Latest / What's Your Problem? / From Story of the Week with Joel Stein: Billionaires Prepping for the Apocalypse

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From Story of the Week with Joel Stein: Billionaires Prepping for the Apocalypse · What's Your Problem?

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Pushkin. I'm Jacob Goldstein and this is a special bonus
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: episode of What's Your Problem. My guest today is joel Stein.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Is that my time to go? Hi? Joel Stein. Yeah, so, Joel,
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  Speaker 1: you're hosting a new show at Pushkin. It's called Story
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: of the Week. Normally we'd explain right now what Story
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: of the Week is, but you have a theme song
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  Speaker 1: for your podcast that explains the whole show. Let's just
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  Speaker 1: let's just listen to that. Writing is hard. Who's got
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: that kind of time when you're already busy trying to
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  Speaker 1: be joel Stein? So it turns on a mike maybe
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  Speaker 1: twiddles and knob because a journalist trand has got in
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  Speaker 1: that Joel job. I'm Jory single story. Just listen to
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  Speaker 1: smart people speak conversation. Filming information is so okay. I
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  Speaker 1: got it from the theme song. You're joel Stein. That's
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  Speaker 1: the only important part. I'm joel Stein. Every week you
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: call somebody who wrote a story and you interview them
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  Speaker 1: about the story that they wrote. Yeah, we find the long,
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  Speaker 1: complicated magazine articles that people spent six months on that
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  Speaker 1: we used to read when we subscribe to magazines, and
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  Speaker 1: I do the heavy lifting of reading it and then
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  Speaker 1: I call someone to have them explain it, and then
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  Speaker 1: put my name on the podcast. So I think we
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  Speaker 1: call that arbitrage in this business, journalism business. That's exactly
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  Speaker 1: what it is. So we're gonna play part of an
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  Speaker 1: episode of your show here in just a minute. It's
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the one where you interview a writer named Douglas Rushkoff.
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  Speaker 1: And so just give me a little setup. Who is
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  Speaker 1: Douglas Rushkoff And what's the story. So he's a writer,
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  Speaker 1: but he's also a professor, and what he writes about
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: is how the Internet is affecting society. One of his
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  Speaker 1: gigs in addition to being a professor and writer, is
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: to go speak a conferences. And he gets invited to
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  Speaker 1: this conference out west at some fancy hotel, and he's
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  Speaker 1: paid more than he's ever been paid. He gets forty
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  Speaker 1: grands to kind of give a speech, prepares a speech,
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  Speaker 1: gets the green rooms waiting to get miked up, and
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  Speaker 1: five guys walk in and they're not there to mike
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  Speaker 1: him up. They are the conference. And so he's been
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  Speaker 1: paid forty thousand dollars just to talk to these five billionaires,
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  Speaker 1: And what do they talk about? They don't want his speech,
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  Speaker 1: they spend most of their time asking him about where
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  Speaker 1: to put their bunkers for the event. And the event
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  Speaker 1: it could be anything, any world ending events. It could
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  Speaker 1: be climate disaster, it could be the AI robots taking over,
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  Speaker 1: could be nuclear war. They're preparing. They're spending a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of their money to build bunkers. So he goes home
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  Speaker 1: from this speech that was not a speech. He writes
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  Speaker 1: up the story of what happened to him. He publishes
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  Speaker 1: it online and medium, and then the part of the
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  Speaker 1: show we're going to play now, is this really interesting
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  Speaker 1: part about what happens after the article comes out. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's where the adventure really starts. Let's listen to the show. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: So after the piece comes out, you get an email
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  Speaker 1: from a bunch of people who basically want to sell
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  Speaker 1: bunker stuff to rich people and to introduce them to
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  Speaker 1: my five billionaires. Right. Oh, I sell the best buckers,
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  Speaker 1: I bet that navy seal, you know, employment service, all
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  Speaker 1: those kind of things. And one of them is named
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  Speaker 1: jac Cole. So who is he and what was his
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  Speaker 1: idea that he emailed you about? It's weird. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: people are telling me I shouldn't love this guy. But
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  Speaker 1: I do love this guy. So JC Cole is a
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  Speaker 1: He's a real maga guy, a maga Trump supporter guy.
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  Speaker 1: He was running I forgot what country, like a Glatvia,
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  Speaker 1: one of these places. After the fall of the Soviet Union.
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  Speaker 1: He was running like the embassy in a Chamber of
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  Speaker 1: Chamber of the American Chamber of Commerce in Latvia. And
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  Speaker 1: he had to do security and all that. But he
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  Speaker 1: had witnessed the fall of the Soviet Union and how
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  Speaker 1: you had to rebuild a society. And he has these
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  Speaker 1: a couple of farms and equestrian centers out in Jersey
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  Speaker 1: and Pennsylvania. And he got the idea to create kind
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  Speaker 1: of sustainable farms in around the country that billionaires could
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  Speaker 1: buy shares in. You pay a few million dollars to
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  Speaker 1: get shares and then you have a place to go
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  Speaker 1: when the ship hits the fan. So he would build
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  Speaker 1: them around near like two hours away from each major
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  Speaker 1: city and have right ones in Princeton, ones like in
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  Speaker 1: the Poconos. He's trying to build them in different places.
