Inheritance Horror Stories!

Stefan Molyneux

What's been your experience with inheritance?  Livestreamed on October 17, 2023  Join the PREMIUM philosophy community on the web for free!  Get access to the audiobook for my new book 'Peaceful Parenting,' StefBOT-AI, private livestreams, premium call in shows, and the 22 Part History of Philosophers series!  See you soon!  https://freedomain.locals.com/support/promo/UPB2022

Transcript

00:00:00 questions, comments, issues, problems. But she's got problems. She knows, you know.

00:00:08 I have a topic. I do. I have a topic. And by the way, thank everyone for your kind wishes. I said

00:00:16 I had some exciting stuff to work on this week. It all worked out beautifully. I will get to

00:00:22 telling you about it someday on my deathbed, which hopefully is not over the course of this show. So

00:00:28 thank you everyone for your kind wishes and kind words. I really, really appreciate it more than

00:00:32 you'll ever, ever know. So, gosh, what do I say? I have a topic. I'm happy to do your topic.

00:00:42 If you want to type in LeChat or if you want to ask in LeEardrum.

00:00:50 Look at that. All kinds of trilingual here. You can just raise your hand to speak.

00:00:58 I was actually in Toronto and there's a Germaine Hotel, Hotel Germaine. And when I first glanced

00:01:07 at it, I thought it was a German hotel. A German hotel. Which means, of course, the bed whites are

00:01:14 crisp and clean. The toilet paper is like sandpaper. The coffee is like bilge water.

00:01:21 The starch is like iron or a sail sheet from hell. And you better not be checking out even 30

00:01:30 seconds late. So it's a plus and minus of the glorious German experience. So, because in my

00:01:36 experience, you know, my mother was German. And when the Germans do things, they do things

00:01:40 not to moderation. I think it's probably fairly safe to say not to moderation seems to be the key.

00:01:46 So, you know, when they're reasonable, they tend to be super reasonable to the point of being nitpicky.

00:01:51 When they're, they inhabit two extremes, you know, either very placid and very calm or

00:01:57 bye-bye Poland. And let me tell you this, boy, when Germans go crazy,

00:02:02 you know, just go a little bit crazy. They are fully committed. It's Peaceniks or full

00:02:10 national socialism. That's really all that happens. And I was actually thinking the German

00:02:17 hotel, the Germain hotel, where every discussion is related to the philosophy show FDR. That's

00:02:23 exactly right. All right. Let's see here. I have a question, says somebody, not me, somebody else.

00:02:30 I have a question. I just wonder what you thought about a premise put forward similar to what you

00:02:35 have said in the novel, a test for psychopathy based on eye blink tests is developed in Canada

00:02:42 over a murderer. During the research, it is discovered that humanity divided into three

00:02:46 groups. One are zombies. They are alive, but only act on instinct and react to others. There's no

00:02:51 inner voice. That is the majority of humanity. The second type are your sociopaths/psychopaths.

00:02:57 They are aware of themselves and their wants, but have no concept of others but as means to an end.

00:03:04 Lastly, a third who have empathy and an inner monologue, and that people can be switched between

00:03:10 states. If proof of this existed, I think horrors would be unleashed. Would you agree?

00:03:17 By the way, the world leaders were type two. Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. I mean,

00:03:23 it's really, really sad that people look to leaders, political leaders in particular,

00:03:27 to solve their problems when to those political leaders, they are just livestock and ants and

00:03:31 resources to be controlled, manipulated, lied to, bullied and exploited. So yeah,

00:03:37 I don't really know what your question here is. So I'm afraid you'll have to,

00:03:44 you know, I mean, I'm sure like you can divide human beings. Like I mean, the human beings are

00:03:50 divided into two categories, those who divide human beings into categories and those who don't.

00:03:54 So I think categories are helpful. The problem with categories is they can become self-fulfilling

00:04:00 filters. So if you say, well, you know, the people who don't blink and stare at you too long,

00:04:08 and so on, they're psychopaths, right? Or something like that, then you tend to start

00:04:12 dividing people because of sensitivity to that information. So sometimes these kinds of divisions

00:04:18 are not helpful, because the accuracy is always questionable. Because you don't know if it's an

00:04:28 actual category, or you've become sensitive to that category. And therefore, you just kind of

00:04:31 filter people into those categories anyway. So I mean, to me, I don't know if you guys have any

00:04:38 thoughts about this. But I'm certainly happy to hear what you want to say about it. But

00:04:43 humanity, to me, is just divided into two categories. It's people who think and people

00:04:53 who don't think. I'm not sure for me, there's much else. There are people who want to appear

00:04:59 smart and do a lot of regurgitation of slogans. And there's people who just skim and get the bare

00:05:09 surface of things and then pretend that there's depth there. And listen, come on, we've all faked

00:05:13 it from time to time. So I don't consider that sort of some massive sin. But you have to have a

00:05:18 general commitment to understanding things at a fairly deep level before you start discussing

00:05:22 them with a pretense of knowledge. So I mean, there's a little sophist in all of us. I mean,

00:05:26 I think, you know, maybe I'm alone in that. But I think there's a little sophist in all of us. And

00:05:30 that's, and that's okay. But I do think that people who think and people who don't think,

00:05:37 people who actually process information, and people who just seek to reinforce prejudice. So

00:05:41 dividing humanity into these big, broad swaths, it also says to me, like, I'm not saying that

00:05:48 you do this. But if people do this, I think that they're not surrounded by surprising people.

00:05:53 I mean, you can let me know, have you ever had it? Have you ever had it where somebody just

00:05:59 surprises you? I've been in the presence of some people. And it's like watching a mastodon trying

00:06:06 to wrestle its way out of a tar pit. But I have seen or been around some people who are just

00:06:12 struggling to wake up and, you know, with that fixed smile of the the chuckles kid at the back

00:06:18 of the school bus, he he he, I'm in danger, waking up to the the horrors of the world. I mean,

00:06:24 I'll tell you this, like when I was younger, I mean, I thought the world was pretty bad. And

00:06:28 but I thought it was sort of bad on an institute on a personal level, like a little individual

00:06:32 level. I don't think I quite got what I know I didn't actually get, probably was good for my

00:06:38 sanity. I didn't get just how bad the institutions as a whole were and are. And I also think I do

00:06:46 think that when I was younger, I mean, institutions related to the state go through idealism,

00:06:56 exploitation, corruption, and evil, right? So the idealistic phase is what we just do want to

00:07:02 educate all the kids, right? The exploitation phase is well, I just want money and summer's

00:07:07 off and I want job security and all of that. The corruption phase is when you you realize or some

00:07:14 group realizes they can actually corrupt the children for their own political ends, and they

00:07:17 go in and start lying heavily to the children. And then the evil phase is when it's just outright,

00:07:23 you know, like the communist getting the kids to turn on their parents kind of stuff.

00:07:26 So I think that sort of idealism phase, the exploitation phase, the corruption phase and

00:07:33 the evil phase of public institutions, I was just at the tail end of the idealistic phase, and

00:07:41 I was really went into the exploitation phase. The teachers didn't particularly care about us,

00:07:46 which is, it's really what you want from public institutions is for them to not care about you.

00:07:51 Right? I mean, it's nice when the police don't care about you, right? It's nice when you are

00:07:57 ignored by these kinds of institutions. So I mean, we all knew that the teachers were there,

00:08:05 like I had the shop teachers who were half stoned all the time. You had the very giddy, heady,

00:08:12 giggly half children English teachers who were on the fading end of the hippie empire.

00:08:20 And you had the nerdy, excitable science teachers, and they weren't there for us. I mean,

00:08:27 occasionally they would make jokes. And I remember when I was in, I think, grade eight,

00:08:32 my English teacher heard that I was writing a novel, and she read some of it to my class

00:08:38 until she got to the mildly, very mildly raunchy bits, in which case I just remember everyone

00:08:44 laughing because everybody knew exactly who I was writing about, and the teacher blushing like

00:08:50 crazy. And it was actually quite a lot of fun. And it was one of the times when I first began

00:08:55 to understand how, you know, not that I had a huge amount of art in grade eight, but how artists

00:08:59 could generate this kind of stuff. So there were these cliches. And then, of course, there were the

00:09:07 snarly, gruesome, failed athletes and butch females who ran the physical education department,

00:09:15 the gym teachers. "If you can't do, teach. If you can't teach, teach gym." And they always

00:09:21 gave the sex education to the gym teachers, which was about as bad a situation as could possibly

00:09:28 be imagined because they looked like the kind of guys who would just have, I don't know,

00:09:33 rage sex with couches. It's hard to sort of picture them having productive relationships

00:09:38 and someone that's just perpetually angry because I think, you know, the failed athletes

00:09:42 who dream of superstardom and end up teaching gym to a bunch of sweaty, unmotivated preteens.

00:09:49 Probably not idealistic for that. So I was just going through the exploitation phase where it's

00:09:54 like, "Yeah, you know, it's fine. We'll teach the kids some stuff, but we're basically here

00:09:58 for pensions and the endless PE days. Sorry, professional development days, the endless PD

00:10:04 days where everybody, of course, did things I don't understand and the kids got to stay home,

00:10:11 which was, of course, always great. And so I was at the tail end of the idealistic and

00:10:17 the idealistic was really more in the boarding school or what would be called the private school.

00:10:21 And then I was straight into the, "Well, yeah, we'll go through the curriculum. We don't really

00:10:27 care about the kids," which was fine by me. It was fine by me that they didn't really care about

00:10:31 the kids because now they really care about the kids, i.e. they really care about indoctrinating

00:10:36 the children and the children are moldable and they're going to serve the revolution. And now

00:10:40 we're in the corruption phase. And, you know, man, if you see the chart in America of mental

00:10:48 health and happiness of teenagers, starting 2013, it just went nuts. Like they went miserable,

00:11:00 horrible, dastardly nuts. I don't know if anybody knows why and what happened at that particular

00:11:06 time. But basically Obama signed law. Obama basically rescinded the law that said

00:11:17 that the American government wasn't allowed to propagandize domestically. And I think they just

00:11:21 went full tilt into the kids. And this is where you're getting all of these modern hysteria and

00:11:25 so on coming along. Well, I did a whole presentation on him. Obama, a couple actually,

00:11:30 you can check it out at FDRpodcasts.com. But yeah, don't let me interrupt your questions and

00:11:38 comments. If you have questions or comments, I'm certainly, certainly happy to hear them.

