Erik's Perspective

Tommy: It is The Daily Talk Show, episode 293.

Josh: What's going on, guys?

Tommy: It is a Thursday here in Melbourne, Australia.

Josh: Yeah, it's a stinking hot week again here, summertime, but 36 at the top.

Tommy: And, uh, I was just gonna say, I was wanting to frame where we are in Melbourne for people who don't understand.

Josh: We're on the fringe of the CBD. The central business district. We're a few kilometres on a tram, which is like a train but goes on the road.

Tommy: It's like a train but affected by traffic.

Josh: So, an annoying train.

Tommy: Yeah, it is a— in some regards, it's a poor man's bus.

Josh: They are great. They've been around for a long time here in Melbourne. They used to have them in Sydney. They're actually bringing them back to Sydney. George Street, I think, in the CBD, they're Maybe George Street? Anyway, they've created a new rail.

Tommy: It was George Street, yes.

Josh: And who else has got them?

Tommy: Well, we don't have— I think the new age tram might be a monorail.

Josh: Oh, yeah?

Tommy: Would you say that?

Josh: Elevated above, so there's no traffic. It's just— Yeah, there was one in Sydney. They've taken that one away.

Tommy: The monorail.

Josh: The monorail.

Tommy: But I think a lot of people get into the— If you're in the inner city, a lot of people get into the whole tram thing. If you're within, I think it's 2 kilometres, it's like free tram travel.

Josh: The one difference of the tram, free tram thing, so there's just like a zone in the CBD where it's free. And if you travel without a ticket and you enter that zone, so when you're travelling without a ticket, there's some anxiety happening. It's like, I hope there's no ticket inspectors.

Tommy: Similar anxiety to stealing something from a shop and walking out.

Josh: Yeah, I guess it'd be similar anxiety. So you're sitting on the tram and then over the loudspeaker, as you enter this zone, it says boom boom boom, you have now entered the free tram zone. And you're just like, I can rest easy.

Tommy: I can't believe— I feel like if I was to ever be on a tram and not be paying and not touching on, as they say— we have a system called myki here, which is flawed. Yeah, it's very slow. It's like, um, in London they have Opal, is it? Or is that in Sydney?

Josh: London Oyster cards.

Tommy: What do you know?

Josh: Sydney Oyster cards. Yeah, oyster card. That's cool. That is a system that works.

Tommy: Yeah, it works very well.

Josh: Well, the thing is, these are not government-owned businesses.

Tommy: Well, they contracted out. I think they like do a tender or whatever.

Josh: Yeah, they make so much cash. And so the one in Melbourne, like, I still don't know if I tap on and tap off. And literally every time I get on the bus, I start Googling it.

Mason: Yeah.

Josh: And this is rarely, so it's like, you know, it's not like every day. It's like once every couple of months.. And I'm just— I just cannot remember if you tap on and also tap off, because in New York and London, I think you're tapping on and tapping off to get out.

Tommy: It's so much quicker.

Josh: So much quicker.

Tommy: I remember I've probably been on a bus more overseas than in Australia. I feel like I use public transport.

Josh: You haven't lived in Sydney. If you live in Sydney, it's bus town. There's trains, but there's like a whole bunch of areas where you can't get to. And the bus system is epic. It's like if you live in Bondi, the closest train station is Bondi Junction, which is 4Ks from Bondi Beach. And then you can go further to the other beaches and you have to get a bus. And the system over there works so well.

Tommy: It's all what it— where it actually matters is if the system works. If the system works, you'll use it.

Josh: Yeah, exactly. There was a woman on a Melbourne train— sorry, a Melbourne tram this week who— there was a photo of her and she had her eyes closed sitting on the chair. And then across from her, so someone was taking a video from the opposite chairs, taking a video, and there was a ticket inspector sitting down talking to this young lady, and the young lady had her eyes closed. She looked, you know, well dressed. She looked a bit hippie-ish. She was meditating, and she said to the ticket inspector, I've got 8 more minutes, or something like that. I've got 6 more minutes left. I'll be with you in a moment.

Tommy: And she was just meditating on the chair, and she definitely didn't tap on, don't you think?

Josh: No, I think that The whole storey was that she wasn't someone who was trying to evade the system, break the law.

Tommy: She was being a bit annoying.

Josh: Well, she was meditating. Leave her alone.

Tommy: I don't know if that's—

Josh: I mean, you've got one side like this person's just doing their job asking people.

Tommy: Yeah, I feel like you should just be doing like what they say.

Josh: Yeah, but she was meditating.

Tommy: It's not an airline. Like if you did that on a flight, all of a sudden you'd be thrown off and they'd have you—

Josh: I get the privilege to use the service. Is one to accept. I was sitting on a tram coming over to work, this was about a year and a half ago, and I was sitting next to this lovely sort of lovely lady, casually dressed, sort of looked at her and smiled, looking out the window. And then maybe 30 minutes into the trip, she pulls out a badge at me and she's like, I'm just going to cheque your ticket, thanks. I felt like I'd been hard done by. I felt like we'd built rapport and then she'd Got me. And I was a law-abiding citizen that day, a Mikey-abiding citizen. So I was fine. But these are undercover ticket inspectors.

Tommy: It sounds like there's a show in the States, I think it's called Dateline. Yeah. Where they, I think it's called To Catch a Predator.

Josh: Yeah, that's, it's enjoyable and disgraceful all at the same time.

Tommy: So it's like the thing is it's, you know, 13, what a guy thinks is a 13-year-old girl that he's chatting to. He's a fucking essentially a pedophile.

Josh: Yes.

Tommy: And he's saying, hey, yeah, come over and all that sort of thing. And then it's so fun watching, like, there's a guy, I forgot his name, but he comes out like the host, the host, real smug fuck, just being like, you got done.

Josh: Yeah, I mean, when was the— I would love to know when the last episode of that Dateline show was filmed, because I think like nowadays, imagine how— and I have no sympathy or empathy for paedophiles whatsoever.

Tommy: We're a no paedophile show.

Josh: Definitely no ped zone. But what happens to those people? Like, the, the shame— so if they've never acted out, and I'm not like— I'm literally just playing a No Ped Show, No Ped Show, but if they're— they've never acted out and they're just being creeps online, they should be prosecuted. But at what extent is it wrong that they're out on a reality television show?

