Latest / Brian Thomas / Shane Cashman - BOOK - Good Villians

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Shane Cashman - BOOK - Good Villians · Brian Thomas

0:00
Speaker 1: Good time to be tuned in. I am happy to
0:02
Speaker 1: welcome to the fifty five Case Morning Show Shane Cashman.
0:05
Speaker 1: He's the author of a Booker to Be talking about
0:07
Speaker 1: Good Villains, My journey to the front lines of fame,
0:09
Speaker 1: controversy and the War on Reality. By the way of background,
0:12
Speaker 1: he is the host of the popular show Inverted World Live.
0:16
Speaker 1: He's hosted all kinds of famous celebrities, authors, influencers. His
0:20
Speaker 1: works also appeared in the Atlantic, The Spectator of BBC
0:23
Speaker 1: Daily Mail, Vice, New York Observer, Penthouse and La Review
0:27
Speaker 1: of Books. He has profiled public figures, lots of very
0:31
Speaker 1: famous people that you know, and he also has done
0:34
Speaker 1: some investigations. Welcome to the program, Shan, It's great to
0:37
Speaker 1: have you on to talk about your book.
0:39
Speaker 2: Good morning, Brian, Thanks for having me.
0:41
Speaker 1: You have rubbed shoulders and elbows and talked with a
0:44
Speaker 1: lot of famous people. And the one thing I've always
0:46
Speaker 1: observed personally about fame. Now I am on radio and
0:50
Speaker 1: I have been on radio coming up on twenty years.
0:52
Speaker 1: Previously a litigation attorney and practice law for sixteen The
0:55
Speaker 1: only reason I am sitting behind a microphone right now
0:58
Speaker 1: is because my father retired. Coming up on twenty years ago.
1:01
Speaker 1: He was on radio for about forty six years. So
1:03
Speaker 1: I grew up in an environment where here locally he
1:06
Speaker 1: was on radio and television for again six almost fifty years.
1:10
Speaker 1: Everybody knew my dad. I was Jerry's kid. I wasn't Brian.
1:14
Speaker 1: Now they're Jerry's kid. You know, Hey Jerry, you got
1:16
Speaker 1: to the supermarket. Hey Jerry. I listened to you every day.
1:18
Speaker 1: So I knew what it was like to grow up
1:20
Speaker 1: in an environment where your dad was famous or was
1:23
Speaker 1: known by a lot of people. And so when I
1:25
Speaker 1: was offered the opportunity to sit here Shane, I the
1:28
Speaker 1: primary reason I almost didn't take the job was that
1:32
Speaker 1: losing your anonymity sucks. I mean, do your celebrity guest
1:39
Speaker 1: the people you interviewed, Alice Jones, Kerry Lake, riff Raffer
1:41
Speaker 1: over the hell that is? Do they lament sometimes or
1:44
Speaker 1: do they have a does reality set in some point like,
1:48
Speaker 1: oh my god, I literally can't go anywhere without being
1:52
Speaker 1: mobbed by people saying something or want in my autograph.
1:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, it probably depends on the circumstances at the time
1:58
Speaker 3: and why they're making the headlines. When I was with Kanye,
2:01
Speaker 3: he decided to wear a mask all the time outside.
2:04
Speaker 3: I don't think it was just an anesthetic thing. I
2:05
Speaker 3: think he was trying to like be anonymous.
2:08
Speaker 2: Again.
2:08
Speaker 3: It also made him look like, you know, a Batman villain.
2:11
Speaker 3: But there's so many pros and cons to having that
2:14
Speaker 3: level of notoriety that you know, I kind of walked
2:18
Speaker 3: away from that book and a lot of these people
2:20
Speaker 3: being like famous sort of in a way, that level
2:22
Speaker 3: of fame is a disease. You know, it really affects
2:25
Speaker 3: him with all the positives that come with it. They
2:27
Speaker 3: had a lot of issues personally and.
2:29
Speaker 1: Publicly, malignant narcissism maybe yeah, yeah, it's really bad.
2:34
Speaker 3: And people get addicted to it as well, so even
2:36
Speaker 3: if it starts to go away, they might do things
2:38
Speaker 3: to you know, hold on to whatever fame is left.
2:41
Speaker 2: And that always leads to some issues as well well.
