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Jan. 9, 2025 - On Brand

02:10:31

OB #94 - The First Episode

We leap back in time to examine the first ever episode of Stay Free with Russell Brand, which is almost an entirely different show, despite briefly featuring Glenn Greenwald. Support us on Patreon! Purchase a magnet handmade by Lauren!

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	This is Propaganda Live.
	I only suggest how to think and how to vote.
	Extraordinary cultural moment.
	Already iconic.
	Already iconic.
	We love you.
	You're welcome here.
	Where did this guy come from?
	It's like he's been doing it for ages.
	He's very confident.
	Plainly, and this is a matter now of fact and record, I'm right wing.
	I feel that Christ may have had a better vision.
	Is this misinformation or is Vivek Ramaswamy in the laboratory?
	That's sort of like a poem.
	Is this Eminem?
	Man, if we didn't come together in that stream, I'd say it was just the key.
	Now, these are the kind of conversations I think that the legacy media can no longer compete with.
	Win, win, win, win, win, win, win.
	This is On Brand, a podcast where we discuss the ideas and antics of one, Russell Brand.
	I'm Al Wirth, and each week I go through an episode of Brand's show with my co-host, Lauren B. That's me!
	I'm Lauren B. I'm in a very weird place in this.
	Okay.
	I'm Lauren B. And I moved my camera, so I'm confused.
	And I am the host that has no idea what we're getting in today.
	It's usually bad.
	It's almost invariably bad, which is why we do the good thing before the bad thing.
	And Lauren, what is your good thing before the bad thing this week?
	Can you go first?
	I have a little bit of a plug as well, I think.
	General.
	Am I? A PSA. So you go ahead.
	Okay.
	Yeah, for me, I'm not generally one for New Year's resolutions.
	I'm pretty much in the mind of like...
	If you have a resolution, you can do that any time of year.
	But it has been quite a reflective period for me, like the last couple of months in general.
	And so I've been kind of doing some thinking in the time we've had off and everything.
	And yeah, I'm just kind of...
	Making positive changes to my life that I'm feeling quite good about in terms of health and that kind of stuff and creativity, all of the good things.
	And so, yeah, I'm in a positive space about those at the moment.
	So that's my good thing.
	Well, okay.
	General wellness.
	Nice.
	Yeah, I mean, we have so many good things that probably happened between the last time that we've recorded and now.
	And so I wanted to thinly veil a PSA. And my good thing, which is after Christmas, Mike got to play a show with...
	He's in two bands, technically.
	But also, like, everybody's old.
	We moved.
	COVID. Like, it makes everything very amorphous.
	But they got to do, like, one show on the 28th.
	So, um, you know, went back to like the college town where all the other guys are from and it was wild.
	It was so fun.
	Um, and the, I think they sold out like a half hour after the door opened.
	There was a line around the block all night.
	It was like wild.
	It was really, it was fun.
	It was cool.
	Um, although, you know, all of us aged.
	Got into a room, and it was really great.
	And I was in charge of the merch.
	And let me tell you something, everybody.
	It's mask time.
	It's mask time in the U.S. for sure.
	I feel like I'm doing Elaine's Himalayan walking shoes bit from Seinfeld, but this mask, we were the only people masked in the place.
	What?
	That was not stressful at all.
	I don't know why I hadn't bit the bullet sooner, but this is the PSA. For these 3M Aura N95 masks, if you're watching, you can see it actually doesn't look nearly as bad.
	These things are amazing.
	We got them at CVS. They're at Walgreens.
	They're not like the duck-shaped ones.
	They look like they're for sandblasting, which I ended up using mine.
	It looks probably gnarly.
	If you're watching, it looks gnarlier than fresh because I ended up using it for...
	I had to rip down a bunch of...
	I had to rip down a bunch of wood, because I've got to restock everything after Christmas, so I'm making stuff still.
	And it's covered in sawdust, because that thing was amazing!
	And it doesn't fog!
	Well, I mean, it's a mask.
	And it didn't fog my safety glasses!
	And it really worked out great to have it.
	So we also, like, enough time has passed, I can report.
	We didn't get sick.
	Yeah, right?
	We didn't get to see people.
	It's not where I'm from necessarily.
	Mike has more connections than I do.
	But it was still really nice to see folks.
	And I got to see people that were like the wives and kids.
	They're like, well, yeah, we're staying home because we don't want to get sick.
	Which sucks.
	That shouldn't have to be the thing.
	You know?
	No, yeah, it's very true.
	It's doing the rounds here as well.
	I've got friends who were down with it over the holiday period.
	You know, it's very much in hospitals in Wales.
	You have to wear a mask now.
	And it's the case.
	I think it's coming into GP surgeries and stuff very soon.
	Because, yeah.
	Yeah, most wonderful time of year.
	Right.
	So, please.
	Like, please, you know, do the vax.
	And also washing your hands because norovirus here is going around.
	Same.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	And so alcohol doesn't do it, but soap and water will burst those little viral pieces.
	Please wash your hands.
	So, yeah, just be aware of, like, touching your face and stuff, which is really hard to do.
	Because I was, like, talking to people and taking money all night.
	But I just was trying, you know, minded my P's and Q's and we were okay.
	Which is awesome.
	And it was just, it was also just really, there were friends that we got to see from back home.
	And it was really, really, really, really, like, fun and an overwhelming kind of, like, welcome and, you know, this is all stuff that, like, kind of ended with COVID. Yeah.
	Coming back, because we're all five years older than already the old time.
	It's different.
	There is no going back in time.
	It was also fun to see.
	It's always fun.
	Not just to see the band Mike is in, but also there's a band that's been around since.
	I'm amazed that they're still going.
	We got to hang out with some local legends and they're so kind and cool and good.
	It was great to get out and less terrifying because I got the Aura 3M. It's like a three pack for $10 or something, which I know is a little high, but they're pretty substantial.
	So this is my thinly veiled attempt at begging everybody please to wear this mask that I have road tested.
	And it's really good.
	I mean, I have a respirator, so I probably could just use...
	Sure, I have a respirator.
	But even my safety glasses kind of bounce on it if I have to use them, and that's annoying.
	And this mask worked great for my woodworking shit that I had to do.
	It's awesome.
	And they're everywhere in America.
	They're very easy to find.
	And I hope everybody stays safe.
	Because we're not out of the woods.
	Wash your hands and sanitize and all that kind of stuff.
	Please wash your hands.
	Very obscure bottom live show reference to anyone who got that.
	If there is one person who got that reference, please leave a comment.
	It will make me very happy.
	Anyway.
	We've got a show to do, but if you do enjoy our show, please leave us a five-star review wherever you're listening, and please do share us with your friends, loved ones, or anyone you think might enjoy this project of ours.
	It would be hugely appreciated and goes to great lengths in helping us continue.
	And if anyone wants to support us financially in what we do, become an awakening wonder, join the Invisible Hand or donate on an elevated tier, head to patreon.com slash onbrand, and you will have our eternal gratitude.
	It is this which allows us to be editorially independent and ad-free.
	And as a patron, you will also get a shout-out on the show and access to our patron-only aftersh- Oh, well, I mean, you know, I think...
	I came across an idea just thinking about why this stuff works for me.
	And guys, I already know I'm neurodivergent, but I really appreciate the supportive messages pointing it out anyway.
	Thank you.
	Yep.
	Got it.
	Thanks.
	But also, helpful tips, which I appreciate.
	And feeling seems always nice.
	But anyway, thinking about what helps me.
	And it was a little bit of a reflective moment for me.
	To me, it sounds like a party.
	It's only a buck if you want to subscribe.
	As low as a dollar, you can access all of our off-brand episodes.
	I made playlists, too.
	They're around.
	There are times when positivity is toxic.
	We have more feelings than good and nice and bad and mean.
	Sometimes the warm hug of just a wall of sound really just gives your brain a second to put your energy somewhere that is more...
	Maybe honest.
	Not necessarily honest, but it fits another feeling than just yay or nay.
	To me, there's a catharsis in it.
	It's expressing these things deep within and getting it out that way.
	When you still want to feel better, but you don't just want to cover up the feelings.
	Instead, we just feel it.
	The news has already been Buck-fucking-wild!
	So I'm glad I thought of this idea, and I hope that some of you, you know, like, enjoy.
	It's there to be enjoyed.
	And if you like it just all the time, great.
	Or if you're just like, I have a mixture of feelings that are a tornado inside of me.
	Well...
	That's what this is for.
	Do we have a show for you?
	Yeah, that's part of it, you know?
	So head to patreon.com slash onbrand to check that recording out and the many, many hours of other content up there.
	And please note that while you can easily listen to our audio version, you can find podcasts.
	You can also watch us on YouTube, or if you're listening to the Spotify app, the video will come up there too.
	And of course, Announcement!
	This Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, we have our very first live stream of 2025 at 8pm GMT, 2pm CST. It's going to be good.
	Yeah!
	Also, you guys can ask about the show.
	Yeah, sure.
	You don't just have to ask questions about us.
	You can ask questions about...
	We can talk about show stuff.
	I wanted to mention that because, man, we get some insight from you guys sometimes and it's just awesome.
	So, yeah.
	Don't be afraid to like, hey, this is a thought I had.
	Don't be afraid to throw that in there.
	Fire away.
	Fire away.
	We absolutely will.
	Alright, now then.
	Russell has not posted a full show to his channel since December 19th.
	As of the day this episode comes out, that'll make it a solid three weeks.
	Must be nice!
	Maybe about 20 minutes of new content up on both his Rumble page and his locals channel.
	And this left me with something of a quandary to deal with in terms of what to cover.
	See, there were interviews that Russell had done in December, including with Dr. John Campbell, the old British COVID guy who has a PhD in nursing and calls himself a doctor, that guy, you know, while doling out science and medical advice.
	Yeah, white clots really pissed me off that one.
	Their conversation was, however, incredibly dull.
	They spent most of it talking about Christianity and then trying to assert that the famous socialist and humanist George Orwell actually hated socialism and was also actually a Christian.
	Reality matters not to these people.
	And speaking of people who reality doesn't matter to, there was also the option of looking at Russell's interview with Mike Benz, which was the last show that went out before Christmas.
	It was, however, yet another hour of insinuating mythological deep state ties and CIA operations with...
	Zero evidence and just pointing to things that happened in the 50s and 60s.
	Russell did, however, spend some time making hay of the fact that Mike Benz was on Rogan recently, though, because of course he did.
	Boy.
	Yeah, that's a conversation.
	If you just want to talk about 60s CIA stuff, do that!
	Do that!
	He knows so much about it!
	People need to know!
	Do that!
	Do that!
	No, instead...
	The conversation is...
	It's a trip.
	There are lessons!
	There's so much to learn from the reality!
	You're gonna make shit up?
	As ever, yeah, there are actual problems that need dealing with.
	We don't need to make ones up.
	Anyway, while sifting through all the nonsense, a thought occurred to me, which is that when we had the boys on from Louder Than Crowder to cover Russell's March 2023 interview with Stephen Crowder, I made the point that in the full context of the interview, Russell came off as being much more reasonable than in his present day form.
	But, of course, the episode itself was centered around Stephen Crowder, which didn't give me that much time to kind of elaborate.
	And so what I thought we would do today is dive right back to the very beginning of Stay Free with Russell Brand, to the first official episode ever streamed live back in September of 2022.
	I'm fascinated.
	Hell yeah.
	Let's fucking go!
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	So, let's get into how the show opens.
	Stay free number one.
	And there are some quite drastic aesthetic differences right off the bat.
	Wow.
	Hey!
	You are watching Stay Free with Russell Brand, although the titles appear to be playing in again.
	Hey, this is the first ever episode.
	Thank you for joining us on Rumble.
	I'm Russell Brand.
	This is Stay Free.
	We are streaming live everywhere in the world.
	If you're watching this in New York City, it's noon.
	Good afternoon to you, good people of New York.
	If you're watching this in Los Angeles, it's 9am.
	If you're watching it in the UK, it's 5pm.
	If you're watching this in Togo, in Africa, It's 5pm, and wherever you are, that's got to be a fire risk, hasn't it, with a dried flower?
	Thank you so much for tuning in for our first ever episode, where we give you, well, I don't want to call it the news behind the news.
	We tell you the news that the mainstream media won't tell you.
	We give you insights on the news that the mainstream media simply won't reveal.
	Mm-hmm.
	Okay.
	So let's just take a little look at some of the aesthetic differences here off the bat.
	So firstly, Russell has stood up, which is one immediate difference, and he stood behind a lectin, the type you see in churches, at least over here.
	But said lectin is painted bright pink.
	Yeah.
	There's a lot of pink going on in this picture.
	It's giving emo MySpace page.
	It's like pink black.
	I mean...
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Like, with wood slats.
	Yes, yes, exactly.
	And on that lectern, he's got his mic, a laptop, some dried-out flowers, he just lit a candle, then a coffee cup, glass of espresso, and I think an energy drink.
	Are we going to say that the flame did all- he was lighting a candle under these, like, really pretty dried flowers?
	And smoke immediately started coming off of it.
