#122: Ephraim Herschmann / Jamming / Learning / Free Speech?

0:01 Welcome to another episode of come together Hello, we're Live I. Didn't realize I was live. Hey everyone, we are back with another episode. Solo episode today, first one in a while so I'm back. Cheers. A bit of smoky Scotch, some ice after a what feels like a possibly long day. But here we are. And I got to say, I got to say I never really thought that the hardest part of the podcast would be getting people to just stick on schedule in terms of planning and timing and dates and recording times and stuff like that. Which?

0:57 You know, I mean all things. Considered there could be a lot more complicated and difficult parts of the podcast, you know, but things have been things have been absolutely bonkers beyond words in terms of busyness. School started up again, and so on top of the podcast and on top of being home with two kids under 3 and the sales job and exercising every day, you know, back to teaching for 2 1/2 hours, grading papers and coming up with lessons again. 9th, 10th, and 12th graders this year, which is really cool. And again, it never ceases to amaze me. But every year, this is a fourth year in a row, my students take me by surprise and just want to think that I don't want to teach younger classes. 9th and 10th grade have been really, truly awesome, smart, good, sweet, creative kids. They might be listening right now. They found out about the podcast, came up in conversation, I guess, and I told them that I'd rather them not listen to it in case you're listening. Because I think that I have a responsibility as a teacher to keep classroom conduct.

2:16 And then there is my own time, my own space, my own life, and that's separate, which I guess, well, I guess, well, that that would be the opening point. I love the circle back and the references and the closing out the podcast with, you know, circling back to the first topic. So I'll probably end up circling back and talking about my a little bit of my thoughts on this Jimmy Kimmel lunatic nightmare that seems to be going on right now. And not to say I haven't even decided whether I whether I'm for him getting fired or not, but I guess I just have some thoughts that I'm sure I'd flush out.

2:56 But yeah, I think that I think that now is a little bit it's a. Little crazy, it's a little, it's a little crazy. Life's been a little high pressure, like life's been a little busy, more than a little busy. And it kind of feels like I never even have two seconds to stop and breathe and be, you know, and, and I try to make and I make time almost every day to I think that my, you know, my schedule in general is just so packed that even if I make some time for the day to unwind or exercise or whatever, it doesn't compensate for the need to just be still for a little bit and let my head settle and let my thoughts settle.

3:39 And for the first time in literally years, probably, but literally years, I, I was driving for probably 20-30 minutes and I didn't put any radio on. I didn't call anyone. I didn't, I didn't even look at my phone. I just, which I shouldn't be doing anyway, But I just, I just drove in silence and just my thoughts in my head and the windows down. And, you know, this time of year in South Florida, you know, the the summer heat kind of comes a culmination of humidity and storm and rain. And that's actually what hurricane, hurricane season tends to happen, if it does at all, you know, on an annual basis right before.

4:21 And then and then, you know, all the rain and storms happen and then there's a break in the humidity and then winter happens. And that's the best part of it, of being down here for sure. Even though summer this year happened to have been pretty tolerable, pretty pretty bearable, I thought when I was in New York for half the summer that it was really just as bad, if not worse in a little bit of a different way. But yeah, so I, so I, so I've been, I, I needed to start just being, you know, just being, just to spend some time in a healthy place and to have some time having fun, which is something that it's crazy to say, but you have to like, you have to really schedule it in your adult's life as you become an adult.

5:10 Because even because our attention and our eyeballs are constantly being fought over, you know, our, you know, whether I guess not necessarily even our eyeballs, our ears too. But you know, there's always something happening and urgent that just requires your attention, whether that's a new show that came out, whether that's a new news story that broke on Twitter or whether it's a new podcast that you absolutely have to listen to. You know, there's very little time, I guess, for me that I really have that I really have for just like fun. And by the time, you know, and obviously a lot of my fun time is playing with my son and playing with my daughter, but and hanging out of my life, but fun in my own self expressive kind of fun way.

5:59 You know that, you know, there's a famous Calvin Hobbes where Calvin, you know, Calvin asks his dad, how come adults don't they tell me about like, you know, playing or whatever. And he goes, yeah, well, when you're an adult, it's not allowed anymore, so you may as well enjoy it now. You know, it kind of feels like that, even though I know it's not the case because it's really just up to me. But so the other, I guess about a month or two ago, I made more Now, holy cow, I don't know, time's flying. But I made I made a friend. I went to an open mic and I see a guy that looks, he looks Israeli. It's just a very distinct Israelis have a look. And then I saw he had a Hebrew word tattooed on I think his neck or shoulder and a Humsa tattoo.