2:43
Speaker 1: And there in lies the challenge. You know, fame can
2:45
Speaker 1: be fleeting. You don't have to learn how you live
2:47
Speaker 1: your life without it, so you shouldn't try to, you know,
2:50
Speaker 1: thrive on it. I just rejected at a hand, And
2:52
Speaker 1: you what else bothers me about this is the problems
2:55
Speaker 1: that go along with fame are from the general population
2:57
Speaker 1: who thinks they feel like they know you and Eric
3:00
Speaker 1: they can just start hanging out with you, regardless of
3:01
Speaker 1: what public space you happen to be in. It's that
3:04
Speaker 1: whole line from Neil Piarott from Rush, I can't pretend
3:06
Speaker 1: a stranger is a long awaited friend. I mean that
3:09
Speaker 1: was kind of his mentality. I love the fact that
3:11
Speaker 1: people want to talk to me, but you know, I
3:12
Speaker 1: don't know you.
3:13
Speaker 2: I mean I.
3:15
Speaker 3: Know you, yeah, And when you have your kids with
3:19
Speaker 3: you and it's it's really weird, and you know, it
3:22
Speaker 3: gives them the ability, like some of these guys I
3:24
Speaker 3: talked to in the book, to voice some opinions that
3:27
Speaker 3: might not be you know, in vogue at the time,
3:29
Speaker 3: but they seem important to say. So they have like
3:32
Speaker 3: this loud just like megaphone to use. But at the
3:34
Speaker 3: same time throughout their kids, you know, and they're getting accosted,
3:38
Speaker 3: They're maybe being yelled at by some people or just
3:40
Speaker 3: followed by admirers, or they got TMZ, so so many
3:44
Speaker 3: different angles of like issues with that.
3:46
Speaker 1: Right, they do something online to get them clicks because
3:49
Speaker 1: that's what they thrive on, and then realize that, oh
3:52
Speaker 1: my god, I can't believe I said that online. They
3:53
Speaker 1: either have to backpedal it or suffer the slings and
3:55
Speaker 1: errors of outrage from the general public for having said
3:58
Speaker 1: it in the first place. It over and I hope
4:01
Speaker 1: this doesn't sound off topic for your book, Good Villains.
4:04
Speaker 1: We're gonna dive in just a second. Here the the politicians,
4:07
Speaker 1: which you also have a comment. It was in my
4:09
Speaker 1: note section why the mid terms mean nothing, and maybe
4:11
Speaker 1: we can you can elaborate on that comment. But politicians
4:15
Speaker 1: are dropping regularly, including our president. And we had this
4:18
Speaker 1: happen the other day. Bernie Marina, what is with the
4:20
Speaker 1: use of the F bombs all the time? You think
4:23
Speaker 1: the maintained a sensitive korum. The president of the United
4:25
Speaker 1: States should not be one throwing F bombs all around.
4:28
Speaker 1: Is that just really to to generate clicks, to get
4:31
Speaker 1: more people looking at what's being said.
4:34
Speaker 2: I think so. I think they're trying to ingratiate themselves.
4:38
Speaker 3: I think they think that by cursing, it'll make them endear,
4:41
Speaker 3: be endearing to like the common man.
4:44
Speaker 2: But I think it's it's it's fake.
4:46
Speaker 3: And I'm old enough to remember when a white suit
4:48
Speaker 3: was upsetting the people, you know, on a president and
4:51
Speaker 3: now we're dropping F bombs all the time.
4:52
Speaker 2: I don't like it.
4:53
Speaker 3: I try out to curse, you know, and I don't
4:55
Speaker 3: want my kids to curse. And I think it's just
4:58
Speaker 3: kind of it seems like a desperate move on these
5:00
Speaker 3: politicians to be doing that, and I think it's just
5:04
Speaker 3: desperation all around.
5:05
Speaker 1: Fair enough, And I share your opinion on that, all right,
5:08
Speaker 1: Why the midterms mean nothing? That's one of the talking
5:11
Speaker 1: points rather the questions or inquiry points I have with you, Shane.
5:14
Speaker 1: Can you elaborate on that.
