had all the all the pieces to make WMDs. So it would be something that within two weeks there would be WMDs. That's like how close everything was. So there was components to, but not full of.

SPEAKER_09 16:42

And so it also depends upon what they're defining as WMDs, because when I was in EOD school, um weapons of mass destruction included biological and chemical weapons. Um, at least when I looked, because when I was talking about Andrew Bostamonte, he showed the reports.

SPEAKER_07 17:04

Right.

SPEAKER_09 17:04

And they listed WMDs and biological and chemical weapons separately.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 17:10

Um so yeah. And we've always the United States has always had a policy that if you use any of those weapons against us, we reserve the right to use any of them against you, and we'll probably choose the nukes, right? So all of them are classified as the same sort of threat level. Yeah. Which makes sense, although two of them are way less of a problem because they'll run their course and they'll be done, as opposed to the other one, which it will run its course and a thousand years later it will almost be done.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Yeah. Uh yeah, it's it's one of those things where I mean, I obviously uh, you know, there's a part of me that's the eternal optimist, and wish we didn't have things like wars and fights and and combat and all of that. And and I say that because I've interacted, obviously, my entire uh customer service career, I've interacted with war veterans. And I had a grandfather who was a POW, you know. So I I mean, yeah it's it's a horrible thing, and it's it's terrible for me to say, I don't know who to believe. I don't need a phone call from some higher power going, well, listen, I just want you to believe me because I'm your supreme, you're not my supreme leader. Sorry. My supreme leader is my moral compass. It's my mother. It is my mommy. Hi, mommy. Hi, mommy. Hi, mommy. Um, you know, and I hate talk, I hate talking politics because I have people I know that are left, right, centered. I mean, there's, you know, and so if I talk this way and say I understand this practice, then the people who support the left a little more predominantly seem to get angry with me, and then I don't hear the end of it. Yeah. And then if I say something the opposite direction, because I feel at different times I feel certain ways about left policies and right policies. I I'm I if you look at left, right, and center, I'm slightly to the left of center.

SPEAKER_05 19:07

Yeah.

Smart Kids, Mean Girls and A Rumor Mill

SPEAKER_02 19:08

And that's only because I do firmly, and the reason for that is not because I'm hippy-dippy, it's because I firmly believe words mean something. And so when you're addressing something or somebody you may not agree with, you still want to choose those words that you do it as respectfully as possible. I don't have to stoop to your level of name-calling, RBFing, dirty looking, um, or being like, listen, girl, I don't like you because you don't do just whatever I say. You're the wrong, you're evil. I don't, you know, me, I'm going to choose my words because I mean, that is one thing that mommy is is very firm about is using your words. Me personally, when I was younger, I mean, using my fists work better. But as an adult, not wanting to do jail time. I want to choose my words because so so for a lot of people that puts me leaning left. But I'm also, but then there's people who lean left, and I'm just like, I'm a firearm owner, and they're like, oh, you're totally right wing. And I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_05 20:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

I can't win. I can't win with anybody. So I'm leaning, I'm centered left.

SPEAKER_05 20:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

And and that's why I don't like talking politics, is because people don't understand. I have that ability. I may not understand it, right? But I have that ability to see both sides.

SPEAKER_05 20:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

And people are like, no, you only see one side or the other. No, no, no, no. That's not how this works. How this works in life is you have to be able to hear both sides and see, okay, I see this is your perception because of this. This is your perception because of this. What's our counterbalance? What's our middle ground? What's our resolution?

SPEAKER_05 20:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

And a lot of people just can't do that and they don't understand that kind of thinking. And I'm just like, but if I was in a situation where I wholeheartedly firmly felt a certain way, and I was in competition with somebody who felt the complete opposite, and somebody had to come in the middle and judge it and help come to a resolution, I would like it if they had the ability to look at both sides and understand why both sides saw it both ways.

SPEAKER_05 21:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

But that's just me. That's why I don't talk politics.

