Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
It's been a full year of the Carol Markowitz Show.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'm so happy and honored for every single listener. I'm
also so grateful for iHeartRadio and for the Klay, Travis
and Buck Sexton podcast network for giving me this opportunity.
I didn't know if this show would work. It's not
news of the day, it's not about politics. I described
(00:35):
this podcast as asking political people non political questions, but
it's also a show about living better, learning from other people,
taking good advice. And look, some episodes do veer straight
into politics, and there's just no stopping them. A lot
of people are just used to offering their opinion on
(00:56):
what's going on and are confused when someone asks quiteestions
about them personally. I get that, so we do our
best to keep things not quite politics focused more personal
here and just to hope for the best.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
This show has.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Been doing a million downloads a quarter, and that is
just wild to me. I've had people who have been
listening to me since the first episode and always offer feedback.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I really love that. I love hearing from listeners in general.
I got a.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Bunch of mail recently about the dating episodes. I love
getting the questions, and I also love getting the advice
that people want to share. If you've got thoughts, drop
me an email Carol Markowitz Show at gmail dot com,
k A R O L M A R K O
w I c As and Charlie Zas and Zebra Show
(01:51):
at gmail dot com. For season two of the show,
I've switched up some of the questions based on your suggestions.
I actually swim one question, dropped one question.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
And kept one question.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I'm no longer asking about our largest cultural problem, but
more widely, what the guest worries about could be personal
or it could be cultural. I've dropped the question about
whether the guest.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Feels like they've made it.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I've added a listener suggested question about advice the guest
would give their sixteen year old self, and I've kept
the last question asking the guests to offer a tip
to improve the lives of our listeners. Lots of people
said they found that one useful, and I love being useful.
I'm really looking forward to season two of The Carol
(02:40):
mark Wood Show with all of you. Thank you so
much for listening. Coming up next and interview with Buck Sexton,
my very first repeat guest.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
He was also my very.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
First ever guest on season one of this show. We'll
hear from Buck Sexton after the break. Hi, and welcome
back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
My guest today is.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Buck Sexton of the Clay and Book Show, and I'm
so happy to have you on.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Buck. Thank you, Carol. This is exciting. I'm very honored
that I was the first guest, and now the end
of year one, I am back here. So at least
I got I was able to stay in the roster.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
That's right, I mean a big deal here.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, you're kicking off season two of The Carol Markowitz
Show on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton podcast Network.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
So I've loved last year. I've gotten to talk.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
To so many interesting and cool people. I have to
tell you that your interview was the one that gets
mentioned to me the most, and we'll get to that later.
The last question that I ask about better living that
so many people are like, you know that.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Interview with Buck Sexton.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Really I started doing what he's ingested And again I'll
talk about it in a bit, but yeah, people really
enjoyed that so love having you on.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Also, when you were on a year ago, you were
in newlywed.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
You've now you know, been married for a long, long,
long time. Any marriage insights.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
For us, I'm starting off. Wow, we're going right into.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
It, right into it. Yeah, you know, people love to
hear about this kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
You know, Honestly, the nothing about it has been a
surprise to me. And I think part of it is
everybody has the model for what they think marriage will
be like that is just ingrained in their subconscious from
their own parents, right, and you know, maybe there's things
to learn, not just things to emulate. But and I
(04:42):
have parents who have been married now, oh my god,
forty Oh I'm trying to do the mathem I had
forty six years, I think, and.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
They are the cutest couple ever.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
You Yeah, but my parents are married a long time,
so you know, I had a sense of it from that.
I would say that advice that I would relay that
was pure marriage advice that I got early on, uh,
in the whole process was how you greet people really
does matter and and it is memorable and sets the
(05:18):
sets sort of the tone for the rest of the
conversation or the rest of the interaction. But so you know,
when your spouse comes home or you come home to
your spouse, it's a kiss, a hug, a hug, and
a kid. I love you. I'm excited to see you.