6:45 And I was like, oh man, this guy's definitely Jewish. Probably. I mean, I've seen Jewish people with Jewish tattoos, tattoos as well, I guess, but you know, so you kind of make eye contact, you know, give each other like a little like what's up? And, and after I went to play, I went outside, have a drink, take a smoke. And he was outside too. And we started talking. He was with his wife and we all started talking. And then right before I was about to leave, he came dashing outside. It's like, oh, let me just grab your number, which I'm kind of happy that he did right, because it kind of felt like we both were like on a similar page as to, I mean, I'm sure you can relate to this. You anyone listening literally, you know, there's just people that you meet where like you kind of just have some good, some good vibes and good chemistry when you meet each other. And you can either let that kind of go or you could do something about it.

7:33 And I'm, I'm usually the kind of guy to let it go. I'm bad at two things I'm bad at. I'm bad a lot of a lot more than two things. But two social things in this context and I'm bad at is getting people's phone numbers saying, Hey, what's your phone number? Which I've been really working on and then, you know, just think it's not. I have to get over that in my head. And, and also starting conversations, initiating conversations. So I will say that I initiated the conversation just from my own just to make myself feel better. But he came running after me like, Hey, let me get your phone number. We should hang out sometime or at least come back to open my together and see if we could, you know, just just to have someone to hang out with because this was one of his first times doing it too. I've been here for a while, but, and he's a better, he's a far better guitar player than I am.

8:18 But you know, I mean, there's the performance. There's a reason why performing is an art or why, you know, it's a whole another skill. And and it's hard. It's it's definitely hard. You're making yourself vulnerable on stage. If you're not 100% secure, then everything that everything that you're insecure about seems to be amplified way, way more when you're in front of. People, even if it's just a few people. Just, you know, like you're sitting in standing or sitting on a, on a stool or on a, you know, whatever in front of a microphone. I know I don't have a particularly great voice. I don't know how I even sound. I can't even tell when I'm sitting up there what my guitar sounds like. I literally have no idea how I'm playing when I'm playing open mics.

9:04 And I could only, you know, base it on how I feel about how, you know, smooth or loose or organic, my playing sounds or, or my voice and how tight and stiff and, you know, my voice sounds because when you get nervous, or at least when I get nervous, I tend to speak faster. And when I'm singing, my voice kind of tenses up and you can really sense the strain. So you know, we both so. Neither of us are, I guess you know, well, he's a better performer than I am. I'm a little bit more comfortable, I would say at this point because I've, you know, I mean, I've done probably two or three dozen open mics at this point, even though I'm still not entirely comfortable and. So he came to me, you know, so, so we kind of been in touch every now and then.

9:55 And you know, it's a great way to practice my Hebrew, which I really love doing. And it's a great way to, you know, and to practice casual Hebrew because I come across biblical or I guess ancient Hebrew a lot more. Frequently on a daily basis. And I used to speak more, I guess, modern day Hebrew to with my grandfather who had passed away a couple years ago and with my mom sometimes. But short of that, there's not a lot of Hebrew going on in my life. And it's fun to practice. It also makes me feel like I'm kind of half on vacation or and I really believe that there's also another part of our brain when we when we switch languages, we shift that we shift the gears in our head in the way that we think in our perception and our even even our mood. Like I've noticed that when I talk to people in Hebrew, I just the flow in my state of mind is totally different than speaking in English. And you know it.

10:45 Obviously if you're not and if you if you do know, if you do speak more than one language and there's one language that you're more comfortable than the other, you know, like Hebrew, like I'm more comfortable obviously speaking English than Hebrew. I have to spend a decent amount of time actually working hard to even make the most casual conversation because all the words that I'm. That I'm thinking. Of that I want to communicate or express. I have to translate over in real time and it happens quickly, but it definitely has some kind of cognitive. Cost. In the sense that, you know, you're exerting effort to really just have the most basic conversations. And the more frequently that I talk in that language, the less effort it requires.

