Sept. 15, 2025

Dr. Ryan Martin - Anger, Cordial Debate & Deep Connection Through Conflict - Ep. #53

Dr. Ryan Martin (aka the Anger Professor) is a leading expert on emotional wellness and anger management. He helps people master emotional challenges and harness the power of emotions—especially anger—for personal growth and success. His work focuses on delivering practical, research-backed strategies through clear, direct, and actionable advice. In his role as Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Ryan combines academic leadership with a commitment to public scholarship.


In this episode, Brad and Ryan discuss anger and aggression, personality versus situation leading to them, normalizing deep communication about beliefs and the importance of cordial debate, and inverse correlation between gratitude and the willingness to share your voice and opinions, the ability to forge deep connection in working through conflict, and much more.


Today, maybe more than ever, some of these topics are lessons that I believe are of the utmost importance. Recent events have cast a cloud of doubt over our ability as a society to respect people with opinions other than our own. I hope we are able to make progress on that, for the sake of our children, grandchildren, and future generations. Remember, as Paul Thorn says, "You Might Be Wrong".


Preorder Ryan's new book, listen to his Ted Talk, and check out his podcast!

https://alltheragescience.com/


Of course, a HUGE shoutout to our sponsor at Karouser! They keep these episodes coming. If you dig what we do, please support them!

https://www.karouser.com/

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What's up, friends?
Welcome back to Rooted

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Wisconsin.
Appreciate you for clicking

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another episode.
Thank you for being here.

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Pumped up to drop today's
episode and sadly, it's a very

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timely episode.
Our guest today is Doctor Ryan

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Martin Dean at UWGB.
And more central to our

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conversation today, an anger
researcher.

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He spent his entire career
virtually researching anger.

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We talk about what drives anger.
We talk about the importance of

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normalizing communication about
beliefs.

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And sometimes, so it seems like
the lost art of cordial debate.

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Keyword cordial.
There really interesting topic

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came up that I had never thought
about, about the inverse

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correlation of the more
gratitude you have, the less

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likely you are to speak up about
things or to voice your opinion.

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Think about that for a second.
That one really kind of threw me

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for a loop and we talked about a
really, you know, the state of

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affairs today.
And like I said, that's really

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poignant right now with some
things that have happened

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recently.
And I think it's more important

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than ever to embrace the mission
of why I started the podcast in

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the 1st place to bring people
together with long form

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communication.
I think it's really important.

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We can disagree but still care
about each other and talking

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through things in long form
conversation, as Ryan and I talk

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about in this episode, can
really forge deep and emotional

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connections that come from
conflict.

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It's a really important thing
and it's a lost art and we're

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watching this on socials and and
sometimes I think it's driven

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somewhat or in large part by
social media.

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So a really topical topic today
and really excited to share.

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We also talked about his
appearance on Theo Vaughn.

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I really appreciate and look up
to Theo Vaughn as a podcaster.

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I think he does a great job and
having a guest that was on

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Theo's podcast is a is a big get
for me.

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So I was excited to talk with
Ryan for about because of that.

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But more so after the
conversation, I was excited

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about the places we got and how
we can hopefully make a small

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positive impact for those of you
that listen.

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So we appreciate you being here.
Ryan has a new book coming out.

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He has a new podcast starting.
Check that out.

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Find him on most socials as the
Anger professor.

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And before we jump into the
episode, of course, a big shout

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out to our sponsors at Carouser.
We had a blast tailgating out at

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the Packer game the other day.
Check out their website, get

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some of their great products.
Speaking of making a better

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environment and and a better
outcome for people, I firmly

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believe that less alcohol in
people's lives is a net positive

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as well.
And Carouser is helping out with

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that.
Look forward to the CEO or the

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commander in Reef Dan Lawrence's
episode coming up in a month or

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so and check out their website
and grab some Carouser.

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Without further ado, let's jump
into it.

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Really important topic today.
Open up your ears, open up your

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minds and talk to somebody that
maybe you don't agree with when

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you're done.
Here it is, Ryan Martin.

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So have the ways we try to lift
our neighbors.

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Where did the love go?
Where did the talk?

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And we need to help to make this
better.

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Again.
Well, let's get into yours a

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little bit.
OK.

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So yeah, I heard you moved here
from Mississippi.

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You said.
How long ago was that?

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How long have you been in
Wisconsin?

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So moved here in 2005, had
actually lived here for a couple

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years prior to that at different
stages.

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So I, I did a year at Lawrence
University back in 94 and in

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2003 I, I worked at UW Madison
for a year.

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So I was in this weird.
So I from Minnesota, went to

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College in Wisconsin for a year,
went back to Minnesota, went to

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Mississippi, came to us from
Madison, back to Mississippi,

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then to here permanently.
OK, so did you, did you want to

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find your way back to the
Midwest?

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Was that a goal of yours?
It was I always loved my time

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here.
My family was mostly living

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here.
My wife's family is from my

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wife's from Madison that area.
So we had made it a goal to move

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back to the Midwest and we were
sort of prioritizing Minnesota

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and Wisconsin in that in that
journey.

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But we had also acknowledged
like Illinois would be great.

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Michigan could work, I would
could work, you know that there

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are some options there.
We just more than anything

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wanted to kind of be be a little
bit closer to, to family.

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And at the time, I had a sibling
in Chicago and my mom and dad

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were in Minnesota and, and my
wife's family were in Madison

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and Stevens Point.
So it's the funny part about

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this is that when I lived in
Madison, it was it was the first

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time I was on the job search for
academics.

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I was doing my internship at UW
Madison at the counseling center

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there, and we decided to go up
to Door County for a long

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weekend.
And as we were driving up, this

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was in, this was Memorial Day,
so it's kind of the end of the

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job search.
I was sort of acknowledging that

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I was probably you're going to
have to do another year, that I

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hadn't gotten anything permanent
yet.

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And as I was driving through
Green Bay, we stopped in

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Appleton for dinner and I, as we
were driving to Green Bay, I

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said, Green Bay seems bigger
than I thought.

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I wonder if there's anywhere
here I could work and then went

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to Door County.
Didn't really think anything of

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it came home.
And then the next year, Green

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Bay had a job that was pretty
much perfect for me and in every

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way.
So I at the time, you know, I

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was a counselling psychologist,
wanted to be a college

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professor.
They had a job that basically

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was like a list of courses that
I'd either already taught or was

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prepared to teach.
And yeah, it was a was just a

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great fit.
It's amazing how life delivers

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packages like that at different
times, isn't it?

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Yeah, it was really funny.
And then, of course, you know,

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growing up in Minnesota, all my
friends were Vikings fans.

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And so when I came home and, you
know, told them like, hey, guys,

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I got a job, I'm going to be in
Green Bay.

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Without fail, their response
was, oh, Green Bay.

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Oh, no.
So, yeah, yeah.

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Nice.
Turning back the clock a little

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bit further, what brought your
interests in into there?

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When so when did when did it
like it sounds like it started

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with psychology and then when
did that blossom into the the

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sounds like you're practicing
counselor for a while and then

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the anger specifically, how did
that all come about?

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Yeah, so I, you know, it's funny
when I, when I went to well, I

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guess we'll start at the very
beginning if you want.

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I I running joke about my
family, especially the men in my

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family, is that we all had the
quote UN quote Martin temper.

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So anger ran pretty wild in my
family, starting with my dad in

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particular.
And it's, you know, whenever I

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tell people that story, I think
the worry is that what people

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hear is like that it was like
not a loving household or that

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it was an abusive household
anything.

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And it wasn't any of that.
It was, it was just a, there was

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just a lot of anger, right?
And, and people getting

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sometimes mad at each other.
Honestly, often times with my

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dad, he was just sort of angry
at the world, right?

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He would, he was just a really
relatively inpatient person and

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so I've been interested in it
for a long time.

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When I went to college, I wanted
to to actually, I loved math and

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I wanted to be a math teacher.
Took my first psychology class

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at the end of my first year and
loved it and thought, well,

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maybe this is what I want to do.
Decided to major in psych

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instead with the idea that I
would, instead of being a

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teacher, I'd be a counseling
psychologist when I went to

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Graduate School.
One of the reasons I went to

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Mississippi is if there was a
researcher there who is studying

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anger and I wanted to work with
him and you know, and then

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quickly discovered when I was
there how much I loved research

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and teaching.
Part of the deal in in my

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program was that you had to
teach a class as part of, you

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know, and so most people would
do just one.

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It wasn't their favorite thing.
They would do just one.

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But I loved it so much that I
was just like clamoring for

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additional courses I could teach
and trying to get as many

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different classes as I could.
And so got to teach, you know,

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multicultural counseling and
abnormal psych and group therapy

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and a bunch of different
classes.

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And once, once I kind of got
that bug, I thought, OK, maybe I

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was right to want to be a
teacher.

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It's just not math I want to
teach.

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And so I did do clinical work
for a while, part of it just

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through my, my grad school
training, but then part of it

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when I went to, you know, on my,
I did internship at UW Madison

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at their counseling center.
I guess I had and loved it.

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I mean, I really do love, I
actually think that the relation

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or I think the similarities
between teaching and therapy

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are, are pretty considerable.
There's a lot of similarities

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there, and so it didn't
necessarily feel unnatural at

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all to to focus on teaching,
even though I've been trained

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doing so much counseling.
Yeah, teaching overlaps with so

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much in life.
Yeah, I late, much later in

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life, I found that out.
I, I couldn't believe how much I

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loved teaching.
The first time I taught, I, I

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was working in, I was working in
a career services department,

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working with exponential
learning and stuff.

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And I got an opportunity to
teach and I was like, yeah,

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it'll make some extra money.
It should be cool.

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Did it and loved it.
And like, even when I think of

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my, my history in the private
sector of working in marketing,

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there's overlaps there of
supporting people.

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It's just the way you do it,
right?

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And in both, like in both of
your instances, you're, you're

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trying to empower somebody,
right, to make good decisions,

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positive decisions.
And that's what we do.

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Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I always think like

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therapy is often times, I mean,
if you really break it down,

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it's you're using language,
you're using words to try and

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help people change.
And teaching is a very similar

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practice.
And you know, and it's just a

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very specific kind of change,
right?

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I mean, like you're helping them
learn.

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But ultimately that learning
does, it isn't just like

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learning stuff.
It's sometimes learning how to

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do things, which is very much
what therapy is.

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Sometimes it's learning how to,
trying to develop sort of

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particular virtues or particular
qualities or whatever.

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So it's in so many ways it's a,
it's a very similar practice as

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as counseling.
So it felt really natural to me.

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I loved being in a classroom
over time, and this actually

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sort of started to happen in
grad school too.

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I, I also became really kind of
enamored with and interested in

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the administration of higher
education.

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And I know that sounds a little
strange, but I, I got, I started

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in my second year.
I was elected like president of

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the grad school, like of our,
like the counseling psychology

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programs, what a student
government.

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And so it meant that I was going
to faculty meetings and, and

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working with the faculty and all
these things.

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And I, I kind of got a sense for
how important some of that work

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is to the future of students and
how you, I mean, there are a lot

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of really important decisions
that are made that affect

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students in a really significant
way.

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And I became really intrigued by
doing that piece of work.

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So I always kind of had the
plan.

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I, I don't think at any point
did I think, well, I'm going to

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be a Dean or like, I don't know
too many people who like grow up

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thinking that's, that's what
they want to do.

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00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:33,920
But I was thinking, you know,
that I, I did plan early on a

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thinking about like, I think I'd
like to be chair of the

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psychology, the psych program at
some point.

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00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:43,120
And so that became available.
I think in my 6th year at GB,

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00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:45,600
the chair decided she wasn't
going to run again.

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And I thought, well, maybe I'll
run to be chair.

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And then I ended up really
loving that.