You know, what are we doing now? It's not.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
In the couch, it's.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Not coming in on the phone like you know, doing this,
you know whatever, like you come in the greeting matters
and I find that that and we and we both
have a you know, we we agreed on that kind
of early on, like when we talked about this, and
when we're getting there, we're like, oh, that's really good
advice we would give pre kano, which is what Catholics do.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
I don't know if you no, I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, it's sort of a Catholic marriage.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Oh I know about the yeah right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
But it's a Catholic marriage preparation opponent, you know that
you're supposed to do before get married to church as
we did. Uh. And it was the I was some
of the best advice that we got on it. So
that's that's that was really good. I mean that really
has put us in good stead. And I just I
don't know, I can't just overstate the benefits of it.
And by the way, it's true for friends too. You know,
(06:30):
it's true for other people in your life when you
see people. I mean, you don't have to like hug
and kiss everybody. That wouldn't be appropriate.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
But yeah, well great, but I feel like you are. Yeah,
now that I'm thinking about it, you're always.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Like heyy, and you know, very very warm and yeah,
I always feel very welcomed by Buck Sexton.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Well, my family are huge, like my mom and dad
argue over who's the bigger Carol Markowitz and work, and
so you know, we are very excited. And our group
of friends, Carol, it's like this, it's like the celebrity
has a soh it's very excited.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It's such a lie, you know. I think that that's
really sweet.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Though.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I'm a huge fan of all the Sextons, and actually
I wanted to talk to you about you and your
brother and Clay have started a coffee company and I'm
actually your.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Coffee company's biggest fan. I really am. Go ahead and.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Thinking right now, my my manager Craig knew that I
was going to be out in La where I am
right now, which where I kind of, and he knew
that I forgot to bring my own I didn't bring
my coffee bag, but he lives here, so he has
it at his house. So he brought nice dot com
and for me.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
You drink it, Yeah, I love it well.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
So I think I've told you this, But I was
a instant coffee drinker. It was just it was like
no coffee was good enough to like not just mix
it in a cup and go on about my day.
And I have become And you know this is not
sponsored in any way. I just I love Crockett coffee.
I think it's so good and just it's worth it
(07:58):
to me to brew up a part of it and
get my days started with it.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And I've just never felt like that about a coffee before.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I've been like, it's fine, it's fine, but how much
better is it than instant? Really?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Mason searched for many months to find the right uh
people to work with on the roasting and the and
the packaging side and sourcing the right beans and using
the right blend. So he'll be very happy to hear
this because I think people just think, like, oh, you
just find someone great? Is it? Ording coffee beans? Because
obviously we don't need to have a coffee domestic coffee
(08:30):
production in the US and that No, it's actually really
hard to find something good who wants to work with you.
It's that was the first part of the process. So
I'm so glad we got a crack a coffee drinker
that makes Yeah. Actually, it's been fascinating after a decade
of being in the radio business as a talent who
has to speak about products, now to be a product owner,
(08:54):
i mean co owned, playing with Mason and trying to
go at it from the other side of the table.
It's like you see a lot of you know, you
see you obviously see things differently. You see the challenges
of how you you want to work with people, but
you have to make sure that it's a business and
not you're not sure hobby.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
But part of it is having an alternative product to
kind of the mainstream products that we assume we're spending
all of our cash on leftist causes.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Right, that's definitely what you own in of this.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
It's funny. I'm actually giving I'm doing Bill Maher's show
tonight and I'm giving, I mean in my honorarium. It's
you know, it's not. I don't know if I'm like
God to share how much is It's not a lot
of money. It's a nice check. I'm giving the Tunnel
to Towers Foundation. I mean, I just I think that
they do such amazing work. And it's interesting to me
because it's like a lot of people on the right
(09:45):
like that charity, but to me, it is a totally
American charity. It is not it is not partisan in
any way. But it helps heroes, first responders, military, their families.
And ten percent of profit from Crockett goes to that.
