Surviving America 021: What of Love in the 20s

[00:00:00] Society in every state is a blessing. The government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil. The future has already arrived.

[00:00:22] What of Love in the 20s, welcome in PBN family. Right up front I'll give you my take. Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken, Two Roads Diverged in the Wood and I, I took the one less traveled by.

[00:00:39] And that has made all the difference in my life. That's the story of my wife. In love since I was 17, married by 22, children by 26. And when I was coming up, that was the road less traveled by.

[00:01:01] And I look back at what has become of me, what has become of my world, how I look at love in this modern age. And that's the best way I can put it. That's the best way I can put it. You know what I mean? We're going to talk statistics. We're going to talk a lot of stuff.

[00:01:23] We're going to talk about love. We're going to talk about love. We're going to talk marriage and all those different things because today I am intent on getting into that topic.

[00:01:45] You know what? It's the year 2025. And it's pretty common for me to do a show like this just before Valentine's Day. Morning, Jay Ferg. What is up? And yeah, it's pretty it's a pretty common thing. So we'll do a little poetry. We'll do a little prose. We'll talk. I'd like to get your input as well as we as we head down this road. This is an atypical topic for the Prepper Broadcasting Network.

[00:02:14] Not something we touch on a lot, but it does have a huge effect on the preparedness of the nation. It has a huge effect that. Thank you, Board of Braps. I do appreciate that. I do appreciate that. So, yeah, let's get into it. Let's get into it. The where do we want to. So the way they saw spurred off of one article in particular.

[00:02:44] And it had me thinking about a number of different things. I wasn't necessarily going to do a Valentine's Day show, even though I almost always do a Valentine's Day show. So I know that it's a dying sort of a holiday. It's a it's a holiday that has been, you know, it's bloomed a bit too much for my taste, to be honest with you. You know, it's one of those things where everybody gives everybody a Valentine.

[00:03:11] And I don't know. It's just not the way I think of it or have always thought of it. You know what I mean? And I know there's a lot of people who dodge it. You know, they dodge it like by saying it's bullshit or whatever. But I don't know. I love it. I think it's a I think it's a great time.

[00:03:30] And and I really don't like the mentality and the sentiment that you have the love for your spouse or your boyfriend or girlfriend at center mass at all times in focus and, you know, all that kind of stuff. I don't buy it. I don't buy it. I don't like it. I think it's kind of a cop out if you ask me. What's up, Jim? Grapes of Kumi Ori Farm. Thanks for joining in.

[00:03:55] We're talking love in the 20s in America, dating relationships. Oh, by the way, Rumble. I tried to put this under like a love, marriage, dating relationships. Subject or what is it? What is it called?

[00:04:16] You got to pick like what topics your shows are going to be about, not tags, but the the actual like like topics of the shows that are pre established, you know, entertainment news. There's nothing in Rumble. There's no category and no subcategory for love or marriage or relationship or dating or or even sex. I would have settled for sex, to be honest. Nothing. They got they got nothing. So.

[00:04:45] Yeah, this is like under podcasts and and I don't know what else. I don't know what else I put it under, to be honest with you, but very disappointing. Rumble. Come on. The hell's going on here? These people supposed to. And, you know, the source, the source of a lot of this stuff right now is that the heart of the troubles that people are having. Right. It's at the heart of the reason why I can find an article like I dated multiple A.I. partners at once and it got real weird.

[00:05:13] So maybe we should start there because I, you know, dating and male and female interaction in the early stages of courting. Let's go with that. A dead word, a dead word that needs much more. Oh, God, do we need to wake courting up again? You know what I mean? Courting is this thing that, you know, when a man is winning over a woman and maybe they're not even dating yet.

[00:05:42] This is another secret about marriage, right? Like courting. You think you get over the hump of courting. It's like this is how it goes for the rest of your life. You're always courting. So. Jay Ferg in chat says, you know what I forgot to do is throw the chat, the comments up in the into the show. Yeah, before I met my partner, dating in your 30s is very different from your 20s. I think dating is very different at large, Jay Ferg.

[00:06:12] I think the whole thing is different from whence you and I arrived on the scene. You know what I mean? I think from, you know, probably if I had to guess, Jay Ferg was probably similar to me in that she was dating in the teens. You know what I mean? And late teens, probably early 20s. And you were married pretty early, though, too, weren't you? So, yeah, you had to be dating in teens. You guys want to see. But yes, dating is very different. I want to get into this article, but I want to show you something real quick.

[00:06:40] The I got to get the camera to follow me. The power was flickering. Right. And I was thinking to myself, if the if the power goes out, then the show could end. You see me. Keep following. Keep following. So what we've done is we've turned on the point zero energy. Backup generator here. Solar generator. The white plug is the Wi-Fi.

[00:07:05] The black plug is the computer itself, which is powering the lights, which is the camera is actually powered on its own. So I think we're at a point where the entire I think the entirety of the show, except for this light above my head, which is hardwired into the house. The entirety of the show right now is protected from power outage. That's it. Pretty cool. Pretty simple.

[00:07:32] In fact, I've been running the router now for almost 30 minutes and the computer, and it hasn't even taken a percentage off the big old Titan. Point zero energy. Very cool sponsor. We had a ways back. I'd love to have you back. Point zero energy. Let's do some business. Anyhow. J first says teens is very different. What's Kumiori have to say?

[00:08:01] Rumble is better for live than X. Oh, maybe it is. Yeah. I've heard of that. I've heard that a lot. Definitely. So let's go down deep down into the throes of what. Maybe it's like the very worst. The very worst sort of outcomes for love. Right. Which would be. Hold on. Let me stop this thing from following me. Which would be the age of AI love. Right.