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It was a, a great, great job and
we were able to do a lot of good

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things.
And then it just kept kind of

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evolving into I became the
associate Dean and then did that

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for a few years during the
pandemic, which was a a a treat,

227
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being responsible for scheduling
during the pandemic.

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Sweet.
Yeah.

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It was great.
And then and then we moved into

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and then I the the Dean position
opened up a few years ago and,

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and I started doing that so.
Sure.

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So are you still in the
classroom too?

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Do you still teach?
I haven't for the last couple

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years.
I am in the fall, so I'm

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building a new course to teach
in the fall that I'm super,

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super excited about.
So it's going to be really fun.

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It's, you know, it, it, I had
this moment last summer.

238
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I was talking to this guy down
in Milwaukee.

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His name is Chad Bowman and he's
the director of the Milwaukee

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00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:46,240
Rep And we're talking and he
said something that's just like

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stuck with me ever since he
said, look, if the last 20 years

242
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has taught us anything, it's
that we're going to experience a

243
00:13:54,720 --> 00:13:58,960
major disruption every couple of
years, right?

244
00:13:59,280 --> 00:14:05,920
Political unrest, AI, pandemic,
economic uncertainty, whatever,

245
00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:07,760
like stuff's going to happen, he
said.

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00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:15,280
In that world, in that universe,
the only skill that really

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matters is your ability to learn
new things.

248
00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:22,160
And he's like, your ability to
be adaptable, your ability to

249
00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:25,320
figure new things out, to
embrace new technology, whatever

250
00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:26,720
it's you got to learn new
things.

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And I have been just kind of
clinging to that.

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And so I went, I drove home
thinking the whole time, where

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are we teaching students at?
Where explicitly are we?

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00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:40,960
Like the idea is that they get
it, you know, that it's like in

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the in the water somehow that
they'll get it over their time

256
00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:47,360
in college.
But I want to know where we're

257
00:14:48,640 --> 00:14:51,360
like, where are we teaching them
to be lifelong learners?

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And so decided, well, that's
what I'm going to do.

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I'm going to build a course for
this and it's going to be about

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how to learn.
And we're going to encourage

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students to take it in their
first year.

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And then then hopefully it'll
inform not just their time in

263
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college, but their time after
college that they'll be able to

264
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figure out, you know, and how to
keep learning and how to keep

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kind of learning things on their
own.

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So that's the goal is to teach
them that they, they get a, my

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kids are in the International
Baccalaureate curriculum at the

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and, and both of them, well,
one's in high school, one's in

269
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middle school.
But a big part of that is that

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you do like you, you do your own
learning project as a student.

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We just pick a thing you want to
learn and you learn it.

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You know, you, you come up with
your own like learning plan or

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whatever.
So we're going to build

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something like that into this
course.

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Students are just going to come
up with a thing they want to

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learn and they're going to have
to teach themselves.

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00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:57,840
You know, so it could be, I want
to, you know, I want to figure

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00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:01,200
out how to play the guitar, or I
want to learn a language, or I

279
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want to learn how to code or
whatever.

280
00:16:02,720 --> 00:16:06,640
So and then just using whatever
resources they have available to

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00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:08,200
them, they're going to start
figuring that out.

282
00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:10,920
Nice, I've always wanted to know
how to do a Rubik's Cube.

283
00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:13,080
Yeah, that's a good one.
I'm.

284
00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:14,480
Going to move around so the
light comes out.

285
00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:17,800
That's super relevant though.
Man, I I often times I call it

286
00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:20,920
being a curious problem solver.
Like the value of being a

287
00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:25,280
curious problem solver
transcends whatever you want to

288
00:16:25,280 --> 00:16:28,280
do in life.
Like, it will open doors for you

289
00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:32,760
if you just take the approach of
wondering and then trying to

290
00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:35,720
figure out, yeah, if you do
that, it opens so many doors.

291
00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:38,600
Just that thing in itself.
Yeah, I would argue so.

292
00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:43,120
The the mission of our college,
it essentially starts with which

293
00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:49,640
we wrote two years ago, is that
we are curious and creative

294
00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:53,960
problem solvers and that's what
sort of unifies all of us.

295
00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:56,400
It's in the mission.
Yeah, so the mission, when I say

296
00:16:56,400 --> 00:16:58,640
the college, I mean my arts
humanity.

297
00:16:58,640 --> 00:17:01,240
So not UW Green Bay's mission,
OK.

298
00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:05,720
Yeah, the the arts, humanities
and social sciences mission is

299
00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:07,880
that we're curious and creative
problem solvers.

300
00:17:08,319 --> 00:17:12,480
And I, I would argue that's
always been important.

301
00:17:12,839 --> 00:17:17,240
But right now, more than ever, I
would say probably the three

302
00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:22,200
most important things that I
want for our students is to

303
00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:27,480
develop curiosity, creativity,
and a sense of community.

304
00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:32,600
And that students who have that
in college, they're just,

305
00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:35,160
they're going to have a better
experience and they're going to

306
00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:37,880
be prepared to leave and do
great things.

307
00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:41,400
I think that, I mean, we, we
could talk about that in a

308
00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:43,440
billion different ways.
I think probably most obvious

309
00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:48,280
right now is the the AI piece
that I think people who are

310
00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:52,800
going to successfully navigate
that are people who can build

311
00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:56,240
relationships, people who are
creative, people who are asked

312
00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:59,600
good questions and and are
curious.

313
00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:01,960
I think those are the people who
are going to continue to thrive.

314
00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:04,080
You have to know your value
proposition.

315
00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:06,600
You have to do something that AI
can't do, right?

316
00:18:06,840 --> 00:18:08,920
It's those things, the human
elements of those things.

317
00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:10,320
You're spot on.
Absolutely.

318
00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:12,320
That's cool.
I didn't know that was the

319
00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:13,200
mission.
I'm going to use that.

320
00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:14,160
So I don't know if you even
know.

321
00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:19,080
My undergrad is from GBN,
College of Arts and Humanities.

322
00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:21,720
Is it or leadership?
OK, excellent.

323
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:25,440
Yeah.
So I'm going to use that so you

324
00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:28,760
know that it wasn't written when
I graduated.

325
00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:31,320
But you know, being a curious
problem solver, I'll I'll

326
00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:32,680
definitely use it in the
classroom, man.

327
00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:35,840
You know, what happened is that
when So it's interesting.

328
00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:39,640
The history of the, the history
of our college is that we, you

329
00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:41,600
know, when the, when the
university was founded in the

330
00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:46,080
60s, we had college right?
There was just one.

331
00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:49,480
And then over time things kind
of split off and we split off

332
00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:51,240
professional programs at some
point.

333
00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:53,960
And then we, you know, kind of
broke things apart.

334
00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:57,880
But So what we have in our
college is sort of the remnants

335
00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:02,600
of the like kind of what was
originally there, whereas, you

336
00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:04,920
know, professional programs
broke off and science,

337
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:07,560
engineering and technology broke
off and business broke off.

338
00:19:08,120 --> 00:19:12,600
So sometimes people in my in
arts and social sciences, they,

339
00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:14,720
they feel like we're kind of the
leftovers, right?

340
00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:17,120
We're just like the remnants
and, and there's nothing really

341
00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:21,080
that ties us together.
So my associate Dean, Jenny,

342
00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:26,760
Jenny Young and I thought we
need a, we need to figure out

343
00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:29,080
what pulls us together.
Like we've got to find out that,

344
00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:32,920
find that unity piece.
And so she, she's a writer and I

345
00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:35,520
said, let's, let's, we've got to
write a mission.

346
00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:39,920
So she did a fantastic job of
bringing people together to come

347
00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:43,280
up with like let's figure out
what it is that connects us and

348
00:19:43,760 --> 00:19:47,960
that is sort of the central
proposition there is curious and

349
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:50,520
creative problem solvers.
That's what that what ties all

350
00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:52,680
of us together in a lot of ways.
Absolutely.

351
00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:55,160
Yeah, completely agree.
Let's get back to that Ryan

352
00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:57,000
temper, the Martin temper a
little bit.

353
00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:59,000
Yeah.
So I didn't.

354
00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:01,880
That's cool, man.
So even when you decided that

355
00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:05,760
psychology was the route for
you, it was with the undertone

356
00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:10,200
of anger like being central.
I love when somebody follows a

357
00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:15,080
passion.
It's it's, it's just so heart

358
00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:21,240
warming to be satisfied with
what you do on a day-to-day

359
00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:23,400
basis.
And that stems from picking

360
00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:28,640
something you care about.
So how did I guess A2 part

361
00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:32,560
question, how did the Martin
temper come out in you as a, as

362
00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:35,040
a younger adult or even younger
than that?

363
00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:38,760
And how is it developed?
The more you've learned about

364
00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:41,920
anger, because you mentioned the
word impatient earlier.

365
00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:44,520
I think that's where a lot of
anger stems from.

366
00:20:44,520 --> 00:20:46,440
I mean, you're the expert, you
tell me, but how is it?

367
00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:48,320
How do?
How did it come out and how is

368
00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:50,840
it developed?
Yeah, You know, when I when I

369
00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:56,160
was young, for me it came out in
mostly in a lot of like I, I

370
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:58,920
would get mad and I would yell
like that was my go to when I

371
00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:02,680
was a kid, not necessarily at
people, but just sort of at the

372
00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:05,920
world.
I do think like a lot of kids, I

373
00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:08,840
took probably more out on my
parents than I wish I had,

374
00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:13,600
especially my mom, you know, And
so and I really regret that, you

375
00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:18,600
know, like I 30 years later,
still wishing things have been

376
00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:20,720
different. 35 years later, still
wishing things have been

377
00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:24,280
different.
But over time, I like really

378
00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:27,000
learned to.
It's funny.

379
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,360
I had a conversation with a guy
at work and he said a lot of

380
00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:32,600
this is about 10 years ago.
He said a lot of people think

381
00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:38,000
that you study anger because
you, because you want to know

382
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:41,160
what other people feel like that
they just don't see me as an

383
00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:43,640
angry person.
They see me as like a relatively

384
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:46,760
chill person, which is funny
because I, I am, would describe

385
00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:49,480
myself as like angry all the
time, right?

386
00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:54,200
I mean, there's so much to be
angry about and I, and I am, I'm

387
00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:56,920
really, really, really type A,
right?

388
00:21:56,920 --> 00:22:00,800
And, and so I am competitive.
I'm impatient.

389
00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:06,000
I'm and I, I think for me
though, I know that about

390
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,720
myself.
And so I'm able to be really

391
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:13,960
like mindful about when I'm
likely to experience anger.

392
00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:16,920
I'm able to be thoughtful about
what to do with it when I am

393
00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:20,600
feeling it.
And so it's relatively rare that

394
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:23,920
I sort of let it get the best of
me, even though internally I'm

395
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:27,720
kind of feeling like, OK, I wish
things were happening faster.

396
00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:30,040
I don't like this, you know, I,
I don't, I don't like being

397
00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:34,680
slowed down and I whatever.
And so like, I think for me, the

398
00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:39,280
way I've been able to manage it
for a long time is by knowing,

399
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:42,800
like, just knowing that about
myself and being able to like.

400
00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:47,680
I guess challenge the thoughts
I'm having when I get

401
00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:50,840
frustrated, but then also sort
of direct that anger into

402
00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:54,280
problem solving and directed
into the energy it goes me into

403
00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:58,800
into other things.
OK, that's interesting man.

404
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:01,920
So how much how much of anger in
your research and learning

405
00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:06,560
throughout the years, how much
of anger is learned as opposed

406
00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:09,720
to just inherently in the human?
Yeah, that's a good question.