	Honestly, that was quite smooth.
	I was hoping that was the match, but yeah, it could absolutely be accidentally setting fire to some flowers.
	I love it.
	Or even just noticing it as an issue, like, oh, okay.
	I've been there, you know what I mean?
	Again, we try to, you know, this is a human being, this is a person who is capable of being fine, right?
	That's what we need to remember.
	He could always just be fine.
	And having that little, like, oopsie-poopsie was like a very real human moment.
	Human moment, yeah.
	You know, you could be okay.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
	There's a lot more of that through this show, actually, from that present day.
	Behind Russell is what seems to be a set built out of thin strips of wood, and on the left-hand side there is a stained glass window featuring what appears to be the Hindu elephant god Ganesh as the centerpiece, which does actually have a pink light behind it as well.
	And then, I tell you all, let me just fullscreen that for a second so you can see Ganesh.
	I was gonna say!
	There you go.
	You will not believe what I thought that was.
	Oh my god.
	Because of where your box is on this video, I can only see the bottom and the side.
	It's very obviously Tibetan style.
	Not Tibetan style.
	Hindu art.
	But that's what I'm familiar with as far as the type of drapery I saw.
	But they look like legs.
	Dog legs to me.
	And in my mind filled in, Russell had a stained glass made of bear, his dog, and that was going to be dope and sick, and I was going to be really jealous.
	Yeah, it's entirely believable, I will say.
	It's entirely believable.
	Like, I guess that's the choice I would make.
	Yeah!
	I mean, I was about, like, genuinely, I had, in a split second, I convinced myself, like, oh, cool.
	Bear's been in this game the whole time.
	Like, Bear's actually running the show.
	This is like, Bear's actually in charge.
	I'm a little bummed that I just, it's like a, it's a regular, very pretty Ganesh instead.
	Okay.
	Yes.
	Yes.
	I don't know whether it's leftover from his wedding to Katy Perry or whatever.
	I don't know, but it's there.
	It looks lovely.
	It's got a pink light behind it as well.
	Then on the wooden wall behind Russell, there's a couple of clocks, a framed circular picture of a pink crow on a white background, a crucifix in golden red, and then over to the right is a neon sign saying, stay free with Russell Brand in pink and blue.
	Yeah, very pink, very woo.
	The neon sign is kind of reminiscent of Bill Maher's kind of club random kind of aesthetic, to be honest.
	Oh, I mean, everybody's.
	Yeah, it's the neon sign.
	Diamond does these days.
	But Russell Brand is really big and in block letters.
	Underneath him, yes.
	Under the really pretty, stay free.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Yes, yeah.
	So the format of this show is one we've never seen before.
	And this studio that they're in, which I believe is in the barn portion of the Stay Free compound in Piss Hill, was for some reason only actually used for a couple of months.
	So this set disappears quite quickly.
	Not only that, but format-wise, this is before integrating his meditations into Stay Free.
	There are different segments compared to what we have now.
	And really, there are only the bare...
	And what's the date of the air date again?
	Can you remind me?
	I want to say September 22nd.
	It was definitely September.
	Year?
	2022. September 22nd, 2022. Okay, got it.
	So, let's get into the first clip proper.
	Russell starts taking a look at the live stream chat that's scrolling past him, and then in diving back to the past, we see a familiar face.
	And of course, we're going to be responding to your comments.
	Let me have a look at those comments now.
	You're with us now, coming in, of course.
	Look at this.
	This is from Boyantin.
	Joe Biden is the Antichrist.
	Oh, I don't know about that.
	The actual Antichrist, because if you're going to oppose Christ...
	You've got to be very, because Jesus, he had access to a lot of powers, didn't he?
	There's the walking on water, there's the water into wine, which of course, probably a remnant of the Dionysian power, like that Christ can generate ecstatic power, the power that comes from beyond the limited self.
	If you're going to oppose that, mate, you're going to need to go, you're going to need to be harder than Biden.
	He'd have a better memory, wouldn't he?
	He'd probably be better on the stage as well, I think, the Antichrist.
	The Antichrist is going to, after...
	Be very good on details, Gal.
	He's going to have to recall things.
	Biden is a puppet, says Cuddly Crow.
	Someone is pulling the strings.
	That's what Cuddly Crow says.
	Jerusalem, don't have blind faith.
	Please watch this.
	If someone's sending videos and stuff, look, keep commenting, okay, over the course of this hour, because, yeah, we want to stay close to you.
	That's part of the beauty of this.
	Okay, okay.
	Still a little rusty to start with.
	Gareth Roy is there.
	Yeah, on the old Carson set.
	Like, it just...
	Because they cut to his camera view, and his camera is pointing towards a velvet curtain, and it straight up is like...
	Velvet green curtain behind him.
	Yeah, a velvet green curtain is fully like Carson said.
	Yeah, we get to see a wider shot of things in a little bit.
	But yeah, series producer Gareth Roy back on our screens.
	And I tell you, the show is much better for him being there.
	Russell, he honestly needs a friendly face to chat back and forth with, especially as Gareth...
	I don't know what they're getting away with by not doing it this way.
	I don't know.
	Gareth just doesn't want to be visible post-allegations, but you're still there.
	Who are you fooling?
	Yeah, I don't know.
	I would love to know more about the decision-making process behind that.
	Because, like, post-allegations, he has been banished back behind the cameras, despite Russell's audience still, to this day, repeatedly asking for Gareth to return.
	They are still asking for him to come back.
	Of course!
	Because it's better!
	But there's gotta be a reason that we do not know, and I'm dying with curiosity about that.
	That's...
	There's a part of me that wonders if it's something as simple as taking too much of the focus off of Russell.
	I don't know.
	It was post-allegation, so there's got to be a practical reason.
	I don't think it's that.
	Or maybe, yeah, Russell just likes it.
	I guess that's possible, but he also likes abusing people.
	That's true, that's true.
	He can get away with less of that with Gareth, though.
	Gareth has been there for too long.
	Gareth has been working with Russell since 2007. There's only a certain amount he can get away with.
	Less guilt!
	He's more capable!
	Listen, that's...
	Hey!
	That's just weird.
	I just want to know why.
	I just want to know.
	Yeah.
	But they don't tell us anything because they're not honest people.
	Oh, man.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Now, one thing that grabbed me about this clip is back in September of 2022, a mere two and a bit years ago, when someone in his audience suggests Joe Biden is the Antichrist, he has the reason to go, well, I don't know about that.
	And then I think back to the last few months of episodes in 2024, where the government is controlled by a satanic cabal, and the legacy media are engaging in a Luciferian project to take Russell down, and my oh my how things have shifted.
	He also wasn't talking about the Antichrist, he was talking about Christ.
	Like, it was a weird way to even address that, because he didn't know.
	I don't think he knows, which, honestly.
	I'm shocked by that he doesn't, I don't know, man, maybe it's the American who is inundated with, like, evangelical shit.
	So, like, you don't have to believe any of it to know the Antichrist rules, because it's in movies all the time.
	Like, it's such a part of our culture.
	Yeah, there is that.
	We do have less of the kind of Satanism and Antichrist kind of stuff foisted upon us as children in this country, so maybe that's something to do with it.
	But, yeah, I will say, like, in general, things at Stay Free with Russell Brand have changed at a pace where, like, I've still been surprised by events such as Russell getting baptized, for instance.
	Though, to be fair, even Russell was surprised that Russell got baptized.
	But it's been slow enough that I'm now looking at this same man from two years ago and being like, who the fuck is this guy?
	You know?
	Like, wow, this is quite the trip.
	Well, I mean, and it makes sense to, like, from a humility that he doesn't have about his religious moments, right?
	Like, you just don't know about the Antichrist.
	I mean, the stand, right?
	Stephen King's the stand.
	It's just Americans also could tell you the rules for zombies or vampires.
	Like, generically, right?
	We know, like, the Antichrist rules, kinda.
	Because it's in horror movies and stuff.
	So, like...
	It's weird that...
	About Randall Flagg.
	Yeah.
	Right.
	Exactly.
	And that's like...
	So Russell still was like riffing in a way that was like...
	No, the running man.
	You know what I mean?
	It's like a pop culture thing, right?
	And so it's...
	I'd imagine...
	I don't know.
	I also feel like his latest Thousand Yard Stare does have to do with learning about...
	The reality of what he's gotten himself into, like, what have I gotten myself into?
	The Christianity edition is kind of what Russell, like, that's...
	It is very interesting to see the, like, stark difference.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	To see him kind of further down the road of this journey that he's on.
	His scholarship, shall we say.
	Yeah, let's put it that way.
	Okay, so now we move on to one of the first segments that was dropped by the time that we started covering Russell, and that's him covering the normal news.
	Be warned, there is about to be a very loud bell sound.
	I'll try and mitigate it in post for our listeners, but it's very loud.
	Just so that you don't miss out on normal news, because you might be using us as your main news source now.
	You should be doing that.
	So here is some normal news for you.
	As well as, you know, some of the more, the kind of relevant information that we're going to be giving you.
	So here's some, what I call normal news.
	Elon Musk's deposition in Twitter fight has been rescheduled for the first week of October.
	That deposition means, like, he's going to have to do something under oath, but at his house, isn't it?
	It's not at his house, no.
	That's something that we thought earlier, but that isn't the case.
	Where is he going to be on the internet?
	Proper court.
	It's going to be a proper court.
	He's going to go to court, is he?
	Yeah.
	So that's going to happen to Elon Musk?
	Twitter lawyers, they're going to interrogate him.
	He's going to be interrogated.
	Bankers from New York and Edinburgh are set to flood into England after Kwasi Kwarteng, that's the Chancellor, scrapped caps on bonuses.
	Yeah, I mean, that's happened.
	I don't really know why it's just New York and Edinburgh that are the bankers.
	Why are bankers everywhere interested?
	Yeah, they can come from wherever they want.
	It's not limited to just them two cities.
	What that is, is like for a while in this country, banker bonuses were capped because there was a little bit of an economic crash in 2008 that some people say that they caused, but then they were bailed out by the government, which means that your money was used to bail them out.
	But now, obviously because we're on the precipice of an economic crisis emerging from the pandemic in the middle of a war in Europe, It seems to me the obvious way to nip this in the bud is to give some bankers some bonuses.
	Yeah, well, apparently it's hindering London's attractiveness as an investment destination.
	Is it?
	That's what it's doing.
	According to the Chancellor, it's hindering our attractiveness.
	So people are not coming here and investing.
	Because you can't get a bonus.
	They want a bonus.
	So there's a lot of people that come.
	They want to be bankers, but they want bonuses.
	That's it.
	They don't even just want to be paid the regular banking money.
	They want a bonus.
	So that's some normal news.
	Mm-hmm.
	Mm-hmm.
	The bell, by the way, I'm assuming you don't have that in the U.S., but that's just like a traditional kind of signifier of, like, the headlines.
	You know, the be a bell, read a headline, bell, headline kind of situation at the top of the show.
	Oh, it sounded like a church bell.
	Okay.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, basically.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	We have that sound, but not, these are the headlines.
	Okay.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Not in the same context.
	Yeah.
	Would it be our like...
	Breaking news?
	Yeah, exactly.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
	Exactly.
	That kind of thing.
	That kind of thing.
	Oh, my God!
	Because you're older than us.
	So your news noise is older than our news noise.
	Yes, yes.
	That's fucking funny.
	That's fucking funny.
	Oh, dear.
	So, like, other than the very loud bell and Russell suggesting that his show is where people should be their main news source, a sentiment that I'm sure is still alive and well today, I didn't take that much issue with any of this.
	So...
	Russell pretty much recounted the thing about bankers' bonuses accurately, that there was a cap put on bankers' bonuses in the EU, not just the UK, in the wake of the 2008 financial crash.
	Not that bonuses were completely removed, I might add, just that there was a cap put on them, and said cap was a maximum annual bonus of 200% of a banker's regular pay.
	Okay.
	Poor, poor bankers.
	Okay.
	Yeah.
	Right.
	Well, one thing to note here is that uniquely Stay Free with Russell Brand came to fruition during the premiership of then Prime Minister Liz Truss, the lady who was outlasted by a head of lettuce.
	Like, which is...
	Interesting.
	Among the cascade of terrible financial decisions that she spearheaded, scrapping bankers' bonuses is one that survived past her premiership.
	And it was very much brought in as a kind of, ha, see, we're not beholden to EU rules, we can do whatever we want, and we're the fucking Tories.
	And obviously she then had to resign, and it was all eventually enacted by the Conservative government under Rishi Sunak.
	As for where that stands now, a couple of years later under Keir Starmer's Labour government, well, back in January of 2024, before winning the UK general election, the then-shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who is now Chancellor of the Exchequer, said, quote, The cap on bankers' bonuses was brought in in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, and that was the right thing to do to rebuild the public finances.
	But that is gone now, and we don't have any intention of bringing that back.
	And as Chancellor of the Exchequer, I would want to be a champion.
	I have a long list of reasons Rachel Reeves can go fuck herself, and this is one of them.