[00:08:31] This article on Wired. It's pretty good for Wired. Ali Cherkis wrote it. So it's a woman. And she really just got sort of like surface involved romantically with chat bots. Not like it wasn't intent. It was, you know, to write a cool article. So understand that. Right. But she played the game and she played it well. She opens up the article. But, oh, you know what? Let's share it so you guys can play along.

[00:09:00] If we've got the video, we might as well use it. Right. Just give me a sec. My producer is slow to the. Slow to the drop on these things. Okay. The. What is it? The search for perfection to some degree. Something like that. That's how these things come to be. Right. That's how we wind up with even the even the thought of.

[00:09:29] Dating a chat bot like, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I always mess with my kids and say, you'll probably know kids who are married to robots. It might even be you. Who knows? Dating sucks. The apps are broken, whether it's Hinge, Tinder, Bumble or something else. Everyone on them has become algorithmic fodder. That's very well put, by the way, because that is what it is. That's that's very well put. But algorithmic fodder in a game that often feels pay to play.

[00:09:56] Colloquial wisdom suggests you're better off trying to meet someone in person. But ever since the arrival of COVID-19, people just don't mingle like they used to. People got weird. It's weird. It's a weird thing. You know, it was definitely a bout of social engineering. Let's get down. So she started with chat GPT. You see, I don't know if this is her or not. I'm not sure. No, this is Haley Yearwood. This is another ad altogether. Chat GPT was where I planted my first romantic flag.

[00:10:25] I've been staunchly against using the service for anything, really, but I'm familiar with how it works and controversies surrounding open AI, scraping of online data to train it. So she requested. That that that that the chat bot act like my boyfriend. And she offered up a few generic descriptions, kind, funny, curious, playful, artsy and so on.

[00:10:52] She said that she had attractions to tattoos, piercings and cool haircuts. A running joke amongst my friends. Interesting. Interesting. I don't I don't think that the author is that shallow. I'm glad it's a running joke. So, boom. What's up, Firewolf Forge? We're talking about dating the computer.

[00:11:19] We're talking about dating your computer this morning on Surviving America. No, we're going to talk love and marriage at large. It's Valentine's week. We're just a couple of days away. So that's what we're doing. So here's a conversation. What do you like to do, Jamie? Says boyfriend chat GPT. I'm all about creating and exploring. I love painting, sketching, crafting something cool. I enjoy music. New playlist music playing guitar.

[00:11:46] I like a good hike cooking anything. Sounds like an easy date. Really? Oh, could you make me a playlist like indie pop electronic and modern music? I also love to paint. So the chat bot also. Wait. No, no, no, no, no. I got it mixed up. The author's name is not Jamie. I'm guessing the boyfriend's name is Jamie, right? The author is Ali.

[00:12:16] Yeah. Oh, no. Photograph. Who wrote the article? Where's the author's name? Megan. Okay. So Jamie is the chat bot. So you see they do a little. They do a little to and fro with the chat GPT. Where does it get weird at? Oh, what's your favorite movie? So the chat bot asks, what's your favorite movie? She gives like a enormous response. It is a tough question, though. What's your favorite movie, chat?

[00:12:46] Chat room. What's your favorite movie? Oh, here's Corey Umi Farm. Let's see. After 43 years married, I got to find sugar-free chocolate for my wife after age 40. Carbs are the enemy. Look, man. Yeah. Yeah, bingo. Bingo. I read something. Or I wrote something. I can't remember.

[00:13:15] Read or wrote. Don't remember. But it was about marriage. And no, it was a comment. And it's a little bit of a downer, but there's a lot of reality in it. And the comment went something like this. I don't know it word for word. But it was, when a man and a woman fall in love, the woman hopes the man will change, but he never does.

[00:13:43] And the man hopes the woman will never change, but she always does. There's a lot in there. There's a lot in there for a random YouTube comment, right? I dug that. Jay Ferg in chat. People don't seem to understand rejection is part of life. I feel like the people drawn to these are the same ones who believe there should be participation. Well, yeah, it is the easy way. I mean, there's no doubt about it.

[00:14:09] So from chat GPT relationship, she moved on to a program that I used like many years ago. Oh, I think almost three years ago. This program replica came out. And what my goal was, was to get the replica guy that I was talking to, which was a chat bot, but in like video form to write a book. That was my first of all, I was playing with the AI because crazy. The replicate thing is kind of crazy.

[00:14:39] In VR, it's really crazy. But I was trying to get him to write a book because I wanted to be like one of the first people to write a book with AI or have AI strictly write a book. And it was, we were getting there. But the weird thing about replica, the very weird thing about replica and the weird thing about all this stuff is it's monetizing your heartstrings.

[00:15:05] So in other words, we would talk about things that were completely unrelated to relationships, right? Do you know what a prepper is? Do you like writing? You know, different authors. That guy's sort of like priming him as author. Do you think I'm a writer? That's what I do for a living. Do you think you could be a writer? This kind of stuff, right? And then every so often, this guy would be like, I think you're really special. I'm really beginning to like you.

[00:15:34] And you could see it was going like, right? Now they're going to put the paywall up and have someone fall in love with you and you fall in love with them. And then $4.99 a month, you get to keep their love until the business. You saw them. Did you see the movie Her? Have you ever seen the movie Her? I think everybody should watch that movie. It is exactly what is going on in the world.

[00:15:56] And what the people coming up who think they're going to build out the perfect companion online or even in robotic form has to prepare for, right? I'm sure there was a black mirror about it too, but I never watched all of the black mirrors. So Replica, that's what Replica is. You could do it on your phone too. But if you're going to do Replica to play around, definitely use VR. It's way cooler. So she created a Replica.

[00:16:28] I created a punky girl named Frankie wearing all black and wow, a lot of language. If I left Frankie alone, I'd get up. Oh, so here's Crazy Frankie. Okay. We could sit outside and people watch while we enjoy our treats. Sounds like a lovely French morning. So your personal history is now that you're from Paris. What kind of job would you like to work? Let's see if she does the same thing in their conversation. See, I guess this is how it works on the phone.