11:33 So it's fun to so it's fun to, you know, kind of be in touch with them a little bit. And, you know, and we're both, and, you know, so we we're both very, we're both very creative, very passionate about music and self-expression. I believe, you know, from what I've been able to deduce from hanging out and texting and talking, whatever. And, and last week he went to an open mic together and it was great. It was my first open mic in probably six months. It was his second, I think second or third ever. And he did great. I played a couple of songs. The first song I played was If You Want to Sing Out by Cat Stevens.

12:16 And that, that I, even though that's a song I was probably most comfortable playing out of the three that I played, I bombed it so hard. I just felt wooden and tight and, and my voice was bad and my guitar singing was bad and my rhythm was off and everything just felt clunky. And then I got to a song called Cold Cold World. I've been listening to a good amount of Billy Strings lately and he has this album called Live at the Legion, which I think I may have said this in the podcast before, but Billy Strings and Brian Sutton live at the Legion. They're actually just they're touring together now or they just played a back-to-back set of shows in I believe Nashville. But they're both just incredible guitar players.

12:58 And when they play together, they take a lot of old classic American folk, Blues, bluegrass, country tunes and cover them. But with, you know, the magic of the magic. You know, what's what's so much fun is about covers. And the reason why you see so many covers with great musicians is because you have a lot of your own voice and your creativity and your own style, and you're taking something that was already so good and of itself and you're kind of blending the two. You know, that's why I always loved, I used, I loved Springsteen covers. I thought he did a remarkable job taking songs and really adding a great little like rock. Not little, but great rock.

13:39 And. Emotional let you know, I guess, tone to them. The Grateful Dead, as I've said this before and I'll say it again, I'm sure I'll say it again and again, started as a cover man, you know, and all they played was just songs that they loved and they just had their own style of expressing themselves. And Billy Strings too, is a is a blue is a bluegrass acoustic guitar player. But you know, he can play. He he he play. He crosses genres all the time and cover and does incredible, incredible covers. So there's a great song by a guy named Blaze Foley, Texas kind of guy. And if you haven't heard his music, it's really, really awesome.

14:21 This song, the particular song I played, was called Cold Cold World, but Blaze Foley has BLAZE Foley. Foley has a bunch of amazing live and recorded albums. That was just like great acoustic guitar, just, you could tell that it was just almost like dripping with this, like this country, energy, country vibe. And I mean, I, I, I think, I, I think he's from Texas, but I, I don't want to speak without knowing for sure. I'm, I'm literally just starting to, to look into him, but you know, so I play, I played this song called cold, cold world and then don't think twice. It's all right.

15:06 It's a Bob Dylan classic. But I've, I've, I've been practicing. When you play guitar, you can either strum one time down or you can kind of pick and kind of play each string and let each sound kind of come to life. And it's, it's a totally different vibe and they're both great sounds, but they kind of let them, they kind of create different environments and atmospheres. So I played a little slower down version of that than I usually play. I usually played in the 24 waltz time instead I played it this time just has a very slow arpeggio peggio, something like that. But yeah. And then so, so this so that was last week and we had a great time this week. He texted me. He's like, hey, man, like, you know, if you want to go to open mic and go to open mic, but I would love to just jam together and maybe just, you know, play some originals, you know, show each other some originals hang out. I have my I have, I have, I have a, you know, we can hang out in the backyard.

15:57 Have a good time and just talk. And I came back and I was so tired from the whole day again. You know the schedule from, you know, waking up. You know, I've been rarely sleeping through the night because of my kids. But you know, you wake up, workout first thing, pray, work, find podcast guests, maybe record an episode, continue working, rent afternoon prayers. Min hum is what it's called in Hebrew. Come home, realize in a panic that I don't have a class ready yet for today or the class that I thought I had ready wasn't good enough for the students didn't like the one that I did yesterday.

16:37 So I have to change up what I was going to do and I only have an hour to do it, you know, And all of a sudden, Oh my God, you know, I got, I got to hustle. I got, I got to make and then I got to go and I got to teach for, for, for the time. Then I come home and put my kid to bed and I was about to bail on him and I was like, no, man, I just need to do this. I just need to, I need to go. I need to hang out with someone and, and someone that it's not even just hanging out with someone, it's someone that you know, is looking to share creatively and literally just like have fun, you know, and I was like, I'm going to push myself. I got to just go do it. Even if I'm falling. Even if I'm falling on my face. And I did, and it was so wonderful and the reason why I feel like why I'm even talking about this. It's because I know that I've been preaching or talking a lot about the value of embodied experiences and doing things with people.