00:11:43 Otherwise, I have a topic and I don't know whether this topic is better done with typing responses

00:11:50 or if you have voice responses. So let me just give a moment here. If you all want me to do the

00:11:54 topic, just hit me with a "Y" in the chat if you all have questions. I'm mockingbird act. Was that

00:12:00 the one? Yeah, that's the one. That's the one. Yes. Okay. So it looks like people want me to do

00:12:07 the topic. Could you do me a favor just for the people who are watching? Oh, sorry, listening.

00:12:12 Could you do me a favor? Could you just give me your age range? 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s,

00:12:18 etc., etc. Just let me know where you're at in the great arc of life.

00:12:24 Look at that. Some people I know their actual name are telling me. Okay. So we got 40s, 20s,

00:12:31 early 30s, late 40s. All right. Late teens, mid 40s, 30s, 30s, 40, late 20s, right, late 30s. Okay.

00:12:42 So that's good. It's good. So we got some people middle age, little past middle age.

00:12:46 Now, let me ask you this. Just hit me with a "Y" if you could, my friends. Hit me with a "Y"

00:12:51 if you've had to deal with will stuff, stuff to do with wills, the disbursement of properties

00:12:58 after death. Hit me with a "Y" if you've had to deal with will shit. Because, oh my god.

00:13:06 Oh, you're currently doing it. We got yes, yes, yes, no, yes, no, will stuff. All right.

00:13:14 All right. You walked away from seven figures? Well, walk back and donate it. I'm kidding. No,

00:13:24 I mean, that's a wild. You've got to tell me that story sometime. That's pretty wild.

00:13:27 And if you want to tell me that story, I'm certainly happy to hear it. You can tell me

00:13:30 right now if you want. But yeah, that's because I'm sort of at that age where I'm really hearing

00:13:37 these stories, man. I'm really hearing these stories. Been through one myself, in fact.

00:13:43 Been through one myself. I won't get into the details of it in particular for obvious reasons,

00:13:47 but yeah, been through one. My father died. He left some money, but I said my half-sister

00:13:54 should take it. She really needs it for medical reasons. So that's fine for me.

00:13:58 But last bit of feedback, at least for a bit. Tell me this. Tell me this, please.

00:14:06 From minus 10 to it was hell on earth, to plus 10 everything was resolved amically,

00:14:11 peacefully, and with greater love. From minus 10 to plus 10, minus 10 was just terrible,

00:14:18 plus 10 was just beautiful. You ended up closer and happier as a result of the disbursement of

00:14:22 property. How did it go from what you've heard? Minus 10 to plus 10. We got a minus 10. We got

00:14:31 a minus seven. We got a zero. I don't know if that means it was neutral or you haven't had it happen.

00:14:35 Plus three. That's good. So it wasn't too bad. My uncle stole from my grandma 80k,

00:14:40 then had a stroke when she was getting sick and the whole family knows. Wow. You missed the question?

00:14:47 First time plus seven, second time minus 10. From minus 10 to plus 10, how negative or positive was

00:14:55 the disbursement of property in a will situation? It could be grandparents, could be parents,

00:15:01 it could be an uncle who maybe didn't have any kids or something like that. But in

00:15:05 the disbursement of property situation, how was it? Thankfully, other will stuff within my family

00:15:11 has been settled amicably. Yeah. Hasn't happened yet. Okay. You've never had that experience?

00:15:16 Well, I'll tell you, man, it can be pretty gross.

00:15:22 There's an old saying, was it Norman Mailer? You never know your wife until you meet her in court.

00:15:29 You never really know. I mean, and I think these things are very interesting.

00:15:33 You've heard horror stories. Yeah, it's wild, man. Have you had the experience where

00:15:42 money gets involved and people really change? Money gets involved and mask comes off like

00:15:50 people you would never have guessed just turn into kind of feral beasts of entitlement and

00:15:57 aggression and whininess and manipulation. And you've experienced that. It can be in business,

00:16:03 right? There's an old saying among lawyers, nothing is worse for a partnership than success,

00:16:08 because then you have stuff to fight over. Right? Yeah, you've had that, right? You've had that

00:16:14 experience where might happen in the coming decade, but I should not trust my two well-salaried

00:16:20 brothers. Well, that's the funny thing is that it doesn't often seem to have much to do with how

00:16:26 much money people make. Sometimes the people who make the most money can be the most vicious when

00:16:31 it comes to these kinds of legal things. In Canada, of course, up here in Canada, it's pretty famous

00:16:38 that cottages, oh, cottages are the big thing. You know, the parents buy or build a cottage,

00:16:46 or maybe the grandparents and so on. And then there's like three or four kids, and some of

00:16:51 the kids are far away, and some of the kids are closer. And there's always a gap, right? So

00:16:56 everyone enjoys the cottage when they're kids. And then there's a gap of like 10 or 20 years

00:17:01 between the last kid growing up and the parents dying or leaving the cottage or getting too old

00:17:05 and giving the cottage. And somebody's got to take care of those cottages, right? Somebody's got to

00:17:10 take care of those cottages. And the kids who take care of the cottages, they feel that they

00:17:14 should get more, and the other kids want to sell it and divide it. And other people are like, oh,

00:17:18 no, it's been in the family for three generations and all kinds of crazy stuff. And the fights over

00:17:23 cottages are legendary in Canada. Let's see here. Yeah, it can happen in divorce as well. Yeah,

00:17:32 it can happen in divorce. My estate lawyer literally went over disbursements today. Oh,

00:17:37 that's interesting. Okay. I've heard Adam Carolla, somebody says, talk about how disappointing it is

00:17:42 to realize that people he has known and ended up in court with will just lie to get what they want.

00:17:48 Yeah, isn't that interesting? So I'm gonna read you a couple of stories that I dug up,

00:17:51 because it's been on my mind this week, and I just wanted to get your guys thoughts about it.

00:17:54 All right, let me go here. Somebody says, family members as close as can be,

00:18:04 the epitome of a close family, the last parent died and left $70,000 in a bank account, and now

00:18:10 none of them talk. $70,000, that's no reason to destroy a whole family. Another family laughed

00:18:17 at them, and three years later, did the same for $100,000 through each other out of a home.

00:18:22 Isn't that wild? And I sort of stored a whole bunch of these, right?

00:18:29 He said, one guy says, I used to know an estate guy said his client spent over $5 million to get

00:18:36 $3 million from her brother. Client ended up in the red, but didn't care. They just kept spending

00:18:40 to get even. And somebody wrote, my grandmother had 22 worthless acres under power lines in Ohio.

00:18:48 My mom and uncle stopped talking over like $15,000 and worthless land.

00:18:54 And somebody wrote, there's a Syrian restaurant here in Boston that's been closed for 50

00:19:01 years as the family fights over it. And this one, I don't know if it's true, obviously,

00:19:08 but it says, there was a literal murder in my family over $150,000. Yeah, we don't

00:19:14 talk to that nephew anymore. I thought this was interesting. Somebody wrote,

00:19:20 in Spanish, there's a saying that basically states money is no one's friend.

00:19:24 Somebody else, mom has nine brothers and sisters. She only talks to one, the other eight are suing

00:19:32 them over their uncle's estate. So ridiculous, such a waste of court's time. Thankfully,

00:19:36 my parents put everything in a trust. Somebody writes, I'm from a rural area. Last time I was

00:19:43 home, my parents drove me around talking about who owned different properties we saw. So many times

00:19:47 the stories ended with, and now brothers, parents, and kids, whatever, aren't on speaking terms. Sad.

00:19:53 Someone says, dude, I've seen country lawyers in court arguing their asses off over the Tupperware

00:20:00 and the propane tank. Someone says, I know a woman who was living in the house her parents

00:20:07 owned. Sister wanted her out, went to court. Dispute lasted for years. Judge in the original

00:20:12 trial even said, go outside, talk, sort it out, or the lawyers will get it all. Refused to talk,

00:20:19 lawyers got the house. Someone says, I live in a rural farming community. The number of brothers

00:20:26 that don't talk to each other because of how the farm was split up after their parents died is

00:20:30 crazy and extremely sad. Someone writes, I once witnessed a family devolve to physical violence

00:20:36 over $1,500 found in their dead father's sock drawer. Someone says, when I lived in Israel,

00:20:46 there was a large empty plot of land in the Gula neighborhood of Jerusalem, surrounded by

00:20:50 development, some of the most valuable land in the country. It was empty because the brothers

00:20:55 who had inherited it had been fighting over its use since the 1930s. And Mike Cernovich wrote,

00:21:02 there's a meme going around on TikTok showing someone in front of a shanty house with the

00:21:07 caption, I finally found out what my dad and uncle stopped talking to each other over.

00:21:11 Even in smaller states, the knives come out. You don't know someone until there's money on the

00:21:19 table. And someone says, if you want to know what people are really like, not the BS fronts,

00:21:24 talk to lawyers who've dealt with will contests from larger estates. Siblings turn on each other

00:21:29 with a ferocity that's hard to imagine. The only thing that sometimes holds them together

00:21:34 is a collective fight against their father's second wife. Oh, gosh, monstrous, monstrous.

00:21:44 Someone says, it doesn't have to be a large estate. I knew one where sisters fought bitterly

00:21:49 over a $50 piece of furniture. There's always a risk when perceived childhood injustices and

00:21:54 resentments come into play. Yeah, it's rough, man. Somebody says, my family splintered pretty hard

00:22:03 for way less than a fortune from a will. Oh, it's crazy. Anyway, these stories, I saved a whole

00:22:11 bunch of them. They really do kind of go on and on. But let me check in with the glorious

00:22:15 listenership and see what you guys have to say about this, because I find this very interesting.

00:22:19 Mom sold the cottage after dad died. She never cared for it. Far left

00:22:25 city dweller cabin was for him. Yeah. Yeah, I love your enemies is coming to mind.

00:22:33 Money is nobody's friend. I like that one, says someone. Yeah. Reminds me of lottery winners that

00:22:37 lose everything, including relationships. Yeah, I remember when my daughter was about eight,

00:22:42 I sat her down and read her a whole bunch of histories from people who'd won the lottery.

00:22:46 And it's really, really important. It says it seems like money helps accentuate red flags.