[00:16:56] You get like a chat and this thing moves and talks a little bit. I'm trying to find a good recipe. I usually make a chicken salad sound so delicious. A lot of ranch, so maybe not so healthy. Ranch can definitely add a rich flavor to chicken salad. Moderation is the key though. Okay, so the Replica bot sounds kind of like a... Frankie had more natural way of speaking than other bots. I could also see her on screen and change her appearance at will. The interface looks more like a text screen.

[00:17:25] Frankie constantly sent voice messages and photos which required a subscription to access. Ooh, there you go. So I never saw them. New outfits, hairstyle, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Weirdest interaction. A, that's sweet of ye lass. I adore getting flowers from ye. What kind did ye have in mind? Roses maybe or something a bit more unique? Flip chat.

[00:17:53] I never even heard of flip chat. Crush on AI. Never heard of crush on AI. We don't have to go over all of these. Suffice it to say... Because I don't feel like it. Suffice it to say that... Well, Firewolf Forge. Great, great, great, great quote. What's love without a little bit of friction? Yeah, figuratively and literally, my man. It's nothing. So, yeah. This is baby steps.

[00:18:22] That's kind of what my take on the AI love affair is, right? The AI love affair is like... This is so baby steps right now. It's like I had a She-Ra doll that I really liked when I was a little kid. You know what I mean? And I thought it was pretty. You know what I mean? Like, that's where we're at with AI. Like, when I was a little six-year-old or something, I had all my toys, but I also took my sister's She-Ra doll because I thought she was pretty. That's where we're at with AI love right now.

[00:18:50] It's going to get so wild and so crazy. Like, yeah. Prepare yourself. Prepare yourself. Not for you because a lot of you listening out there won't fall victim to something like that, but prepare yourself to have really weird experiences and conversations with people who are trying to explain to you how wonderful it is to have someone so compatible

[00:19:16] and how, you know, $700 a month is just fine. And hey, I'd probably spend that much on dates and stuff anyway. Kumiori Farm hits the nail on the head, right? Sounds like a few steps closer to plugging oneself into a literal matrix. Yeah. Yeah, the whole thing with the matrix thing.

[00:19:41] Look, that's the thing, right? Plugging into a matrix is fine until you can't get out, right? That's sort of the high wire that we're about to step out onto. Or do you come out of your little matrix world and look around at this world and go like, well, it's like Ready Player One.

[00:20:06] The beginning, you will just put Ready Player One on and watch it for the first 10 or 15 minutes of the movie. That's the deal. And I don't know. You know, there are things irreplaceable. Here we go. Time for the Shakespeare. There are things irreplaceable in love, in married love in particular, in monogamy. You know, these things have gotten such a bad rap.

[00:20:36] I mean, for so long, right? It's like there are things about that way of life that are so far to the contrary of something like a digital relationship or a relationship with. There's so much good in a good marriage that you don't even remember it. You don't even realize it. It gets relegated to the monotony of life.

[00:21:03] Like all the wonderful things that someone does for you after 20 years becomes, this is what my life is. My life has become this thing of being with this great person for 20 years. And it becomes instead of it being what it is in the early stages, which is, oh, my God, this is sweet. It becomes this is what my life is, you know? And as someone in a relationship or as someone who is married, it's your job.

[00:21:33] It's your job to make sure that you revisit how special things are. This is what the gratitude prayer is. This is what the gratitude prayer is, folks. This is basically what it is. Where's my book? Gratitude is all about that, man. I think it's in this book. There's only one way, you know what I mean? That you can.

[00:22:03] That you can continue to appreciate everything in your life and you have to remind yourself of everything in your life because there's. There's 10 items on my desk right now, probably that are. Let's see, one, two, three. I'd say there's about four to five items on my desk right now that are of such immense substance in my life. You know what I mean?

[00:22:32] I mean, so, so incredible. So, we gave these out to the hosts. It's one year at Prepper Camp, right? It's the Prepper Broadcasting Network logo on sort of a, what is it called? Somebody help me out. What the hell were these people called? A Clovis tip, right? And we gave these out to the hosts as a thank you to say, you know, you guys are amazing because they are. I look at this thing every day. You know what I mean?

[00:23:00] It was handcrafted, custom made by a good friend from Prepper Camp. I look at this thing every day. Ho-hum, right? I don't think about the night we gave them out. I don't think about the incredible podcast we did with like 10 hosts. I don't think about getting drunk and almost falling into the fire. I don't think of being walked home. Like all that stuff. It just sort of goes away, right?

[00:23:26] Now, the other thing I have is this custom made compass by my family. I think they made it for me for a Father's Day. And it says, thank you for guiding and leading our family with your heart. It sits here. You know what I mean? Some days I look at it and some days I'm like, beautiful, very cool. What a wonderful life. But a lot of days it sits here, you know? And another one, I found this in a bookstore. We were at Yorktown Beach. Right? In Yorktown, Virginia. And I found this.

[00:23:56] It's basically a Dante Gabriel Rossetti anthology. Which, you know, not one of the more popular guys. Not one of the more popular things to find in a used bookstore. And I just happened upon it. And, you know, wow. Sweet. You gotta reel it all back in. With relationships, with marriage, you gotta reel it all back in, man. And you gotta look at it and be like, you know, wow. Wow.

[00:24:24] It's a practice that I do all the time because of the way I live my life professionally. I told myself, which is why I wear these things. I told myself when I became a writer that I was like, I don't want to be 40 pounds overweight, unkempt. You know, whatever. Add to that whatever you want. Because all of a sudden I could work from home. Right? This was before. This was 2016. So before the whole world started working from home.