407
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:13,480
So it's as I'm sure, you know,
it's going to be a little bit of

408
00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:20,760
both that we do inherit some,
you know, like a genetic

409
00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:25,600
predisposition to, it's probably
not so much anger specifically

410
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:31,600
as it is just to be emotional
that we, you know, we inherit A

411
00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:36,680
tendency to react with like
heightened emotionality in

412
00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:41,160
particular circumstances, a more
active sort of fight or flight

413
00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:46,480
response to things.
But then the part that we learn

414
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:50,600
is pretty extensive, right?
Because what you see is that

415
00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:56,360
sometimes, I mean, sort of a
golden rule of emotions is that

416
00:23:56,360 --> 00:24:03,880
we get that, that we direct or,
or we learn our emotional

417
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:07,640
responses from our caregivers
and from the world around us.

418
00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:14,000
And so that could be what we
call display rules, meaning I

419
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:18,160
learn what's an appropriate way
to display my anger, an

420
00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:21,840
appropriate way to display and
display my fear, my sadness or

421
00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:24,560
whatever.
And so we learned that from our

422
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:28,080
caregivers just in one of two
ways, either through modeling,

423
00:24:28,120 --> 00:24:30,000
right?
I see my dad yell, so I decide

424
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:31,720
this is what you do when you're
mad, right?

425
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:36,360
Or through some sort of
conditioning, right?

426
00:24:36,360 --> 00:24:41,560
So, you know, I, I yell and then
I get in trouble for it.

427
00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:44,080
And so then I learned, Nope,
don't do that.

428
00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:46,520
Or I yell and I get praised for
it somehow.

429
00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:50,920
And so I do it more.
And so we, we kind of pick up on

430
00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:52,440
those things as we're growing
up.

431
00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:55,520
It's not just our caregivers,
it's other types of modeling.

432
00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:59,400
I think about that a lot in
terms of the political landscape

433
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:02,960
right now and and what people
might be learning from leaders,

434
00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:08,000
what people might be learning
from other sorts of like

435
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:11,640
celebrities and models about how
to display emotions.

436
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:13,680
I think about in terms of social
media.

437
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:17,800
You know, I was asked a question
the other day about, you know,

438
00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:21,680
all of these like like people
releasing dash Cam footage of

439
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:24,720
violent outbursts on the road
and things like that.

440
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:30,800
And what impact does that have
on people, on people's, you

441
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:32,240
know, likelihood respond that
way?

442
00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:34,440
And I think the short answer is
we don't know.

443
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:38,800
But I think the longer answer is
that the more it's normalized,

444
00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:42,440
the more outbursts like that are
normalized, the more we're going

445
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:48,440
to start to see them and and so
that that modeling has an impact

446
00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:51,880
on the broader universe.
Yeah, absolutely.

447
00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:56,440
All the way down to like not
even just anger, but how people

448
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:58,840
are comfortable talking to other
people.

449
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:02,920
Yeah, that just our our baseline
communication.

450
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:09,440
Yeah, can shift about ABC person
does it who's in the news all

451
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:12,800
the time.
So if I do it on the sidewalk to

452
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:15,040
my neighbor, that's the world we
live in.

453
00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:17,680
But really doesn't have to be
that.

454
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:20,960
It shouldn't be that way, but
you know it is going to be that

455
00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:22,760
way.
Yeah, I mean, I think that's

456
00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:24,440
what we're seeing.
You know, I've been, I've been

457
00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:27,200
coaching my son's soccer team
for the last three years.

458
00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:31,480
And so one of the things I've
seen is kind of how parents talk

459
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:35,480
to referees, how they talk to
players on the opposing team,

460
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,480
how they talk to each other.
And I'm, I'm seeing like a, a,

461
00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:44,680
an escalation of like aggressive
responses to those things that

462
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:51,320
is becoming worrisome to me.
That is, you know, it feels like

463
00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:55,720
in some level we need like a
reset to say, hey, there, there

464
00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:57,800
are things you just shouldn't.
Like it's, it's one thing to

465
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:03,120
question a call.
It's another thing to, to, to do

466
00:27:03,120 --> 00:27:08,440
it in the way you did it.
And and I think, you know, just

467
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:10,880
in that vein, I think one of the
interesting thing that's

468
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:15,440
happening too is that everyone
sort of overcorrecting in a way

469
00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:17,480
that is causing this real
divide.

470
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:23,240
So, you know, fans feel like
they can say whatever they want

471
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:26,400
to referees, you know, and they
can shout and be insulting to

472
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:32,120
referees.
Referees are so averse to that

473
00:27:32,360 --> 00:27:36,840
that they the second apparent
questions them, they sort of

474
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:39,200
double down and they push back
and won't even listen.

475
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:42,560
And so like, and I, I realized
we're not here to talk about

476
00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:44,280
soccer, though it is the
greatest sport in the world.

477
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:49,760
I, I will tell you that the, the
thing that I think that that's

478
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:52,600
probably like a microcosm of
what's happening in a lot of

479
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:56,280
cases, like people are sort of
standoffish with one another in

480
00:27:56,280 --> 00:27:59,120
a way that they're, they're
always, no one ever.

481
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:01,880
That's exaggeration.
People rarely assume good

482
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:04,760
intent.
And and because of that, like

483
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:09,840
the divide is happening even
before the the interaction in a

484
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:12,840
way that's that's unfortunate.
Yeah.

485
00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:17,640
And then with that divide in
place, it makes, it makes like

486
00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:22,400
commonality harder to achieve
when in reality it's so close

487
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:24,840
and it's so apparent and it's
always there.

488
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:25,680
Yep.
Yeah.

489
00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:28,960
Yeah.
The the referee thing is wild.

490
00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:33,360
That's been wild for a while in
youth sports.

491
00:28:33,360 --> 00:28:38,120
Like you see there online videos
of that all over too, of people

492
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:42,360
chirping the up behind the plate
or something in in a, you know,

493
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:45,800
5th graders playing baseball.
So they're 5th graders, man.

494
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:49,560
Yeah, yeah, I know.
This is not it.

495
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:51,920
It's, it's tricky it, it really
is.

496
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:55,960
And I, I, I think the part that
truly worries me and why I'm

497
00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:59,680
like kind of hung up on this is
I think, you know, so I grew up

498
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:02,560
playing sports and I love them.
And I think of all the good

499
00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:06,320
positive ways, positive impacts
they can have on people.

500
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:10,520
And it's actually a place where
I think kids can learn a lot

501
00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:15,080
about, I mean, honestly, related
to referee specifically, they

502
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:17,560
can learn a lot about justice
and unfairness.

503
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:20,520
And they, they could learn about
how you handle those sorts of

504
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:24,120
disputes in a healthy way and
that there's a difference when

505
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:26,720
you get fouled.
There's a difference between

506
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:30,040
screaming at the ref and going
up to the ref later and saying

507
00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:33,320
like, hey, you know, like this
guy took me down and you didn't

508
00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:35,320
call it.
Can you tell me what you saw?

509
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:37,840
You know, like that's those
things are fundamentally

510
00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:40,520
different.
We're not teaching kids that

511
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:42,960
second way.
What they're seeing is the first

512
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:46,680
way and refs are reacting to
that and it, and it's too bad

513
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,200
because there's, there's
opportunities here to actually

514
00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:53,320
again, reset and have like use
that as a place where kids can

515
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:55,800
learn healthy communication,
healthy conflict.

516
00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:00,720
But we've now hit a point where
I was actually at A, at a parent

517
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:04,480
meeting recently, We've now hit
a point where refs are so sick

518
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:09,760
of being abused, understandably,
that they're reacting with, we

519
00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:11,760
just don't take it at all.
We just give you a red card and

520
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:15,320
you're done, right?
And that's, that's not a great

521
00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:17,640
outcome either, right?
Like we're, we're missing the

522
00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:20,880
opportunity to have like like a
training ground to talk about

523
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:24,320
like healthy conflict.
And instead we're we're giving

524
00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:27,000
that up because we just can't
seem to get back there.

525
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:31,120
Yeah, absolutely.
How much of A how much of A

526
00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:34,080
like, what does ego play into it
on both sides?

527
00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:36,760
Yeah, great question.
I think a lot.

528
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:41,360
I mean, I think when you think
about the, there are a couple

529
00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:44,920
different sort of thought types
or ways of things that are

530
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:47,600
happening internally that lead
to anger.

531
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:52,280
And one of those is a tendency.
It's like demandingness or

532
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:54,440
entitlement, some version of
that, right?

533
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:56,720
And and that's going to be
driven by ego.

534
00:30:56,720 --> 00:31:01,080
So if you think that you deserve
on some level like special

535
00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:05,520
treatment or that if you think
you're sort of a special person

536
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:08,680
who deserves things that other
people don't get, you're just,

537
00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:10,200
you're going to get angry more
often.

538
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:12,720
You're going to get angry
because your food doesn't come

539
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:14,200
fast enough.
You're going to get angry

540
00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:16,160
because there's people in your
way slowing you down.

541
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:18,400
You're going to angry because
you didn't get the call you

542
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:22,160
wanted.
I think all of that is part of

543
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:30,200
the part of that anger response.
And I think, you know, that ego,

544
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:38,720
it also, I think it leads to
some insecurity or it lends

545
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:43,040
itself to some insecurity that
tends to, to like kind of get

546
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:45,960
exacerbated in those moments
like you, you, you know, when,

547
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:48,520
when you don't get what you
want, it sort of hits you harder

548
00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:52,400
because you're like, why do they
not realize how great I am, how

549
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:55,440
important I am?
And and and so it hits that way.

550
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:58,520
Yeah, absolutely.
I figured it had to be a crew

551
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:01,440
critical piece of it.
Yeah, going to.

552
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:03,960
Get the lights again.
You need a ball that you can

553
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,080
just throw over there and.
I thought about that this

554
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:08,560
morning.
I thought about that.

555
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,640
I, I specifically thought about
this little football that my son

556
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,920
has and if I brought it like,
and maybe one other ball, I

557
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:17,880
could just set it right here.
And then when the lights go out,

558
00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:20,240
I just Chuck it that way.
I tried a balloon last time.

559
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:25,240
That was helium and it it was
like the perfect buoyancy that

560
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:28,040
it would float through the air,
but then it got caught up in a

561
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:29,720
in a little spot over there, so
it didn't.

562
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:34,520
Work, so all right.
But yeah, I mean, ego certainly

563
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:38,240
had to play a part.
It's funny, I so I would put

564
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:41,960
myself in like the flip side of
the coin throughout my entire

565
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,240
life, even though there was a
time as like in my teenage

566
00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:49,040
years, like ego certainly ran
rampant, you know, like it does

567
00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:50,800
for a lot of teens.
Like you think you know

568
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:53,600
everything, you're the most
important thing in the world

569
00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:56,880
until you realize you're this
speck of dust on a hurling Rock,

570
00:32:56,880 --> 00:33:00,640
You know?
But I've never like, I've never

571
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:03,800
got mad about very much other
than driving.

572
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:07,560
It's my wife gets after me about
it all the time because it's

573
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:10,720
really true.
As soon as I get behind a wheel,

574
00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:16,920
I get upset about these people.
What hypothetically, maybe even

575
00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:19,560
making the wrong decision, doing
something that you know, why

576
00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:21,880
would you be in the left lane
driving this fast when you're

577
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:24,560
not over there?
And I don't know.

578
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:27,120
That's not it's not ego.
And I I saw part of your

579
00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:29,360
conversation and I think you
talked about this with Theo

580
00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:38,840
about how it's well, you tell me
what, what does that mean?

581
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:43,280
Like, you know, in most realms
of my life, super easy going

582
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:47,080
driving pissed.
Well, part of it.

583
00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:51,480
Is that you know, so there's
this debate amongst personality

584
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,480
and social psychologists, right?
Two different sort of two sort

585
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:56,520
of different groups of of
psychologists.

