Latest / The Kevin Stone Podcast / #11 "Everyone Needs an Opinion-and Apparently a Podcast"

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#11 "Everyone Needs an Opinion-and Apparently a Podcast" · The Kevin Stone Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The content of this program. It's where entertainment purposes only
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: mainly the entertainment of the program creator. If at anytime
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: you find any of this program to be offensive, you
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: should immediately remind the program to the beginning and listen
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: to it again. It stark hasn't presented by the content creator,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: so accurate ID is illegal. In fourteen staates, you were
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: listening to the Kevinstone Podcast broadcasting to you from an unknown.
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  Speaker 2: Location, customized listener.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Let's begin by cleaning those ears.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Tom, I'm a nobody. I just happened to have a
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  Speaker 2: camera and a microphone and an Internet connection, which makes
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  Speaker 2: me a superstar. I have beef anteladas in of anything. Yes,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: and you made them?
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  Speaker 1: Or are they frozen?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: So they won't be frozen? In about thirty five minutes,
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  Speaker 2: all right, welcome to the Kevenstone Podcast podcast where I
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: sit behind a microphone and give you my opinion on
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  Speaker 2: people who sit behind microphones and give their opinion. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: I see the irony, and today we're talking about something.
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  Speaker 2: The world definitely does not have a shortage of opinions.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody has one. Politics, sports, music, movies, parenting, relationships, the economy,
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  Speaker 2: the weather, whether pineapple belongs on a pizza. Yes, the
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  Speaker 2: answer is yes. Everybody has an opinion, and thanks to
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  Speaker 2: the Internet, apparently every one of these opinions need to
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  Speaker 2: be recorded, uploaded, shared, liked, subscribed to, and accompanied by
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  Speaker 2: a thumbnail of somebody looking shot. And yes, I'm saying
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  Speaker 2: all of this on a podcast, so clearly I'm part
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  Speaker 2: of the problem. Let's talk about it. There was a
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  Speaker 2: time when you had an opinion and maybe you told
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  Speaker 2: your friends, maybe your wife or your husband, maybe somebody
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: at work or the bartender at the bar who made
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: the mistake of making eye contact, and you went home
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: conversation over. Today, Nope, we have Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, podcasts, blogs,
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  Speaker 2: live streams, comment sections, and probably seventeen other platforms I've
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  Speaker 2: never heard of. We have successfully created a world where
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  Speaker 2: absolutely nothing has to be kept, I thought to themselves. Ever,
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  Speaker 2: here's where things get interesting. Having an opinion isn't the problem.
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  Speaker 2: Opinions are fine, I got plenty, obviously. The problem is
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  Speaker 2: when an opinion magically becomes expertise. Imagine someone watches a
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  Speaker 2: three minute video about the economy. Suddenly they're an economist.
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  Speaker 2: They watch a documentary about nutrition. Now they're a doctor,
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  Speaker 2: they watch one courtroom clip. Now they're an attorney, they
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  Speaker 2: watch a video about the electrical grid. By lunchtime, they're
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  Speaker 2: apparently qualified to run a nuclear power plant. And if
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  Speaker 2: you disagree, do your research. I love that phrase. Do
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: your research. Okay, what research did you do? I watched
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: a guy on TikTok Oh, well, why don't you say so,
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  Speaker 2: I'll alert to scientific community. Then came the podcast. At
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  Speaker 2: some point somebody figured out something dangerous. They discovered microphones
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  Speaker 2: had gotten cheap, and that's when everything changed. Suddenly everybody
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  Speaker 2: looked at a microphone and thought, you know what, the
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: world needs me talking for an hour and again, I'm
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: sitting here doing exactly that. So I'm not judging. Okay,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I'm judging a little, but I'm judging from inside the building.
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  Speaker 2: Podcasting is amazing because there's almost no barrier to entry.
