Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: Ask Us Anything | College Decisions, Conspiracy Theories, Politics, Immigration & Career Advice

Transcript

Normally Podcast: Ask Us Anything | College Decisions, Conspiracy Theories, Politics, Immigration & Career Advice · Normally

0:05
Speaker 1: Thank you guys.
0:05
Speaker 2: We are back on normally.
0:06
Speaker 3: They so what normal it takes for when the new
0:08
Speaker 3: kids weird? And during this Christmas quality season, we are
0:12
Speaker 3: taking questions from you. Ask us anything. Carol's got a
0:15
Speaker 3: bunch queued up for us. I'm Mary Katherine Ham. How
0:18
Speaker 3: you doing, Carol?
0:19
Speaker 2: And I am Carol Markowitz. I am doing great. I
0:22
Speaker 2: really love the.
0:22
Speaker 1: Questions that our listeners send us. They really range from
0:27
Speaker 1: serious to light, and I just enjoy reading through them
0:30
Speaker 1: so much. So let's start with this one. I'm finishing
0:33
Speaker 1: up at community college and looking at potential transfer schools
0:36
Speaker 1: for next ball. Do you think it'd be better to
0:39
Speaker 1: go to a secular school that has all the typical
0:41
Speaker 1: progressive bells and whistles, or an explicitly Christian school that
0:44
Speaker 1: has a more liberal theological bent.
0:48
Speaker 2: I think that.
0:49
Speaker 1: School is for college, and I'm not kidding. This is
0:53
Speaker 1: what I tell my kids. It's for being around your
0:57
Speaker 1: kind of people. It's for finding your potential spouse, it's
1:01
Speaker 1: for making lifelong friends and potential work connections, and you
1:06
Speaker 1: should choose the school.
1:07
Speaker 2: That is best for that.
1:09
Speaker 1: I know that I'm supposed to think that college is education,
1:12
Speaker 1: but I just don't think so anymore. I don't think
1:15
Speaker 1: there's anything that college can give you at this point
1:18
Speaker 1: that you can't get in the outside world, and so
1:21
Speaker 1: you have to see it as a social opportunity. And
1:24
Speaker 1: this is literally what I tell my children.
1:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's all about what is most important
1:32
Speaker 3: to you. If the faith part is most important, then
1:36
Speaker 3: those might be your people, liberal theology or no right,
1:39
Speaker 3: and so figuring out what is most important to you
1:42
Speaker 3: is number one. But I mostly agree with you, Carol
1:45
Speaker 3: that you know, when you're going to college, there's often
1:49
Speaker 3: not much more that you could learn there than you
1:51
Speaker 3: could out of just doing at doing a great books
1:54
Speaker 3: curriculum on your own. You could do most of what
1:58
Speaker 3: you get in college, which is one of the things
2:00
Speaker 3: that is so sad about people losing the ability to
2:02
Speaker 3: read books, because there's a long tradition of people getting
2:07
Speaker 3: a very good education from just reading books. So, you know,
2:12
Speaker 3: weighing that. I think also an important part of any
2:16
Speaker 3: college education should be weighing how much you want to
2:18
Speaker 3: go into debt, yeah, because that will change the trajectory
2:22
Speaker 3: of your life, and a lot of people take on
2:25
Speaker 3: a lot of debt without thinking about how it will
2:27
Speaker 3: change the trajectory of their lives. When I got out
2:29
Speaker 3: of college with zero debt, I did not realize that
2:32
Speaker 3: compared to my many of my peers, I was basically
2:34
Speaker 3: a millionaire. Just yeah, I came out, I went on scholarship.
2:38
Speaker 3: I came out with no debt. I made ten to
2:40
Speaker 3: fifty an hour. And I thought I was, like, you know,
2:44
Speaker 3: not doing well. It turns out I was doing pretty well.
2:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's that's absolutely right.
2:50
Speaker 1: I think that you have to consider what your future
2:53
Speaker 1: career will be and how much that will make and
2:54
Speaker 1: how much college costs, and there has to be some
2:56
Speaker 1: sort of calculation there for that. Yes, but again the
2:59
Speaker 1: advice I give my own kids, Like, I have a
3:01
Speaker 1: fifteen year old, so this is already it's coming up fast.