586
00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:00,080
And part of what they're the
debate is is what's more

587
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:03,920
important the the person or the
personality or the situations

588
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:05,800
we're in.
And there's actually a pretty

589
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:09,760
good argument that situations
trump personality and in many

590
00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:14,040
cases meaning that probably the
best influence of your behavior

591
00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:16,280
is not actually your
personality, but it's the

592
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:18,320
situations that you're in.
Sure.

593
00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:23,320
Now there's a whole fascinating
kind of way of thinking about

594
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:27,080
that.
But what I'll say is that from

595
00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:32,600
a, from a anger perspective,
it's hard to imagine a more

596
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:34,920
provoking situation than
driving.

597
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:38,679
It just is.
It's, I said this in a, in the,

598
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:41,560
in the Ted talk.
If you were an evil genius and

599
00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,440
you wanted to create a situation
to make people mad, you would

600
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:46,400
create a situation that looks
like driving.

601
00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:54,679
And the reason is 1.
It's anxiety provoking, right?

602
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:57,120
Driving is just inherently
dangerous.

603
00:34:57,200 --> 00:34:59,840
And whether we realize that, and
sometimes it seems like a lot of

604
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:03,680
people don't realize that, but
it is and it's it's a dangerous

605
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,280
thing.
And that kind of elevates our

606
00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:10,280
physiological state.
It makes us more prone to react

607
00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:14,680
negatively when we're provoked.
We are by definition on our way

608
00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:18,680
someplace, and because we're on
our way someplace, it's really

609
00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:22,120
easy to have our goals blocked.
It's really easy to have other

610
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:24,080
people get in the way.
That's the piece I was thinking

611
00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:25,800
about.
Yeah, it's, it's really.

612
00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:30,000
Easy for things to interfere and
to to block those goals.

613
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:33,320
And that's one of the the
primary reasons we get angry.

614
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:36,280
It's that impatience part.
You know, that like when my

615
00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:38,640
goals are blocked, I'm likely to
get frustrated.

616
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:42,760
And then add to that you've got
all these other people on the

617
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:44,600
road.
You've got these sort of, I

618
00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:46,880
mean, yes, there are written
rules of the road, but there are

619
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:51,160
also all these unwritten rules.
And I mean, the example I always

620
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:54,920
use is like, for me, I don't
know how many police officers

621
00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:58,240
listen to your show, but for me,
you know, 9 over is what I

622
00:35:58,240 --> 00:36:00,000
usually set the cruise out when
I'm on.

623
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,760
OK, good.
So what that means is that you

624
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:07,880
and I could drive on the on the
Interstate and probably be OK.

625
00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:12,040
Like, we wouldn't, we wouldn't,
you know, be frustrated by each

626
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:13,960
other because we are agreeing on
the speed.

627
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:17,680
But if somebody comes up behind
us and wants to get past us

628
00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:20,560
because they think that the
right speed is 15, well, they're

629
00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:23,600
going to get mad at us.
And if we run into someone who's

630
00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:28,280
driving 5 over, we're going to
get mad at them, right?

631
00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:33,640
And so yet all of us are
breaking the law.

632
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:35,880
Like none of us.
We've we've all just set our own

633
00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:38,600
sort of arbitrary rule about
what the right speed is.

634
00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:41,640
And then we're upset that other
people aren't listening to our

635
00:36:41,880 --> 00:36:44,720
arbitrary rules.
And there's lots of those.

636
00:36:44,720 --> 00:36:48,280
There's lots of those on the on
the road where people have

637
00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:52,120
different views about what is
and is not like an acceptable

638
00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:56,120
speed to go, an acceptable way
to drive, how close you should

639
00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:58,640
be to the confront of you.
You know, how early you have to

640
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:01,960
signal when you say all those,
all these different things and

641
00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:08,000
people, people let that kind of
all those rules, those unwritten

642
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:11,160
rules, they let them get to
them.

643
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:16,600
So I think like for you and
honestly for me, like this is a

644
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:20,480
situation where, well, here's
the interesting thing for me

645
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:24,360
when I'm driving is that I'm
actually more often than not

646
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:27,600
relatively relaxed when I drive.
The thing that there's two

647
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:30,800
things that gets me.
One is I when people do things

648
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:35,200
that are overtly dangerous, that
bothers me, like there's a piece

649
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:37,760
of me that does that.
This were the sort of justice

650
00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:43,440
piece kicks in for me of look
like this is a like you

651
00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:49,400
fundamentally destroy a person's
life by harming them all because

652
00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:51,040
you were going to miss your turn
or whatever.

653
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:53,200
Like you just go around the
block like you don't you know,

654
00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:59,680
so there's that the other thing,
and this is so silly and I like

655
00:37:59,680 --> 00:38:03,320
know what about myself?
When I start to run low on gas,

656
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:07,600
I start to have this like real
intense, like internal panic

657
00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:11,160
moment.
And it makes me so frustrated by

658
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:14,480
all other drivers in that moment
because I, I think what's

659
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:19,840
happening is that I've decided
this is like, I might run out of

660
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:22,560
gas and that's going to be like
a disaster for me.

661
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:25,920
And so everything that
interferes, like everything that

662
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:29,440
blocks my goals or whatever
feels like a thing that's going

663
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:33,400
to make me out, run out of gas.
And so I've, I've actually

664
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:36,280
started to, by and large, I've
gotten to a point where I just

665
00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:38,480
say I don't want to let myself
get in that situation.

666
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:41,680
I'm just gonna always, always at
1/4 of a tank 'cause when I

667
00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:44,960
decide it's time and that way
I'll never find myself like in

668
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:46,480
that zone where I get
frustrated.

669
00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:48,320
That's funny.
Yeah, my wife has come from.

670
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:49,920
That cloth and I'm more like
Kramer.

671
00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:52,240
You know, the episode of
Seinfeld where he's like, what

672
00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:55,000
we're we're gonna keep going and
they just keep passing exits.

673
00:38:55,040 --> 00:38:58,240
I'll, I'll run it right down.
Yeah, that's super.

674
00:38:58,240 --> 00:39:00,200
Stressful to me, man.
Yeah, it is.

675
00:39:01,240 --> 00:39:06,080
Part of that nonchalantness, I
guess for me, for me, it's the

676
00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:09,240
people who don't set the cruise
control and then they go like 80

677
00:39:09,240 --> 00:39:10,920
and pass you and then they get
in front of you.

678
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:13,720
And then my cruise control set
and I drive up to them and then

679
00:39:13,720 --> 00:39:17,440
I drive around and we exchange
glances and then they pass me

680
00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:19,680
again and I'm like, just put to
push the button.

681
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:22,800
Yeah, yeah.
I get that man.

682
00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:28,040
But yeah, there's all those
external forces that come into,

683
00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:32,680
you know, funny example is I
went to a concert in Madison

684
00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:36,360
recently with a friend of mine
who will remain nameless because

685
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:40,400
the story we he's an erratic
driver, very fast.

686
00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:44,760
We were running a little bit
late and we were going extremely

687
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:48,840
fast.
And I consistently the whole

688
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:52,640
drive to Madison, put myself in
the shoes of the other cars.

689
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:55,280
Like we got beeped at several
times, like he was driving

690
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:58,640
erratically.
And the the best part about it

691
00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:01,840
or like the most like thought
provoking part about it for me

692
00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:04,680
was watch it being in the car
and watching him because I would

693
00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:06,280
never drive like how he was
driving.

694
00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:09,000
But I was a passenger.
So we're just talking and

695
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:13,640
watching him navigate it,
knowing that if I was in all

696
00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:16,360
these other cars, I'd be upset
because he at times he was

697
00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:19,120
putting people in danger, you
know, like making not the best

698
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:24,360
decisions driving and he.
Was blissfully ignorant the

699
00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:26,640
entire situation.
Yeah.

700
00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:30,640
So there's this chain effect of
all of these upset people.

701
00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:31,240
Mm.
Hmm.

702
00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:36,880
And he was unaware we were
talking about life, telling

703
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:39,600
jovial stories.
He was very happy the entire

704
00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:43,000
time and just wanted to make
sure that we made our dinner

705
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:47,040
reservation before the the
concert when all of these other

706
00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:49,600
people, like we had all this
other stuff going on, were

707
00:40:49,600 --> 00:40:52,480
absolutely pissed at him for
driving the way that he had all

708
00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:54,560
the way.
And he was blissfully and aware.

709
00:40:54,560 --> 00:40:57,920
And then I thought about myself
in all those situations where

710
00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:02,600
like, OK, the person who doesn't
have their crux control set is

711
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:05,080
talking to their grandma that
they haven't talked to.

712
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:07,840
And they're, she's coming across
the speaker and they're so happy

713
00:41:07,840 --> 00:41:10,440
that they have no idea what else
is going on.

714
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:13,680
And that's the fine line, right?
Where, where and what does that

715
00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:16,600
line look like between?
Of course it's different for

716
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:17,720
everybody.
It's going to be unique.

717
00:41:17,720 --> 00:41:22,400
But between empathy and
compassion and all those

718
00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:27,640
unwritten rules that you force
on to other people, that that's

719
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:30,600
a whole other conversation about
being unrealistic because we

720
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:32,360
didn't even communicate them in
the first place.

721
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:36,120
That's a big part of marriage.
Where where's that line between

722
00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:38,640
empathy and compassion?
And I'm right, you're wrong.

723
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:40,680
Yeah.
You know, Well, real quick, let

724
00:41:40,680 --> 00:41:43,320
me tell you.
So funny thing about so I used

725
00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:46,240
to do some research on driving
anger right and why people got

726
00:41:46,240 --> 00:41:47,920
angry.
And one of the one question we

727
00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:53,120
asked in every survey is on a
scale of 1 to 150 being average,

728
00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:55,360
how good a driver do you think
you are?

729
00:41:56,120 --> 00:41:59,360
And you know 50 is average.
So you would think that, I mean,

730
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:01,640
if people were thoughtful about
this, most people would put

731
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:06,040
themselves around that.
I rarely would get answers below

732
00:42:06,120 --> 00:42:09,800
80 that everybody thinks they're
a great driver, you know?

733
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:11,840
Like did you also ask what, what
how?

734
00:42:11,840 --> 00:42:13,920
Would you rate everybody else?
Yeah, I did not.

735
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:15,920
And that would be a great.
Question because I'm pretty sure

736
00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:19,200
that everyone else is that, you
know, below 50 and it, it's

737
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:22,600
like, look, we can't all be
great drivers like like there's

738
00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:25,480
going to be a normal
distribution here and like we're

739
00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:29,960
not all 80s and 90s.
And so there is something about

740
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:34,080
people are naive to what their
deficits are, what their

741
00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:37,120
strengths are, you know, that
they, that people tend to think

742
00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:40,480
they're, they're really good.
And I remember actually talking

743
00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:43,480
to a friend and I said, I, I
feel like people don't like me

744
00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:45,520
on the road.
Like I, you know, and they said,

745
00:42:45,520 --> 00:42:47,360
well, that might be because
you're a bad driver.

746
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:50,000
And I was like, or it might be
that everybody else is a bad

747
00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:52,400
driver, right.
It might be that I'm being

748
00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:55,840
careful and they don't like it.
Yeah, Well, right.

749
00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:57,440
There's a lot of.
Subjectivity in there, right?

750
00:42:57,440 --> 00:43:01,240
Because if you ask him about
that trip, he's probably 10 out

751
00:43:01,240 --> 00:43:03,880
of 10, right?
Like we made the reservation.

752
00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:06,760
We didn't, you know, nobody got
hurt.

753
00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:10,360
We didn't get a speeding ticket.
Maybe he's a 10 out of 10.

754
00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:13,360
When in reality most people
aren't thinking that when and I

755
00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:15,280
think your your point.
About, you know, empathy and

756
00:43:15,280 --> 00:43:17,960
understanding and, and
miscommunications, all that.

