Danny Jones and Luke James recount their early ad agency burnout at Leo Burnett, where 70-hour weeks fueled cocaine addiction and a friendship fracture over Hulk Hogan's betrayal. They critique the normalization of drug use in Hollywood, contrasting crack's intensity with cannabis's potential for overthinkers, while debating whether discipline mimics an athlete's routine or if high cholesterol myths invalidate their post-vegan meat consumption. Ultimately, they argue that true creative freedom requires managing addictive personalities without succumbing to industry pressures, proving that personal growth often demands breaking rigid social and professional norms. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
Time
Text
Supreme Hype vs Reality00:05:15
Hello, world.
This is a clip from one of our Patreon exclusive episodes.
If you want to watch the full episode, go to our Patreon.
It's linked below.
It's patreon.comslash concrete videos.
Luke James is one of my best friends since middle school.
We started an ad agency together in our early 20s, working on ad campaigns and creative campaigns for big national brands, local businesses, celebrities like Hulk Hogan.
On this, we talk a lot about the early days, a lot of the things that we're not proud of, things that I'm not proud of.
Stupid, ignorant shit, drugs, being shitheads in our early 20s, going to Vegas with Hulk Hogan, lots of crazy ass stories.
So, without further ado, please enjoy this episode with the amazing Luke James.
But that's, you know, accessibility makes things not cool.
I don't know why I don't like it, though.
I mean, I tried to like it, I tried to get into it.
Yeah, you got the hat.
I tried to get some of the hype.
I understand that you guys get the dopamine from going on there every Thursday at 11 a.m.
It's like watching Game of Thrones.
It's competitive capitalism.
Competitive capitalism.
Because you're fighting everybody for that one little slot to just buy something.
And then that's how they get you addicted.
So not only do you get the reward buying something, you get the reward winning over everybody else that didn't get one.
It's like, I fucking got one.
And you didn't get shit.
It's competitive consumerism.
Yeah.
The capitalism.
It's like anti-competitive capitalism.
Because they're not really competing with anybody.
Yeah, you're competing.
I got to get to the website first.
And not only am I going to get to the website first.
No, no, you are.
Because you're the consumer.
But I'm talking about them.
I mean like who is like who is supreme supreme has no competition they drop shit and they sell out instantly everything right yeah They're their own competition.
It's all about yeah, they're their website is their competition cuz it sucks slow That's by design.
Yeah, that's what makes it so makes it more exciting.
I got to do it.
I like I remember people in like meetings like 11 like they'd have to push it cuz they'd just be like refreshing trying to get shit I Like it what meetings oh like when I worked at places.
Oh It's like people in the middle of shit trying to buy supreme when you worked at places people were trying to buy supreme Yeah, like in the middle of a fucking meeting.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
It's like there's like where?
When I was at Leo Burnett.
Really?
Yeah, we were about to like present some shit and there was two dudes next to me that like had work to present and they're just like refreshing the supreme thing trying to get a hat.
Bro, we've been up to like fucking 2 a.m.
Can we sell this fucking work, please?
Oh, God, dude.
That's insane.
It's addicting.
I don't think anything on there is that great.
I like the hats.
Yeah.
I'm a fan of the hat.
Yeah, the hat you wear is cool looking.
I like it.
But, like, I don't know.
A lot of the stuff is, like, too much.
A lot of that stuff is way too much.
Like, the Chrome Heart shit, too.
Like, the jeans with the crosses.
Like, Tfue's jeans?
Yeah, dude.
What the fuck?
There's some whack ass fucking $10,000 jeans.
Well, dude, we're like, we're the old people now.
We don't get what the young people are into.
Oh, I understand fashion.
I get it.
Do you?
I pay attention to it.
I see what's going on.
Don't let the fucking ratty ass old band t shirt fucking fool you.
Like, I pay attention to shit.
You keep up with it?
Yeah, I keep up with it.
Just because I don't like something doesn't mean I'm old.
It just means I have an opinion about something.
Hey, convince me otherwise.
Like, why are these fucking Wranglers with fucking crosses and rhinestones on them cool?
Why do you think he wore those fucking pants?
Do you think he actually believes that those are cool?
I mean, do you think he actually believes?
Do you think he actually thinks when you wear those fucking big ass can you pull up a picture of the chrome heart jeans?
It's in fucking songs.
People rap about it.
They're expensive.
They're exclusive.
Get rid of all that shit, all of the glamour about it and being quote unquote Chrome Heart.
Do you think that people that wear those actually think they look good?
That's fashion, though.
It's the glamour.
It's not about looking good and being comfortable.
It's about paying attention to what's happening and being a part of it.
There they are.
Yeah.
Those are the jeans he was wearing at Super Bowl.
Yeah, that looks like the fucking jeans that Justin Timberlake wore to the fucking VMAs with Britney Spears when they were all denimed out.
Those look like the jeans that Shane's grandma wears to church.
They look like Ed Hardy jeans without fucking rhinestones on them.
Bro, they look like fucking.
They look terrible.
They look like some broke ass Kmart Wranglers that have been fucking in somebody's sock drawer for the past 20 years.
Somebody pulled them out, slapped some crosses on them, and sold them at a flea market.
It's so weird that it's just so fucking weird that people just wear those because of the price tag and because people know that they're expensive.
Yeah.
It's like wearing an expensive watch.
Yeah.
It's like wearing a fucking Audemars Piaget watch.
You're like, oh yeah, bitch, yeah, this watch is $100,000.
It sells the same time as your fucking watch you got right there.
My piece of shit $7 Casio.
Time's the same for all of us, no matter how much you pay for it.
But we're all paying for it.
We have to pay in one way or another.
Time's the one thing you ain't getting back, brother.
Oh, and we ain't making it out of this life alive.
The Misery of Corporate Life00:04:39
Do you miss working for Leo Burnett?
Fuck no, dude.
Why not?
Sucked.
Well, it was awesome while it was going on.
But I don't know.
That was your dream job.
Yeah.
When we worked together in Clearwater.
Yeah.
That was like Mad Men, Leo Burnett working in a big building in downtown.
Chicago or big tobacco, big tobacco that was like your dream working on Marlboro.
You thought that that was the pinnacle of your existence?
That was my existence, that was all I worked for.
And yeah, just like any grass is always greener, but as soon as you get there, you find out it's the same shitty grass that you were looking at just from a different perspective.
You get there, it's great, it's cool, this is fun, this is awesome, everything I ever wanted it to be, and then like it becomes normal, and then you start to see it for what it is.
70 hours a week, that ain't cool.
It's a lot.
It's cool if you like it, though.
You burn out super quick.
Like, 70 hours a week for like a year and a half, they'll catch up to anybody, man.
Yeah.
It ain't worth it.
I mean, it's like, it's cool.
Like, I'm really grateful that I, like, stepped out and did that and pursued it.
For people who don't know what Leo Burnett is, it's like the biggest, most, like, established, oldest, most elite advertising agency in the country.
Yeah.
If you've ever seen a commercial, they probably made it.
Yeah.
They did.
They had McDonald's for a super long time.
So, like, every McDonald's commercial up until like five years ago, they made.
They've done all the Marlboro advertising since the 50s.
And it's still, and yeah, it's like Kraft, Kellogg, Miller.
So that's like Coors.
What up?
Miller Highlife.
Like all those fucking beers.
Nintendo was the floor below us.
That was sick.
But yeah, I mean, I don't know.
I'm sure you've experienced it too.
Like you get to a certain point with something where you're like striving for and like, if I just get that, that's what I need.
And then you get there and it's like, okay, cool, now what?
And then you're just like there and you're just like looking and it's like there's still always something more.
It's miserable.
It was miserable.
Did you say it was miserable?
Yeah, for sure.
Like, towards the end, I was super miserable.
Really?
Yeah.
And I did everything I wanted to.
What was your favorite?
