Sam and Shaan react to the week’s news: Jake Paul’s first boxing loss to Tommy Fury, Andrew Tate’s third 30-day detention in Romania, and multiple government agencies now backing the COVID lab leak theory. They also cover Felix Dennis’s bizarre Treasure Island estate, a Minnesota snowplow naming contest, and Jack Dorsey’s new decentralized Twitter clone Blue Sky.
Speakers: Sam Parr (host), Shaan Puri (host)
Intro: Sam’s Content Mode [00:00:00]
Shaan: I told you — I’m in content mode, baby. I’m writing and I got some gems. I’ll give you the headline of something I’m writing right now, I haven’t even released any of this stuff yet. It’s called “Congratulations, You Climbed Mount Stupid.”
Shaan: What’s up, fellas. It’s Friday, how you guys doing?
Sam: Doing great.
Shaan: Good, good. We’re reacting to the news, we got some good ones this week. Let’s start with Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury.
Jake Paul Loses His First Fight [00:00:30]
Shaan: Jake Paul, of course, the famous influencer who has since become a professional boxer — for the first time, he lost a fight, losing to Tommy Fury, a professional boxer and social media influencer. And not just the fight is notable, but what’s also notable is that Sam, you basically called exactly what would happen. Do you want to take your victory lap right now?
Sam: No, I didn’t call exactly what would happen. But I have been getting good at predicting fights — I’m a huge combat sports fan. I didn’t exactly get it, but I loved it. And I know why I love it: I love freak shows. This was a freak show, and I am always going to pay for that pay-per-view and watch freak shows.
Sam: I thought it was awesome. Second thing — if you’re listening to this, whether you’re a man or a woman, you should go train boxing for like three months and actually spar. Not like a Rumble class where you’re just hitting the bag — actually spar. And I’m not talking about sparring where you’re kicking someone’s ass or getting beat up. Shaan, you remember when we sparred? It doesn’t hurt, right, if you do it with someone who knows what they’re doing. But it does scare you. It gets the heart rate up. If you do it right with someone who’s been there, done that, you’re not going to get hurt. I promise you’ll get hurt by running more than you will by actually sparring if you do it with someone who knows what they’re doing. That fight-or-flight response — we never get that. So I love that he did that. I find it very courageous that he stood in front of all those people and fought. Kudos to him.
Sam: But yeah, I don’t think he’s going to be a great boxer. I mean, he came on our show, so gotta give him credit for that —
Shaan: He came on our show, now he’s doing other shows. These are all highlights of his life, I’m sure. Just a correlation.
Sam: Yeah, exactly. I’m not saying one caused the other. But we did do our show before every other show, and I thought it was great. The transition from Disney kid to vine star to YouTuber — he’s legitimately good. He is legitimately good. I would not call him a celebrity boxer. He’s like a very good amateur boxer. And he’s an entertainer. He’s done an amazing job staying relevant while evolving.
Sam: A lot of people hate on this guy or laugh at him, but I think there are a lot of good lessons about reinventing yourself and finding a way to merge things you’re interested in with your skills in business or entertainment. He’s done it phenomenally well. He and his brother Logan, they didn’t just ask “what should I do next as a YouTuber?” They asked “what can I do next using this audience and this fame?” And they came up with different answers than 99.9% of other YouTubers.
Shaan: Getting credit for that. And he’s tough. I don’t think he’s going to be a great boxer, but he’s super tough for doing that. That’s awesome.
Andrew Tate’s Third 30-Day Detention [00:05:00]
Shaan: Next — from one controversial social media star to another. Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are being detained for a third 30-day sentence in Romania. They’re charged with human trafficking. They claim there’s no evidence and they still haven’t had a trial. What do you guys think — Andrew Tate: human trafficker, or wrongly imprisoned?
Sam: Oof. I don’t know much about it.
Shaan: I mean, who knows what he did. But first of all — Romania? Guilty until proven innocent, what is going on? Why is he in there? He says he’s in solitary confinement, basically, while he hasn’t even had a trial. That’s a little strange.
Sam: He said — he tweeted out — “I’ve been in this thing for 30 days now, they don’t let me out. Just imagine locking yourself in your bedroom for 24 hours, just go ahead and do that, now think about where I’m going through.” And then he was like, “I wanted to cry, but then I realized I’m too tough for that.”
Shaan: But it sounds like he has Twitter access? Can somebody explain this to me? He tweeted out two hours ago, “My body is in jail but my mind is not in jail.”
Sam: I don’t understand how he has Twitter right now.
Shaan: What kind of lax prison is this?
Sam: And you said — are you going to be putting “Free Tate” in your Twitter bio?
Shaan: No, I’m not going to be putting that.
Sam: I will pay you $100 to put “Free Cobra Tate” in your Twitter bio. That would be so funny for 24 hours. Just do it.
Shaan: Not a chance.