SPEAKER_05 21:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Although I did have the opportunity, and and I will say this. Um, so I did have the opportunity to have a conversation over the weekend with somebody who is a uh a million, a million degrees to the left.

SPEAKER_04 21:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

I mean as left as you're gonna get. And their comment was I don't think I like the United States any more. I don't respect my country and I don't believe it anymore.

SPEAKER_09 21:45

Go live in Ethiopia.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

And now you know me, because I very am very American.

SPEAKER_09 21:52

Just visit, just visit Somalia.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

And I I said, Well, that's a very strong statement to say.

SPEAKER_09 21:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

Uh I said that's a that's a really Strong opinion and strong uh statement to say, especially for somebody so young and you haven't even really seen the world evolving.

SPEAKER_04 22:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

And their beliefs are that this uh the leadership we have now, this just wait a few years. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. I there's a specific word for it, you know, like the whole presidential package we got going on right now.

SPEAKER_09 22:22

Um not legacy, that's wrong. Yeah, yeah. I actually said it earlier. Yeah. And now I can't think of it.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Right exactly. Um, but anyway, so this whole the whole leadership we have right now, what's going on with this presidential run? They don't agree with them. They don't think that uh the president respects them or has any type of respect for their type of lifestyle or anything else. And I said, look.

SPEAKER_09 22:46

There's a good chance of that.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

I'm like, yeah, like, bro, like honestly, babe, it's it's how it is. And I told them, I said, here's the thing: it doesn't matter. What matters is what you do. If you feel you're being treated unfairly, if you feel that your human rights are being violated, then you stand up and you voice your opinion. You don't sit there and say, I hate my country because of this temporary situation. Yes. I said, uh, and they were they were like they were like, how can you see it that way?

SPEAKER_09 23:24

And I said, because I've been around for more than fucking 30 minutes.

Moral Compass Point of View

SPEAKER_02 23:27

Right. And I said, well, I can tell you honestly, because of this. Before your generation, transgender people didn't have any sort of livable life. Everything was done in secret. I said, and that includes the men and women who are transgender and were transgender, transgender, transgender, who went off to war and fought for the rights of our country, who fought for our freedoms. I said, so you being mad at the presidential cabinet and their policies and what you perceive as this, I'm not in your shoes. But if you feel that your human rights are being violated, then respect the people who laid down their lives so you can have freedoms in this country. So you have, you have, because of these people who have died, they were not all straight, they were not all gay, they were not all men, they were not all women, they were transgender soldiers who died, who hid their lives and died to fight for our freedoms, then change the policies. You don't have to be Antifa, you don't have to be any of that shit. You can just say, I'm gonna work with my legislature to make sure the rights are fair. I said, you can't have it to where you can do everything you want, but you can make sure it's a balanced justice system for you.

SPEAKER_05 24:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

I was and you know what I thought I handled that pretty well, considering I really feel very offended when I hear anybody under the age of 40 saying, I hate America. Especially when it's somebody under the age of 25 saying, I hate America and I don't respect my country. You have no idea you just started. I just feel like I just started. Yeah, I just started. You have no idea how privileged we are compared to some countries. In Africa, there are girls at 13 years old that have to have their labias cut off and get their clitorises cut off because that's their culture.

SPEAKER_05 25:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

There are other cultures in other places that gay men, gay boys is stoned to death. Stoned to death. Nine years old, they become slaves. So, you know, it it we may not be a perfect country, but there's enough people here trying to make it better. You know, I mean, there are some times where I'm just like, fuck it all, I'm done. But I never say I hate my country.

SPEAKER_07 25:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

And I was just, I was really shocked by this person because even though I know they are so far left, it's like 180.

SPEAKER_09 25:48

Got up its own butthole. Yeah. I was just far with that it's right again. Yeah. Basically.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

I was just, I was really shocked by them saying that because it made me so incredibly offended, but so incredibly sad as well. I couldn't imagine feeling like the country I live in hates me just because of the fact that what's between my legs.

SPEAKER_05 26:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

And how I feel in a mentality.