17:29 And you know, an embodied experience could be a sports game, could be a bar, can we could be a brewery, could be a movie, could be, you know, jiu jitsu class, you know, workout class, Pilates, whatever you want to do, you know? But there's something I think. Really unique and cool and fun about making, you know, the early process of making a new friend or getting to know someone for the first time again or getting to know a friend for the first time. Because with a lot with a lot of people in our lives, I'm sure that we that, that you can relate, but they already have a we already have an image of ourselves.

18:14 We have, they have an image of us and we have an image of our relationship of what we're supposed to be the way we're supposed to act. And we kind of feel like based on who we're hanging out with, we have to like kind of we have to fill those. We have to, we have to fill those expectations. We have to meet them. And I think that's why people really, really feel like when they escaped, you know, obviously aside from a therapist, which is super important, barbers, you know, are. People that everyone just loves talking to or bartender, you know, or someone that like is in front of you where you guys have no prior history. You can be any person that you pretend that you want to be or that you really are and that you feel like you can't ordinarily be. Or you can pretend to be someone new, you know, and I mean, I don't pretend to be someone new.

19:04 I think it's a little psychotic every time. But I think that, you know, so I have I have friends with my relationship to them is the goofy dude. And there's some friends. My relationship with them is I'm this thoughtful guy that. We that you know, that we share ideas and books that we've read together and, you know, philosophical, you know, ideas about, about religion and life and God. And then there's some friends that I'm, you know, that I work out with and that I'm an athlete with. And there's some And so with, I haven't had any friends at this point in my life, at least that I became that I'm that I identify myself with and our relationship with as a musical partnership.

19:50 And it's so, so cool and unique. And I actually think that one of the things that I guess I'm really thinking these words for the first time in my life, but. You know, one of the, one of the benefits and values when people say of moving is like when you move, you change your luck and you change, you know, your circumstance is that you get to really do, you really do get to reinvent yourself. And a lot of times, especially with people that we've known for a long time, when you know, life is life is always moving, life is always changing, things are always happening. Our interests are always evolving and developing. And you know, people that know you in a certain way, at a certain point, we almost kind of feel boxed in to the way that we have to act.

20:35 You feel like we're boxed into the association that we have with and there might be another part of us that never actually gets to flourish and get to breathe and get to really express itself in and really embody itself in our lives. And that's what that's one of the amazing benefits of creating friends, of creating friends of going out of your way to meet people, of going out of your way to talk to your Barber or talk to a bartender or talk to. You know, you're a gym coach to anyone, you know, just like just the notion that like there's a, I'm sure that we all I know for myself, obviously, but I'm sure for all of us, there's parts of ourselves that we really want to access more. That we really want, that we wish we could just manifest and bring out more in our lives.

21:22 And when we don't either, that feels locked up. And, you know, it sucks that that's a really bad feeling to have things held back in like that, or it's suffocates and dies and just goes away. So I ended up feeling far more free, you know, that night. And we sat, we played, we played a couple of covers. We played some original songs that, you know, I mean, I haven't played in years or for anyone else before, not for a long time. And we talked about the backgrounds of the stories. We talked about different points in our lives, you know, a lot, you know, talking about different concerts that you went to or people we'd like to see or things you want to do.

22:04 And it was just like 2 hours or 2 1/2 hours of really just this freedom of me expressing myself in a way that I don't almost that for the first time in my life. Because I almost never ever, ever really expressed myself as, you know, the guy that's a musician, the guy that plays guitar, the guy that has that, that, you know, was learning about it and practicing and playing and being creative and finding his own voice with it. And, you know, and crossing over genres and trying to figure out, you know, where exactly my, my sound is. And it was such a magnificent experience. And I came home and I felt, and on the way home, I just felt so light. And it's like the weight of the world had just been, you know, just moved off me for just a little bit.

22:52 And there's something that I think that that I wish that, you know, first of all that I had on a more regular basis. But I really want for more people to have because that feeling of liberation and that feeling of this is who, you know, I, I can be more than what I am, then I can be my let you know I can, I can my life could be more than just a general trajectory that it's on right now is such an invigorating feeling that it just brings a whole new level of life and awareness. I think that it was really, really necessary for me to, to, to make it through, to make it to, to make it through the world, man. You know, I think that like, you know, I think everyone has a tough life. I think everyone goes through hard times. And I think everyone needs healthy ways to be able to, to, to, to, to, to go through it, to make their way through. There's healthy ways and unhealthy ways and for, you know, a long time, you know, it's easy to numb. It's easy to shove it, to shove these feelings. Down or you know.