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  Speaker 2: You don't need a television network, you don't need a
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  Speaker 2: radio station, you don't need a newspaper call. You need
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  Speaker 2: a microphone, a computer and internet connection, and an unreasonable
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  Speaker 2: belief that strangers want to hear what you have to say. Congratulations,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: you're a podcaster. I have a podcast. Nobody asked for
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: let's acknowledge the elephant in the room. Nobody came to
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  Speaker 2: my house and said, Kevin American, need you. Nobody called
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  Speaker 2: from Congress, Nobody from a major television network showed up.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: There wasn't a national petition. I didn't walk outside one
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: morning and find hundreds of people chatting Covin, covn, covin.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: I just decided to start talking. That's basically podcasting. And
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  Speaker 2: you know what, there's something great about that because twenty
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  Speaker 2: or thirty years ago, somebody like me couldn't just create
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  Speaker 2: a show. We needed somebody's permission, a station manager, a producer,
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  Speaker 2: an editor, somebody sitting behind a desk deciding whether you
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  Speaker 2: were worth putting on the air. Today, you can create
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  Speaker 2: the show yourself. That's pretty incredible. It's also how we
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  Speaker 2: ended up with approximately nine million podcasts about true crime.
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  Speaker 2: The problem isn't having an opinion. Here's where I want
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  Speaker 2: to be serious for a minute. Having an opinion isn't bad.
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  Speaker 2: Speaking your mind isn't bad. Disagreement isn't bad. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: disagreement can be healthy. The problem comes when we've convinced
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  Speaker 2: ourselves that having an opinion means nobody else is allowed
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  Speaker 2: to have one. That's where things go sideways. You say
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  Speaker 2: I think this, someone else says, well I think that,
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  Speaker 2: and instead of saying interesting, we say you're an idiot.
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  Speaker 2: Well that was productive. Glad we had this discussion. We've
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  Speaker 2: confused disagreement with disrespect. Somebody can disagree with you without
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  Speaker 2: hating you. Somebody can vote differently than you, watch different news,
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  Speaker 2: like different music, believe something different, and somehow you can
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  Speaker 2: both survive. I know, radical concept right. Social media rewards
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  Speaker 2: the loudest person. The internet has another problem. Responsible opinions
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  Speaker 2: are boring. Imagine scrolling through social media and seeing this
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  Speaker 2: is a complicated issue. There are reasonable arguments on both sides,
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  Speaker 2: and I need more information before reaching a conclusion. Nobody's
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  Speaker 2: sharing that, nobody's yelling about that, nobody's making a reaction video,
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  Speaker 2: a post. Everything you know is a lie. Now we're cooking.
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  Speaker 2: Throw in some capital letters, three exclamation points, maybe a shock,
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  Speaker 2: put a red arrow pointing to something, and boom, you
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  Speaker 2: got content. The internet doesn't necessarily reward wisdom. It rewards attention,
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  Speaker 2: and anger gets attention. Outrage gets attention, Ridiculous statements get attention.
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  Speaker 2: The calm person saying maybe we should think about this,
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  Speaker 2: doesn't stand a chance. We're going to take a quick
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  Speaker 2: break and when we come back, we're going to talk
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  Speaker 2: about the comment section, the place where intelligent conversations go
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  Speaker 2: to get hit over the head with the folding chair,
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  Speaker 2: and I'll explain why I actually think having millions of
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  Speaker 2: different voices online can be a good thing. Yeah, I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to say something positive. Don't get used to it.
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  Speaker 2: We'll be right back. Did you know that if you
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: become a paid subscriber to this podcast, you'll get a
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: commercial free experience and exclusive content that nobody else gets.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Kevin Stone Podcast. Today we're talking
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  Speaker 2: about opinions. Everybody's got one, everybody wants you to hear it,
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  Speaker 2: and apparently some idiot decided to give me a microphone too.
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  Speaker 2: So here we are. If you ever begin believing humanity
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  Speaker 2: has finally figured things out, read the comments. You can
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  Speaker 2: post a video of a puppy helping an elderly woman
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  Speaker 2: across the street while carrying groceries to an orphanage, and
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  Speaker 2: somehow they'll be in an argument underneath it that puppy
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  Speaker 2: shouldn't be outside, and somebody responds, you obviously hate dogs.
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  Speaker 2: Then another person arrives typical labrador owners, and thirty comments later,
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  Speaker 2: they're arguing about taxes. How did we get here? Nobody knows.