Tommy: I think it's fair. I think if they're—

Josh: I think that we've created a day and age where shame, like public public shaming and like public prosecution is greater than ever.

Tommy: I think you need to— I reckon all of these things need to happen. Like, uh, George Pell, uh, what was, what was he? And it was a priest, whatever, got— he's been convicted. And, uh, you— there, there is an active— it's a cultural phenomenon almost of people yelling abuse and creating. But you have to do that. I think that as society, it's like we we feel like we need to be expressing some— something in this time to make a very clear statement that it's not okay.

Josh: We're in a pretty PC time, and a show like that, the sensibility of even dangling bait out for these predators— like, I could see that people would see that as like, you're— I know you're catching them, but you're also dangling bait.

Tommy: Like, I don't reckon it would. I don't reckon. I think that where it probably gets trickly is tricky is when you're dealing with like—

Josh: trickily, trickily—

Tommy: with, um, like the mentally ill and stuff like that. But I think that it's a, um, yeah, I don't know, like you do probably feel sorry for these people, but you also think about the destruction that they cause. It's fucked by doing this.

Josh: We're in no ped zone. Do you know there is like a support group for people who have thoughts really of acting out towards children, but they've never acted out? And so they come together and they feel so much guilt around it, so much shame about it.

Tommy: It's like a mental illness or something.

Josh: Yeah, that's a fucking hard one. Hard one. Like, if you were to— yeah, you said, you said to me yesterday, I'd be so disappointed if I found out one of my mates was a pedophile.

Tommy: Well, yeah, because I was just thinking about like, well, George Powell, this guy, we can talk like, uh, in Australia they had a gag order or whatever because there was trials, so no one could talk about it.

Josh: Cardinal George Pell. He was connected to the Vatican. He was a Melbourne man who— High up in the Vatican. Very high up.

Tommy: No, but just imagine if you were giving this guy— because the thing is when you're giving people references, you're just banking on the fact that you— like, who knows? Because I think there's probably— there's been pushback where it's like, oh, people are giving personal references and stuff for George Pell and they're being like, how bad is that? I mean, how is the pre—

Josh: yeah, previous Prime Minister of Australia.

Tommy: But the thing is, I'm sure like they're not knowing that he's a pedophile, and so that's what's so fucked up about it.

Josh: Yeah, anyway, I mean, yeah, giving references, putting your name to something, I mean, you would think— I think people just get unlucky, as in if you've actually had a nice conversation with somebody, well, how are you meant to know?

Tommy: Like, how are you meant to—

Josh: maybe the interesting bit is when you've Like I've had people close to me that I, you know, hold up quite high and respect, recommended people and vouched for somebody, and my interaction with that somebody hasn't been good. It's been shithouse. Yeah, not a pedophile, but just a bad client, just bad, bad operator. Yeah, just like no idea, treating me with disrespect. And then I think about the person who put me in touch. I'm like, I almost sort of, it sort of brings them down.

Tommy: Not, but you also need to realise it's like, what are they What context do they have?

Josh: Yeah, right.

Tommy: Um, moving away from pedophiles. Oh yeah, we got to do the check-in around the world, uh, for Mr.

Josh: 97's mission to find love. We've had some, um, support, uh, Mr. 97, we've had support come in from all around the world. Yeah, Tennessee.

Tommy: Yeah, great.

Josh: Chelsea, she's, um, she's wrapped, mate. She said good luck, Mr. 97, today. That was— this was before you guys. Um, remember, if it is meant to be, it's meant to be. Don't stress too much. Awesome. That's lovely, Chelsea. Thank you. And she mentioned about a bunch of other stuff. Your, you know, your support's gone. This is now support for the Daily Talk Show.

Tommy: She could have made a poem. If it's meant to be, if it's meant to be. Otherwise, there's always Chelsea in Tennessee.

Josh: She said, I listen to the Daily Talk Show every day while I do cardio to make it more enjoyable. She's hinting.

Tommy: I think that's what it is.

Josh: She does cardio, she trains.

Tommy: Yeah. And then I enjoy watching Netflix afterwards.

Josh: It's now one of my "Favorite parts of the day. Thanks for the quality content every day." So she likes quality content, which is on Netflix, and she likes training.

Tommy: So, Chels, that could be fun.

Josh: Just saying.

Tommy: Maybe there could be, yeah, there could be a nice, 'cause I was bringing that to Mr. 97. Bri was pointing out, like I was showing her bits from the show yesterday, I like sort of doing the update. I actually, while driving Mr. 97 home, and I was trying to show Bri content and she was—

Josh: Was she driving?

Tommy: No, I was driving. No, Josh was driving.

Mason: I was driving.

Josh: How are you trying to show her content?

Tommy: Well, I was like, hey, can you just bring up some—

Erik: Audio content?

Mason: No, no, video.

Tommy: Bring up your phone.

Josh: Oh, you outsourced it to Mr. 97?

Tommy: Well, to Bree. No, he just told Bree to do it.

Josh: Oh, okay, yeah, okay, yeah.

Tommy: And what did she say? Do you remember? Yeah, she's like, nah, I can't be bothered.

Mason: What did she say?

Tommy: Motion sick. She said, I can't look at it in the car. But as soon as we got home, I had it all out showing. But she was saying, she was like, oh, you got to be careful when you like, when I, what was the moment? Oh yeah, when I asked Mr. 97 if it was still open.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: And I said, oh, open for business.

Josh: And she was like, got to be careful of the laugh.

Tommy: That, you know, your laugh. It was unclear whose laugh she was talking about.

Josh: Yeah, true. What I have realised throughout this whole thing with a team player like Mr. 97, you put a question to him, he'll answer it. So be careful about the question that you like, you got to understand. And then you put it out on Instagram, that bit. Yeah, so I was like, geez, he's really doubling down.

Tommy: You got to be comfortable with it. But the thing is that we would hope that people understand the full context. Yes, you bring out we cut a bit that makes it sound like you're a, um, I'm not gonna double down on that. Like, but you know, you could easily cut up a bit to be like, oh, Tommy Jackett said we should give paedophiles another chance.

Josh: Yeah, yeah, give them a go.

Mason: Yeah, yeah.

Josh: Also, I don't mind if anything's like kind of me saying something, as long as it's not disrespecting anyone else. And that's— no, I appreciate that. Like, because if you actually taking the time to watch this show or listen to this show, you get the kind of guy. And you saying, oh, but like, it was your 'You said, are you still like—' Like, it's—

Tommy: you can feed someone an answer and they come, 'Yeah.' And people don't know the reality of it all, which is slow and steady. He's being very respectful.

