Surviving America: 07 Nostalgia

[00:00:01] Society in every state is a blessing. The government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil.

[00:00:11] The future has already arrived.

[00:00:48] Nineties was the last great decade. It all turns into a blur after that. We didn't realize how good we had it.

[00:01:05] Anyone else remember playing little games in the street in the early evening with your cousins during birthday parties or holiday gatherings?

[00:01:15] Maybe playing catch with the football or baseball?

[00:01:19] Now we've all grown up and apart from one another, unknowingly.

[00:01:34] These houses definitely take me back to the nineties, especially since they look like they're on the East Coast.

[00:01:40] And I lived in New York in the nineties. It was such an amazing time.

[00:01:45] I still remember trick-or-treating there, grinding Mario Kart and Ocarina of Time on Nintendo 64 and watching movies on VHS.

[00:01:56] Gosh! Those were the days.

[00:02:04] I was born in 93, October.

[00:02:08] What I miss most.

[00:02:11] Life before social media.

[00:02:13] Life before widespread internet.

[00:02:16] Windows 98 and Space Cadet Pinball.

[00:02:19] Endless summers of childhood that seemingly lasted for years.

[00:02:25] Any time before 9-11.

[00:02:28] Friday night blockbuster rentals.

[00:02:32] Damn, I miss the smell of blockbuster.

[00:02:36] 31 now.

[00:02:38] Life before social media and widespread access to the Matrix seems happier, simpler, and far more relaxing.

[00:02:45] I was only six when people partied like it was 1999.

[00:02:53] Sadly.

[00:02:56] Joined the USMC to fight in a war I grew up with.

[00:03:00] And now the world is losing its damn mind.

[00:03:05] Nostalgia.

[00:03:13] It's a hard realization that you had debatably the most perfect childhood in human history and you can't give your kids the same thing because the world doesn't work that way anymore.

[00:03:33] Well done.

[00:03:35] I graduated high school in 2002.

[00:03:38] I'm fortunate to still get together with several friends that have grown up together.

[00:03:43] Last Saturday, four of us got together around a fire table at the same place we did 30 years ago.

[00:03:51] Hope everyone out there has a great fall season this year.

[00:04:04] Nostalgia PBN family.

[00:04:07] Welcome into Surviving America.

[00:04:11] The topic of the day is nostalgia.

[00:04:12] There's a million things we could talk about, complain about.

[00:04:16] But this could be a very different show.

[00:04:22] Because I'm always and have always given you what's at the peak of my interest.

[00:04:30] And for some reason lately I've been called to this thing.

[00:04:34] Largely due to the people's comments on the internet.

[00:04:38] You know, you feel that nostalgic feeling.

[00:04:40] What I just read to you was a collection of comments under a simple video made by Eternal Past.

[00:04:50] 1993 Fall.

[00:04:51] A vapor wave of true nostalgia.

[00:04:53] Synth wave, chill wave.

[00:04:57] And it is literally like a VHS, probably an AI generated house.

[00:05:03] With a VHS overlay.

[00:05:06] And music that sounded very similar to what we just played.

[00:05:10] Okay.

[00:05:13] The track I just played was called Autumn Music.

[00:05:18] And I'd love to give the person credit.

[00:05:22] But I don't think that their name is in it.

[00:05:25] I want to say that the person that created that was called Music for Videos.

[00:05:30] But it's a 21 minute long diddy.

[00:05:35] Diddy.

[00:05:36] Can I say Diddy anymore?

[00:05:40] You know, I've been a victim of nostalgia since the first Spider-Man.

[00:05:45] And whether you know it or not, like, Hollywood has almost turned completely nostalgic in order to fill the seats in the movie theaters.

[00:05:56] Spider-Man, which came out when?

[00:05:59] Like, oh, one.

[00:06:00] You know?

[00:06:01] When did the first Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man come out?

[00:06:07] Let's see.

[00:06:10] To 2002, I was close.

[00:06:14] And I remember being driven into that.

[00:06:16] Well, yeah, driven into that because of the fact that, you know, I watched the animated series growing up and loved it.

[00:06:23] And who didn't want to see it on the big screen?

[00:06:27] Right?

[00:06:28] And now, the American condition is just incredibly interesting to me.

[00:06:35] You know, it's one of my favorite things to think about, talk about, write about.

[00:06:40] Which is why Surviving America exists.

[00:06:43] You know, because it is fundamentally a show exploring the American condition.

[00:06:48] Yeah, we talk about prepping.

[00:06:49] We talk about politics.

[00:06:51] We talk about health.

[00:06:52] We talk about all kinds of things.

[00:06:54] But at the end of the day, man, it's about this group.

[00:06:57] It's about this population.