5:16
Speaker 3: I think I think the general public is tapped out
5:19
Speaker 3: of politics. I think we've been trapped in a revolving
5:21
Speaker 3: door of twenty four to seven politics since about twenty fifteen,
5:25
Speaker 3: and COVID didn't help. All these things happen, these really
5:29
Speaker 3: like hot button issues, and now we're on this, you know,
5:33
Speaker 3: year in, two years into Trump two point zero, and
5:35
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people left and right are
5:38
Speaker 3: just not happy with either side of the political aisle
5:41
Speaker 3: and they feel left out, they feel like they've been
5:43
Speaker 3: sold out. And I live in a really awesome area
5:46
Speaker 3: of West Virginia. I love West Virginia from New York originally,
5:48
Speaker 3: and I have this cross section of people who are
5:50
Speaker 3: you know, they left other states to come here for freedom,
5:53
Speaker 3: or they commute to DC to work, and you know,
5:55
Speaker 3: all types of political backgrounds, and just from anecdotally speaking,
6:00
Speaker 3: a lot of these people are like, I don't even
6:02
Speaker 3: care to vote anymore. It doesn't matter, like no matter
6:03
Speaker 3: who you vote for. So I don't want to say
6:05
Speaker 3: they're black pilled. People say black pill they're upset, they're
6:08
Speaker 3: depressed over there. Even it's not even that, they're just like,
6:11
Speaker 3: I'm going to find value in life elsewhere because I
6:14
Speaker 3: can focus locally, you know, I can focus on the
6:16
Speaker 3: politicians who are local to me, and we can make
6:18
Speaker 3: change in our community. But like a lot of people
6:22
Speaker 3: turn a lot of presidents left and right into a
6:23
Speaker 3: golden calf, and that's an issue, and then they realize,
6:26
Speaker 3: you know, at the end of the day, they're really
6:27
Speaker 3: not helping you. And unfortunately that people, some of the
6:29
Speaker 3: worst people, in my opinion, in the country are getting
6:32
Speaker 3: rewarded the most from all sides. Now, Yeah, but I
6:35
Speaker 3: think the midterms are interesting, but I don't think they're
6:38
Speaker 3: gonna be as important people move forward.
6:40
Speaker 1: The gridlock that we're facing, the frustration, and I share
6:43
Speaker 1: your assessment of the general public and the frustration with
6:46
Speaker 1: our elected officials because you know, nothing important gets done,
6:48
Speaker 1: the problems aren't solid. Things just get worse and we
6:51
Speaker 1: go further into dead What do you think the world?
6:54
Speaker 1: And a lot of this is I think exclusively generated
6:57
Speaker 1: by the Trump arrangement syndrome. Evil orange Man, it's the
7:00
Speaker 1: subject matter a politician can't say a word Democrats mostly
7:04
Speaker 1: without uttering the name Donald Trump in there. What's the
7:07
Speaker 1: post TDS world gonna look like? If you could assess
7:10
Speaker 1: that Shane Cashman, oh man.
7:12
Speaker 3: It's gonna be interesting because he was such an integral
7:16
Speaker 3: figure to the last ten years. I mean obviously before that,
7:19
Speaker 3: but politically speaking, he was the center of the world
7:23
Speaker 3: politically speaking, and without him, there's just doesn't seem to
7:26
Speaker 3: be anyone to step in to that void. He's gonna
7:30
Speaker 3: leave when he's gone, whether you like him or not.
7:31
Speaker 3: You know, he's just a giant figure. I see him
7:34
Speaker 3: as like a kind of like a Teddy Roosevelt figure.
7:36
Speaker 3: I'm from New York. He's from New York. You know,
7:37
Speaker 3: I understand these old big, you know, characters from New York.
7:41
Speaker 3: And when he's gone, I don't I just don't see
7:43
Speaker 3: like Advance or Rubio commanding that sort of presence negative
7:47
Speaker 3: or positive.
7:48
Speaker 2: So I think both.
7:49
Speaker 3: Parties are going to be really struggling to have that
7:52
Speaker 3: person to fill that gap, and there'll be a continuing
7:57
Speaker 3: fracturing on both sides politically, like the less will have
8:00
Speaker 3: all their different people they think they should promote, whether
8:03
Speaker 3: it's more of a centrist leftist or someone who's pretending
8:05
Speaker 3: to be a centrist left leading, and then the right
8:08
Speaker 3: between Rubio and Vance and whoever else they do, you know,
8:11
Speaker 3: and whatever else is going on with people like Massy.