Josh: Dude, the guy's never gone on a date. There couldn't be anyone less— yeah, anyone, you know, he's a great man. He's not a— what do you call it? I was gonna say manophile.

Tommy: A manophile? No, I think it's a womanizer. Humanized. Yes, I think so. Anyway, uh, so Chelsea, uh, Chelsea from Tennessee—

Josh: oh, sorry, I have to bring up one other thing that Chell said. It's probably a no-go, so maybe it's— she's— she runs, but she's not— um, you're not for her more so. She said, my best friend growing up showered with her dog, and it was possibly the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. There is nothing quite as uncomfortable as a dog watching you naked, but I'm also one of those people who shuts dogs out of the bathroom when I go pee. Yeah, you're a weird unit, mate.

Tommy: Yeah, no, like, I get that. So she just doesn't like the whole— I think from a hygiene point of view, I sort of get it. Um, the dog, like, I guess I feel like after showering the dog while you're in the shower, you'd want to take the dog out and have like a full clean with your own shampoo.

Josh: And yeah, dangling tackle, he could just jump up.

Tommy: Yeah, it's a slight— careful, bro. It's a slight risk. But, um, also we heard from Dylan from Toronto who has— we've got some very exciting updates coming. Should we—

Josh: tomorrow we'll talk about it. Yeah, fun, fun one for Fat Friday about the Squeegee stuff.

Tommy: So Chels, as one of the Squeegee members, yeah, the Squeegee crew, first 5 she was, you'll be interested in knowing what's happening with that. But yeah, um, Dylan from Toronto did say, keep looking for love, 97, sending heart from Canada.

Josh: That's awesome, right? So you've got your American support, you've got your Canadian, Australian, it's coming in from right around the globe. Someone else who does love you and supports you is Eric, our American correspondent. We should get him up.

Tommy: He's from Norfolk. Norfolk. Yeah, so we try and give him a buzz every— what day? Thursday, every Thursday, once a week. Wednesday is the promise and we haven't broken it yet. It's Wednesday, Eric's time, so we're just FaceTime audioing so it doesn't cost me a huge amount of money.

Mason: Eric, Eric, Eric, store clerk manager, how may I help you? What's going on, mate? I'm doing well, how about you?

Tommy: Yeah, very well. Where are you right now? Paint the picture for us.

Mason: Uh, I'm smelling some OxiClean.

Tommy: Smelling some OxiClean. What is that? It's like a cleaning product, I'm guessing.

Mason: That's what you wash your clothes with.

Tommy: Okay, great. So it's sort of a nice laundry smell. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mason: I'm on the laundry aisle of the Family Dollar. Okay, great.

Tommy: Is that a supermarket, is it, or a convenience store?

Mason: No, I mean, what would you call this, a supermarket, a convenience store?

Josh: Supermarket. He's finding out, he's asking something.

Mason: No, no, no, more on the convenience store side. It's more convenient. Super. Yeah, yeah, he's taking too long to answer the question like we're not live on the air. We got, we got things to talk about.

Josh: Yeah. Hey Eric, what jobs have you had across your life? You answered the phone like you were the manager, so I'm just—

Mason: What job? What jobs that I had across my life? You mean before I did drugs? Both.

Tommy: Let's get the pre-drug, post-drug.

Mason: I mean, I mean, you know, there was a corner pimp, there was a sexaholic.

Tommy: Have you ever done— have you ever worked at a fast food place?

Erik: Yeah, I did. I worked at Chick-fil-A.

Mason: People love Chick-fil-A.

Tommy: My bro's from North Carolina and he, um, he was sort of bragging because, uh, the guy who was the— what is the MC of a wedding? What's that called? When he's like— ceremony?

Mason: No, no, no, no, no, no. The actual officiant.

Tommy: Yeah, the celebrant. The middleman.

Josh: Yeah, the celebrant. Middleman between him and God?

Tommy: Yeah, no, as in him and the, like, the partner that he's doing. It's called the preacher.

Mason: The preacher.

Tommy: Yeah, he, um— well, wasn't the preacher—

Erik: hold up, hold up, hold up.

Mason: What is the title for the man officiating the wedding?

Josh: Celebrant. Yeah, celebrate.

Mason: Yeah, it's celebrating. An officiant, right? Yeah, it's called an officiant. He's asking—

Tommy: I like that you're getting the convenience store crew on it. But no, the guy who did that bit, he owned a bunch of Chick-fil-A's, and that was a big talking point within the, the whole, um, space.

Josh: And so you worked at Chick-fil-A. Any other fast food joints?

Mason: I worked at Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut.

Josh: Did they— hey, uh, did they have all-you-can-eat Pizza Hut in America?

Mason: We did at one point in time. Yeah.

Tommy: And did they have a setup? So in Australia, Pizza Hut used to be it actually had a specific design with the roof.

Mason: Um, yeah, we called them red roofs.

Tommy: Red roof. And is it still the same there? Do they still have—

Mason: No, no, we don't, we don't have those anymore. They decided to discontinue all the Pizza Huts because the fat boys would go in and eat all the food and they couldn't keep the pizzas out there.

Tommy: So can you get takeaway still from there?

Mason: You can, you can get takeaway if you're not scared to get shot 7 times on the way out the door.

Josh: Yeah, it's a dangerous area.

Mason: No, I mean, that was a joke. They're, they're not, they're not that dangerous.

Tommy: But Pizza Hut, is it same? Because you and I were talking over the weekend about Taco Bell versus Chipotle, and you were giving me a whole lesson on sort of socioeconomics and where people eat and all that, all that sort of stuff.

Mason: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Chipotle is where the rich white people go, and Taco Bell is where the poor black people go.

Tommy: Yeah, okay, cool. And, and is the I mean, what is— what's the upcoming, uh, fast food? Like, for when we go to the US, we get excited about In-N-Out. Is that considered sort of white guy territory? Or like, what is— what do you think is this?

Mason: Seeing as In-N-Out— In-N-Out is more of a West Coast store. Um, what do we have over here on the East? We have, uh, Five Guys. Yeah, we have Steak 'n Shake. We have, um, uh, list some places. I'll tell you whether we have—

Tommy: what about Whataburger? I feel like I had somewhere in there. That's West Coast.