3:04
Speaker 1: But what I say to her is, I have three
3:07
Speaker 1: very different kinds of kids.
3:09
Speaker 2: They're not all the same. I think she needs to
3:11
Speaker 2: be around brainy kids who are very driven. That's not
3:16
Speaker 2: every single school.
3:17
Speaker 1: So I kind of direct her to schools where she's
3:19
Speaker 1: going to have these brainy driven kids, where there's a
3:22
Speaker 1: Jewish population that she could potentially meet her spouse. Look,
3:26
Speaker 1: this is important to me, and I'm open about it.
3:28
Speaker 1: And then for future business work connections depending on her
3:32
Speaker 1: field that we don't really know what that's going to
3:33
Speaker 1: be yet, but that's what you want. You want those
3:36
Speaker 1: three at least I want that for my kids. I
3:38
Speaker 1: want those three things.
3:39
Speaker 2: My younger sons.
3:40
Speaker 1: I could see a completely different calculation for them. I
3:44
Speaker 1: just I just think that each kid is obviously unique
3:47
Speaker 1: and different. But for me, it's it's the social thing
3:51
Speaker 1: more than anything else.
3:52
Speaker 3: I think I did not use college enough for oh,
3:57
Speaker 3: for professional connections. That is not a use the alumni network.
4:01
Speaker 3: I didn't realize that that was a thing. It was.
4:04
Speaker 3: I think it was a little bit of stubborn independence
4:06
Speaker 3: on my part that I was just like, I'm going
4:07
Speaker 3: to make it the way that I make it. And
4:09
Speaker 3: it's like, well, why wouldn't you seek help young women?
4:13
Speaker 2: But no, but's so true, it's so great, Why like,
4:16
Speaker 2: why not get help?
4:18
Speaker 3: But I did. I did know what I wanted, and
4:20
Speaker 3: I wanted a big school with athletics that I could
4:24
Speaker 3: attend and take part in, and a decent journalism program.
4:29
Speaker 3: That's those were the things that were important to me.
4:31
Speaker 3: And it put me with my people and the way
4:33
Speaker 3: I found my people by the way because sometimes if
4:35
Speaker 3: you get to a big college, it can be hard
4:37
Speaker 3: to find where your people are. I went to UGA
4:40
Speaker 3: and I ended up playing lacrosse on a club team,
4:43
Speaker 3: which meant that all the women who are on that
4:45
Speaker 3: club team were from out of state, So that out
4:48
Speaker 3: of state people, why does it mean that because they
4:51
Speaker 3: didn't have Lacrosse was not popular.
4:52
Speaker 2: In the South at this point.
4:54
Speaker 3: So I played on this team where everybody had come
4:56
Speaker 3: from other places. And it turned out that the personality
5:00
Speaker 3: that comes from somewhere else to go to a giant
5:02
Speaker 3: school where no one else is that they know, is
5:05
Speaker 3: the personality type that I was drawn to.
5:07
Speaker 2: And this was the totally I understand that.
5:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the team made it easy for all of
5:12
Speaker 3: us to come together for some in state kids, but
5:15
Speaker 3: that was my way of finding my slot when there
5:18
Speaker 3: are thirty five thousand people at your school, So that
5:22
Speaker 3: part can be tricky, right, It was demoralizing before I
5:24
Speaker 3: found that.
5:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I could see that definitely. I also went
5:28
Speaker 1: to a really big school. The accepting help part and
5:31
Speaker 1: you know, leaning into all that your school has to offer,
5:34
Speaker 1: that's another I did not do that at all.
5:35
Speaker 2: I didn't go see a guidance.
5:36
Speaker 1: Counselor until the like two weeks before school I did
5:39
Speaker 1: there and I was like, hey, so what do I
5:42
Speaker 1: do with this political science degree? And she literally was like,
5:45
Speaker 1: you could do anything. I was like like what, like
5:46
Speaker 1: what like they name some things and She's like, you
5:48
Speaker 1: could just do like anything. And I was like like what,
5:51
Speaker 1: I need to take this back to my parents. What
5:53
Speaker 1: do you got? I have no idea? What did I
5:55
Speaker 1: just do? Like, I just finished college and I hadn't
5:58
Speaker 1: even considered what I was going to do next.
