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Nov. 15, 2009 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
44:37
1509 The Motorhome Diaries Interview - Freedomain Radio
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Hello, everybody. This is Stefan Molyneux from Freedom Aid Radio.
I hope that you're doing very well.
I am chatting with the esteemed Jason, Adam, and Pete from The Motorhome Diaries.
And for those of you who don't know about this, The Motorhome Diaries is a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio about drug use.
Oh, sorry. I think I may have the wrong version of that.
but it is a rambling freedom fest that is going around the country, talking to people about their experiences of pursuing liberty, sometimes outside the existing system, but sometimes within it.
And I've heard quite a lot about this roving band of merry pranksters and have been quite curious to hear their tales.
And so we've chatted a little bit.
We've decided to set up a call, and I really appreciate you guys taking the time out.
I'm married and in my 40s, so for me, 10 p.m. on a Saturday night.
It's not interfering with too many of my raves.
And as you can see by the lighting system, I look like a rather large albino thumb because I haven't really been getting much sun lately.
So for me, it's not interfering too much, but I guess for you guys, on a Saturday night, the party hasn't really started yet.
So I think that we'll try to respect that and get you out there in time for the freedom raves.
So I'm not sure who's going to lead off, but I guess my basic question is, You know, what is it, this journey that you're on, and how did it come about?
Was it a collective effort?
Was it one person who swept everyone else up in their enthusiasm?
But if you could tell, and please give your website, I think it's motorhomediaries.com, but give the website and your upcoming stops.
That would be great. So how did this all come about, and how long has it been going on, and what have your experiences been of it?
Pete, you want to take it? Yeah, sure.
This idea, it was, Jason's kind of an ideas guy, and we had, him and I, we had met each other at the 2005 Free State Project's Porcupine Freedom Fest.
Spoke a little bit there, but then we got to know each other through the movement here in D.C. We're both working in the libertarian think tank world.
We're both pretty much activists at heart.
We thought we could take the message of freedom from K Street to Main Street.
And like I was saying, Jason's kind of an ideas guy.
He's coming up with this idea. And at the time, we had, I think, a lot of ideas we could have gone with.
And this just happened to be one that we did.
So I quit my job to do this.
And then Jason and I hit the road.
The initial plan was to have a rotating third crew member throughout the journey, but we were fortunate to come across Adam.
He got referred to us from a mutual friend, Allison Gibbs.
We're just fortunate to have them.
So essentially, we go around, we point cameras at folks, our tagline is searching for freedom in America, and we actually ended a week and a half ago in San Francisco, but we're on the road for seven months.
We went 21,000 miles, we hit 43 of the lower 48 states, and we had planned to come to Canada a couple times, but because of an incident that we'll probably get into later, we were unable to do so.
And if I understand it right from reading your website, you guys did effectively attempt to go carbon neutral by not showering or shaving, is that correct?
Well, we didn't have a hot water heater on MARV, unfortunately, so it wasn't necessarily by choice, but we did...
There might have been a few nights that we didn't shower, and by a few, I mean 15, but we did what we could to survive, and it was actually all right.
We had 30 feet of space on that motorhome with three guys.
I'm sure Adam and Pete will agree that...
It's kind of nice to not be in that environment, but it was a great experience.
And really, there's little more liberating in life than showering by rolling down the windows when it's raining.
That has happened. A little bit, right?
That's the way to go. Sure, yeah.
If only we had a sunroof, this would be luxury.
So how did you find places to go, and how did you find people to meet, and what was the general reception, and all that kind of good stuff?
Let me live vicariously as a guy who's been housebound with a baby for 10 months.
Let me feel the wind in my hair.
Hang on, let me get ready.
Okay, go. Well, this is Adam.
Essentially, we found people, I mean, Jason and Pete were in the World in D.C., and had a lot of contacts throughout their previous work, and We basically bumped around, helped meetups through Facebook, and just went along there, meaning, like, Living on the Rock, other organizations, and meetup groups, and using contacts with our own friends.
And the reception, I think, was great all around.
So the general pattern, I'm sorry to interrupt, the general pattern was you would roll into town.
A group of nurses would give you sponge baths.
And then you would mix among the civilized washed.
And so what would generally happen when you'd roll into town?
You'd have a group there to meet you and what would go down from there?
It wasn't always nurses.
Sometimes it would be doctors, fully licensed doctors.
But yeah, I mean, different things would happen in different cities.
Sometimes people would give us a tour of the area.
We would always have a good point person on the ground who would help bring in local folks.