What made you want to be in advertising?
Like, what was like.
Obviously, you're good at design and shit, and you're creative, and you love music.
But why an ad agency?
Advertising is everything.
So, like, if you think about a commercial, it's not just like what it looks like.
It's like what it looks like.
What does it sound like?
What is the writing?
And it's just like a complete.
Total creative immersion of a vision for something, and you're selling something which makes it even more challenging, which is what I like most about it.
It's not just like creativity for the sake of like being creative.
I was never really good at being creative like that.
You know, I feel like I need a problem to solve.
And advertising is all about solving problems creatively.
Like, oh, we need to inform these people about this thing in this way.
So you have to take that messaging and then turn it into a commercial.
So you're saying that you like the process of trying to sell just as much as you like the process of like creating the art?
Yeah.
The messaging it's like Propaganda for a product where you almost have to brainwash people into believing that it's good.
It's like you know go to McDonald's.
Oh my hamburger doesn't look like the picture Yeah, no fucking shit.
It's an ad fucking dumbass What did you expect?
There's fucking food stylists in the back of McDonald's in the drive-thru, but Before you went to Leo Burnett, we were creating some sick fucking advertising.
We were.
So my question to you is, what made you want to Go work for an ad agency when you, we were basically creating like sick ads on our own.
We were basically like entrepreneurial creating right, we were on the phone selling shit to Hulk Hogan right, But you still you wanted to go work for an agency, like what.
I personally never understood that.
So I'd be interested to hear like, your thoughts on or what you were feeling.
What made you want to do that?
We are brought to you by Manscaped, who is the best in men's below the waist grooming.
Manscaped offers precision engineered tools For your family jewels.
They obsess over their technology developments to provide you the best tools for your grooming experience.
Manscaped is trusted by over 2 million men worldwide.
The Lawnmower 3.0 comes inside their brand new Perfect Package 3.0, which comes with everything you need to keep trimmed, cut free, and smelling nice downstairs.
I have tried to use regular beard trimmers in the past to cut my cock and balls, and I cut the shit out of myself, and it was like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre cutting myself with a fucking open tuna can.
That One Funny Shirt Moment00:13:20
But this thing doesn't do that.
Because it's got this ceramic blade on it and it feels like butter.
Don't make the mistake I did.
Don't use the same trimmer on your face that you use on your nasty nutsack.
Get 20% off and free shipping with the code CONCREAT at manscaped.com.
That's 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com and use the code CONCREATE.
Unlock your confidence and always use the right tools for the job with Manscaped.
Honestly, I felt like what we were doing wasn't really mine.
I felt like it was you.
Concrete is you.
And I was just there helping you realize a vision.
And what solidified that.
And what made me ultimately leave was when we were doing the Hulk Hogan video.
And at the end, it said, produced by Danny Jones.
Well, originally it said produced by Danny Jones and Luke James.
But in front of Hulk Hogan, you said, take your name off.
You got to put in your time.
So that didn't sit right with me.
So I was like, well, I see that he's in this for himself.
So I'm going to go out and see what else is up.
And so then I went out, saw what else was up, worked at a place in Tampa, got to work on the Florida lottery.
That was cool.
So it was like a one-time reaction to that moment.
No, that wasn't a reaction to that because I didn't like leave until a couple months after that.
That was just something that never really sat right with me.
Oh, so it was like, so you're saying it was that one moment that you kind of dwelled on and you thought about and that moment was kind of like a turning point for you.
That really hurt my feelings.
Really hurt your feeling?
Yeah, dude.
I thought we were in it together.
So that was, you would say that that was like a legitimate turning point for you that you like made a decision, like you dwelled on it for a while, obviously.
Yeah.
And that was a reason you made a decision to go work for ad agencies for just because, was it because you wanted to learn more or was it because you just wanted to get away from me?
I felt like, well, obviously, yeah, I wanted to learn more because, yeah, we were doing cool shit.
Obviously, you were resentful about that moment.
I could see anyone would be resentful.
Yeah.
And I also wanted to learn from people that have done it.
It's like, yeah, we could crank out cool shit.
Like all day up there but I feel like I wasn't really learning anymore and I love learning big fan of learning and like trying new things, seeing what else is out there so I just wanted to go.
I work for people that have like been in advertising and done like big campaigns and like studied advertising writing and studied like positioning and messaging and everything that goes into making a successful ad and yeah, see how I could do that to make myself a better creative.
I feel like I did that.
I feel like I came back a little bit stronger and sharper than I did when I left.
It was kind of like a really long journey coming back to the same place, but I'm grateful for it.
Yeah.
How did you feel about it when I left?
When you let, ah, dude, I was fucking crushed.
Yeah.
I was fucking crying.
Sweet Pete, it was like you came over early.
Yeah.
And she was still asleep.
I don't know.
Public's bag full of hard drives.
Yeah.
Yeah.
She woke up to me literally on my couch sobbing.
Like, didn't know what the fuck to do.
I had like a Johnson Jewelers commercial do the next fucking day.
Yeah.
You just dumped all this shit in my lap.
I was fucking pissed off.
Like, what the fuck?
How can this cocksucking motherfucker just drop all this shit when we know we have shit to do?
Like, how can he not give me a warning?
Like, well, the reaction was terrible.
I mean, the initial reaction was terrible.
But, um, but yeah, I mean, you know, big picture after like thinking about, you know, talking to you about it and learning from it.
I mean, obviously, it's just.
It's just a learning.
It's just growth.
It's just like being young and stupid and making mistakes.
Yeah, you know, everyone everyone is selfish sometimes everyone everybody's selfish, you know some people more than others, but you got to trip and fall in your face and get up from it and learn from it until if you're gonna get better So but yeah, it was devastating.
It was fucked up.
We didn't talk me and you didn't people me and this guy didn't fucking talk for like five years.
That was a while Five years and me and Shane would it was like an ongoing joke with me and Shane for the whole five years me and Shane still talked every day And we'd always make jokes about you.
I'm like, hey, you wonder if you think Luke would want to go with us here?
Like, let's hit up Luke.
We would still like the way me and you talked, me and you and Shane talk every day on the group chat.
That was consistent through that whole hiatus.
It was just like, you're just making fun of me without being there.
Except we weren't really making fun of you.
We were kind of like full circle making fun of me.
Right.
Because we know that I was the reason that you weren't, you didn't fuck with both of us.
Yeah.
That's how you know it's like some real hatred.
It's like I don't fuck with either of you.
I ain't fucking with you either.
Yeah.
Your proximity is unfuckwithable.
I can't go over there.
Oh, bro.
Shane would call me every time he saw you.
He was like, bro, I was at the fucking, what's the bar with the finger in front of it?
Downtown with the finger that points down to the door.
Oh, the Benz.
The Benz.
I was at the Benz.
I saw Luke.
Luke's dirty, I'm on it.
I made eye contact with the Lukester.
I said hi.
Oh, man.
No, yeah, it was a hilarious daily ongoing inside joke with me, Shane, and Sweet Pea for five years.
Yeah.
I'm glad we patched it over.
Sweet Pea knew why.
I mean, Sweet Pea knew why more than anybody because she knows me better than anybody.
Yeah, she knows how difficult you can be.
She knows exactly how I am.
She knows exactly how selfish I was.
Yeah.
Still am probably, but more so back then.
You're better.
I noticed it.
I recognized it.
Yeah, and dude, I mean, give me some credit.
That was a high pressure situation.
You handled it.
No, no, no.
The Hulk Hogan situation.
When Hulk Hogan was standing over our shoulders, and we were like, whose name did we put?
And I'm like, they were both there.
They were there.
The graphic was made.
The reason.
It only has one name at the end of the video.
Hulk called me beforehand, and he was like, bro, how can we have two fucking names directed by a the end?
Don't put this on fucking Hulk.
We can only have two.