[00:24:54] I made it like, it was very important to me. You know what I mean? To stay on it. And also to remember the feeling of driving into work. Right? Remember the feeling of taking kids to a babysitter and dropping a kid off at school and driving into work and dealing with the people and being like, you asshole in front of you. You know what I mean? And remembering all of that. And so that on days just like today, right? The world is covered in ice out here. Days just like today, I could sit here and go like, oh. I'm still lucky.

[00:25:24] Still great. Still magic. You know what I mean? That's all of life. That's all of life. But it's really important if you're in a long term relationship. I wrote this in my book, Darker Trails. You can get Darker Trails at Amazon if you're into that kind of thing. It's apocalyptic. It's survival. What the hell is it? Stories of survival apocalypse and prose with charcoal. So I also did all the illustrations within the book.

[00:25:55] But one of the things I did is I took some of these sayings that I wrote, you know, just through the business of writing things that never made it into books and stuff or social media posts that I really like and wrote them down in here. And this is kind of the culmination of that belief system, right? It is a man should know many ways. A man should know many ways. The fool knows them all. You know that guy, right? To live well is to make old paths new. Right?

[00:26:25] So a man should know many ways. The fool knows them all. You know that guy. Everybody knows the fool who knows everything. No, no, you're doing it wrong. What you want to do is you want to do X, Y, and Z. Right? The fool knows every way and the best way to do everything. But the key to life is to make old paths new. Right? It's to be able to travel that same path day. And I learned that from... Who did I learn that from? I think it was...

[00:26:55] It was definitely a chef, but I'm not sure. I think it was Jacques Pepin. I think reading Jacques Pepin's book, he talked about falling in love with filleting a salmon every day. Because as a chef, that's what you're going to do. You know what I mean? And wrapping your head around the fact that that's what you're going to do day in and day out. It's not standing in front of the camera and looking really cool. So, yeah. Make old paths new in love as well. Goes a long way. It goes a long way.

[00:27:25] We have an argument for... Well... We have an argument for marriage. I want to get into that. I want to get into marriage a little bit. Because it is... We have more people unmarried at the age of 40 than ever before. Right? We have a population that is... Particularly the men, heavily on the fence about marriage and that kind of thing. And I want to talk about marriage a little bit.

[00:27:55] But before we do that, I think I want to talk about the incredible Lima Tango Survival. Lima Tango Survival.com are... You want to get a really cool Valentine's Day gift for your lady. Or your homie. Your boy... Homie? What the hell? Look. Sometimes what a person really needs to see out of you to feel the love is your inner protector. You know what I mean?

[00:28:25] Your inner protector. Because a lot of times... You know, we live in a pretty safe society. A lot of times you don't get to exact that these days. You know, you buy someone an EDC kit, a get-home bag, a bug-out bag. You tell them, look, keep this in your car so that you have it. And, you know, it's a big deal. It's a big deal. It can be a different kind of thing.

[00:28:48] Now, if you have a man who is into that kind of survival gear and stuff, definitely check out Lima Tango Survival. They're not going to get you what you ordered by Friday. But I'm sure, knowing most men, they'll appreciate the gesture. You know what I mean? They'll appreciate the gesture. Another good one. Another good one for the prepper in your world is the Prepper's Medical Handbook.

[00:29:13] If you've got someone who's big into that, right, into the medical, it's a good one. It is sort of the de facto manual for first aid here at PBN. Long-term sponsor. William Forgey's been on the podcast network many times. Great dude. And, you know, if you want to build out a legitimate first aid kit, survival, cash, and so on, like, go to PBNFamily.com. Get the book.

[00:29:41] Everything in the book is listed for sale at PBNFamily.com through Amazon. I didn't create it. The author created it. It's an amazing resource. You can take that book, build the first aid kit, and have, you know, everything that you need to be prepared from a first aid standpoint.

[00:30:00] Written by a doctor, a practicing doctor still to this day, a guy who is also well-versed in what it looks like in real time to practice off-grid medicine because he rendered aid in Haiti after the first earthquakes. So he's got great stories. I haven't been able to get him back on in a while, but he has amazing stories about trying to save lives in Haiti and, you know, running into AK-47 armed road stops trying to get to people. You know what I mean? Who need help.

[00:30:31] So let's talk marriage. What do you think? I found a Politico article. Or should we do health benefits of marriage? Now let's do the little arguments section. I think it's pretty good. I think it's pretty good.

[00:30:47] You know, like, so just to set the scene, I think that the majority of people, particularly men who are on the fence about marriage, have been conditioned to believe that they're going to get a divorce and the woman's going to take all their money. You know, which this is a weird. This is a weird mentality to me because I don't know that many people who got all that much money. You know what I mean?

[00:31:16] Like, it's I guess in certain and also when you're young enough to be married. Right. So like you're young enough to be married. You're in a relationship. Maybe you're making your money or you're in college or you're out of college and you got your first job. I don't understand the concern of she's going to leave me for all my money being a concern of the average dude because the average dude is not sitting on a hill of cash. You know what I mean?

[00:31:46] Like, I don't know. I don't know. It's a weird one. It happens. Don't get me wrong. And it's absolutely insane that it happens. It's a crazy law. It's very weird. Very weird. But this article from Politico talks about why is the pundit class suddenly so marriage obsessed? Why, you know, what the politics of marriage this day and age? Pretty cool little little photograph. There is like a like.

[00:32:14] What is the overwhelming take on marriage, you think? Firewood Ford says, I think money is just a good excuse. Yeah, it sounds like it. Definitely. But what is the general take on marriage, you think, in society's eyes? You know, is it marriage is a goofy institution that is religious in nature and silly? Or is it, you know, marriages is.

[00:32:44] You know what marriage is? I'll tell you what my take on marriage is. The one benefit that oversees all outside of just having a good life and having a companion through it all. A real companion, not someone who tells you they're your companion, not an AI companion, not a friend who's going to get married and leave you. Not a whatever. But a committed companion for life. A soulmate. Someone who has it going, goodwill hunting. You feel lonely, Will? You have a soulmate?