SPEAKER_05 26:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

But anyways, yeah, that's why I don't talk politics.

SPEAKER_07 26:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Because it gets me, because you know, like you and I can talk politics off mic because we end up laughing about it. Yeah. Even if it's shit that pisses us off, we end up laughing about it, you know. But in the day and age we live in, um, you said he Trump wasn't all wrong and he wasn't all right. You're canceled. And then you have the opposite of it going, you said Trump was right, but not all the time, you're canceled. I mean, it's like every fucking cancel. Like, like it literally, like, I knew it would impact us when I sent condolences to Charlie Kirk's family. Because it wasn't about his political leaning, it was about the fact that he was outdoing what he felt was his calling and his job, and he was murdered by somebody who felt offended by him.

SPEAKER_05 27:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

And people were cheering about that.

SPEAKER_05 27:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:08

And it was just like, wow. So I knew we would be impact by that, but that was only for like two weeks. Yeah. Because it's like, you guys have to forgive me that I'm I'm not smart. I'm just a poor white girl. I'm not smart.

SPEAKER_09 27:20

I was born a poor black man.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

Look, you look like you were born a poor Indian boy. You were so tan, bro. Like you have gotten so when you were little, yeah, you were like, you were like, think you come again. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 27:43

And people looked at me with crazy eyes because I had red hair and was very tan, like, what the fuck is going on here? Exactly.

unknown 27:54

Right.

Talking Polictics Suck, but Nuance Still Matters

SPEAKER_02 27:55

You know, it is so, it's so funny because obviously we're not gonna put up pictures. Your child, but oh my god, not now, but you were the most adorable little boy.

SPEAKER_09 28:05

Oh my god. I was I was super cute at one point. Well, I mean, you're still you're still very when I was very young, I was very adorable.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

You're still adult attractive, but oh my god, you're you're you're you're under under 14, 14 and younger, like the pictures of you in the train, like with your cousins, or you just you can just see you're just too big for it. You're just too tall for it. You're just like, fuck you, bitches, I'm riding this train, you know. But especially those pictures when you're like six and seven. Like, we could put those up, and people would be like, I want to buy that child, you know. But, anyways, uh, so Asmund Gold, um Yamad, a little bit of politics, a little bit of what else you've been watching?

SPEAKER_09 28:52

Um, I started watching a lot of like cooking stuff.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

Oh, yeah, you've got it really hard on for uh what's her name now? The carnivore gal? Is that her name?

SPEAKER_09 29:03

The steak and butter gal.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 29:06

Um, yeah, I used to watch her a lot more than I do now, but yeah, she made a pizza, and I'm like, I want to try that.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

Yeah, and you said it was megged out of like egg whites?

SPEAKER_09 29:14

Yeah, it was like um goddamn it. Cottage cheese, uh-huh, mozzarella, and egg white powder, and then something else. That's just the crust.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

Right. Now, now the cottage cheese, did did she blend it?

SPEAKER_09 29:30

No, she didn't blend it, she just mixed it together.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_09 29:33

Um, and then put it on like parchment paper and then baked it. Sure, sure, sure. Um and then put on toppings and then cooked it some more.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

Right. Well, you know, I mean, I I just asked because, you know, Liam Leighton, the plant slant guy, he people are always tagging him and dude, try this recipe. And it's all these cottage cheese recipes, and I feel horrible. But one recipe I was watching him do earlier is somebody made uh fake marshmallow out of uh the juice from garbanzo beans or some kind of beans. They were take, they took that juice and they whipped it up, I think with egg whites. And it ended up making like this marshmallow. He said it's not as firm as marshmallow, but it was still really good. I'm like, that's interesting. I'll probably have to find that video again and try it because why waste it if you don't need to? Because there's nutritional value in that.

SPEAKER_09 30:26

That makes me think of the uh Max Miller, the tasting history dude.

SPEAKER_08 30:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_09 30:31

He did gumbo a few weeks back.