	Oh, and by the way, Rachel Reeves also just happens to have formerly worked for the Bank of England and later HBOS, one of the big banks provably responsible for causing the 2008 financial crash in the first place.
	Wouldn't the cap, ma'am, the cap, but she's...
	Okay, none of those thoughts had anything to do with each other, because she said that caps were good to get money back into...
	Back in 2008, yep, they were the right thing to do.
	They were the right thing to do.
	And for the whole economy, she wants to ensure that more money is going to go into literally one human pocket.
	And that will benefit everyone?
	Yeah, she's good.
	I'm sorry?
	Those were disparate thoughts that had nothing to do with each other.
	They were separate sentences.
	I'm so happy she's in charge of our economy.
	What do we do?
	Anyway, in terms of where Gareth and Russell stand, being against bankers bonuses, yeah, fuck yeah!
	And that may become a theme of this episode.
	Yeah.
	What are we talking about?
	A totally good point.
	Yeah, be skeptical.
	Correct.
	Yeah, well, this very first Stay Free episode is pretty carefully crafted towards the left-leaning portions of Russell's audience, and I think that's partly because he didn't actually know who his Rumble audience were yet.
	Um, so this is content basically geared far more towards his presumed YouTube audience, um, which used to be much more of the crunchy left wing variety for a good decade.
	Um, which is why like, you know, it's why even just examining the changes between stay free one and the show we covered in our first episode, which was stay free 120 is fascinating to me.
	Like, because it's clearly him finally like assessing where he is, um, in terms of the market that he's gotten himself into in the alt-right media sphere, like the process between then and, and, uh, and when we first started is, is really interesting.
	The changes.
	Okay.
	So yeah, so this is the first stay free on rumble is what we're watching.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	What was he doing before that, though?
	Was it just he was on YouTube?
	Just a YouTube channel.
	Yeah, yeah, YouTube channel.
	Okay, but same production, basically, or no?
	No, no.
	Like, the bits of it were kind of in place, but nothing is kind of big and fancy.
	No, it wasn't like a show show.
	Gotcha.
	Okay.
	Okay, got it.
	Oh, and another thing about this time capsule of an episode is that Stay Free 1 took place mere weeks before Elon Musk purchased Twitter.
	So there is that as well.
	Remember that, guys?
	Yeah, yeah.
	It's like only a couple of years ago.
	It feels like so much longer.
	Or eight minutes ago.
	Yes.
	Anyway, from here, Russell and Gareth get to discussing how politicians in general are likely to have done bad things when in power and describing Joe Biden as a vampire.
	Yeah, and like vampires, I guess he has also done a lot of things that are pretty bad as well.
	Yeah, I know.
	It doesn't look good, does it?
	What do you mean?
	Some of the potential alleged deals, Ukrainian energy company links, Chinese energy company links.
	Yeah, not to mention the actual political decisions over the course of his career.
	Do you mean sort of like sanctioning, droning?
	All that kind of stuff, under Obama, all of those things.
	I mean, there's a fair amount, isn't there?
	We can dig deep into it another time, but...
	Yeah.
	Can we?
	This is a news stream.
	We can dig right into it if we want.
	Yeah, do it now.
	If we want, we're doing news.
	We can dig into it.
	We can dig in.
	I guess what I'm saying is, yes, that's what politicians are.
	They are human beings, but they also commit some pretty dreadful things.
	The fact is, if you're a participant in a system of that nature, you will necessarily have been involved in the murder of...
	Thousands of people.
	That dude, Dan Carlin, who does Hardcore History, his brilliant podcast, let us know in the chat, let us know in the comments if you've checked that out.
	He would say, even if you were like a lovely old cuddly old president like Jimmy Carter, who was like, he was sort of like a nice sort of guy.
	He goes, that guy nutted off loads of people.
	It's just the way it is if you're going to participate in that kind of system.
	Look at Bush now.
	If you look at Bush now, he's like, oh, he's lovely, isn't he?
	He's lovely.
	He's just basically a painter.
	He's a painter and decorator.
	He's a very good one.
	They're selling him like that sort of afro-hair Bob bloke, you know, that does those lovely gentle paintings.
	That's it.
	What is he called, that bloke, that does those gentle paintings?
	Let me know in the chat in the comments.
	You know, that geezer, Bob, whatever.
	Bob someone.
	He's a cult figure now.
	Bob Ross is, of course, who they mean.
	Expert content farming.
	Yes.
	Right?
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Hey, would you like to...
	Please tell me the most obvious name everyone knows in the chat.
	Yeah, yeah.
	They did spend the next five minutes of the show waiting for the chat to catch up and then people responding it being like Bob Ross.
	Oh no.
	Yeah.
	So, few things here.
	Firstly, apparently Russell is a fan of Dan Carlin's hardcore histories.
	Though I question how much of it Russell has ever actually retained as information in his brain.
	Secondly, Jimmy Carter was brought up, which I thought was a little bit eerie, given that the dude died last week.
	I'm like, oh, that's a fun little thing.
	He was super, super old.
	He was super old, yeah.
	Yeah, he really was up there.
	As to the broader point that people in power will generally do bad shit, like, yep!
	Correct.
	No problems there.
	And, like, yes, mostly their time after leaving office will be a decades-long kind of campaign with the interest of having history view them perhaps a bit more favorably than it otherwise might have.
	Except for George W. Bush, who, yes, doesn't give two shits and is spending his time painting on his ranch rather than doing anything useful or positive with his power and influence.
	A significant portion of us have been begging for him to be prosecuted as a war criminal for decades at this point.
	Yeah.
	No, instead they fucking campaign with the Cheneys.
	That's what they do instead.
	Okay.
	Can I just point this out?
	As a dynamic.
	Okay.
	Because I bet people think that Gareth Roy is just an absolute fucking genius.
	Sure.
	He's not wrong.
	He can sound like he knows what he's talking about.
	Because he's like, oh, all these presidents.
	And if you have a bone to pick with Joe Biden's...
	Career as a politician, I certainly do.
	And I can think of shit off the top of my fucking head.
	Gareth can't.
	This is...
	Gareth punted.
	Yes, exactly, exactly.
	Like, Gareth is usually the one who knows things, right?
	That's his role as the series editor.
	You know, he decides which stories and which direction the show is going to be taking and all that, and yet when pressed on what negative things Joe Biden has done with his time in political office, Gareth is weirdly hard-pressed to answer and instead says, all that bad stuff under Obama, all those kinds of things, and then we'll dig into it another time.
	Now, you and I, Lauren, would probably be able to immediately say at the very least, like, he's a racist.
	Corporatist who spent his entire career propping up some of the worst elements of the right wing.
	Oh, and, you know, the whole busing thing.
	Oh, crime bill!
	Civil seizure!
	Yeah, I'm like, how much time do we have?
	Yes, there is an example.
	Yes, there are a lot of examples.
	I could go before I was born, babe.
	Like, this is...
	Yeah, yeah, 100%.
	100%.
	Things you can get just off the cuff.
	But with Gareth, because the critiques from the media space that Gareth and Russell already exist in amounts to LOL, look at how old he is, and LOL, look, he wears a mask during the pandemic, Gareth is floundering and has to pivot.
	Like, it's such a brief moment, but it tells me so much about the direction that these two are coming from, and Gareth's media diet specifically.
	I'm like, oh, okay.
	If you panic at the follow-up questions, you don't know what you're talking about.
	And listen, admitting that is fine.
	We're just saying like, oh yeah, they're all so bad.
	Okay, what are we talking about though?
	What are we talking about?
	Yeah, sure.
	That just sounds like...
	You left your knowing about stuff in your other pants.
	Nope.
	No, no, no.
	Yes.
	Yeah, yeah.
	I think, you know, when he comes prepared and everything, he can rattle it off.
	And he's got two laptops sat in front of him, and there is a reason for that.
	Fine!
	Also that!
	Yeah, yeah.
	Yeah.
	Okay, so I'm going to skip ahead to one piece of Stay Free that has fallen by the wayside lately since Russell's been in Florida, and that's Here's the Fucking News.
	I'm going to skip to the middle, to the point Russell's actually trying to make so we don't have to hear the annoying voice or the farting crow.
	We do enter instead to a video of then-President Barack Obama signing the Stock Act into law.
	And that's why in my State of the Union, I asked members of the House and the Senate to send me a bill.
	That bans insider trading by members of Congress, and I said that I would sign it right away.
	Well, today, I'm happy to say that legislators from both parties have come together to do just that.
	The Stock Act makes it clear that if members of Congress use non-public information to gain an unfair advantage in the market, then they are breaking the law.
	Nancy Pelosi.
	We were sent here to serve the American people.
	And look out for their interests.
	Yep.
	That's the basics.
	I mean, this is what politics should look like.
	But the ceremony should have a relationship with reality.
	Ceremony should be the performance of a set of values that are real.
	Rather, the instantiation of an invisible idea.
	We can't show you fairness, justice, but here's a ceremony.
	We're going to sign a bit of paper.
	We're going to tell you what it is.
	And then we're going to do it.
	But of course, it was repealed.
	The same act was quietly repealed in 2013.
	So when they're bringing it in, it's all can-can, legs kicking, lights flashing, fairness, justice.
	When they repeal it, nothing to see here.
	Out the front, look at me, round the back, where'd she go?
	That's the nature of American politics.
	It's a performance and it remains a performance to this day.
	That is why, in spite of this act being passed in 2012 and repealed in 2013, you have 20% of current Congress members owning stocks and shares in the companies they're supposed to be regulating at a time that we've just come out of that pandemic.
	We've got a weird president who looks tired and confused all the time and don't know where the exit is.
	And during this time, it's acceptable for people in Congress to own stocks and shares in companies they regulate.
	How can you oppose the might of Putin if the might of Putin is what we oppose?
	How can you oppose corporatism at all?
	How can you represent ordinary American people, the very things that are declared in that speech?
	How can that happen with these kind of stymie and inefficiencies?
	What we want you to observe on this channel is the difference between the performance of politics and the reality of politics.
	The fact that the things they say in public are the sort of things that should be happening kind of tells you that they know what they should be doing.
	They know what they should be doing.
	Okay, so again, we have kind of something that is kind of catnip for leftists in a way.
	Russell's main editorial is about politicians being allowed to own stocks, particularly among politicians who own stocks in industries that they're supposed to be regulating.
	Again, like, agree with the broader point here.
	You know, it's fucked up, shouldn't be legal, right?
	He is, however, wrong about the Stock Act being repealed in 2013. It was amended that year.
	The amendment modified the online disclosure portion of the Stock Act so that some officials can no longer file online and their records are no longer easily accessible to the public.
	The main provision that was repealed would have required about 28,000 senior government officials to post their financial information online, something that had been strongly criticized by federal government employee unions.
	A report by the National The National Academy of Public Administration from March 2013 said that the provision could threaten the safety of government employees abroad as well as make it difficult to attract and retain public sector employees.
	The reasoning for this change was to prevent criminals from gaining access to the financial data.
	The amendment also eliminated the requirement for the creation of searchable, sortable database of information in reports and the requirement that reports be done in electronic format rather than online.
	It was introduced by Senator Harry Reid in April 2013. And in the House, the amendment received only 14 seconds of discussion before being passed by unanimous consent.
	Amazing how quickly they can get something done when it protects their own interests.
	And then a mere few years later, everyone was really shocked when we had a president who wouldn't share his tax return.
	Really?
	Well, they're trying to do it again.
	They're trying to pass more legislation right now, actually.
	So call your senators.
	Call your reps.
	Because we desperately need more transparency.
	Listen, you don't have to post your bank account number.
	We just want to know what it is and the amount.
	Yep.
	That's not threatening anyone.
	Nope.
	There were plenty of ways to do this in ways that protected the people, you know, requiring to submit their stuff.
	But, you know, there is a way for transparency and safety to coexist in this situation.
	It's just they really don't want it to.
	They're like, nah, nah, we just, we can't, we can't.
	We have to do everything on paper and very slowly and behind closed doors and nobody can ever see it.
	And they're like, ah, okay, fuck you.
	Anyway, yes, I would say that in this first episode, Russell's broader points remain pretty much correct so far.
	In an unusual move, next up, they come out of Here's the Fucking News early, for reasons that we'll get to in just a minute, and now we discover that someone prominent has been lurking in the Rumble chat.
	I'm back from where I was just then, and we'll show you the rest of that, or I'll do the rest of that.
	In a little minute.
	You've been sending us some comments, and very good comments there are too.
	Chris Rumble, who's the bloke who started Rumble, Chris Pavlovsky, hi Chris, thanks for the gig and everything, says, Russell, thank you for trusting and switching to Rumble.
	Independent creators without corporate media control is the future.
	That's $100 as well.
	I wonder how he decided $100.
	Give us a bit more!
	Give us October's payment!
	That's what we want!
	I'm bankrolling this operation!
	Hmm, okay, so that's interesting.
	So along with his comment, Rumble founder Chris Pavlovsky sent $100 to Russell, which was later overtaken by a random user who sent $101.
	And we've otherwise learned two things from that clip.
	Firstly, Russell is paid monthly by Rumble.
	One would assume the payment is performance-based, but that's speculation on my part.