And we'd have what's called a meet-up, which is just an excuse to drink with pro-freedom individuals.
And get to interview, tell their stories.
If there were interesting people, we would try to score some interviews for the documentary.
I'm sorry, let me not interrupt.
Please go ahead. I was just going to say, when we hit the road, we knew there were a few things that we wanted to hit up.
Jason wanted to go to Liberty Summer Seminar in Canada, and we had an event in LA to make it to, and I wanted to go to Waco and Ruby Ridge.
But besides that, our schedule was pretty flexible.
We let folks know a few weeks ahead of time where we were going to be, try to coordinate.
But we did learn a ton on the road, so by the end, we had a much more efficient system.
We let folks know of our last three months of our itinerary so we could have More time planning with point people on the ground, getting the word out to local media.
We had folks helping us with all that, so we ended pretty strong.
I guess you have a huge amount of footage from this.
Are you thinking of putting it together, or is that the purpose, to put it together into a documentary?
Yeah, so Pete is taking point on that.
We're going to hopefully do a 90-minute feature-length documentary of our experiences.
We both have, like, two terabytes of footage that we've collected all over the country.
So, yeah, there's a lot to go through, but it was great.
We got to meet a lot of great people with the excuse of, you know, talking to them with a video camera in between us.
So we're going to do that.
We're going to do a book as well.
And so, yeah, we just want to tell these stories of the people that are, you know, out there in America that are trying to resist big Leviathan government and trying to stand up their rights.
Obviously, you had some idea of what it was you were going to, and this does remind me, not to date myself too much, but this does remind me a little bit of Easy Rider, right?
The idea of going to look for freedom in America and kicking over every stone to try and find it.
When you went out, you obviously had certain expectations, as we all do whenever we embark upon anything.
What met your expectations the most and what deviated from your expectations the most looking back on it?
I guess I would say we met a ton of good people, and I was excited to hear from all these individuals their different journeys that they made, what books, what speakers, what different ideas turned them on.
We could share their stories with other people.
So folks who may not know anyone in their area who has similar views, like who are self-described voluntarists or ANCAPs or something, they could, you know, form a community.
We would leave meetups or maybe people in the same town working on the same project.
And after we left, they would know each other.
There could be some synergy there.
Or we could connect them with folks elsewhere in the country.
So it's just really exciting to see all the different projects going on right now.
Yeah, if I could take a crack at that question.
You know, Pete and I, we thought it'd be a great idea to split the cost of a motorhome and hit the road.
And, you know, we had some kind of a game plan.
You know, we wanted to do meetups.
We wanted to do interviews. But the thing I was surprised about most is that just the folks are really wonderful out there.
I mean, we couldn't have...
We've done what we did if it wasn't for the people that we met with along the way, whether they opened their homes up, if you just made us a meal, let us shower, or were the point person for the meetup.
It was remarkable.
When we were... I mean, we were arrested in Jones County, and that's when we got on a lot of people's radars.
And, you know, bail money was donated for our cause, and, you know, people called the jail where we were at.
So, yeah, it would have been a totally different operation if it was just Pete and myself working alone, but we had a strong network of hundreds of people that made it possible.
Thanks, and just remember, if you're talking, to look into the camera, not the screen.
Otherwise, you look vaguely autistic.
And not in a good way. And an excellent driver.
And what did you get arrested for?
And what was the story behind that?
Because you look hardened.
You really do. And I'm sure one of you has full-bodied tattoos, which we can look at later.
But what was the story behind that?
We should look at that one.
I was going to jump in because I have the most tattoos.
Right, exactly. Yeah, exactly.
Being the most tattooed member of Motorhome Diaries, I guess I'll tackle this.
We were essentially arrested in Mississippi.
We were pulled over for having temporary license plates because Jason and Pete had just purchased the RV a couple months prior to that.
And the officer said that Mississippi didn't issue those cardboard paper tags.
So he pulled us over to look at it and essentially escalated the situation as we were pulled over.
He asked Pete to come out and produce all his state paperwork and then when I came out I had a camera and they didn't like that and essentially really wanted in the RV and like I said escalated the situation where he ended up arresting all three of us.
They had us detained for like 12 hours and then just ended up charging us with real broad charges like disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and Right, right. And...
Sorry, go ahead. And if I could add, the beer was unopened and in the refrigerator.
And this was in Jones County, Mississippi, by the way.
And the resisting arrest charge that Jason got was because, per the Supreme Court ruling, he does not have to produce government-issued ID because he was not the driver.