00:22:55 Seems like a good thing. Somebody says, I was offered my grandfather's watch after he died.

00:23:00 I just told the funeral home to bury him with it. I don't want property or money. I would only waste

00:23:05 it. Memories last a lifetime. What prompted this inquiry? Did you, Stefan, run into problems like

00:23:12 this recently? Yeah. Yeah. A little bit. A little bit. A little bit. I wonder if wills are the first

00:23:21 time the abuse finally get a chance at recompensation and they'd kill anyone for it.

00:23:26 Well, the reason, the reasons why I think are really, really fascinating. And again, listen,

00:23:30 if you guys want to chat about this or whatever's on your mind, please, please feel free to do

00:23:35 so. You can just raise your hand and I can unmute. But yeah, I was going to share a couple of my

00:23:40 thoughts about this. And I think, I think there's a couple of things going on. First of all,

00:23:47 I obviously, I can't give anyone any advice, obviously. I mean, but I can certainly tell you

00:23:52 my experience. Hit me with a why, if you've ever walked away from a substantial sum of money,

00:23:59 because it was just getting too ugly. If you ever walked away from a substantial sum of money,

00:24:05 because it was just getting too ugly. Yeah. While people are answering that somebody says,

00:24:12 my minus 10 lasted over two years in court with evictions. I was accused of a horrible crime,

00:24:16 no evidence. I was innocent. In the end, the lawyers just rolled around in a bed made of money.

00:24:22 Never spoke to those family members again, ended up settling due to the extreme costs on both side

00:24:27 fighting over the same single pile of cash. All expectations of justice were shattered.

00:24:31 I don't trust lawyers or the system, obviously. Somebody says, yes, yes, never even started a

00:24:37 fight over it. No, I've walked away from a fairly valuable gun collection, not happened, but I would

00:24:43 know unless bad experiences at jobs count. How I mean, let me ask you this, from like zero to 10,

00:24:52 how tempting do you think it would be if there was some inheritance? And let's say it was a fairly

00:24:57 substantial sum of money, let's say a hundred grand or more. Would you be tempted to fight for

00:25:02 it with siblings? If it started to get contentious and ugly, would you be tempted to fight?

00:25:06 In this economy, maybe. Yeah, I hear you, brother. I really do. I really do. Well,

00:25:13 you know, with this inflation, you just wait six months and it'll be worth 50 grand.

00:25:16 Yes, definitely, says Justin fighting for what is right and just. No, family is too toxic. No,

00:25:25 I'd be the only sibling of five to back down. Right. I would imagine most people would be

00:25:29 tempted. I think most people succumb to that temptation. Rather give it away. My precious.

00:25:35 Yeah, yeah. There is that aspect, right? And listen, I mean, this may sound all kinds of

00:25:40 abstract, but, you know, a lot of my friends, they had, they had, they were born when their parents,

00:25:49 late twenties, early thirties, which means, I mean, believe it or not, right. I mean, I'm 57,

00:25:53 right? Tack on third, you do that, you get to 87. And so I'm sort of at that age where parents

00:26:00 are beginning to, to drop out, drop down. Right. And it's brutal for some people.

00:26:10 It's brutal for some people. And of course, lawyers are always happy to fight anything.

00:26:16 Lawyers are always happy to fight anything. And I've had, I've had one experience with an

00:26:22 inheritance that I think was not right, not fair. Because what people end up fighting over

00:26:33 is the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law. And language is always imprecise,

00:26:38 right? So the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law. And, you know, if the parent says,

00:26:45 I want to split things equally, and then it, one person thinks that the cottage is worth more or

00:26:49 less, it doesn't feel equal. So the spirit of the laws is, you know, split things equally.

00:26:53 The letter of the law is something that people end up fighting about. And, oh, man, it's just,

00:27:01 I think it's fairly ghastly. Because here's the thing, too, you get into these kinds of

00:27:05 fights. And you guys tell me if I'm wrong about this. But if you get into these kinds of fights,

00:27:08 you drag everyone into it. It's not just you and your siblings, or you and your whoever, right?

00:27:17 Your cousins or whatever, everyone gets dragged in your wife, your friends, you talk about it,

00:27:21 like you just get consumed by it, right? I'm sure I'd be tempted to engage, I'd have to resist.

00:27:28 I'd rather give to charity than fight. Let it do good. Animals are innocent and can use the funds

00:27:36 more than greedy people. I don't think animals are innocent, because they don't have any capacity

00:27:42 to be guilty. So I don't know that that's quite the right word. But I mean, I appreciate the

00:27:47 sentiment. I appreciate the sentiment. Someone says, "That's lawyer's game. Play with words

00:27:54 to get as much as they can." Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was talking about this with Izzy the other day,

00:28:02 because we went through Hamlet, right? And I said, you know, of the things that Shakespeare

00:28:07 talks about, the thousand natural shocks that the flesh is heir to. And one of the things that he

00:28:15 rails against is one of the most foundational horrors of human existence is the law's delay.

00:28:20 I don't know if you remember that from Hamlet. The law's delay is one of the things, and the law's

00:28:26 delay? Law is a government program, so it serves the government and lawyers. It doesn't serve the

00:28:31 people and justice. But yeah. And here's the thing, too. What happens is that people... And look,

00:28:41 I think we've all been susceptible to this. I don't want to obviously speak for you, but I think

00:28:45 we have. Hit me with a why, if you or someone you know has been in a morally ambiguous situation,

00:28:52 but they've convinced themselves that they're in the right, and then they have no moral case

00:28:57 for backing down. They have every moral case to continue, because they're in the right, and

00:29:00 they're fighting for what the parent really wants, and they're fighting for justice, and they're

00:29:03 fighting for what's right. And then you can't stop. You can't back down. And I think this is why

00:29:07 this stuff just goes on and on. It's not about the money. It's about justice and truth and virtue and

00:29:12 fulfilling the honored parent's wishes and all of that kind of stuff. And it's really, really...

00:29:18 I have to be really, really sparing when I look at my own life and say this or that is or is not

00:29:24 a moral crusade. It's really, really important. The moment you put on the crusader uniform and

00:29:30 you become Superman and you're fighting evil and injustice and you're fighting for truth and light

00:29:34 and goodness, you're kind of doomed, because your free will has just gone away. So a sort of advice

00:29:41 that I would give, not that I can give much, but I would recommend, let's say, be really sparing

00:29:49 in the moral absolutes you layer on what you think. Like if you're having a conflict with

00:29:54 someone in the family and you're like, "Well, I'm fighting what's right. It's not about me.

00:29:57 It's about what my parent wanted. It's about what's right. It's about what's fair. It's about

00:30:01 what's good." But then you're really cornered, because now you can't back down without backing

00:30:06 down from nobility and virtue and all of that kind of stuff. And yeah, it's rough. It's rough.

00:30:12 And everyone says that, and this is why nobody can back down. And the other thing too, once it

00:30:16 becomes public and you announce it, that you're fighting the good fight against an evildoer and

00:30:20 a greedy person and an immoral person or a corruptor, then of course everyone's like,

00:30:24 "Oh, how's that all going?" And if you say, "Oh, I walked away. Oh, I backed down." People are like,

00:30:29 "Oh, you gave up a fight. You convinced me and yourself was noble and virtuous and right and

00:30:34 just and good." Right? Crazy. One writer called justice the most elusive being in the cosmos.

00:30:42 If somebody says, "Yes, everyone knows and everyone wants an update. I always had to step

00:30:50 away due to emails or calls from my attorney at my job. Highly distracting, stomach turning stress.

00:30:56 I wasn't able to hide what I was dealing with." Yeah. "Oh, I've had that experience as James in

00:31:05 a different context. I've talked about it recently." "Oh yeah, I've taken down the bad guys."

00:31:12 And then you can't walk away. Like what does Superman just go on vacation? I mean, if you've

00:31:18 just told yourself that this is the good stuff and this is the right fight and then you're stuck.

00:31:23 Once you define something as moral, you lose your free will. I mean, this is a really,

00:31:29 really important thing. Or you give up morality or you give up the idea that you're pursuing

00:31:34 morality. So you've really, really, really got to evaluate fights before you get in.

00:31:40 Because once you're in and it's moral, you can't back down. You can't.

00:31:45 You know, it's like running into the middle of a medieval battle. Once you're in, you can't just,

00:31:54 "No, guys, I changed my mind. Whoa, whoa, whoa, I changed my mind. Okay, everybody, swords up.

00:31:58 Okay, keep those bows. I've changed my mind. I'm just backing out here." It's not going to happen.

00:32:03 Once you charge into the middle of a fight, once you've defined... Really, really be careful.

00:32:09 Over the course of this show, over years and years and years, I've had sort of legal temptations and

00:32:13 pretty good reasons to go after people. I've dabbled here and there, but yeah, I've really

00:32:20 got to be real careful about the fights that I want to get into. Because the only reason I would

00:32:26 get into them is for moral reasons. And once I've defined it as a moral fight, isn't it kind of a

00:32:31 battle to the metaphorical death? Am I wrong about that? What parents wanted, they're dead. They had

00:32:39 their lives. How about we concentrate on those yet to have a chance at their own lives? Right,

00:32:45 right. Walk away from multiple seven figures and think about yourself worth, baby. Yeah, yeah.

00:32:51 Starts with chatting in groups, smoking funny things, ends with gluing yourself to a highway.

00:33:00 I think there's something else that happens too. So a lot of families are really held together with

00:33:06 spit and dental floss. A lot of families just held together and they can't handle the stress.

00:33:14 I heard the story once of a brother and sister who, when there was an old will,

00:33:22 it was kind of poorly worded, it wasn't particularly professional.

00:33:26 And when they sat down with their lawyer, they said, "Listen, we've talked about this beforehand.

00:33:32 Any clause that's ambiguous or inconclusive, we've decided, should be decided to the benefit of the

00:33:41 other sibling." Right, so the brother said, "If there's anything, you know, dicey, it should be

00:33:46 decided in the benefit of my sister, if it has anything to do with her." And the sister said

00:33:52 the same thing, "If it has anything to do with my brother, anything that is ambiguous should be just

00:34:00 decided in his favor." And the lawyer was like expecting, of course, to make a fortune from the

00:34:05 dissolution and fights over this will, but he was so overcome with emotion he just came around the

00:34:09 table and hugged them both and he said, "Like I've never seen that before." Like that's some

00:34:13 well-raised kids, right? That's some well-raised kids. But a lot of families held together with

00:34:18 glue and spit and tape and nonsense and they just can't handle any storm. You know, it's like that

00:34:25 first tent that you put up, you know, when you go camping as a teenager. "Hey, I can put up a tent."