6:00
Speaker 2: So yeah, for you, Yeah, you're paying for it.
6:05
Speaker 3: And the alumni network is such a big deal and
6:08
Speaker 3: again something that I should have taken much more advantage
6:10
Speaker 3: of and did not.
6:11
Speaker 2: So yeah, all right, let's see. Let's see.
6:15
Speaker 1: Okay, a more serious one, although the last one was
6:18
Speaker 1: serious as well. What are your thoughts on the conspiracy
6:21
Speaker 1: theories surrounding Charlie Kirk's death long ago? Trusted voices or
6:25
Speaker 1: sounding crazy thoughts?
6:26
Speaker 3: Please?
6:27
Speaker 1: Look, we're recording this before the sit down with Erica
6:31
Speaker 1: Kirk and Candace Owens.
6:32
Speaker 2: I am very mixed on it.
6:34
Speaker 1: I understand why Erica feels like she needs to do it.
6:38
Speaker 1: I think it's bad. I think it legitimizes Candace, And
6:41
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that Candace stops when Erica tells her
6:44
Speaker 1: to stop, which is what I imagine is the case here. Yeah,
6:48
Speaker 1: the conspiracy theories make no sense. A Turning Point, people
6:52
Speaker 1: wanted to kill Charlie Kirk, the guy who was like
6:55
Speaker 1: running the whole organization and making them all money.
6:58
Speaker 2: Why why did.
7:00
Speaker 1: Like Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro donate a million dollars
7:03
Speaker 1: to Turning Point after Charlie died? Because obviously the concern
7:07
Speaker 1: is that the organization couldn't survive without its leader.
7:10
Speaker 2: They understood that, why would they kill their leader? That
7:13
Speaker 2: makes no sense?
7:15
Speaker 3: For what none of it makes any sense? And I
7:17
Speaker 3: think we have a cultural problem where a very well
7:22
Speaker 3: earned trust trust deficit in the mainstream media and in
7:26
Speaker 3: mainstream institutions leeds people to go, okay, well I'm not
7:31
Speaker 3: going to trust a lot of this at first blush.
7:33
Speaker 3: So when they get a story, they go, well, okay,
7:37
Speaker 3: is that true? Let's weigh it. But it should not
7:40
Speaker 3: simply stop there. You must use your discernment. You ask
7:44
Speaker 3: questions like the ones Carol asks, which is like, does
7:47
Speaker 3: this actually make sense? But I think trust deficit plus
7:52
Speaker 3: personality driven news plus an attention economy means that it
7:58
Speaker 3: can really incentivize dreamly bad habits, extremely bad ways of
8:05
Speaker 3: sort of clouding issues instead of trying to make them clearer.
8:08
Speaker 3: And frankly, this is something that is my beef with
8:10
Speaker 3: the mainstream media often is like, why are you You're
8:13
Speaker 3: not trying to make things clearer, You're making things more
8:18
Speaker 3: when there are clear answers, and so you know I
8:22
Speaker 3: and as you do, Carol, and like, there are plenty
8:24
Speaker 3: of people who disagree with me on issues, but I
8:26
Speaker 3: do attempt to tell the truth, to make things clearer
8:30
Speaker 3: to people, to try to be in this you know,
8:35
Speaker 3: morass of the way we do news now, to be
8:38
Speaker 3: a person who can be trusted in certain ways. And
8:42
Speaker 3: I just think like figures like Candice end up making
8:47
Speaker 3: a ton and being incentivized to capitalize on this horrible
8:53
Speaker 3: tragedy and the attention that comes with this, the murder
8:58
Speaker 3: of her alleged former friend. And I agree with you,
9:01
Speaker 3: Carol that, like going into a summit with somebody who
9:04
Speaker 3: has completely different motivations than you do, could turn out
9:08
Speaker 3: quite badly. But God is stronger than a personality disorder,
9:12
Speaker 3: So I will hope for better than that.
9:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you, I hope for better, But I
9:17
Speaker 1: just feel like Candace is going to use this for
9:19
Speaker 1: content and that's going.