He was sleeping at the time he got pulled over.
And so he refused to produce ID. They eventually choked him and tackled him and pepper sprayed him.
And then Adam was arrested for disorderly for filming during the police stop.
And they deleted that footage.
And... There's a lot of places where they violate our rights.
It was clear that day who the aggressors were.
They were the folks with badges. We're just trying to hold them accountable.
And in what way did it...
What were the sequences around the escalation that you talked about?
Because they start off somewhat innocuous.
It's because they expect full compliance, right?
So they always start off pretty innocuous.
And then when they come across people who are knowledgeable about their rights, who are knowledgeable about what is acceptable and not acceptable in police procedure, they don't like it so much.
Was that the fundamental cause of the escalation, or was there something else?
Yeah, we have all this documented at jonescountysheriff.com, but I'll let Jason take it.
Yeah, I mean, Pete was the driver at the time.
The vehicle was registered in his name.
You know, the officer did pull us over because of the paper license plates, they said.
But, you know, so Pete came out.
You know, he's ordered out of the vehicle, produced every single piece of paper that he was asked for, did everything fine.
And then we were ordered out of the vehicle.
That's when Adam came out with a video camera.
We are filming an almost real-time documentary, and we film everything, including...
So-called authorities.
And so the officer told Adam to put the camera down.
Adam explained this is for accountability purposes.
When a second officer came up, Adam was told to put the camera down.
Adam politely declined, and then the officer ripped the camera out of Adam's hand, handcuffed him, threw him in the back of the patrol car.
And then after Adam was subdued, they asked me for the identification, and then they assaulted me after I politely declined as well.
So I have pepper spray in my eyes.
I'm sitting in the back of the patrol car with Adam now, and Then, you know, they really had nothing that they could arrest Pete for.
I mean, the beer that was in a locked RV, they found out through an illegal search.
And so... Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, I mean, all of these charges are bogus, so much so that we have a good legal team that came to our defense, and we were tried in the local Jones County Court, and we were found guilty, but now we started the appeals process, because we're not going to stop until there's actual justice.
The only criminals that day were wearing badges from the Jones County Sheriff's Department.
Well, it is something that I think is quite true that there are all of these supposed rights that are written down on paper that people are supposed to have.
But if you don't think that you have them or don't know that you have them and comply, you're not in any trouble.
It is only when you actually start to hold these cops to the rules that they claim to represent that you see the truncheons come out.
So, I mean, I'm obviously terribly sorry and sympathetic for what happened, but...
It is not at all unusual.
You're fine as long as you sort of bow and scrape and lick their boots.
But when you start to talk about the rights that you have from a knowledgeable standpoint...
Having copies of the Constitution or the Bill of Rights or whatever, then they get really pissed off by having those kinds of limitations.
It's almost like the rules that are supposed to restrain them are sort of red flags in front of a bull's face.
It just tends to anger them rather than restrain them.
They do the exact opposite of their intended purpose in some ways.
Right. And if I can jump in, I mean, so, you know, we were in a motorhome and they pulled us over.
At the time, it wasn't painted.
It was white, you know, looked rather ordinary.
But, you know, a lot of people don't have, you know, people following them on Twitter and know what's going on.
And so, you know, we think this is a very important fight so that other people can stand up for their rights and so we can really expose what's going on in Jones County, Mississippi.
Like Pete mentioned, there's a website, jonescountysheriffs.com, which is just filled with the stories of the out-of-control sheriff's department there.
And so we're going to keep at it.
I mean, we actually spent a week in Jones County when we went there for the trial.
And the people there are super.
A lot of them stopped by, shook our hands, gave us a lot of support.
A lot of people showed up to court that day to support us.
And so, you know, we owe it to them, you know, to get justice in this case and get them a better sheriff's department at the very least.
Right, right. Was that the only major brush that you had with the law?
The only other time, I mean, the problems we had were a direct result of this.
We tried to go from Vermont into Ontario.
We had meetups in Toronto, Montreal, Toronto, and Windsor, and we're going to go to Liberty Summer Seminar, but they detained us for five hours.
They brought a lot of our literature inside, which included some Alliance for Libertarian Left pamphlets.
They were looking at our website for a while, and it was funny 'cause the blog post that we had just written was talking about the arbitrariness of political boundaries.
So they're like on our website looking at all this stuff.
They held us for five hours, brought us into interrogation rooms, like pat us down, and they wouldn't let us have cameras, wouldn't let us have our firearms there, but for some reason they have those items there in plenty, and they're supposed to be our servants.
