Welcome to WTF Do We Do Now

What's the name of our podcast the minute of our podcast is what the fuck do we do now? What the fuck do we do now? I okay, I'm an idea. How about we both share what that means to us and why we named it that I'll go first I feel like This is you don't want to rock paper scissors? No, thank you. You should definitely go first. Thank you. Um Why did we name it what that do we do now because Here's what my goal is actually as we so cool to like get your genuine like Honest take about like what your goal is for the podcast. So my goal for the podcast is to give Space to give space and conversation to what so many people including me and including you are feeling now about like What's going on in this country and the world? because shit's kind of fucked up and Yet we keep living and we keep needing to like you know kind of like go to work and do normal stuff and Have friends and take care of family and like But like how do we process that all in the context of the fact that like Is everything going to shit? So so this is an existential podcast Well also I Think that like when when things are going down I think it's really important to give voice to it to like not ignore stuff that's like horrific or you know speak out against fascism and like actually like I Think speaking out in and of itself Is powerful because The more people that do it the more people that do it right like every person that speaks out simple but profound Right every person to do it the more people will do it. Okay. Yeah Every person that speaks out gives another person permission to also not think they're crazy and also not Think they're alone and know that like we're in this together and everyone speaking out and you can speak out too And then the more people that speak out more people speak out and that's actually how change has a potential for happening look at you Go oh my god. What you agree with that? This is amazing. I'm so an aw of you right now. You're an aw Holy shit go keep going Forgiven me so anyways. I think that that's why it's important. Wow also. It's like it. Yeah It's like it's like it's like an expression For us I think right to like help process the shit that's happening and also We have such great conversations together. So okay on the totally flip side of the coin It was like we need to be recording these and sharing these because Why should the conversation just stay between us and these four walls right? These are fun conversations and not all of it's about politics Promise promise well, okay, that kind of great segue that kind of leads into what I was gonna say Okay, cool because I agree with with almost everything you said except the part about where that was the best compliment I've ever given you I strongly Well really think about her when that I can't It's carrying me I agree with everything you said and For me, I think the best answer I could give to that is that it's This kind of thing do you know I've been in you know kind of conversations before I don't know me many Maybe other people have to where the end of a great conversation was when oh my god I felt like a podcast or should we do a podcast together and you know Some of the people throw around and it's nice that that hey listeners It's nice that sue me and I are are actually doing it. This is cool to actually follow through and Record something and put it out there and and that's that's fun the reason I think it's worth doing is twofold one What you said, but the other part is it's kind of a micro macro thing for me. Okay that mindset of like Keep calm and carry on Kind of I just sort of rephrased everything you did into a British thing from the 30s, but remember that was but like yeah, that's essentially the vibe of it right like things are terrible But life does like we do have to go to work the next day and and You and I kind of take our own temperature and take the temperature of the world around us and we have conversations where we kind of you know Regurgitate back to each other what we're feeling and thinking and it does seem that right now Yeah Lot of uncertainty tensions are a lot higher. I know from personally life life both internal and external can get hard And it's fun having conversations that not only talk about What's happening in the world and how crazy it is and what do we do now? How do you decide to move on? How do you weigh? Trying to fix the world around you with trying to fix your own world And if you're someone out there see that okay That was if you're someone out there who struggles with that because I'm certainly someone who struggles with that And I know you are too. We don't we talk about that Then you may be hearing two people struggle with it and try and figure it out as something that Could help could maybe be a little cathartic You know because it's okay like it's it's okay to not be a crusader and it's okay to you know And it's okay to be a crusader like and you're gonna feel different at different times You know you can pacify yourself You can you know Taking edible and watch some trash TV at night. It's okay. And then there's other days when you can You know, I was about to say something cynical like take to Twitter and you know come at a representative Which is cool like people do that too, and it's important I don't know, but that's actually another thing that we should talk about is our nature So I'm very cynical by nature for instance Like when sumi's gonna you know go on things about changing the world Which she does because because she's amazing Everyone's gonna get to watch me fight my own internal battle not trying to be a cynical asshole In those moments that's actually okay I've never actually thought about that's gonna be my Yeah, you are cynical and I am an optimist I think and like we both But not all the time either, but not all the time, but then I think you definitely you know and there's gonna be times where we we you know Yeah, because you're right because I wouldn't say you're like my I'm more cynical than you You're more cynical than me, but my general like word about you would not be cynical really no We've both given each other the best compliment we've ever seen today Ha ha ha Yours was I'm an obvious and mine was you just said what did you see can I hear it one more time? Yeah, the word I would use to describe you would not be cynical Fill even better the second time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no no No one knows me in here. This is gonna believe you I think you