9:21
Speaker 2: To be the whole story there. Rooting for them otherwise,
9:24
Speaker 2: but I just I just don't see it.
9:26
Speaker 3: And I also have to say, when you're when you're
9:27
Speaker 3: tossing all this stuff around, and if whoever you're listening
9:30
Speaker 3: to is doing it in a soap opera type manner,
9:33
Speaker 3: people's lives are actually happening here, they are living, so
9:36
Speaker 3: I can't imagine having to deal with what Erica is
9:40
Speaker 3: dealing with while raising her kids. And one of the
9:41
Speaker 3: reasons she speaks out so much is partly to fill
9:45
Speaker 3: the vacuum that is otherwise being filled totally by bad actors.
9:49
Speaker 3: And then she gets, of course, accused of being bad
9:51
Speaker 3: because she's speaking out.
9:53
Speaker 1: But right what I can't win, and that's that's the
9:55
Speaker 1: situation here. She she'sn't crying enough, she's crying too much.
9:59
Speaker 1: Like it's just you know, we talked about that several
10:02
Speaker 1: times on Widow Defense on this show, but she's in
10:04
Speaker 1: it just a really tough spot and she wants to
10:06
Speaker 1: see Turning Point succeed understand her, I really do. I
10:11
Speaker 1: get like Tucker Carlson is a cancer on that organization
10:15
Speaker 1: and on the conservative movement. I understand why they are
10:18
Speaker 1: still including him in their events. He when Charlie died,
10:22
Speaker 1: he was pretty adamant about including Tucker. They were very
10:25
Speaker 1: good friends. But Tucker's like even further lost his mind
10:29
Speaker 1: since Charlie has Charlie was killed, Tucker has become like
10:35
Speaker 1: somebody who spreads the conspiracy theories.
10:37
Speaker 2: You know.
10:37
Speaker 1: He he went on THEO vonn and he spread the
10:40
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory about Egyptian planes. Candas is pushing. Make your
10:44
Speaker 1: stupid conspiracy theory makes sense? What were the Egyptian planes?
10:47
Speaker 1: What is what does that even mean? The Egyptian government
10:50
Speaker 1: took Charlie out Israel through Egypt took them out, like,
10:54
Speaker 1: come on, stop it.
10:55
Speaker 3: I mean at one point it was like France Israel.
10:57
Speaker 3: And to make it so, there's so many.
11:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, and she changes all the time, yes, and.
11:02
Speaker 3: It changes according to what is getting attention and what
11:05
Speaker 3: is throwing you off the formerly promised big scoop that
11:09
Speaker 3: never comes to fruition. So use your discernment when you're
11:13
Speaker 3: listening to you, just just as you would with mainstream
11:15
Speaker 3: media when you go, okay, can I figure out what
11:17
Speaker 3: is true and what is not?
11:18
Speaker 2: Yeah?
11:19
Speaker 3: I do think we have a cultural issue with reliable
11:22
Speaker 3: narrators and a dearth thereof and this is unfortunately bad
11:27
Speaker 3: actors can be incentivized in really bad ways.
11:33
Speaker 1: Another one, last Candace Owens question, and you know, I
11:37
Speaker 1: always hope to never speak of her again. But if
11:40
Speaker 1: Candace Owens was the GOP nominee versus Josh Shapiro, who
11:43
Speaker 1: gets your vote?
11:45
Speaker 3: Dear me?
11:47
Speaker 1: See what I say in situations like this is I
11:49
Speaker 1: wouldn't vote for either Democrat.
11:51
Speaker 2: But I just do. I couldn't. I could not vote
11:55
Speaker 2: for either one of them.
11:56
Speaker 1: I I you know, I don't think that Candace is
11:59
Speaker 1: a conservative of at all. I don't know what tied
12:02
Speaker 1: her to the Republican Party whatsoever anymore. I don't share
12:05
Speaker 1: any ideals with her. I think she's a repugnant person.
12:09
Speaker 1: So no, I wouldn't, you know, hold.
12:11
Speaker 2: My nose and vote for her.