Josh: Carl's Jr.

Mason: That's Carl's Jr. is Hardee's on the East. Hardee's is a different name.

Tommy: Do you know what we call— same people— Burger King? Do you know what we call Burger King in Australia? What? Hungry Jack's. It's actually the same logo and everything.

Mason: Oh wow, Hungry Jack's. I was gonna, I was gonna call it, uh, um, Booger King, but okay, go ahead.

Josh: So what else have you done in your life? So you've done the sort of, uh, fast food joints.

Mason: What, anywhere else? Uh, I delivered newspapers. I, uh, I worked at a grocery store. I worked in the airport.

Tommy: Oh cool, did you do TSA or what did you do at the airport?

Mason: Like baggage? No, I, I got fucked up by the TSA like 7 times. But, um, I did, uh, so at the Norfolk International— so when you go into any airport, you'll notice that there's a food court. Yep. Neither one. And though, yeah, those food courts, they're, they're different little areas, maybe a, uh, a beer place or something. But anyway, all of those those areas are serviced by one particular person. So you get this one guy, he has a cart, he goes around and he makes sure that all of their back rooms are stocked because whatever they need up front is put in the vault somewhere. You know, that's what I did. Yeah. Did you—

Tommy: now in Australia, uh, gun laws are very tight. I've actually— I've shot a gun in the US at a gun range. What's your view on the gun stuff? Have you ever owned a gun?

Mason: Do you own a gun? I refuse to get a gun because I know about 12 people I'll shoot the first time I get my hands on one. So, um, so I am, uh, anti-gun for that purpose. Um, other than that, I, I, I mean, I, I, I kind of stray away from the politics of everything in my life.

Tommy: So, uh, but, uh, and do you get a sense though that, um, he's in a military town?

Josh: Yeah, I mean, you probably wouldn't want to mess around.

Tommy: Can you, can you have open— what's it called— open carry?

Mason: In the state of Virginia? Yeah. As a black man? No.

Tommy: What do you mean as a black man? So in all seriousness, but in all seriousness, is there—

Mason: okay, in all seriousness, in any part of America, as a black man, you don't even want to breathe openly. Really?

Tommy: That's so interesting. Yeah.

Josh: So the open carry thing, does that scare you? Like, are you thinking about this?

Mason: No, because I like white people and they like me, so we're good. Yeah.

Tommy: And do you think that it has to be that, that conversation of you saying, hey, I like you? Like, it's, it's, it feels sad to me that that's even a conversation, that it's like there is that sort of, um, division.

Mason: So you said on the show a long time ago that there's nothing that happens in Australia. Yeah. Well, I feel like that Australia is boring. Well, yeah, because there's nothing popping off.

Tommy: I don't think that we have the, um it doesn't feel like the racial division doesn't feel as sort of prevalent as it does, say, in the US. But we definitely have our own bullshit, which is like the, uh, the Indigenous history and how, uh, the governments have treated them and things like that.

Josh: I think I was talking about how it's such a safe place, like it doesn't feel like much has happened in our lifetime being here. Yeah, sure, there's been bad things happen. Yeah, but not to the extent that there has been, or that we've witnessed over in the States. The States have, they've taken a beating. I mean, is that the cost of being the greatest place on earth?

Tommy: You know, well, I couldn't believe how big the population is.

Mason: So I mean, that's, that's a thing because compared to the United States, you live on a toilet. Yeah, but, um So therefore, you know, more money, more problems. And, uh, the fact that most countries in the developed world— how are you? I'm sorry, you gonna be all right?

Erik: I'm doing good.

Mason: Let me get them out your way. That's right. I, I, I'm sorry about that. Um, most, most countries in the developing world, um, have an identity. If you go to Australia, you know, you're going to get one group of people. But if you go to America, we have— we're like— so it's like purebreds versus mutts in America. There's a country of much. Yeah, that we don't really have an identity, so we're all fighting trying to figure out who the hell we are, and that's where the big controversy comes from. Yeah, interesting.

Josh: I mean, we've found that when we've come to America, there's been some things that are slightly behind in terms of like paying. Like over in Melbourne in Australia, we're using PayPass a lot, which is our cards. We just tap them and go. And when we came to America, it was like people are still inserting PIN numbers, signing for stuff, doing checks. Are you— is that your— is that what you've— how you've been paid, cheque and that kind of stuff?

Mason: So it's, it's, it's still a backwards system where a lot of folks are still kind of— we were talking about this earlier today. If you know, Josh loves to live on my Instagram and we were like, By the way, I thank you for living there. It just makes me feel so comfortable about myself. Okay. But, um, we were talking about this earlier about how there's some in the world who get treated like a piece of meat and they love to allow that to happen. And that's kind of the thing that we were talking about all day is, you know, we have this kind of mindset that's just so deep that we can't figure out how to get out of it. And that's just That's kind of the struggle we face, the depressing part that we face.

Tommy: Yeah. I mean, and what do you think, has the US changed, do you think, a lot in the last, um, few years? Like, are you noticing, like, what, what's your perception of where you live?

Mason: Um, so it's gone from a level of legal slavery to willing slavery, meaning I will allow you to do this to me. Yeah.

Tommy: And so minimum wage, you and I were talking about minimum wage over the, uh, weekend, and you were talking about a guy in Australia who worked at Macca's. He's getting like $20 an hour, and it's like, in the US, like, what's minimum wage at the moment?

Mason: Depends on what part of the US you live in. Um, in some parts it's $15, and in the state of Virginia, still $7.25. Wow. Oh wow.

Josh: And, um, how much is something like rent? Like, if we were to comparatively look at the numbers, depends on where you live.

Mason: Um, if you, if you prefer to live in a gated community, maybe $1,800 to $2,000 a month. If you preferred— yeah, I'm on. Yeah. If you, if you prefer to get shot by tomorrow, you'll maybe pay $300. Yeah. Which, which area are you living in? Uh, so I live in not necessarily a gated community, but I kind of live on a back farm by myself, which makes me feel good about myself.

Tommy: It looks so beautiful, that like the water that you look onto is awesome.

Mason: Yeah, I was like, Josh can pretty much describe it because every time we chat, I kind of look at it and try to contemplate all the stuff that he's trying to tell me about my life.