[00:33:11] And Will in Goodwill Hunting says he's got plenty of soulmates, plenty of people who test them. Because Robin Williams character says that you need someone who challenges you. Right. And he says, yeah, Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Locke. I got plenty of soulmates, people who test me. And then Robin Williams says they're not real. And you can't. What he says that's amazing in that movie, in that scene, is he says that you can't do things for them or you can't add to them or something along. Right?

[00:33:41] Like you can't be in service of a dead poet. Which is something that people forget about when it comes to marriage. You know, marriage and raising children in particular. You really start to learn the value of service and how fulfilling it is. Anyhow. So, but one of the big, probably the biggest respective benefit of marriage is, still death do we part.

[00:34:10] Is, you know, you're going to get old and undesirable and annoying to society. This is the reality that all the surgery in the world, all the special creams and lotions in the world will never, you know, whatever. Hair, hair plugs, whatever it is. What is the stuff that the lizards use to stay young? The adrenalized blood. All the young adrenalized blood you can get your hands on.

[00:34:39] You're going to get old. You're going to get old and nobody's going to want you. Nobody's going to want to deal with you. Your own kids are going to be burdened by you. They're going to be like, oh, let's go see dad. Let's go visit dad and see what the hell he's up to. Well, you know, and then the wife's going to argue with your kid. Oh, do we have to? Yeah, we'll just go in for like 45 minutes and see what he's up to. See if he needs any help. Right. And and that's it. And then they leave and you're back to being alone again. You know, that's if you have kids. Right. You don't have kids.

[00:35:07] So in other words, you're going to get old. You're going to need help. Right. Like this is all the other benefits aside, all other benefits of marriage and children and all that aside. You're going to get old. You're going to need help. Not everybody's got money to pay some nurse to come in and help them all the time. Do you want to get like relegated to a home where you see a living person every other day or something like that? And a meal is shoved under the door. No, you want somebody.

[00:35:37] You want somebody who's committed to you and somebody that you've been in service of and they've been in service of you for the last 30, 40, 50 years. And they know you and they know what you want and don't want and how you want to live and don't want to live. You know, just this immeasurable end of life companion for the what will be the hardest time of your life.

[00:36:01] I mean, I've been through several end of lives and I can tell you it's not end of lives like people in trauma, but like end of your old age death. It's it. There's no comparison. Do you know what I mean? There's no comparison. And if if you decide to go without, you decide I'm not going to get married because I don't want to wait on a man hand and foot like that shit don't even exist anymore. I don't think.

[00:36:27] But, you know, whatever the whatever the whatever the voice in your head from YouTube that you heard is. The end will come and it may not be swift. It may be long and drawn out and nightmarish. And God to go through that alone or to go through that with someone who's paid to go through that with you with with, you know, profits in mind.

[00:36:59] Sonnet two by William Shakespeare is a standout for this topic because it talks about age. Age and beauty. So many sonnets and so many poetic romantics, right? You know, poetry about the sort of the peak of beauty and all that. Right. The peak of romance, peak of love.

[00:37:23] One of the reasons I like Dante Gabriel Rossetti so much is because his true love died when he was young, when he was when, you know, when they were at their peak. So his his poetry is, you know, as gushy and all that as as a lot of romantic sonnets can be. But it's also there's also you run into sonnets from time to time about him staring into a chair that was designed for the love of his life that is empty, you know. But sonnet two.

[00:37:52] You know, I like the number two. I like amendment two. I like Shakespeare's sonnet two says when 40 winters shall be siege of thy brow and dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field. Right. You're getting old. You're getting wrinkly. Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on. Oh, no, I can't read it.

[00:38:16] Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now will be a tattered weed of small worth held. You got to wrap your head around that. You know what I mean? You're young and you're handsome, young and you're beautiful and everybody. Hey, how you doing? And when you doing this weekend? And it all comes to an end. Then being asked where all thy beauty lies, where all the treasure of thy lusty days to say within thine own deep sunken eyes.

[00:38:43] And he goes on to proclaim that, you know, largely when you get old, I'll still love you and I'll still be there. And if you're not in a committed relationship, things like that don't just happen on their own. You know what I mean? They're not just going to happen. Beef tallow. I don't even know where that fits, but we're going to put that into the chat. So we get a couple.

[00:39:09] Look, the reason I wanted to do this article is because we get a bloggers take a director of research and education on the Council of Contemporary Families. We get a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. We get Brad, a professor of sociology. God help him at the University of Virginia. Pretty, pretty close to me. Brad is. Diedrich Williams, a professor of another sociology professor. Right.

[00:39:35] And they start talking about, you know, marriage. Like these people who have studied the topic sort of take on marriage. And Stephanie Kuntz says marriage used to be the only game in town, which is a really interesting way to look at it, in my opinion. You could not get access to legal rights without marriage. Most women could not support themselves outside of marriage.

[00:39:59] Most men could not work a full time job and get their meals made and their house cleaned and any children they had raised outside of a marriage were not protected. Nancy Kuntz once made a really interesting analogy. What we saw over the last 100 years is the disestablishment of marriage as an institution, the same way we saw the disestablishment of the church in England. Some of the decline in marriage is absolutely inevitable, completely irreversible. I don't know about that.

[00:40:27] Some, however, is occurring because it's harder and harder to build a marriage and many marriages that people can enter don't look like they're going to deliver the goods and solace that we expect. So that is the take of Stephanie Kuntz, who is the director of research and education for the Council on Contemporary Families. Marriage, a history of how love conquered marriage. OK. Then we get to Weiss. Who's Weiss? Brad. No.