So if you want Rocket to be one hundred million
dollar company and be able to send a ten million
(10:06):
dollar check, you know, it's amazing. From this, we want
to be able to send a ten million dollar check
to Tunnel the Towers every year. I mean, that's like
our vision, that's our goal.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So one of the new questions that I have for
season two of The Carol Markowitz Show is and you know,
I had listeners suggest the questions and then I picked
my favorites. One question we'll stay from last season, but
two new ones.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
The new question is what advice.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Would you give a sixteen year old buck sexton to
yourself at sixteen.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I think that the best advice that I could give
to a sixteen year old version. Well, so there's the
advice that I would give myself yourself, yourself, and then
there's the advice that I would give sort of sixteen
year olds or broadly because I was a little bit
unusual for a sixteen year old and some respects that
may not be a shock to people who are familiar
(10:55):
with me or my work or whatever. And maybe it's
actually more and more one and the same. I think
it'd be good for me to hear it, which is,
you just want to take a long view when you're sixteen,
along view right when when you're fifty a long view
is like, I don't know, I like years, twenty years,
you know when you're my age, when you're forties, it's
(11:17):
like and I'm middle age. When you're sixteen, you want
to take what you think of as a long view
on just everything, just everything that you possibly like, just
the I think the biggest track it's so tough.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
To do, it's so hard.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
It's seen.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yeah, but no one told me this. The biggest traps
are you? Are you popular at sixteen? Nobody cares? Are
you considered smart? At sixteen, nobody cares. Are you considered,
you know, good looking or attractive at sixteen, Like, no
one really cares until you get into your twenties and thirties.
Nothing is going to be meaningful to your life. Really,
(11:52):
I'm talking about personal growth stops right. No one at
sixteen is doing the thing that they will look back
on their life and be like, oh yeah, like that
was really amazing, that was really important. So I think
you can. I think that I would tell myself, and
I would tell any sixteen year old. Let you know,
lay the pressure off yourself, take the long taking the
(12:15):
long view. I know it seems like it and it
does require discipline and it takes some sort of foresight,
but it also means you're not even going to remember
this stuff when it matters, like you're not really who
you are yet. And so just enjoy each day, try
to find what you like, try to get better. You know,
(12:38):
calculus is bs. It doesn't you know what I like?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
This is, But this is teenagers listening. Do not listen
to him. It's very important.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
This is the point. If you're good at calculus and
you want to be pushing in these directions, great, then
that's an area for you, but you will not use
some of these things in your life. Don't stress out.
I'm not saying don't do your homework. Yeah, it doesn't
matter in any meaning. Kids put so much stress. I'll
give you another one. Go to college where you want
to go to college. I went to Amherst, which in
(13:09):
some of the like college there's university rankings, which is
always like Harvard, I don't know those college rankings. Amherst
is routinely for the colleges, a top five school, so
you know it's Williams amhers Swathmore. Those tend to be
the ones that are kind of always trading off whatever
I wish I had gone somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Honestly, where do you wish you would?
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Oh? Man, I probably would have. I mean I almost
went to like Georgetown was the one that I was
so close to you. But here's the thing. I went
where I thought it was more academically rigorous, without even
really knowing what that meant. Instead of what do I
think I'm going to enjoy my time more and have
and it fits in with my conception of how I
want to spend my day to day as an eighteen
(13:49):
nineteen twenty year old. Right, So look, I had a
good time at Emerson. I'm not like, I'm not anti Christ, sure,
but I just mean, you know, try to take the
longer view. Understand that a lot of things that stress
you out at sixteen are truly meaningless.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Were you hard on yourself when you were sixteen?
Speaker 4 (14:07):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Absolutely that this is coming across here, Okay, I just
I'm not sure kids are hard on themselves anymore. I
don't know that that's still maybe. I don't have a
six My oldest is fourteen, and noe.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
We'll see what happens.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
But they seem like they you know, self esteem is
really stressed in schools, so they seem like they're doing okay.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I mean so again I was in school. What I mean,
I was. We're till going back over thirty years now
when I was sixteen, which makes me feel really old,
even though a lot of people watching this on video
at least will be like, he looks like he's twenty five.
You really do, which is fair, which I don't know
what to say. I mean, it's you know, I'm forty
going to be forty three, but but no, I yes,
why I look, that's the thing, that's what I mean though,
like there's what I would give advice to myself versus
(14:50):
what I would sort of how I advise other people
who are sixteen but on the college front, for example,
And I tell, you know, we have some great neighbors
Carrie and I do where we live in U in Miami,
and become very friendly with them, and they've got kids
who are, you know, fourteen sixteen around that age group.