Josh: Yeah, and rent-wise, like, what's the— like, I pay, I pay like $1,600 a month for a 2-bedroom.

Erik: I don't pay rent.

Tommy: Yeah, because you're in a family home.

Mason: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tommy: I'm guessing probably like this, the $800, $700 or $800 a month, I feel like seems like a pretty common occurrence for sort of like if you're in Like my— I think my brother bought a place in the States and it's like, you know, like North Carolina, it's like $120,000.

Mason: You can buy a place where it's— that's because you— that's because your brother lives in a southern country that's probably literally the country.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is that? So what does that mean?

Mason: Meaning that your, your brother can buy a house in North Carolina for $120,000. Yeah, $120,000 in New York may get you a bathroom suite. Exactly.

Tommy: Yeah, it wouldn't get you anything, right? That's probably Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We were talking, um, just before about public transport. We're talking about, you know, in Melbourne we have trams. Do you know what a tram is?

Mason: Uh, that's a train that runs down the middle of the street. I'm not illiterate, man. No, no, I know a little bit about life.

Josh: No, but maybe there's no trams in Norfolk, right?

Mason: Yes, we have a tram. We got one Tuesday.

Erik: It's okay. Really?

Tommy: Do you really have a tram though?

Mason: Yes, we have a train that runs down the middle of the street. I have to give you a picture of it.

Tommy: Can— yeah, can you please send us a picture and we'll put it on Instagram? The— yeah, is it dark yet? Because it's, it's what, 6 PM or something?

Mason: Well, I'm nowhere near the train, so I can't do that right now.

Tommy: Get running. So are you actually working right now?

Mason: I mean, I, I'm, I'm here because I'm with someone. I'm not working. This is not my job. No, okay, nobody's going to get me fired. It's okay.

Josh: I didn't want to get you fired, that's why I asked.

Tommy: And the— you're going— sorry, Eric.

Mason: No, I'm sorry. I, you know, I do content for a living. I'm not— yeah, this is just fun. Yeah. And the— this is how I get out and see what the world looks like from outside of my little hole.

Tommy: I think it's great.

Josh: Awesome.

Tommy: Um, so public transport-wise, what's the sort of spectrum of if you want to get around? You're a walking guy, you're smashing it with all the miles that you're doing at the moment, but if it's super cold outside or it's super hot and you don't want to be walking How do you get around?

Mason: Uh, so we have the, uh, the bus. May I have the keys, please? I'm sorry, I was trying to signal him to like, just let me get the keys so I can get out of here, and he's trying to be all nice and dignified. I don't know why, it's just a bunch of white people. I don't know why he's so scared. Talk to him. But, uh, I'm going outside where we can, we can be more comfortable. But, uh, yeah, so we walk around. I mean, so it depends. Because that kind of goes into the stigma of the situation. And if you give me 2 seconds, I'm gonna run to the car and I can really tell you how I feel because yeah, I can't tell you that in there because I'm in the hood and you may hear gunshots if I give you that answer.

Tommy: It's crazy, isn't it? Like just because when we speak to you, like how much of it is it over you doing a bit of gear or a bit of entertainment versus reality? Because when we talk to you, it seems pretty intense, like, you know, this vision of, you know, you can't say shit and all that sort of thing. Where do you think it actually— where does it actually lie for you in your head, do you think?

Erik: So, uh, I had to come outside to answer that question because that would have gotten really intense in the neighbourhood that I'm in. Yeah, but, um, A lot of people that use public—

Mason: so in your part of town, or in more civilised or more progressive parts of town, public transportation is kind of elevated. It's looked at as a convenience, where in this part of town, if you use public transportation, you're poor, you're belittled.

Erik: And so most of us would rather drive a Beamer and a BMW than walk or ride a bike. And part of the thing where it kind of made me start to walk is like, why do I have to fucking be poor or not be able to buy a car just because I walk?

Tommy: Yeah, I do. I like that idea. I like— actually like your idea. Well, the walking is this sort of neutral thing which is like, well, CEOs, CEOs, rich walk, homeless people, everyone needs to fucking walk, right? It's It's the— it's right, it's a shame that there's the fucking— that we apply stigmas to certain forms of transport.

Erik: It's a lot, it's a lot of stigma, like, because a lot of it is the—

Mason: as I said earlier about the, the deepness of this mentality where a lot of Black people walk 12 miles to, to school and then they got a car, like, fuck you, ain't walking no more.

Erik: Yeah. And, and so a lot of that is, is what's embedded, that if you're walking you need to, you know, you need to get your shit up.

Mason: Whereas it's like, no, I can have my shit up and still walk.

Erik: Yeah, it's okay.

Josh: Where, Eric, where do you think that stigma has come from? Is there anything that you put your finger on as to why that is being created or developed?

Mason: So, so we're going to get real dark for a moment, but then again, you know, I'm a positive guy, so we can dig us out of this dark hole, so we'll be okay. So when I was young, and I was talking about this earlier, I said, oh, I'm gonna be the one to change the world, blah blah blah. Uh, I, I challenge you to look up what is called the Willie Lynch Theory. Willie Lynch was the biggest fucking racist of all time. Yeah. And Willie Lynch is the guy that I swear to God I would dig up and give him a fucking award because he was a fucking genius.

Erik: Why do you say that? He created a theory that not only enslaved people physically but enslaved them mentally so bad that psychologically we can't even get out of it.

Mason: Yeah.

Erik: And, and so for a guy who woke up and said, oh, I'm gonna change the world, I've already realised at 34, with me being whatever you want to call me, an activist, a leader, whatever I am That if you look at a lot of my content, you hear me say that I'm not talking about today, I'm talking about the people who are going to watch this 20 or 30 years from now because I already kicked it down the road. Yeah, because there's a lot of things that even I, as much as I believe that I'll be able to do, will not fix.

Josh: Do you think there's a book called The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave?

Tommy: I wonder if that's—

Erik: there may be it. Yeah, well, I mean, Wikipedia, the university of Google, will tell you everything. Have you heard of the place? It's actually a free education.

Mason: You should try it.

Tommy: I mean, Wikipedia describes Tommy as a run-of-the-mill podcaster, so I'd like to say we don't—

Erik: you— we don't— we don't use those fuck things. Yeah, exactly.

Tommy: When they stop defaming my co-host, I'll start reading their shit. Yeah, but, um, that's Wikipedia aside. The, um, I was gonna— I had a question. If you go on, TJ.