Don't put this on Hulk.
I don't buy that.
For a goddamn second, I had Hulk with his fucking thumb on my head and I had you with your fucking I'm about to leave again your boot on my throat and I had to make a decision in the moment, and I made the coward decision.
Mm-hmm, I'll admit to it.
I don't know if I believe that, but it's a good story.
It is true.
It is true about, about Hulk.
He made a comment about the two names being on it and You know, when he questioned, I mean, obviously, if he did, if the same thing happened now and anybody questioned me like that, I would obviously take your side over anybody, because I, because, because I realize now I'm not anything, nothing means anything without the fucking people that I'm surrounded with.
Because, yeah, what the fuck am I going to sit here and talk like a podcast?
Like the podcast, 95% of the reason anybody watches any of these videos is because of the people I bring on, right?
Not because of me, they don't like watching me.
This is your turn to your time to shine, though.
Yeah, well.
Anyways, I've realized that the talent around me is the reason that I'm able to do anything.
Yeah.
So it's good to realize that because, you know, as you realize that, like, you can stop using people to, like, obtain things, but you can start, like, collaborating with people and bringing people up with you and, like, really connecting with people when you're not, you don't have some, like, outside interest in, like, using their skills for something.
Like, somebody sitting here, like, you're genuinely interested in the people sitting here.
You're not just using them for what they may or may not do for you.
Like, this is just what you do.
Yeah.
Like, you actually have, like, an interest in person.
I think the podcast has helped you grow.
Like, you're still a fucking idiot for sure, 100%.
But, you know, I feel like you've gone more empathetic since you started this.
And since, like, we, since I went from not talking to you to talking to you, something happened in there where it was just like, oh, maybe I should figure out how to not be such an asshole all the time.
Yeah.
Well, this thing is definitely hard as fuck to do.
Like, this is, like, this is nothing like, Anything that we used to do together.
It's a podcast.
It's nothing like doing commercials.
It's nothing like.
Oh, no.
Those commercials that I've been sending you guys lately, the ads that I've been doing in the podcast, those are so much fun for me to do.
Yeah.
Because it's actually like I get to make a video again.
You have to create.
I get to create something with music and that's fucking edited.
Like this is kind of like I don't get to do any of that with this.
I just, it's all done right here.
It's all just like this exercise.
It's like going to the gym.
Yeah.
Like going to the gym.
Like you don't fucking want to do it.
You don't want to wake up.
Early as fuck and go to the gym and run on the treadmill and do your workouts and sit in the sauna, whatever you do.
Right.
It's like, that's how I feel about this still, even after this is only like the 110th time I've done it.
But it's like, it's a difficult exercise.
It's like a game of ping pong.
Like, you gotta, it's like going back and forth, keep the ball fucking going before you fumble it and make sure that you can talk.
And I was thinking about it on the way here, like, Doing these things, the hardest thing in the beginning was like thinking about when I'm creating, like when we're creating commercials or mini documentaries or whatever, like deckhands, you're thinking about the overall finished product.
You're thinking about it from like a 20,000 foot view of it.
That's how I think about these sometimes, and it fucks up the whole thing.
It fucks up the podcast.
So I'm thinking about like the final product, how it's going to be, what I'm going to talk about, like talking, whatever it might be.
You're not in the moment.
But the best way to do this thing is to like just submerse yourself in the moment of it and not think about the final product.
But it's a hard thing to do.
It's really fucking difficult to do for me, at least.
I don't know if it is for everybody, but you got to remove yourself from the outcome and just enjoy the process of it.
Yeah.
And it's like you're learning how to have a conversation every time you sit down.
And the biggest thing that, Because I'm nervous as fuck being here too.
Because it's like, I'm at home alone all day by myself and like not really talking.
Like we text and like I'll like call my mom, but like I don't have very much interaction with people.
So like relearning how to talk.
This is the most talking I've done in probably like a year, honestly.
And like there's a very clear difference between the way that you're talking and the way that I'm talking.
And you can tell that you talk a lot more than I do.
And you've definitely gotten better at that.
And I think one thing that also helped you get better too is you've gotten better at listening and shutting up.
Yeah.
And letting people be themselves and giving them the microphone and knowing when to back out.
Yeah, well, I don't think I've ever been that good at talking.
I mean, this has definitely made me better at talking.
I feel like before I was just more of a stuttering moron.
Now I just have a little bit more knowledge.
The stutter still comes through a little bit.
The moron is getting pushed to the background.
The stuttering key in the brain is the funniest fucking thing.
That is you and Shane.
That is the most accurate thing ever.
Except I'm not that angry.
My head's not that big.
But I mean, I get it.
It's exaggerated.
So it's fucking so funny.
And he's always got some crazy idea.
You've always got some crazy idea like this.
And Shane's just there, fucking milligrammed out of his fucking gourd, drooling on himself.
Like, huh?
What?
Where's the ports at?
Oh my God, dude.
That would be the funniest fucking shirt or something.
That would be so good.
I'd have to do it.
That fucking photo of him cruising down the PCH.
He's getting it.
He's joining Sons of Anarchy, right?
This is the first time he's been to California.
Good for him.
What are they doing out there?
I'm really liking his whole transition into his biker look.
I think it's better than the ghetto white boy look.
How far do you think he's going to go with it?
I don't know.
Do you think he's going to end up in leather and chaps?
No, I don't know.
I think the farthest he'll go is to looking like Jax from Sons of Anarchy, maybe.
Yeah, he did have the flannel on today.
I saw that in the rearview mirror.
Yeah, he had it.
Well, you can see his sleeve.
Yeah.
He did the flannel.
I think that was the exact one that Jax wears.
He came over to my dad's house the other day and he was wearing.
Flannel, you stopped yourself from saying jab.
Well, we call him so many different things.
Like me and Shane call him Rock Hopper, you call him a lot of people call him Jab.
Get that jab, get that jab, boy.
But uh, he came over wearing fucking Harley boots, jeans, the flannel, the hair slicked back.
He looked like a completely different dude.
Sweet Pea was like, Damn, damn, like whoa, easy, sweet pea.
Cool it.
Are you gonna ride?
I mean, I do, I think it's cool.
I mean, I would like to be able to do it, but I don't know.
I just feel like so fucking dangerous.
The mentality of ride like everybody's gonna hit you that's not enjoyable.
That's what they tell you in the school.
Like, every car that you see, like, pretend they're gonna hit you.
They say that in the school, yeah.
So you're like super cautious, you go through it, yeah.
I had my license for a little bit.
I really, yeah.
I got when I transferred my license to Illinois, I failed the motorcycle test like eight times, and they're like, Well, you're clearly not gonna pass this, so I just I lost it.
No fucking way, but whatever, yeah.
Justifying the Pool Debt00:04:44
No, I don't know.
I like the idea of it.
I mean, I like the idea of being able to hop on a Harley and.
And cruise.
I mean, it sounds cool.
Like, I would love to be able to pull up the podcast on a Harley.
And yeah, but it's just fucking damn.
I mean, but that's it.
Like, where do you go beyond that?
That's it.
That's it.
You're just going to go like a quarter mile and like, wow, wow.
Yeah, that's really it.
I mean, it would be a cool hobby to get into.
It would be extra, like you getting a beat pad and downloading Fruity Loops and going to the hotel studio and trying to learn something new.
I mean, it would be a cool thing to like, I would like to like customize a bike and have it and just like cruise it just for, you know, once a month.
Just like cruise it down the beach or go somewhere and do that.
But it's just, I don't have room for it in my life right now.
Yeah, you're already doing so much.
What else are you going to do?
I have a kid.
You're getting a pool?
I'm getting a pool.
That's enough.
Pool season, bro?
Can I enjoy my pool before I buy a fucking Harley?
That's enough.
Do all that?
Yeah.
Because I don't just want to.
If I bought one, I wouldn't just want to buy one.