So anyway, they later denied us entry.
They first thought they were going to cite a, what was it called, Jason?
Right. Later, when we were in Detroit, we were getting a tour of Detroit, a driving tour with Paul Kersey, who works at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
And he was talking about how big government there pretty much destroyed the city, just pointing out things, showing public housing and whatnot.
And we took a wrong turn. They were doing construction.
And we couldn't turn around.
We had to go across the Ambassador Bridge.
So they were held for two hours on each side.
We put out a video on this because we were able to capture some audio footage, but both the Canadians and the Homeland Security on the American side deleted footage and, you know, essentially, like, tried to intimidate us and ran dogs through our vehicle.
And, you know, I didn't sign the form that said I would draw my...
They said, well, sign this form that says you want to withdraw your consent to inter-Canada and we'll let you go.
And I said, well, I didn't apply to inter-Canada.
And they're like, well, that's not what this is about.
And what it's about is me ceding that there in my authority.
And I don't believe that. So I didn't sign it.
And Ryan Maddox, who was riding with us at the time, wrote the word resist in the signature line, which was pretty cool.
Yeah, and it should be noted that they touched us in our bathing suit area, and the audio that Pete had running, it had the officers giggle about them having to frisk us.
So, not too professional, and so, like we say, you know, all those border checkpoints should be replaced with something that people actually want, like Tim Horton's coffee shops.
Absolutely. Something that the market would actually require because I'm sure as we all know, the government is the exact mirror of what everybody doesn't want because if they wanted it, it would be supplied in the free market.
They say the government reflects the will of the people.
That's nonsense. The government represents the exact opposite of the will of the people.
Microsoft and Linux represent the will of the people and Tim Hortons.
The government represents exactly what people do not want, which is why it has to be enforced.
But anyway, we're not here for my rants, but for your stories.
Is there more that you want to add?
Because I have some more questions as well.
Adam, do you want to talk about Michelle's Seven story?
The tax collector in Nashville?
Yeah, that's a great story.
Yeah, while in Nashville, we, through the social networks, got a hold of Michelle Seven, who is this A single parent of three who decided that the IRS sent her a letter saying, you owe a system out and if you don't pay us, we're going to come and take it from you.
And she just decided, you know what?
You know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to do nothing and ignore this and say, you know, she has the moral objections to paying taxes and so she's just going to take a fight with the IRS. And it's kind of inspiring.
It's one of our most viewed videos.
And essentially...
I think it's going to really help people if we can highlight it for people to lead by example and do some tax literacy.
And where again can people see that video?
It's on MotorhomeDiaries.com backslash 7, I think, or Michelle 7.
Yeah, Google search for Michelle 7, Motorhome Diaries, and you'll be able to find it.
It's often struck me as...
It's a tragic comic and something that in the future will be looked at with a vague, disquieting horror, that if you want to look at government working at the really abstract level, like if you want to go in here in Canada, you can go and watch a parliamentary session, you can go and watch a political debate, you can look at all the political ads that you want, you can read all the political literature.
if you want to see the you know the magician's slate of hand the quote civilized site side of government the debating and the suits and the formalities and so on then you're welcome to come and look at these things but if you actually want to see what the government really does and if you want to you know take footage of what the government actually really does in terms of you know the guns to the head or the hands in the jammies as you were saying well then you can't see that right
You simply can't lift the lid and look at what is actually going on underneath all the fluff and pomp and propaganda at the gun in the room.
And that's something that is, you know, the people who only look.
At the debates and the law and so on and don't actually see the thugs at the bottom who are pushing people around with guns.
They don't understand what government is and they do a lot to try and keep that kind of footage out of the public eye.
The whole experience with the Canadian border so-called authorities was Orwellian.
They wouldn't give names.
There was no name tags.
All they had was a number.
And so they would give you the number that they wore on their flak vest if you wanted to make complaints.
It was quite an unusual experience.
Yeah, and the lady we dealt with last who later turned our property back over to us on the way out, she said, I don't want to see my face and my name on YouTube.
And I said, well, you know, we're as individuals responsible for our actions.
And she's like, this is just a job.
I just work for the government. I said, you chose to take this job and you're enforcing the rules.
And, you know, we just pushed back quite a bit.
So it was pretty fun. Wow.
Yeah, so we obviously have strong opinions about the state, but our mission was to point cameras at the people doing wonderful things in the freedom movement.
The government chose to make themselves part of the story, and so we would take copious notes, we would audio record, video record every step of the way, and now they're a part of the story.