757
00:43:17,960 --> 00:43:21,680
I mean, I think in some ways a
lot of what happens, what we've

758
00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:24,680
been talking about the, the, the
pattern of what we're talking

759
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:27,880
about on the road exists in all
these other places too.

760
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:32,600
I mean, your point about a
communication deficit at

761
00:43:32,640 --> 00:43:35,840
breakdown at work leading to
anger, like if you're not making

762
00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:39,520
your expectations known or at
least having a conversation

763
00:43:39,520 --> 00:43:42,360
about your expectations and then
people are failing to meet those

764
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:44,080
expectations and you're getting
angry.

765
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:50,000
Like where is the, the who's
responsible for that

766
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:52,640
essentially?
And I, and I think part of what

767
00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:58,280
we see is that probably more so
than any other emotion, anger is

768
00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:02,600
oftentimes described as a social
emotion, meaning we experience

769
00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:07,720
it in relationships or, or in
interactions at least far more

770
00:44:07,720 --> 00:44:12,800
often than any other emotion.
And so when you get angry, you

771
00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:15,400
by and large, you're typically
angry at another person.

772
00:44:15,720 --> 00:44:19,920
And that isn't necessarily true
with fear or sadness or

773
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:23,920
curiosity or all these other
emotions that happen that can

774
00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:26,840
happen in different, in
different ways.

775
00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:32,040
So what that means is that like
when you get angry and if you

776
00:44:32,040 --> 00:44:35,440
have an anger problem or if
you're getting angry regularly,

777
00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:40,240
it's, it's quite contextual.
It depends on the circumstances.

778
00:44:40,240 --> 00:44:43,760
It depends on the nature of
those interactions you're having

779
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:46,160
with people.
And there's always something

780
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:52,680
that that you probably fed into
that system somehow.

781
00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:56,280
And it might be I why I didn't
communicate very effectively.

782
00:44:56,280 --> 00:45:01,320
Or it might be, hey, I was
feeling really, really anxious

783
00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:03,800
already.
And so I just, you know, I

784
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:08,480
brought that into the situation.
It might be, you know, sleep

785
00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:12,120
deprived and I, and so I was
quicker to respond negatively or

786
00:45:12,120 --> 00:45:14,160
whatever.
Like there's all these different

787
00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:16,360
factors and there's things you
bring to the table and then

788
00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:20,720
there's things other people do.
And so much like on the road

789
00:45:20,720 --> 00:45:23,120
where there's lots of those
things in any of our

790
00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:25,080
interactions, they're going to
be those things.

791
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:29,000
So that that kind of.
Brings us to a spot I wanted to

792
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:31,600
talk about today.
We we talked about the missions

793
00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:37,040
of both of our shows earlier and
underlying to sharing the

794
00:45:37,040 --> 00:45:39,240
stories of the people of
Wisconsin.

795
00:45:39,240 --> 00:45:41,680
A lot of the place that I get
satisfaction and where I see

796
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:47,520
value is in just the
communication piece of it.

797
00:45:47,520 --> 00:45:51,320
And using that to bridge these
gaps between people that we

798
00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:54,120
mentioned earlier.
I think it's very powerful.

799
00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:57,720
Now, getting people to listen to
something for an hour and a half

800
00:45:57,720 --> 00:46:00,840
is difficult, right?
But the people who do I like to

801
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:04,800
think are positively impacted by
the conversation that we have.

802
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:09,880
Because I, I don't, I don't
filter by, you know, some of the

803
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:14,520
traditional ways, like I'm not
filtering by political belief

804
00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:17,960
system or whatever.
Like I, I filter my guests of

805
00:46:17,960 --> 00:46:21,560
like cool conversation and if
it's going to happen, like we're

806
00:46:21,560 --> 00:46:26,120
going to do it.
So what you brought up the

807
00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:29,520
relationship there between
effective communication and

808
00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:33,640
anger.
Balloon that out a little bit to

809
00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:38,000
a societal level and.
Pretend that.

810
00:46:38,040 --> 00:46:41,640
This is a big pretend.
Pretend that the reception

811
00:46:41,640 --> 00:46:44,360
barriers aren't there.
Like any At any time we could

812
00:46:44,360 --> 00:46:47,200
get someone to the entire
populace to listen to an hour

813
00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:50,160
and a half of something.
Does that affective

814
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:58,680
communication and the ability to
eloquent something effectively

815
00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:02,120
to have an understanding of an
unwritten rule of society or

816
00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:04,760
whatever these things are that
people make make people angry?

817
00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:11,160
Does that have the ability to
impact change positively with

818
00:47:11,720 --> 00:47:17,360
these undertones of tenseness
and anger and the things that

819
00:47:17,360 --> 00:47:19,160
make you uncomfortable about
society?

820
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:20,720
Does it have the power to do
that?

821
00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:26,080
I I I think it.
Could I think right now what I

822
00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:29,280
if there's something?
I could do.

823
00:47:29,600 --> 00:47:33,200
To change the way people are
communicating right now, it's

824
00:47:33,200 --> 00:47:37,560
that I would want, I think we've
lost our ability to have even

825
00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:41,240
basic conflict without it
feeling personal.

826
00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:47,520
And I think like, you know, and,
and obviously I'm just so we're

827
00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:50,960
clear, like so much of politics
is personal.

828
00:47:50,960 --> 00:47:54,160
And I, I get uncomfortable when
people are like, Oh no, we just,

829
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:56,800
you shouldn't personalize.
It was like, no, it's personal,

830
00:47:56,800 --> 00:47:58,400
right?
I mean, these, these, these

831
00:47:58,400 --> 00:48:00,520
things that are happening
politically, they make a big

832
00:48:00,520 --> 00:48:03,200
difference to people's lives.
And I understand why people are,

833
00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:05,920
are, I mean, I'm emotional about
those things.

834
00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:07,760
I understand why lots of people
are emotional about those

835
00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:09,840
things.
But I also think that within

836
00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:14,200
that, we've actually really kind
of lost our ability to have like

837
00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:20,840
to disagree and, and have it
and, and have it, I guess, and

838
00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:24,080
to to, I guess for, for that
healthy conflict that I was

839
00:48:24,080 --> 00:48:25,760
talking about.
Like we've lost our ability to

840
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:28,200
communicate in a way that isn't
aggressive.

841
00:48:28,720 --> 00:48:31,520
And I think in some ways part of
what needs to happen is people

842
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:37,680
need to be sort of retrained a
little bit to have some of those

843
00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:45,600
conversations.
I, you know, one of my sons went

844
00:48:45,600 --> 00:48:48,280
to school the day after the
election and, you know, and I

845
00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:51,360
was kind of curious how, what
the day would be like for him.

846
00:48:52,640 --> 00:48:56,440
And he came home and I said, so
how was school today?

847
00:48:56,440 --> 00:48:58,200
Were were a lot of people
talking about the election?

848
00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:03,360
And one of the things he told me
is, yeah, we were kind of told

849
00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:06,880
not to talk about it.
And I know which by the

850
00:49:06,880 --> 00:49:08,920
teachers, Yeah, that there.
Was like I.

851
00:49:08,920 --> 00:49:12,040
Think that I think the teachers
thought, look, there's so much

852
00:49:12,040 --> 00:49:16,080
potential for conflict today
that we're we don't want right.

853
00:49:16,080 --> 00:49:19,720
So so the lesson then is that,
hey, this is something we

854
00:49:19,720 --> 00:49:22,360
shouldn't discuss, you know,
like we should stifle it.

855
00:49:22,800 --> 00:49:25,800
Too emotional and in the space
that's supposed.

856
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:27,920
To be the safe space to talk
about things.

857
00:49:27,920 --> 00:49:30,760
Yep, exactly and.
So, and I think that that might

858
00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:34,120
be where it's not unlike what's
happening on the soccer field,

859
00:49:34,120 --> 00:49:36,000
right?
Where it's like, Hey, we don't

860
00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:37,640
know how to handle conflict
anymore.

861
00:49:37,640 --> 00:49:39,120
And so we're just not going to
do it.

862
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:41,360
I'm going to give you that red
card the second you do.

863
00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:43,880
And then we're never going to
learn to have the healthy

864
00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:47,920
conversation.
And so I do think we need to, we

865
00:49:47,920 --> 00:49:53,400
need to get away from and if it,
if it means starting small, if

866
00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:55,560
it means like, hey, we're going
to, we're going to get together

867
00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:58,800
and we're going to, we're going
to argue about our favorite

868
00:49:58,800 --> 00:50:03,720
movie and, and talk about that
just so we can get comfortable

869
00:50:03,720 --> 00:50:07,400
having like healthy conflict and
recognize it, you know, and, and

870
00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:10,520
like talking about those things.
I think we've just got to

871
00:50:10,520 --> 00:50:15,880
normalize some of that, that
practice so that we can have a

872
00:50:16,640 --> 00:50:19,760
get back to learning to have
those uncomfortable

873
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:22,720
conversations.
I just think we've kind of lost

874
00:50:22,720 --> 00:50:24,400
that skill.
And then the more we've lost

875
00:50:24,400 --> 00:50:27,560
that skill, the more we've tried
like we've avoided it and

876
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:29,120
avoided opportunities to develop
it.

877
00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:31,160
So an interesting piece there
when I think.

878
00:50:31,160 --> 00:50:34,600
About that concept, at least
through my lens, through my

879
00:50:34,600 --> 00:50:40,280
individual lens, I've always
been very comfortable in

880
00:50:40,480 --> 00:50:42,400
conversation about
disagreements.

881
00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:45,520
You know, like I not that I
would lean into it or look for

882
00:50:45,520 --> 00:50:49,000
it to happen, but I often
thought about the positivity

883
00:50:49,000 --> 00:50:51,800
that comes from it, right?
Like if you have healthy

884
00:50:52,080 --> 00:50:55,280
discourse and healthy
disagreement, often times you

885
00:50:55,280 --> 00:50:58,280
leave the scenario in a better
place than stewing over it in

886
00:50:58,280 --> 00:51:00,920
the beginning anyway.
So I've always kind of had that

887
00:51:00,920 --> 00:51:04,480
awareness and been comfortable
addressing situations.

888
00:51:05,720 --> 00:51:08,080
One change though, one shift
throughout my life.

889
00:51:08,080 --> 00:51:12,560
And I wonder if this is at a
societal level because

890
00:51:12,640 --> 00:51:18,720
disagreement has become so
polarizing now that I wonder,

891
00:51:19,920 --> 00:51:25,400
you know, for me, I find myself
almost addressing those things

892
00:51:25,400 --> 00:51:31,160
less now because of the
potential ramifications in my

893
00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:34,760
life.
You know, like I feel a lot more

894
00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:36,840
weight right now.
I have a four year old son.

895
00:51:36,840 --> 00:51:39,320
I feel a lot more weight as a
human than I ever have in my

896
00:51:39,320 --> 00:51:41,000
life.
A lot more responsibility

897
00:51:41,440 --> 00:51:45,920
because there's another human
that counts everything on me.

898
00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:51,480
And that means a lot of things.
That means not just your job,

899
00:51:51,480 --> 00:51:55,240
like people talk about the job
all the time, but just like life

900
00:51:55,240 --> 00:51:59,480
in general, community
perception, what relationships

901
00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:03,120
do to in life for you.
Relationships open so many

902
00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:07,920
doors.
And I'm wondering if those two

903
00:52:07,920 --> 00:52:14,760
things are tied together like
that the the so polarized

904
00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:18,800
environment that leads to like,
OK, I can't talk about this

905
00:52:18,800 --> 00:52:22,600
because if I'm a business owner,
half my business is gone.