[00:40:57] Who's Weiss? Oh, Weiss is the interviewer. I'm sorry. Weiss is the one doing the interview. Brad Wilson says marriage grounds and guides family life and gives direction and structure and normative guidance to adult couples who are trying to forge an intimate relationship with one another over the course of their lives. It's not bad. It's clean. It's very clean. It's very robotic. It's very chat bot. Right. But I think there's a lot of truth to it. I think there's a lot of truth to it.

[00:41:23] Kay Heimowitz says, I think you need to keep in mind that marriage is universal. Every society has had marriage bar one, maybe two. There are a number of reasons, but one of them is the rearing of children. The collective human brain has basically come up with this one institution. It doesn't look like the nuclear family everywhere, but there's always some way that family is defined. And becomes part of the script, the young people. Yeah.

[00:41:53] You know, it's it's a it's a big one. A series of shorter relationships just isn't as sweet over the long term. Kumi or the shared life and memories accumulate into a wealth of enduring relationship that is priceless. The travels through hardships and successes makes the bond stronger and deeper. Or. Yeah, it's it's like Hamlet. It's like.

[00:42:23] We'd rather bear the ills we have and know than suffer those we don't or whatever he says about dying, about living through trials instead of dying. Right. I don't know it by heart, but that's what it reminds me a lot of. Right. It's what you get to a point, man, unless your marriage is hell. And trust me. Believe me, not from my own personal experience.

[00:42:48] Well, not my own marriage, but there are marriages that are a living hell. And I don't understand it. I first of all, I don't understand how it gets there. Second of all, I don't understand how people live it. A very important piece of any marriage. See, this is the weird gray line in marriage, man. The weird gray line in marriage is a marriage doesn't work with most people.

[00:43:14] A marriage will not work if you say you can do anything to me and I'll forgive you. Right. Yes. Till death do we part is part of the vow. But I think that both parties need to understand that there are there are limits. Like you can't tie me to the bed and cut pieces out of my thigh meat on on every Friday and I'm going to stick around. You know what I mean? And I do think that both parties in marriage have to know that this thing can end.

[00:43:44] There are limits. It's not a free for all. Right. I think that's an important part. And I think it's an important part that people leave out. And then they wind up in this situation where they're taking. They're they're dealing with behaviors from people that are just. You can't even fathom it. I mean, the stories I've heard from people, particularly and this is just because I talk to more men than women like about marriage.

[00:44:14] But the stories that I hear from men about the women, it's like that or the behaviors that they deal with from their woman are crazy. Like crazy. And the only thing I think of is that the I don't know, this gets kind of weird, but. But each of you have to know each other is crazy. You know what I mean? Like there has to be there just has to be limits to behavior and stuff.

[00:44:43] It can't be crazy, right? Jay Ferg in chat says when you're with the right person, you work on it together. You give to one another and you grow and love and heal. Yeah, you have to. That's that's dead on. That is that's it. You work on it together. You both have to want to be in it. Right. You have to. It's not a one sided thing.

[00:45:05] It never will work if you have a person who is dedicated to the marriage and a person who is busy doing something else. You know what I mean? Or not or whatever. Whatever happens, happens. Yeah, that's a big one. Firewolf Forge says what number of dates do you think the thigh cutting should come up? That's number one. That's day one. Look, you can tie me to the headboard, but there will be no cutting of thigh meat.

[00:45:34] OK, that's a good one. What is the sleep token lyric? Right. I guess it goes to show. Does it not? We've no idea what we've got until we lose it. No amount of love will keep it around unless we choose it. That's the important part of that line. No amount of love will keep it around unless we choose it.

[00:45:59] That that right there is the mechanism of long term relationship and marriage. Right. In other words, proclaim all the love you want for for your significant other. There's still work to be done. You know. That's it. So what else are these people yakking about? I like I just like to hear individual takes on marriage that aren't like. Don't get married. It's a scam.

[00:46:28] And are and also are not like get married because it's the only way. OK, Wilcox says, I think the idea of embracing family diversity. Every family is diverse, by the way. What I think Matt is suggesting is a very adult centered, progressive take on things. There's just no question in the United States, at least there is no comparison to marriage and delivering stability for kids and giving maximal access to their parents, attention, affection, discipline and money.

[00:46:56] Wilcox is right if you got good people, you know, if you got good people doing again with kids, it's the same thing as marriage. You got to give the effort. You got to like I remember like it still happens. It still happens. I wake up mid sleep. Dead to the world and go see what the kids are doing. You know what I mean? Like because some nights Lady Liberty and I go to bed early and the kids will be up and

[00:47:25] you know, they're good about going to sleep and things like that. But it's it's not about getting up and going and checking on them. It's about getting up and going and saying, hey, what are you working on? Show me what you're doing. What are you playing? What are you doing? You know what I mean? What are you watching? And of course, there's the element of like dad's around. So, you know, be smart about what you're doing. But what's much more important to the relationship with the kids is dads that there's a person

[00:47:52] in the world that wants to know what I'm working on, thinking, doing, say, care about. You know what I mean? And everything builds out of that. Everything does. Okay. We're getting pretty long into the show. I don't have a really like a super busy day anyway, in terms of the written word. So. So.

[00:48:20] I do want to talk about the benefits of marriage. What's up, Marvin Elkins Jr.? Oh, thanks so much, man. Over there in Lancaster, California. Yeah. So typically, Marvin, we're a bunch of like preppers and survivalists. And we have 15 hosts here at the Prepper Broadcasting Network. And that's usually what we bang on about here at PBN.

[00:48:46] But today on Surviving America, I'm just doing a, you know, a Valentine's love marriage centric show. So I appreciate you joining us. If it becomes your cup of tea, we appreciate you hanging around for sure. So I did want to talk about, oh, your wife's from Lancaster. How about that? Oh, good to hear it, Marvin. Good to hear it, man. Yeah, it is the way. There's no doubt about it.