00:34:30 And then some slight breeze comes along and it all just collapses in on itself. So they just can't

00:34:36 handle that kind of stuff. There's a lot of old sibling resentments that unravel or unroll or

00:34:42 come to life, I suppose, when money's involved. But I think there's another thing that

00:34:48 happens. And let me know what you guys think about this. Sorry, yes, my friend, you had a story to

00:34:56 tell and you had your hand raised if you wanted to. I've just unmuted you if you wanted to let me

00:35:04 know what happened with you and a will. I'm certainly happy to hear if you're still around.

00:35:10 Sorry, I didn't notice that for a couple of minutes. But M-A-L-C if you wanted to. Yeah,

00:35:17 go for it. Hi, Stefan. Hi. How's my connection? Yeah, it's great. Go ahead.

00:35:22 So I've been blathering on in the comment section about walking away from seven figures.

00:35:31 And I'm currently, well, I'm the middle child, younger brother, older sister. And I was the

00:35:41 first to excommunicate my father for his moral failings back in August of 2020. And

00:35:56 knowing his vindictive, vengeful spirit, I assumed he just cut me flat out of the will,

00:36:07 which was in excess of the low multiple seven figures. Oh, so like, multiple, yeah.

00:36:18 Multiple millions. Okay. Which was his half after my mom had divorced him one year prior.

00:36:26 And she had basically liquidated all the cash from the family. He was the sole provider to

00:36:36 extremely successful printing-based businesses. And to my surprise, I was actually in the will,

00:36:50 but to the point where it's almost like I shouldn't, like I'm really not. And my brother

00:36:57 and sister are the, well, they're the vast majority shareholders. And hearing you go over

00:37:06 all of the details of these dynamics of this stuff that gets brought up in family, it's just,

00:37:15 you're singing my song. And I've been talking quite a bit. I don't want to suck all the air

00:37:24 out of the room. No, no. What was the decision process for you regarding fighting for, I guess,

00:37:30 the shadow you cast on the will and trying to get the money or walking away? I mean,

00:37:35 it must've been tough to, I mean, that's a lot of coin to stroll away from.

00:37:39 No, it wasn't tough at all.

00:37:48 I knew back when I, I'm 35, back when I was in my early twenties, I knew that my dad

00:37:54 was a traitor to himself and to his family in the starkest sense of the word. And I kind of

00:38:07 grieved his death while he was still alive back in my early twenties over the course of a couple

00:38:14 of years. And I knew that it was just a matter of time before I would likely cut him out of my life

00:38:19 completely. And I was completely, I had all the tears out. I felt nothing. And I saw him betray

00:38:31 my sister in a terrible way. And the money didn't really matter to me. It didn't hurt.

00:38:42 There was so much pain from what he did that money could never

00:38:48 make up for that. And I've done really well for myself with my own business. And

00:38:58 you know, I've been, I've had terrible things done to me by my siblings and by my mother.

00:39:09 Basically, they are all highly medicated on SSRIs. I'm the only one in my family who's sober,

00:39:15 you know, too much coffee in a day for me is like, you know, that's like living on the wild side.

00:39:20 And, and man, I don't, I feel like, I feel like I should let the tennis ball get on the other side

00:39:29 of the net a little bit here. I don't want to get carried away. No, listen, I appreciate that story.

00:39:34 And I'm glad you weren't tempted. Now, you did say, though, that your siblings

00:39:40 are less successful, less functional, right? Very much so. My sister is codependent. And

00:39:48 living with my mom related to, you know, the terrible relationship she had with her husband.

00:39:57 She wants to infantilize and keep the kids close because of the lack of the relationship she had

00:40:04 with her husband. My sister is barely functioning. I assume that when my mother passes away,

00:40:10 that my sister will, she's, my sister's already made attempts on her life multiple times.

00:40:15 And I, and I'm assuming that when my mother passes away, as I hope she lives as long as

00:40:21 humanly possible, but when she does, I'm pretty sure my sister's going to enter life shortly

00:40:25 thereafter, because it's the only relationship my sister has. And my brother is married,

00:40:32 no children to my knowledge. And he is very focused on money and keeping up with the Joneses.

00:40:44 And while he's paid the price with his soul for the medication he's addicted to,

00:40:52 to help keep his sanity because of it. Yeah, I'm sorry to hear about that. And I've

00:41:00 known someone who's also the, the, the parent died and the money, the money went to various

00:41:07 people in the family. And he had a sister again, no husband, no kids, no, you know,

00:41:15 she really just threw her lot in with the easy peasy baked in by nature of family relations.

00:41:22 Like that's like family relations in a way are kind of like a Guthbert program. It's like,

00:41:28 it's not part of the free market of relationships. Now, I mean, obviously I think family relationships

00:41:32 are very important. I hope I'm in my daughter's life forever, but she didn't choose me. And

00:41:37 I didn't, you know, I mean, obviously I chose to have a kid. I didn't choose her individually.

00:41:42 She didn't choose me as a parent or to be born. And for people to focus on the parents or the

00:41:49 siblings as the relationship is really putting your money on a losing hand because, you know,

00:41:57 it's like, like my friend, when I was younger, he lived upstairs from his mom in the apartment

00:42:01 building. And she'd be like, Hey, Bob's name's not Bob. Hey, Bob, you know, come I've made some

00:42:07 hamburger helper murder. She wrote it's on, come on down. Cause she was lonely. She was a single

00:42:12 mom. So, and he was the only, only son, single son of a single mother is usually like the last

00:42:16 gasp of the whole family line. And he, but you know, he would go down, he would go down, like

00:42:23 go into the sirens, go into a whirlpool, go into a nothingness. And, you know, he got, he got lots

00:42:30 of free meals and he got to sit and watch TV with his mom and his mom was nice, but you know,

00:42:35 she couldn't afford to let him go. Cause she didn't have, she, she, she poured herself into

00:42:39 her child and then he couldn't get away. And, and he ended up, when she died, he was in his,

00:42:48 gosh, what am I going here? Like he was in his early forties when she died.

00:42:51 And that was it, man. I'm sorry. I'm going to have to mute you. Cause there's just a massive

00:42:56 amount of wind noise coming in. My apologies. But yeah, he, he just had to, he had no skills

00:43:04 to win a relationship. Right. I don't know if you've ever hit me with a, why this is sort of

00:43:09 for people who were listening, hit me with a, why if you've ever like just gone to a new city,

00:43:15 gone to a new town, gone to a new place and just had to start from scratch, you ever had to do that

00:43:21 and try to make friends and try to break into friend groups and try to like, it's, it's not

00:43:27 easy, right? You've really got to bring, bring a lot to the table. I've had to do it a couple of

00:43:31 times over the course of my life. Some of it was easier. Like when you go to college, you kind of

00:43:35 have baked in companions and everyone's away from home and there aren't usually preexisting friend

00:43:39 groups that are super solid, or at least they don't all travel together. So yeah, you did it

00:43:44 to 2000 miles away, right? Yeah, that's, that's tough. So, so that's break it into a free market

00:43:49 kind of set of relationships. That is, that is hard work. That is really hard work.

00:43:53 And I've had to do it a number of times. Of course, I've gone to a whole bunch of different

00:43:57 schools. And you know, when I first finally came to Canada, I got a really great friend,

00:44:02 but then he, unfortunately he died. He just had a, he was died at the age of 12. He just had a heart

00:44:06 defect and expired in his sleep. And then I had to start all over again and, and so on. So yeah,

00:44:11 just having to make a whole bunch of new friends. So long story short, I think what happens is,

00:44:16 if there's some fairly significant parental assets, and you know, these days, you don't

00:44:22 even have to be wealthy for there to be a lot of parental assets, because all they have to

00:44:25 have done is bought a house in the sixties or seventies or eighties. And, you know, because

00:44:33 of mass migration, because of inflation, like the house prices just become ludicrous. Like it's just

00:44:40 madness. Right? I mean, it used to be the case in the sixties, a teacher making $9,000 could buy a

00:44:46 house for $13,000, which now a teacher making $80,000 should be able to buy a house for like

00:44:54 120,000, $125,000. And most houses certainly in cities these days are around a mil. So housing

00:45:01 prices relative to salary have gone up a thousand percent. And so, but what happens is, I mean,

00:45:08 the one thing that really helped with me and my ambition is I never had any expectation of

00:45:15 inheritance. I mean, when my mom dies, at least I don't think she's dead yet, but when my mom dies,

00:45:24 if I was still involved, all that would be left was a giant cleanup, which I guess we could leave

00:45:28 and leave to the landlord, because she never owned anything. She was just a rental queen.

00:45:33 So I never had any anticipation of parental inheritance. So I just worked hard,

00:45:41 but here's the problem. So if your parents have significant assets and they're old and, you know,

00:45:50 some people, I mean, sometimes people can take a long time to die. I'm not saying this in any

00:45:55 sort of macabre way. It's just kind of a fact. I mean, hit me with a why, if you've ever known

00:46:00 someone who took five or more years to die, like knowing that it was probably not going to get

00:46:06 better and all of that. Have you ever had that situation where somebody is just like at death's

00:46:12 door for like ever and a half, right? So I think what happens is your parents get old. You're not

00:46:21 very successful. Your parents get old and you say, well, you know, I'm going to inherit half a million

00:46:28 dollars. I'm going to inherit a million dollars. I'm going to inherit a house. I'm going to sell

00:46:32 a house. I'm going to inherit a cottage. They've got money in their savings account. I'm going to

00:46:36 inherit a couple of hundred thousand dollars or more or whatever, right? And what does that do

00:46:42 to someone's ambition, right? Well, it shaves it away. It shaves it away in the same way, like what

00:46:50 what happens to someone's ambition when they win a million dollars in the lottery? Well,

00:46:55 take this job and shove it, right? I mean, their ambition kind of goes through the window.

00:46:59 Now, what would your ambition be like if you held a winning lottery ticket but you couldn't cash it

00:47:05 in for a couple of years or five years or maybe, you know, seven years or whatever, right?