And the parents ask me because I don't know, some
people think I'm kind of wise. I know, yeah you are,
(15:13):
thank you, and they last me things and I'll just
say the When I was in school, the ranking of
your college was like it's either you're going to go
work at Goldman and make millions and have an awesome
life and be you know, just hugging your beautiful wife
on the beach in Southampton and or not right based
(15:34):
on where you go school. But I've learned as I've
become a adult who actually has seen in life is
I mean, I know schmucks who went to Harvard, I
know stars who went the community college. Like it's just
not this or some rough sorting of academic ability that
goes on, but it doesn't really you're seeing this by
the way, with the huge surge in interest in SEC schools.
(15:57):
Oh yeah, don't tell Clay this, but like twenty years ago,
if you were a good student in New York City
or I'm sure La and some of the you know, Boston,
you were not going to an SEC S. If you
went to an SEC school from New York again, something
went wrong. Yeah you you you were you were like
a you were like a screw up and wanted to
(16:18):
party and go for the That was totally shifting. And
now people are you know University of Florida is like
an elite school. Oh yeah, it's hard to get it.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Sure that we hope our kids go to a University
of Florida, right, No.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
But you look at these schools in the Southeast, and
I think that's just a function of people realizing where
do I want to be and get a good education?
Not just like where do I fall on this list?
I mean. One of the funniest things I could tell
anybody who's like, what am I going to do with
my life? And and uh, you know, how am I know?
Where am I going to go with this is of
the people that I knew who were doing backflips because
(16:54):
they got recruited to go work on Wall Street when
they were at twenty misery, they hated it, and almost
none of them lasted. Almost none of them lasted, Like
I mean, right, I mean same things for lawyers.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
You know, I know very few people who got into
like the best law firms that they were so excited
to go to and liked it and stayed it.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Just it almost never happens.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's funny because I think
back to this and it's so much about where people
can make money at a young Like everyone wants to
have money at a young age. You have to also remember,
like money as a young single person is very you know,
you have very different needs in very different stresses. You know,
I enjoyed myself in my twenties and I was making
at the time what would be what was basically like
(17:41):
I think the average American household income, which was like
forty thousand dollars a year, and you know, in New
York City, that wasn't you know, I was working for
the government, it wasn't a lot of money at all.
I had peers who were like, I just got a
fifty thousand dollars pona. So I'm like I just my
my all in so, I had friends in my early
twenties who are making and a lot of them, by
(18:02):
the way, not just like two who are making three
four times as much money as me. Right off the bat,
and again to my point about long term versus short term,
nobody cares, right, nobody cares.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
You're not like, how much were you making out of college?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Right? Exactly how much you're making at college doesn't matter.
You're not rich because you made one hundred and sixty
grand one year, and this is your life. The other
thing I've realized is.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Maybe excellent, this is really I love all of this,
Like oh really, oh I keep going yeah, yeah, well as.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
You can say. The other thing I realized is your
goal and achievement. Obsession is a trap a goal or
an achievement that you want, whether it's to be rich
or to be you know, to have a great physique,
or to be super successful in your field. That is
(18:50):
a guide for how you set up your day to
day life. Your day to day life is everything right,
meaning you want to be You want to be in
a position where you are growing, where you are enjoying yourself,
where you are challenged, but you are comfortable enough that
you can have moments of happiness and you want to
(19:10):
set up that matrix of your day to day. And
so this is kind of the anti I want to
go work at.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
I was gonna say Leman Brothers, but that was my day, right.
People are like, I want to go work with Lehman Brothers,
but not so much. Yeah, not so much anymore. But
you know, okay, do you want to spend a few
years of your twenties? For some people, the answer is yes,
do you want to send a few years of your
twenties legitimately working eighty hours a week gaining By the way,
for the women who did it that I knew they
all of course, because you're at a desk and you're
(19:38):
eating like crap Chinese takeout food, right, like, you know,
gaining weight, not getting sunlight whatever, so you can you know,
make six figures when you're this stuff does not matter.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
We'll be right back with more from Buck Sexton. And
it could all fall apart so fast, I mean, you're leaving.