have really good ways of like Looking at the world reframing things and also like Yeah, like helping people cope honestly, you know, I think that's I think that's just from powerful self just from years of self-cope All right, so basically Ryan and I met because I am an artist here in LA and I was looking for new producers to work with And I met I heard about Ryan and his production partner Josh through My friend Esa yeah, who I met at a women and music event and then she was like you should work with these guys are super chill super cool So we met and we started working together and now we're working on a bunch of new songs Yeah And then we started having conversations No, we started having conversations in the studio and thought we should do my back. Yeah, so that's that's the context That's the context that's so we say I'm yeah, I'm a music producer. I've been working in LA for 15 10 15 years 15 years. I think don't mind And I've Worked with a lot of different people and been in a lot of rooms like this one. We're in recordings to be right now actually And which is where a lot of podcasts work where a lot of things are recorded is in recording studios It's their purpose. Yeah, but we're in a music recording studio We're in a music recording studio Working on music and we have so many of these wonderful conversations that have nothing to do with music right and go necessarily although music a lot of times will like have a conversation or like oh, let's write a song about that That's true. That's something. That's an annoying thing. I'll songwriter. Yeah, so sure. I love it um And yes, so I Throughout throughout my whole career I've been in a lot of rooms that I've had a lot of awesome conversations with people It's one of the privileges of my job that I get to have and Soon-me here is one of the people that I get to have the most fun conversations with and I'm so happy that we get to record these now and Yeah, embarrass ourselves and share them with people. Yeah Yeah, basically I mean and I think too like I you know, I moved here from DC and I was super involved with It's really interesting like being comparing like people who live in LA to people live in DC just in general It's really fun comparing people It's a brutal thing to do but boys it's funny. You Don't realize when you live in DC how plugged in you are until you move across country You know to realize that like oh wow like yeah like you could just literally ignore everything that's going on in the world And live in LA because you're just in a little paradise. You know sun fucking shining every day That's a piece You know, and you just got to ride your bike to the little cafe and pick up a bag at and like what You know Do that in Paris if we're talking stereotypes So yeah, it's true, but so I was in DC like and I started volunteering for political campaigns like ever since like Obama God, you're a good person. So It you live we're living in episode of the West Wing Kind of the kind of lit legit Yeah, I'm so jealous. I also I don't know if Ryan knows this but I also went to school for public Public policy and so I was actually wanted to go into politics for a long time I was gonna like work I was one of like work comms for campaign or something like that um and After graduating from that program, I decided to like I was doing Working with this Think tank called resistance school and building Training we were building training programs for civic engagements We were like help people understand that there's more to do than like vote every four years There's so much more to do than that So that's kind of like and before that there's so much more accomplished than I am no Just in different ways, you know Uh, before that I Was you know like I said like working in DC working in like government consulting wow so I was doing that for Many years a lot ladies and gentlemen. She's a grown-up So anyways some now but like now that I'm actually doing what I wanted to do my whole life Which is art and music and being a summer's long writer and performer I'm like you came out here with the weird To like incorporate I can't I can't leave like you know my desire to like Change the world when we behind dear listener when we were putting this Throwing around the idea of doing this podcast that was kind of a big part of of summy's thing was that was uh You know, let's let's record these fun conversations we're having but also, you know She's always had that yeah, you've talked about that before with me, you know you yeah You want the world you don't want the world to suck? I don't want the world the suck We don't want the world to suck and at the moment it feels like the world kind of sucks or at least it sucks more than I should I also like I think it could be better Let's admit the world could be better. Okay. Let's say it could be a lot better Um, if there was a different outcome on November 4th, so we would be a totally different timeline Like we would just be in a total anyways So and also the cool thing about our different perspectives too is that like personally we are so different like Ryan Is married with two kids. Oh, yeah, and I'm single and dating and so there's just like There's just like a lot yeah There's just like a lot of different like perspectives and you've worked Ryan's worked with like so many like so many artists over your career And I've been really lucky in the industry. I've been I've been abused a lot That there's like interesting stories and perspectives that come with all of that I think yeah I've been I've been fortunate to be in a lot of these kinds of rooms and get to meet a lot of fun people and like I said have have these kinds of interesting conversations and Having had a few of them already The different backgrounds we have do I think provide kind of a The while the dynamic yeah, I guess so long talking about yeah Um, it'll be fun to explore that and see the different you know, we're Weird places that we go right. Yeah, um and and through all of it We're gonna try to figure out both in our own lives and kind of you know in the world abroad what the What the f*** do we do now? Yeah The podcast isn't gonna just be about politics um It's you know, we may touch on that every now and again And it's not just gonna be about big social issues or no every now and again, I think but it's more than every now and again But yeah, but it'll it'll it'll we could talk about you know things going on in our own lives because Essentially what we're trying to do is figure