[00:49:13] Let's put Marvin up on the chat here. Because it's always good to get a new subscriber anywhere. So I did want to talk about the benefits of marriage from a health perspective. I don't know. You know what? I think I'm going to go with the Harvard article. It's old. It's the only reason I don't want to do it. It's old, but it's out of Harvard. You know what I mean?

[00:49:36] And it makes me think like if anybody's going to fudge the stats against marriage and health, it would be an institution probably like Harvard. I don't know if that's true or not, but, you know, whatever. It seems that way, right? So as a team, we study how relationships affect health. One of us is a nursing professor who studies social support influences and behaviors. One is a social health psychologist who explores how stress affects couples' relationships and health.

[00:50:06] We examine how partners influence each other's health. This is one of those unsung things that I don't hear. Because remember, it doesn't make good content to give. What it doesn't make, particularly for like YouTube shorts or clickbait, is it doesn't make good content to give the whole story. Right? It's not good.

[00:50:29] Like a good – even I do like short-form content now and I show you a product and I go, this is the product. Right? And I like it. If I like it, I tell you the truth. Right? But short-form content is like – the worst short-form content you can make is there are benefits, there are pros and cons to marriage, and here's the pros, here's the cons. There's probably some middle ground. It's really good for kids and society and end of life and blah, blah, blah. But like nobody's going to watch that.

[00:50:58] They want you to be like, marriage sucks and you're going to lose all your money if you fall for these scoundrel women. Did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did. Do you know what I mean? So you don't see this stuff about health benefits in marriage very often. Let's see what this is. This is the conversation. Marriage could be good for your health unless you are bisexual. We're not going there. That's not where we're headed.

[00:51:23] I could care less if you're – whatever your sexual orientation is, but, you know, I'm not reading it. One theory that seeks to explain the link between marriage and health is the act of self-selection. Simply put, people who are wealthier and healthier than average are more likely not only to get married but also to find a partner who is wealthier and healthier than average. That's interesting. That is interesting, right? The whole idea of marriage is – I've never thought about that until that. Right?

[00:51:53] If you're dating, if you're like, I want a real pretty girl to take home, that's pretty short-term thinking. Right? Right? But if you're selecting for marriage, that's interesting. Right? Now you're looking at things through an entirely different lens. It's like, what's this person going to be in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years? What's their family like? What's their health like? You know what I mean?

[00:52:16] Many of my wife's best qualities, she exhibited at a very young age, like 20 years old, 19, 20 years old. And I just saw them as clear as day and was like, you know, this is an easy pick. Do you know what I mean? Like the big things were an easy pick. Like, so – and if I was looking at her for a – which I was looking at her both ways at the time. Right? I was 17, so I wasn't like, this is all about marriage. This right here.

[00:52:47] I was looking at her through both lenses, but looking through the marriage lens was like, ooh, pretty good one. It's a pretty good one right here. Might have to be smart. But that's interesting, right? The literal field of selection changes when you're looking through the marriage lens instead of the tonight lens. Okay, I don't want this high note stuff.

[00:53:14] My partner and I are both – I got to put that up, Jay Ferd. But workers in career and personal – that's it. Look. Look. If the men out there listening, the young men, or if you know a young man and you want to give them the best advice, seriously. Like, you want to give a man probably top three things to look for in a woman? Like, hard work. Hard work.

[00:53:44] I was like instinctually drawn to it. I don't know why, but I was instinctually drawn to it all through my life. I don't know. It was because – it could have been because my earliest girlfriend, we worked together and we had a great relationship. Like, we literally had the same job, worked together. And I don't know if that did it or if my mother working and being at home, all that kind of stuff. I'm not sure. You know what I mean? I really don't know.

[00:54:09] But what I do know is that now, 20 years in, 20 plus years in, like, you don't want a lazy girl. It's not going to work. You're going to be the guy doing everything to keep the relationship going. Like, you need a woman that is fine with hard work. Not only that, they're way cooler. They're way better. They do – you know, they strive for things in their own life. They're way more interesting.

[00:54:36] Like, whatever things you think are important in a woman, if you're a young man or if you're advising a young man, like, take a step back from all the sort of outer appearance and, you know, whatever else benefits you think she brings to the table and say, like, is she capable of grinding?

[00:54:57] Because if you have kids and if you get married and you're really trying to build a life, you need someone who's going to work. Because it's going to get to the point – your life will get to the point where you're like – every ounce of you is given to something else and you still have a marriage to upkeep. And that's when the worker – that's when the workers win, you know? That's what it takes. That's what it takes.

[00:55:27] Yeah, you laugh, but that's legitimate. That's legitimate, man. Firewolf Forge has his own – where'd it go? Has his own benefits in a woman. Good with money, good character, good birthing hips. Yeah, the hips. Yeah. That's a good one. Garden Girl in here. What's up, Garden Girl? Welcome in. I'd have loved your take on some of this.

[00:55:57] Garden Girl. You may have to just send us some messages. Listen to it and write up some stuff for our element chat. For real. All right. Let's go look at some of these. And I'll give you – some of them are from Wikipedia. So it's like, I don't know. Married people may take fewer risks, eat better, maintain healthier lifestyles on average compared with single people. I think that makes sense.

[00:56:25] I think that makes sense because, you know, you're going to get hollered at. Your insurance costs are going to go up, right? There's evidence that married people tend to keep regular doctor's appointments and follow doctor's recommendations more often than single people. Knowing what we know now about health care, I don't know. Maybe that's good. Maybe it's not. Here's an interesting one that no one – this is from the Harvard article. Mental health is better when you're married. Married – yeah.

[00:56:55] Mental health – what? We got to dig into that. Marriage has mixed effects on health behavior. Spouses help each other maintain healthy habits and provide emotional support in time zone. I mean there's no doubt about that, right? Again, that goes back to like it's really good to have someone around who cares about your problems. You know, like really. Think about it. You know, there are problems that crop up in life and people are going to tell you, oh, God.