An example is a very good one. And we just
watched inchment not increment. We watched Telladega Nights with the
kids recently, and the guy in the movie is like, oh,
I want to get in on this Halliburton stock you know,
it just it could all end tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
It doesn't. It doesn't last forever anyway. And yeah, if
you're if.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
You're living that way at twenty two, you're probably doing
it wrong.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
It's funny, you know, Carol, there was this, I really
would say a year ago there was this peak of
these podcasts and they're all it's extra points if you
have a British accent, right, that means you're smarter on
a podcast for sure, right, Like I have a question
to ask you, but they would have you know, they've
talked to all these different uh you know, alpha CEO
guys when they would ask them and this is true,
(20:42):
I've heard that. I mean I could think of like
ten different podcasts where there's been a version of this
same moment. You know, they asked some guy who's made
you know, five hundred million dollars two billion whatever it is,
right like astronomical riches and run some huge company or
built some huge company. They say like, what what you
think about and what are you most proud of? And
you know, you know what they all say, family, my family,
(21:05):
And if they have a regret. You know what. The
regret is not enough time with my family to admit.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
And it's so obvious.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
It's so obvious. And this is great for people to
hear though, because this is what I mean about your
day to day. It's like, you know, I mean, I
turned around the other day and I and I told Carrie, uh,
who's my wife or anyone in the audience who doesn't know.
It was just wonderful, thank you. She is really great.
She's really great. And and I I turned on. We're
talking to something. I don't even know how it came up,
but we found it like some friend of mine or
(21:33):
some guy I know, like just that you know just
actually is like a friend of a friend. And we
were like, well, like that guy's you know guys, I
didn't know he sold this company for like three hundred
million dollars and and you know he's got all these
fancy cars and all these houses and everything. And I
turned around. It's like, honestly, if I swear to you,
if we had a billion dollars tomorrow, I wouldn't get
a different car. Happy with the car we live in, Yeah,
(21:56):
I wouldn't. I would like there's like what there is
a level where.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, diminished and returns.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
So you have what you need. And I mean to me,
it's just kind of funny when I hear people that
have and because because again this is about like the
goal and the short term long term. Yeah, you have
this idea that oh, if I get to and this
is what I mean by the goal, can become the
enemy of what matters, which is your day to day life.
I'm going to mortgage my twenties, thirties, and maybe even
(22:22):
my forties so that I can be a tech a
tech billionaire, right Like, let's say that's your mindset. And
I don't know, I've come across a lot of younger
people who that's clearly and even more than that, by
the way, it's I want to be a YouTube star.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Oh yeah, that's the definitely the hot thing right now.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
I want to make thirty three. Well, okay, you know
you're going to spend a lot of time making content.
Do you like making content? You're going to have people
that don't like what you're doing. It's going to be frustrating,
it's going to take years. You know, you're you're also
taking a risk of not of not doing other things,
learning other things, that you have to take a I
(22:59):
think a broad spectrum view of what you're doing. But
if that makes you miserable, even if you wake up
at forty or forty five and now you do have
whatever it is, like you do have the million dollars
of stock in.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
The Lamborghini, you know, or you have the.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Ten million followers on YouTube or something. Were you happy
to get there?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Right?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Was it? Happiness? Is?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
This is all so deep too?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Like yeah, this is you know, I think that you
might not be and I think people think that they automatically.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Will be yes, this, But this is what I mean
by people create I'll be happy when you know, people
call it. I think people call like if then thinking
or when if thinking or whatever. It's you know, if
I get this, everything will be worth it. Yeah, if
I achieve the following thing, all the sacrifices. Look to
(23:48):
get places, you have to make sacrifices. Like one of
the things I tell people media now is if I
knew how hard it would be to get to a
place where I am happy and comfortable with my media
career when I started it, I probably would have gone
and taken a job like McKenzie or something. You know
what I mean, like I actually got on this like escalator.