So I mentioned all the good guys, you know, the people in the freedom movement that we covered and befriended.
There's bad guys in the story, too, and they put us in cages and, yeah, violated our property and our person.
I think your audio is muted.
Okay.
Oh, sorry about that. So you said that you were on the road for seven months, and was it 21,000?
How many miles did you cover? 21,000 plus, right?
21,000 plus.
I think certainly what my listeners, the number one question that I would imagine is on their minds is, when you started out, how many bottles of beer were there on the wall?
Because that would seem to be quite a few.
And how accurate was the countdown as you went along?
I don't actually think we ever sang that song once.
We joked about it.
You're going to have to go and get that RV and get out there again because we need to know how many bottles of beer there are on the wall.
That's a good question.
We haven't succeeded in finding that answer.
We're going to have to go back out, guys. Actually, you might just want to go and count the entries along the road.
Sorry? If you want to join us, we can start a version now.
But seriously, people would start donating...
People would start donating money to Motorhome Diaries, and they would be like, you know, it's for gas and beer.
And I would always have to say, we don't really drink beer.
We find that liquor is much quicker.
But, you know, people wanted to make sure that we did have enough alcoholic beverages.
Well, and the problem is, of course, that if you run out of gas, you can't use beer.
But if you have really distilled spirits or absinthe, you can.
So it's a dual purpose with the harder liquor, which you just don't get with beer.
There was one night when it was getting pretty cold that we did buy a bottle of rum for heat.
That's how we got for five minutes.
Now it's starting to sound like a sailor's tale.
Arrr, wait around. Pirates and tattoos.
I won't tell them about the pirate competition.
Well, if we're Pete Leeson's variety of pirates, I'm all right with that.
Oh, yeah, yeah. And what was, if there was, and you probably each have a different one, or maybe it's the same, but what was one of the high points, or the high point that you sort of, the thing you will take to your grave about the trip as the best, obviously you've had the negative stuff with the state thugs, but the best part of the trip that you will take to your grave, what was that for you guys?
Or the best moment? I'll go first, I guess, to Adam.
I don't know if there's like a single to final one.
There's a bunch of great ones like Porkfest for the first time, being in Keene.
Austin was really cool. Nashville was awesome.
Our final meetup on the beach was great, so I got a lot.
I mean, for me, just the overall experience, like selfish side, personal side is the growth and just getting out there and seeing that there's a lot of activity.
The Liberty Movement's a lot more active than I thought it was seven months ago, which is essentially what led me to MHD. We're just wanting to get out of my corner in Wisconsin and just see how everyone else reacts or if they think the same way I do.
So, I mean, that was real encouraging and just the overall experience.
It's the whole thing. I can't just pick out one single moment like this was the best time because to me it was every day.
Yeah, I can't pick out a single thing.
It's just all the connections that, you know, we made along the way.
I have so many new friends because of that experience.
And so it was a great seven months.
Yeah, for me, I guess I'd probably echo a lot of what these guys have said.
We met great people all around the country.
If I had to point to one thing, I would say, well, for me personally, it was surreal going to Waco and Ruby Ridge, but just to document the harms that these folks go to and the...
Propaganda they proffer afterwards.
But overall, pointing to the Jones County incident, we had a lot of folks, you know, that some folks we didn't even know helped us out, you know, quite a bit.
And we got a lot of good notes and phone calls from people after that saying that that really emboldened them to stand up for their rights, knowing that that community was out there.
So it's really great.
It's really great. The Internet has helped us destroy geographical boundaries and get around government censorship.
So it's great to see.
Yeah, and I just wanted to mention that for the people who are listening in the chatroom, if you have questions that you want to pose to these fine gentlemen, then just type them into the chatroom and I will be happy to ask them for you.
On a sort of more personal level, you guys were, I guess, sort of like astronauts in that you were kind of cooped up in a pretty small enclosed space.
How was that on a personal level of getting along with each other?
As these guys have told me offline, Pete, they said, dear God, if he plays that Barbra Streisand CD one more time, I think I'm going to lose it.
How did you guys get along on an interpersonal basis for that extended period of time?
Well, the RV was small.
It was a 30-foot, but we like to say our backyard was different every day.
We lived in it, so we commuted in it.
It was our vehicle. It was our house.
We slept there, and it was our kitchen.
We made food there, but we would work from Starbucks or Panera's or other coffee shops a lot of time.
We'd be out interviewing folks or at meetups, so we were out quite a bit.
And did you guys use a GPS, or are you real men?
Or was the GPS the only female company that you had?