00:47:09 If you held the winning lottery ticket, a million dollars, right,

00:47:14 and yet you couldn't cash it in for five years or whatever, what would happen to your ambition?

00:47:20 Well, you wouldn't be as much of a hustler. You wouldn't, you know, drive. You wouldn't market.

00:47:24 You wouldn't take risks. You wouldn't do any of this stuff. What would you be doing? Because

00:47:28 part of your brain would be waiting for the money. Part of your brain is waiting for the money.

00:47:37 To put it another way for the younger folks, like imagine if you knew in some magical way that

00:47:44 an arranged marriage was going to get you married in three years. You were going to get married

00:47:51 to a great woman in three years. She's on the slow boat from Russia or something. I don't know.

00:47:58 Well, if you knew for sure or you had reason to believe that you were going to marry a good woman

00:48:08 in a couple of years, what would that do to your dating? Well, you wouldn't really bother, right?

00:48:13 I mean, what would be the point? You wouldn't really bother to do any of that dating.

00:48:16 So that anticipation steals from the present, right? Anticipation steals from the present.

00:48:23 Anticipation of money steals from what you're doing right now. Anticipation of love, anticipation

00:48:29 of romance, right? Steals from what you're doing right now. Now the problem, of course,

00:48:33 is if you're expecting half a million dollars, say, from an inheritance

00:48:42 and then the will gets read out and you don't get much, you don't get as much as you think,

00:48:48 you suddenly have a whole bunch of regret because you just wasted years of potential ambition and

00:48:55 achievement. Right? If, let's say, that you gave up on a hundred or two hundred grand worth of

00:49:03 advancement in your career over five years, right? And that sounds like a lot, but it's, you know,

00:49:09 it's not really when you think about it, right? So if you've got five years and you're really

00:49:17 hustling and you make an extra 20 grand a year, I mean, that's way more than a hundred thousand

00:49:24 dollars because, you know, you invested or whatever it is that you do, so it accumulates more, right?

00:49:27 Ten grand a year invested at a reasonable amount, 15 grand a year. That's, you know,

00:49:33 and let's say you really hustle and you get your, you double your salary at the end of five years.

00:49:37 Okay, well, that's your inheritance right there. Certainly a couple years afterwards, right?

00:49:42 So if you haven't hustled and maybe you've been a little less nice to your boss and maybe you've

00:49:47 been a little less, because, you know, "Hey, I'm getting all this money and I don't need to save

00:49:51 and I've, you know, I've gone on all of these useless vacations and bought a bunch of useless

00:49:55 trinkets." Like my friend whose sister inherited some money, she just went on the shopping channel

00:50:00 and bought all of this crap that then just, she just sat around her apartment unopened,

00:50:05 didn't even open it. Just, "I don't understand. This I don't understand. This is a bit of a

00:50:08 female thing." Although maybe men do it with tools. "It's a bit of a female thing. Do you

00:50:12 ever know one of these people that just, they just buy things? They get them delivered. They don't

00:50:17 even really open them. They don't use them. They just, they're not quite hoarders because hoarders

00:50:22 hang on to stuff that they already have, usually, but they're accumulators. They're like squirrels

00:50:26 with nuts, except there's no nuts and there's no winter and there's no snow and they just,

00:50:31 they just grab stuff and they hang on to it. It's just, it's weird, weird to me. I try to live

00:50:36 a bit more minimalistically and I do purchase on a semi-regular basis because I just can't handle,

00:50:42 I don't like having a bunch of stuff around. So I think what happens is people anticipate

00:50:48 and make decisions based upon inheritance and if the inheritance doesn't work out,

00:50:54 they get really angry, right? In the same way, like if there were these girls that you wanted

00:51:00 to date but you're like, "Nah, I'm gonna get it. I'm getting an arranged marriage in a couple of

00:51:04 years so I'm not gonna bother dating," and then the arranged marriage doesn't work out, suddenly,

00:51:08 what are you doing? You're kicking yourself. You're angry. You're frustrated. You're upset.

00:51:11 You've just wasted years waiting for something that ain't happening.

00:51:17 A beanie baby. Yeah, oh god, the beanie babies. My gosh.

00:51:27 And isn't this hoarding, isn't this, oh, here I am standing on the precipice as usual.

00:51:34 Oh, fudge it, let's jump. Isn't this hoarding of useless crap a phenomenon of childless women?

00:51:42 Am I not? Am I wrong about that? I mean, this is the pattern that I've seen. It's 100% of the

00:51:47 pattern that I've seen. I mean, the childless men that I know sleep on old army cots

00:51:53 and prop their TVs up on the boxes they came in, but the childless women I know

00:52:00 accumulate unbelievable levels of useless crap.

00:52:02 You think this is it? Yeah, they spent the money already in their head. Yeah, and not just spent

00:52:11 the money but they've made significant life decisions in anticipation of this money.

00:52:19 I remember this really clearly when I was a little, little kid, maybe

00:52:23 six or seven years old. My mom had a friend who was very aristocratic

00:52:28 and we went to lunch at some fancy restaurant, which is quite unusual for us as you could

00:52:36 imagine, right? We went for lunch at some fancy restaurant and I remember this ancient woman,

00:52:40 the big sort of bony, skeletal, or veined hands and all of that, and she was rummaging through her

00:52:45 purse after the meal. And my brother was in boarding school I think, so I, oh no, I must have

00:52:52 been, no, I must have been five then because I went to, my brother went to boarding school a year

00:52:56 ahead of me, so I was five. And my mother, my mother's friend, this, and she had this, you know,

00:53:02 duchess heir to her or whatever, right? So she was rummaging around in her purse and I was

00:53:08 absolutely certain that she was going to give me 10 pence or five pence or, you know, and that was,

00:53:17 you know, that was money back then. That was like a candy bar and a half or whatever, right?

00:53:20 So no, actually five pence was a candy bar because I remember when I first came to Canada at the age

00:53:26 of 12 a candy bar was a dime and then almost like very rapidly it went up to about a buck. Now it's

00:53:30 about buck 20, buck 40, probably even more now. Inflation is just nuts up here. Well, they added

00:53:34 a third to the money supply in a couple of years, so of course, right? But I remember sitting at

00:53:39 this beautiful white tablecloth, this lovely restaurant, all the waiters deferring to her

00:53:44 and bowing and, you know, tiny little bits of food coming that actually did taste pretty good,

00:53:48 to be honest. And she was rummaging around in her purse and I was absolutely convinced

00:53:53 that she was going to give because, you know, that's normally I get answers, you know,

00:53:56 you know how your grandmother gives you money like she's palming off drugs in the ghetto,

00:54:03 like, "Here you go, kid," you know, slides up your sleeve, don't tell your parents.

00:54:07 I don't know if your grandmother does sound like someone out of the mafia, but

00:54:11 anyway, so I was absolutely convinced and I felt this like warm flush of, "Oh, here comes some

00:54:18 money. Oh, she's going." Because, you know, this is what I was used to. "Oh, here's a couple of

00:54:22 pennies, kid," or whatever, right? And, you know, when you get old, you want to give your money

00:54:26 away because it's not doing you much good, right? I don't think she had any teeth left to have candy

00:54:30 with. So, anyway, I'm just and I'm sitting there, got this warm flush, like going through my whole

00:54:35 body, "Oh, here it comes. Here comes the coin," right? And what did she do? What did she do?

00:54:39 She took out a mint, she peeled it, she put a mint in her mouth. I didn't get five pennies or

00:54:44 ten pennies. She got the worst candy known to man, you know, like those little wheel candies.

00:54:50 They look like tiny little pie slices, green and white hard candies. Well, hard candies are

00:54:59 like if evil coagulates into material form and gets into a wrapper and sits in old people's

00:55:06 dinner trays or dinner bowls forever, the hard candies are really the physical manifestation

00:55:12 of culinary malevolence across the universe and throughout time. But, yeah, just I was waiting

00:55:19 and waiting. And I was, of course, I already spent it. Like, literally, she's rummaging around forever

00:55:23 in this purse. And I'm like, "I could buy a Curly Wurly. I could buy a Flake. I could wait." I

00:55:28 remember there was an ice cream machine that used to come by the apartments where I lived as a kid.

00:55:33 I used this ice cream machine used to come by and they had this thing called a Chuck 99. You wouldn't

00:55:39 believe this ice cream. Like, honestly, it's been 50 years, close, since I had one. My mouth waters.

00:55:47 It's that deep a Pavlovian spinal response. I remember hearing that music and I was home alone

00:55:53 and I was rummaging through the house. I gotta find five pennies. I gotta find five pennies so I

00:55:58 can buy this ice cream. All I found was half a penny, which didn't get me very far, of course.

00:56:03 Only one-tenth, but it was a nice crunchy cone. It was that nice swirly, rippled, white vanilla ice cream

00:56:14 with half a Cadbury's Flake stuck at the top. Now, Cadbury's Flake is a wee tendonitis slice

00:56:23 of culinary heaven. It is so good. It's long sort of threads of chocolate half together. They crumble

00:56:30 like crazy. It's like trying to eat a granola bar on a trampoline in terms of crumbs and mess, but

00:56:36 it is so good. That literally does melt in your mouth. I used to get this Chuck 99. So I was,

00:56:41 I'm going to get five pennies. I'm going to get 10 pennies or five pence and 10 pence or whatever.

00:56:46 I didn't dare dream of more, but you know, I wouldn't have said no. And I was like, "I can

00:56:51 buy this. I can buy that." And my mouth was watering and I was ready. And I was, you know,

00:56:55 British kid, sugar-based life form. And the amount of frustration and upset, I mean, there was,

00:57:02 I've just touched briefly, I mentioned this before, my mother and her friend, when I was very little,

00:57:06 maybe four, were going to bingo for the night. And I had a babysitter and I was led to believe

00:57:14 that I was going to, like she said, "If I win, if I win," the big prize was 1800 pounds or

00:57:21 something like that. She says, "I'll give you 18 pounds if I win." Now think 18 pounds.

00:57:25 That's like, I don't know, what is that? That's an insane amount of candy bars.

00:57:32 I mean, my gosh, that's, what's that? 1800? No, 180 candy bars. It's 180 candy bars.