23:54 Hide them away or force them into the pit of your stomach or somewhere else, or even try to work it out. Like to try to, you know, try to force it away by working out or casting it far off into your subconscious. But it can't be that far off. And it's always on the. Surface whether we're aware of it or not. So you know that was that was one thing The other thing that I think that I was thinking a lot about for today. I had a friend I have a friend Shuwa friends of the podcast, pretty frequent guest. I would. Say I think he's been on three or four times, although only once I think by himself. But he, you know, so in I get, and this is a Jewish concept that I want to elaborate on, but I think that is philosophically, intellectually, and as far as education and and values goes is something that's really, really worthwhile and worth thinking about and talking about.

24:47 So, yeah, I have especially in Judaism, you got, you know, the oral, you got the oral law, you got the written law. The written law is obviously very famous as the Old Testament or the Bible or the Torah, whatever you want to call it. And then the oral law is what's called in Hebrew Torah, Shabbat. So it means the instructions that were delivered from the mouth or. You know, through. Speech and there's and you know, at a certain point in Jewish history, we were forgetting Jews were forgetting the Oral Law and even though it was originally meant to never be written down.

25:28 Out of fear. Of potentially losing it. We did write it down and we didn't write the whole thing down. We'd write clues and hints and very esoteric, I would say conversations that we're, it's so fascinating because if you look at most of the oral law, most of the Talmud is what you'd call it, the Talmud or the Gemara. It's broken up into several different volumes in seven different books and ranging from category to category. And they're all cost referenced and they're all, you know, relating to each other, which in and of itself is really magical and amazing. But you know, it was written with the intention that to to, to constantly revisit it and the and the metaphor.

26:19 That I love to give and that I believe I've said. Before, but if not, I'll say again, is the equivalent, especially from from my teaching perspective, you know, we have things we talk about in class and then we have the homework that you give, I give and then you have the assignments that I give and then you have the textbook or you know, the source material and if you're a student in my class. And then I. Ask you a question. A lot of times I'm not asking you a question based on one specific thing. There's several different aspects or avenues of information that I'm including in my one question. If I say, what do you think of the song Father and Son by Cat Stevens?

27:01 Because he's learned about that song in class, or we did. Or today we did, Me and my uncle by the Grateful Dead. You know and. Excuse me. And I say what's happening in that? Try and just read the lyrics of the song, but you won't realize if you weren't paying attention to what we're talking about. You won't get what I was trying to tell you. You know, we looked at the mapping class and you know, so for example, the song me and my uncle's opens me and my uncle when riding down from S Colorado, West, TX bound. What? Where's West TX? Where's S Colorado? Are they close to each other? We stopped over in Santa Fe, you know, it was about halfway and. And you look at the map and you're like, oh, OK, I got it. And then you say, OK, well, this song is meant to be a cowboy song. And so where this guy's coming from is relevant. So while we're doing this, you know, while we're listening to the song and.

27:50 While we're following the lyrics, I pull up a map and we're looking at the map. We're saying, look, this guy's already like this guy is not some naive young kid, the protagonist in the song. This guy's already in the West. He's coming from the West. So it's more of an interaction between two Cowboys rather than than one, quote UN quote, civilian and one cowboy or one, you know, city boy and one cowboy, you know. And so now when I ask you about the song, I'm not just asking you about the song. I'm asking you about the geography that the song references to. I'm asking you about the characters. I'm asking you about what we talked about in class and how it relates to American culture, what the Western expansion was like.

28:32 It references the Grateful Dead and who were they to sing that? What? What do they enjoy about it? Where were they based? You know what, what's going on over there? So. Excuse me? So all this is to say that when you have the Talmud and then you have a sentence or you have a line or you have a quote or you have a conversation, you know, a debate, it's called in Hebrew machlokas, which means I guess a breaking down of it literally means to break down points and argue, which is probably the way the argument. And I mean, you know, and I don't even know if this is true. You always. I've always heard. Growing up in the Orthodox Jewish world that apparently lawyers helps, you know, the Talmud helps you become, you know, a lawyer because it helps you think a certain way.