(24:10):
It was kind of like once you're on it, you're
in it. You just kept going, but I knew what
it was actually going to require, you know. I mean,
I've managed to make a career in conservative media. I've
never been paid a dollar by Fox News in my life.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Now, that's fine, pretty unusual, that's.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Fine, But you know, but I just bring up, like
if you told me that when I started, I forget
it right, I'm never going to make a dollar from
Fox every Like, they're never going to literally pay me.
It's not a contributor or anything. I can't make a
living doing this. Well it turns out I can. But
you know, this is what I mean by I liked
(24:45):
even when stuff was crappy and I was doing a
lot for free, this game that you and I are in,
this which I actually think is a kind of a thing.
This thing that we do. I like it is. When
I was getting abused at CNN on air, not because
you know, they're so good at arguing, but because you know,
it's just like, ah, like chickens, you know, squawking at
(25:08):
you all at once. It's a mess. I was like, yeah,
but I like this is the fight I want to
be in, you know what I mean? And that yeah,
and that's really And it wasn't If I take this
abuse one day I'll have my own show at CNN
or something. It was just like I like this right now,
and I think I'm good at it, and so I'm
gonna keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Totally.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
I think that for younger people thinking about what they
want to do, do that it's not just people say
pursue your passion. No no, no, no, no no, no, Like
there are lots of things. There was a time when
I was passionate about video games, but like how to
make a living playing video games?
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Maybe, although now you never know, really nobody would watch
you play video games.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
That's like a money making thing now.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
So well yeah, so that's my My thing is is
if you really want to want to be where you
want to be in life. And I see this across
all my friends, all my colleagues, what is your day
to day? You know, do you enjoy it? Do you
find it productive? Do you find it meaningful?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
So the second question of my at one point, no, no,
that was one question. Yeah, like we got to get
to like that's right.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
My second my second new question is what do you
worry about? Which I think goes well with this because
you know, I think that you have to worry about something,
and so what is it you.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Mean as an individual or as an individual?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
What does what does books Sexton worry about? And it
could be anything.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
My question last season was what do you think is
our largest cultural problem?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
So it could be cultural or it could be you know,
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I I definitely worry about my kids or different different
things on different days.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
But I I worry about, uh, what I call mass delusion.
So I worry about groups of people becoming deeply convinced
of things and mobile eyes behind things that are not
only untrue, but often anti true or sort of divorced
(27:07):
from reality. I think that is the biggest threat that
human beings face. I think that is the biggest challenge
that we have, and I mean I could go through.
I mean I think all totalitarianisms, for example, are founded
on delusional principles of universal control and absolute power, which
is just it's not this is contrary to human nature.
(27:29):
It's contrary to existence. Right. So all of the worst
things involve large groups becoming certain that something is true
when it is untrue. COVID obviously is a huge example
of that.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
I was gonna say, I think we just had a
real good example of that not too long ago.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
And I think that this is what really concerns me
because also the ability to shape perception now at scale,
meaning you know, hundreds of me millions of people you
couldn't even you know. Yeah, there's like the printing press,
and then there's radio, and then there's these ways that
mass media have developed over the last hundred years. But
(28:09):
what we're in now is we alternate an alternate reality
of what is public consensus can be constructed very rapidly,
and by the time people even realize what's going on.
I think enormous damage can be done. I mean, I
do think COVID was, yeah, a perfect example of that,
(28:30):
but I think there are other examples of it too.
I mean, I think that the narrative that Donald Trump
is is hitler while we're to it because it's so stupid.
This is really this is really bad. This is it's
bad because there are people who believe this stuff and
they that then they're kind of numb to all the
(28:51):
other arguments, facts, data, and discussion that I think can
lead to.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
We end up arguing, you know, let's get rid of
the First Amendment because of what if you say something
positive about Donald Trump on social media, you know, they
end up having to go down this rabbit hole where
it has to support their delusion, and.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
That affects all of us.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
So yeah, and I think we were also all kind
of becoming. I mean I used to love I mean,
you know I did growing up. I read a lot,
but I watched a lot of particularly like HBO and
like I love watching all. I watched all these action
movies that were like made with small budgets and were
not good, you know, like I was a Dolph Lungdren fan.
(29:35):
And I don't mean Rocky four. I mean it's tougher,
Like nobody saw is that the Russian showed out? Sweet?