	Secondly, Russell was bankrolling the startup of Stay Free with Russell Brand, and what we're currently looking at is a wide shot of the Barnes studio, not including what's behind Gareth.
	And now in this shot, I can see at least five expensive cameras, 10 lights, one massive monitor screen, two smaller monitor screens, an auto-cue system.
	Gareth has two laptops on the go.
	Russell has his laptop.
	There are four crew members visible in this shot, not including Gareth, two of which also have laptops.
	And there are four mid-range microphones on the go.
	Not shown is behind Gareth there There is yet another camera and a couple more lights backlighting that green curtain.
	And if you'll recall, when we first started covering Stay Free six months later, they still had a credits roll at the end which featured 21 crew members.
	What I'm getting at is that even in the short term, this setup cost an absolute fuckload of money.
	We are into the hundreds of thousands easily.
	Nowadays, however, in 2025, the setup is comparatively bare bones.
	Post allegations, Russell made some severe cuts in terms of both staffing and production value.
	Very interesting.
	Very interesting.
	Again, like...
	I want to see what's in the contract.
	That's where I'm like, I'm fascinated by what the situation was.
	Yeah, I mean, the bit to get a bigger donation worked.
	That's what that bit was, and it worked.
	Yeah, it was effective.
	Dear, oh dear.
	You guys don't want to see what I'm recording on.
	You don't want to.
	Rubberman and Bubblegum, baby.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Wow.
	That's why that looks so good.
	Yes.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Look at the amount of money in that studio.
	That's what that is.
	Oh, boy.
	Okay.
	Yep.
	So from here, Russell brings on the first ever Stay Free with Russell brand guest, which I suspect is why Here's the Fucking News got cut short.
	It was a time issue.
	And the guest is a familiar face, someone that we have covered before on our show.
	Any guesses, Lauren, as to who it might be?
	Oh, no, I mean, what?
	There's a lot of choices.
	It's Santa Claus!
	You nailed it!
	No, no.
	That would have been our Christmas episode.
	Hello.
	It would have been.
	It definitely would have been.
	Alright, let's see who we've got and what they've got to say.
	Alright, listen.
	Why don't we pause momentarily this hysteria and silliness?
	To yield the floor, to cede to our colleague at Rumble now, whose show will soon start, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and fellow conspiracy theorist and right-wing fascist, it's Glenn Greenwald.
	Hello, Glenn.
	Thanks for joining us.
	Hey Russell, congratulations on your debut.
	Super excited to join you in our fascist project as part of the far right wing ideology we're now promoting.
	It's good to be with you.
	Yeah, it's good, isn't it, to get across all these conspiracy theories from the far right, like there's a kind of a corporatist movement across the globe to disempower ordinary people and to nullify democracy.
	These kind of right wing conspiracies should be marginalized.
	Glenn, what do you reckon?
	To that story about 20% of people in Congress owning stocks and shares in the companies that they're supposed to regulate, how does that prevent ordinary democratic process from taking place?
	How does it interrupt that?
	I think it's interesting that people actually do realize that there's an image of Washington that they're shown and then the reality of Washington that is hidden because both President Obama and Donald Trump won by pointing out that Washington is a fraud, that it operates through lobbyists, through money.
	Trump was saying all you have to do is write people a check in Washington and Congress and they call you immediately and do what you want.
	People understand that's the game.
	The question is...
	What can be done to change it?
	You know, people in Congress spend something like 80 to 90% of their time fundraising to keep themselves in office for the next term.
	And all they're doing all the time is talking about little tiny regulations that affect a tiny sliver of people who donate to them.
	People know this.
	They know Washington is a fraud.
	And I think this issue that you're raising of people in Congress owning stock in the very companies they're regulating.
	Is a very powerful way to illustrate that and to kind of raise anger, righteous anger over how this is functioning.
	Okay, so Glenn Greenwald.
	Right, that's who we have here, who at this time was just about to begin doing his own show on Rumble, having made most of his pivot over to the alt-right already.
	But I wouldn't say at this point he'd gone full shithead just yet.
	He's about 80% of the way there.
	But there was just enough sliver of kind of, look, I'm from a left wing, for them to be able to make that little joke about, oh, look, we're fascists.
	I don't think they could make that joke now.
	I don't think either of them would be able to.
	Or you're a fucking white guy in this, you can say whatever you want and be like, oh yeah, like totally whatever.
	You say it with an eye, that is so infuriating.
	That, oh, you just say like, oh, this can't be true.
	It fucking is.
	It also, hi, just is.
	That's, oh, that's what it is.
	It's what's happening.
	But you can be like, smug about it.
	And then it's not.
	Shut up!
	Oh my god.
	Yep, he's very annoying.
	Well, but I mean, but it's so disingenuous.
	It's fucking sinister because I still see quotes.
	I hear people be like, oh yeah, I made a great point because it's in this vacuum, right, of social media where it's just snippets of like, he should fucking know better.
	Yeah.
	Because obviously there are ideas in there that are correct.
	Okay, where's the disconnect?
	And no one can tell me but you, Glenn.
	It's your brain.
	We just have to sit here and guess.
	Yeah, I mean, I get the feeling it's down to his bank account.
	I'm sure, but that's the point.
	It's like, okay, he could be fine again.
	These people could be fine.
	So obviously it's money, right?
	Like, it's money and power and influence.
	Yeah.
	You do whatever you fucking gotta do.
	It's very frustrating.
	The Glenn Greenwald especially, because he can still say things that, out of context, are like, yeah man!
	In a way that a lot of these guys have melted so much that they can't.
	And it's just...
	It shouldn't be our job to pay attention to every single thought everyone has on the whole planet.
	To know who we can trust.
	That sucks shit.
	It's very tiring.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, and very obviously, he was wrong about the whole, you know, Obama and Trump won by pointing out that Washington is run by lobbyists.
	Obama won very much on like a hope and change ticket and all this stuff.
	It was a very different time in 2008, let's be real.
	Well, Trump won by, you know, the first time by racism, misogyny, and insinuating that he'd drain the swamp of the deep state cabal secretly running things and all this other shit.
	Nonetheless, Greenwald's larger point about politicians spending all their time fundraising and people being angry about that and, like, the stocks thing and the inaction of government.
	I'm like, yeah, those are all accurate assessments.
	Yes.
	Correct thoughts in your head.
	Cling on to those, Glenn.
	Please.
	We need to regulate so they don't happen.
	We need guardrails.
	That's fucking crazy to me.
	So the complaint about getting money out of politics.
	Obviously, the problems are motherfucking vast.
	And Citizens United, this is where we're at.
	This is the warning that we got from the jump.
	What I was afraid of before that happened.
	Before Citizens United, like, the devastation that people like me felt at the time.
	This is why.
	Because this is where we're at.
	People don't understand that, like...
	If you took, like, oh, what would that even look like?
	How could you take money out of politics?
	Regulating.
	And if everyone gets the same amount of money from the state to say, like, just picture, citizen, in your mind's eye, how much shit would not interfere with your daily life and be miserable and terrible?
	Political fundraising was not a thing.
	And you just had the state send out a flyer with everybody's pros, cons, this is what we say, this is their resume.
	You pick the one.
	You listen to the one debate, or however many debates we want to do, that everybody's here, and it's all even Stevens, and then you pick the one you want.
	Do you want me to remind you how it works in this country?
	Because we do it very much in that way.
	In terms of, like, campaigning, it's limited to six weeks only per election, right?
	Which is every five years over here.
	So it's six weeks every five years that I have to worry about this.
	And in that time, I think, like, the kind of...
	I think the lead is allowed, like, I don't know, like a quarter of a million or something like that.
	But it's fucking capped at a relatively low amount.
	It is a pittance.
	Yes.
	Compared to the money in politics.
	Oh, my fucking God.
	No, like, listen, listen to what you people did to me.
	Okay.
	The amount of times post-election, I've had to hear Americans say and be believed she only had 100 days.
	What was she going to do?
	She had, Kai Harris had no time at all to campaign.
	She had no time.
	That's not an argument.
	Come on.
	We knew that.
	Like, I knew that as, like, a far-off notion of, like, that seems a little silly.
	But not even that.
	It never even really occurred to me, right?
	Like, to question that.
	Because there's so many other things to question, right?
	Never did I think about that part of it of, like, six weeks is fucking fine, everybody.
	Yeah, our entire election cycle is half of that, 100 days.
	Hearing the news in the UK say people are exhausted, it's week five.
	And then hearing post-Trump election, everyone saying like, oh, she had no time to campaign.
	And I get that, listen, I get the system here is different.
	Sure.
	But it could just be easier and better and more fair.
	Like, it could also be that.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, and it's much more transparent over here.
	And don't get me wrong, the rules still get broken.
	There are still problems.
	Oh, Elon Musk is crying, which I would be terrible.
	I mean, I'm scared for y'all.
	This is bad.
	Don't!
	Please!
	Oh my god.
	Y'all gotta watch what's going on right now with your campaign finance shit.
	It's messy, dog.
	Yeah, yeah, not thrilled about Musk sticking his nose in over here, to be honest.
	Take it from me!
	It's not going well!
	Yeah, yeah, I'm not thrilled.
	There's a big conversation about that happening over here at the moment of like, hey, do we technically have a U.S. official threatening our country?
	Is that what's happening right now?
	Yeah, there's...
	Yeah.
	That's the thing.
	It's so bad.
	Guys, please.
	Yes.
	I'm sure when Russell eventually comes back, we will end up talking about it some more.
	Yeah.
	I'm sure when he decides to return.
	Maybe next week?
	Maybe not.
	Who knows?
	Okay, right.
	Let's see how these two advance the fascist project from here, but not before Russell publicly shames a member of his staff.
	With incredible auspiciousness and serendipity, it was just yesterday that we got a strike on YouTube for the sin of misinformation for talking about ivermectin.
	A word that we can say now.
	Ivermectin, we talked about it, we were somewhat inaccurate.
	We've pointed out a government website that said it was being clinically trialled and we said that it had been approved.
	And actually, I don't normally do this, but it was young Putin who works for us.
	He's one of the researchers and producers here.
	I'm beginning to think that this guy is a conspiracy theorist.
	He said, yeah, this is a good story, leave it in, and actually it's led to all sorts of complications.
	Anyway...
	It's Russian involvement, that's what it is.
	What was it?
	It's Russian involvement.
	Yeah, actually, Russian involvement.
	Perhaps you are Russian-sponsored media.
	That's what it's beginning to...
	Agent Young Putin there...
	He doesn't go out like Putin.
	He really does.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Strikingly.
	But that's just his face!
	He can't help it.
	He was born that way!
	Yes, yeah, he does.
	Like, there is a framed picture of young Vladimir Putin in front of this guy, and they do look strikingly similar.
	We don't need a picture.
	I mean, yeah.
	I don't need a picture.
	I'm sure there are plenty of people who do.
	Sure, sure, sure.
	He said young Putin.
	I was like, what does this kid look like?
	Oh!
	Oh!
	Yep.
	Yep, it's there.
	It's there.
	Anyway, Russell, don't be a dick to your stuff, particularly in front of a guest.
	The editorial decision to keep that story in that got you a YouTube strike, that lies with you and Gareth.
	Don't blame that in what is evidently three children in a trench coat pretending to be a producer and researcher.
	If you look...
	At the staff Russell's got working for him around this time, there is a consistent trend that most of them are really quite young.
	Like, at minimum under 25, some of them look barely 20. Now...
	Maybe Russell can sell it in the way that, hey, he's giving the young talent a chance to work with the big movie star and comedian Russell Brand.
	But the reality is that in the UK, there are different bands of minimum wage dependent upon your age.
	Back in 2022, if you were under 18, the minimum wage per hour was £4.81.
	If you were 18 to 20, it was £6.83.
	Ages 21 to 24 received £9.18 per hour, and then 25 and over received £9.50.
	And that's regardless of whether you're doing the same job.
	Incredibly fucked up.
	Okay.
	Remember the stuff I said about your elections?
	Good God, the whiplash.
	Y'all people.
	You motherfuckers.
	That's fucking crazy.
	Imagine how I felt as a working 20-year-old.
	The moment I turned 21, I was like, I get an immediate pay rise.
	Just for no reason.
	I guess, okay, yeah.
	I mean, I guess that, like, it's true.
	It's like tipping, right?
	Which I think I talked about on our last livestream was, like, tipping culture made just pricing my own work overseas very difficult because I was so used to it.
	Like, it was automatic.
	As, like, a factor that I didn't even realize until I had a lovely Swedish young lady look me in the face and be like, oh, okay.
	Man.
	Man, oh, man.
	Yeah.
	That's...
	Yeah, they're young.
	They're giving interns.
	They're giving...
	I assume free because they're interns, right?
	Like, that's...
	They're listed in the credits and everything, so I don't know.
	They're not listed as, like, interns, let's put it that way.
	Sure, sure, sure.
	Okay, yeah, right.
	But, yeah, like, if Russell was hiring people under 21 at this time compared to 21 and over, it would save him almost a third in wages, theoretically.