out with both ourselves and with yeah Us as a collective people listening to us who you know themselves are going through you know How to carry on how to you know when everything around you feels like it's insane you want to do something But your own life also needs tending yeah, and how do you balance the two internal and external Or big and little big problems little problems external problems and all that kind of stuff We don't know how to do that necessarily, but we're figuring it out and it's nice to have conversations to try and do that And hey if you know you you're also trying to figure that out then you know, maybe listening to two idiots Try to figure out themselves. Well, I wouldn't call us idiots. I would call me an idiot But you're welcome to if you want to dear listener Yeah, that's true. That's true. If you listen to listen to side-ready, it's that's listen We hope not. I hope at least that we're not idiots, but It's like a space for these conversations and whatever happens like we're yes. We're gonna talk about How we're processing some of the shit that's happening, right? Because I think we're all processing that and what we're doing about it But also like we just recorded an episode on our personal stories of getting into fights And my conflict is a loop and conflict resolution strategies which look if we need If any point in time we needed that it's now, right? Yeah, like honestly you can just reframe that to Just take it on to on to truth social and start start Resoluting that conflict Go do it. Yeah, go resolve all that conflict out there Interesting topic that we didn't even have in our list that we should do at some point is like Like how willing you are and I am and how or what we think people should be in terms of like And I think we differ on this actually in terms of speaking to the other side, you know engaging politically engaging politically with like Maga heads I don't mind it like okay Wow, yeah, I think we do different on this. Yeah, we definitely different So that'll be interesting to like get into at some point Well, and this is going to be a big dynamic too is that and I think this that that political part is is a big place for that The differences between us are become more apparent is because this you know as a white male My conversations with Maga people are gonna just Have a different nature. Yeah, then Someone who doesn't You know as a minority female that like I'm so sensitive now more than ever before To anyone actually this was what is really I was I was dating this guy um and he Said two things like talking negatively about Like a wife of his friend He was speaking negatively about a wife of his friend and then he spoke negatively about another woman and I Immediately was like flagdermas as sexist. Yeah, I just you know, and I don't think I would have been so Effected by it previously, but now I realize like I'm just so sensitive to anybody speaking Negatively about a woman especially a tall white man, you know, I mean oh, man. Yeah Yeah, it's a thing that's oh man. That's so real That's kind of like That's almost like the manifestation of that complaint on the right Right like the snowflake thing. Oh everyone's just soft on the left. Everyone's a fucking sense I guess so and you kind of I don't want to see you just prove their point But it's more like because it's not about whether they're right or wrong the problem the issues and what they're noticing the issue is the Well, and they're clearly wrong, but yeah exactly, but the issue is all the hatred and the underlying Yeah, yeah, no, and it's true and like so I recognize in a situation like that that like that's not a rational response, right? And then like what he said probably didn't Well, and it's super easy to say why you feel that way of course you feel that way yeah and many many people do for very good reason And to be also completely transparent. I'm married to a minority woman And so I get a lot of and I've learned so much over the years that I did not know and have I don't know how much I know now, but I know that I the levels of ignorance that I used to have are pretty pretty damn high And I might still be pretty high and so even as we go through this the things I learned and my perspective shifts Because again, my biases as a white man. I'm just not gonna see things I'm just I don't see the things that you all see and my what constantly is reminding me of that You didn't see that you don't see that's not the world you live in you don't know how this works. Yeah And so that's gonna be another interesting aspect here. Yeah, exactly And I'll give you insight into the white man's world and what we see the gold streets we walk on Yeah, no, I mean, but it's look it's under it's important to also understand everyone else's perspective no matter who you are And I do admit that I guess but yeah, I admit that I guess Like she says through grit and teeth I think that like another interesting thing we're gonna touch on is like Literally, what do we do now as you know, we're both like I would say we're both progressive, right? I would be pretty tough not to label any progressive. Okay, my Midwest group chat would label me the progressive in the group What about your non-Midwest group chat? Well, okay, so that's a thing I just made a reference to things so a lot of people live in LA have like a group chat with friends back home And my back home. I'm from St. Louis, Missouri That's where I once like though. I was born in Las Vegas moved to St. Louis when I was young Essentially, I had my former years there and I moved out here from there And I still have friends there and I have a group chat with a bunch of guys there who are pretty stereotypical white dudes who are midwestern and they Cover the gamut of all of that and yeah that group would definitely say I'm progressive. Okay, but are they Where do they fall in the whole spectrum? There's just conservatives in there. There's dudes who are more like me in there Okay, it's a nice little mishmash of different perspectives Okay, and that's the kind of what I'm referencing is there's like having talked to other people out here who have friends back home That's like a that's a thing your friends back home are nice little like look outside the LA bubble that we live in You know, it's really funny about that is that to me the LA bubble is not even progressive like to me The DC bubble is progressive the LA bubble kind of idiots. I mean sorry Well progressive and idiots aren't mutually exclusive