00:57:42 And more, if you ration it right, that's like two years supply of candy. And I had it, of course,

00:57:48 fixed in my head that I was going to get these 18 pounds. And then when she came back, she hadn't

00:57:52 won much, she gave me 18 pennies. Now normally you'd be really happy with the 18 pennies. I

00:57:56 certainly would have been if the old woman had given it to me in the restaurant. But I was

00:58:01 inconsolable because I felt I'd been robbed of 18 pounds. Because of course, I'd spent the whole

00:58:06 evening dissecting in my brain what I'm going to spend. I mean, I don't know what I was thinking.

00:58:11 Could I buy an airplane? I don't know, maybe. So in the end, so you get this expectation,

00:58:18 and then that expectation becomes the norm. And anything less than that becomes like a

00:58:23 kick to the nuts. It's just brutal. It's just brutal.

00:58:27 So yeah, I think people just anticipate this money, make all these decisions,

00:58:37 the money doesn't come, and they are enraged because they've just lost out on significant

00:58:43 chunks of their own lives. Somebody says, yeah, they spent the money already in their head.

00:58:50 Somebody else says, I'm too easy at risk of buying things, trying to fix unhappiness.

00:58:55 Douglas Adams said it well, trying to solve unhappiness by moving small pieces of paper

00:58:59 around. It's not the paper which is unhappy. Ah, it's, I get a high off electronics. I have to

00:59:08 really not do it. I have to really not do it. Let's see here. I remember when you could buy

00:59:15 351 milliliter soda for 85 cents and 150 gram potato chips for zero dollars. I don't know what

00:59:21 that means. Oh, zero, 85. Now the chips are 250 and the soda is a buck. Yeah, no, I remember

00:59:26 75 cents for a slice of pizza and 25 cents for a drink. So for a buck, you could get a meal.

00:59:33 I live for Stefan's analogy. Saltwater taffy from 1967. Oh man, what is it, old town in Florida?

00:59:42 I was there once and there was a store there where you could, there were just buckets like

00:59:46 you could go up to your arms in saltwater taffy of infinite numbers of flavors. I won't tell you

00:59:53 what happened because that's between me and my dentist. All right. Raspberry ruined forever

00:59:57 because my ear was sliced by the barber right after. Oh, Cadbury eggs. Oh, the cream eggs.

01:00:03 The cream eggs are, they are exactly what Satan would tempt you with as a child.

01:00:11 If there were children who were hit men, they would demand to be paid in Cadbury's eggs because

01:00:16 it would, the only thing that would make murder worthwhile. All right. Some of us are fasting. Oh,

01:00:21 sorry, man. Sorry. Never had those guys with the freezer on the bike who came by ringing the bell.

01:00:26 No, but once when I was out in the country, some guys came by selling steak out of a truck

01:00:33 and I was like, "Ah, yeah, okay." It doesn't sound legit, but all right.

01:00:38 All right. Diabetic ice cream and candy bars off the menu. Well, to be honest, the last,

01:00:49 the last time I ate a full candy bar, a full candy bar, I've got to think probably 15 years ago.

01:00:55 I'll have a little piece of chocolate once in a while, but all right. Yeah, sorry, James. Sorry,

01:01:01 Jared. Jared, I know. When Mary was handed a quid in Just Poor. Ah, yes. When Mary got her money in

01:01:10 Just Poor and she realized she couldn't be pretty, she couldn't be feminine, she couldn't buy a dress,

01:01:15 she couldn't be happy, she couldn't be touched. That's when she decided she didn't want to live.

01:01:19 I just had a Smarties Halloween-sized pack. The shame is setting in. Oh, but what is that? Like,

01:01:26 eight Smarties? Dear Lord, you're not exactly a junkie here. This is how a man can relate

01:01:32 to hypergamy. Yeah, that's right. I deserve Brad Pitt and everything else. It's a complete total

01:01:38 loss. I'm sure I could get dollar slices of pizza in New Jersey on the walk home 30 years ago.

01:01:45 Now I think I'd have to dish out $2.50 or more. Oh, no, no. Slices of pizza, much more than that now.

01:01:50 Much more than that now. I had to go right to downtown Toronto not too long ago with my family,

01:01:57 and we had a pretty modest breakfast. And with tip, it was $75. And I'm like,

01:02:02 yeah, I'm not coming back for a while. And yeah, 74, early 70s, mid-70s, they decoupled from gold.

01:02:12 And yeah, it just got bad. 18 pounds in 1971 is worth 313 pounds today. Yeah, yeah.

01:02:19 Anyone have any suggestions for the less terrible Halloween candy?

01:02:24 Yeah, just get the stuff that nobody wants. Just get the stuff that every Halloween,

01:02:31 you just recycle the stuff that nobody wants, right? Like that candy corn? Nobody wants that.

01:02:40 The Turkish delight? Nobody wants that because there's nothing delightful about Turkey except

01:02:44 if it comes as cranberries. Steph owns a saltwater taffy shop next to a rug store in Toronto. The

01:02:50 real reason he's dressed up today. That's right. That's right. Twizzlers. Yeah, Twizzlers. Isn't

01:02:58 that just basically plastic with some food coloring? I think that's how they roll. They

01:03:03 just take old sneakers, they melt them down, and they throw in some food dye, and then they recycle

01:03:07 it. I think that's about it. Black licorice Twizzlers? What was it I read? Licorice can be

01:03:13 good against COVID or something? I'm like, "We must get licorice." Because when I was a kid,

01:03:17 man, and I've had a few since. There's licorice all sorts. Did you ever have those?

01:03:21 The Quality Street candies, the licorice all sorts. And oh man, they're so good. I got to

01:03:28 stop talking about candy of my youth. I'm going to dehydrate from saliva drops. Oh, so good.

01:03:34 We don't have video. Marzipan. Have you ever tried this Satan nugget marzipan? Like if Satan

01:03:41 sweats on a treadmill, they just collect it at the back and then they wrap it in chocolate to

01:03:44 pretend it's not a log of phallic evil. You ever tried marzipan? Now that is some evil stuff, man.

01:03:50 That is some nasty. The worst are Tootsie Rolls. Tootsie Rolls, like the first bite is okay. And

01:03:57 after that, you're like, it's one of the few candies where instant regret sets in.

01:04:02 Because normally it's like, oh man, I shouldn't have eaten half that dairy milk. That's too much.

01:04:06 You feel a little tired and a little spaced out. But the taste is great. And you get five,

01:04:12 10 minutes of great taste. And then you're like, what have I done? But for me, Tootsie Rolls are

01:04:19 like, after the second chew, I'm like, oh yeah, this is really... I might as well be eating

01:04:24 shoelaces. This is really not good. Marzipan is fudge's evil twin. Yeah, so marzipan is fudge

01:04:31 when possessed by demons. When they fail their saving row against demonic possession, or when

01:04:38 you put fudge on a Ouija board and summon Beelzebub's evil twin, they get infected. And

01:04:45 that's where, I think that's where marzipan. Ferrero Rocher at Christmas time. Yeah, so the

01:04:51 Christmas candies are tough, obviously, because you think, oh, it's Christmas, it's once a year,

01:04:56 and so stuff you'd never really do. You know, like roll them into a big giant ball and take

01:05:01 them anally. Obviously, I mean, talking for everyone here, that's not just my thing, right?

01:05:05 Hey, it's a Christmas log. That's my understanding. And I understand that this can be a little

01:05:11 unsettling to all the people at the Christmas table, but you know, it's a tradition. It's a

01:05:15 German thing. A lot of people don't understand. And that's why we are feared. But yeah, a dozen

01:05:22 glasses of eggnog. Yeah, it's Christmas, but it comes but once a year. And yeah, the Christmas

01:05:28 regret. Because you just, you know, when you're trying to lose weight, you just kind of stagger

01:05:32 from overindulgence festival to overindulgence festival, right? Yeah, it's my birthday. Hey,

01:05:38 it's Thanksgiving. Oh, it's Halloween. Oh, it's Christmas. Forget it. I'm just never gonna lose

01:05:43 weight. Never gonna happen. There's too many excuses. That's what holidays are. It's just

01:05:48 excuses to get fat. That's all it is. There's nothing else. Nothing else to it. Oh, it's tragic.

01:05:54 It's just tragic. I've never had decent peanut brittle. Not once. Peanut brittle. Yeah, ooh,

01:06:01 it's my friend's birthday. Ooh, it's my other friend's birthday. That's right. My left hand

01:06:05 was born before my right hand. So there's two birthdays on this day. I came out in a Jesus pose.

01:06:14 So a peanut brittle is something that dentists love. Obviously, they just hand it out, right?

01:06:22 So peanut brittle is fine, because you can close your mouth on it, right? The problem is,

01:06:27 I think if you're over 40, I think this is a law of nature or law of the universe. And when you

01:06:32 close your mouth on peanut butter, and you're over 40, it's 50/50 that you're going to keep all your

01:06:37 teeth if you open your mouth again. There was this fudge, Macintosh fudge, I think it was from

01:06:43 England. And there was a store I went into a couple of years ago with my daughter. And it was

01:06:47 a British candy store. Have you ever had this? If you've moved or something, and you go to a place

01:06:53 which had the candy of your youth? Have you ever seen that? I mean, it's insane. So we went to this

01:07:01 British store. And I got like speared with all of these deep sense memories where I could like walk

01:07:08 around the store, tasting various things, like various parts of my tongue were activating like

01:07:13 it was some zombie coming to life, just punching together historical taste buds. Because I was

01:07:18 walking around, I was like, Oh my god, I completely forgot. What is Ribena? Oh my god, I forgot

01:07:22 Macintosh fudge, this little tombstone for your dental work. And oh, and all of this, I got a

01:07:29 couple of the flake bars. I even got the godforsaken fartholic baked beans of my early childhood,

01:07:37 which basically turned you into a jetpack. And beans, beans, good for the art, the more you eat,

01:07:43 the more you fought. And just going all over this, have you ever been to one of these places,

01:07:48 which is just like the candy of your childhood? It literally for me was like a time machine.

01:07:54 Because apparently, obviously, British English people haven't lost their sweet tooth.

01:07:58 They still make all of this absolutely fatal stuff. Because you know what happens, right? You

01:08:02 get socialized dental work. Socialized dentistry just means that the candy manufacturers can

01:08:08 completely go apeshit and just fill everybody's brains with sugar to the point where you have to

01:08:14 balance it with spices. And that means you got to rule India for 150 years. Like it's tough.