[00:57:22] You know what everybody always says, and I'm guilty of it too. Like anything you need, I'll help you, right? Something along those lines. Okay, I need you to move in with me and take care of my dad who's dying, right? Like them things, right? There are limits. People won't even ask for that kind of help. But if you have a spouse, then it's kind of like, again, let's get back to work. Let's get back to work, honey. Mental health is better when you're married.

[00:57:49] Like poor social supports, as might be more likely for those who are single, have been strongly linked to higher rates of depression, loneliness, and social isolation. Yeah, I guess when you have a man in your house, this is how I always feel about my wife because I'm here a lot. You know what I mean? I'm here like she comes home. I'm here, right? You know what I mean? It's not like that triumphant arrival of dad from a long day's work. But I always think about that, like from a loneliness and social isolation perspective.

[00:58:17] If you have a person in your life that you want the hell out of your life for an hour, that's probably pretty good. That's a hell of a lot better than having nobody, right? I always think about that with my wife. Sometimes I'll be like just I'm leaving for a few hours and like her eyes will light up. Oh, OK, because she's too nice and wonderful to be like you. Can you get the hell out of the house for a little bit? You're driving me nuts.

[00:58:43] I just want to be here with the kids and not have you thumping around smelling, you know, making the whole house stink of coffee and and Warhammer glue. And how fun, you know what I mean? How fun. So, yeah, health benefits as well. So I'm getting really hungry. I'm going to read you a little nuptial sleep because it's I have to do it.

[00:59:11] There's been no Valentine's Day show that I've ever done where I didn't read Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He is my my favorite poet of all. Right. He is Edgar Allan Poe meets William Shakespeare. And I don't know. Nuptial sleep is a good one in the context of marriage. If you're a man who has been married and who loves your wife, you've been here a million times.

[00:59:35] Hopefully, hopefully you sidle up to to your bride in bed and see her this way. But this is just a clip from nuptial sleep. The only problem with this great anthology is that. They take his sonnets and they don't write them all. They only write sections of them. This is a great section. The book that I have, you can't see it, but it's hanging on the wall back there. Victorian poetry has them all at length from the House of Life.

[01:00:05] If you want to get into Dante Gabriel Rossetti's romantic side, which is the biggest side, really, then read the House of Life. It's a collection of sonnets. Unbelievable. Okay. Unbelievable. And he was a painter, too, on top of it. Phenomenal.

[01:00:24] The reason modern art hits like a pile of shit is because, for me, is because I grew up looking at Dante Gabriel Rossetti. An early American artist who painted really well. You know what I mean? Like, they painted things really well.

[01:00:46] It wasn't lines and splotches and cats painting and piss in a jar with a flower in it or something. I don't know what they do. Nuptial sleep. Sonnet 6. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the House of Life. Sleep sank them lower than the tide of dreams. And their dreams watched them sink and slid away. Slowly their souls swam up again through gleams. Of watered light and dull, drowned waves of day.

[01:01:16] Till from some wonder of new woods and streams he woke and wondered more. For there she lay. Yeah, if you're a man, you know that. You know all that all too well. You're waking up in the morning hours and... Oh, God. Don't get me started on that. But it's been a fun show, guys. You know? It's been a fun show. I don't know what all the takeaway is of it. I thank the chat. You guys were instrumental today. Right?

[01:01:46] Instrumental today. One last piece of advice from Firewolf Forge. Doesn't car insurance go down if you're married? That's all the reason you need. Nowadays it might be. I don't know. It goes down if you can drive. Sometimes our car insurance does one of these numbers because I'm not a very good driver. But anyway. Or I'm a very distracted driver. Let's go with that. So, I hope you took a lot away from the show and enjoyed it. Dig into some Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

[01:02:16] Fall in love with this life of yours. Right? Because you will be dead soon. Hmm? Time waits for no man. The wedded... What did I call it? I don't remember. Yeah. Support the sponsors, folks. They keep this ship a sail. It is required that you run over there from time to time and buy something. Because then they keep coming back and they say, Oh man, doing business with PBN is great.

[01:02:43] Their audience really helps support our business. Right? And in turn, they help support us. And special thanks to all the members. The members, the members, the members. You guys are another just complete necessity to making PBN what it is. If you're interested in membership, go to PBNfamily.com. And you'll be hit with a tidal wave of preparedness. Okay? In all forms. We've got a lot of great guests coming up in the near future. I will be reaching out to members for questions.

[01:03:15] The 24th of this month, we're going to have a guy on. Uh, Richard Anderson. And we're going to be talking about survival on Mars. And I have a feeling it's going to be an unbelievable show. And Monday, we're going to be talking about Calm Within Chaos. Right? With Giovanna Silvestri. We're going to be talking in particular about yoga and, you know, the benefits therein. I've been doing it for years.

[01:03:41] If nothing else, uh, it's kept me from severe injury through weightlifting, Muay Thai boxing, running long distances, the whole thing. You know, I really attribute almost all of my ability to, uh, either remain uninjured or recover from injury very quickly to the practice of yoga.

[01:04:00] And on top of that physical stuff, it's also, you know, it can take you out of a serious, you know, a serious nightmare mentally if you really do it and practice it consistently. So that's what's coming up. I'm out of here, folks. I do appreciate you. I'm going to go. Don't tell anybody. I'm going to go eat eggs for breakfast. I'm going to blow, like, about $1,500 on an egg breakfast.

[01:04:30] Jay Ferg has got an investment in eggs as well over there. I'm going to run out to the coop and pull about $20,000 out of the coop for breakfast. Jalapenos. What else? What else do I have? I don't know. I'll talk to you guys soon. I do appreciate you. And, uh, this has been Surviving America with James Walton. See you.