I would want to customize it and make it look sick.
I would want to make it like the Undertaker Harley.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
I'd want to make it look really sick.
Yeah.
I don't want to go all out, just like I'm doing with this pool, which is bankrupting me.
Well, I mean, but it's a pool.
Something you get to look at and enjoy every single day.
It's my own little pool.
Personal tropical paradise in my backyard, I get to come home to every day.
What are you gonna go halfway on a pool?
Huh?
No, hell no.
You know?
No, bro.
You just get like the above ground with the liner.
Like, yeah, it's pool.
It's water in my backyard.
Bro, the worst thing about the fucking pool is that you're already spending X amount of dollars to do the pool itself.
And you're getting like the big pool, six feet deep, you know, certain size.
You're at like 50 grand for just the pool.
I'm like, oh, do you want the water fountain?
They're only $1,700 each, the little fucking.
Waterfront.
That point, fuck it.
What's an extra?
Four grand.
What's that?
Fuck it.
Oh, okay.
Well, we'll do that three weeks later.
Oh, by the way.
By the way, I mean, you might just want to, like, do pavers on the inside of the patio also that match the rest of the patio.
Really tie it all together.
I mean, you're going to have a step down, and it's going to be fucking awkward.
And who wants that?
Who the fuck wants that?
So, you might as well, I mean, okay, what's the price on the pavers?
Five grand?
I'm like, oh, let me talk to the wife.
Yes, we want it.
Obviously.
We're throwing in an extra.
Five grand for the pavers.
We're getting the pavers.
So now we're like, we're up an extra 15,000 over budget and we're doing the whole goddamn thing.
And the problem is, like, you can justify it.
Like, oh, yeah, I'm putting it into my house.
I'm going to get my money back.
It's an investment.
That's the story you tell yourself.
It's not.
To convince yourself that it's fine.
The pool, the reality is, in this area, the value of a pool, if you have the same exact house without a pool, with a pool, it's only about 30,000 bucks extra.
So whatever you spend on a pool, 30 grand, you'll get back.
They're above 30,000.
Whatever you spend above 30 on a pool is basically just lighting on fire.
Are you within that scale of fuckery?
I am.
The pool is, I'm already about $60,000.
Holy fuck, bro.
What are you filling that thing with?
So 30, I'm lighting on fire, basically.
God damn.
But fuck it, dude.
I can't wait to come over.
Everything can't be objective, analytical.
No, sometimes you just gotta sometimes you gotta do shit emotional.
Pure enjoyment.
Yeah.
What's wrong with that?
YOLO, bro.
YOLO it.
Fuck it.
I'm in my early 30s.
I want to enjoy life now.
Yeah, what are you gonna do?
Wait to enjoy it?
Like when you can hardly fucking walk?
Yeah, at least I don't have any student debt.
Hell yeah.
You don't have any, right?
Hell no.
Good.
Nope.
Almost every guy I have on here that's like a filmmaker went to full sale.
I've had like four people on here that went to full sale and they all say they owe like 50, 60 grand back.
Yep, people that go to Ringling, fucking 100 grand easy in debt.
Is that the Sarasota College?
Yeah.
I got none.
I had my parents had Florida prepaid.
My parents, I had that too.
And then I had bright futures.
So I actually got I didn't have that.
I got paid when I went to college and I just spent all like I'd get money back, so I'd get like a couple hundred dollars a semester for like whatever, and I just like spent it on guitar gear really that's pretty sick bought amps guitars, cool shit.
I had.
I had prepaid, Florida prepaid, but I got the.
I uh I did the thing where you like get the money.
Like I didn't go to college, so I just got the refund from the state.
Yeah, but it's only like 20% of what they originally put into it.
You don't have debt and that's the most valuable thing you can have going into any career.
Yeah, Because it didn't force you to do something that you didn't want.
It helped you start all this shit.
Smoking and Crack Comparisons00:15:30
Yeah.
Well, I also didn't go into anything with debt.
I didn't create a business that is based on money owed back.
I started everything from money in.
Let's make money before we spend it.
Let's not borrow a bunch of money and get investors and pay ourselves before we're actually making money.
Right.
And that's the thing about this kind of work.
It's very little overhead.
For like making content and like being creative.
Yeah, so a lot of it is just like fucking off the top.
Mm hmm.
Which I really appreciate.
Yeah, we're rare.
We're rare down here in Florida, kid.
It's not like California up north in Silicon Valley.
No, basically just going to a lunch or a dinner and raising a couple million for your idea.
Fuck that.
Yeah, when we moved here from Chicago, Sam kept her job.
She got a fucking raise because of the taxes were so different between here and there.
Oh my god, really?
So she got like a couple extra hundred bucks a month.
Really?
Yeah, taxes are crazy up in Chicago.
Really?
Oh yeah.
Are they as bad as California?
Never been.
I mean, do you?
I don't know what the numbers are as far as like.
It's like $13 for a pack of cigarettes.
That's my gauge for things.
How much is a pack of cigarettes?
A pack of cigarettes in Chicago is like $13.
That's a lot.
When's the last time you bought a pack of cigarettes?
I don't think I've bought a pack of cigarettes.
I have no idea what a pack of cigarettes costs.
I just bum them off people when I smoke.
I just bum Newports off Shane.
I bum Newports off Shane whenever I smoke cigarettes.
Yeah.
Bro, smoking cigarettes is underrated.
What do you mean?
People like to hate on smoking cigarettes.
Cigarettes suck.
Cigarettes suck because and I worked for fucking Marlboro.
I know you worked for Marlboro with Leo Burnett.
You did a whole ad campaign for them, right?
Yeah.
You designed what did you do for them?
The displays behind the counter at the convenience store when you go.
You know where all the cigarettes are?
Yeah.
So you know how they have the big banner up top?
It's like Marlboro.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I designed two of those that went nationwide.
That's fucking sick.
And all the fucking signage for every convenience store in the country.
Did you ever go into a store and see one of your designs?
Oh, yeah.
That's fucking sick.
I remember I came home one time and went to the corner store and I got a picture of me behind the camera.
Really?
Yeah.
Hell yes.
Hitting it like that.
Yeah.
Cigarettes suck.
Cigarettes are underrated, though.
They brainwash you, dude.
No, no, no.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I get all that.
But having a cigarette every once in a while is nice.
Yeah.
Can we agree with that?
I can agree on a cigar.
What about a cigarette?
No.
No?
No.
Because it's like the Larry David thing.
You smoke a cigarette different than you smoke a cigar and you're smoking a cigarette.
You're like, ah.
You know, it's like a.
Thing, you know, there's like a thing to it, like you take a big hit of a cigarette, you inhale it, and it gives you a little bit of a head rush, and you get like energy from it.
Gives you like it gets the neurons fired up in your head.
Like when I smoke a cigarette, when Shane comes over, that's just the oxygen cutting off, and you're fucking getting lightheaded in that big ass fucking dome.
That's what that is.
No, bro, I'm telling you, when Shane comes over and I smoke one of his new ports before we do some of like the crazy podcasts, I'll feel like more just dialed in and laser focused when after I smoke a cigarette.
Something about the The nicotine, I don't know if it's the nicotine.
I don't know what the chemicals or the sciences of it, but something about it just like really gets me fucking on fire.
Just one.
All I need is one.
You should start smoking more.
One?
No, I mean, you don't need to start smoking.
You don't need to.
I mean, if you go and buy a pack of cigarettes, you've gone too far.
But it's okay to bum them.
It's okay to have a cigarette on occasion.
Like if you go out to a bar.
So you're saying if you get it from somebody, it doesn't count.
Exactly.
But like, where does that line stop?
Oh, I don't have the bag on me.
But I'm going to just go do a couple bumps.
That gives me a lot of energy, too.
Oh, it's not.
These aren't my pills.
I just took one from my friend.