SPEAKER_08 30:34

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_09 30:35

And uh he was talking about because he always goes into like the history of different food and whatnot. Right. Or the history surrounding the food. Right, right. Because a lot of times he'll do stuff that's like really, really old and there's no recipes for it. It's just these are the types of food that they probably ate because we have evidence of these things in their uh like in their pottery or whatever, or bones of these animals or whatever.

SPEAKER_07 31:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 31:03

Um but anyway, he was going into like the the sort of history with gumbo and potential places that it originated because it potentially originated in Africa, and there's a bunch of different things.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

Yeah, I thought it was Africa, and then it had like a French variation, and then when it came to the like the French quarter in Louisiana, it had yet another variation.

SPEAKER_09 31:26

Yeah, so is he so there was one thing that first of all, the name gumbo, there's several different potential origins. There's an African one, there's a French one.

SPEAKER_02 31:39

Yeah, isn't the African one jumbo?

SPEAKER_09 31:41

Um, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

Oh, anyways, sorry.

SPEAKER_09 31:44

The the French one, though, it appears that it actually originated in like Haiti or something like that.

SPEAKER_08 31:50

Okay.

They Broke Jen's Heart

SPEAKER_09 31:51

Um, but anyway, there's two kind of um uh plants that give it its kind of weird texture.

SPEAKER_08 32:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_09 32:03

Um, one of them is something that I hate called okra.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

Oh god.

SPEAKER_09 32:10

Um, it makes it more gelatinous.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

Yeah, I've only had good okra one time.

SPEAKER_09 32:14

Yeah, I've never had good okra, and that's why I'm gonna do it.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Well, it was it was it was it was deep fried okra discs.

SPEAKER_09 32:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

So it was mostly just deep fried okre.

SPEAKER_09 32:24

Well, he did talk about the reason why okra ends up being snot if you don't cook it right.

SPEAKER_08 32:30

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_09 32:31

And it's because it produces a lot of this stringy, gloopy stuff. This like it basically it produces a mucus when it's cut.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

Oh, so it's the plant world hagfish, gotcha.

SPEAKER_09 32:42

Yeah. And he's like, so you have to cook it without putting water on it first, because it will ex it will weep this stuff, and then as it starts to dry out a little bit, it will soak it back in. If you just add water, what happens is it just leaks it out and then it just stays out, and then it makes everything super gloopy.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

Um I mean, I've had pickled ochre and it's not bad.

SPEAKER_09 33:07

It's fucking snowing.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

Is it? I'm not, I can't see shit.

SPEAKER_09 33:13

Wow. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

Well, that's because the screen's over here and that side's wet.

SPEAKER_09 33:18

Yeah. But the other one he was saying was um oh god damn it. Sasperella. Or what is the name of the plant? Um, actually, I think it's sarsparilla.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

It is sarsparella because a lot of people don't uh sarsaparilla is the name of the plant, I believe, because uh sarsparilla and then root bearer are the same thing.

SPEAKER_09 33:37

Yes, sass well, yes. Essentially the flavor. I remember when I was in basic training um and we were out doing our bivouac, uh, and you had to dig fighting positions. And my fighting position was right next to a sarsarilla tree, and I didn't know because I'm not from the fucking south, right? So I'm sitting here digging, I'm like, why does it smell like fucking root beer? This is awesome. And uh Joe Sergeant was like, That's a sarsaparilla plant right there.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

That's awesome. Yeah, it it it yeah. I remember growing up, uh I remember there was Thomas Kemper's root beer. Okay, and then there was actually bottled sarsaparilla when we'd go to eastern Washington. My I had a grandmother who was from eastern Washington, very small town that does not exist anymore. Well, I mean it exists, but there's only like three people who live there now, um, called Cleveland, Washington.

SPEAKER_09 34:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_09 34:36

I guess there's like a hundred ghost towns in Washington State. I didn't know that until recently.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Yeah, it's like super crazy.

SPEAKER_09 34:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

Um, but what's interesting about it is so it was she's from eastern Washington, but over there they called it Rut Bear.

SPEAKER_04 34:49

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

And watermelon.