12:12
Speaker 1: But I'm also not voting for a Democrat who sits
12:15
Speaker 1: by as his party becomes more and more anti Israel,
12:20
Speaker 1: anti Semitic, who knows he wasn't picked for the vice
12:23
Speaker 1: presidency by Kamala Harris because he's a Jewish Man and
12:26
Speaker 1: doesn't say anything about it and continues to defend them.
12:29
Speaker 1: So look there, you know, grows to me in different ways,
12:33
Speaker 1: And maybe Candace is far more troubling to me and
12:38
Speaker 1: just a danger. I think again, she's also a cancer
12:41
Speaker 1: to the conservative movement. But I'm not voting for either
12:44
Speaker 1: of these people.
12:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I would likely not vote for either
12:47
Speaker 3: of them. I would probably listen to Shapiro with a
12:51
Speaker 3: more open mind. I think there's there's a lot about
12:54
Speaker 3: Candace that I think make her not good, not good.
12:58
Speaker 3: Yes to big big lely bigly not good.
13:02
Speaker 1: Dad, Yeah, you know, I don't. Again, I don't think
13:05
Speaker 1: we need to pick either of those libs personally.
13:07
Speaker 2: Well.
13:07
Speaker 3: So that's the thing too, is like eventually we can
13:11
Speaker 3: do better on the choices.
13:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe we get some better options.
13:15
Speaker 3: I saw an Axios today. Kamala Harris is like moving
13:17
Speaker 3: toward another run, and it's like, ma'am, I believe we
13:21
Speaker 3: can do better.
13:22
Speaker 1: Yes, I believe we could be unburdened by what has been.
13:26
Speaker 3: Yes, there's so many Americans. Let's do better.
13:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's so many Americans.
13:32
Speaker 1: Who is your most loyal listener, and why is it
13:34
Speaker 1: nook e James nine zero two nine.
13:38
Speaker 2: Nook, you are one of our most loyal listeners.
13:40
Speaker 1: I would say my husband is probably number one because
13:43
Speaker 1: he listen to every episode offers feedback on every single episode.
13:46
Speaker 1: Is like, I don't know about this part. I don't
13:48
Speaker 1: know what you guys said here, but you're up there, Nook,
13:51
Speaker 1: you really are. I love hearing from you, and I
13:54
Speaker 1: love that you listen to the show and tell us
13:56
Speaker 1: what you think.
13:57
Speaker 3: Yep, I would say Jeremy is up there too.
14:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jeremy sndor rots. He's fantastic.
14:02
Speaker 1: He often sends us things for the show or notes
14:06
Speaker 1: about the show.
14:07
Speaker 2: We appreciate you very much, Jeremy.
14:10
Speaker 3: Yes, we love a loyal listener.
14:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right. I feel like this is a gotcha,
14:14
Speaker 2: but we're going to do it anyway. Would you be
14:16
Speaker 2: proud if one of your children went to work for ice? Hell, yeah,
14:19
Speaker 2: I'd be proud. Why wouldn't I be proud?
14:22
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't I be proud if one of my kids
14:24
Speaker 1: went into law enforcement?
14:25
Speaker 2: I don't even understand the question.
14:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we in this family would have no
14:30
Speaker 3: issue with kids going into law enforcement or military service.
14:33
Speaker 2: Like what is that? Okay, I don't understand the premise here.
14:37
Speaker 2: It shouldn't exist. Immigration officials shouldn't exist.
14:41
Speaker 1: Just make it make sense again, This is the flip
14:45
Speaker 1: side of the Candice insanity, Like, you make no sense.
14:48
Speaker 1: This whole thing makes no sense. ICE is an organization
14:51
Speaker 1: that is there to prevent immigration fraud, for to stop
14:56
Speaker 1: people who come in illegally. Yeah, of course they deport people.
14:58
Speaker 1: They were doing that in Obama administration, and you didn't
15:01
Speaker 1: have a problem with that. And if you do, now,
15:03
Speaker 1: that's not a problem with the system. That's not a
15:05
Speaker 1: problem with ICE. You have a problem with people being not.
15:08
Speaker 2: Allowed to break laws. That's where your issue lies.
15:11
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I would one hundred percent be proud
15:14
Speaker 1: if one of my kids decided to be an ICE agent. Yes.
