Episode 0.5 – Meet the Co-Hosts

DJ Malone

Jeff Aldrich

Travis Eadens

Episode Transcription:

[00:00:00] Jeff Aldrich: You can label yourself a multiple different things. For example, I’m a veteran, I’m a father. I am a Denver Bronco fan. I will never like the Jaguars. Just so you know, but I’ve… 

[00:00:11] Travis Eadens: He’s got to get them digs in.

[00:00:13] Jeff Aldrich: I gotta. I gotta. I got to talk some trash, but that’s part of the fun of sports is talking trash, I think.

[00:00:19] Jeff Aldrich: My name is Jeff Aldrich. I was in the military for 10 years. I actually got out two weeks before 9/11. I was stationed on the USS Kitty Hawk.

[00:00:31] Jeff Aldrich: I did two tours in the Persian Gulf. To where CNN was on board, the ship, having cigarettes with us and I can see the Jeeps driving on the beach in Somali, to tomahawks being shot at us in the nighttime sky from Iraq. I went through that twice, made it out alive, went to a lot of different countries totally different cultural view of life in general, every place I went and every [00:01:00] visit.

[00:01:00] Jeff Aldrich: I am a sound engineer by trade. I went to college. I have a bachelor’s degree in business marketing and an audio engineering degree. I do studio recording work, but it doesn’t really pay a lot of money as much as live. I do live audio and training for a lot of churches and whoever is willing to pay me.

[00:01:23] Jeff Aldrich: I grew up in Southern California. I was a punk rock kid. I had a 13 inch Mohawk in high school. I didn’t really wear it up because back then you couldn’t. Let’s put it this way. The only way that you can keep your hair up was egg whites and then when you get all sweaty, that’s the bad story, you know, that become like a egg white.

[00:01:44] Jeff Aldrich: But I have some favorite teams and sports and everything. Growing up, I was into the basketball, baseball, football, a diehard Angels fan. We’ve won one world series. I took on the Padres when I lived in San Diego and I lived [00:02:00] six, well yeah, six minute walk from the stadium and went there probably 30 times and kind of took them along with me and they haven’t won championship quite yet. 

[00:02:11] Travis Eadens: They’ve been looking good recently though. 

[00:02:13] Jeff Aldrich: But I am a Denver Bronco fan. What sucked about being a Denver Bronco fan when they won the super bowl was I was stationed in San Diego and I moved to Spain a month before they won the super bowl. I wasn’t too happy about that.

[00:02:29] Jeff Aldrich: In Spain that’s where I met my buddy, Travis, who is also on the podcast and he can introduce himself. 

[00:02:35] Travis Eadens: My name is Travis Eadens. I am a healthcare professional of last 15 years. I am also a military vet, as Jeff had alluded to. I spent six years as a Navy corpsman. My last three years I was an aviation med tech in Spain.

[00:02:51] Travis Eadens: That’s where we met, a lot of fun over there. Since then I became a nurse and I’ve been doing ER, [00:03:00] emergency room ICU type nursing for the last 15 years or so.

[00:03:04] Travis Eadens: I think the traveling around the world has really helped shape who I am, where I’ve come from. Living abroad out of the country for six years of the last 20 years has really opened up some good perspective on how people live and some of the tribes in the world. My family, I’m a father of two, had to think about that for a second.

[00:03:33] Travis Eadens: The kids have been really great. They are part of my hobbies that I do. We go to the beach, we go camping, off-roading and various terrains in California and Southern California, spent many times out in the desert under the night sky. It’s really beautiful out there. Sports teams I’ve always liked the Washington football team.

[00:03:58] Jeff Aldrich: Why aren’t you going to say, “Redskins”?[00:04:00] 

[00:04:00] Travis Eadens: Because I’m starting over.

[00:04:01] DJ Malone: Or “The Commanders”?

[00:04:03] Travis Eadens: They’re the Redskins. That’s, that’s just how I’ve always known them. That’s how I will always know them. The Boston Celtics, me and my grandpa used to watch the Celtics a lot when I was growing up with them.

[00:04:15] Jeff Aldrich: I think has a a tramp stamp of the Redskins. 

[00:04:19] Travis Eadens: No, I just have a… I’ve got the original hat. 