Speaker 2 (29:42):
No, he plays the Russian? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay,
that's all I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yeah, that is a thing that we used to watch
in these bad movies where it's like a human but
has like a chip in the brain and maybe some
cataolic thing. And Terminator is obviously the biggest example of this,
but like cyborgs is a big thing in the eighties
and nineties, we're all becoming these kind of human machine
hybrids where are like, we have access to endless information,
(30:06):
but we're also constantly being influenced by what's really almost
a second brain. Like you've never you know before, if
you wanted to find out a fact, if you aren't
go to encyclopedia, what are your Encyclopedia Britannica, and like, oh,
like is that really? Like is the toadsloth really? But
you know, it's amazing on the one hand, but on
the other hand that you have all this information access,
(30:28):
but you also are so reliant on these machines now
that they are pross. They are creating our version of reality.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
In ways when somebody's like Googled something and then they're
like read a book, you know, you just know they
just learned this.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Information five seconds ago.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Like when you see Twitter, like everybody become you know,
experts on whatever the latest thing is, like, oh, it's it,
I've always known about this, this was like this and
the fact that you believe that is evidence that you're stupid.
We see that all the time, and that is like
there they're part they think that that's part of them.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Their Google process is the information that they have.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
It's also amazing. I went to a bookstore here in
La looking for a hard to find book on ivan
Ory von Pavlov for yeah right now. But anyway, they
said they had it, they actually didn't because they it
was so rare, like they hadn't even updated that the
one copy they had a long time ago was gone.
(31:27):
So I'm like, of course, right, like you know, I'm like, oh,
I found that, but I went in there was it
was interesting. I'm a big fan of tactile books, like
physical hard time. I think everyone should have them in
their home. I think children should grow up reading still books,
not kindles. Not I read, That's fine, but you should
have books should be a part of it. There is
something about a physical It is an unbeatable technology for
(31:51):
what it is in some ways, having having books occupy
physical space, having you know, the cover design and how
in your hands, and that experience of I am reading
and it's not just great screens is all fast screens
is something else. I think it's really important. But it
was funny being in this bookstore, because I mean I
am in La, to be fair, I look around, I'm like,
(32:13):
I'm looking at all these books. I'm like, has a white
guy ever written a book? Is there a white male
who has written a book? Because walking around this store,
I don't think so that's interesting to me.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Yeah, and the Pavlov book obviously was written by my guy,
but they don't have it anymore.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
No, yeah, there was that.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
So the last time you were on, I end all
my shows with the question of leave my listeners with
the tip for them to improve their lives, and your
tip it wasn't that a groundbreaking tip? Sorry to say that,
but it.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Was read before bed. I think that. I mean I
always read before bed.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
I kind of fell off of that a little bit
when I got married, but I'm trying.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
I'm trying to get back to not scrolling before bed.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
People wrote to me and said that it really did
change things for them, just the decision to read before
bed instead.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Of getting on your phone made a difference. So do
you have a new tip for us?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
You want to end us with a new tip or
do you want to reinforce the last one?
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Well, I mean I have to double down on the
read before bed is a fabulous and that actually I do.
That's where actually the kindle for me, because if you
want to have the low light setting and everything that's
you know, so there's a place. I love my Kindle.
I'm not like anti it, but I just also believe
in physical books, and I believe that people should have
a bookshelf in the home and that there should be
books that they have both want to read and have
(33:37):
read that are on that shelf, and the children should
be familiar with it. I did grow up surrounded by
books and bookshelves in New York, so I think that
was interesting. It worked well for me, So I'll tell
you this one. Actually, man, I'm trying to pick I
have a few. I can't believe that. No.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
I know, we were like it's like fifteen minutes over it,
but that's okay, that's okay.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
No one really ever asked me my opinion on anything,
so this is such a new theck. It's always just like,
tell us what's going on in the news.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
I to say that I get a lot of that
here because I get people on and they're like ready
to talk about Donald Trump or something, and then I'm like, so,
you know, what kind of advice do you have for people?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
And they're like, wait, me what you know?