[00:06:59] This population that's been given the gift of freedom.

[00:07:04] And, you know, we're just, we're not inherently bad or anything.

[00:07:09] You know, there's all kinds of people right now who are selflessly entering the disaster zones in the Appalachians.

[00:07:19] And giving their all to save people's lives and to get, you know, it's amazing what people are doing right now.

[00:07:26] So this idea that we're all sort of jaded, cynical, nostalgic, hungry, selfish losers or whatever.

[00:07:34] And, you know, narcissistic is, it's not true, of course.

[00:07:42] But what is this calling to nostalgia that is so strong?

[00:07:47] And the reason I bring up the movies is because I want you to understand the power of it.

[00:07:52] I want you to understand that the re-releasing of Marvel, the re-releasing of DC characters, the re-releasing of Dunes and Star Wars and all these things, Mortal Kombat and Dragon Ball Zs, all these things hitting at this time has always, to me, felt unbelievable.

[00:08:13] That I could share it with my kids, that I could, you know, take them into those universes and show them the things that I enjoyed growing up.

[00:08:22] And also what a big part of that was, folks, was the nostalgia of the time.

[00:08:27] It's pulling a 30-year-old man into a movie theater to watch a comic book movie because it reminds him of a time long past.

[00:08:43] Now, normally, I'll think about this stuff for months before I bring it to you on the air, you know, and this is no different.

[00:08:53] I was spurred back in September, maybe even early, maybe even mid-August, by a little clip on Instagram.

[00:09:01] It was just a little silly clip.

[00:09:03] AI generated, 90s Halloween.

[00:09:09] I didn't know it was AI generated at the time.

[00:09:11] My youngest actually had to tell me.

[00:09:12] I thought I was looking at real pictures in the 90s.

[00:09:14] And he said, Dad, look here, look there.

[00:09:16] It's all AI.

[00:09:18] But whatever, you know, it compiled together with some sound from Nightmare Before Christmas and all things.

[00:09:26] Threw me into this sort of hyper focus on nostalgia and what it is we're yearning for as a people.

[00:09:35] And why are we yearning for it?

[00:09:36] And why can't we get it?

[00:09:38] And who are we blaming?

[00:09:41] Right?

[00:09:46] It was mentioned in the comments and part of it was this idea that we had this great childhood growing up and we cannot give it to our children.

[00:09:59] If you have kids, young kids, then you lament this.

[00:10:02] There's no, there's almost, there's very few places that exist the way that things existed back then.

[00:10:11] But before I get into that, the reason I'm telling you about the box office is because nostalgia is very powerful.

[00:10:17] And nostalgia is used on you whether you know it or not.

[00:10:20] Okay?

[00:10:21] You just, you have to understand that.

[00:10:23] It is a tool now.

[00:10:26] But it's also wonderful.

[00:10:28] You know, it's also wonderful.

[00:10:33] But there are a lot of factors, man, that led us into this situation where we are now where we think that the 90s childhood, which was the 90s childhood such an amazing thing.

[00:10:45] I mean, I enjoyed my childhood, I think, to some degree.

[00:10:49] I remember great, horrible times in my childhood also.

[00:10:52] And I think they get sort of forgotten.

[00:10:55] Now it is true that because of the makeup and the model of my neighborhood,

[00:11:02] we had epic Halloweens, you know, the Halloweens were the most epic because we had, our town had very clear borders.

[00:11:11] You know, there were defining borders.

[00:11:14] And those defining borders allowed our parents to allow us to run roughshod over basically the whole town from the Delaware River to the, to Green Street, you know, to the, really to the R2 Railroad.

[00:11:31] And it was fun.

[00:11:34] You know, it was fun.

[00:11:37] And I started thinking about that in general, right?

[00:11:40] Nostalgia is one thing, but this lamenting of being able to give our children a childhood similar to ours.

[00:11:47] First of all, who knows, you know?

[00:11:54] We must be very cussing careful about a boogeyman.

[00:12:02] We like to look at our children.

[00:12:03] We like to look at the situation with children and tell, well, who's the boogeyman in all this?

[00:12:09] Right?

[00:12:10] It even was mentioned in the comments.

[00:12:11] The boogeyman was technology, Wi-Fi, high-speed internet, right?

[00:12:18] High-speed internet's done it.

[00:12:20] It's ruined childhood.

[00:12:23] We have to be very cussing careful about boogeyman.

[00:12:28] Learn from the left.

[00:12:29] The left has bet it all on the orange boogeyman.

[00:12:32] And you see where that's got them, right?

[00:12:34] They've lost fundamentally all credibility except with the captured peoples of their party.

[00:12:40] They blame everything on Trump, the boogeyman.