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  Speaker 1: And he said, you gotta come, you know, you got
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  Speaker 1: to see this place. And I'll come. I'll come. And
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  Speaker 1: he's like, do you shoot right, I'm like, So he's like,
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  Speaker 1: bring your boots. So I bring like these, you know,
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  Speaker 1: like like wife's boots, right to go out like in
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  Speaker 1: the mud. Who my wife's but they don't fit. But um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, to boots. I want boots, he says, to
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  Speaker 1: bring boots. I've used plastic bags on my sneakers. You know.
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  Speaker 1: He's got a muddy farm and he wants to go
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  Speaker 1: out in the back and shoot, and do you shoot?
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  Speaker 1: I did shoot? It was your first time shooting a gun? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: What do you think? It was kind of cool. It's
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  Speaker 1: kind of cool. There's two kinds of gun. There's um,
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  Speaker 1: I guess there's more than two. But he had to know.
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  Speaker 1: There was a little gun that twenty two rim fire.
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  Speaker 1: It's like right, which you could shoot and not it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't hurt. Then he had a glocker spiel or whatever
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  Speaker 1: it is. You know, that's an industry whatever, a gun
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  Speaker 1: with nine million meters. Yeah, and that you shoot it
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  Speaker 1: and it moves your hand. It really well, yeah, requal,
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  Speaker 1: it's a whole thing. Okay, So you meet him and
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  Speaker 1: you and his idea, his ideas. He's going to build
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  Speaker 1: these bunkers, but they're also they're not even bunkers. He's
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  Speaker 1: gonna build working farms. You buy a share in this farm.
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  Speaker 1: You spend like five million dollars now, and you're investing
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  Speaker 1: in a farm. And then when shit hits, the vanue
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  Speaker 1: come out and you live and work on this farm,
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  Speaker 1: and they'll be a dentist and a doctor and all
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  Speaker 1: the different kinds of things that you need. Several hundred
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  Speaker 1: people living on a farm, and they'll be of course
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  Speaker 1: a dozen Navy sea armed to the teeth to guard
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  Speaker 1: the place. He said something to you that kind of
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  Speaker 1: summed it up for me completely. He said, I am
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  Speaker 1: less concerned about gangs with guns than the woman at
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  Speaker 1: the end of the driveway holding a baby and asking
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  Speaker 1: for food. What did he mean by that and how
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  Speaker 1: did it affect you? Well, it was weird. After we
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  Speaker 1: had shot rounds and he was talking about the various
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  Speaker 1: kinds of military guys and Navy seals that we're going
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  Speaker 1: to come protect the place. I was like, yeah, but
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  Speaker 1: what if a giant gang of motorcycle guys came with
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  Speaker 1: chains of machine guns, you know? And then he said, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I'm less worried about that than I am. The moral
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  Speaker 1: quandary of the starving people at the gate, and that's
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  Speaker 1: what made me love this guy. So this guy, the
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  Speaker 1: part of his plan that I think is great and
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  Speaker 1: that none of the billionaires like, is that your money
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  Speaker 1: doesn't just go to the farm that you're living in.
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  Speaker 1: Your money is also an investment in a company that
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  Speaker 1: is meant to train people around the country how to
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  Speaker 1: build their own farms. Because his idea is if we're
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  Speaker 1: the only ones able to do this, then everyone's going
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  Speaker 1: to be coming and attacking us. That the more resilient
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  Speaker 1: we can make the rest of the country, the more
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  Speaker 1: we can have other people taking care of themselves, the
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  Speaker 1: better off we are. And that philosophy alone from a
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  Speaker 1: supposedly maga Republican gun toting guy is what's keeping the
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  Speaker 1: tech billionaires from wanting to even invest in him because
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: he's too egalitarian. He's too communist for them. Okay, so
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  Speaker 1: your communitarian farm maga guy is getting no buyers and
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  Speaker 1: his website looks like crap. By the way, he seems
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  Speaker 1: like a guy who's not really plugged into the billionaire
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  Speaker 1: tech community. And then there are these other companies like Vivos.