8:13
Speaker 3: So I think it's just going to be avoid you know,
8:16
Speaker 3: post Trump, and people are going to try to either
8:18
Speaker 3: be like Trump, which doesn't really work well for people,
8:22
Speaker 3: or something completely different.
8:24
Speaker 1: Right, But I don't and I think the Democrats will
8:26
Speaker 1: do their darnness to try to create a new Donald
8:28
Speaker 1: Trump out of whoever emerges as the viable presidential candidate,
8:32
Speaker 1: although I do not believe they would be even remotely
8:35
Speaker 1: successful along those lines.
8:37
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, it'll be Gavin Newsom for them. I
8:39
Speaker 2: think they're going to try to make Gavin Newsom their guy.
8:41
Speaker 1: Well, thank god, we've got a record to look at.
8:44
Speaker 1: His good luck on that one too, Shane. I will
8:48
Speaker 1: interject now pivoting over to you book Good Villains, My
8:50
Speaker 1: Journey to the front Line's Fame, Controversy and the War
8:52
Speaker 1: on Reality. One of the things you had talked about
8:54
Speaker 1: is catching pedophiles here in Ohio. Now we have a
8:57
Speaker 1: particular disdain for pedophiles here in the fifty five cars
8:59
Speaker 1: in Morning sho. So, how did you how did you
9:02
Speaker 1: manage to get involved in that topic?
9:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love Ohio.
9:06
Speaker 3: There's two big chapters in the book about Ohio, and
9:08
Speaker 3: the one is, unfortunately, this super disturbing story about catching pedophile.
9:12
Speaker 3: So I met a linked up with this guy named
9:13
Speaker 3: Alex Rosen. He has a company called Predator Poachers. And
9:17
Speaker 3: I picked him because there's a lot of people who
9:19
Speaker 3: do this thing where they kind of have sting operations.
9:21
Speaker 3: They're civilians and they get the police involved. But he
9:23
Speaker 3: didn't like beat them up. I understand that, Urge. These
9:28
Speaker 3: are demons, right they are, but he does their best.
9:31
Speaker 3: He does his best to make them admit to everything.
9:34
Speaker 3: They confess. It's all on footage, and the cops come
9:37
Speaker 3: and they're arrested and then they get put away. A
9:39
Speaker 3: lot of these guys have been putway for a long time.
9:41
Speaker 3: So I linked up with Alex. He said, I'll be
9:43
Speaker 3: in Ohio, that's not too far from me. I drove
9:45
Speaker 3: out there. I'm gonna spend a weekend. And he has
9:48
Speaker 3: this crazy operation where he has like a twenty five
9:50
Speaker 3: year old young woman who is she is short, and
9:54
Speaker 3: she pretends to be she's a decoy and these men
9:58
Speaker 3: meet her and it's all types of men, you know,
10:00
Speaker 3: and they think they're meeting an eleven or twelve year old.
10:01
Speaker 2: It's very It's the most disturbing story I've ever written.
10:04
Speaker 2: It really was.
10:04
Speaker 3: It's extremely upsetting. But I really want people to know
10:07
Speaker 3: that this is prevalent. It's unfortunate, but this is an
10:10
Speaker 3: evil that exists. Especially parents need to know this. These
10:13
Speaker 3: people are using everything from Facebook or roadblocks that try
10:16
Speaker 3: to talk to your children, and you have to be
10:18
Speaker 3: on top of this.
10:18
Speaker 2: You have to watch who they're talking to, know where
10:21
Speaker 2: they're going. I know people know this, but I just
10:23
Speaker 2: can't help.
10:24
Speaker 3: You have to, like really keep this unfortunate in front
10:26
Speaker 3: of your mind because it's so prevalent that just in Ohio,
10:30
Speaker 3: just in those two or three days we were in Ohio.
10:33
Speaker 2: We could have not slept and just kept doing it
10:35
Speaker 2: like we kept.
10:36
Speaker 3: I think there was like six or seven guys we
10:38
Speaker 3: caught in too those two days, but there were others
10:40
Speaker 3: right that maybe weren't home and when we knocked on
10:42
Speaker 3: their door, because that's what we do, just knock on
10:43
Speaker 3: the door.