It is about the same.
Yeah, you could say it's the same thing.
You're not buying this shit.
I didn't spend any money on it.
Yeah, you didn't spend any money on it.
You just benefited from it.
But I could say doing a couple bumps when you're drunk is beneficial.
If you've got to drive home and you're wasted, you've got to do a couple bumps to get you home.
What's the harm in that?
Where's the harm in that?
A little cocaine.
I mean, you're not doing it every day.
You're not abusing it.
You're not a coke head, i'm not buying it.
Yeah, you're not buying it, i'm not holding it.
You're not holding it, you're not selling it, you're not whatever.
I mean I think cocaine should be illegal.
I mean legal cocaine should be legal.
Why do you think it should be legal?
Because if it was legal, it'd be safer.
If it was regulated by the FDA and the government said, hey, you want to buy cocaine?
Yeah, you can go, you can do.
You know, you can get prescribed cocaine.
I learned that on a podcast.
Cool, you can get prescribed cocaine legally where anywhere, like it's a, it's a, there's a medical condition.
I forget what the it is right now, Maybe you can look it up.
Producer, There's a way you can go to the doctor and if you have a certain medical condition, You can get prescribed cocaine.
I was listening to a podcast.
I have anxiety does that does that work like with a weed card?
Oh Hamilton pharmaceutical.
You know Hamilton who has the show about doing drugs.
Yeah, he said it He said that he met a guy Hamilton said it.
Yeah, he's kind of the a drug god.
He's the drug lord.
He's the drug lord.
He's the drug overlord Yeah, but no, no, no if cocaine was regulated and it was safe and wasn't cut by some fuck lord in his in a trap house Cutting it with fucking borax And it was actually safe to use under certain circumstances.
Like a cocaine bar?
Not recreational.
Recreational?
Were you talking about like a hookah bar?
There was a limit.
If you're fucked up, I mean, it'll blow your mind the amount of people that Sweet Pea knows and her cousins know that are like in their 20s that do cocaine every night of the week.
It blows my mind.
Everybody does coke.
It's insane.
Still, like, even if they're at their parents' age, they're still doing it.
I never realized.
Why do you need to be 60 years old doing coke?
You're going to have to fucking death wish, bro.
Dude, I never realized how many people did it.
Yeah, it's everywhere.
It's fucking insane.
It really blows your mind when you go out somewhere casually and you just see people doing Coke.
Or you see people in the bathroom.
You see a baggie somewhere.
You see somebody in the bathroom.
You're just casually going to the bathroom and you hear somebody in the stall doing Coke.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like, why does this surprise me so much?
Yeah, we're the weird ones because we don't do it anymore.
Right.
We don't do it anymore.
Yeah, but it's so surprising.
But when we did it, Or when I used to do it, like back in the day when we were younger and we'd go into a fucking bathroom stall and sneak a couple bumps in, I always thought like we were fucking breaking some crazy law or we were being so deceptive.
But now I go to a bar and people don't even give a fuck.
No.
They do it right out in the open, in line to go to the bathroom.
Yeah.
You don't even need a stall anymore.
It's just a little whatever.
So what I'm saying is like if it was legal and all of the shit was safer and not cut with like really dangerous things and, you know, It was regulated.
Like, if you didn't have to go to a doctor, it was taxed and regulated.
It was taxed and regulated.
Maybe your doctor only gives you an eight ball a month, and you got to conserve this eight ball for the month.
That ain't happening, boy.
I tell you that much.
That eight ball ain't lasting though a day.
That's the problem with it.
That's the problem with it.
Once you start, you can't stop.
Was it one's too many?
One's too many, and a thousand ain't enough.
A million, boy.
A million ain't enough.
That's a fact.
Dude, I don't understand how so many people, like the guy, fucking Billy Corbin, I interviewed, the old school people who, like, from Hollywood, these movie producers, people who make all these famous documentaries, they claim they never done cocaine.
Yeah, I don't know.
I mean, there are people out there, but I feel like too evil.
I don't believe them.
A lot of people just aren't.
Coming to terms with the truth of their past addictions.
Or maybe they're still doing it and they're just like, oh, no, I don't do that.
Hey, how are you going to be around all that and do the film and not be a part of it?
Don't you want to see what all the fuss is about?
No.
You don't need that.
You made the Cocaine Cowboys documentary, one of the most famous cocaine real life documentaries in the history of the world.
And you're connected with the sweetest.
You live in Miami.
The best cocaine in the world is just coming to you and you're making people that have their connections.
You know more about cocaine than anybody.
But never had the interest to just give it a whirl.
That's some willpower if that's true.
That's some willpower.
Or it's some shitty lying.
What do you think?
Do you think he was lying?
Yeah, I do.
You don't believe him?
I don't believe him.
I feel like you can see through people.
I feel like once you do drugs and you talk to people about doing drugs, you can see it.
When you make eye contact with somebody, you can tell if they've been in it.
It's weird because everyone likes to talk.
No one has shame in talking about doing any other kind of drugs.
like smoking pot, taking mushrooms, doing acid, those kind of drugs, like the psychedelic drugs.
Yeah.
But when it comes to uppers, nobody, it's like they avoid it like the plague.
Nobody wants to admit to taking them.
Why do you think that is?
I don't know why that is.
But nobody wants to admit to ever trying cocaine.
I think it's just got such like a stigma to it.
Yeah.
Why?
It's just the way that it's talked about in the news and the way people it's not a disgusting yeah, like, well, I mean, like how like you hear about it, like whenever people talk about it, it's like cocaine is like this, like, awful thing, and like the drugs led to murder, and then the it is kind of like a gross thing.
Yeah, you snort it, it's kind of gross.
Yeah, I don't know.
It was fun snorting, but I'm really grateful I don't do it anymore.
Like, grateful I did it, cool.
So, what that was all about, like, I think it's cool that like we got out of our system early.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Some people are nerds and they don't get exposed to it later and until like later in life, yeah, like in their 30s or 40s, they try for the first time.
And they got so much to ruin at that point.
If you're trying it that late, you're a fucking loser.
Yeah.
But if you tried it and got it out of your system in your early 20s, mid 20s, then I feel like that's fine.
I feel like that's normal.
I feel like the people that try it in their 30s are the people that end up like it really hits you hard.
Yeah.
They get like, wow, I've been sleeping on this for way too long.
Better make up for lost time.
Yes.
And then you just lose your entire life completely.
Yeah.
Instead, you know, we almost had some near death experiences in our 20s from doing too much cocaine.
We learned our lesson.
We went through the real world.
We ain't no Michael Rappaport over here.
No, we're living.
We're living.
Fuck yeah, brother.
Doing it, man.
But about legalizing shit, when I got my card in Illinois, a couple months later, I guess ketamine became legal.
Get your ketamine card today.
What the fuck is ketamine, actually?
I have no idea what it actually is, but it's just a similar kind of stimulant that just gets you super fucked up, apparently.
It's a horse tranquilizer, I think.
Is it the shit people talk about?
No, no, no, no.
That's spice.
I'm thinking of spice.
In prison, people smoke spice.
Have you ever heard of the stories about that?
Uh-uh.
Okay.
Yeah, I don't know.
Never mind.
Spice is the fake weed, right?
It's fake weed, yeah.
They smoke it in prison and they start having seizures after they smoke it and they freak out.
I have no idea what ketamine is.
Not prepared to go in depth with it, but I mean, it's just like I think at some point everything will be legal to some extent or decriminalized.
Have you ever tried smoking crack?
No.
I got offered crack once.
Really?
I had a photography job that I went and took pictures with this guy and his fucking family.
He picked me up.
Should have been a huge red flag right here.
8 a.m.
Oh, you told me this before.
Fucking dude picks me up in like this fucking beater ass Astro van, 8 in the morning in Chicago, standing on the side of the street.
Like him, his family's in the back.