SPEAKER_05 34:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

Not watermelon, watermelon, and uh sarsaparilla.

SPEAKER_05 34:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:57

Not sarsaparilla, sarsaparilla. And it's so it was uh Mira.

SPEAKER_09 35:02

I mean, it was great because Washington.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

Yeah, so it was really cool because when we we went out to eat, um they had uh Bickleton had a road rodeo there, uh, right there because Bickleton and Roy or are Bickleton and uh Cleveland are like right near each other or whatever. Okay, and anyways, there was a little restaurant we went to, and they said, What do you want to drink? And my grandma got root beer, and I wanted root beer as well. And she said, Okay, which one you want? Which one do you want, honey? You want Sasperilla or you want Thomas Kemper? And I was just blown away. There's more than one, yeah, because what I had been exposed to in Western Washington for the most part was Thomas Kemper, which we didn't buy because it was in the glass bottle, so it was very expensive over here, and then like AW.

SPEAKER_09 35:46

Yeah, and it was I remember dads and barks as well as AW. Those were the three that I remember have well, obviously, like Western family, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:57

Right. Well, I I don't remember dads and barks before I was probably 13 years old. And when we used to go to Eastern Washington with my with my grandmother, uh, we were like, you know, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, that range. Mug. So good. Uh, do you remember the little candies, the wax candies that had like the little skirt of soda in it?

SPEAKER_09 36:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 36:18

I didn't like those. It had some weird funky flavor to it.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

If you kept chewing the wax, yeah. But if you did what I did, which was if you pinched the top off and squeezed the liquid out and then threw some water in your mouth, it was delicious. You know, but anyways, that's interesting. So, food and steak gal. So she did this pizza.

SPEAKER_09 36:40

Steak and butter gal.

SPEAKER_02 36:40

Steak and butter gal. Sorry, food and food. See, this is what this is why I don't talk about politics. It's because it's boring and it like and it makes me go into super PC mode, which my partner hates. Just say what you're thinking. Oh, I'll say what I'm fucking thinking. And then you're gonna be pissed off for the next three days. Yeah, and we don't want that. So it and it's not that I ignore it. I it's not that I ignore what's going on in the world, it's that um people who are invested in it more than me know better than me. So if their job is to figure out how to make this shit better, then my job is to figure out how to make the people I interact with their lives better. Yeah. And and that's just kind of my rule of thumb. Because nobody wants me to say, all right, everybody line up and let me get a whooping stick and beat the shit out of all you for being stupid.

SPEAKER_05 37:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:29

You know, because I mean, will we see a woman come into the White House in our lifetime? Probably not.

SPEAKER_09 37:35

Yeah, no, well, not if it's the ones that they keep fucking proposing.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

Oh god, yeah. Not how how about, you know, yeah, especially not that Seattle mayor. Ugh. Ugh. I one thing I can't stand with the politicians, to be honest. They're worse than chefs.

SPEAKER_09 37:52

Yes, chef.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

That's right. Chefs, if they make a mistake, they'll be like, it was my intent to change it by a little bit, and some mistakes are blessings. Okay. And sometimes they turn out great. Fantastic. Politicians make mistakes, and it's your fault. Not my fault, it's your fault. I don't, I don't like that. I don't want us to be in war. I don't want us to fight over dinosaur goo. I have no desire for any of that. I don't want to pay$4.25 for a gallon of gas.

SPEAKER_09 38:20

That's a myth, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 38:21

That it's dinosaur goo.

SPEAKER_09 38:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:23

Yeah. I just watch Deep Hot Water Horizon. So, you know, again, fantastic. Remind me, my Uncle Billy was one of the inspectors who flew out to places like that. He was an oil rig inspector. Um, anyways, that's why I don't talk about politics, is because it just there's no way to make everybody happy.

SPEAKER_05 38:41

Yeah.