10:44
Speaker 2: They're expecting something else and here they come.
10:47
Speaker 3: It's and it's people. It's people from all across the spectrum.
10:50
Speaker 3: It's business owners, it's teachers.
10:52
Speaker 2: We had a guy who was a fireman.
10:54
Speaker 3: Like that is what's so scary about it is is
10:57
Speaker 3: anybody and they're unfortunately after No, I don't want to
11:01
Speaker 3: freak people out, but I think you know if you
11:03
Speaker 3: if you watch this news and you see how much
11:04
Speaker 3: it happens, it's extremely sad.
11:07
Speaker 2: It is how vulnerable a lot of these kids are.
11:09
Speaker 3: And they do prey upon kids who are ice exelt
11:11
Speaker 3: in honors all the time. So you know, and Alex
11:15
Speaker 3: does this pretty much every day across the country.
11:18
Speaker 1: Yes, and how are these perverts, these pedophiles, these these
11:23
Speaker 1: just deranged satanic individuals getting to our children. It's obviously
11:27
Speaker 1: through social media. Happens all the time. We have a
11:29
Speaker 1: media expert on are a tech expert. On every Friday
11:32
Speaker 1: we talk about this. Your children are connected to the world,
11:35
Speaker 1: and that's the thing I want to pivot over to.
11:36
Speaker 1: In terms of media narratives, cancel culture and you know,
11:39
Speaker 1: making of modern villains, which you discuss in Good Villains,
11:42
Speaker 1: your book. The the ability of social media to create
11:47
Speaker 1: and the impression that unhinged, completely illogical, unreasonable and often
11:53
Speaker 1: quite stupid conclusions. For example, a guy can say he's
11:58
Speaker 1: a woman and that makes him a woman online and
12:01
Speaker 1: among some of our political class that is perceived to
12:06
Speaker 1: be logical and reasonable. No, no, they're a woman now,
12:08
Speaker 1: and everybody else seems to be in the same world,
12:11
Speaker 1: The non unhinged world goes, how is that possible? It's
12:13
Speaker 1: a chromosomal, medical, or rather physical reality. It's the biology
12:18
Speaker 1: x and x, x and y that determines men and women,
12:21
Speaker 1: not what someone says. But online it sounds like and
12:25
Speaker 1: it feels like the overwhelming you know, majority of the
12:28
Speaker 1: world thinks along that crazy, unhinge line. That isn't true.
12:33
Speaker 1: Is it social media created that false narrative?
12:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, so social media has its own drug.
12:40
Speaker 3: And even if the majority of people don't agree with
12:42
Speaker 3: that nonscience anti nature point of view.
12:46
Speaker 2: The people who do.
12:47
Speaker 3: Have these mental illnesses, all different kinds, they can go
12:50
Speaker 3: on the Internet and confirm whatever belief they have, even
12:53
Speaker 3: if it's completely absurd. And so the Internet has become
12:57
Speaker 3: like this reality buffet. Anything you want is there. You
13:00
Speaker 3: do enough digging, you want to go that far, you'll
13:02
Speaker 3: find the thing you need to confirm your bias, and
13:05
Speaker 3: then you will feel like I am rewarded. Now I
13:08
Speaker 3: can be this, this is me. And that's what happens
13:11
Speaker 3: in that deep isolation. You become more depressed, you're severed
13:15
Speaker 3: from the world, and you're becoming more and more mutated
13:18
Speaker 3: into this weird monster thing.
13:20
Speaker 1: And that, of course can be manipulated by outside nefarious forces.
13:23
Speaker 1: I mean, we've got all kinds of evidence documented the
13:25
Speaker 1: Chinese Communist Party, for example, trying to steer the narrative
13:29
Speaker 1: on artificial intelligence data centers. Why because they want to dominated.
13:32
Speaker 1: They want all the Americans to stand up and say,
13:34
Speaker 1: hell no, environmental disaster noise, it's terrible power problems. And
13:38
Speaker 1: in fact, most of these problems actually can be or
13:41
Speaker 1: have already been solved, but that wouldn't be good for
13:43
Speaker 1: the CCP. Welcome to the Internet, connecting them to all
13:46
Speaker 1: of America.