I get in the front seat.
There's a cooler in the middle.
He cracks a beer on the seatbelt that he's not wearing and gives it to me.
So we just start drinking on the way to the thing.
And like, we just keep drinking all day and take some pictures.
Yeah, cool, whatever.
Get lunch, go home.
And then like, he's like, all right, I'm going to take him home.
And so.
We go out to the car, and then there's this homeless guy that lives on the block, too.
He gets in the car.
Like, okay, this is cool.
I guess, oh, yeah, he's got a random homeless guy.
I guess he's like his crack buddy.
Like, whenever he wants to go smoke crack, I guess you don't want to smoke crack alone.
I don't smoke it in the morning.
This was in the afternoon.
This was early afternoon.
So he drives me home, stops at the bank, gives me money, and he gives me the money.
He goes, So me and my guy back here, we're going to go smoke some crack.
You can keep this money, or we can go spend it on some crack and smoke it together.
And, like, I think I'm going to go home.
And take my money.
I really appreciate this.
You guys enjoy the afternoon.
Oh my God.
That's a great fucking story.
One of the many twists in Chicago.
Family photography night.
I've never been offered.
But I always thought that I would want to try it before I go, before I die.
I want to know what it's like.
You know, all the jokes and all the stand-up, all the Dave Chappelle that I've watched.
Like, I want to know what the fuss is all about.
It's not going to end well.
No.
There's never a story like he smoked crack and then he really turned his life around.
No.
It's usually like.
It's got to be just like doing a lot too much coke.
Maybe.
It's got to be the same.
It's the same thing chemically, right?
It's got to be different.
It's got to be different.
There's no way.
They say it just hits way harder and it wears off way quicker.
That sounds terrible because coke already doesn't even last as long.
It's like, why would I want this to be even more like, gotcha.
Gotcha.
Yeah, you're right.
Now you need more.
Don't smoke crack.
That's a good point.
I'm not going to smoke it.
Don't smoke crack.
Don't smoke crack, people.
Smoke cigarettes.
One cigarette.
One cigarette.
Every once in a while.
Occasionally.
Enjoy a cigarette.
Don't smoke it.
Don't.
Buy a pack of cigarettes.
Yeah.
If you see some fucking loser who bought a pack of cigarettes, you can bum one of his cigarettes.
Yeah.
But first, make a good start.
Criticize them for buying the pack, but then take one.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
Take one first, then criticize them.
Because if you make fun of them, they're going to be like, as you're smoking it.
Yes, yes.
So that way, like, you're on their level.
So it's like, hey, I understand what you're going through because I'm smoking too.
Bro, watching Mad Men made me want to smoke cigarettes.
Watching people smoke cigarettes makes me want to smoke cigarettes.
Can you relate?
I mean, it's just all the trigger.
Like, it's.
Again, it's just like the habit you see people smoking you see people enjoying it like it triggers that thing in your brain It's like oh, yeah, I do like smoking cigarettes or oh, yeah, I do like drinking or oh, yeah, I do like fucking doing drugs like whenever you see people doing it in movies It triggers it in you.
This is my first drink in like a month And I haven't smoked weed in like three weeks.
Damn any reason in particular Yeah, I had a like a panic attack three weeks I smoked too much.
I took a fucking edible and I was like I had I was in bed having like a fucking panic attack and it was the worst thing ever I'm glad you made it through too far on the edible bro.
I don't fuck with the edibles Went way too far.
I've never been that fucking disturbed.
Did you almost go to the hospital?
No.
No, I just sweated out.
I sweated out and I was like, I'm fucking done with weed for a while.
Just wrote it out.
I'm a lightweight when it comes to that shit.
I feel like you never learn your lesson, though.
No.
You always fall off a cliff eventually later.
You learn your lesson for a couple months and then eventually you'll fuck up again.
Walking Off a Panic Attack00:06:58
That's your style, though.
Like too much all at once.
Yeah.
There's nothing in the middle, bro.
You're either like.
Halt gas, no break.
You're a fucking haul gas.
You're the same way.
I've toned it down a little bit.
You're all or nothing.
Yeah, I can handle it a little bit better.
I can ride it out.
Get a little quiet.
Yeah, we have addictive personalities.
Yeah, we do.
Fuck it.
I think that's a part of being a hyper-creative person, too, is just something to help calm the chatter and the overthinking of everything and overanalyzing.
Yeah.
Yeah, the overanalyzing is a fucking problem, dude.
Yeah.
Big problem.
Because you think way too much about nothing.
And then it gets in your way.
And you think the weed helps with that, but it just makes it worse, honestly.
Yeah, because then it really makes you think about it.
And then you start really going inside and seeing those things.
Which is, I mean, that's the biggest thing about the biggest difference between shit like Coke and weed, is because you do Coke.
You don't really get anything from it when you're done.
If you smoke, if you get really high, at least you kind of like.
You take something from it.
You're like, oh, wow, I realized this, or like I thought about that, and you can remember it after, and you're like, oh, that actually made sense that I thought about that because that's an actual problem.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
It's like pulling weeds, kind of.
Yeah.
But with fucking doing shit like Coke, you don't really get anything from that.
You're just like, I fucking wish I'm never doing that again.
You're just stamping in the garden.
Yeah.
Pulling the weeds.
All you're doing is fucking stealing all of the dopamine from the next week.
Yeah.
Right now.
Fucked.
It's the worst.
I know a lot of people who are very successful and function off it every single day.
Yeah.
It becomes habitual.
It's like caffeine for them.
It's like they need it to function after a while.
Your body gets used to it, and it's a part of your body's chemical balance.
I wonder if it's a do you think normal people know the amount of people in their circle that regularly do that shit?
Or do you think it's just because of the area we live in, maybe?
It's everywhere.
You think?
Yeah.
I've lived other places, and I've seen just as much cocaine use.
Shit, I saw people in fucking like meeting rooms like like you know like every Friday.
Hey, let's party cool.
Everybody starts drinking or whatever like people duck off to like a back boardroom and fucking really hit a couple bumps Yeah, I don't know I don't know cuz I've never left this town It's the creative center of the universe.
You got no reason to leave Seminole is the creative center.
I'm like the only person me and Amato.
No, no Amato even fucking left Amato left.
I never left Seminole, bro.
I came back you did Twice when are you leaving next?
I think I'm here You think you're here?
I'm here.
I'm in it.
It's a great base.
I like it here, bro.
It's a great base.
I mean, you can travel anywhere around the world, but living here and having this area, it's easy to say, I told you so now because everybody's moving to Florida right now because of the fucking pandemic.
Yeah, because it's like everything's open.
It's like nothing's even happening.
And now everyone uses excuses like, oh, it's better because it's open, but.
Oh, the taxes are better.
The taxes are better and all that, but now they use that as excuses.
But the only people who really benefit from that are people like Tony Robbins who have like an insane amount of money who save.
Tony Robbins probably saves like a hundred million dollars a year by living in Florida instead of California.
Right.
But this part, bro, this part of Florida is really great.
I'm a fan.
It always, it sucks you back and it's like, you know, been around, go places, you see shit, but like home is home and this is a good place to be.
And it doesn't matter like after seeing what I've seen and like the places I've gone and worked and shit, it's like.
You can do anything from anywhere with the right attitude.
Like, you don't need to be somewhere physically to do something cool.
You just got to be in a good place mentally and, like, have the right attitude and, like, want to do the work.
And you can do shit from fucking anywhere.
Nobody's going to an office anymore.
It doesn't matter.
You don't need to be in a fucking city anymore.
That's why I feel bad for people like Mark.
Why is that?
Because, like, I mean, people like me and you and Danielle, we're just like, we don't have to go to a fucking office anymore.
We can work from home.
We like working from home.
Like, subcontractors, people who do creative work, people who do.