Sam: I’m not team Andrew Tate. I don’t like how he talks to people, so I guess I’d say I’m kind of against him. I have no idea about the story, other than if he did do what he’s accused of, then yeah, that sounds fair. But I have no idea what the truth is.
Shaan: He’s kind of cringe, to be honest with you. But yeah, let’s move on.
COVID Lab Leak Theory Goes Mainstream [00:08:30]
Shaan: All right, let’s move on to the lab leak theory. Multiple government sources are now saying they think the lab leak theory for the origins of COVID-19 is true — this includes the Department of Energy and the FBI. Fellas, are you surprised?
Sam: I am not surprised.
Shaan: I am not surprised. Ever since that one Jon Stewart clip — have you seen this, Sam? He was ringing the bell early on, right? Yeah, this was when it was still unpopular to say, and in fact you would get your videos taken down or a giant flag saying “this person is a conspiracy theorist.” He goes on Colbert’s show and does this little bit. He says something about the lab leak, and Colbert goes, “We don’t know that, there’s no evidence.” And Jon Stewart goes, “There’s a coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, where there is the Wuhan coronavirus lab — because it’s in the name.” And he just keeps going. He goes, “There’s a chocolate leak in Hershey, Pennsylvania — is this random? Or maybe it’s the Chocolate Factory?” And it was just so obvious.
Shaan: How unlikely would it be that the novel coronavirus originates in Wuhan, where there is the Wuhan novel coronavirus research lab? You’re telling me that just happened to be the case? The odds are that it came from that lab, not that it just happened to be in the same area.
Sam: I remember my friend Jack telling me about this early on. My friend Jack is not a conspiracy theorist at all, but he’s very open-minded. When people would say “that’s crazy,” his response was always, “Okay, well, let’s see what the evidence is.” I remember him telling me about it and I was like, “Jack, you’re pretty crazy for thinking that.”
Sam: And my big lesson over these last three years — as it relates to this story — is not really “did it or did it not come out of that lab.” Now it’s looking like maybe it did. Somewhere between “maybe” and “for sure.” Not “for sure it didn’t.” And my takeaway is: there are things I used to dismiss as crazy, where only crazy people would believe this. But I’ve seen over the last five or ten years, as I’ve become more of an adult and paid attention to these things, that crazy stuff does happen. And a lot of huge life-changing things are just accidents. They just happen. And now I have a little bit more of an open mind when people say, “Well, this person is conspiring with this other person.” I’m like, okay, let’s have an open mind and explore the facts.
Shaan: I remember back when this first started, it was basically considered racist to say the virus might have leaked from a lab in China. And I never understood that. I lived in China. I don’t find this racist in any way. What are you talking about?
Shaan: It reminds me of when I tweeted out my five favorite books and the comments blew up — people going, “There’s not one woman on this list.” These are my favorite books! What are you talking about? I have to have 50% diversity in my favorite books? I just replied, “All my favorite NBA players are Black,” and sent people off. That totally triggered everybody. I was like, no, I am not apologizing because I named five of my favorite books and they happened to be written by men. That is not what we’re talking about. And you’re trying to ticket me for it. I call these people meter maids — they just run around the internet looking for little tickets to write on cars. Where can I go be offended? You didn’t include me. And I was like, that’s not even what this was about.
Sam: Did you invent “meter maid”?
Shaan: Yeah, I did. I told you — content mode, baby. I’m writing and I got some gems. I’ll give you the headline of something I’m writing right now, I haven’t even released any of this stuff yet. It’s going to be called “Congratulations, You Climbed Mount Stupid.” I’m writing 365 original pieces in the next year — one a day — and one of them is going to be that.
Sam: So it’s like a daily email?
Shaan: Yeah, a sequence. Go subscribe — it’ll be in the show notes. One a day.
Felix Dennis’s Treasure Island House [00:18:00]
Shaan: All right, the Felix Dennis house. Felix Dennis — very famous entrepreneur, publisher of Oz, author of How to Get Rich. He built this house for five million pounds. It just sold for four million pounds. It’s really cool but one of the weirdest houses you’ll ever see. It’s mostly a pool in the middle, Treasure Island themed — palm trees, pirate stuff. The whole house only has two bedrooms. So the question is: does this make you guys into themed houses?
Sam: The takeaway for me is: forget legacy. This guy built something he wanted. A lot of people say things like, “What about the resale value? How is this going to impact your legacy?” And my reply lately has been, I don’t know — I’m going to be dead, I don’t care. What I appreciate about this is that he spent his money the way he wanted and made something cool, even if it didn’t make any financial sense. And if you haven’t read his book How to Get Rich — we’ve talked about it a bunch here, it changed my life. Every time we mention it, it goes up to like the top 10 in the business category. Go read it.
Shaan: There’s a picture in this article of him with an extremely voluptuous person, and it says “Felix Dennis spent a hundred million dollars on sex, drugs, and rock and roll in his lifetime.”