[00:12:45] But the fact of the matter is,

[00:12:48] electronics are just one piece of why our kids' childhood is not our childhood.

[00:12:55] Now, don't get me wrong.

[00:12:56] They are powerful.

[00:12:57] And they can distract your child from sunup to sundown if you allow it.

[00:13:02] And they have no need or no desire or no drive to go see anybody.

[00:13:08] Do anything.

[00:13:13] But I look back at my childhood and I can understand why everything happened the way it happened.

[00:13:20] Why my childhood was the way it was.

[00:13:22] Why it was so...

[00:13:23] Because what was it, right?

[00:13:25] It was boredom-centric and it was freedom-centric fundamentally.

[00:13:30] That's what defined my childhood.

[00:13:35] Now we move.

[00:13:37] I lived amidst four to five generations of my family all in the same town.

[00:13:47] Do you know what I mean?

[00:13:50] Generations of my family were within shouting distance in the same town.

[00:13:58] There wasn't moving.

[00:14:00] Now we move.

[00:14:01] We move to college and we move to a new place and then we move here.

[00:14:05] We don't live down the street from our parents anymore.

[00:14:07] We don't live down the street from our brothers and sisters or our cousins, aunts, uncles.

[00:14:15] And because of that, we enter these new worlds.

[00:14:18] We enter these new towns.

[00:14:19] We enter these new people, these unknowns.

[00:14:21] You know, where I grew up in Marcus Sook, everybody knew everybody.

[00:14:26] So what did that mean?

[00:14:27] Well, when everybody knows everybody and you know that everybody knows your kids and you know everybody else's kids and you know that people got eyes out.

[00:14:37] And when new people come into town, people ask questions.

[00:14:42] Once you move to a new place, now you're scared.

[00:14:45] Now fearful parents have to say, stay on the block.

[00:14:49] Fearful parents have to say, don't go past that.

[00:14:53] Don't do this.

[00:14:54] Don't do that.

[00:14:55] I don't want you going over in them woods by yourself.

[00:14:57] I don't like that kid.

[00:14:58] I don't know.

[00:14:59] You know what I mean?

[00:14:59] I don't want you doing sleepovers.

[00:15:02] One of the great tragedies of my kid's life is just a bunch of parents that don't do sleepovers anymore.

[00:15:08] I mean, it's not an isolated issue.

[00:15:11] It's everywhere.

[00:15:12] And it's because, you know, they don't know.

[00:15:14] You're not sleeping over your cousins.

[00:15:16] You're not sleeping over your, like, your friends with the woman down the street.

[00:15:21] You both had kids growing up.

[00:15:24] Even if you weren't buddy-buddy, you knew each other.

[00:15:26] You went to school together, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?

[00:15:28] And your kids sleep over at the other kid's house because they're friends.

[00:15:33] The fear of parents is as much to blame as anything else nowadays for not being able to recreate your nostalgic 90s childhood.

[00:15:46] And, of course, we're busy now, right?

[00:15:51] We so, my generation so abhorred boredom that we set out to create a world where we'd never be bored.

[00:15:58] And we've achieved that.

[00:16:00] We've basically achieved that.

[00:16:02] And now we have to fight for the free time to do things that we would otherwise do when we were bored.

[00:16:10] But I remember it.

[00:16:11] I remember being draped over my buddy's one particular day always stands out.

[00:16:15] Boredom was normal for us.

[00:16:16] But I remember being draped over my buddy Mike's bed in the summer and having nothing to do and being so bored.

[00:16:26] Like, we just couldn't wrap our heads around how bored we were.

[00:16:32] And we filled that time up now with busy kids.

[00:16:35] We filled that time up now with busy parents.

[00:16:38] The big difference in my neighborhood growing up was we didn't do jack.

[00:16:44] And our parents didn't do jack.

[00:16:47] We got home from school and we played with our friends.

[00:16:51] That was our after school activity.

[00:16:54] Right?

[00:16:55] My parents got home from school and they stayed home.

[00:16:57] That's what they did.

[00:16:59] Like, they would get home from work, make dinner, eat dinner, stay home.

[00:17:03] They weren't going places.

[00:17:05] They weren't like, hey, let's go down to the...

[00:17:07] Let's do this.

[00:17:08] Let's do that.

[00:17:10] And look, we are busy people.

[00:17:13] For the most part.

[00:17:16] I love being home.

[00:17:19] I love casting away responsibilities.

[00:17:22] I love calling out of things.

[00:17:25] I love nothing more than a night in.

[00:17:29] Truly.

[00:17:30] You have to understand.

[00:17:31] Like, I want you all to know enough about me to understand who's at the helm.

[00:17:39] Okay?

[00:17:40] Of PBN.

[00:17:47] After all these years, man, I am what I am.