Whatever employees of creative companies they get to like they love working from home and they hate the fact they have to go to an office But I also sympathize with people like Mark because they they like they Mark created that big ass office downtown Great beautiful place and he was like it gave him life to see employees go in there and it gave it that was literally like his oxygen Yeah, and now it's like left just like a rug people don't want to go there, bro.
People do not want to go in there.
No And I feel bad for people like him because I can relate to him as much as I can relate to people like you know Myself you and Danielle you know what I mean So it's it's weird.
It's a weird It's a weird thing.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I feel bad Because I think there's something to like going into an office I do miss the like even though I'm connection.
Yeah with people and like as much as like I used to fucking hate the like Hey, how's your morning going?
Oh, hey, what's up?
It's like motherfucker.
We just talked like six hours ago.
It's like give me a minute when Danielle first met you She called me or she texted me right after the time she first met you.
She goes, Why the fuck are you and Luke like, why do you guys act like the same person?
You guys have like the same demeanor and the same like shitty sarcastic tone.
We spent a lot of time together, we spent way too much time together.
That was so fucking funny, bro.
That rules.
That was great.
That was a funny ass thing to like read just to hear her like make that connection because like I felt like.
When I would go into the office prior to us linking back up, I would go into the Hoth maybe a day a week, two days a week.
Whenever they had free lunch.
Whenever they had free lunch.
Fridays.
Free lunch Friday.
I would go in.
And even though I went there one day a week, I felt like that.
Like how you described.
I'd walk in there, I'd be like, of course, I was strolling at 11 o'clock.
Yeah.
Everyone else has been there since 8.
And I'd be walking in and seeing everybody in their little cubicles doing their own thing.
In their own little worlds with their dogs and their cats and their whatever the fuck they have.
Their flair.
And I'm just like, I don't fucking want to even make eye contact with anybody.
You know what I mean?
I don't want to fucking be here.
Discipline as Self Care00:02:36
It's just not me.
Blinders.
But at the same time, there's like a huge benefit.
It's like doing this.
Like walking into that studio is the same thing for me.
Walking into that office and passing all those employees and saying hi to people is the same thing for me as sitting down here and having like a four hour conversation with somebody I don't know.
Yeah.
It's like the same uncomfortable thing, feeling, where I don't like it.
I'm uncomfortable with it.
I don't want to do it.
But I get something from it.
It shakes you up a little bit.
And I think the thing that you miss about it now, it's like, it's really great to have the option to hate something when it's just pushed in front of you.
It's like, here's this thing.
I don't like this thing, but it's here no matter what.
I don't like this thing.
But now that it's taken away, it's like, actually, I kind of miss that.
Why did I hate that in the first place?
Why did that bother me so much?
Yeah.
Yeah, you want things more when you can't have them or when they're an option or when you can't have them.
Yeah.
But I don't know.
Discipline is like the biggest thing.
I think discipline is one of the biggest things that I've learned from this or like learning from talking to people or learning from.
I mean, discipline is one of like the most important things I think into like coming up with creative shit.
Yeah.
Is having, is being disciplined about like even a routine or processes of doing shit or sitting down and trying to get better at something.
Like.
It doesn't matter how good, how creative you are.
Creative doesn't mean anything.
It literally is like, it means nothing unless you have discipline with it at the same time.
Creative is just like, how many times can you show up and still have the same attitude?
It's talent with no direction.
Yeah, I mean, to a point, but like anybody can be creative.
It's a muscle, like you said earlier.
It's like you just got to show up and like do the work and prepare yourself.
And when I say self, I mean like your head, like your mind, your body, and like everything.
Like you can't think of shit unless you're like.
Snapping and like peak performance, and you got to treat yourself like an athlete to be able to think clearly and to be able to come up with like really cool shit that people want to hear.
It's like, you know, like you work out a lot, you do like the supplements, and like you care about that kind of shit, and like you care about like brain optimization, health optimization, and it's no different than the way like people in the UFC treat themselves or the people like at any like elite level treat themselves.
Like, this is a job, yeah.
Vegan Cholesterol Myths00:08:25
Like, I don't fucking drink during the week, like, I treat my like I eat super clean.
Stay super hydrated all the time and like I make sure that I get enough sleep because you know that's how you perform and then that's how you develop that your brain, and like, if you show up, like whatever you want to work on, whether it's like being creative, whether it's talking to people, whether it's fucking playing fortnight, like you got to be in the right state of mind to be able to, to create and produce, and like rise above everybody else.
Yeah, I'm super fucking drunk right now, dude.
I've had like three of these whiskeys.
Bro, you're nodding out over there.
I feel like you didn't hear a goddamn word.
I just said I'm just getting fired up right here.
Dude, your tolerance is so much higher than mine and you're slamming a Bud Light.
I gotta back it up.
God damn son, How do you feel now that you're not vegan?
I feel good.
What's the difference?
Do you feel any different or no?
Um, how long were you vegan for seven years seven years?
Yeah, like strict not super so I do like cheese every now and then some shit in when Sam wasn't around no meat.
No, never never never We were in it together.
You weren't like I don't go behind her anything like that No, I know you walk into 7-Eleven and you see those Slim Jims staring at you, brother, and you want to snap into a Slim Jim.
Ooh, I see those greasy glizzies on the fucking roller, and I just want to no, I don't do that kind of shit.
Again, it's all about, for me, what it was, I went vegan when I started going to an office.
And that was a way for me to almost put up a wall between me and everybody else because I was sober for most of the time that I was at.
Those places, like when I was working, because I didn't want to, like, make any, like, true.
I had friends and everything, but I didn't want those things that tied me to those places because it was always just a pit stop to get to where I'm at right now because I just wanted to learn and everything.
What are you doing?
I didn't want the things to tie you to those places.
Well, so it was like everybody eats together.
Everybody does the same shit.
Like, hey, we're going to go to a restaurant.
Do you want to come with us?
Like, oh, no, they don't have anything for me to eat there.
Like, oh, and I don't drink, so I can't go to happy hour.
I'm just going to go home and hang out with Sam.
So it was like my way of just kind of like, eh, I'm good.
But what was it?
What were you saying?
I forgot.
About going vegan?
Oh, vegan for seven years.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You were saying when you were up in Leo Burnett, you went vegan, and it was also a way for you to disconnect from the people that were there.
Yeah, and it was also just a way to clear my mind.
I was going through a lot of stuff, and I felt like changing my relationship with food was a big way for me to also get off of the old habits that I had.
And I just kind of wanted to cut that.
I don't know.
It's hard to explain because I've never really.
Thought about it until right now, but I think the biggest thing that I enjoyed about being vegan was just I felt like it was something that me and Sam shared together, no matter where we were at, because we didn't get to spend a lot of time with each other because we were always working.
But I always knew wherever she was, we were in this thing together.
Yeah.
And the thing that broke me was fried chicken because I had this thought when I was like, oh, yeah, do I really want to go the rest of my life without eating fried chicken?
So that's what that's what broke me, and I don't feel any different.
I feel the same.
Yeah, I didn't get sick when I transitioned out of it.
Yeah.
I didn't like.
A lot of people like to hyper sensationalize the difference of being vegan and not being vegan.
I mean, I don't know any of the science.
I don't know any of the research.
I don't know whatever, but I don't feel any different.
I feel good.
I'm also grateful, too, that one of the things that always really bothered me about it was like.
Say you'd go somewhere and somebody would make something for you like, oh, we made this.
And then you have to say, oh, I'm vegan.
I can't eat that.
Thank you for your generosity, but please just put it in the trash.
I'm not going to touch it.
Yeah.
And that was something that always really bothered me, like having to say no to people's generosity.
And I think that's the thing that I'm most grateful for, like transitioning back into just eating whatever.
Yeah.
I mean, I get it.
I feel like, I mean, I hate eating.
Like, Sweet Pea loves buying the fucking, like, Publix chicken breasts that are, like, this big.