Josh: Well, I was just going to say there's another— I've just found a book that's called Breaking the Curse of Willie Lynch: The Science of Slave Psychology. So you're really talking— I mean, I'm so curious to know more about it.

Tommy: Yeah, that's what I was actually going to ask, um, ask you, Eric.

Erik: I wouldn't read that book if I were you because, uh, you're doing this lovely job. You're doing so beautiful, and I applaud you for not drinking. But if you do read that book, it may drive you back. So I would just put that aside for a little while, just, just just for a little while.

Josh: You did say it's a dark place.

Tommy: It's got good ratings on Amazon. A lot of people are reading it. Yeah. The, um, uh, Eric, you were talking, uh, when we spoke on, on Saturday, you were talking about sort of maybe how you feel about telling everybody, like, Los Angeles and New York, how you sort of touched on it a little bit. What is the, um Um, what's your feeling being in not one of those sort of coast, uh, you know, those, those specific, uh, areas, those sort of big hubs, and how the US is represented? What do you think if we're getting all of our— if Australians are getting all of their sort of content from some of these hubs, what is the main thing that we're missing?

Erik: So a lot of, uh, we talked about this on Saturday.

Mason: I don't know why you're telling everybody our business.

Erik: I thought we had—

Tommy: I didn't, I didn't know we had an open relationship.

Erik: That's my heart.

Tommy: I tell people everything. That's one of my faults. See, ask Mr. 97.

Erik: Jesus, man. Oh man, we really did.

Mason: Just don't tell them we really did, okay?

Erik: I mean, I mean, I still haven't got to come off the wall yet.

Tommy: That's funny, Eric. But yeah, go on.

Erik: Yeah, so, uh, um, uh, a lot of folks look at— so most of you, or most of your viewers or listeners, uh, notice how I put both of those in, plug in the YouTube and the podcast. I'm a pro at this. Listeners and viewers, nailed it. Yeah, so, uh, they, they look at, uh, Tommy only just realised that we're filming it now.

Tommy: You sort of looked a bit puzzled. Yeah, we filmed every episode.

Josh: I just lost what you said. Where am I going?

Mason: I, I, I, you sure you started drinking?

Erik: Yeah, he's a bit tweaked. So, uh, a lot of folks I can take these things out of my ear because they're going to die. A lot of folks— oh, oh, okay, all right, no, no, we're good, we can hear you still, it's all good. Yes, I thought I hung up on you. A lot of folks look at Los Angeles, they look at New York, they look at Miami, they look at, um, those places, and they miss something. The thing that they miss is that you have, you have California, New York, and Florida but there's 47 other fucking states in the goddamn union.

Mason: Yeah, yeah.

Erik: And a lot of those states have so many unique things that get missed, uh, that, that could be considered hilariously fun. And I feel that if there's going to be a new project, I, I was determined that in my content creation in my career that 3 places I would never go is Los Angeles. I would never go to New York City, and I would never go to Florida. I would go to Miami just because I'm a Miami Dolphins fan, but passed by that, it's like there's not shit I want in those places. Yeah, because every fucking body knows about that.

Tommy: How do you avoid though, when you start talking about the different states in Virginia and places like that, that you want to be able to talk about the, um racial tensions or things like that. But how, how do you, how do you move forward? And how do you work with, say, looking at it from a communications exercise, how do you demonstrate that Virginia is more than just a racist state full of tension?

Mason: We're gonna have to kick that down the road, buddy.

Tommy: Yeah. And so do you think it's gonna be leading to— do you still think that the the issues-based communication is the, the, the thing that needs to be sort of brought forward first?

Erik: So it's kind of like, um, you have a— how do I put it— it's kind of like, uh, you have roaches in your house and a lot of people will just spray the roaches they see. But the problem is you got to figure out where they're coming from. Yeah, that's the biggest issue of racism and deprivities in America is, A, where they're coming from, and B, the second issue is we got roaches, we may plug the hole, but what caused it And are we still doing the same thing that could potentially keep them coming back? So those two issues are what leaves the problem in America, because A, we don't know where it's coming from, we're still trying to figure that out, and B, we're still doing racist shit even though we don't realise we're doing it.

Josh: Yeah, yeah, I think you, you hit the nail on the head. It's— there's some really deep embedded psych— psychology in in humans and throughout America. That is probably the case from the, you know, the hundreds and hundreds of years of history where stuff was very, very different. And so I bet—

Tommy: how do you move forward? I guess, how do you identify?

Erik: So, so number one, uh, there was something that I, I, I, I— Bill Clinton, who was the 42nd President of the United States, is a genius. And sometimes you listen to him and you don't necessarily listen to him when he's talking slow because that's when he's trying to, you know, get you to suck his penis. Um, no pun intended. But you listen to him when he's talking fast because that's when he'll tell you the truth. And so like, he rushed through one time, he's like, there would never be equality in a market free society. And he just sped right on through that because the reality is, as long as we are on the hunt for money, we will always be carnivores and dog eat dog, a dog eat dog society. And that's not just in America, that's in any country. If I got $2 and— so this, let me, let me break this down in 2 seconds and we're going to move on. Yeah. Uh, so you had slaves, okay? Then you had the top 1%. They were the— they were the bosses. So I want you to think about this and tell me this makes sense to you. So white people were the ones working, the Black people were the ones that was doing it for free. Then they freed them, okay? Then it was told, oh, we got to pay them, all right? Yeah. So it's $500 in the budget. The boss has a lot more money. But his cap is only $500. He's not giving you any more. So now he's got to pay the Black people. So what did he do? He split the $500 in half. So now white people make it $250, and he's giving it up to the Black people. And the white man says, why is my cheque cut? He's like, blame the Black people. Hello, racist.

Tommy: So it's a— so it becomes an issue of the, the— from the top, right? It's that, it's that one. Is it so the focus on Do you think that the, the focus on the 1% that we're currently seeing, I've seen over the last few years, do you think that that 1% conversation is as much about race than it is about economic sort of, um, standards?

Erik: So in my Instagram post, which I said the other week was very uncomfortable, actually early, I don't know if you saw it, where I said that slavery was never going anywhere. Yeah, yeah. And I said, the reality is there will always be a master and there will always be a slave. Because truth be told, if you have a job, you're a slave. Back in the day, slavery was I went to work and in return he gave me a hot macat, and, and that was it. Now the slave return is, I give you a paycheck. Yeah, I can choose who my master is.