29:17 And lawyers sometimes study the Talmud. And I'm sure there's truth to that. I don't know, you know, whether that's like a universal truth or not. But but I, but I believe it. I believe it because there's no, there's no word that can't be flipped over, you know, dozens of times that can't be cross referenced, that can't be, you know, talking about, you know, several different contexts all in one go, right. And you know, and I would, and I'm pretty, I'm pretty confident saying that, you know, most Orthodox observant Jews would say that, but that studying Talmud or Bible or the Oral Law is a pretty significant part of their relationship to the Judaism. It's not just the Old Testament in the in the written book, It's also the way to understand the written books and the Oral Law that kind of contextualizes everything, even though that in and of itself also needs context, right? So.

30:17 All this is to say that. What happens in order to encourage? I would imagine that in order to encourage, I don't know for certain, but I would imagine in order to encourage this, you make something called the seam or some little like celebration whenever you finish a designated portion of it. So you know, the Talmud is divided into different sections that you know, or different aspects of life that it's pertaining to, you know, holidays or laws of damages or laws of relationships or laws of personality. And then, and then within those broader categories, you have several different volumes of books and each book could, you know, ranges from generally like 1520 pages of information of written conversation or written text to, you know, dozens. It gets pretty, pretty meaty, pretty big. And what you do at the end, though, is when you finish a book, you know, you make, you finish one of the books, you make a party, you make what's called the Seam. And you have a, you have a meal and you're supposed to invite at least 10 men and it's considered a celebration. And you're supposed to have some wine, You're supposed to have some meat, some meat or some bread. And one of the and what, and the point that I'm trying to get to with talking about this concept is that the very first words that we that, that, that, that, that come out of your mouth is I'm going to come back to you.

31:50 I'm going to come back to reviewing you again. Meaning, just because I read this book one time does, that does not mean that I have the ultimate, you know, master. I'm not a master of the knowledge written in this book. And even though I'm celebrating that, I've taken a step along the way to understand the context of this book and understand the context of the bigger Jewish perspective and philosophy. I still have to go back and do. It again, because you know what? I understand things totally differently when I'm 29 then when I was 19. I understand things completely differently when I was 25 compared to when I was 29. And so if I were to consume information, if I were to read The Fountainhead by EIN Rand as a 14 year old, and then I read again as a 25 year old just graduating college, 22 year olds just graduating college and trying to figure out what to do with my life, it's going to have massively different implications and impacts on me.

32:56 And what's amazing about, I mean, and what I guess a lot of these types of materials discussed, the religious texts and materials are. Ways to navigate. The different stages of our lives and different, different sets of reality that we go through. Because let me tell you something, the lens that I look at reality through right now in my life is totally different than any other way that I've ever looked through it before. And I don't think it's a bad thing. It's, I think, I mean, I think personally that it's evolved, of course, but I'm kind of inclined to say that about myself. But you know, it definitely feels like it evolved. And I think that's really awesome.

33:36 And I think that we kind of have to treat more aspects. Of information in our lives. Like that, you know, we feel like you're done with high school, you're done with college. Or I read that book already, or I did that already. And I'm I'm guilty of this all the time myself. I saw this already. So I don't give a, you know, I don't care what was, you know, actually a great example was one of my favorite movies ever was, or at least nowadays was Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. And when I when I first watched that movie, I didn't know the whole Charles Manson story. And so I. So I didn't get what? Was going on, I didn't get that this, I didn't get the hippie movement. I didn't get the girl with the armpits. I, I, with the armpit hair.

34:20 I didn't get, you know what? That the, that the, that these hippies were in some kind of evil death cult. They were getting hoodwinked by Manson and, and, and, or whatever it was, even if they weren't hoodwinked, they were, you know, getting drugged by Manson and, and starting this cult. And so I watched the movie. I'm like, whatever. And then I was like, I wonder who Charles Manson is? And I listened to a couple of podcasts that, you know, kind of talked about his life a little bit. And then I was like, oh, whoa. And then I went back to the movie again, a couple, you know, after a couple of months of just casual reading and looking into it. And I watched the movie and I'm like, this movie is perfect. This movie so good. And I couldn't get over it. And I was like, this is so silly. So, you know, the only point.