13:47
Speaker 2: Well, we're in a new space race, you know.
13:50
Speaker 3: And I think the CCP has a lot of propaganda
13:52
Speaker 3: pumps in every country, is trying to propagandize us, and
13:56
Speaker 3: we're doing it to them as well.
13:58
Speaker 2: And I know there's organic people in the.
13:59
Speaker 3: World who are against these data centers, and that's fine,
14:01
Speaker 3: we can talk about it. The CCP has their own
14:04
Speaker 3: war against us because they want to win this new
14:06
Speaker 3: space race. And you know that's why just yesterday they're
14:10
Speaker 3: all talking about new ways of doing data centers. They
14:12
Speaker 3: want to send data centers into space. You know, that's
14:15
Speaker 3: what Elon is just not talking about with Nvidio and
14:17
Speaker 3: self assembling data centers, maybe even on the moon. So
14:20
Speaker 3: you know, they're they're trying to put them off the
14:22
Speaker 3: farms and into space so they can orbit us.
14:25
Speaker 1: It's an amazing where we live it. But then again,
14:27
Speaker 1: if you look at all of the points of division
14:30
Speaker 1: in this country, whether it's a product of Trump arrangement, syndrome,
14:33
Speaker 1: or something else. You mentioned that echo chamber. We all
14:35
Speaker 1: feel comfortable in an environment where nobody's arguing with us.
14:39
Speaker 1: Do you think there's some outside, perhaps nefarious component to
14:42
Speaker 1: that division. Pick a topic we're divided on it. That
14:45
Speaker 1: gets that division gets fed with the within the realm
14:48
Speaker 1: of the internet such so much so that we can't
14:50
Speaker 1: even unite under the American flag anymore. It's just as
14:53
Speaker 1: a symbol of freedom.
14:55
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
14:55
Speaker 3: I knew someone in New York who was pretty far left,
14:58
Speaker 3: and they would confuse the American flag with the Confederate flag, right,
15:02
Speaker 3: they almost in their mind it was the same thing.
15:05
Speaker 2: And that, you know, that was.
15:07
Speaker 3: During that was twenty twenty, during the riots, during lockdowns,
15:10
Speaker 3: and you saw that division accelerate, And that's I think
15:14
Speaker 3: that is by design. Yes, I do whatever they could
15:16
Speaker 3: do to make us because if you happen to, you know, say,
15:21
Speaker 3: be critical something on the right, the people on the
15:23
Speaker 3: people on the right who will say just because you're
15:24
Speaker 3: critical of one thing, now you're a leftist, and it's
15:26
Speaker 3: made it so you can't have any disagreement with anybody.
15:29
Speaker 3: And I don't like to either, because I don't think
15:31
Speaker 3: any party should be a monolith.
15:32
Speaker 2: The left is very good at being a monolith. That's
15:34
Speaker 2: a good thing to be one.
15:36
Speaker 3: But you know, I believe in the individual, and I
15:38
Speaker 3: believe in freedom, and I believe in freedom of expression,
15:41
Speaker 3: and I think we need to get back to this
15:42
Speaker 3: place where we could have these arguments. And I do
15:44
Speaker 3: see them happening here and there, whether it's in a
15:46
Speaker 3: community or on some shows.
15:48
Speaker 2: But you know, by and large, a lot of people
15:50
Speaker 2: are saying, we.
15:51
Speaker 3: Can't even talk to these people. They've become our political enemies.
15:53
Speaker 3: And if we even talk with the extended and all
15:55
Speaker 3: a branch, we are going to be a bad guy.
15:57
Speaker 3: But we've got to find a way past that. With
15:59
Speaker 3: our all of our disagreements, and there's a lot of
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Speaker 3: really good disagreements because there's.
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Speaker 2: Some crazy ideas out there.
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Speaker 3: We got to move forward, because I mean, the economy
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Speaker 3: is so bad, there's so much going on.
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Speaker 2: We've got to work together somehow.
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Speaker 1: My guests today, Shane Cashman, offer of Good Villains, My
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Speaker 1: journey to the front lines of fame, controversy, and the
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Speaker 1: War on Reality just scratch the surface of the topics
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Speaker 1: in the book.