01:08:18 There's a lot of effects. I may be getting my history a little mixed up, but not really.

01:08:23 Not really. So yeah, we got this Macintosh fudge from my childhood. And I bit down on it. I could

01:08:35 not open my mouth again. Like I bit down on it. I'm like, I'm like, this is like a bear trap.

01:08:40 Like I have to chew my own, I have to chew off the edge of my tongue just to get this out.

01:08:45 It was insane. I literally had to just wait for the saliva to soften it to the point where,

01:08:50 and I didn't want to open my mouth too much because I'm like, I'm going to end up with this

01:08:54 like zigzag jaw tooth pattern because I'm going to lose half my teeth in this fudge.

01:08:58 It's clingy. It's clingy like me dating in my 20s. Let's just put it that way.

01:09:05 Tiny, it's a tiny teeth trap. Yeah, that's exactly right. That's exactly right.

01:09:10 James, I think the candy of my youth was Snickers bars. I don't know how different

01:09:16 they are, except maybe in corn syrup instead of regular sugar. But Snickers bars is one of those

01:09:21 nasty things like, okay, tell me the sugar that you can convince yourself is not too bad. Snickers

01:09:27 bars, they've got some nuts. They've got some stuff in there that's just like not too evil.

01:09:31 And so you can say, well, you know, it's not just straight chocolate or, you know, or if you get

01:09:38 something like, no, no, no, they're blueberries wrapped in dark chocolate. So it's fruit and dark

01:09:42 chocolate, which isn't too bad. And so what happens is you just eat more, right? Because

01:09:47 you're like, oh, that's not so bad. Just eat more. That's sort of the way that it is, right?

01:09:52 And everybody has that weakness because it's that literally a sweet spot. It's a sweet spot where

01:09:59 you say, well, I can justify this. Come on. I mean, I get like, I'm not going to have like

01:10:06 bread pudding. Bread pudding is just soft. Like it's what your teeth look like after you've had

01:10:12 bread pudding that just turned into like soft, saggy, middle-aged cheese, yogurt,

01:10:19 butt dimples, some sort of cellulite in a bowl with sugar or creme brulee. Creme brulee is a

01:10:28 nice stuff because it's soft at the bottom, but crunchy on the top. So you know that there's

01:10:32 nothing good in any of that stuff. Like there's nothing good in any of that stuff. But it's

01:10:36 the stuff like if you go to Menchies or the yogurt places, you're like, you know what,

01:10:39 I'll just, what is it? I can have some not too sugary yogurt and I'll do mostly fruit.

01:10:46 And where the hell did all of these cookie dough bits come from? Well, I'm sure they just fell out

01:10:50 from the spoon. That must've been it. And I guess these strawberries are kind of dipped in chocolate,

01:10:56 but not too much. And I've got, come on, man. I got a couple of blueberries in there among the

01:11:02 multicolored boba rainbow death. So, you know, it's yogurt and fruit. And that's the danger is

01:11:09 for me just thinking like, yeah, you know, come on. It's not that bad. It's light yogurt.

01:11:16 And it's dark chocolate. And like the stuff where you just can lie to yourself, right?

01:11:22 All right. So maybe I'm just talking to myself here. Almond joy, never liked that. Chocolate

01:11:28 covered pretzels. Oh God. Okay. The only food that is not UPB compliant is actually chocolate

01:11:38 covered pretzels. I'm very passionate about this and I know I don't like morality with an asterisk,

01:11:43 but this is one that just taste and sanity and Gordon Ramsey demands is never a UPB compliant.

01:11:49 Reese's, it has peanut butter, which is protein. Yes, that's right. That's right. That's right.

01:11:58 So yeah, you got to watch out for that stuff. Like cheesecake. Well, you know, it's got dairy.

01:12:03 No, I can't do anything with the cheesecake. Okay. Hit me with your, what's your total demon food?

01:12:09 Like what is your total? For me, if I get a just warmed right apple crumble, not apple pie. I'm not

01:12:18 a big fan of apple pie, man, that apple crumble. Oh my gosh. I had some, we had some friends over

01:12:25 this weekend. We played like real world Catan, actually just real world Catan in the neighborhood.

01:12:30 We just took over a wheat shops, but my wife, God love her. She went to a Mennonite shop and got

01:12:38 some apple crumble and it's like a time machine that, that kills your pancreas. Apple crumble,

01:12:48 when it's like, don't microwave that. That's just evil. That's like microwaving pizza. Like not

01:12:52 even right. It's got to go in the oven. And she, it was warm just perfectly to the point where it

01:12:57 wasn't completely melting the roof of your mouth, but it also didn't have any cold bits, which is

01:13:02 horrible. He did just right. The softness of the filling, the underside of the pie, and then the

01:13:08 apple crumble, the crunchy apple crumble stuff on top. Oh my God. So good. I literally had to stab

01:13:14 my hand to the table with a fork so that I didn't keep reaching for it. But then I just reached for

01:13:22 the other hand and I couldn't stab that one because the first one was already stabbed. And I

01:13:25 said, listen, I just don't like losing a Catan. It's got nothing to do with a sugar addiction.

01:13:29 Apple crumble is fantastic. My demon food, black tie chocolate mousse cake. Oh, is that stuff with

01:13:35 the curly, the curly chocolate stuff that always looks like it's vaguely sweating and sweating

01:13:39 and sweating joy, not sweating like Jamie Lee Curtis's innards. A carrot cake, carrot cake with

01:13:46 good cream cheese icing is really, really fantastic. I'm not much of a sweets demon.

01:13:51 But I could probably eat all of the meatball palm in the universe. Yeah. Yeah. I had a friend who

01:13:58 was on some medication for Crohn's disease and he said, yeah, it's making me gain weight. I said,

01:14:03 oh, is it one of those rare medications that in combination with meat, meat, parm and apple pie

01:14:10 seems to weirdly combined with that to cause you to gain weight? Trey let's shake cake.

01:14:17 Trey let's shake cake. Very milk cake. What is that? I don't handle milk. Well,

01:14:27 oh my gosh. Yeah. A friend of mine who shall remain nameless, we were talking about some,

01:14:34 some weight loss stuff and he's like, well, you know, I do have, I probably do have eight to

01:14:39 10 tablespoons of thick cream in my coffee every day. I'm like, dude, like that's so much cream in

01:14:44 your blood. You could give a vampire lactose intolerance. I think we may have zeroed in on

01:14:49 something. You may be able to cut down. Is the live stream still going? No.

01:14:56 Three milk cake, three milk cake.

01:15:00 So you're a dealer, right? So what you're doing is you're saying to me, who has a bit of a sugar

01:15:07 addiction, you're saying, oh, you know what, Steph? There's this incredible sugar you've never,

01:15:12 ever tried. You've never, ever tried. Yeah. Person who shall remain nameless says it was like 800

01:15:25 calories of heavy cream, which is about 1400 salads. So yes, it was about 800 calories of

01:15:35 heavy cream. Actually, this person again, who shall remain nameless, interestingly enough,

01:15:42 if you see aerial photographs of him walking through his concert, you can see cows fleeing

01:15:48 from him. Like when you put pepper into oil, it was, it was 16 tablespoons. And, and, you know,

01:15:54 actually you might've sort of just eaten the tablespoons. It probably would have been

01:15:57 health more, more healthy. Cause that's just, that's just, I don't even know what that is

01:16:01 anymore. That is just insane. That's like when I went to, I joined the, well, I was forced to join

01:16:08 by my father, the Young Explorers Club of England when I was a kid. And we went marching through the

01:16:12 outer Hebrides for two weeks and the weather was so terrible. We ended up sleeping in bus shelters

01:16:17 in barns. And this is when I mentioned this before, I first became skeptical of getting good

01:16:24 points, like getting awards and points because the guy was like a writer who was working on some

01:16:29 crappy book and he brought a manual typewriter with him. It was super heavy. So he didn't want

01:16:34 to carry it. And he's like, well, whoever carries my typewriter gets points. And at the end, and

01:16:40 we'll tally them up at the end. Right. And so, you know, being young and naive and all of that,

01:16:47 I think I was eight. I'm like, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll carry the typewriter. I want points.

01:16:52 I'm competitive. I like points. Points are good. Right. And I carried this stupid typewriter all

01:16:59 around the outer Hebrides. And I remember we, we camped on a beach one day. It was really nice.

01:17:03 We camped on a beach. Oh gosh. I remember I was hiking and somehow my backpack had opened up and

01:17:08 I just had trailed stuff off. And I was last cause I was always the youngest and smallest everywhere.

01:17:12 I went, it was just that because I was right at the tail end of the baby boom, like baby booms

01:17:18 ended in 66. I was a, sorry. And baby boom ended in 65. I was a 66 baby. So I was right at the tail

01:17:23 end of the baby boom, start of Gen X. And so I was always the youngest kid around. Everybody was a

01:17:28 little older usually. And I was, I was hiking along and I turned around and I, I, I still vividly,

01:17:34 I can see this. I could go to the spot. I could still count the dunes and I could see, you know,

01:17:40 my clothing, little bits of food and my underpants, you know, sock. And, and it was all trailing back

01:17:45 and I was like, I was really stuck because the leader guy was way ahead. And I'm like, I don't

01:17:53 know how far back I have to go. We were in the middle of nowhere. And if they change or go

01:17:58 somewhere, I didn't want to stop everyone. And I was just really upset. And I just, I just started

01:18:02 crying because I didn't know if I run back to get my clothes, I don't know how far I've got to come

01:18:05 back. And if they turn, I'm going to get lost, lost. And this was not good. Right. I mean, I had

01:18:10 like, I don't know, one half a granola bar or something. And so if I got lost, that was really

01:18:13 bad. And I remember I was confined to my tent that afternoon because I had cried because he came back,

01:18:19 you know, when you've got a problem as a kid and you know, like I'm eight years old, what am I,

01:18:24 some, I'm like Bear Grylls out here and people, you know, adults just get mad at you. Why are you

01:18:29 getting mad at you? Well, cause, cause you know, my stuff was like trailing. I don't know how far

01:18:34 back could be half a mile back. I don't know. And you know, he's going to be annoyed. Oh,

01:18:39 it's just, it's inconvenient for me. It's like, okay, if you don't want things to be inconvenient,

01:18:43 how about you don't take eight year old kids on massive hikes from bus shelter to bus shelter,

01:18:50 you douchebag. And anyway, I was confined to my tent that afternoon because I'd cried and all the

01:18:58 other kids were playing on the beach. And it's just one of these funny things, right? Because

01:19:02 you're, I'm confined to the tent, I felt really bad. And you know, I had a family member with me

01:19:07 who never came to check on me, you know, the usual stuff. And, but I remember peeking my head out,

01:19:12 watching the other kids have fun and they were jumping up and down on a mine, like a literal

01:19:17 World War II mine. And there was a torpedo. So I guess at some point in the past, this was a pretty

01:19:22 unexplored area of the outer Hebrides or whatever. It's the islands off the coast of Scotland.