	And there's also the more obvious reality that people under 25 are far less likely to push back, stand up for themselves, and they're much more pliable as workers.
	Because in general, particularly in what is clearly a setting where they will be made fun of in front of their peers.
	And they obviously don't have as much experience.
	Exactly.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	100%.
	100%.
	The whole minimum wage bans thing, I believe the Labour government are scrapping that.
	I think within the next year or so, I believe.
	Um, but yeah, it's been that way since the, since the nineties, um, that there's, that's just same job, different pay.
	Cool.
	Yeah, absolutely nuts.
	I mean, the thing is, is like the reality of the situation is probably comparable as far as what you get paid versus your age.
	Kind of.
	I mean, like it probably shakes out somewhat, but to codify it in that way.
	Yeah.
	It's reliant on the idea that children and young adults should be living with their parents.
	I first moved out at, what, 17?
	So, you know, not thrilled.
	Technically, had I been working then, the minimum wage would have been $4.81 for me, whereas someone who was over 25 would have been getting double that for the exact same job.
	You know?
	So it's like, it's really difficult.
	And yeah, it fucking sucks.
	I hope they get rid of it very, very soon.
	Because it's just terrible.
	Are they going to bring it all up to the same minimum wage?
	Yeah, yeah.
	Up to the same standard.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Give us bananas.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Equal pay for equal work.
	Simple system.
	That's all you need.
	Obviously, a lot of industries that are reliant on paying shit wages to children are not thrilled about it, but frankly, they can fuck off.
	That's where I sit on that one.
	Well, that would be great.
	Obviously, they've been keeping it going for quite some time.
	Oh, yeah.
	Sure.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Wage by age.
	That's crazy.
	That's wacky.
	Okay?
	Yes.
	Sure.
	That is wacky.
	The U.S. is not better.
	The federal minimum wage, still January 1st, 2020, as of January 1st, 2025, and guess what?
	I doubt it's moving anywhere, is $7.25 an hour as minimum wage, which is 5.88 in pounds.
	And that's the hourly rate.
	If you are a service worker, I didn't even realize I was bringing this up, but as far as the gratuities, to factor in gratuity for service workers, so anyone waiting at table is $2.13 an hour federally, which is $1.73.
	Just so y'all's knows.
	There's a reason that wouldn't be legal in this country.
	I'm just saying.
	And you guys are going to be bringing all of the wages up?
	I'm assuming, or hopefully, let's say fingers crossed, right?
	Yes, no, no, that's definitely, that's what's happening, that's the plan, is that all of them will come up to reach the same standard as the over 25, and I will say, like, our minimum wage is...
	It's £11.44, right?
	That's your...
	It mandatorily goes up every year.
	Every single April, it goes up.
	Every single year.
	As do, like, the benefits are tied to that as well.
	Welfare is tied to that as well.
	Those go up every single year, right?
	All of them rise based on inflation and everything else, right?
	Planet!
	That's incredible!
	But anyway, I just wanted to point out that, like, so the minimum wage for 21 and up that will be for everyone was £11.44.
	And that is $14.11 USD. So that's just about under double what our federal and like a lot of state minimum wage laws have been changed.
	Not all of them.
	I think it was like 34 states or something as higher.
	That's not 50. And man, oh man, I just needed to.
	Yeah, that.
	Wow.
	Yeah.
	Good God.
	That is, yeah.
	Right.
	Yeah.
	There's fucked up stuff that happens in this country, but less than what happens in yours.
	It's wild.
	It's wild.
	I mean, yeah, you should adjust for inflation every year.
	That should just happen.
	And that kind of used to here.
	And it just stopped.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Right.
	Okay.
	So, we've got one more Glenn Greenwald clip.
	And here the facade falls a little bit.
	I wonder if what might emerge from free speech-oriented media are new political movements, new means of organisation, new ways perhaps even of transcending the bifurcations and divisions that are stoked by mainstream media.
	Because, Glenn, if the window has shifted so much, if even the ideas that seem central to the left and right just 10, 15 years ago are so sort of amorphous...
	And mobile, doesn't it mean that there's a possibility for a different type of populism, different types of alliances that can get beyond the divisions of the culture war?
	Have you seen anything that makes you think that's possible, mate?
	I think people are craving any kind of news or analysis or political space that allows them to understand that their enemies are not their neighbors, including their neighbors who have been led to think things with which they disagree, but are the power centers including their neighbors who have been led to think things with which they disagree, but are the power centers that are constantly trying to tell them and incite them I think there's a real craving for that.
	that.
	I think that's one of the reasons why you've built a gigantic audience, why I've been able to build a large impact and influence through platforms like Substack, where we are free to speak about those things and not have to be imprisoned by this artificial Democrat versus Republican or left versus right framework that gets imposed on everything.
	And that is sometimes applicable, but mostly not.
	And I think one of the things that we have to be aware of is that anytime anything gets created that is a genuine threat to power centers, the nature of power is that they will want to attack those things that are threats to them by demeaning and discrediting and then through brute force.
	And we've already seen that.
	With places like Substack and Rumble.
	And we're going to be seeing it much, much more as we continue to grow, which I have no doubt we will for a variety of reasons.
	There already are big attacks on places like Rumble for refusing not to de-platform RT when they're told to, for defending free speech instead of taking orders on censorship.
	And the more we're able to break through and reach large audiences, they're not going to just say, oh, well, good luck to them.
	Good for them.
	Glad to see that they're challenging and not undermining and subverting our propaganda.
	There are going to be attacks of all kinds, and I think the ability to understand that's coming and to prepare for it and to fortify ourselves against it is crucial.
	I see.
	So places like Substack and Rumble have been attacked because they're a threat to legacy media, not because they're unregulated pipelines for literal Nazis to spread their propaganda to unwitting audiences who don't know any better.
	Okay, Glenn.
	And of course, the idea of Glenn Greenwald, who now spends his time criticizing the left for being too woke, suggesting that the people are craving media that tells them that the enemy is not their neighbor, is...
	Fucking laughable.
	It's literally the whole game of the alt-right media sphere, and Glenn Greenwald participates in it on a daily basis.
	Yes, the enemy is a deep, shady, sinister cabal in media government, but also it's these brown people and these trans people and the gays and the Jews.
	Don't worry, Glenn.
	They'll be coming for you next, buddy.
	Whew, boy.
	Yeah, I don't...
	I mean...
	What?
	Okay.
	Yeah.
	Yeah!
	Alright, so Glenn fucks off, as back at this time Russell was doing sort of like 10-15 minute interviews on the main show, and then keeping anything longer back on the Locals channel for his, at that time, quite small Locals audience of hundreds.
	It's fun, they've left the viewer counts up so I can actually kind of see relatively what the situation was.
	In the next clip, Russell reminds us of some other things that appear to have fallen by the wayside in the last year.
	You know what we do here on this channel.
	In addition to the stuff we do here in the stream, in addition to the media that we disseminate throughout the culture, we do live events.
	We have an event every year, a community event.
	We've done it once.
	We had Vandana Shiva and Wim Hof appear live.
	If you want to learn more about that, there's a link in the chat.
	And also we have the Stay Free Foundation where we make regular donations with your money that we raise from, you know, stuff you give us through the merchandise primarily.
	primarily, if you buy a little bit of merchandise, any money that we make goes to helping people with addiction issues and mental health issues.
	I hasten to add people that are active drug addicts.
	We don't just give them $20 or $30, like dear old Chris from Rumble sending us £100 less than a normal person.
	We give them if they're trying to get off drugs.
	We're very clear about that, isn't it, Gal?
	Very clear, yeah.
	If you're on drugs, we're not giving you any money.
	If you're off drugs, have a little bit of money.
	So, Russell's Community Festival didn't happen in 2024, though curiously, you are able to buy tickets to Community 2025, with the location still TBD. Me thinks if it happens at all, it won't be in the UK anymore, but the tickets are still being sold in British currency of pound sterling, so who knows.
	I just get the feeling it would take a lot for Russell to make his way back to Blighty within the next year, you know?
	Well, is it gonna be Florida?
	Possibly.
	I mean, like, we have established, you know, like, most of his audience are American.
	It would make more sense to do it there, frankly.
	Like, now.
	But, yeah.
	What it'll look like, I have no idea.
	And who's gonna show up?
	Yeah, right?
	Right?
	Who are the speakers gonna be?
	Yeah.
	All right.
	Okay.
	As for the Stay Free Foundation, this was Russell's charity that came under investigation by the UK's Charity Commission after all the allegations against Russell came out.
	I couldn't find any particular updates on the investigation itself anywhere, but if I look on the UK Register of Charities, the Stay Free Foundation is now a removed charity, meaning it's been removed from the register and no longer exists.
	The last data available is for the financial year ending June 30th, 2023, with the total income being £126,130 and the total expenditure being £52,353.
	And I'm sort of left wondering what's now happened to that remaining £70,000 and where that goes, you know?
	Okay, alright.
	Okay.
	That doesn't...
	Okay.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Oh, and running along the bottom while Russell was talking, there was a banner for people to watch interviews Russell had done with Vandana Shiva and Gabor Maté.
	Aaron Maté, Gabor Maté's son, was also repeatedly on Stay Free back then as he worked at the Grey Zone, Max Blumenthal's outfit that we covered in our first episode, though neither Gabor or Aaron have been on Russell's show since the allegations.
	Vandana Shiva has.
	So, that is a distinction.
	Okay.
	I think that's a pretty important distinction, genuinely.
	Yes, yes.
	No, it is.
	It is.
	Very much so.
	Because then she's going to show up at Community again.
	Like, that speaks volumes.
	Well, I mean, who knows?
	But, like, that's something to look out for, right?
	Yeah.
	Yeah, no, no, absolutely.
	Yeah, she was on relatively, like, within the period of a few months after the allegations and everything.
	Didn't give a shit.
	Alright, that says something.
	So, now Russell checks the comments section on Rumble again, and I think finally gets a glimpse of who his audience there actually is.
	Let's see what you've got to say in our new item, Fake Comments.
	Fake Comments.
	They're real comments, some of them, but some of them are fake as well that we've had to make up in order.
	I mean, there's plenty of real comments, but let's have a look.
	Can I just quickly have a look at what people are saying in real comments?
	Because I just want to see in case they're saying stuff that's interesting, young Putin.
	Look at this.
	Someone's just given us 20 quid.
	Amazing show.
	Who are you planning for your future guests?
	I love Glenn, by the way.
	That's from Skippy83.
	Skippy83, we're going to be talking to Vandana Shiva.
	We're going to be talking to Elon Musk.
	Elon Musk's coming on.
	Next week.
	Who else have we got coming on here?
	I'm not actually sure.
	I'm not actually sure.
	We've got all sorts of people.
	Get a list of that so I can answer that question easy.
	Who?
	Wim Hof.
	I said that already.
	Good.
	That's Raz Bomb.
	Did USA Bomb Nordstrom?
	Oh, Christ, so much pink.
	Oh, no.
	Jesus Christ, don't say stuff like that.
	You're mental.
	We love Space Cats.
	We love Rumble.
	Right, listen, you lot.
	If you're going to be in that chat, don't say mad stuff.
	It's not the dregs of humanity, like effing and blinding and using hate speech.
	Do you know that the starting point is basic acceptance and love?
	That's the starting point.
	That's where we're going to come from.
	I'm not saying we're not going to overthrow the government.
	I'm not saying we're not going to bring down the system.
	I'm not saying we're going to replace the corrupted and cancerous organs of a broken system with a new, enlightened, utopian set of ideals that will liberate us, that will allow progressive and traditional people to live side by side freely in fully autonomous communities, free from judgment.
	I'm just saying in the chat, say nice stuff.
	This is from Leon Kennedy.
	Buy XRP. People say all sorts of stuff in here, eh?
	Some of it might be like performance art or something.
	Right, you're a performance artist.
	I'm sorry.
	Sorry, that's the weakest excuse I've seen so far.
	If only it was performance art.
	For funsies, I'm going to send you a couple of comments, not even from the live chat, from the comments section, which is a little bit more tame, from a recent video that Russell put up entitled, What You're Not Being Told About the Syrian War.
	Russell knows?
	Okay.
	Oh my god.
	Yeah, yeah.
	So there's one comment for you if you'd like to read that out for me, Lauren.
	Okay.
	Oh.
	Great.
	Hello, everybody.
	Please don't clip this.
	All right.
	Quote from the chat.
	Oh, man.
	From the comment section.
	It's the Jews.
	It's always the Jews.
	Dot, dot, dot.
	No mystery here.
	End quote.
	Yeah, so that's what you're not being told about the Syrian war.
	And that's the comment on the video.
	That's the comment on the video.
	Yep, yep.
	Did not have to scroll far to find it.
	And that sparked off a little thread of its own, which prompted the following.
	If you'd like to read that out.
	So Islam is blameless?
	Allow some nuance in your worldview?
	That was, okay.
	Yeah, there's a question mark at the end for no reason.
	Yep, yep.
	And then, to cap it off, we get this gem.
	Okay, quote, The Jews who are not the Jews, Revelations 2.9.
	What?