[00:17:52] And there's so much stability in that.

[00:17:55] In understanding that.

[00:17:57] You can't be everything.

[00:18:00] Social media and our addiction to information shows us all these people living all these lives and doing all these things.

[00:18:09] And there's a time in your life where you will want to be doing all those things and being all those people.

[00:18:15] And you might even feel bad about yourself if you're not being all those things and doing all those things and doing all those people.

[00:18:21] You know what I mean?

[00:18:23] And there's a time in your life where...

[00:18:26] And sometimes it's a person's whole life and it's really sad to watch.

[00:18:31] But there's a time in your life when you're aspiring to be almost everything.

[00:18:42] I know the things that I love in this life.

[00:18:46] I know that I was put here to write fundamentally.

[00:18:50] I know that I was put here to be in front of microphones.

[00:18:53] I don't know why that is.

[00:18:55] You know?

[00:18:56] I was here to...

[00:18:56] I'm here to...

[00:19:00] Convey.

[00:19:02] My experience of the world.

[00:19:03] To see the world.

[00:19:05] Because I see the world...

[00:19:08] I know I see the world better than a lot of people.

[00:19:10] Because I practice.

[00:19:12] You know what I mean?

[00:19:13] Do you ever practice seeing the world?

[00:19:15] It's a good time of year to do it.

[00:19:17] It's a good time of year to go outside.

[00:19:20] Leave the phone inside.

[00:19:22] Sit down somewhere.

[00:19:24] Look at the world.

[00:19:27] Look at it.

[00:19:28] Look at the leaves changing.

[00:19:29] Look at the ground covered in leaves.

[00:19:30] Look at the creatures going about their business.

[00:19:33] Understanding that the seasons define their life.

[00:19:35] Not their boss.

[00:19:37] Not their spouse.

[00:19:39] Right?

[00:19:39] And I've just always been good at self-expression.

[00:19:44] In a way that...

[00:19:46] You know...

[00:19:47] Shakes people.

[00:19:48] Shakes people from that sort of hum...

[00:19:51] Of monotonous life.

[00:19:57] You have this sort of core...

[00:19:59] Of what you are.

[00:20:00] You can build on it.

[00:20:02] You know?

[00:20:03] I've built a lot on this sort of chassis...

[00:20:05] Of being a writer and a talker or whatever.

[00:20:09] I've built a lot on that.

[00:20:11] Creative.

[00:20:12] Well, I don't know.

[00:20:13] I've built a lot of cool stuff on that chassis.

[00:20:18] But I'm not jumping from lily pad to lily pad.

[00:20:22] Right?

[00:20:22] Based on the moment.

[00:20:23] Based on the...

[00:20:24] It is what it is.

[00:20:25] I guess fundamentally...

[00:20:26] You want to build enough on the core of what you are...

[00:20:29] And what you really love and enjoy...

[00:20:31] To be able to adapt...

[00:20:33] To the times.

[00:20:36] That's pretty important.

[00:20:41] You can't be everything.

[00:20:42] You know?

[00:20:44] I would highly encourage you to sit back...

[00:20:46] And enjoy...

[00:20:47] Other people's proficiency...

[00:20:49] And perfection...

[00:20:51] And efficacy of what they do.

[00:20:54] Rather than saying...

[00:20:55] I should be doing that.

[00:20:56] That should be me.

[00:20:57] That should be this.

[00:20:58] I should be this.

[00:20:59] Right?

[00:21:01] That leads us down this path...

[00:21:03] Where we have these busy parents...

[00:21:04] Who are just...

[00:21:06] You know...

[00:21:07] Constantly...

[00:21:08] Busy.

[00:21:09] Busy.

[00:21:10] And when you're busy...

[00:21:10] And you're a parent...

[00:21:11] What happens?

[00:21:12] Well, your kids either...

[00:21:13] Have to go with you...

[00:21:14] Or they have to stay home...

[00:21:16] And be on some limited diet of fun.

[00:21:19] Or some...

[00:21:20] Some digital diet...

[00:21:21] That's nice and safe.

[00:21:22] And you stay in the house...

[00:21:23] And watch your sister...

[00:21:24] And make sure that everything's okay...

[00:21:26] And don't get in any trouble.

[00:21:29] Right?

[00:21:31] And this creates the childhood...

[00:21:33] That exists today.

[00:21:34] This creates...

[00:21:36] A neighborhood of silence.

[00:21:38] Which is both...

[00:21:40] Magical and depressing.

[00:21:44] When I would...

[00:21:45] Be sitting in my home...

[00:21:47] As a young man...

[00:21:49] Eating dinner or...

[00:21:51] Even just sitting in...

[00:21:53] My windows would be open...

[00:21:55] Cracked, you know...