906
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:29,800
Or if I'm whatever, if I'm a
referee, you know, I have

907
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:32,800
friends in the stands on both
teams and I'm going to lose

908
00:52:32,800 --> 00:52:35,760
some.
And like, you know, you get what

909
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:37,560
I'm getting at.
I, I don't really have a great

910
00:52:37,720 --> 00:52:41,240
question formed of it, but I
wonder if that's an expansive

911
00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:44,200
piece of this, you know, so
there's this.

912
00:52:44,200 --> 00:52:46,640
Research study that, and I'm,
I'm not going to be able to

913
00:52:46,640 --> 00:52:50,240
remember the authors or, or the
year, but a research study came

914
00:52:50,240 --> 00:52:53,720
out a few years ago that I'm, I
found really, really fascinating

915
00:52:54,000 --> 00:52:56,160
looking at gratitude.
And it's connected to what

916
00:52:56,160 --> 00:52:59,200
you're saying here.
Because so we know like for, for

917
00:52:59,200 --> 00:53:01,840
the last decade, we've been
talking about gratitude and how

918
00:53:01,840 --> 00:53:04,240
valuable it is and it's a secret
to happiness, etcetera,

919
00:53:04,240 --> 00:53:06,520
etcetera, etcetera.
And, and all that's true like

920
00:53:06,520 --> 00:53:09,160
that research is great.
And, and, you know, if you want

921
00:53:09,160 --> 00:53:11,480
to, you know, be a happier
person, one of the things you

922
00:53:11,480 --> 00:53:13,560
should do is be grateful for the
things you have.

923
00:53:14,160 --> 00:53:15,960
There is a consequence to
gratitude, though.

924
00:53:15,960 --> 00:53:19,400
And what the study found is that
people who are thankful for what

925
00:53:19,400 --> 00:53:24,920
they have in their lives are
much less likely to take bold

926
00:53:24,920 --> 00:53:28,480
stands for exactly the reason
you're describing.

927
00:53:28,880 --> 00:53:33,200
And that when you, when you
acknowledge all of the things

928
00:53:33,200 --> 00:53:37,040
that you have to be thankful
for, you become more scared of

929
00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:41,160
losing those things.
And the consequence of that is

930
00:53:41,240 --> 00:53:45,680
you don't, you don't push
boundaries, You don't, you don't

931
00:53:45,680 --> 00:53:48,160
take bold stands, you don't get
in arguments with people, You

932
00:53:48,160 --> 00:53:49,520
don't, you're, you're actually
live.

933
00:53:49,520 --> 00:53:54,120
I think the study specifically
looked at, you know, the degree

934
00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:57,240
to which people sort of push
social justice initiatives.

935
00:53:57,560 --> 00:53:59,520
You don't push social justice
initiatives.

936
00:53:59,720 --> 00:54:03,960
Like you're too concerned about
losing the things you have to

937
00:54:03,960 --> 00:54:06,280
take some of those bold
positions.

938
00:54:06,680 --> 00:54:12,480
And, and, and so there's a
danger in or a potential danger

939
00:54:12,480 --> 00:54:15,200
in that or potential downside
associated with that.

940
00:54:15,200 --> 00:54:17,320
Now, you weren't talking about
gratitude necessarily

941
00:54:17,320 --> 00:54:19,640
specifically, but I think it
connects in some ways where

942
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:22,920
you're saying like you feel this
pressure because you've got

943
00:54:22,920 --> 00:54:27,080
things and people in your life
who care about you and are, are

944
00:54:27,840 --> 00:54:31,680
depending on you, that it
becomes harder to do some of the

945
00:54:31,680 --> 00:54:34,360
thing to like have those tough
conversations because you don't

946
00:54:34,360 --> 00:54:35,880
want to lose some of those
things.

947
00:54:36,160 --> 00:54:40,040
That's fascinating to.
Think about me fascinating to

948
00:54:40,040 --> 00:54:42,720
think about, because if I put
that on the timeline of what I'm

949
00:54:42,720 --> 00:54:46,160
talking about, I've always been
by nature, pretty like, filled

950
00:54:46,160 --> 00:54:49,360
with gratitude.
Like I, I love life.

951
00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:51,040
I've been fortunate in a lot of
different ways.

952
00:54:52,160 --> 00:54:56,920
But you know, when I, when I was
more apt to make a stand and

953
00:54:56,920 --> 00:55:02,760
take that, I, I had far less
physical things And like my

954
00:55:02,760 --> 00:55:07,120
gratitude stemmed from existing
and having a voice and having an

955
00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:09,360
opinion.
So of course, that's more like,

956
00:55:09,360 --> 00:55:11,120
I've never thought about that
like that.

957
00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:13,560
That's fascinating, man.
And, and you know what's funny?

958
00:55:13,560 --> 00:55:15,520
So I can.
Even sort of map this out of my

959
00:55:15,520 --> 00:55:19,600
trajectory as like sort of a a
social media scholar, you know,

960
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:22,000
like a public scholar.
So I've been, I've put a lot of

961
00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:24,880
weight in the last five years on
trying to communicate with the

962
00:55:24,880 --> 00:55:26,240
public like we're doing now,
right.

963
00:55:26,240 --> 00:55:33,400
And, and I think early on when I
had very few followers, I, I, I

964
00:55:33,400 --> 00:55:36,520
was more willing to be bold.
I was more willing to sort of

965
00:55:36,520 --> 00:55:39,120
get into arguments with people
and things like that.

966
00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:43,520
And then as, as I started
developing more followers, I

967
00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:46,040
think I and I started paying
attention to them and started

968
00:55:46,040 --> 00:55:48,960
listening to them, I started to
get a little too worried how

969
00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:53,280
they might react if I said
something unpopular.

970
00:55:53,760 --> 00:55:57,600
And, and so I started to, I
think honestly, like if I'm

971
00:55:57,600 --> 00:56:02,080
thinking back on it, I think I
became a little less bold in

972
00:56:02,080 --> 00:56:04,640
some of the, some of the
positions I was taking.

973
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:08,320
And, and the funny downside of
that is I actually think that

974
00:56:08,320 --> 00:56:10,600
alienated followers more than
anything like that.

975
00:56:10,600 --> 00:56:13,680
They sort of felt like kind of
being a wuss now, you know,

976
00:56:13,680 --> 00:56:16,000
like, you know, and sometimes
things can come off as

977
00:56:16,000 --> 00:56:16,920
inauthentic.
Too.

978
00:56:16,920 --> 00:56:19,440
And that's a big deal, yeah.
And so I think you.

979
00:56:19,440 --> 00:56:22,280
Know one of the, one of the
things that I've really tried to

980
00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:26,200
prioritize lately is worry less
about that.

981
00:56:26,360 --> 00:56:29,480
Worry about the message that
you're trying to put out there.

982
00:56:29,560 --> 00:56:31,640
Pay attention to that, Think
about that and try and

983
00:56:31,640 --> 00:56:35,520
communicate what you want people
to hear and, and don't worry too

984
00:56:35,520 --> 00:56:37,680
much about how they respond to
it.

985
00:56:38,760 --> 00:56:42,240
You know, and then, I mean, you
know, and then, and then start

986
00:56:42,240 --> 00:56:44,760
that conversation with them.
And if they push back and

987
00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:46,880
disagree, have a conversation
with them about why they

988
00:56:46,880 --> 00:56:50,600
disagree instead of starting
from the position of they're

989
00:56:50,600 --> 00:56:53,600
going to disagree.
And you know, the other thing I

990
00:56:53,600 --> 00:56:55,600
was thinking about, as you were
talking about before we got on

991
00:56:55,600 --> 00:57:00,240
the gratitude thing, is that so
in, in Group therapy, we talk

992
00:57:00,240 --> 00:57:04,000
about like 3 stages of, of the
therapeutic process.

993
00:57:04,520 --> 00:57:09,040
And in the beginning the group
is like typically and pretty

994
00:57:09,080 --> 00:57:11,200
like affable.
And they get along right.

995
00:57:11,200 --> 00:57:14,440
And they're like, hey,
everybody's sort of being

996
00:57:14,440 --> 00:57:18,640
polite.
And then for a lot of groups,

997
00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:22,040
the second stage is like some
sort of conflict stage where

998
00:57:22,280 --> 00:57:24,800
people start to disagree with
one another and they start to

999
00:57:24,800 --> 00:57:26,320
push back and they start to
argue.

1000
00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:31,080
And that part of the group
therapy process is like

1001
00:57:31,080 --> 00:57:33,400
fundamental.
It's, it's where the trust is

1002
00:57:33,400 --> 00:57:36,200
built that allows people to move
on.

1003
00:57:36,200 --> 00:57:38,920
And I would argue this is true
of all healthy relationships.

1004
00:57:39,480 --> 00:57:43,560
Navigating conflict is one of
the ways you develop like trust

1005
00:57:44,000 --> 00:57:45,400
and intimacy.
Yep.

1006
00:57:45,800 --> 00:57:48,360
Disagreeing with people and then
learning.

1007
00:57:48,360 --> 00:57:50,640
And this is the part that I
think in modern society we're

1008
00:57:50,720 --> 00:57:55,520
maybe missing, is learning, Hey,
we can disagree and then we can

1009
00:57:55,520 --> 00:57:59,480
still care about each other and
still want to.

1010
00:58:00,120 --> 00:58:02,640
And there's times where this
isn't going to work, of course,

1011
00:58:02,640 --> 00:58:08,440
but like we can disagree and we
can argue and, and then we can

1012
00:58:08,440 --> 00:58:11,120
come out of it on the other side
with a better understanding of

1013
00:58:11,120 --> 00:58:14,880
one another and like genuine
trust in one another and, and

1014
00:58:15,080 --> 00:58:19,560
frankly, A deeper emotional
relationship or deeper emotional

1015
00:58:19,560 --> 00:58:22,800
connection because we navigated
that conflict.

1016
00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:26,520
And I think it's when people
don't navigate that conflict

1017
00:58:26,520 --> 00:58:28,840
that they come out sort of more
polarized.

1018
00:58:29,360 --> 00:58:32,200
And that seems to be what's
happening so often is that

1019
00:58:32,200 --> 00:58:36,480
people are coming out of
conflict without ever, they're

1020
00:58:36,480 --> 00:58:39,000
not learning to like kind of
navigate that conflict in a

1021
00:58:39,000 --> 00:58:41,440
healthy way.
Well, that's probably driven by

1022
00:58:41,440 --> 00:58:43,400
social.
Media, because it's really easy

1023
00:58:43,400 --> 00:58:46,360
to get to the point where, OK,
I'm just not going to comment

1024
00:58:46,360 --> 00:58:49,120
back anymore.
Yep, I think it's I think.

1025
00:58:49,120 --> 00:58:51,320
It's that I think it's also like
it.

1026
00:58:51,640 --> 00:58:59,320
We probably paint an artificial
picture of of the people we're

1027
00:58:59,320 --> 00:59:01,280
talking to.
We think of them as different

1028
00:59:01,280 --> 00:59:06,120
than they might actually be.
Did I tell you I can't remember

1029
00:59:06,120 --> 00:59:08,240
if we've ever talked about this
before or if you're what?

1030
00:59:08,240 --> 00:59:11,480
But my my, my Sheboygan
basketball gymnasium story.

1031
00:59:11,520 --> 00:59:16,600
Have I shown this?
OK, so I was this is like, I

1032
00:59:17,080 --> 00:59:20,280
don't know.
So my, my episode with Theo Von

1033
00:59:20,320 --> 00:59:24,360
came out like a week after the
election and, you know, a super,

1034
00:59:24,360 --> 00:59:32,120
super polarizing time in, in, in
the, the US And so this episode

1035
00:59:32,120 --> 00:59:35,640
comes out and then and you know,
he's Vaughn's a relative got a

1036
00:59:35,640 --> 00:59:37,600
relatively conservative
audience, right.