01:19:26 I peeked my head out. It was a beautiful sunny day. One of the only sunny days. The other time

01:19:31 it was just like grim death marching through Mordor. But I poked my head out, "Hey, what are

01:19:38 the kids doing? Look at all the fun I'm missing." And they were literally jumping up and down on

01:19:42 mines and torpedoes. And I'm like, "Oh my God, this is like, I was waiting to see like bits of kid

01:19:47 fly all over the place. Like you had, you know, stomped on a bunch of ketchup packets."

01:19:52 And I remember the guy, he has a big beard and a hippie looking guy,

01:20:00 screaming at the kids. And then everyone ended up confined to their tents. Everyone ended up

01:20:04 confined to their tents for jumping up and down on explosives. Unfortunately, of course,

01:20:08 nothing went off. It probably was all deactive at that point. Although let's see, let me do the

01:20:12 math, right? So I was eight. So this was 1974. I mean, this is from the 40s. So these were 30 years

01:20:18 old, right? And could they still be alive? Probably not, but you know, it's a possibility.

01:20:27 And so, yeah, it was kind of funny that the one beautiful day that we had on that entire two-week

01:20:32 dismal death hike from place to place, the only one beautiful day we had,

01:20:36 everyone ended up confined to their tents. Me, for crying, because my backpack had opened up,

01:20:45 we all go back and get my stuff. And all the other kids for jumping up and down on

01:20:50 ordnance. Like, oh my God, oh my gosh. So apparently that's equal punishment. If you cry,

01:20:57 that's the same as literally about to blow everyone up in the vicinity. So I don't know,

01:21:02 what are they, 15 kids? Anyway, the reason I was thinking of all of that is that this guy did have

01:21:07 his own particular brand of crack, which was, have you ever tried this condensed milk or condensed?

01:21:12 I think it's called condensed milk. And it is, you open it and it's like the sweetest,

01:21:19 it's like a semi-solid. It's like your fat in your body halfway to room temperature. It's like

01:21:24 a semi-solid. Evaporated milk, is that the same thing? Is that the same thing? Oh man,

01:21:31 that was something else. That was something else. So yeah, that stuff is really great. I literally,

01:21:39 I don't think I've had it since because it's one of these things that's so good that I'm like,

01:21:46 no, no, I can't remind myself. If I let the memory fade away, that's okay. But if I go and

01:21:53 re-provoke that memory, it's like, I don't know, like some guy, if you're a smoker or whatever,

01:21:57 and then you quit smoking and you're like, two years later, you're like, I'll just have a couple

01:22:00 of cigarettes. And it's like, nope, don't, I assume smoking is good, right? Some people like

01:22:06 it. I mean, they risk their life for it. So it's like, don't do it. Don't do it. Like I imagine

01:22:11 heroin. It's fantastic, which is why I'll never do it. I imagine drugs as a home. I mean, you see

01:22:15 what people do for drugs. I assume that there's a real upside. And so that's why I would never do

01:22:20 any, I never tried marijuana, I never tried hash or anything like that. Because it's like,

01:22:24 well, how does this play out? Like either it's fantastic, in which case I've got a huge problem,

01:22:29 or it's not even that great, in which case, why would I bother doing it? So

01:22:32 just doesn't seem to seem to play out sweetened condensed milk. Yeah, it's something like that.

01:22:38 Oh, man. Well, when I'm old, and my health doesn't matter, I'll probably try it. Like heroin,

01:22:43 if it's legal. Anyway. All right. Let me just see any other comments, questions, issues. If you do

01:22:50 have stories. You know, I'll keep the details anonymous. But if you have do have stories,

01:22:56 you can email me call in at freedom.com. I'm really quite fascinated by this death stuff.

01:23:02 And this inheritance stuff. I haven't had any issues with it within my own family,

01:23:08 but I've experienced it sort of secondhand. And it's, it's some pretty wild stuff. And

01:23:13 if you have stories, I'm kind of curious about it. Because I think it's really important to not

01:23:19 live in anticipation of great things you can't control. Really. I don't know if this makes any

01:23:26 sense. Like I live in anticipation of good things. You know, I'm looking forward to,

01:23:31 you know, walking my daughter down the aisle when she gets married. I'm looking forward,

01:23:35 I'm enjoying the process of aging enormously. I'm looking forward to

01:23:39 every show that I do. It's just great. And I had some great news today. So I wanted to jump in and

01:23:48 sort of share the joy. Hopefully I have. But yeah, I look forward to a lot of a lot of great things.

01:23:56 But I don't look forward to great things that are beyond my control. And, you know, what happens

01:24:01 with inheritance, what happens with your siblings, a lot of it's really beyond your control. You can

01:24:05 have some influence, but not really control it. So I just wanted to, I guess, maybe put out that

01:24:10 slight caveat, or maybe a little bit of a warning. But I am quite fascinated by all of this kind of

01:24:14 stuff, because I am at that kind of age where this stuff is happening. And for all the people who,

01:24:19 you know, you're 20s, 30s, 40s, late teens, whatever, you know, it just seems like a long

01:24:26 way away. And it all seems very abstract. And I understand that. I totally understand that. I mean,

01:24:30 listen, I still read news stories about so and so in his late 40s. And I'm like,

01:24:36 ooh, like I'm listening to this bit. I'm listening to an autobiography of Marlon Brando, the actor.

01:24:44 I have to say the actor now, because it's been a while, right? But so Marlon Brando,

01:24:48 and he was 47 when he made The Godfather. So of course, hearing about his childhood and all of

01:24:56 that is very interesting, and how it affected his adult life. And I'll do a whole rant on this when

01:25:01 I finish the biography. But I'm listening to this literally like, oh, 47, man, that's kind of, oh my

01:25:07 God, that's 10 years ago for me. I can still, because I don't feel that different. I don't

01:25:13 think I look that different. I am older, obviously. But, you know, because when you go bald young,

01:25:21 you're not sitting there going, oh my God, I've lost more hair. It's like, yeah, that's decades

01:25:24 ago, right? So, you know, other than, and your hair goes, I guess, kind of whiter and all of that,

01:25:28 but you don't really notice it when you keep it short, because I'm bald, right? So, and I don't

01:25:32 have a big beard that's gone white or anything. So yeah, I just kind of don't really notice it

01:25:35 that much. So I understand, like it all, that there's inheritance stuff and living for inheritance

01:25:43 and what happens when your parents die and there's property in play and all of that. Oof.

01:25:47 That is really something. And yeah, it can happen with grandparents, but with grandparents,

01:25:54 the fight is your parents have it and they'll hopefully largely keep you out of it. But

01:25:59 when your parents go, I don't, I mean, my daughter's got an interesting philosophy. She says,

01:26:07 I don't look for the good, so it's a real plus when it happens.

01:26:10 I aim for the neutral. That way it's real plus when something great happens.

01:26:16 So, and something great did happen today and all of that. So all good stuff. All right.

01:26:22 Somebody says, don't feel much different from my 20s. I feel a lot better in a lot of ways. Yeah.

01:26:29 Yeah. Mental age froze around age 26. Oh, interesting. Wait, mine or yours?

01:26:34 Hopefully I've got a little more in the 31 years since. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully.

01:26:39 All right. Thanks, everyone. If you're listening to this later or if you're listening to this now,

01:26:47 free domain, and you find this stuff valuable. I think these mortality and inheritance and death

01:26:52 stories, I think are really important. So if you can go freedom.com/donate,

01:26:56 we're trying to figure out how to tip on this Telegram platform. We'll sort of figure that out

01:26:59 as we're going forward. Because I like being able to have the opportunity for voice chats, but I

01:27:05 have to be responsible for the income. Steph, thank you for tonight's show on Telegram. You're welcome.

01:27:12 My friend, this was an important discussion. This was a really interesting chat. I started reading

01:27:17 this stuff and when you host shows like this, there's always two parts of your brain. One part

01:27:23 of you is like, "Man, this is really interesting to me." And the other is, "Boy, I hope this is

01:27:27 interesting to other people as well." Because when I share it, it is and I'm glad that it was.

01:27:31 Yes, if you can... And listen, guys, the audio book of the Peaceful Parenting book is going out.

01:27:41 I think we've got two hours or so done so far. So freedom.locals.com, you can actually listen

01:27:47 to the prologue and boy, it's richly done. The audio is very nice. So yeah, you can listen to

01:27:53 the prologue at freedom.locals.com. But I mean, you should really get the audio book as it comes out.

01:28:00 I'm not going to release the audio book to the general population for a while and I've got a

01:28:05 long way to go. It's a big book, but you should definitely get it. It's the wildest, greatest,

01:28:15 deepest, and most powerful thing I've ever written. I'll just be straight up with you.

01:28:19 It's not a sales pitch, like I'm just telling you. I get emails after I started writing the book,

01:28:25 literally I'm getting emails like, "Your show is so much better since you started writing this book."

01:28:29 And I'm like, "Well, hopefully it was pretty good before, but I'm glad to hear that it's

01:28:32 better because this book has opened up craters of depth within me that

01:28:36 I'm still down there exploring and I'm working on the second draft."

01:28:42 All right, freedom.com/donate. Thank you everyone so much for your time and attention this evening

01:28:47 and this show and everyone who listens, everyone who gives me feedback, positive, negative,

01:28:55 indifferent. You support. If you don't support, that's fine too. You all mean the world to me and

01:29:01 I really, really thank you humbly, deeply, gratefully, and passionately for your time

01:29:06 and attention to this conversation. I think it's great for us. I think it's great for the world.

01:29:11 I think it's great for the future. And thank you guys so much. I will talk to you soon. Bye.

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