35:04 So my point being that. If there's, you know. Information kind of stays the same, I would say, but we are always developing and we're always changing. And I think it's really, really important to take the time to realize that just because we consume something when we were, you know. Even a couple of years. Ago and we had a perspective on it to look back on it and deal with to say I'm going. To try this, I'm going to try this. Again, And I'm going to keep an open mind because my life is different now than it was and the way I think now is different and my associations and my exposures are different now than they ever were before, you know, so. Yeah, I got it.

35:49 I got to. Relook at it and you know, listen, If it didn't speak to you, it might not. It might not still speak to you. If it did speak to you, it might not anymore. You know a lot of Springsteen's music, which meant the entire world to me for. So long, so many years of my life. Probably 656 years of my life was just like Springsteen was like my, like the way that he would expect my emotional, you know, guiding star, like the way that he would like manifest and describe the feelings of loneliness or meaning or happiness or hope or betrayal or or heartbreak or enthusiasm and excitement and passion for life. The way that he manifested all of that, I felt so strongly as like a young single guy trying to figure out what I was trying to do with my life.

36:36 I didn't know what I wanted to do for a career. I didn't know what my passions were. I didn't know what kind of girl I wanted to marry, what kind of family I wanted to have. I didn't know where I wanted to live. I didn't know I wanted to figure it out. And I knew I felt lost and you know. And he gave that to me. And he helped me navigate that. But it doesn't. But it doesn't mean it doesn't speak to me the same way now when I have. Projects in a career. That I'm working on, you know, I have a family that I'm building and I know where I, I bought a house. I know where I'm living, you know, and all of a sudden, a lot of the contacts in my life that that made Springsteen speak so, so clearly and so rings so true to me for so many years.

37:17 He's still just as talented as he was eating. Stop being one of the greatest singer songwriters and performers in American history just because I don't understand, you know, just because I don't relate to it the same in the same way. But I fundamentally changed and all of a sudden, you know, I relate a little bit more to, you know, the little bit more of a different type of genre, a different type of musician or different, you know, a different type of conversation. And maybe my conversations a little bit. Maybe what I'm relating to is more on, you know, I'm just trying to, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm swamped and I'm trying to find a way to. Enjoy all the. Moments in the chaos that I have in my life and find people who manifest that idea, this idea of exhaustion, but still wanting to fight on the feeling of more exciting to excited to build something new.

38:09 The the building. The feeling of creativity and the feeling of fun. Finding something fun for the news time for the for the first time or really making a breakthrough on something for the first time. So all this is to say that these this concept, this Jewish, you know, this Jewish concept of a seum of this commitment, not just to. Learning new information and. Processing information, but also a commitment to revisiting it as we go through our lives. I don't think obviously shouldn't just obviously it does apply to Judaism, at least for me, but it could apply to everyone for literally anything. And I think that we'd all be doing ourselves a bigger favour, a huge favour, if we're able to. Really, just keep an.

38:55 Open mind and understand that just because something didn't speak to us once before doesn't mean it never will again. Anyway, Jimmy Kimmel got fired or what Was it indefinitely suspended? Which doesn't sound too good if I was. Indefinitely. Suspended. I wouldn't be thrilled and. I'm trying to figure out the best way to put. This which is coming out of 151015 years of cancer culture and. I don't even think I. Heard what Jimmy Kimmel said. I'm not even going to pretend to, you know, be a fan of it or not.

39:38 I don't actually know almost anything about Jimmy Kimmel. I've the only I've only heard his name in the last couple of years. Nothing I've ever heard from him was. Particularly funny. My understanding what I've heard is that he was. Actually, you know, funnier. You know, prior to the whole woke era, but he's not now. And. And he apparently got cancelled. First, you know, he got he got fired for or Disney said or ABC said that they're that they're not, that they're suspending his show after some insensitive remarks about Charlie Kirk and the MAGA movement and whatever it was. And I don't have too many thoughts on this. I'm actually extremely, extremely disappointed. So disappointed in the the people. In the.

40:28 Administration right now, the Trump administration for trying to crack down and have government censor government censorship when it comes to speech, obviously other than inciting violence or whatever doesn't, you know, whatever's not included in the first right in the 1st Amendment rather. But we just went through this for so long, for so many years, right? I don't think that the Trump administration or any government administration should tell a talk show. Host or a late. Night show host or anyone in you know anyone in any kind of private industry what to do with their employees and by the way, on the other hand. If Disney decided.