	For anyone not in the know, Revelations 2.9 is often used to refer to the Jews as being the synagogue of Satan, implying all Jews are evil and satanic.
	I suspect Russell's audience haven't been hearing the whole starting from a place of love thing.
	What a fun time to get to read the quotes.
	Dog.
	Cool.
	What a cool job I have on this podcast.
	I didn't want to take all the good bits.
	Yeah, right?
	Well, I mean, it's weird that, like, yeah, okay, like, it's weird.
	The sensation of, like, yeah, of course, this is the discourse, you know, like, because discourse is so rotten on the internet, but, like, boy.
	Still don't like reading it into a microphone.
	Yeah, it's confronting.
	It is confronting.
	It's weird that it's also like, oh, fucking okay.
	You just glaze over it if you read it.
	I'm like, what are we talking about here?
	You're just playing rock, paper, scissors in the comments, but really dangerously.
	That's what you're not being told about the Syrian war, right?
	Good lord.
	Oh, and Elon Musk never did come on the show, by the way, for anyone wondering.
	I was wondering very much.
	Yeah, and Russell threatened it several times over the course of a year, with them clearly trying to organize something behind the scenes, and still two and a bit years later, Elon Musk has still never been on Stay Free with Russell Brand.
	Well, but saying that he was going to come on whenever they were doing all the Twitter litigation stuff?
	Yeah.
	Well...
	Yeah.
	I think everybody knows he just plays video games all day.
	But like, still.
	Seems impractical for timing-wise.
	Yeah, yeah.
	But there were several times over a period of months that he kept saying, oh, we're going to have Elon Musk on again.
	He's going to be on soon.
	But I'm saying, in this show, they're talking about how busy he is with something else very pressing.
	And they're like, oh, yeah, is it going to be Elon Musk, I think?
	Like, okay.
	Again, Easter Bunny?
	Fine.
	Whatever.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Exactly.
	Joe Biden's going to come on to defend his record.
	Sure.
	Yeah, right.
	Okay, so for the next clip, I'm honestly not entirely sure why Russell is bothering to talk about this, particularly because the point he's trying to make seems to be tangential at best.
	Now...
	This is a little British pop star named Lewis Capaldi.
	You might not have heard of him if you're an American person, but he's making a mainstream media appearance here and he uses some colloquialisms that perhaps don't belong in the realm of breakfast time.
	This is an early morning show.
	You can see in the corner of the screen, it's 8.59 in the morning.
	Lewis Capaldi, I don't know what kind of vibe he's on.
	I get the idea.
	He's quite a nice guy.
	He's outspoken and jovial.
	He's jovial.
	He's being jovial.
	We've got spirit.
	That's what he's got.
	And first of all, he starts off talking about the geezer, the anchor's hair, and then it sort of becomes, you can sense discomfort at the level of joviality and spontaneity, can't you, Gal?
	Let's have a look at this.
	Let's see, you've got great hair.
	We were talking about it outside, were we?
	They don't like that he's referred even to a realm outside of the frame of the show.
	Like, you can see, look, that's the mainstream anchor.
	You don't like that his hair's been referred to.
	The female anchor adjacent to him there, she's getting ready to comment.
	But you can sense, like this is an atmosphere that I've created on TV shows a lot, that you can create a little bit of chaos there with just a little bit of spirit.
	Let's have a look how it goes.
	I didn't see that.
	Well, you've got great hair too.
	Yeah, I see you.
	Oh, look at that.
	There you go.
	We're at the high five.
	It's getting a bit more anxious.
	Many of us now that are attuned to subcutaneous detail will be sensing that the spirit of chaos is about to emerge.
	Very rarely happens.
	That very rarely happens.
	Would you like a rim?
	Would you like a what?
	Would you like a rim?
	I thought you said a rim.
	She's gone for like a joke there, a sort of a dad joke.
	Well, get a room, you too.
	You know, like a safe little joke.
	But Lewis Capaldi has taken it to the territory of rimming, which at breakfast time, why not?
	Could be a worse time.
	Start the day.
	There you go.
	Go in there, go in hard.
	Why wait for it to be fragrant and fresh?
	Get it right in there with the yawning dawn.
	Lovely.
	Thanks.
	For the record, the female anchor there said, would you like a room?
	Like a room?
	Because that is another way to pronounce that in this country.
	And Lewis Capaldi, being Scottish, said, I thought you said, would you like a room?
	Uh, a rim.
	Um, yeah, Russell also actually, like, cut off the best part of that little interview.
	Why are we watching that?
	Why?
	Why are we doing this?
	Um, yes, especially at this point in the show, I would understand if this was, like, you know, right at the top.
	Like, you know, the silly stuff, the cover at the front, right?
	A bit of fluff, whatever.
	Um, but, like, especially, like, after a serious interview or whatever.
	Um, but yeah, he cut off the best part of the interview, where the anchors are, like, laughing nervously and then quickly have to pivot away from Lewis Capaldi, who was...
	Joyfully talking about rimming on national television at nine in the morning.
	And I think the point here is supposed to be, oh, look at all the legacy media being all uncomfortable and stuffy.
	I think that's what it's supposed to be, but it just gets completely lost in the source.
	It's just, let's make jokes about rimming instead, I guess.
	Also, Russell should know better than anybody that they can get fined.
	Right?
	If he's vulgar on TV, y'all will find him.
	We have regulators.
	Yes, yeah, yeah.
	I'm sure there were some Ofcom complaints about that situation.
	It's like, yes.
	Oh, dear.
	Anyway.
	Which is also boring, not funny.
	Oh, my God.
	Okay.
	I'm not trying to give notes or nothing, but Jesus Christ.
	Judging from what I saw, I don't think that guy's very funny.
	That's not funny.
	It's stupid.
	It's puka humor.
	Come on.
	Yes, yes.
	Yeah, no, that's fair.
	That is fair.
	Not his best moment, Lewis Capaldi.
	Or even just the subject.
	Listen, there are hilarious dick and fart jokes in the world, and I'm not coming for that, but come on, man.
	You're not being this edgy chaos agent by Mishearing a word.
	Come on.
	Why are we talking about this?
	Why are we talking about this?
	The bigger question, yes.
	So, from here, Russell effectively moves into giving an elevator pitch.
	He gives the mission statement for his show.
	What Stay Free With Russell Brand is supposed to be aiming at.
	OK, you guys, so today we've been talking about the spectacle of power, haven't we?
	The presentation of power and the reality of power.
	Do you think you have systems that serve you?
	Do you think, as Glenn Greenwald said, that what we really have are a set of deep state agencies that govern the true nature of power and incredible, tyrannical financial interests that pull the strings of apparent global organisations such as WHO, IMF, WEF? All of these things we'll be talking about in the future on Stay Free.
	with Russell Brand because these are the things we're interested in.
	Military industrial complex, mainstream media corruption, the pandemic and big pharma, and real values, human values, getting beyond the conflagration that we're continually confronted with between apparently separate communities that I believe have more in common with one another than we have that separates us.
	Whether you're a traditional person or a progressive person, whether you love Trump or love Trump, whatever you feel.
	You've got to laugh at that guy.
	You've got to love him, haven't you?
	Whatever you feel about mainstream media, mainstream politics, big business, and certainly whatever you feel about the cultural world, there is a place for you here to engage in honest, open discourse and to head towards something more truthful and more beautiful.
	To recognize that your individual awakening can connect you to communal awakening.
	That if we're going to change the world, we're going to have to change ourselves.
	We're going to have to do things differently.
	We're going to have to think a little bit differently.
	we're gonna have to form new alliances these are the kind of things we're interested in talking about on stay free with russell brad okay um yeah however you feel about the culture war you're Gotta love a bit of Trump though, eh?
	It does seem to be a prerequisite for his show.
	I do wonder how much Russell still believes himself to be a unifying force of awakening in the world these days.
	Because in the past year, we've seen him pivot to being anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ+, in general.
	He's working against reproductive rights for women.
	He's claiming all atheists to be satanic and amoral.
	And he's promoted countless conspiracy theories against migrants in the US, as well as being outwardly and obviously working in favor of Christian nationalism.
	And yet, I would bet money that if questioned, he still believes himself to be some kind of force for unification.
	I mean, well, like a beacon for change, right?
	Or whatever the beginning of the statement was, right?
	If you're like a pathological narcissist, you already have a delusion of grandeur and anything you do is the most important thing.
	And it has no...
	Connection to reality.
	Not to, you know, again, Goldwater rule.
	But maybe don't wear exactly what you're thinking and feeling on your sleeve and then build a company around it that exploits people.
	Yeah, he already thinks he's the most important guy in the world.
	And a number of people to make money have agreed with him and given him opportunities because of that.
	So, yeah, why would he stop?
	Because he already thinks that he's the most important boy.
	Yeah.
	This is what we get.
	It just keeps getting reaffirmed and reaffirmed.
	Yeah, like it's not going to stop because he's not.
	I mean, yeah, he already thinks that everyone should listen to him because he's the most right boy.
	What is really interesting to me is to see his kind of like capacity for aesthetics only in the clips that he still is like, he's struggling.
	Like he doesn't.
	I mean, he's obviously, like, bad at cold reading because he's not very empathetic.
	So, like, he's not really thinking about what...
	I don't know.
	That Obama clip earlier, like, and if you're listening, you know, from the Obama speech that they talked about earlier, just...
	Biden just, like, rubbed his nose.
	Probably because his nose itched or he had a bug.
	Whatever.
	Right?
	Yeah.
	He's a human body.
	Old human body.
	And he was talking about how there is pomp and circumstance around this one speech.
	Weird.
	And even that, analyzing that clip, that why?
	Oh my god.
	Oh, we're about to see a chaos agent here is also...
	It's such this shallow kind of understanding of...
	And this is a theme.
	I'm bringing it up because it's a theme within watching him react to clips, especially without Gareth.
	Or not even especially without Gareth.
	Actually, no.
	I think that he is more free to...
	Just waste time and fill space with the aesthetics of a clip because he knows Gareth has the meat and potatoes that we're going to be talking about.
	So he can just be like, and his goofy hair and everything.
	He can just look at just the picture that's slapping his eyeballs in the moment because Gareth has the real part.
	Russell has no reason to be accurate or useful.
	Or to know anything.
	To do any work at all, because he's got a Gareth crutch just right there underneath him.
	Paying!
	I mean, listen, if that's what you're paying for, great.
	But it's just really obvious that he's so surface level.
	It's all just bobbing along on the top, right?
	And he knows the pretty words to say to get people on board.
	He knows what to do and what to say just enough to get people to think that he cares about them and cares about what happens in the world.
	Because what is still as present as ever, I think to me in an equal measure in this first episode versus what we're watching now, is That the incitement for fear, panic, and anger by reacting to the news and current events is still there.
	And what's still missing is what to do about it.
	How you can gain agency in your own life and in your own community.
	It's underpants gnomes logic.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	And he says overthrow the government, right?
	Yes.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Stay with us and pay me money and then question mark and then overthrow government.
	Yeah.
	The question mark is doing a lot of work.
	And we'll have harmonious communities with no judgment of anyone.
	Wow.
	That's a tall order, Russell.
	Again, draw me a diagram.
	What does that look like?
	What are the steps?
	What does that look like?
	For you.
	And so he knows what he's doing and has been the whole time.
	And again, he probably thinks it's noble because he doesn't hold himself to a standard.
	I don't know.
	I was listening to what he's saying.
	I was listening to these clips and thinking how different it is to listen to an expert on any of my daily or weekly.
	News and information intake.
	Man, I get to listen to interviews with a lot of experts who the hosts ask follow-up questions and then those experts have the answers to those questions.
	And everybody kind of either understands what they're talking about or the hosts that are interviewing gain understanding, also presumably the audience.
	To then learn something new and then always, like, they explain the problem and then they're like, can you do anything about it?
	Yes, no.
	And then what can you do about it?
	XYZ. ABC steps.
	That's...
	Yeah.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	It's so different to just hear this, like, surface aesthetic, really shallow kind of, like...
	I mean, he's kind of being honest about it.
	He's just blowing raspberries at anything he doesn't like.
	It is interesting to see that he has to fill Gareth's role now, because Gareth isn't there, so he has to also know the stuff.
	He can't just be like, what a weird shit.
	Yeah, he has to do at least a smidge more prep before the show.
	Well, or somebody does.
	Like, yeah.
	I mean, and he.
	Who is this for?
	Oh, man.
	Yeah, it does.
	I think this very first show especially does feel confused.
	Which is the first show!
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Still finding its identity and everything else, right?
	Right.
	So there's a little more meat on the bone because we're going to get back to the second half of Here's the Fucking News.
	And after Russell reintroduces it, it cuts in at a random point talking about lobbying.
	Have a look at the rest of the item.
	Here's the news.
	No, here's the fucking news.
	Then we'll do a quick Q&A if you're part of the Stay Free AF community.
	See you soon.
	stay free.
	This spending pays off in major ways for deep-pocketed interests.
	Between the 55 corporations that paid $0 in federal income taxes in 2020, for instance, the group spent a combined nearly $450 million in lobbying and campaign contributions since 2015, which translated into $12 billion in tax savings and rebates for the companies in 2020. I think we're beginning to see the mechanics of how politics truly works.