Tommy: But do you think that the, the job is, um, doesn't racially discriminate? Is that, is that part of it? Is it the reality that in any workplace there's all different types of, of people that, that hold jobs?

Erik: Yeah, I mean, it's a lot to that conversation, and we're definitely not gonna unpack it in one episode. Yeah. Now, I mean, you have a 10-year plan, let's go ahead and take a journey. Yeah, but he's on to it. I'm like, I wasn't going to do it, but, uh, but it's a thing of— it's a lot to it. Yeah. And it's, it's a slow process. And, and the reality of it is, is, is, is going to take people like what we're doing here that can get past it and look at each other from an equal playing field, like, hey, I'm Eric, you're Josh, you're Tommy, we're both— or all three of us are smart motherfuckers and we can handle our own weight. And, you know, I don't need you and you don't need me, but together we can do awesome sauce things. If that becomes the narrative, then it ends. Yeah, Eric, but that's a slow burn.

Josh: Does any of your friends, um, hear what you're doing talking with us? The whitest show in Australia.

Tommy: It sounds like we're some sort of fucking supremacist, like skinhead supremacist. We're the whitest show in Australia. Like, we are the fucking— who's the, who's the, the crazy dude that was just on Joe Rogan today? Oh, we're not Alex Jones. We're not the Alex Jones of Australia, to be clear. You haven't come on the Alex Jones show, don't stress.

Josh: What do your friends think about talking to two, you know, white dudes from Australia?

Erik: They've already realised that I'm crazy as hell, so that there is, uh, in many cases I act out of a level of fearlessness. Yeah, even though a lot of shit I do scares the hell out of me, but I act out of a level of fearlessness. So me, me talking to white people is not unusual because I've done it all my life. Me Being in a conversation with white people is not unusual because I've done it all my life.

Tommy: What were your parents like?

Josh: But hang on, I just want to know, do you— but I know that that's your case, otherwise you wouldn't be on the show, but friends of yours, is there— I'm trying to understand the psychology of some of your friends. Is there some— is it different? Like, are you an anomaly?

Erik: I mean, if you're asking does this happen all the time, the answer is No. Uh, so I, I, I invite you to do one thing and all of your followers and listeners to do something. Go on YouTube and go through YouTubers. See how many Black people you see.

Josh: Yeah, what's the answer?

Tommy: Well, I mean, I'll do it, but yeah, well, I think there's not— like, I definitely— there's not a lot. I think about the follower, like who I subscribe to.

Erik: If you look at the top YouTubers, how many of them are black? Yeah, yeah.

Tommy: Well, the thing— I mean, that's the thing. If you look at the— if you actually look at who the, uh, characters, black characters are in YouTube, who is it? It's fucking Casey Neistat's delivery guy Marcus. No, not Marcus.

Josh: It's— no, no, I'm not talking about him.

Tommy: Oh yeah, MKBHD. Yeah, he's, he's a, he's a black guy who's doing amazing stuff, but he's definitely—

Erik: yeah, but, but, but, but so, so we have We have one. Yeah, yeah, we have one. And, and, and, and for every 10, we have one. And that's not YouTube's fault, that's not the creator's fault, that's that, that we have not done a great job at presenting it. So the reality is, the MP, the, uh, you know who he is, I can't—

Tommy: MKBHD. Yeah, MKBHD.

Erik: Yeah. The people like him and I, the reason why we're in this spot is because we branched out and went to where the rest of them didn't. So they're still over there. Most of them think a YouTuber is just a guy who puts videos on YouTube. No, that's just a guy who knows how to upload. That's not a YouTuber. Yeah, that's not a content creator. So, so, so we don't know what that is yet, and it's a great So YouTube is still a great market, as big as it is, as complex as it is, as oversaturated as it is. YouTube, Facebook, podcasting is still a great avenue to be in because there's a huge populace, not just Black people, but white folks who don't know it exists yet. Yeah, right.

Josh: I love you, you're the best, you're the best, Eric.

Tommy: And it's, um, it's a good perspective, like, it's a good perspective. And it's something like, is there— if we were to action things. I think the cool thing with having you on is it's like get us excited to read books and to do things. I mean, who's, who's someone—

Erik: if I can, if I could just say this, yeah, that I— for anyone content-wise, creator-wise, whether it's you guys, whether it's me, anyone out there listening or watching who's like, I don't want to do this because 'Oh, I can't get popular,' blah blah blah. Let me tell you what I have discovered in the last 2 years is that there is a huge population that has not been tapped yet. So, so don't look at Casey Neistat, his 10 million viewers, that, that's just one side. That's not even a dot on the ass of life of people who do not know this stuff exists. So if you really reach— that's why I said don't go to LA, don't go to New York, Don't go to Florida. Go to the other 47 states who don't know it exists and win those people. That's where your marketplace is going to be.

Tommy: Well, yeah. And the other thing too is there's a, there's always, there's a bit of a joke, I think, uh, internationally that the US are very sort of inward focused so that they—

Josh: It's the only place on planet Earth.

Tommy: The US, that Americans sort of see America as the centre of the earth and all that sort of thing. And I guess to your point, it's like if the focus is on Los Angeles, on Florida, or on New York, there's so much work that happens— needs to happen internally from that state level before that there can even be the process of being like, oh, like we've got all these other areas and we are all fucking doing the same thing and we all can be viewing each other's content and getting unique perspectives and having conversations. Yeah, it's cool. I mean, that's all they've done.

Erik: That's literally all the— you— so you go back, and I'm going to say this because I, I, I, I— it's something that's been on my head for a long time. You can count— there's hundreds of thousands of content creators on the internet, but you can count on one hand How many can do something with nothing? Mm-hmm. Casey Neistat is a big YouTuber. Yeah, but with— take away all his effects, he's not shit. Mm-hmm. Think about it. Take away everything, take away all the content, take away all of the big things he's been able to do, he's not shit. Take somebody like Shane Dawson, you give him a chair and a bottle of water, he can fucking have you rolling for 20 years. Yeah, and so he's got internal talent. Yeah, and I guess there's—

Josh: I mean, there's plenty of people that don't have internal talent that are optimising what is around them and optimising the tools.

Erik: They're using the system, they're using effects to get them where they are. But somebody like Shane Dawson has it in him.