1037
00:59:37,600 --> 00:59:42,880
And I'm not conservative.
And we, I go to a basketball

1038
00:59:42,880 --> 00:59:45,680
tournament in Sheboygan with my
son.

1039
00:59:45,760 --> 00:59:47,960
And so youth tournament,
spending the day in the gym with

1040
00:59:47,960 --> 00:59:54,760
him and a guy comes up to me and
says, Hey, I just, I recognize

1041
00:59:54,760 --> 00:59:57,440
you from Theo Von and can we sit
down and talk for a little bit?

1042
00:59:57,480 --> 01:00:02,400
And me and this guy had a great
conversation like just a super

1043
01:00:02,400 --> 01:00:06,640
nice guy told me that he's
trying to be a better stepdad,

1044
01:00:06,640 --> 01:00:10,280
that he's dealing with his own
anger that he he loved like the

1045
01:00:10,280 --> 01:00:13,000
episode or whatever.
And you know, we had, we talked

1046
01:00:13,000 --> 01:00:15,720
for like 5 minutes, super,
super, super nice guy.

1047
01:00:16,600 --> 01:00:22,240
And then he left, and I.
I don't know this why actually,

1048
01:00:22,240 --> 01:00:28,480
I learned it after that.
This guy is a like pretty

1049
01:00:28,480 --> 01:00:33,720
serious Trump supporter and and
I kind of got that that kind of

1050
01:00:33,720 --> 01:00:35,960
had that guess at the time we
were talking or whatever.

1051
01:00:36,240 --> 01:00:40,640
But I think the what was really
interesting about it though, is

1052
01:00:40,640 --> 01:00:45,000
so here's a guy that I don't
agree with politically at all

1053
01:00:45,800 --> 01:00:48,200
and that we probably don't have
a lot in common in a bunch of

1054
01:00:48,200 --> 01:00:50,560
different ways.
Yet we were still able to have a

1055
01:00:50,560 --> 01:00:54,520
really thoughtful personal
conversation about stuff he's

1056
01:00:54,520 --> 01:00:59,440
struggling with.
And this is my worry is that so

1057
01:00:59,440 --> 01:01:03,880
often we're driven away by each
other's, by these differences

1058
01:01:03,960 --> 01:01:07,680
that we have that we don't ever
get to a place where we can have

1059
01:01:07,680 --> 01:01:10,600
those conversations, you know,
that we can talk about something

1060
01:01:10,600 --> 01:01:12,040
important.
This is a guy I would have

1061
01:01:12,040 --> 01:01:15,800
probably been fighting with on
social media six months earlier,

1062
01:01:15,800 --> 01:01:20,000
you know, instead of instead we
were able to have a, a pretty

1063
01:01:20,120 --> 01:01:23,280
meaningful conversation.
And like, I came out of it

1064
01:01:23,440 --> 01:01:28,440
changed Not, I mean, not totally
changed, but I came out of it.

1065
01:01:28,440 --> 01:01:31,640
I came out the other side
changed by some of the things he

1066
01:01:31,640 --> 01:01:34,400
said.
I think he came out the other

1067
01:01:34,400 --> 01:01:36,320
side change by some of the
things I said.

1068
01:01:36,320 --> 01:01:38,200
So it was a valuable
conversation.

1069
01:01:38,680 --> 01:01:41,280
I don't think me and this guy
would ever be best friends, but

1070
01:01:41,280 --> 01:01:43,840
we were able to do this.
And it all stemmed from the fact

1071
01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:46,120
that we didn't lead with our
differences, right?

1072
01:01:46,120 --> 01:01:48,160
We left.
We LED with the things we had in

1073
01:01:48,160 --> 01:01:52,960
common, which is him being
really interested in learning

1074
01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:56,000
more about anger and being
curious actually back to where

1075
01:01:56,000 --> 01:01:58,120
we started, right?
Well, and that's proof in the.

1076
01:01:58,120 --> 01:02:00,360
Pudding of That's the question I
asked earlier, man.

1077
01:02:00,520 --> 01:02:03,520
That's the question of that
person took the time to listen

1078
01:02:03,520 --> 01:02:05,000
to something for an hour and a
half.

1079
01:02:05,240 --> 01:02:09,840
Yeah.
And then like that concept of of

1080
01:02:09,840 --> 01:02:13,760
course it's true.
It's so easy to forget when we

1081
01:02:13,760 --> 01:02:16,920
put everything, like our brains
are made to compartmentalize and

1082
01:02:16,920 --> 01:02:19,120
put things in little boxes
because we like to understand.

1083
01:02:19,120 --> 01:02:22,440
It's human nature.
But at the same time, just

1084
01:02:22,440 --> 01:02:26,440
because you're in this one
particular political box doesn't

1085
01:02:26,440 --> 01:02:29,120
mean that there's not another
box that you and I both sit in

1086
01:02:29,440 --> 01:02:34,520
as a dad, as the type of work
you do, as whatever it was.

1087
01:02:34,520 --> 01:02:38,320
But that's the exact proof in
the pudding of like, OK, if we

1088
01:02:38,320 --> 01:02:42,040
can get some people to spend
some time and talk back and

1089
01:02:42,040 --> 01:02:49,160
forth and just reflect a little
bit and be willing to not poo

1090
01:02:49,160 --> 01:02:53,160
poo something that isn't whole,
like 100% exactly what you do,

1091
01:02:53,440 --> 01:02:55,200
right?
Super valuable man.

1092
01:02:55,720 --> 01:02:59,040
So how did the kind of building
on that, How did the episode

1093
01:02:59,040 --> 01:03:02,920
with Theo come up?
So Theo, I, I love Theo's

1094
01:03:02,920 --> 01:03:04,600
podcast.
I think he does a great job.

1095
01:03:06,960 --> 01:03:11,560
So I actually take some creative
direction from what I do from

1096
01:03:11,560 --> 01:03:15,120
his his podcast.
So like, how did how does that

1097
01:03:15,120 --> 01:03:17,120
even come about?
That had to be so cool, dude.

1098
01:03:17,400 --> 01:03:18,840
It was amazing.
Yeah, he.

1099
01:03:19,440 --> 01:03:24,600
So it's, it's kind of a funny
story that he so I just one day

1100
01:03:24,600 --> 01:03:27,560
my assistant sent me an e-mail
and she said, I have no idea if

1101
01:03:27,560 --> 01:03:33,760
this is real, but here.
And it was a note from one of

1102
01:03:33,760 --> 01:03:36,960
his producers saying we'd like
to have Ryan.

1103
01:03:36,960 --> 01:03:38,960
I work for Theo Von, we'd like
to have him on the show.

1104
01:03:39,560 --> 01:03:43,640
And I had no idea who Theo Von
was when I when I got this

1105
01:03:43,640 --> 01:03:45,560
right.
And so I realized now that's

1106
01:03:45,560 --> 01:03:47,240
crazy.
He's like one of the 10 most

1107
01:03:47,240 --> 01:03:49,120
influential people in America
right now.

1108
01:03:49,120 --> 01:03:53,160
And like, you know, and so, but
I was at least according to

1109
01:03:53,160 --> 01:03:56,520
Rolling Stone, but I when he
well, when he had Bernie.

1110
01:03:56,520 --> 01:03:59,320
On and then a week later had
Trump on I'm like OK, he's got

1111
01:03:59,320 --> 01:04:02,600
some weight so that was why
I'll.

1112
01:04:03,440 --> 01:04:06,440
The the crazy part about that is
that I did the interview with

1113
01:04:06,440 --> 01:04:10,480
him like a week before those two
episodes and I was like, are you

1114
01:04:10,480 --> 01:04:14,400
telling me that I like the same
dude who interviewed me last

1115
01:04:14,400 --> 01:04:16,040
week just interviewed Barry,
Barry Sanders?

1116
01:04:16,360 --> 01:04:18,680
That'd be cool too.
That'd be great.

1117
01:04:18,920 --> 01:04:20,240
Too, Bernie.
Sanders not as cool as Bernie,

1118
01:04:20,280 --> 01:04:22,280
but yeah.
So I was like.

1119
01:04:22,640 --> 01:04:25,640
That's nuts to me.
So I was, yeah.

1120
01:04:26,040 --> 01:04:31,120
So I so I wrote back and said
sure, but I will be honest that

1121
01:04:31,880 --> 01:04:35,120
until I met him, I questioned
whether or not this was real.

1122
01:04:35,120 --> 01:04:40,480
Like I drove because they could
not have treated me nicer.

1123
01:04:40,520 --> 01:04:45,800
I mean, you know, keep in mind,
like I am a Dean at a regional

1124
01:04:45,800 --> 01:04:47,720
comprehensive university in the
Midwest.

1125
01:04:47,720 --> 01:04:50,400
I'm not used to like red carpet
treatment.

1126
01:04:50,440 --> 01:04:54,280
And so he like, they flew me
first class.

1127
01:04:54,280 --> 01:04:56,720
They had a driver waiting for me
at the airport.

1128
01:04:56,720 --> 01:05:00,400
They, they, they had me staying
at a much nicer hotel than I

1129
01:05:00,400 --> 01:05:03,280
would ever stay at on my own.
Like it was an awesome weekend.

1130
01:05:03,760 --> 01:05:10,400
And, and I was still so stressed
out about because, you know, I

1131
01:05:11,000 --> 01:05:14,960
once I got once he asked, I
started listening to his show.

1132
01:05:15,400 --> 01:05:21,280
And, you know, I mean, he like,
it's like he talks about some

1133
01:05:21,280 --> 01:05:23,400
tough stuff.
He makes some jokes that I was

1134
01:05:23,400 --> 01:05:25,600
like, gosh, I'm not sure I want
to be part of these jokes.

1135
01:05:25,680 --> 01:05:28,600
Like I need to come up with a
way of like getting out of this

1136
01:05:28,600 --> 01:05:34,560
if he asks me weird stuff.
And then I went on and he was

1137
01:05:34,560 --> 01:05:39,320
the nicest host I could possibly
imagine.

1138
01:05:39,320 --> 01:05:42,280
He, he started out the interview
by saying like, Hey, are you

1139
01:05:42,280 --> 01:05:44,880
feeling nervous or anything?
And I said a little bit and he's

1140
01:05:44,880 --> 01:05:47,600
like, is there anything I can do
to help you not feel nervous?

1141
01:05:47,600 --> 01:05:50,040
And, and I said I, I was like, I
think I'll get there.

1142
01:05:50,040 --> 01:05:52,280
Like I think we just talked for
a few minutes and then we'll be

1143
01:05:52,280 --> 01:05:54,040
fine or whatever.
And he's like, OK, so then he,

1144
01:05:54,880 --> 01:05:57,440
we just started talking.
And then, you know, it was one,

1145
01:05:57,440 --> 01:05:59,440
it was kind of like you and I
started, there wasn't a point

1146
01:05:59,440 --> 01:06:01,080
where he's like, OK, show starts
now.

1147
01:06:01,080 --> 01:06:06,040
It was just here we go.
And yeah, he was super, super

1148
01:06:06,040 --> 01:06:07,840
nice.
Invited me to his show that

1149
01:06:07,840 --> 01:06:09,320
night.
He was performing in town.

1150
01:06:09,320 --> 01:06:14,120
And then when I laughed at the
end of the show, he, the driver

1151
01:06:14,120 --> 01:06:17,000
was like, oh, yeah, he wants to
come backstage and talk to him.

1152
01:06:17,000 --> 01:06:18,680
And so I went back.
I got to meet all the other

1153
01:06:18,680 --> 01:06:21,040
comedians.
I just could not have been a

1154
01:06:21,040 --> 01:06:23,400
nicer guy.
It was it was fantastic.