That GPS unit starts looking pretty good after a couple of thousand miles.
Hey, what you doing later?
You bet I'll recalculate for you, baby.
Sorry? You know us so well.
But yeah, we ended up using GPS towards the end of the trip.
But we call Pete Libertarian Terminator because you just need to tell him where the destination is.
He would calculate it in his mind for a few minutes and get us there.
So, yeah. It's a great man ability to be envied.
We have a question here.
How did you back up? Sorry, go ahead.
I was just going to say, as we...
The more time we spent with MHC, the more we figured out where our specific interests lay personally and where our comparative advantages lay.
So, you know, Adam was the best driver.
You know, Jason made awesome food.
You know, he did a lot. He had ideas.
He helped do some things, and I did other things.
So it was really great to see us working together as a team that way.
And I know there's a lot of that similar thing going on elsewhere.
I just sort of figured that at some point it's going to turn into that scene from the Jim Carrey movie, you know, what's the most annoying sound in the world?
Anyway, we have a question here.
How did you back up your video data from conversation by the next policeman?
Because I guess you were sitting on a lot of data and you were, I guess, concerned.
Did you drop off DVDs in the mail or how did you back that up as you were going along?
Oh, no, we sucked at it.
We had two one terabyte hard drives.
I mean, we were well organized, but video files are large, and so we didn't have time to back them up.
Anyway, long story short, they're fine.
They're safe now. Pete has a copy.
I have a copy.
But we were lucky nothing happened during the experience.
Was the bus new, or was it secondhand?
It was 2000. We got it off Craigslist, and they got a pretty good deal.
And how did it hold up technically?
We had AAA. Unfortunately, we didn't ever have to use it.
Before we bought it, Jason and I had it checked out at a shop here in Northern Virginia.
We got a green light. We got the oil change a number of times.
We had a money bomb to get new tires at one point and folks came through to help us out.
But besides that, we got through pretty good until the last few weeks when we got to the Pacific Northwest.
We started having some electrical issues.
We had to get towed a couple times and brought it to a shop.
A guy worked on it, and I think he's a pretty straight-up honest guy.
He just wasn't able to nail it down quite 100%.
But we have some friends out in the Bay Area.
I think Jason or Adam may want to touch on this, but we are going to have another mechanic check it out pretty quick here.
Now, when you crossed over from Canada to the United States, I mean, there are obviously many similarities, but some differences.
What were your major impressions of the differences in the freedom movements between the US and Canada?
I wish I knew.
We were not allowed into Canada.
Oh, I'm so sorry. You said that.
I apologize. I missed it.
Now, we call this the search for freedom in America, and by America, you know, we mean North America.
We wanted to go to Canada. We wanted to go to Mexico.
We had four stops in Canada.
But, nope, those dastardly border agents didn't want our heinous propaganda in their country.
But it's kind of funny.
The folks at the Liberty Summer Seminar had us Skype in and give our talk anyway.
So technology, once again, saves the day.
Yeah, I'm sorry. I was thinking that sometimes you get blocked one place.
You can, you know, take the roll of the dice and try another port of call, but that sometimes doesn't work.
Yeah, and if I could just add to this conversation, just like what happened in Jones County, based on the support we got, we have a legal team.
We have essentially a three-person, like, main-person legal team with some support, but one of the guys is a former law prof in Indiana, like a national expert on search and seizure, another guy's...
A former three-term mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, and another guy was the Ron Paul chair for the state of Mississippi.
So some good folks are doing this pro bono, and we did get contacted by somebody who works for an immigration law office in Toronto who offered to help us with this as well.
So it really shows the strength of the freedom movement.
So for anybody listening out there, I encourage you to go out and take risks.
I mean, like, stand on your morals, and folks will be there to help you out.
Fantastic. Now, how long do you think it's going to take to work on the documentary and the book?
Well, answer that and I'll ask my other question afterwards.
As far as the book, it'd be nice to have it done by March.
What we're going to do is we're going to divide it up into essays, not just Pete, myself, and Adam, but we would like for people that met us, had an experience with Motorhome Diaries, to maybe contribute an essay themselves.
We're not going to use intellectual property.
We're going to release it online.
We're also going to have a book that we're going to sell.
I'll let Pete talk about the documentary, though.
Yeah, essentially we put out a call on our blog.
We asked if anybody has the skills and the interest to help us with our documentaries.
So we heard back from folks ranging from college students to some people who have some real industry experience.
So right now we're vetting a few of those leads.
I know it's going to be a long process.