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Well, it's funny because I I would actually love to
like both share and exchange insights with people out there
more broadly. But what I find is I actually get
people who are who are almost like taken aback by,
like excuse me, like we how is Trump going to
beat calm on this election? Like stay focused? But but won't.
I'm not allowed with some.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
People, come back anytime and you share all the thoughts
that you have, all.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Right, So can I kind of kind of cheat and
give you a variant of the one I gave you
last year and then a totally new one. So I'm
kind of it's.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Your podcast network. You do whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
That's very kind of you, all right. So the one
thing I would tack on, because this gets me heat,
and I'm not even going to explain, get the TV
out of your bedroom. Get the TV out of your bedroom.
I'm not anti TV. I love great shows, that's fine.
Get it out of your bedroom. People, good old like
you're a newly wed. That's what I'm like, Well you
(35:16):
know what I mean, Yeah, you know what I mean.
But what you mean get the TV out of your
bedroom full stop. Don't argue with me, just do it.
Move it to another room. Don't have a TV in
your bedroom. But the advice piece that I will give
because I'm tacking that onto part one of the reason
for you to bed. Uh. And you're gonna disagree with
me on this. When Carol that you're gonna you're I might,
(35:39):
I might trigger Carol Markowitz on her own comfortable footwear.
It is, I mean, life changing. I I do not
understand men and women wearing shoes that hurt their feet.
It SAPs your energy, It puts you in a bad mood.
(35:59):
It over the long term, it causes all kinds of
foot distortions.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Have you discussed this with Jesse Kelly. He's super into me.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
I love. Yeah, this is where he is so wrong.
He is. He is like, yeah, a whole other stratosphere
of wrong.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
He got into my car and I had flats like
in the passengers, you know, on the floor of the
passenger seat, and he was like flats and I was like, no, no, Jesse,
only for driving because I love heels.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I love hot shoes. I hear you, I really do.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
I wear sneakers sometimes running around, you know, during the
day with my kids and stuff. But for nights out,
I love hot shoes and you cannot stop me.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
So see all right, I can't convince Carol. But to
the rest of listing, there there are happy mediums. You
want to have comfortable feet the uh. I mean, one
one of my experiences in New York that I lived
through so many times before I got married was I'd
be on a date and it was going, well, you know,
you're a dinner. Usually you throw the standard in New
York as your dinner, and then you get drinks affords
because you could walk across the street or you know,
(37:01):
it's New York right there. I mean, I know you
know this, but for people listening, uh, and they'd be like, like,
we take an axe, and I'd be like, we're gonna
go three blocks, Like we're gonna be three.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Blocks, okay, fair, you know. But I also I have
like shoes that I go out in that I.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Know are going to be sitting shoes. I'm not walking
into three blocks. I'm not walking anywhere.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
I'm walking from the car to dinner where I'll be
sitting and then I'll get back in the car when
I know I have to walk a little bit. I
have comfortable heels that I could walk in, and I
have and you know, I, yes, I reject your whole
premise here.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
But you would. I knew she would. She has an
amazing shoe collection, and I get it, and I'm you know,
and I know, especially with some of the women, but
I mean I see women walking around on these like
stilts that they have and I see it and I'm like,
I mean, look, I know it looks nice is and
Eller gets to it. But okay, fine, if you're at
like a you know, if you're like a block tie
(38:03):
gala or a wedding or something, I get it. But
for me, fancy shoes is the way I feel about
neck ties only if I absolutely have.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
To only silly but no shoes or you know, we're
gonna bring We're gonna bring Jesse Kelly on to debate
this with you and.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Tell you tell that let lanky son of a gun
anytime he wants to have the shoe throwdown on here.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
He's Buck Sexton, Clay Travis and Buck Section show. Check
them out every day.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
They're so amazing. You're awesome.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Buck, Thank you so much for having for coming on,
for having this show on your network.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
I really appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Rats on the podcast, by the way, it is doing great,
and I know.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
You see my internal numbers.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
Congratulations, a lot of people listen. Very good stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Thank you, Buck, thank you, thanks so much for joining
us on the Carol Marcowitch Show. Subscribe wherever you get
your podcasts.