15:17
Speaker 3: Well, and also would you like people who are well
15:21
Speaker 3: educated in civil rights and the guarantees of the Constitution
15:24
Speaker 3: to end up in law enforcement, because that's the kind of.
15:27
Speaker 2: Kids I'm raised, theo's O the kind of kids we have.
15:29
Speaker 3: And so those are actually the kind of people you
15:31
Speaker 3: need in law enforcement because there can be problems with
15:34
Speaker 3: the monopoly of force of the state. And if you
15:37
Speaker 3: don't have a bunch of good actors who counter some
15:40
Speaker 3: of the bad actors, you'll end up in a really
15:43
Speaker 3: bad situation. So I think that, yes, of course.
15:46
Speaker 2: Right, I mean, I don't see why not. In this house,
15:48
Speaker 2: we exactly.
15:50
Speaker 1: My kids are also always like when they meet other
15:53
Speaker 1: kids who like don't know the first five amendments of
15:55
Speaker 1: the Bill of Rights, Like, I've known that and that.
15:57
Speaker 3: Was five, Yes, important stuff.
16:01
Speaker 2: Yeah.
16:02
Speaker 1: My daughter's in a class that's nicknamed a PUSH. It's
16:06
Speaker 1: ap us history, very very difficult, apparently, and she's like,
16:11
Speaker 1: I learned all of this as a small child.
16:14
Speaker 2: Like she's like, I listened to the Hamilton soundtrack. I
16:18
Speaker 2: don't understand who doesn't?
16:19
Speaker 3: And yes, you know, don't we learn that there?
16:22
Speaker 1: Right, So her joke is whenever we're like in the
16:24
Speaker 1: car and a Hamilton song comes on, she hold on,
16:26
Speaker 1: I have to study for a PUSH. But yeah, I
16:29
Speaker 1: teach your kids civics and the rights of people in America,
16:36
Speaker 1: and I don't see a problem with them wanting to
16:39
Speaker 1: enforce the law as ice agents. If you don't like
16:42
Speaker 1: the law, go change the law, Go try to run
16:44
Speaker 1: on it, run on it. That's like will continue to
16:47
Speaker 1: be my problem with Democrats and illegal immigration. They will
16:50
Speaker 1: never run on I want an open border, but that's
16:53
Speaker 1: ultimately what they're saying. They're saying, I would like to
16:55
Speaker 1: have an open border, but they can't run on it
16:57
Speaker 1: because they know they would never win again because Americans
17:00
Speaker 1: don't want that, so they kind of try to sneak
17:02
Speaker 1: it in like Biden did.
17:04
Speaker 2: And Americans noticed when the border was open. So they're
17:08
Speaker 2: in a tough situation. But I don't see why it
17:10
Speaker 2: should be our job to help them out of it.
17:11
Speaker 2: Because you want something, you should run on it.
17:14
Speaker 3: Yeah. Also, tactically speakingly, you turned me from an immigration
17:17
Speaker 3: squish into an immigration hawk like that you lost MK.
17:21
Speaker 3: Your actions had consequences with this voter, and honestly with
17:26
Speaker 3: a lot of voters. Now that doesn't mean they stay
17:27
Speaker 3: where they are forever, but they were upset about the
17:30
Speaker 3: chaos for a reason. And we have to have rules,
17:34
Speaker 3: and it is not an operable situation to use the
17:38
Speaker 3: statue of liberty engraving to run policy.
17:42
Speaker 2: That's right, Yeah, that's not.
17:44
Speaker 3: An answer to how you secure borders right.
17:48
Speaker 1: Right, As an immigrant, I can say that I oppose
17:51
Speaker 1: legal immigration and I think we need to have a
17:53
Speaker 1: secure border. That's what you need to have a country.
17:56
Speaker 1: You need laws, you need rules.
17:58
Speaker 2: That's the way it works.
17:59
Speaker 1: What topics have y'all agreed to agree to disagree on?
18:04
Speaker 1: I mean we've heard of them, people heard us. I
18:07
Speaker 1: think we see the tax on the Venezuela and drug
18:11
Speaker 1: boats differently. The thing is that we do agree on
18:14
Speaker 1: a lot of things in general. Otherwise I don't know
18:17
Speaker 1: that we would have signed up to do the show.