[00:21:56] And I would always...

[00:21:57] Hear children.

[00:21:59] Yelling, screaming...

[00:22:00] Crying, laughing...

[00:22:01] Whatever.

[00:22:01] Always.

[00:22:02] Constantly hearing children.

[00:22:05] Folks in chat...

[00:22:06] I'm so sorry.

[00:22:07] I've been...

[00:22:08] Drifting in and out...

[00:22:10] Of my own reveries...

[00:22:11] And I...

[00:22:12] Didn't even go into the chat.

[00:22:13] I apologize for that.

[00:22:16] But I'd always hear kids.

[00:22:18] Constantly.

[00:22:19] Hearing kids.

[00:22:20] You know what I mean?

[00:22:26] Moving away from these...

[00:22:27] Well-oiled groups of...

[00:22:29] These well-oiled generations...

[00:22:31] Of intertwined families.

[00:22:34] Parents who are scared...

[00:22:35] Too afraid to let their kids run wild.

[00:22:38] Maybe he'll get hit by a bike.

[00:22:39] Maybe he'll get taken by a bad guy.

[00:22:41] Maybe he'll get hurt.

[00:22:42] Maybe he'll get made fun of.

[00:22:44] You know, whatever the fears are.

[00:22:46] The fears have crushed our...

[00:22:50] Our children's ability...

[00:22:51] To really get after it.

[00:22:52] But...

[00:22:53] The way that kids do.

[00:22:56] You know, one of the things that...

[00:22:58] And I miss Joe Prim.

[00:22:59] I need to reach out to Joe Prim.

[00:23:00] But one of the things that Joe Prim...

[00:23:01] Always used to talk about...

[00:23:03] Was...

[00:23:04] The concept of kids going out...

[00:23:06] Into the world...

[00:23:07] And getting in trouble.

[00:23:10] In other words...

[00:23:11] Not waking up and pretending.

[00:23:13] Or not waking up and living with this...

[00:23:16] Idea that you're a kid...

[00:23:17] And you better be perfect.

[00:23:20] Get the good grades.

[00:23:21] Do good in your sport.

[00:23:22] Don't get in any trouble.

[00:23:24] Like...

[00:23:26] Everything in that sentence...

[00:23:29] Was the opposite of me growing up.

[00:23:33] I didn't get good grades.

[00:23:35] I didn't play a sport.

[00:23:37] And I got in trouble a lot.

[00:23:39] And it was fun.

[00:23:42] You know what I mean?

[00:23:43] It was fun.

[00:23:46] Because at the end of the day...

[00:23:48] You know...

[00:23:49] It's...

[00:23:50] You know if you're gonna...

[00:23:51] You know what it takes.

[00:23:53] You know what I mean?

[00:23:55] You know what it takes to be somebody...

[00:23:57] Who is gonna have some level of success...

[00:23:59] In life.

[00:24:05] So...

[00:24:06] You know...

[00:24:07] There's some other...

[00:24:07] There's some other symptoms.

[00:24:09] Right?

[00:24:09] Parents...

[00:24:10] And division.

[00:24:13] Parents and division are a big deal now.

[00:24:15] This is new.

[00:24:17] You know?

[00:24:17] Is a Kamala Harris voter...

[00:24:19] Gonna let her kids hang out with a Donald Trump voter?

[00:24:22] Is a Kamala Harris voter...

[00:24:25] Which is...

[00:24:26] Basically like saying you're Christian.

[00:24:29] Right?

[00:24:29] Same...

[00:24:30] Same order of effect.

[00:24:31] Same hierarchy in life now.

[00:24:33] Right?

[00:24:34] I'm a Democrat.

[00:24:36] Are they gonna let their kids hang out with...

[00:24:39] A Christian?

[00:24:40] Is an overly religious person...

[00:24:44] Going to let the kids hang out with another Democrat?

[00:24:47] With a Democrat?

[00:24:48] Who's got...

[00:24:50] Rainbow flags hanging...

[00:24:52] And trans rights stickers on the car?

[00:24:55] Probably not.

[00:24:56] Probably not.

[00:24:58] They're certainly not gonna get along as parents.

[00:25:02] And that affects everything.

[00:25:07] Since parents have decided to wear their...

[00:25:10] Religious and political affiliations on their sleeve...

[00:25:15] And...

[00:25:15] And their car.

[00:25:17] And their house.

[00:25:18] And their everything that they do.

[00:25:20] Um...

[00:25:21] You know, we didn't know.

[00:25:23] They...

[00:25:24] One of the things about it was...

[00:25:26] You didn't know.

[00:25:28] And you didn't even care.

[00:25:30] Like, nobody knew who the next door neighbor's religion was...

[00:25:33] Or political party was...