	I think we're beginning to see what would actually happen if money was taken out of politics.
	It would fall apart.
	You wouldn't have politics.
	It would be unrecognisable.
	It's like has been said of Britain.
	Without the monarchy, it's not Britain anymore.
	That's what defines Britain.
	You take dirty money out of politics in your country, in our country, probably in most places around the world, you wouldn't have a recognisable landscape.
	You won't get the same people in it.
	You won't get the same laws passed.
	You won't get the same...
	It would change the world overnight.
	That's why they can never let it happen.
	Okay.
	I mean, I will say with the monarchy thing, that's what monarchists say, the people who want to keep it.
	That's what they say.
	That's certainly not what I say.
	But other than that, okay, reasonable, again, decent broad point.
	I don't actually remember the last time that he spoke about wanting to take money out of politics.
	And I'm thinking it's likely because in this year of 2025, Russell is one of the people profiting from there being money in politics.
	In just over a week, he's due to be speaking at Mar-a-Lago, ahead of soon-to-be president again Donald Trump.
	So that's going to be happening two days before Inauguration Day.
	and Russell- - Whoa, really?
	That's...
	Yup.
	Yup.
	Okay.
	Yep, that's a thing to look forward to.
	And Russell, earlier in 2024, you know, he was paid just shy of $70,000 for doing a 20-minute comedy set at an event for RFK Jr.'s campaign.
	And now, like, isn't it strange that Russell doesn't spend his time railing against money in politics anymore?
	You know?
	Like, yeah, okay.
	Well, but I mean, that also, like, he doesn't, yeah, because he couldn't benefit from it because he was in the UK. I mean, yeah, sure.
	That is...
	The thing is, though, is he still can.
	It doesn't matter if he does or not.
	Yeah, that's true.
	That's the most frustrating point that I think is the thesis of all of the shows, ours and everybody's.
	Boy, hypocrisy sure doesn't fucking...
	I mean, what Glenn Greenwald was saying, it just doesn't matter.
	He just got to say bullshit.
	That's the frustrating part.
	He could say whatever, like, whatever is going to be in the headlines, and he can say it, and there is probably not any blowback.
	I mean, the people that are giving him money, also, they don't listen to what they're saying.
	They just look at the numbers.
	Like, that's how all of this works.
	Yeah.
	It's a bonus, and it behooves them to, like, toe the party line, but we see that process break down between these individuals all the time.
	It just doesn't matter that they are working across purposes or talking across purposes because that's not really what their project is.
	He's not mobilizing anybody to make a community.
	He is victimizing people.
	He is exploiting people and victimizing them to make them afraid and angry.
	That's the whole purpose of his content and to keep them hooked in with the meditation shit.
	The whole drive behind his content.
	Maybe he doesn't talk about it because of that anymore.
	Or he just never gave it.
	What's crazy is he can mimic.
	He can mimic and represent a leftist worldview very effectively.
	But he's such a paper tiger.
	And I think that that is so instructive for a narcissistic kind of worldview and person is man on the surface.
	They can really seem woke and with it.
	And you just just ask follow up questions.
	Yeah.
	Ask follow up questions.
	And I think it's very illuminating really quickly.
	And if you actually all my personal, oh, well my real character personality and beliefs, I left him in my other pants, sorry.
	That's telling. - Yes, yeah, that's a red flag.
	That's a big problem.
	So in that regard, this is very congruous with what he's doing now.
	And it makes sense that like in order to fit into, wow, just a speech at Mar-a-Lago two days before the inauguration, like he has to get rid of a lot of rhetoric. like he has to get rid of a lot of I mean, yeah, he's just been
	he's been lab testing rhetoric for years at this point, and I guess he's passed muster enough to speak at Mar-a-Lago.
	Yeah, yeah, it's his first time, like, he has spoken there before, just when Trump wasn't there, but this time Trump's gonna be there headlining the thing, so it's gonna be, yeah.
	That's a lot.
	Yeah, no, I agree.
	I agree.
	That's a lot.
	It's fascinating kind of looking back two years ago and looking at this show where like you can see...
	Why the kind of leftists in his audience might have been convinced to come along for this ride, right?
	You can see there are enough kind of things in there to be like, oh, yeah, no, he's talking good sense.
	Yeah, he's just anti-establishment.
	That's all he's saying here.
	You can definitely see why some of them would be dragged along.
	I think less so now.
	I think a lot of those people have fallen away, I would hope.
	But, you know, it's the BoJack Horseman line of...
	When you're wearing rose-tinted glasses, you know, red flags just look like flags, you know?
	Oh, yeah.
	Oh, yeah.
	Well, yeah, but that's like the pastel QAnon.
	You know, I think that we all watched this happen years ago, and it's crazy to see.
	I don't think it's as much of a surprise in retrospect to understand that, you know, like, woo and guru worship culture is actually, oh, hey, guys, it's fundamentally authoritarian.
	That's if you're looking for like top-down controlling authoritarian structures, you need look no further than any religion with a figurehead.
	So I think these people were way more right for the picking than we realized and we weren't really equipped to protect our neighbors.
	And that's unfortunate.
	I didn't cut this clip because it's depressing, but at the very end...
	I'm sorry!
	I cornered the depressing market here on this show!
	How dare you!
	Thank you so much!
	In this here very first show, there is a comment in the locals' chat from Sensitive Hearts 25, I think it is.
	The girl who was struggling with suicidal ideation and all that stuff.
	She's been there from the very start.
	And I'm just like, ah, yeah.
	And she was telling a tragic story of domestic abuse and everything.
	Oh my god.
	Okay.
	Yeah, oh, the fake comments?
	Why was it called fake comments?
	Do we know?
	That did not make any sense.
	I think, so they had some fake comments on standby, I think, to try and kind of mask how potentially batshit their real comments might be.
	So they had some kind of fake comments that they made up.
	I know, but I don't understand why.
	Okay, all right.
	That's just a mystery.
	Okay, cool.
	Yeah, it's just not good, I think.
	Oh, yeah.
	And Russell's locals channel of Awakened Wonders used to be called the Stay Free AF community.
	The Stay Free as Fuck community.
	No mystery why they changed it.
	Awakened Wonders is better and more culty.
	So, yeah.
	Okay.
	Yep.
	Yeah.
	So let's continue the editorial with what will be an obviously shady move only visible to those watching.
	The 2012 law was passed with bipartisan support, almost as if they're the same, in the wake of a stock trading scandal.
	Yet in the nearly 10 years since it was enacted, no one has been prosecuted after it, even as many members continue to conspicuously trade.
	Pointless legislation.
	Despite renewed chatter about the importance of cracking down on legislators' stock trades.
	Come on!
	We're chattering about it!
	High-ranking staffers say the likelihood Congress will actually regulate itself is so low, it's laughable.
	How low is it?
	Like...
	God, that low?
	That's too low.
	It's all performative.
	It's not going anywhere, one Senate staffer told the New York Post.
	Proponents of legislation that would ban members of Congress from trading stocks say that Democratic Party leaders are stalling on the bill.
	Though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat California, claimed last week that lawmakers are finally ready to bring a bill to ban Congress from trading stocks to a vote by the end of this month, proponents of the ban are sceptical that that is the case, according to interviews with lawmakers.
	So, for those listening rather than watching, what Russell just did was change the sources he was reading from.
	Almost mid-sentence.
	So we started with the New York Post, and then in the middle kind of switched to truthout.org without Russell highlighting that change.
	At all to anyone.
	And please do bear in mind that Russell's show still goes out in audio format to every single podcatcher out there.
	So there are people who are just listening to this and assuming that this is coming from the New York Post.
	In this instance, truth out, like, they're a left-of-left, fairly progressive news organization that have been around since 2001, and actually seem to do some solid reporting.
	I don't have any ground issues with them, I will say.
	Though, obviously, in this specific instance, they are attacking the left from the left, which is the entire reason that Russell is choosing to use them at this moment.
	Well, all the quotes from their article, yeah, okay.
	There's nothing incongruous.
	No, no.
	But also, I can see the logo on the side.
	Yes, exactly.
	I had the luxury of visual cues as to who was saying what.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Because, like, yes, this is a story about Congress being able to trade stocks and whatnot, but Russell is very specifically trying to point the finger at the Democrats and just kind of leave the Republicans out of it, and using this little source-switching game as a means to do it.
	it uh it's transparent and shady um as though ah yes it's democratic party leaders that are preventing there being any action on banning members of congress from shady financial deals rather than it being a problem among the entire of congress or the entire political class as a whole um like oh no it's it's democratic leaders that are the problem like yeah it's almost like both sides are the same but also it's democratic leaders that are stalling at everybody um you know and this this is a game that he continues uh yeah well switching between truth out
	and the new york post it's not it's it's yeah it's not the atlantic in the new york times You know what I mean?
	Those are two very, very different sources that he's trying to build together.
	Yeah, they are also a problem.
	Maybe we should look at this from a class analysis perspective to understand what's going on and illuminate.
	Like, why are you just repeating pieces of shit with nothing else?
	Like, no substance or context or, again, like, calls to action.
	Like, there's...
	This is just a bunch of pieces of...
	These are just a bunch of thoughts in a bowl just all mixed together and they're picking them out.
	Like, that's...
	Yeah, yeah.
	This is bad.
	Subscribe to my Locals channel.
	Okay, so Russell ends the show after the editorial finishes.
	It just cuts off.
	But he did a little Q&A session with the Locals audience afterwards.
	So here's a little clip from that.
	Mind you, you're allowed to hire us, so it's the 33 Club.
	Question, can we join together, even just for a moment, to direct our force to refute the atrocities that are shared in the news with our collective power and consciousness?
	That's Heidi Bradley that says that.
	What do you mean, Heidi?
	That we sort of, like, as a mind experiment?
	Like, you know, because do you know that the Transcendental Meditation community, did you know that they've done this thing where they sat meditating in a room?
	I think it was in Chicago.
	You can look at the details.
	In fact, have a look, Will, young Putin.
	Instead of being over there advocating your Russian imperialist message...
	Have a look at this.
	The TM community put 400 people in a room, I think, and they just meditated, and the crime statistics in Chicago went right, right down.
	So perhaps you're right, Heidi Bradley.
	What are you laughing for?
	I'm not sure it was as simple as that.
	It was.
	Just sit and meditate, and then suddenly everyone stopped committing crime.
	Okay, mate.
	We'll see, won't we?
	It's a better show with Gareth there, goddammit.
	Good lord, Russell needs someone to check him on his bullshit sometimes, because this is, of course...
	Bullshit!
	Several transcendental meditation groups have been attempting this stuff for decades.
	Like, it's been going on a long time.
	Getting enough quote-unquote practitioners together in the same city over years-long periods to do meditations on lowering crime and whatever.
	And then they claim credit for the crime rates going down.
	Despite the fact that, you know, in the UK and the US and internationally, crime rates have been falling for many decades now due to a multitude of factors, like changes in policing and early intervention programs, and changes in the way poverty is approached, and also they're not being led in fucking everything anymore, you know?
	Like, it is not shocking, however, that a practicer of and proponent of transcendental meditation would believe that it can stop crime.
	I'm like, yeah, that tracks.
	Well, yeah, I mean...
	I've talked about this a lot, way more on off-brand episodes, so I hope I'm not taking that for granted, and especially with the episodes that we posted last week.
	I feel like I talked about this a little bit, but I touched on it because I have talked about it in previous off-brand episodes.
	is like the that visualize world peace kind of mantra from like the new age movement there was this um belief and listen i don't think this is necessarily bad on its own as a concept to visualize world peace to visualize like something better but one of the insidious elements of the new age thinking that has absolutely permeated our culture in a negative way is that if you just like vibe it out man if you just
	Manifest.
	It's, yeah, you're manifesting a better world or whatever.
	Like, no, we live in a goddamn society and we need regulations and policies and we need to, like, we need to collaborate.
	Not, like, in a second, you know, second floor yoga studio that costs 45 bucks to get your fucking toe in the door.
	Like, no, this, that's not where this is happening.
	You were, everybody was still like.
	Readily and enthusiastically participating in oppressive capitalism the whole time.
	Like, this is...
	And just getting, like, placated because...
	And that's what, again, by an authority figure that was telling you to not act, just think and feel by yourself.
	That's a serious problem because it was such an undermining force in, you know, like...
	Hippies were getting shit done.
	Some, some of them in the 60s and 70s.
	And we don't need to wonder why all that.
	There's a lot of reasons why we are disconnected from community today.
	But one of them comes from new age meditation bullshit, thinking that you are changing the world by thinking good thoughts by yourself.
	That's the meditation I'm not here for.
	Yeah.
	That's a dream that you are participating in a fake mind palace you are making for yourself by thinking you are improving the world around you by thinking nicely and not having any bad thoughts by yourself in your house or with a group of other people in swishy pants.
	that's it may be very rainbow rhythms, but it's not going to change the crime stats.
	And like, it's I mean, even, you know, it's really interesting to revisit their energy, right?