18:20
Speaker 1: Part of it is that we I feel like, come
18:22
Speaker 1: from a similar place ideologically. But yeah, of course we're
18:25
Speaker 1: going to disagree on things. I feel like, here's what
18:28
Speaker 1: I think. I think that I have become less libertarian
18:32
Speaker 1: as I've gotten older, and I think we both started
18:36
Speaker 1: from a more libertarian place, and I've I've decreased in libertarianism.
18:40
Speaker 1: I just don't think it works when other people aren't
18:43
Speaker 1: libertarians too, Like, I think libertarianism only works when everybody's libertarian,
18:47
Speaker 1: because if you're like, you know, I don't think the
18:50
Speaker 1: government should try to change policy through like tax credits,
18:54
Speaker 1: for example, And then the Democrats get in and they're like,
18:57
Speaker 1: I'm going to alter you know, social policy, see via
19:01
Speaker 1: funding from the government.
19:02
Speaker 2: You can't have that. Then only one side is winning,
19:04
Speaker 2: and it's just you know, doesn't work out.
19:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I used to be much more libertarian,
19:11
Speaker 3: but often the consequences of those policies end up being
19:15
Speaker 3: bad in real life, or like you said, you end
19:18
Speaker 3: up in a situation where you feel sort of unilaterally disarmed,
19:22
Speaker 3: which is how a lot of conservatives feel on a
19:24
Speaker 3: regular basis. And honestly, a lot of a lot of
19:26
Speaker 3: the cultural wins of a vibe shift Trump era are
19:31
Speaker 3: simply in bullying corporations and elite institutions enough that they'll
19:37
Speaker 3: just be neutral like that. That's a win for me.
19:41
Speaker 3: But I don't object to the bullying to neutrality. I
19:43
Speaker 3: don't want to bullying them into being everything I want.
19:47
Speaker 3: I don't desire that. But a lot of you know,
19:49
Speaker 3: there are libertarians who would say, like any of the
19:52
Speaker 3: pushing is wrong, and I don't agree.
19:55
Speaker 2: With that part, right yeah, yeah, yeah, because I think neutral.
19:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, do you have to like be strong enough. Again,
20:02
Speaker 3: this is like a cultural self respect thing. You have
20:04
Speaker 3: to have enough respect for your own values to say like, no,
20:07
Speaker 3: we don't want to get pushed around by target or
20:10
Speaker 3: by yeah bugs for whoever it is all the time, right,
20:14
Speaker 3: And that's the fight that we lost frankly in public education.
20:18
Speaker 2: For a long time.
20:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I hope we can get back to it
20:22
Speaker 1: in public education. That one seems like a harder road,
20:24
Speaker 1: which is why I think so many conservatives are for
20:27
Speaker 1: school vouchers. That just make sense if you could opt
20:30
Speaker 1: out of the system. But it's funny because I actually
20:32
Speaker 1: don't think we should abandon public schools. I think we
20:35
Speaker 1: do need to fight for that neutrality. I don't know,
20:38
Speaker 1: there's a lot of things about I love vouchers.
20:40
Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong. Absolutely.
20:42
Speaker 1: School choice is one of my top issues, and I
20:44
Speaker 1: support it completely. But in a lot of places there
20:47
Speaker 1: just aren't private schools that the kids can go to,
20:50
Speaker 1: and there aren't other options, and until then we need
20:52
Speaker 1: to fight for those public schools to be ideologically neutral,
20:55
Speaker 1: and that that fight continues.
20:58
Speaker 3: I think there's good news in the fact that the
20:59
Speaker 3: New York keeps covering the kids can't read good. Do
21:04
Speaker 3: you see San Diego? Yeah, the kids can't read good,
21:06
Speaker 3: they can't do math good. Just confronting these things is
21:09
Speaker 3: important and leads us closer to a world in which
21:13
Speaker 3: you can send your kid to a neighborhood school where
21:15
Speaker 3: they do reading, writing, and arithmetic. That is what the vast,
21:21
Speaker 3: vast majority of parents want from a school, and if
21:24
Speaker 3: they would do it, they'd win a lot of hearts
21:26
Speaker 3: and minds.