[00:25:35] Or who they were voting for.

[00:25:36] And you didn't know these things.

[00:25:37] You didn't care.

[00:25:39] You didn't ask about them.

[00:25:41] Right?

[00:25:43] You might get mad at them for the way they parked.

[00:25:46] The most furious...

[00:25:47] Dude, you were in my spot.

[00:25:49] You know?

[00:25:49] That's the most furious leap...

[00:25:51] You would get at them.

[00:25:56] But these divisions...

[00:25:59] These things, right?

[00:26:00] These things...

[00:26:00] These are what...

[00:26:02] These are also...

[00:26:04] Part of the equation.

[00:26:05] You know?

[00:26:07] It's not all electronics.

[00:26:09] It's easy to find that boogeyman and say...

[00:26:12] You know, my kids are stuck inside...

[00:26:13] Because nobody's kids come outside...

[00:26:15] Because they're all worried about...

[00:26:17] Playing on phones...

[00:26:18] Playing on this...

[00:26:19] Playing on that.

[00:26:22] Well, they also weren't brought up with it.

[00:26:26] And so on and so forth.

[00:26:27] I don't need to go down the list again.

[00:26:29] Right?

[00:26:29] But you understand.

[00:26:30] Like...

[00:26:31] There are many culprits...

[00:26:32] In this thing.

[00:26:35] And what I worry about most for kids nowadays...

[00:26:38] And future children...

[00:26:39] Is...

[00:26:40] That...

[00:26:41] Parents and people my age...

[00:26:43] And maybe the next generation of parents...

[00:26:45] Are going to shun technology.

[00:26:47] I see it with some parents already.

[00:26:49] Like, no.

[00:26:50] No tech.

[00:26:52] And...

[00:26:54] We have to be careful about that...

[00:26:56] Because...

[00:26:57] The infrastructure...

[00:26:58] Everything I just mentioned...

[00:26:59] The infrastructure...

[00:27:01] For the 90s child...

[00:27:03] Isn't out there anymore.

[00:27:04] Right?

[00:27:05] It's not just sitting out there waiting.

[00:27:08] There's not...

[00:27:09] Jungle gyms full of kids.

[00:27:11] There's not parks down the street...

[00:27:12] With kids playing baseball...

[00:27:13] And football...

[00:27:14] And kickball...

[00:27:15] And so on.

[00:27:15] Like, you have to build that.

[00:27:17] You could build that.

[00:27:19] It's not with...

[00:27:20] Nothing...

[00:27:20] In America...

[00:27:22] Is out of reach.

[00:27:24] You can gather together your neighbors.

[00:27:26] And yeah...

[00:27:26] I've tried this.

[00:27:27] I've done this.

[00:27:27] I've failed at this several times.

[00:27:32] It's not easy.

[00:27:33] But you could do it.

[00:27:34] You could pull it off.

[00:27:36] For sure.

[00:27:42] But to send a kid out into today's modern world...

[00:27:45] Particularly in a neighborhood where there are...

[00:27:48] There's not already an established...

[00:27:50] Like, group of kids playing together...

[00:27:51] And say, hey...

[00:27:52] Play with kids.

[00:27:54] And then you look out your front window...

[00:27:55] And they're like digging in the dirt...

[00:27:58] Alone...

[00:27:58] For six hours.

[00:28:01] You know what I mean?

[00:28:04] Isolation is a thing.

[00:28:06] You know?

[00:28:07] Isolation is a thing.

[00:28:08] And it's not a good thing for everyone.

[00:28:10] You know?

[00:28:11] I remember...

[00:28:11] The day that I was...

[00:28:13] Made to stay inside.

[00:28:17] When...

[00:28:18] When...

[00:28:18] The drugs began to take hold of everyone...

[00:28:21] Around me.

[00:28:23] My mother...

[00:28:24] Who was an addict at the time herself...

[00:28:26] Crazy enough.

[00:28:27] But also...

[00:28:27] It kind of makes sense.

[00:28:31] Basically forced me...

[00:28:32] To stay in.

[00:28:34] She forced me to stay in...

[00:28:36] And to not go out...

[00:28:37] And I was...

[00:28:38] You know?

[00:28:38] Probably...

[00:28:38] 11, 12 at this point.

[00:28:42] She didn't say you can't leave the house...

[00:28:44] But she said you fundamentally...

[00:28:45] Can't hang out with anybody...

[00:28:46] In the neighborhood...

[00:28:47] That you used to hang out with.

[00:28:50] And...

[00:28:51] As crazy as that sounds...

[00:28:54] Uh...

[00:28:55] There's a good chance...

[00:28:56] She saved my life.

[00:28:59] Maybe.

[00:29:00] I'm not sure about that.