Oh, yeah.
And you know they were just injected with all the most fucked up shit.
What animal did this come from?
Right.
Yeah.
Some fucking chicken on steroids.
Like, I hate, I always feel like shit eating that, but she loves buying it.
But she doesn't like shit.
It's a good deal.
It's a great deal.
They were bo go.
It's a good deal.
They were bo go.
You got to look past it.
It's a good deal.
Like, I don't know.
I feel like eating, for me, eating, like, Chicken's okay.
I don't mind chicken.
Chicken all tastes the same.
It tastes like whatever.
It depends on what sauce you put on it.
Yeah, sauce.
But like sauce dripping.
Dripping sauce on it?
On the chicken?
But like eating a good steak to me is like eating a dessert.
Yeah.
It's so fucking good.
It stands on its own.
It doesn't need anything.
Yes.
You don't even need anything.
I could just eat like going to Ruth Chris with Mark, just ordering the fucking big T bone or the rib eye with.
That garlic sauce, butter all over it, dude.
Like, there's nothing better than just eating just a big, fucking, juicy piece of meat with nothing else.
There's something really cool about just like eating with a knife, too, because that's something you don't really do when you're vegan.
Yeah.
Because every, like, you just like a lot of beans, a lot of greens, you know, a lot of veggies.
So it's all just like bowls and grains, and you don't really need a knife for anything.
Have you ever gotten like blood work done and like looked at it?
Yeah.
Do you do it a lot?
Well, I had a health screening at one place that I worked at when I was vegan, and it came back like fucking A1.
Really?
The healthiest fucking person in there.
Really?
And then I got it done again like a couple weeks ago, like after I've been eating meat for like a year, and it's like everything's still like.
Same?
Yeah.
That's interesting.
I got mine done a couple, like a month or two ago, and I had super high cholesterol.
Hmm.
And.
I'm like the healthiest.
I'm like, like the.
You're on it.
I'm super on it with what I eat.
Yeah.
I pay more attention to what I eat than probably anything else.
Yeah.
I'm very conscious, conscientious about what I eat and what I put in my body and everything.
And I try not to eat shit, try to eat carbs.
I try to only eat vegetables and meat.
And I had really high cholesterol.
So I'm like, what the fuck?
So I emailed this guy that had the podcast, this guy, Dom, who's a.
Oh, yeah, the scientist.
Nutritional scientist.
The weightlifter.
He's a.
Yeah, the guy who deadlifts.
Yeah.
He.
The only person I know who's dedicated his life to nutritional science and how it affects your body.
And the cool thing about him, he's his test subject.
Yes, and he tests everything himself.
He literally tests all these products on himself and tests his blood every single day to the molecule, to the fucking whatever it is.
And I was texting him back and forth about it.
I'm like, dude, I'm freaking out.
I'm going to have a heart attack any day now.
My cholesterol is through the roof or whatever.
And I found out he's like, cholesterol is a myth.
He's like, high cholesterol is not bad.
It's like it's been this thing, this propaganda that people have pushed on us like for years that high cholesterol automatically relates to heart disease when it's not.
Because there's a lot of, he's basically showing me that he basically sent me all these studies of these crazy athletes that do like, that are like marathon runners and triathlon people who are super, super keto and all they eat is meat and they don't eat any carbs or whatever.
And these are like people that run.
10 miles a day when they're not doing marathons on their off days.
It's a casual attempt.
And they have super high cholesterol.
Hmm.
I wonder why that is.
But it's like some sort of like, I don't know, I guess it's like a genetic thing or whatever.
But his whole thing was with all his studies, he's come up with the hypothesis that cholesterol is not bad.
It's a myth that's been put on us.
Whiskey Country Song Ideas00:05:52
You know what?
It's not bad.
It's not.
Not anymore.
I'm going to go ahead and say it's not bad.
But a lot of people agree with him, though.
I mean, He's just like a scientist that people can agree with now.
It's like he comes out like it's not bad and it's like see told you yeah now he's like that person yeah But it was weird who fucking knows who fucking knows man everyone's different and That's the thing too.
It's like you can't just do what you think is good because it works for somebody else You got to do like what's good for you at the end of the day like what makes you feel good?
Yeah, what does fucking Bud Light Bud Light Bud Light cold beer on a Friday night cold beer some tealing and some liquid death.
You know what makes me feel good?
What makes you feel good Luke?
A pair of jeans that fit just right.
A cold beer on a Friday night.
And you know what?
I'm going to turn that radio on.
Luke Sturr, let your hair down.
I'm letting my hair down.
Oh boy.
And a little timeout.
We should make our own country song.
We should.
Mew and Amato should make a country song.
Yeah, and we could get Jake to stand in for the guy singing it.
That opener up song, that music video they did for that was really whack.
I didn't see the video.
I was not impressed with it.
No?
I saw beans were being poured on somebody in the Instagram clip.
Really?
Did they pour beans on somebody in the video?
I don't know.
Hey, pull the opener up music video.
YouTube, open or up.
Oh, they actually released the full video.
It wasn't just the teaser.
They released it yesterday.
I'm glad we're doing this.
This is cool.
This was great.
We should do this more.
We should.
This was actually fun.
Yeah.
Even if we got Shane on here, it'd be really fun.
Like, just us three talk.
We'd talk about, like, funny shit, and we'd, like, actually.
I think it was good.
I think it was, yeah.
I was a little, like, I. How can I carry a fucking podcast?
I haven't talked to anybody but my cat in the last fucking two months.
It's like.
It's like an exercise.
It's like a mental exercise.
Yeah.
For me, at least, because I suck at communicating, but.
And you know what I'm grateful for?
Like, we actually got to talk about shit.
Yeah.
Because we never, like, actually talk about it.
Everything else is so, like, whatever, like, in passing.
Right.
It's like a text about this, about that.
It's not really like a wholesome communication.
And you know what?
It's like I said, like, can two bros have a conversation in 2021 without it being on a podcast?
I think my answer is no.
That's a hard no.
Nobody's having this conversation without microphones and a camera.
Dude, that's insane.
I think that's the title of this podcast.
Can two bros have a conversation?
We'll see if that clickbait works on the 50 people on Patreon.
I don't know.
That's a hard clickbait to think about.
Look at that.
Let's watch it.
Let's end the podcast by reviewing this music video.
Jelly roll.
Open her up.
Volume up.
Aiden.
Hey, get the door.
Get the door.
Whippets!
Oh my god, those pubes.
Hey, what's up?
Hey, Sam!
How many times is he gonna be jerking off in this video?
Is he drinking Basil Hayden?
That ain't country.
That is not country.
Is that really Basil Hayden?
Looks like it.
Danny, I don't think I can turn it up anymore.
I think you have to turn up the TV.
You have to use the TV remote.
Take it.
You want some whiskey?
We got some good whiskey, Sam.
Open her up!
Open her up!
Oh my god.
I want some C-section scars.
I mean, I'm into it.
It's fun.
I appreciate it.
Yep.
For a guy from New York doing country, I'll take it.
But he's been in Florida for like two months and he's already singing country songs.
I think it's getting to him.
A pissing section.
You think this is gonna be the song of the summer floor has been Florida has been opened up like this since This ain't even July you should see Krabby Bills.
This ain't shit.
That's a light crowd.
That's a first of all these guys are in Miami, so they don't even really live in Florida.
That ain't Florida Miami's not Florida.
Ain't Florida That's pretty good.
What do you all right?
We're done.
We're done.
We did it.
All right.
Let's do it next week.
Fucking nailed it Listen to the new Cannibal Corpse album.
Woo!
What's up, world?
You just watched a clip from one of our exclusive Patreon episodes.
That's right, you can get weekly, pure, uncut content straight from the jungles of Colombia.
If you want to watch the full episode, make sure you go to patreon.comslash concrete videos.