Cancel Culture and Comfortably Carnivore

SPEAKER_02 38:42

But you you come around me in a personal life, and as long as you're not harming children, animals, or or other humans in bad ways, I will give you something positive about yourself. You have beautiful eyes, you have a great smile, I love your shirt, I love your hair. Uh, you know, I will find something positive about anybody. And it's I had interaction with somebody, and we all know him. You don't know him yet, but we all know him as Jurassic John. And you know me, I'm a I will give you a handshake any day of the week when you're being respectable. And this guy just he looks like fucking Santa Claus. And he is just the sweetest man. And I was just like, John, it's always Jurassic John, it's always so good to see you. And he's just like, it's so good to see you too, Jen. And I'm just like, okay, well, I better let you. Oh shit, that's snow and hail. Anyways, um, he's just like, I was just like, yeah, I better get on to my next project of things I'm doing. He's just like, yeah, I better, you know, I better get going and doing this. And I'm like, cool, cool, cool. And I gave him, you went to give him a handshake because I only get to see him every once in a while. And uh he was just like, we're like family now. And he grabs me and he gives me his big old hugs and he's like, thank you for making me feel important. That's my job. That's what I do because I don't want to be one of these pursy bitches that go, oh, oh, well, Veronica. Veronica walked on the right side of the street when she should have been walking on the left side of the street for that one block. She's a bitch. This dude, I'm telling, I'm let me tell him, I gotta tell these guys. Dagda is one of these people that there is a certain way that you're supposed to walk down the street.

SPEAKER_09 40:30

Supposed to walk towards traffic.

SPEAKER_03 40:33

And if you're not doing it, he will sit there and say the most fucked up shit about you. The fuck you're all you stupid rockers. That's exactly how it sounds to me.

SPEAKER_09 40:45

I mean, it probably doesn't matter because most of these people aren't paying attention to what's going on anyway. So even if they are walking towards traffic, they'll still get run over because they're dumbass.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

You missed it about two weeks ago. Somebody was on their phone, and literally at this intersection here, kitty cut it, and all you heard was.

SPEAKER_09 41:03

Wow. I mean, I do kitty corner across these intersections too.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

They were on their phone not looking.

SPEAKER_09 41:10

I actually look around and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

Yeah, you always have an earbud or a Bluetooth on or whatever. This idiot had the phone up to their ear. And even when the screech happened, because that's what caught my attention, because I was already looking outside, uh, because I was trying to watch for the mailman, and this guy was in a red jacket, so obviously you're gonna see him. Red jacket, uh, blue jeans, and like black shoes, I think. Anyways, just cut kitty corner, didn't even pause and look, just kept walking. And the person in the car is like having a fucking full-on stroke.

SPEAKER_09 41:49

So Yeah, I I would not blame anybody who got out the car and beat the shit I got person. I would just stand there and watch and be like, you got what you asked for, motherfucker.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

Anyways, so yeah, that's my job. My job is not to um my job is not to talk politics because it makes me angry because there are some things that I see um that I'm just like, only an idiot would not know that this is a very bad thing.

SPEAKER_05 42:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

And then there's other times where I'm like, only an idiot would not see that this is a very good thing.

SPEAKER_09 42:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

And it's just like, ah well, and there's so many, there's so much hypocrisy.

SPEAKER_09 42:31

It's like so-and-so was doing this during their fucking presidency too, but you weren't crying about it then. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 42:39

Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_09 42:40

Right.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

So anyway, yeah, so yeah, so politics isn't my thing, but uh, you know, I can be I can be PC about it, and that's fine, but my thing is to do exactly is human connection. That's my thing, and I love it. Now, do I connect with other people the way I do with my partner or with you or my mommy? No.

SPEAKER_09 43:01

My thing is human dissection.

SPEAKER_02 43:03

I know, right? And I'm the one dissection. I'm the one who keeps you from the murder, and you're the one who keeps me from the plotting. It's it works out very well. I mean, we can be PC. We can, you know. I I I don't know. I just uh I just know politics isn't for me because what I have learned my entire life of all of my redacted existence is that five days, all five days of them, um, is that in order to be in politics, you have to be willing to lie, cheat, and steal. And I'm not. And I'm yeah, I'm simply not. And and that's just a that's just a fact. You have to lie to yourself, you have to cheat yourself, you have to steal from yourself, you have to lie to yourself about why you're doing stuff you don't understand.