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  Speaker 2: The original puppy is probably Homelessly have you ever watched
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  Speaker 2: two people argue online? Neither person is changing their mind.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody watching those neither person is changing their mind. They
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  Speaker 2: know neither person is changing their mind, yet they continue.
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  Speaker 2: Why because somebody has to get the last word comment, reply,
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  Speaker 2: reply to the reply, reply to the reply to the reply.
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  Speaker 2: Four hours later, two grown adults are talping paragraphs at
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  Speaker 2: each other while their families wonder are they ever coming
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  Speaker 2: to dinner? Sometimes the smartest response is nothing. You don't
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  Speaker 2: have to attend every argument you're invited to. That's free advice.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: And yes, I realize given unsolicited advice during a podcast
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  Speaker 2: about unsolicited opinions as a whole nother layer of irony.
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  Speaker 2: Here's the other side. I actually love the fact that
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  Speaker 2: ordinary people can have a voice. Think about it. You
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  Speaker 2: don't need a radio station anymore. You don't need a
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  Speaker 2: television network. You don't need some giant media company deciding
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  Speaker 2: whether your opinion matters. A mechanic can start a podcast,
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  Speaker 2: a teacher can start one. A truck driver, a farmer,
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  Speaker 2: retired police officer, stay at home parent, some random guy
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  Speaker 2: named Kevin sitting behind a microphone. People who would never
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  Speaker 2: have been heard thirty years ago can build an audience today.
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  Speaker 2: That's incredible. The Internet give everybody a microphone. The problem
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  Speaker 2: isn't that everybody got one. The problem is figuring out
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  Speaker 2: who's worth listening to. Here's something we don't say enough.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know try it. Sometimes it feels strange. Someone
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  Speaker 2: asks Kevin, what do you think about this incredibly complicated
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  Speaker 2: subjects you learned about eleven minutes ago. You can say
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  Speaker 2: I don't know enough about it yet. That's legal. Nobody
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  Speaker 2: arrests you, your phone doesn't explode, You don't immediately lose
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  Speaker 2: your podcasting license, which is a good thing because apparently
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  Speaker 2: there is one. Sometimes the smartest person in the conversation
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  Speaker 2: is the one willing to admit I need more information.
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  Speaker 2: So if everybody has an opinion, and apparently everybody has podcasts,
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  Speaker 2: why am I doing this? Because I enjoy it, because
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  Speaker 2: there's things worth talking about. Because sometimes something happens in
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  Speaker 2: our community or in the country, and I want to
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  Speaker 2: understand it better. Sometimes I want to research it. Sometimes
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  Speaker 2: I want to laugh about it. Sometimes I want to
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  Speaker 2: point at something ridiculous and say, are you seeing this?
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  Speaker 2: And maybe you're sitting in your truck listening thinking you
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  Speaker 2: know what. I've wondered the same thing. That's enough for me.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not here because I think I know everything. Trust me,
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  Speaker 2: I don't. I'm here because I think conversations are worth having.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody has an opinion, and apparently everybody has podcasts, including me.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe that's not such a terrible thing. The problem is
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  Speaker 2: having something to say. The problem is forgetting how to listen, talk, disagree, debate, laugh,
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  Speaker 2: question things, change your mind occasionally, and every once in
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  Speaker 2: a while, admit that you don't know. Because having a
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  Speaker 2: microphone doesn't automatically make you right. Having followers doesn't make
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  Speaker 2: you right. Getting ten thousand locks doesn't make you right,
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  Speaker 2: and shouting louder definitely doesn't make you right. Sometimes they're
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  Speaker 2: just louder. So speak your mind, but remember everybody else
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  Speaker 2: has a mind too. That's going to do it for
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: this episode of the Kevin Stone Podcast. If you enjoyed
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: the show, subscribe, follow, share it with somebody, or leave
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: a comment. Actually leave a nice comment. We've already discussed
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: what happens down there. I'm Kevin Stone and until next time,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: everybody has an opinion. Everybody apparently needs a podcast, and
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  Speaker 2: somehow they give me one too. Thanks for listening.