Tommy: Yeah, and there's a skill, right? There is a skill in being able to see what's around you. But if I think that with where all this is going, where podcasting is going, where video creation is going, it's as it becomes more and more democratized. I think that like in Australia, for example, Australia has some of the best cinematographers in the world. And the reason why they say, say that is because in Australia we're dealing with all of these different harsh environments. And when there would be a Hollywood film coming to, to Australia, they you know, there's, there's not a huge, huge amount compared to, you know, um, Los Angeles. And so they get very, very good, and that's through all of that, the friction. And so I think to, to your point, Eric, it's like the— there's an opportunity in not having much. There's the opportunity in stripping everything back and having a bottle of water and a chair. And because then it becomes a process of storytelling at essence, and then without all the bullshit.

Josh: It's actually what I love about your, your videos, Eric. It's like, you know, they're shot on a phone. Is that what you're shooting them on? Yeah, yeah. And, and the content and you and what you're bringing to them is, is awesome. So you're not relying on the other stuff, right?

Erik: So think about, think about me. That, that was one of the things that I realised is that I'm not going to win in the cinematography world. Yeah, I cannot outproduce Casey Neistat.

Mason: I cannot outproduce Peter McKinnon.

Erik: I cannot outproduce Logan Paul. But from a creative standpoint, from a personality standpoint, I can run with the best of them.

Josh: Yeah, I love the confidence. Love the confidence.

Erik: And, and, and, and I mean, that, that, that's If you think about it, my work speaks for itself. Absolutely. From a personality standpoint, I can run with the best of them. Love it. And the reality of that is I knew that's how I'd win. Yeah, no, I agree.

Josh: Give this man a clap. Yeah, I've got—

Tommy: I don't know which sound effect.

Josh: I reckon it's that one. There we go, we've got it.

Erik: Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.

Tommy: We've got a live audience.

Erik: I would like to thank my daddy for this great opportunity to sit here with these white folks Eric, I would also like to say that my daddy was a good bastard, but I love him to death. You know, he just, you know, my mom ran on around the road.

Josh: Anyway, go ahead. We're, um, relying on the bells and whistles over here, mate. We've got the sound effects, the production. But, um, thanks for coming on again, mate, uh, each week.

Tommy: Yeah, we're gonna have it all. Yeah, we'll have a chat. If anyone's got any specific questions for Eric, we're constantly reposting his shit on our Insta stories. But hi@thedailytalkshow.com if you want to send a specific question, because we just think it's fun to like, other than just the two gronks, like you, you are a, um, a gronk by proxy, uh, Eric. I hope you're— yeah, you're part of Team Gronk. And so as a, as a team, I'm a part of the club. You are, you are, you are a fellow gronk. And so yeah, it's awesome just getting your perspective on shit because, uh, as we, we just talked about at the start of the show, describing where we are, just the fringes of the central business district here in Melbourne. It fucking blows my mind to think that we're able to have these types of conversations.

Erik: That's really cool. I, I just, I just, I just, I just, uh, if I could for a second, I, I just want to say that it makes me feel so good to let me know, for me to know that I'm a part of Team Grumps. And, um, you know, and, and the Bishop is very happy. I've considered myself to be the Bishop now.

Tommy: I'm the Bishop. The Bishop? Is that a— is that a nickname? Have we come up with the great— the Bishop's on the phone. The Bishop?

Erik: Yes, yes, we have, we have, we have the Bishop on the phone. I mean, I mean, I started to answer the phone like, yeah, Bishop speaking, but I realised that I was in a Black town. They might really think I was a bishop and they want me to start praying for people.

Josh: And I was like, uh, you know, The clergy doesn't have great PR at the moment here in Australia, so yeah, I don't think it's— doesn't have great PR anywhere right now. It's pretty, uh, it's pretty backwards. Yeah, it's pretty bad for them.

Tommy: Um, Eric, mate, thanks, buddy. Have a good night. We'll chat to you soon.

Erik: Yes, sir. It's always nice to talk to you. My Friday is not— it's not what it needs to be unless we have our conversation. I look forward to continuing that.

Tommy: Yeah, we need to work out because Thursday here, but we need to at some point Uh, you were talking about a Fat Fridays, uh, bit, so I think we need to— I'll bring him in. Yeah, we need to come up with some sort of food. Food. Yeah, you can be eating dinner while we're eating lunch.

Josh: That's awesome. Thanks, Eric.

Erik: We'll figure that out. Yeah, perfect.

Tommy: Awesome. See you, mate. I love Eric. I always love chatting to him. Yeah, it did.

Josh: Like, I just put my sort of self in that space of being over in Norfolk Like looking at some photos, you start sort of building out some sort of idea of where he is. I mean, Eric, he's saying, you know, he's in the hood, he's at the supermarket. I just love it.

Tommy: Like, this is the thing, is that doing these types of chats, I just could fucking talk, like ask questions forever. Like, it's fun just getting a perspective. Yeah. And just realising that we don't know all the details and the specifics and just trying to pinpoint what it all means.

Josh: It's great, and perspective is different to ours, so that's what we're pulling on. I think if you are somewhere around the world and you want to have a chat to us, yeah, I mean, we've now got this ability to be able to FaceTime you through our system. So if there's anyone else out there— Eric, your place isn't being taken, mate.

Tommy: You are— well, I think we're slowly building correspondence. If we could, and we've tapped into Virginia earlier. Yeah, early.

Josh: I wouldn't mind to tap into Russia. We've got a, we've got a contact in Russia. Someone listens from Afghanistan.

Tommy: Yeah. So if we could, it would be great to eventually, you know, have people all around the world that we can pull from because it's— we understand that there's like this one perspective, which is heaps of fun. Yeah. But I also, I also like the fucking— I like that we can start off by joking and then go fucking serious and all that sort of shit.

Josh: And then, um, And not a downer.

Tommy: No, no, no, we're back. It's a daily talk show. Hi@thedailytalkshow.com if you want to send us an email.

Josh: Yeah, tomorrow, uh, hopefully we've got Ryan John on. He's got something to tell us, um, from WA, from Western Australia. Yeah, our Western Australian correspondent. Uh, we've also got something that, um, has been created for the, the squeegee. Yeah, the squeegee keering cult, which we'll show you tomorrow. We'll see you tomorrow, guys.

Tommy: Catch ya.