1155
01:06:23,440 --> 01:06:26,360
And on top of all that, I loved
the interview he did.

1156
01:06:26,360 --> 01:06:29,200
I loved the questions he asked.
I love what we talked about.

1157
01:06:29,200 --> 01:06:38,200
I, I felt in that interview like
he, like, I, I felt like the

1158
01:06:38,200 --> 01:06:41,720
depth behind his questions that
like this is a sensitive guy

1159
01:06:41,720 --> 01:06:46,760
who's super smart, who, you
know, I think sometimes, you

1160
01:06:46,760 --> 01:06:50,000
know, kind of plays a role for
comedy that isn't really who he

1161
01:06:50,000 --> 01:06:52,560
is or maybe it's a version of
who he is.

1162
01:06:52,560 --> 01:06:56,560
But but I just, I, you could
tell that like there's some

1163
01:06:56,560 --> 01:07:00,560
demons there maybe.
And that he that he kind of

1164
01:07:00,560 --> 01:07:03,120
shared with me during the
interview and I just, I just

1165
01:07:03,120 --> 01:07:06,560
thought he was a super, super
fascinating guy.

1166
01:07:06,800 --> 01:07:08,600
Yeah, for real.
Yeah.

1167
01:07:08,600 --> 01:07:12,200
And that's, you know, there's
layers to the onion with

1168
01:07:12,200 --> 01:07:15,480
everybody, right?
It's hard not to when you get to

1169
01:07:15,480 --> 01:07:18,920
that level, you know, what
layers make your money and you

1170
01:07:18,920 --> 01:07:23,320
let those layers have a little
bit more, you know, weight than

1171
01:07:23,320 --> 01:07:28,760
than some of the others.
But yeah, I can, I can see that.

1172
01:07:28,760 --> 01:07:30,480
I I can.
You can feel that in his

1173
01:07:30,480 --> 01:07:34,520
interviews like you.
I mean, it's funny you talk

1174
01:07:34,520 --> 01:07:38,000
about the the two political
candidates there.

1175
01:07:38,000 --> 01:07:42,440
And I mean, how he made it seem
completely to normal to talk

1176
01:07:42,800 --> 01:07:46,280
like the the owl joke, the
cocaine owl joke with Trump on.

1177
01:07:46,720 --> 01:07:49,640
It's one of the funniest pieces
of content I've ever seen in my

1178
01:07:49,640 --> 01:07:54,440
life.
Like and he just it completely

1179
01:07:54,440 --> 01:07:56,120
indifferent of who was sending
in front of him.

1180
01:07:56,120 --> 01:07:58,560
Like funny thing to say, Trump
didn't even get it.

1181
01:07:58,960 --> 01:08:03,960
And like he it was so funny.
So yeah, I'm glad to hear that

1182
01:08:03,960 --> 01:08:06,680
that was the experience.
No, he was he was great.

1183
01:08:06,680 --> 01:08:08,600
He.
Was he was really interesting?

1184
01:08:09,280 --> 01:08:10,120
Yeah.
Super bad.

1185
01:08:10,120 --> 01:08:11,920
I was.
I was like, honestly kind of

1186
01:08:11,920 --> 01:08:14,760
bummed when it was over.
Like it was a fun, fun deal, I

1187
01:08:14,840 --> 01:08:16,520
bet.
Yeah, I can't imagine.

1188
01:08:16,520 --> 01:08:19,120
That was wild.
Though thinking about like, I

1189
01:08:19,120 --> 01:08:22,279
didn't, I didn't know the timing
of that lined up like that.

1190
01:08:22,359 --> 01:08:27,760
Yeah, that's, that's man, one of
those moments in life that you

1191
01:08:27,760 --> 01:08:29,240
only get a few of.
Yeah.

1192
01:08:29,240 --> 01:08:35,120
That it's, you know, regardless
of the, you know, the platforms

1193
01:08:35,120 --> 01:08:38,680
or how things were going to move
on from there.

1194
01:08:39,040 --> 01:08:41,840
It's like, OK, two weeks ago we
interviewed who?

1195
01:08:42,359 --> 01:08:44,479
And I'm here.
And then next week he's doing

1196
01:08:44,479 --> 01:08:47,359
who, what are we going to talk
about?

1197
01:08:47,479 --> 01:08:49,640
You know, so it was funny
because I.

1198
01:08:49,640 --> 01:08:52,840
The first thing I did was go and
like check out his back catalog,

1199
01:08:52,960 --> 01:08:55,359
you know, like I wanted to see
like, OK, well, who's he?

1200
01:08:55,720 --> 01:08:58,319
And and so, you know, I went and
looked at some of the people

1201
01:08:58,319 --> 01:09:01,160
he'd had on and, and listened to
the, you know, and, and some of

1202
01:09:01,160 --> 01:09:03,640
them were honestly, because one
of the things I actually really

1203
01:09:03,640 --> 01:09:06,120
do love about him, appreciate
about him is like the diversity

1204
01:09:06,120 --> 01:09:10,080
of his guests, you know that I
mean, he's and so, you know,

1205
01:09:10,120 --> 01:09:11,640
there are a bunch of people I
never heard of.

1206
01:09:11,640 --> 01:09:13,800
So I listened to the Dax Shepard
episode.

1207
01:09:13,800 --> 01:09:15,680
That was a pretty good one.
Yeah, it's a great one.

1208
01:09:15,680 --> 01:09:16,600
I.
Really liked it.

1209
01:09:17,399 --> 01:09:19,560
And listened to that and I
thought, OK, this is good.

1210
01:09:19,560 --> 01:09:23,000
And then he had I can't remember
her name right, Nikki Glazer on

1211
01:09:23,000 --> 01:09:24,080
and I listened to that one, that
one.

1212
01:09:24,600 --> 01:09:26,560
It's hilarious.
But that was one where he asked

1213
01:09:26,560 --> 01:09:30,800
some questions where I thought
ish like am I going to get am I

1214
01:09:31,319 --> 01:09:32,439
going to get questions like
this?

1215
01:09:33,479 --> 01:09:37,359
And then, but then I, so I, I
said I did that interview.

1216
01:09:37,359 --> 01:09:42,240
Actually, I think it was in May
or June and it didn't come out

1217
01:09:42,240 --> 01:09:44,520
for I think he was saving it for
the election.

1218
01:09:44,560 --> 01:09:46,960
It didn't come out for a really
long time.

1219
01:09:47,520 --> 01:09:50,240
But in the meantime, he had
interviewed Trump and Sanders

1220
01:09:50,240 --> 01:09:54,520
and all these others, you know,
as overtime until, as I was

1221
01:09:54,520 --> 01:09:57,440
watching him like become like
grow and grow and grow.

1222
01:09:58,440 --> 01:10:02,520
And it was so, but you're right.
I mean, this is like a like a

1223
01:10:02,840 --> 01:10:05,520
once in a lifetime kind of
thing, you know, got to go check

1224
01:10:05,520 --> 01:10:07,360
things out.
And it was, it was cool.

1225
01:10:07,520 --> 01:10:11,080
And he reached out to you.
It's like, come on, another one

1226
01:10:11,080 --> 01:10:12,520
of those life's packages.
Yes.

1227
01:10:12,800 --> 01:10:13,800
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.

1228
01:10:14,720 --> 01:10:18,320
Yeah, so it was, it was great.
And then, you know, actually he

1229
01:10:18,320 --> 01:10:24,440
also, I think a couple days
after me, Scott Galloway was on

1230
01:10:24,440 --> 01:10:29,120
who does he's a professor at
NYU, does the Pivot podcast.

1231
01:10:29,360 --> 01:10:35,920
He's A and so just a super,
super fascinating interview that

1232
01:10:35,920 --> 01:10:40,240
had that kind of shifted a lot
of my thinking around anger and

1233
01:10:40,240 --> 01:10:43,520
around masculinity and stuff
like that.

1234
01:10:43,520 --> 01:10:46,560
A really good interview.
But then I got to, I went on

1235
01:10:46,680 --> 01:10:49,520
Scott Galloway's podcast a
couple days later through that,

1236
01:10:49,520 --> 01:10:52,560
like Galloway saw me on his show
and contacted me.

1237
01:10:52,560 --> 01:10:54,720
And so it kind of got to build
off that, which was fun.

1238
01:10:54,920 --> 01:10:57,960
Got it that he's unfamiliar.
To me, I haven't heard the

1239
01:10:57,960 --> 01:11:01,160
pivot, not the not the pivot.
The retired sports guys, I'm

1240
01:11:01,560 --> 01:11:03,480
like Ryan Clark in them, no
different.

1241
01:11:03,480 --> 01:11:06,600
The pivot, Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, I was less.

1242
01:11:06,600 --> 01:11:10,720
Familiar with his I was less
familiar with him.

1243
01:11:10,720 --> 01:11:14,920
He he, he had the most popular
Ted talk in the country this

1244
01:11:14,920 --> 01:11:19,760
year, in the world this year.
And it's, it was really

1245
01:11:19,760 --> 01:11:23,640
interesting.
He, there's some things about

1246
01:11:23,640 --> 01:11:26,640
Scott Galloway that I've, that
I, that I'm not crazy about,

1247
01:11:26,640 --> 01:11:28,280
much like Theo.
I mean, people are complicated.

1248
01:11:28,320 --> 01:11:30,600
You know, there are things about
him that I'm not crazy about,

1249
01:11:30,600 --> 01:11:35,360
but he, he, his, I think his Ted
talk is about how we're leaving

1250
01:11:35,360 --> 01:11:38,440
young men behind.
And he cites a lot of research

1251
01:11:38,440 --> 01:11:42,280
about how young men are, are
struggling right now in a, in a

1252
01:11:42,280 --> 01:11:44,840
host of ways.
And he makes the argument that

1253
01:11:44,840 --> 01:11:46,680
there are things that we're
doing in society that are

1254
01:11:46,680 --> 01:11:49,120
exacerbating that.
And I think some of that

1255
01:11:49,120 --> 01:11:51,440
argument's really strong and
some of that argument isn't so

1256
01:11:51,440 --> 01:11:53,600
strong, but he's interesting
guy.

1257
01:11:53,960 --> 01:11:55,840
So.
But that discernment's OK.

1258
01:11:55,880 --> 01:11:57,520
That's exactly what we're
talking about.

1259
01:11:57,520 --> 01:12:02,000
Like it's, it's kind of a pipe
dream to like, my best friends

1260
01:12:02,000 --> 01:12:04,520
in the entire world.
I have things that I disagree

1261
01:12:04,520 --> 01:12:07,720
with them about, you know, and I
think that's probably the path

1262
01:12:07,720 --> 01:12:09,480
forward.
The path forward is just being

1263
01:12:09,480 --> 01:12:14,760
OK with that and discerning
where your beliefs lie, being

1264
01:12:14,760 --> 01:12:19,040
confident in where they are, and
then figuring out which ones

1265
01:12:19,040 --> 01:12:22,520
you're willing to, you know,
shout from the mountaintop.

1266
01:12:22,600 --> 01:12:24,120
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.

1267
01:12:25,080 --> 01:12:27,080
All right, man.
It was great chatting with you.

1268
01:12:27,160 --> 01:12:28,360
Yeah, it was great talking to
you.

1269
01:12:28,360 --> 01:12:28,760
Thanks.
So.

1270
01:12:28,760 --> 01:12:30,640
Much for having me on.
This has been fantastic.

1271
01:12:30,760 --> 01:12:32,440
Absolutely.
Good luck with the pod, I hope.

1272
01:12:32,440 --> 01:12:34,600
Everything goes well for you.
Thank you very much.

1273
01:12:34,600 --> 01:12:37,000
Same to you.
And yeah, this is great.

1274
01:12:37,160 --> 01:12:37,960
Alright, take care, Ryan.