41:16 On their own or ABC decided on their own. Hey, man, that was a really not I didn't even again, I didn't even know what he said. But hey man, that was a really not cool thing to say. And you know, I really don't think that you're the kind of right fit that we want to have in our environment. Obviously we know that Disney does not have such moral quandaries, you know, and such and such internal debate. All they care about is obviously making sure that the administration in power likes them enough to allow. Them. To keep on making money and not give them a hard time and not affect the bottom line, which I get and it's totally. Fair. But still, end of the day, you know, like I I don't think I don't think that is considered getting cancelled if you're fired for saying something stupid. I think that if you're now, if other now, if there's almost like a systematic, a systematic, you know, conjoined effort to make sure that not only your 5:00 but you can never get another job again.

42:16 I think that might be something else. And that might be another conversation to have. But. I don't know, I kind of feel like. It's in everyone's right. If I was working with someone and they started celebrating Charlie Kirk dying, you know, getting dying, I'm sorry, Getting murdered, getting executed in broad daylight in front of thousands of people, I'm sorry to put it. Dying the. First way he was executed and murdered in front of thousands of people. And someone was. Celebrating that, I'd be like, hey, man, I don't want to work with you and I'm entitled to say I don't want to work with you, man. Like that's really, really not cool. And like, are you allowed free speech? Sure. Say whatever you want. I don't want you in my business. I don't want you working for me.

42:56 I don't want you working with me. I don't. I don't have to give you my business and I think that. I think that if Disney, you know, and. Obviously, Disney not saying this out of some kind of like moral high ground or some kind of emotional place. Where they? Cared so much about who Charlie Kirk was. They're again protecting themselves, but. I think it's just it's I. Mean it's been so crazy going on social media and seeing on Variety how explosive the response to Jimmy Kimmel getting fired is when we literally, I mean, think about everything everyone that got cancelled over the last 10-15 years. Think about everyone that lost a job, that lost that, that every actor, every writer, every, every person on social media at home that was just minding their own business and just said something in their own time and again. If a company.

43:54 If a private company feels that they don't want to work with that person, they don't have to work with that person that you go both ways, right. And just like I believe the government censorship should not be allowed. You know, I I was really, really done. Quite, quite. What's the? Word for it when it's like so. Out there so blatantly by the Biden administration, you don't want to, we don't want to set this precedent that no matter who's in power, they're just going to be silencing other voices and deporting people because of things that they say or things that they believe. And I mean that that that's that's playing the same game and you're falling to the same stick.

44:36 And and I know that I know that power is enticing, but it also shows, you know, I've been a little deenfranchised with the system. I really thought that there was going to be. Change I always I really thought. There's going to be, you know, change in in American Society and American culture. And, you know, I mean, even in I have to say this because I think it's really important, even all this Israel stuff for people trying to silence people that are critics of Israel. It doesn't help. It does not help. Engage in the conversation, engage in the argument. Don't get someone deported because they'd say free Palestine. Don't fire someone because they say that they that that Israel's committing A genocide.

45:20 Have a conversation. By the way, again, you could fire them if it's a private business. Do you think don't have the government come after you? Don't have the don't have ICE knocking on your door. Don't have the Trump, don't have the FBI, you know, break into your house for. A meme that you sent? Come on. You know, I feel like we're better than that. And even though I feel that way at the moment, it doesn't look like that. I guess the only positive things I could say about it is that there's been an enormous amount of right of right leaning people pushing back on some of the exact things that we're talking about now. And I forgot, I think it was Dave Smith. And I know, I know that right now invoking his name would cause a rather vitriolic reaction. And that's OK.

46:03 But I think that the guy has, I think the guy's entitled to his opinion. I think he's, you know, I don't agree with him about Israel specifically, even though a lot of the things that he says, I, I, I, I couldn't understand where he's coming from. But I think that he's really smart with a lot, a lot of different things. And he's super, super articulate and eloquent and really, really dynamic and smart guy. He's like, you're going to see this is going to be used to just clamp down on free speech like Charlie Kirk's death. Charlie Kirk, the guy that wanted free speech, that wanted conversation, that wanted to welcome anyone to have any kind of point of view that they had, and we'll talk about it. In his name. Free speech is getting shut down. He's like, you'll see. They all end up the same and unfortunately I guess I guess it looks that way.

46:48 I guess we'll call it there for the night. This was good. I haven't done a solo episode in in months so this was fun. As always any feedback feel free to reach out. Going to have some more guests for you coming up. And as always, love you all and have a good night. Bye.