We have a lot of data to work with, but looking forward to putting something together that's solid because not everybody goes online every day.
Not everybody goes to YouTube, so getting these ideas out there in different mediums, we can reach new audiences.
Well, good for you guys for reaching out to the community for expertise.
We often, as a community, will try to do everything ourselves.
I know I've been guilty of that, too, but I think it's a really, really good idea for you to reach out for expertise People do love to help other people.
It's really the foundation of the voluntarist movement that people want to help.
They want to mentor. They want to invest in a cause that they believe in.
And unfortunately, a lot of people will try and do it all themselves.
So I think it's really, really good that you guys are involving people and giving people the opportunity to help out.
And is there a contact form if anybody who watches this who wants to give you guys some additional assistance in any of these ventures?
Is there a contact form at MotorhomeDiaries.com?
There is a link and a contact tab also.
If they want to send us an email, we'd love to hear from them.
But also, I just wanted to say that, like Pete said, we all have our own comparative advantages, and I encourage people to team up and work on projects together.
There's a website that we're all a part of.
It's fr33agents.net, and it's a social network for people who believe in freedom and want to act on those beliefs.
And what's next?
I mean, you guys sound thrilled and excited by this adventure, which of course is thrilling and exciting.
When you finish the post-production of the road trip, have you had any thoughts or discussions about what you want to do next?
Some sort of low-flying satellite buzz taking to the sewers?
What is it that you'll be up to next?
I think all of us are already trying to dive into summer projects, like Pete's heading up the editing thing, and Jason's doing a lot of legwork for the book.
But Jason and I are going to move a group of people from Southern California to New Hampshire coming up in March, and then to attend Liberty Forum, where then Jason and I will spend the rest of the summer in New Hampshire.
So we're already working on a few other projects, plus the post-MHD thing.
I mean, who knows where the wind will take us.
So you're saying, sorry, that you're moving a bunch of people from California to New Hampshire.
Are these people aware of that as yet?
Are you just going to sneak up behind them with potato sacks and chloroform, or is it something a little more cooperative?
Yeah, yeah. We're going to use an 18 van as opposed to the RV and just kidnap them and see how far or closer we can get them to New Hampshire before they realize what's going on.
It's like, trust me, you'll like us later, right?
Right, right. Everybody deserves to be free whether they want to or not.
Right, right.
The ball of tourism starts in just a few days.
Right now, not so much.
Stay tuned.
It's actually a husband and wife and then a friend of theirs.
They're all going to move.
They've already decided, got in contact with us, and then we've asked if we could film it.
They'll stop at organizations along the way and maybe attend meet-ups.
To state why they're moving to New Hampshire and why they feel that's the chance for liberty in their lifetime.
And Jason and I hope to be just behind the camera and just document these folks moving, keep moving their lives and the adjustment from Southern California to New Hampshire.
Right. And if people want to find out more...
I just wanted to say, if you want to find out more, there's a website that is taking shape at libertycaravan.com.
And it's a caravan, so there's like the three people that Adam mentioned.
But we want a bunch of people to drive with us to go to New Hampshire in time for the Liberty Forum on March 18th.
And who is it who said you quit your job to do the Mode Home Diaries?
That was me. I actually had been working...
I came to...
Jason and I had been working in D.C. I came there for a Cato internship and then worked at Institute of Remain Studies for a bit, but later took over the helm at Bureaucrash, where Jason had worked for some time.
And initially, they had backed this project and having me go as the crasher-in-chief.
You know, it was a good time, I thought, to do this because we had just launched a pretty successful social networking site.
There were a lot of Freedom-oriented folks getting together on there and networking.
So this would be a very good compliment for that.
But later, they ended up backing out and essentially asked me what I would do if they did back out.
And I said, well, I hope it doesn't come to that, but I'm going to leave because I believe Motorhome Diaries Has more potential than me staying here.
I believe I can have a bigger impact advancing the volunteer society.
And I haven't regretted it yet.
I know, I mean, we basically work from the moment we get up till we went to bed.
And, I mean, after a couple months in, I told these guys, I said, now I know why, like, music bands, you know, go on tour for a few months and then they have to take a break because we were working hard.
And we learned a lot of things.
Like, we have some knowledge now that if we do similar projects or folks, you know, we'll support in the future, we can share ideas and we can get all the logistics stuff done ahead of time, get your point person laid out and your media contact list and things like that so you don't have to worry about it on the road and you just shoot the documentary and drive.
But it was great.