SPEAKER_09 43:53

You have to pr pressure your uh uh married assistant into having sex with you and then laugh. When she sets herself on fire.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

Who did that?

SPEAKER_09 44:03

Uh a dude in Texas, one of their representatives or whatever, congressman.

unknown 44:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:10

Yeah. Yeah. I I have zero desire to lie steel, steal, or cheat. I just don't. Like I said, you're you're lying to yourself about why you're doing stuff. You're you're stealing time and you're cheating yourself out of life. Yeah. I don't have any desire to do that. So steak and butter gal made this pizza. She made this pizza that you want to try making.

SPEAKER_09 44:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:32

You gotta write you gotta write the recipe down and follow it, huh?

SPEAKER_09 44:35

Yeah. I mean, I don't know about the biggest challenge is probably finding the she used egg white powder. Although she did say you could use like um uh what's it called? Collagen powder or something, also um, although that isn't a very much, it's mostly um cottage cheese.

SPEAKER_02 44:59

I'm like, I imagine the egg white powder or whatever is just to give it a little bit of lift and hold it together. I don't know.

SPEAKER_09 45:07

Well, I mean, it's also mozzarella cheese. Right. So it's like there's plenty of gloopy stuff holding it together.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

And then you put stuff on it and more cheese on it.

SPEAKER_09 45:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:17

Okay. Yeah. But so you so you're baking this, you're baking this crust separately.

SPEAKER_09 45:22

Yeah, you yeah, because otherwise you're just gonna have a big gloop pile that you're putting other stuff on top of. Um it'd probably be it would yeah, because the if you put the regular toppings on it when you put this liquid stuff in the pan, you have a weird I mean, I I suppose it would be kind of like a quiche or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 45:43

That's what I was thinking. That's kind of what I was thinking when you're talking about it. Well, it's really funny because yesterday my partner and I were talking about next Sunday making uh lasagna. Because we haven't had lasagna in when was the last time I gave you some almost two years?

SPEAKER_05 45:57

Yeah.

Jen's "Real" Job

SPEAKER_02 45:58

You know, we don't we don't make it that often, and since you know, we don't have pasta hardly ever anymore, yeah. You know, we were talking about uh doing that.

SPEAKER_09 46:07

Yeah, I was thinking about making like a tuna casserole. I used to right after I got out of the army, I used to use a lot. I would take a packet of ramen, um, and usually it would either be the shrimp or the chicken one because you'd I'd use the flavor packet for it. But anyway, take one of those, put in a can of either um cream of mushroom or cream of celery, and then a can of tuna, and then basically just put that in the microwave and heat it up, and it basically turns into fucking tuna casserole.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

Yeah, because if you gave up, you could get you could get a cheddar and broccoli can of cheddar and broccoli soup.

SPEAKER_09 46:51

No, there will be no broccoli.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

There's really not that much. There's just is there's just flavor mostly in it. You could do cheddar cheese soup too. That'd be really good. Then you'd have cheesy uh tuna. But you know, I like cheese. That sounds so bad.

SPEAKER_09 47:08

You'd have cheesy tuna.

SPEAKER_03 47:12

Maybe you had some cheesy tuna over there. Yo, cheese smells tuna, and it feels like cheese. Wow.

The Wrap Up

SPEAKER_02 47:24

Jesus Christ. From politics to carnivore pizza, it's been a fucking day.

SPEAKER_09 47:31

If that's what you call it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:33

Right. You guys have a good one out there later. I don't talk politics. Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 47:45

Okay, everybody. That's all the time we have for today. So I want to thank you for stopping by to enjoy the conversation. Uh, we're glad you're here, and please share and share again, and share some more. And if you haven't already, subscribe. We'll be having another chat and another cup soon. We'll talk to you then. Look forward to seeing you.