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  Speaker 1: They're the ones that sell the old nuclear bunkers and
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  Speaker 1: then they turn them into what seemed like kind of
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  Speaker 1: awesome Miami condominiums where there's like hot tubs and swimming
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  Speaker 1: pools and yeah, they're like little doctor sort of retreats,
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  Speaker 1: you know, they sort of look awesome. And then there's
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  Speaker 1: a snazzy video on vivos while they're playing the song
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  Speaker 1: that says say your last goodbyes. They suddenly have like
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  Speaker 1: the basically the coolest looking condo ever and people are
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  Speaker 1: buying into that. And this one called Opedum or something
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  Speaker 1: in the Czech Republic, whatever is happening in the world outside,
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  Speaker 1: you can rest easy and live fully in times of
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  Speaker 1: tranquility and in times of unrest. That's really just a
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  Speaker 1: condos kind of it's gargeous condos with into our pool
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  Speaker 1: that they they're they're in really fortified you know, subterranean
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  Speaker 1: basements and stuff. I mean, it's sort of a version
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: of the RV fantasy for the retiree. You know, your
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: tiny house, you know, there's a there's a there's something
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  Speaker 1: that's really kind of sweet about having your house bowed
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: or your tiny house or your RV and you just
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  Speaker 1: live there and you open up your little meals and
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  Speaker 1: you know that I mean think about it. It's like
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  Speaker 1: it's a hard world and it would just be so simple.
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  Speaker 1: Like what other amenities did you see that you were like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: this is pathetic. It's never going to work out. Every
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  Speaker 1: single amenity I saw I thought was pathetic and wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: work out. I mean the ones that were even more
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  Speaker 1: pathetic was you know, as I did more research and
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: looked at the kind of the eco farm ideas that
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: these kind of burning man dudes come up with. You know,
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  Speaker 1: they have all these great ideas, but they they believe
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  Speaker 1: that somehow they can survive in a hermetically sealed world.
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  Speaker 1: So like their solution for topsoil is to have these
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: big plastic tubes that you put top soil in and
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  Speaker 1: then you grow your plants there, so you don't have
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  Speaker 1: to water the whole earth. You could just water the
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  Speaker 1: tubes in which your food is growing. But where people
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: do that kind of stuff, or vertical farming on rooftops,
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  Speaker 1: it's like you get fungus in your system, and what
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  Speaker 1: do you do? You call the guy, Hey, what do
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  Speaker 1: I do? They come in, they switch out your vertical
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  Speaker 1: farm stuff. They say, oh, here's a fresh tube. You know,
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  Speaker 1: try a little bit less water next time, maybe that'll
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  Speaker 1: What do you do if you're in your bunker and
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  Speaker 1: your tube gets the fungus in it? It's I mean,
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  Speaker 1: it's like it doesn't work. There's also this thing that
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: these billionaire preppers do, at least I've read, which is
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: they get lasic because basically the Twilight Zone episode in
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: which the end of the world comes and that guy
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: is super psyched because he loves to read and he's
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: finally left alone and then he steps on his glasses
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: there was time now, it was all the time I needed.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: So they've all solved for that by getting Lasix because
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: they want to eliminate that need. Yeah. Well, what you
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: got to realize is the majority of the things they
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: think to solve for are things they've read about. And
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Neil Stephen, sin Or Seed and Walking Dead, they're they're
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: really particular. So when you mentioned something really normal that
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: they haven't solved for, like, um, what about contamination of
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: your water supply? Uh, that's not like sexy enough for
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  Speaker 1: a novel, but it's like way more possible. Right, There's
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: this thing we thought we might be fun to do
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  Speaker 1: with you, which is you don't have to do it
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  Speaker 1: one of these bunker places vivos. They have a membership
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  Speaker 1: form to apply, and we were wondering if you and
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: I should should fill it out. You could fill it out.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Do you want? Do you want at least look at it.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I'll look at it. Look at it. Oh my gosh.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: All right. Yeah, so there's a name and address and stuff.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: But then it gets interesting. It's like your age that's important. Oh,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: this is like giving sperm. They're probably gonna ask for
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: SAT scores. No, no, it's not like giving sports. Is
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  Speaker 1: a skills and expertise for people in your group? Right,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: men's skills and expertis what could you do? But that's smart?
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Are you a dentist, an EMT, a hunter? Law enforcement? Right? Journalist?
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  Speaker 1: Is not not here? Wait? What would what would we
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: check off? I guess we could check off communications? Yeah,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: that's an option. Yeah, but communications? Can you can you
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: build a ham radio from crystals? Oh that's what they mean.
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  Speaker 1: They don't mean just talking. I like they have one
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: that's just survivalist. Wait, they also have one that's just religion.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: That's pretty good. I could do that. I'm ordained as
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: a rabbi. And then there's an essay section too, I know,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: it's like applying to Oberlin. Um. Tell us what skills,
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  Speaker 1: nice rotise you have and how you will be a
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  Speaker 1: benefit to a Vivo shelter community. This information will assist
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: us in processing your application. I would think the idea
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: is that the more you have to offer the community,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: the less you might have to pay. You can get
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: a scholarship. You know, if you're like us, you just
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: got to pay the full billion or whatever it is
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  Speaker 1: to get in there. So I just need to hire
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: a chemist and a hunter at a seamstress and make
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: them part of your group. Yeah, we got to form groups, right.
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  Speaker 1: I'm my expert. My expertise is cannibalism. That won't get
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: you in. That's an excerpt from Joel Stein's Story of
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: the Week with Joel Stein. You can listen wherever