Sam: Yeah, that’s what he talks about. From age like 35 to 40 he was addicted to crack cocaine — I swear to God, crack cocaine. He loved it. And he died single; he had a partner but they had an open relationship. The guy was doing a lot of psychedelics and open relationships before it was cool.
Sam: And he basically says in his book — he goes, “I spent 100 million on hookers and crack.” You know, whatever. I don’t believe that though. Everyone’s like Wilt Chamberlain — Wilt Chamberlain said he slept with 10,000 women in his lifetime. If you do the math on that, it’s insane. You’d have to sleep with two women a day for many years.
Shaan: I think it’s even more than that, and he wasn’t that old.
Sam: By the way, you said something about themed houses — I’m in on themed houses. I think themed houses are great. And more than the theme, what I’m really into is epic common areas. He had two bedrooms. I think bedrooms are a giant waste. You only need a couple of bedrooms and you should have epic common areas if you’re going to have a mansion. I don’t like the eight-bedroom mansion. You gotta have epic common spaces and only a couple bedrooms — three or four max. I don’t want to see a fifth bedroom.
Shaan: And his charity — he left all this money to plant forests. He’s like the Johnny Appleseed of England. He owns thousands of acres of forests. And I think this house is known for having all types of trees. So it’s like the crack cocaine foundation donating its wealth to nature.
Minnesota Snowplow Naming Contest [00:24:00]
Shaan: All right, I love this one. The Minnesota Department of Transportation ran a snowplow naming contest. They got a new snowplow, needed a name, and crowdsourced it to the public. Here are some of the top vote-getters: “You’re a Blizzard, Harry.” “Blizzo.” “Clearopathra.” “Better Call Salt.” And “Han Solo.”
Shaan: Do you guys have a favorite?
Sam: I like “Clearopathra.” I did not see that one coming.
Shaan: Remember when they did a Boaty McBoatface thing? A town let people vote on naming a ferry or tugboat, Reddit got hold of it, and the number-one-voted name was Boaty McBoatface. I love these viral stunts. They’re awesome.
Shaan: Sam, I don’t want to steal your thunder, but you did want to announce your tattoo naming contest.
Sam: That is totally wrong. I did not say that. What I did say — you remember how we talked about Mini Katana? They’re sending me a gold Katana with MFM on it. I’m collecting all types of MFM stuff. I’ll accept all MFM merch, but I am not getting a tattoo.
Shaan: Okay, how about at a million YouTube subscribers — will you get a crowdsourced tattoo?
Sam: I will get a tattoo at a million for sure.
Sam: I went and did this podcast in LA with this guy Cody Ko — he’s a comedy YouTuber. His studio looked awesome. He was telling us about his network and some show called Trillionaire Energy or something. He pulled it up on the screen and it was the two hosts in slow motion with music, just getting closer and closer together, and these two guys just made out.
Shaan: Wait, what?
Sam: I go, “Whoa, what’s the show about?” And he goes, “No — they said if they got to a hundred thousand subs they would kiss.” And I go, “Oh yeah, that’s a good idea.” That’s how Hollywood comedy YouTuber people think.
Shaan: They really did it? Did they tongue?
Sam: It’s intense. It’s in slow-mo as they get closer and closer and they just make out.
Shaan: I’d rather be unsuccessful.
Sam: Exactly. How bad do you want it?
Shaan: I don’t want it that bad.
Sam: Incredible success — you gotta find the price of success and then pay it.
Shaan: It’s too expensive for me. It’s out of my budget. We have food at home.
Blue Sky: Decentralized Twitter [00:29:30]
Shaan: All right, last one. Blue Sky is a new Twitter clone backed by Jack Dorsey. Unlike Twitter, it’s decentralized. The question is: are you supporting our comrades over at Blue Sky, or are you supporting the capitalist pigs over at Twitter?
Sam: Jack Dorsey owns a bank. How are you going to call him a comrade?
Shaan: I mean, he’s moving away from capital. He’s seen the error of his ways.
Sam: Dude, when I hear the words “open source social protocol” and “decentralized” — I just don’t care. I just don’t care at all. They want me to care about it and that’s wonderful, and maybe sometimes I’ll act like I do. But I don’t. It’s like if you tell me something has “probiotic antioxidants” — I don’t care, but if it tastes good, I’ll drink it. That’s my take on this. I’ll use this app if it’s awesome, if the content is great, the people on it are interesting, and if it’s something different than Twitter. If it’s Twitter but the database is different, I’m out.
Sam: That’s not what draws people in. Do it differently under the hood if you want, but it has to result in something different that the person actually gets to use.
Shaan: Yeah. And the same thing happened with Web3 — they’d give me this horrible pitch and then end it with “Web3” and I’m like, I don’t care if it’s Web3, just does this thing work? Is it awesome? I feel the same way about Blue Sky.
Shaan: And also — have you tried Mastodon?
Sam: Dude, it’s stupid. It’s dumb.
Shaan: Yeah. So I’m not on board with this.