[00:29:01] But there's a chance...

[00:29:02] That she saved my life.

[00:29:04] Because most of the people...

[00:29:05] That I hung out with...

[00:29:06] In those days are dead now.

[00:29:08] From heroin.

[00:29:11] The vast majority.

[00:29:12] The vast majority of cousins...

[00:29:14] And friends.

[00:29:15] Gone.

[00:29:20] And you know...

[00:29:21] There's something to be said...

[00:29:22] About the parent's instinct...

[00:29:23] In a moment like that.

[00:29:24] Even a parent who's compromised...

[00:29:25] By her own addiction.

[00:29:26] It's hard to believe...

[00:29:27] But it's real.

[00:29:31] But the isolation was real...

[00:29:33] PBN family.

[00:29:33] It was no joke at first.

[00:29:35] You sit up in your room...

[00:29:36] And you start to realize...

[00:29:37] It's you and a Super Nintendo.

[00:29:39] It's you and a Sega Saturn...

[00:29:41] And a radio.

[00:29:45] That's how you create a writer...

[00:29:47] I think.

[00:29:47] You know?

[00:29:48] That's how you...

[00:29:49] That's how you create...

[00:29:50] Someone who has to...

[00:29:51] I played incredible amounts...

[00:29:53] Of guitar to survive that.

[00:29:55] You know?

[00:29:56] And then of course...

[00:29:58] You have to reach outside...

[00:29:59] Of your neighborhood...

[00:29:59] And go...

[00:30:00] You have to go discover.

[00:30:02] You have to go discover.

[00:30:07] Now I know we're...

[00:30:08] Ushering in Milton.

[00:30:10] Milton will be making...

[00:30:11] Landfall later today.

[00:30:13] We have what's going on...

[00:30:15] In the Appalachians.

[00:30:17] I realized the other day...

[00:30:19] Listening to Judson Carroll...

[00:30:20] I've been calling it...

[00:30:20] The Appalachians my whole life.

[00:30:22] And he said that...

[00:30:23] That is not the right way to say it...

[00:30:25] And it's actually...

[00:30:27] An insult...

[00:30:28] To the people of the Appalachians.

[00:30:33] There's a lot to talk about.

[00:30:35] There's a lot of prepping stuff...

[00:30:36] And politics stuff...

[00:30:37] And Elon Musk...

[00:30:38] And Donald Trump...

[00:30:39] And Kamala doing podcasts...

[00:30:41] While people are...

[00:30:42] Drowning in mud...

[00:30:46] Dark days ahead...

[00:30:47] So on and so forth...

[00:30:50] But...

[00:30:51] Today I wanted to talk about nostalgia.

[00:30:54] Because it's gripped me.

[00:30:56] It's gripped me not in the way that...

[00:30:58] I find myself calling for that time.

[00:31:00] When it comes to nostalgia...

[00:31:02] It's nice...

[00:31:03] To go back.

[00:31:04] It's nice to talk about.

[00:31:06] But I don't want to...

[00:31:07] I don't want that.

[00:31:11] I certainly don't want to go back...

[00:31:12] To Marcus Hooks circa 1995.

[00:31:14] 1995.

[00:31:16] And I don't even know...

[00:31:17] That I want my kids to live...

[00:31:18] That kind of a life.

[00:31:21] Truly.

[00:31:24] Everything changes.

[00:31:27] You know I remember...

[00:31:28] When my son was very little man.

[00:31:30] My first son.

[00:31:32] We were playing...

[00:31:33] Roblox together.

[00:31:38] And you know...

[00:31:39] His little brain wasn't ready for it...

[00:31:41] But mine certainly was.

[00:31:42] And there was a song...

[00:31:43] And the only lyric in the song...

[00:31:44] Was everything changes.

[00:31:46] And I remember sitting there...

[00:31:48] With him playing.

[00:31:50] He's having a blast.

[00:31:51] I'm having a blast.

[00:31:51] You know we didn't really even know...

[00:31:53] What Roblox was yet.

[00:31:54] We were just playing it together.

[00:31:57] And I remember listening to that.

[00:31:58] Everything changes.

[00:32:02] And I'll always remember it forever.

[00:32:05] But uh...

[00:32:09] You know that's life man.

[00:32:12] That's life.

[00:32:14] These evil books are going to...

[00:32:15] Screw up your whole life.

[00:32:16] This evil television.

[00:32:17] This radio is too much.

[00:32:19] It's distracting you.

[00:32:24] Everything changes.

[00:32:27] That's the reality.

[00:32:30] What I want to leave you with today...

[00:32:33] Is uh...

[00:32:36] That's not a warning.

[00:32:40] It's a reminder.

[00:32:42] It's a constant that exists in my head...