	The Russell Gareth energy here because, yeah, Russell could just say, like, Russell can cold read the segment and guess, and he can either be on the right track or completely wrong.
	And, like, would he just, like, just, he pulled that fun little anecdote, right?
	About Chris.
	That's amazing.
	Did you not notice the crime rate dropped drastically in your city, Lauren?
	Well, I'm sure they're talking about TM is probably the 90s.
	And I mean, God, whatever.
	Bless, bless, bless.
	But like, Garrett's like, I don't know.
	That pushback is, that's like saying that Ed McMahon was pushing back at Johnny Carson.
	They're two elements of the same engine making the show.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	It allows Russell to be as goofy and wacky and wrong as he wants, and it's just cute.
	You're not undermining his authority in any way.
	That's kind of what the similar rationalization that I've seen of coverage of...
	Joe Rogan experience, right?
	He's got a producer who's Googling stuff.
	Oh, he's got Jamie!
	Oh, yeah, Jamie, right?
	Jamie, look that up.
	Maybe you can't look it up in 30 seconds.
	Or maybe if you've got RFK Jr. on, he tells you to Google something very specific and then you end up at RFK Jr.'s own website and think that it's real.
	Right!
	And so that's the thing.
	It is the illusion.
	Again, it's the aesthetic.
	It's the illusion of pushback, but it's not pushback at all.
	Mm-hmm.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	I will say with the kind of TM stuff, I think the most recent one I found, I think, was 2017. It's still going.
	They're still doing it.
	I'm like, God bless.
	I'm sure.
	I'm sure they are.
	Oh, dear.
	And it's a boon for linen pants sellers everywhere.
	Yep.
	Okay, we've got one final clip here.
	Who's going to throw this lovely curtain behind me in the thrift store so I can get it for $3 to cover the mess of my bullshit behind me?
	We need these people.
	We've got one final clip here.
	Forget all my arguments, guys.
	I'm wrong.
	They're right.
	Yeah, we need them.
	And I wanted to offer some contrast, right?
	So what I've done is I've taken the closing moments from Russell's last show on December 19th, 2024. And Russell is about to play a trailer for his incoming 2025 content.
	Though before that, whoever edited the show accidentally left in what was an editor's note from Russell, which completely undercuts it.
	Nonetheless, let's take a look at what we have in store for 2025. And for anyone listening, I will explain it fully afterwards in case we miss anything.
	We will be back with live stream shows in January.
	Please stay connected with us till then.
	Get your Rumble Premium subscription ready because next year we are going to be bringing you a whole new show with a whole new flavour.
	Indeed, have a look at this trailer that shows you the new depth and breadth of content we'll be bringing you next year.
	You're going to love it.
	Then insert a trailer that's got bits of break bread in it.
	I guess...
	You will discuss who cuts this in the production meeting.
	Bits of Break Bread, bits of Mar-a-Lago, bits of the shooting range, bits of the out-and-about meeting people, okay?
	That's a trailer.
	And then put 2025 on it.
	Let's do that.
	So Massey, when you see this, get back to me about this.
	Okay, then we see that trailer and we're back.
	I read in this, it's called The Sacred in the Proclaim by Murcia Eliade.
	And in this, he explains how mankind's original condition was one of recognizing the sacred, making offerings sacred, the act of eating, the act of making love, the act of birth and death, all surrounded by ceremonial love that we now live in a profane world.
	I think the most exciting time I've ever been alive.
	To my knowledge.
	To my knowledge.
	And I can recall in this weird, never-ending, eternal, fractal spiral of reality.
	And so, but this is a relationship, it's a journey.
	I'm still getting to know my wife every single day.
	Falling more and more in love.
	And this is the same thing with your relationship with God.
	Brandon just said he's falling more and more in love with his wife every day, and I feel the same way, that I'm falling more and more in love with Laura.
	You're a brilliant wife.
	Lovely to meet you, Brandon.
	I don't know if you can really change yourself, can't you?
	You can't change us.
	Holy spirit.
	Holy spirit.
	We're going to jump in the ocean.
	Right, so it's cold.
	Ready?
	Yeah, why are you not getting in?
	What did I say?
	It's about as much as he normally makes anyway.
	In your name, you, Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn, mother, and the dead.
	Speaking of times.
	It's your will.
	I'll give Ed the strength.
	Stopped drinking and changed his life and made the boy again.
	You're seeing that this whole thing is kind of unfolded the way it did.
	I'm going to take it as a side from God to stop drinking.
	Well, that was a surprise.
	What a beautiful service.
	What a beautiful dress.
	You look so amazing.
	Congratulations, Annalie.
	Thank you for coming.
	Congratulations, Henry.
	For the love of God, a racial gaze.
	It's just like the sort of thing I would say.
	For the love of God.
	It's actually a good title.
	Make a note of that.
	Now, I believe there's an all-you-can-eats cookie competition.
	Oh, my God.
	This is going on forever.
	Yeah.
	Oh, there's more.
	Sorry we're listening.
	He's doing stuff.
	Shooting guns?
	Yeah.
	Nice work.
	See you at the tribunal.
	Mar-a-lago.
	You been here before then?
	It's nice, isn't it?
	I knew because there was Secret Service here.
	I'm very grateful to be in a double act as Mel Gibson all of a sudden.
	Come here, you.
	Soppy sausage.
	Stick to delivering the presents.
	Okay, Russell.
	Picking up poop on the street to protect the people and their thieves.
	We're all broken deep inside.
	Pick up the poop and abandon your pride.
	Okay, so...
	In order.
	That little trailer there for what we're to expect in 2025 included Russell explaining the book The Sacred and the Profane by Messiah Eliade to someone.
	No idea who.
	That, of course, being the book recommendation from Jordan Peterson.
	That's what that book is.
	Then him chatting with Mike Benz.
	Then a break bread episode with Christian musician Brandon Lake with a surprise cameo from Laura Brand, Russell's wife, who, by the way, owns...
	50% of the shares in Stay Free Media.
	Then Russell going into the sea in winter and speaking in tongues.
	You did in fact call it, Lauren.
	Ha!
	Haha!
	If you are watching the video, you will see that little segment probably made way...
	I mean, it didn't make more sense, but I was also just like, man, listening to this has to be the most disorienting thing in the world.
	But you also see me patting myself on the back because what did I say?
	Honestly, though, I'm still very surprised that the Shamala Hamala made it this...
	Because this has already been recorded.
	We're in post-Shamala Hamala time on the Russell Brand timeline.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, wild.
	We're post-SH. Yeah.
	I mean, he was making a joke, but we know how that goes.
	Yeah.
	I think.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	And then he immediately, he baptizes an alcoholic in that same ocean, is what he did there.
	And then he clearly crashed someone's wedding, like they were not expecting Russell Brand to be at their wedding, but clearly kind of ran with it.
	And then there's just a lot of Russell hanging out with strangers in Florida.
	Then he's shooting some guns at the shooting range with a former Navy SEAL. And then there are clips of Russell at Mar-a-Lago with Tucker Carlson and Mel Gibson.
	And I've not been able to find much footage of that.
	That was Mel Gibson.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Sat next to Russell.
	I forget how short they are.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	And then the whole thing finishes for some reason with Russell picking up dog shit while singing a song.
	And I'm sure there's a metaphor for his show in there somewhere, but someone more creative than me can think of that one.
	Well, he's just being a regular guy.
	He's such a regular guy!
	He's a regular guy!
	And he can make rhyming songs.
	So he's so lovely.
	Oh, look how lovely he is.
	He's taking pictures with the bride and groom at their wedding.
	Pulling focus.
	From someone's fucking wedding!
	What a dick!
	I mean, I don't know.
	We accidentally crashed a prom one year at a tattoo convention that was in the same convention hall.
	And that was dope.
	It wasn't the prom itself.
	Everybody was outside.
	Yeah.
	Pictures are probably still on my Facebook.
	And yeah, me and Brandon had a blast.
	That was...
	You watch a grown man tell the prom king, pick me up like officer and a gentleman.
	And it happened.
	And it was dope.
	We had a great time.
	Importantly, that's not someone's wedding day.
	That's a prom.
	They weren't footing the fucking bill for the party.
	Yeah.
	Listen, it wasn't the most expensive space.
	Yeah.
	Wow.
	Okay.
	Also, God, I've learned nothing.
	I've learned nothing.
	I'm trying to glean...
	Guys, and that's also...
	I mean, obviously, my commentary is like, I feel like I'm squeezing blood from a stone here as far as what to actually learn and take away.
	Because that whole little montage, I'm like, I'm gonna...
	Watch a dog poop cleaner, wedding crasher, baptizing ocean what?
	Yeah.
	Also, walking into the ocean in what?
	January or November?
	Oh my god.
	That gave me a visceral reaction.
	December?
	Nope.
	Nope.
	Even in Florida, no.
	I'm saying, that's what's also crazy, is like, is Russell going to stay for when it's really fucking hot?
	Because around March, it's going to start getting a little less snowbird-y, you know?
	He's been over since August.
	I know!
	It was hot then, but yeah.
	I don't think he's coming back here anytime soon.
	I think he's, in many ways, your problem now.
	Well, but that's like, genuinely, that's fucking nuts!
	He's been there since August!
	And he hasn't said, I've moved to Florida.
	He didn't come back for Christmas, right?
	That wasn't a thing.
	He spent Christmas in a fucking, what was it, a Waffle House?
	He posted a video of something, or an IHOP. It was something like that.
	We have enough violence in Waffle House.
	We don't need to add him to it.
	That's not fair.
	That's not fair to them.
	By the way, I also support the Waffle House unionizing workers, everybody.
	They're doing great work.
	It's incredible.
	It's also incredibly sad to see who's actually going down.
	But yeah, Waffle House employees are the...
	Have to deal with all the bad shit.
	Support their efforts.
	But man, oh man.
	What the fuck?
	What the fuck indeed?
	I just don't see how he's going to still stand out in this ocean of...
	The same dude.
	I don't know either, because he's there shooting guns now and all this stuff.
	There was a clip from another social media post he put up around the time he went to Mar-a-Lago with Mel Gibson and Tucker Carlson and all this shit.
	And he says in it, like, oh, you know, a year ago I was, you know, not Christian and I was vegan and all this, and now I'm here, you know, and I was possibly more of the left, and now I'm here at Mar-a-Lago eating steak.
	And I'm like, yeah.
	Yeah, that does tell us something, huh?
	What are you going to do with your market share?
	That's the thing, though, is how is community still going to happen when he'll have two years of a massive...
	Branding change.
	I suspect if it goes ahead that it will pivot from being crunchy to being much more Christian.
	That would be my suspicion.
	And I think that's how he could pull it off in Florida or nearby.
	Yeah, and I don't know how well the Christian crunchy is going necessarily.
	But then again, I'm not really plugged in to that.
	We may find out.
	Yeah.
	It may be very much on the cards.
	Boy, a lot of that looked like Righteous Gemstones B-roll.
	Yeah, believable.
	Very believable.
	And for all of you that thought it was silly of me to say he wouldn't be speaking in tongues, or that said he was going to speak in tongues.
	Ta-da!
	Yep, there it was.
	There it was.
	And guess what?
	I'm not psychic!
	I'm a pattern recognizer.
	Yep, yep.
	And we've been on a journey for the last year and a half and whatever that we've been doing this show and it's going to keep going down that road.
	Also sad I'm right.
	Yeah.
	This is what it actually feels like to be right.
	It's a fucking bummer, dog.
	It's like, oh, shit!
	Called it.
	It's terrible.
	Thank you.
	Yeah.
	My celebration is brief and fleeting.
	And again, the surf is like, oh, good.
	Well, oh, sooner?
	Okay.
	Yeah.
	Cool.
	Yeah.
	It's, you know, tantamount to kind of guessing the correct answer to one of the puzzles from Saw as it chops one of your limbs off.
	You're like, oh, yeah, yep, yep, did it.
	Yep, yep, got it.
	Cool, cool.
	Done it.
	I'd rather do that, but sure.
	Yes, yes.
	I'll take it.
	All right.
	If anyone wants to support us on what we do, head to patreon.com slash onbrand.
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	It's theonbrandpod at gmail.com.
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	Whatever, except for where we're not.
	Look for the logo, everybody.
	And personal socials, I'm at alworthofficial.
	And if you click the old link in the description, you can purchase a magnet made with real live actual gold leaf by Lauren's very own paws.
	And we can send them wherever you like and they can attach to any magnetic surface.
	And also, live stream this Sunday.
	That is this Sunday at 2pm CST, 8pm GMT. Can't wait to see you all there.
	It's going to be super duper fun.
	And yeah, in the meantime, take care of yourselves and each other.
	Thank you very much.
	We love you.
	Bye!
	Bye!
	Who's dead this week?
	Who's dead this week?
	I've been deciding the last week, so you need to take back over.
	Oh!
	Oh, I mean Henry Kissinger's still dead.
	Yeah!
	Yes, he is.
	The classic.
	Still dead.
	Rotting corpse in the ground.
	Bye!
	Bye.
	That's not win-win-win.
	That's lie-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie.

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