21:27
Speaker 2: That's all parents want.
21:28
Speaker 1: It's really not that hard, all right, last question, mkay,
21:31
Speaker 1: let's do it. What would be some dream long term
21:35
Speaker 1: career goals? Your own cable show, writing, more books, keep
21:38
Speaker 1: up the good work. Oh, I don't have dreams.
21:46
Speaker 2: I do not dream of labor.
21:49
Speaker 3: I wrestle with this because I'm like, is there something
21:51
Speaker 3: I should be doing? And again, I'm not much of
21:55
Speaker 3: a planner, but I wonder is there some big work
21:57
Speaker 3: that I need to be working on. I do think
21:59
Speaker 3: I I wish that I had more brain capacity to
22:04
Speaker 3: do harder and deeper work than I do a lot
22:08
Speaker 3: of the times. And I think that might be a
22:10
Speaker 3: stage of life and parenting issue.
22:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, but as you said, fog is real.
22:16
Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh, and as you said the other day when
22:18
Speaker 3: we jumped on a call and You're like, why do
22:20
Speaker 3: I write? Writing is hard?
22:22
Speaker 2: Writing is so hard.
22:23
Speaker 3: Writing is hard. Talking is easier, and I happen to
22:26
Speaker 3: have been given the ability to talk. But there are
22:30
Speaker 3: times when I'm like I really I need to retrain
22:33
Speaker 3: my brain as the kids are not doing in school right,
22:37
Speaker 3: to write longer form and to read form.
22:40
Speaker 2: You know, I really don't have any other goals.
22:43
Speaker 1: I hate to say that because it sounds like I've
22:46
Speaker 1: given up, But I like where I am. I love
22:49
Speaker 1: having this show. I love having my own show. Love
22:53
Speaker 1: writing for The New York Post and for Fox and
22:55
Speaker 1: other places. I like it, and I like my balance
22:59
Speaker 1: with the I like taking time off. I'm about to
23:02
Speaker 1: take time off shortly after we record this, and I'm
23:04
Speaker 1: really looking forward to it. I'm definitely not writing any
23:07
Speaker 1: more books. Writing is really hard and pretty hard books are, like,
23:11
Speaker 1: you know, our book did really well, and still I
23:13
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, it's just the amount of work
23:16
Speaker 1: for the pay is like I don't think anything is
23:18
Speaker 1: lower than books, Like I think you could go work
23:20
Speaker 1: at McDonald's and do better than book writing.
23:24
Speaker 2: So yeah, I don't know.
23:25
Speaker 1: I'm pretty satisfied with the current situation and not feeling
23:29
Speaker 1: particularly ambitious to do more that could change. I felt
23:33
Speaker 1: more motivated than ever during COVID to write. I was
23:37
Speaker 1: non stop writing, and you know, every time I meet
23:40
Speaker 1: new people who know who I am, it's because of
23:42
Speaker 1: the COVID years and they're like, you know, you kept
23:44
Speaker 1: me sane.
23:45
Speaker 2: I appreciate you so much. I write doing the post
23:47
Speaker 2: every week. I really love that.
23:49
Speaker 1: So who knows, maybe there'll be some other incident that
23:52
Speaker 1: motivates me to not stop writing about it and that'll
23:55
Speaker 1: be where I find myself again.
23:57
Speaker 2: But for now, this is the whole ball.
24:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of time for me. The question is
24:02
Speaker 3: what is the work for. And the work is for
24:05
Speaker 3: standing up for things I believe in, modeling that for
24:08
Speaker 3: my kids, enjoying the work that I do and the
24:11
Speaker 3: balance that it gives me in my life. And most
24:14
Speaker 3: of all, it's for serving the fact that I can
24:16
Speaker 3: hang with my family and provide a life for them. Yeah,
24:19
Speaker 3: that's what the work is for.
24:21
Speaker 2: That's what it's all about.
24:22
Speaker 1: Well, thanks for joining us on this very special episode
24:25
Speaker 1: of Normally.
24:27
Speaker 2: Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere
24:30
Speaker 2: you get your podcasts.
24:31
Speaker 1: Get in touch with us at normallythepod at gmail dot com.
24:34
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and when things get weird, act Normally