[00:32:45] Because of the life that I live.

[00:32:48] When I listen to people lament the past...

[00:32:51] Complain about depression...

[00:32:53] You know...

[00:32:54] The struggles of life and so on...

[00:32:57] I just feel like...

[00:33:01] I understand what they're going through...

[00:33:03] But I'm certainly not going through it myself.

[00:33:08] And because of that...

[00:33:09] I have to convey...

[00:33:10] The idea that...

[00:33:12] You know...

[00:33:13] You have to start crafting your life today.

[00:33:17] You have to start creating the life...

[00:33:19] That you want today.

[00:33:21] Right now.

[00:33:24] Don't wait...

[00:33:25] A second.

[00:33:28] If you don't understand the value of a second yet...

[00:33:31] You have to understand it.

[00:33:32] You have to wrap your head around it.

[00:33:38] You have to understand that there are times in life...

[00:33:40] Where the time is all.

[00:33:44] That nothing is more valuable than your free time.

[00:33:47] Nothing is more valuable than your time.

[00:33:50] Than your projects.

[00:33:51] Than your desires to create...

[00:33:53] What it is that you were put here on this planet to create.

[00:33:59] You have to understand that Elon Musk...

[00:34:01] Can't buy a second.

[00:34:04] He can never buy another moment with his child...

[00:34:08] When that child was younger.

[00:34:12] Right?

[00:34:13] Bill Gates...

[00:34:14] The King Lizard...

[00:34:15] Can never buy a moment...

[00:34:17] With his daughter...

[00:34:20] You know...

[00:34:21] Who's grown up now.

[00:34:22] He can never buy the moment when she was five...

[00:34:25] And they were sitting in the backyard of the lizard mansion...

[00:34:28] Having a good time.

[00:34:31] No matter what you achieve financially...

[00:34:33] No matter what you achieve...

[00:34:35] Period.

[00:34:38] You always have to remember...

[00:34:40] And you know...

[00:34:41] You can't drive yourself crazy about it...

[00:34:42] But you have to remember that...

[00:34:44] The moments are priceless.

[00:34:49] Moments and people and places and things...

[00:34:52] While you're in the moment...

[00:34:54] It's priceless.

[00:34:57] Can't ever get it back.

[00:34:59] Maybe they'll come up with AI...

[00:35:00] Or holograms or whatever it is.

[00:35:03] But you'll never be there again.

[00:35:07] Don't wait a second.

[00:35:11] Start crafting your life...

[00:35:12] The way you want it today.

[00:35:14] Go after the big things.

[00:35:15] Go after the...

[00:35:16] The projects.

[00:35:17] Go after what it is you want to...

[00:35:19] I don't know what you want.

[00:35:21] I don't know what you want.

[00:35:22] For me...

[00:35:23] I want to sit down and write a story.

[00:35:26] Or write a book.

[00:35:27] Or do a podcast.

[00:35:29] These are the things that drive me, man.

[00:35:31] These...

[00:35:31] I want to put these things out into the universe.

[00:35:36] You have something like that.

[00:35:38] I don't know what it is.

[00:35:41] Get more of it.

[00:35:42] Get much more of it in your life.

[00:35:46] Okay?

[00:35:48] Build the infrastructure around you to protect it.

[00:35:51] That's what prepping and self-reliance is all about.

[00:35:55] You're building fortifications around something.

[00:35:59] It's a family.

[00:36:00] But it's also you.

[00:36:02] It's also your desire and what it is you were put on this earth for.

[00:36:08] Prepping is just a means of fortifying it all.

[00:36:12] Making sure that as you build your sandcastle,

[00:36:15] one single wave doesn't come up and knock the whole thing over.

[00:36:18] And now it's back to the drawing board.

[00:36:21] But even if it is back to the drawing board, damn it.

[00:36:23] Get drawing.

[00:36:29] Because the ink in the pen of life runs out, PBN family.

[00:36:32] And once it runs out...

[00:36:33] We don't know when it's going to run out either.

[00:36:35] That's the roulette of it all.

[00:36:37] That's the great gamble of it all.

[00:36:39] You push it off for another day.

[00:36:40] You might not get that next day.

[00:36:45] So don't wait another second.

[00:36:48] Okay?

[00:36:50] I'll talk to you soon, folks.

[00:36:52] I appreciate you.

[00:36:53] Thanks for taking this crazy journey with me.

[00:36:55] I know it was a weird one today.

[00:36:58] And, uh...

[00:36:59] You know.

[00:37:00] You don't understand how much I appreciate you letting me be weird.

[00:37:05] Here's to nostalgia.

[00:37:08] A wonderful past and an even better future.

[00:37:11] Okay?

[00:37:11] Cheers, folks.

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