It was great. Yeah, and I was just wondering because, I mean, as you guys probably know, I quit a couple of years ago a real job to do this crazy internet liberty stuff.
And man, oh man, you can't go back.
That's the challenge, right?
This is like smack.
You take a step over that line to actually doing something that you're really passionate about, where you're really free, really committed, where it doesn't feel like work.
You're so screwed if it doesn't work out.
So, you know, that's why, you know, I know it's tough sometimes to work on this documentary and so on.
But, you know, once you got a taste of that real freedom, you just can't go back, you know.
And so I hope that it works out because, yeah, once you take that leap, it's, you know, you think you're going to fall off a cliff.
You end up flying, but it still can be a little dizzying looking down.
So congratulations on doing that.
that, and I hope that you guys can get to continue to do this kind of fantastic stuff.
I mean, it is a meaningful life well-lived to spread ideas and have great conversations with people in the world.
I mean, you guys are like, you know, Socrates with air conditioning.
It's good stuff.
We actually did have air conditioning.
You didn't have everything.
You will never be able to sell that bus.
That is going to be the stinkiest bus on the planet.
I swear to God. That's going to be a worse bus than a WWF lower rung sweat fest.
It may have actually increased in value because we have hundreds or thousands of signatures on the ceiling, which is our guest book.
There's some pictures online of it, but a lot of freedom fighters we met along the way signed their names, wrote websites, wrote quotes, so it's pretty cool.
It's pretty special. I'd like to ask you if you could, because I sort of heard through the grapevine that you guys had heard my show mentioned from time to time.
And since I only really get to talk to people who end up talking to me about the show, if you guys had heard a little bit about Freedom Aid Radio on the road, if you could share a little bit of what you heard, that would be of great interest to me and perhaps to my listeners and perhaps particularly to those who've donated to keep it all going.
Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of people that would talk about a lot of things, but their influences and people would drop your name very often and be big fans.
I'm sure Pete and Adam have other experiences with folks.
Yeah, I just echo what Jason said again.
I take a lot of interest in hearing how people made their personal journeys, you know, both because, you know, I value them as an individual, but also because if I meet somebody in the future who is similarly positioned, I may suggest to them something that helped open someone else's mind and cause them to think.
And many times your name, you know, your show was brought up as being very enlightening for them.
So, you know, your show and Free Talk Live were probably, and like Mises and Lou Rockwell were probably the three biggest sources of, That I can think of.
And when my name came up, how many different ways did you hear it pronounced, just out of curiosity?
Sorry, go ahead. I interrupted you.
Sorry, go ahead. I would say a lot.
I'm not even going to try, because I've heard it so many times.
I've probably adapted a few, and I wouldn't get it right.
But I was also going to say that there's a website, too, that, a side product that has modern diaries for taking called the Evolutionaries websites, where people share their...
They're evolution to the ideas of where they are now, whether that's anarchist, anarchist, voluntarist, whatever.
But that's at evolutionaries.tumblr.com and people can check that out or maybe that'll encourage them to do their own video.
So people have mentioned your name there.
Well, that's great. I appreciate that.
Now, and if you can send me an email with all the links, I will put them into the video when I post it and make it available in the audio stream.
And I don't want to keep you guys up too late because I know that you'd like to be in bed with some warm milk by about 9.30, 9.45.
So is there anything else that you wanted to add at the moment?
Any other comments or memories or websites or anything else that you would like to throw into the mix before we close down?
No, nothing. And this has been a pleasure.
You don't bother me at all.
I've been playing poker online the whole time.
I mean, this is like killing two birds with one stone for me.
It's been a pleasure. Actually, we've been playing strip poker online, the two of us, which is why I'm not going to stand up.
Hilarious. Hilarious.
That's a bet. That's right.
I should probably stop before I lose the next hand.
Anyway. This is Adam, Jason, and Pete.
Thank you so much for taking the time, obviously the seven months, and thank you for taking the time to do it tonight.
The website, again, MotorhomeDiaries.com, well worth checking out.
I look forward to, with bated breath, your documentary and your book, and I do appreciate you making it available to people for free, and I look forward, if you can ever make it to Canada, be sure to come up, because...
My car needs some work on it.
And it would just be great to have you guys with all that experience up here.
No, you're always welcome up here any time you come by.
We will cook you up some good food and it would be great to sit down and chat.
So thank you so much for taking the time.
This is Sven Molyneux from Free Domain Radio.
And have yourselves a great evening.
And again, MotorhomeDiaries.com, well worth checking out.
Thanks so much, guys. Thank you.
Take care. Thank you so much.
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