Progressive there's a lot of idiots in the progressive community. There's a lot of idiots in every community Okay, that may be true, but people aren't as progressive in LA as like one might assume Mm-hmm. Well, yeah, I mean L.A. is the second largest sitting in the country. So there's gonna be a lot of you know Various there's a lot of people here in there. Yeah, there's just people that aren't really most people don't actually Keep up I think with like what's going on do you find that in LA? Oh, keep up. I mean I mean it totally depends on the circles you're in Um, and depends on what there is to keep up, you know, like that's another topic We'll get into is like mono culture. What is keeping up anymore? It's so easy to find your own little bubble regardless of relived geographically and what is truth Year from now we're into me what is saying what is true exactly why am I already wondering what truth is That's already been an issue. Oh damn But no, but okay my whole point was though that like what do we do as both like progressive people on the left like what what what do we do What should we be doing like on the left to actually like win back America? Yeah, well just to not have life be this yeah to get back to a place where I mean You know the most the most tropey thing the most stereotypical thing you know like wish more it's so divided Wish for more together and yeah, I do wish that the thing is I don't think the whole country should be united all the time you need different parties you need differing beliefs You need a balance between things but You know when When it can be weaponized When you can use that divisiveness to push narratives that actively hurt people that's when it becomes an issue I think that's what's happening more lately and what can we do to fight that to try and get back to you know more honest Political conversations instead of conversations that are more about fuck the other side rather than hey, how do we How do we make this place better? Yeah, and I think I slightly disagree with that because I don't think that the problem right now is that No, I mean I agree and disagree with that like I do think that if we all had that attitude that yes We would be living in a better society, but had all had one other too That we should talk to the other side and figure out how to make this place a better But I mean that's kind of just conflict resolution. Yeah, when the world be a better place if we're all better conflict resolution I mean that's why I agree with it, but I guess my point is that like it's hard for me to see that point of you now when like One side is act like The amount of gaslighting that's going on, but people believe their own narratives, right like I watched oh my god I watched this little clip with a bunch of Preachers who I didn't know they're like I didn't actually know their political affiliation yet I mean I had my guesses But they were a bunch of like Christian pastors, I guess like talking together on a zoom call four or five of them and their thesis was one of the guys thesis was like look we should like make sure politics doesn't enter our you know our Our Sermons and like it shouldn't affect our constituency. What's that consistency of a church called congregation. Thank you congregation Um, she's so politics people DC is shining through you. Oh my god Um or magnates um, but yeah, so like so they were and then They were like we should just keep politics out of it and then a couple of them were like yeah, yeah, and then a couple of them are like what that's ridiculous I mean, I just think that that yeah in general I agree, but right now I can't agree when like one side is literally do is evil one side is like evil and and and you know Just against everything we believe in and I was like oh good a progressive pastor nope that guy Was the most conservative of them all thinking that what the left is doing right now is evil and to have that Much disparity where and I think he probably actually believes that But that's what blows my mind That's what blows my mind. It's not as bad to what we were talking about. How is that possible? How is that possible? It's you and your sister again Okay, yeah, it is it's just it's the two people that are just a hundred percent convinced they're right and they can't get it out There's a terrible but damn everyone knows that we're Just kidding, but no, I'm not even kidding. It doesn't you gotta stop thinking it's not about Like okay, but right or wrong isn't gonna solve the issue. Yeah, right or wrong isn't gonna make it but this doesn't end with ever Like okay, if there's one thing that this podcast could fix I would love it if both sides could understand that this doesn't end with the other side going ah you got me Well, it doesn't go down like that We're not we're not will and it never has in human history We're not talking to people on the right here in this podcast obviously, but regardless Yeah, but it that is not a reality and so many people are operating in a world where they think that's gonna happen And it's like that's what they're fighting for I'm fighting to make them all realize they were wrong I don't think so it's not gonna happen. I also what I'm fighting It's not what's gonna end what I'm fighting for is to Oh, I'm not saying you are no no no no sorry. I don't think I'm painting with any kind of brush Um no, I'm just say it's it's unfortunate that a lot of people do think that way because it's not gonna happen It's it's they're not gonna say that you were right you got me like humans Don't work that way. We're just it's gonna end awkwardly and weirdly and unsatisfyingly And it's gonna just shift and we're just gonna get it's gonna move on to another thing like that's how it works It's it's never cool. It's never You know, and then the good guys win and he man races the store in lightning strikes and credits roll like it's never that It's always just like uh I guess okay. This is this other situation is different, but not worse or but not better But it's a little like that's how it's gonna be unsatisfying. It's just gonna that's how it's gonna be It doesn't mean we can't just keep fighting But okay, you know what I want to do an episode on what the next episode is like our Yes, our analysis of like outcomes of like where we could potentially be right like in four years How the kind of various options like where we could be as a society or country or that's fun Okay, keep listening people. Okay. We're excited you guys. Hope you are too