[00:04:23] DJ Malone: Is it on your lower back? 

[00:04:25] Travis Eadens: I’m not telling. 

[00:04:27] Jeff Aldrich: That’s personal, DJ. 

[00:04:30] DJ Malone: Touche’. 

[00:04:32] Travis Eadens: And also the Atlanta Braves. We always loved watching. Me and my grandpa would watch the… 

[00:04:37] Jeff Aldrich: I was happy to see them win. 

[00:04:39] Travis Eadens: The Braves yeah. In what was probably the late nineties, they had, you know, Glavin and Maddix and everybody. They were unstoppable.

[00:04:47] Jeff Aldrich: They had great players, 

[00:04:49] Travis Eadens: Chipper Jones, when he came on, he was also an awesome player. Old Fred McGriff. Oh, I loved watching him hit the ball. My God. He was, he was great. 

[00:04:58] Travis Eadens: But yeah, back to the [00:05:00] hobbies I love being outdoors. That sense of adventure being out and doing things on your own, not having cell connectivity, not having any of the electronics with you.

[00:05:11] Travis Eadens: It really forces you to ground yourself and connect back with nature and take a broader look at what’s going on around you. 

[00:05:20] DJ Malone: I’m DJ Malone. I’m not a disc jockey. I’m from Jacksonville, Florida, born and raised. I will have to say being from Jacksonville has shaped me into the man that I am today. Just from growing up, being around all of my surroundings, everything plays a big factor and role in how I am my mindset and I would say my tribe.

[00:05:45] DJ Malone: I’m also a veteran, but not from the Navy, not in the Navy. I’m Army.. 

[00:05:51] Jeff Aldrich: We don’t hold it against you, man.

[00:05:53] Travis Eadens: We love you all the same. 

[00:05:55] Jeff Aldrich: Yeah. That’s great, man. Thanks for your service, bro. 

[00:05:58] DJ Malone: I thank you all. [00:06:00] We just did an air group hug. If y’all, didn’t see it, we just group hugged.

[00:06:05] DJ Malone: But yeah, he’s right though. We’re all under the same umbrella. You know, we all brothers in arms and brothers here. 

[00:06:10] Jeff Aldrich: I kind of questioned your clothing sometimes. 

[00:06:14] DJ Malone: You do?!

[00:06:16] Jeff Aldrich: Well, maybe, maybe it was just like growing up… well not growing up. I didn’t grow up in a Marine Corps base. But I did work at the Marine Corps recruit Depot in San Diego and their uniforms just look a little bit sharper than the army guys that showed up.

[00:06:29] DJ Malone: The Marines? 

[00:06:30] Jeff Aldrich: Yeah, the marines. 

[00:06:32] DJ Malone: Oh, I don’t know. Cause Marine uniforms almost look like ours now. 

[00:06:38] Travis Eadens: Now.

[00:06:39] Jeff Aldrich: Now, but we’re talking…

[00:06:41] Travis Eadens: It’s a kinder, gentler military now. 

[00:06:43] Jeff Aldrich: 1990’s.

[00:06:44] DJ Malone: Are you talking about the dress, the dress uniform? 

[00:06:47] Travis Eadens: No, even their, even their Charlie’s.

[00:06:49] Jeff Aldrich: DJ, when you were in elementary school, we… Travis and I…

[00:06:54] Jeff, DJ, & Travis: [group laughter] 

[00:06:54] Jeff Aldrich: When you were in elementary school, Travis and I saw Marines [00:07:00] that looked better than the army guys. 

[00:07:02] Travis Eadens: This was a while ago. 

[00:07:03] Jeff Aldrich: That’s not to say army guys are bad. 

[00:07:05] Travis Eadens: They starched ’em. Oh my God. It’s crazy. 

[00:07:09] DJ Malone: I give you, I give you that. Yeah army… 

[00:07:12] Jeff Aldrich: Sorry man, not to steal your introduction. 

[00:07:14] DJ Malone: It’s all good! And it makes sense because I’ve seen plenty of people in the army that take a uniform from the bottom of the clothes hamper and put ’em on. Don’t care if you look like a wrinkled bag of chips.

[00:07:24] Travis Eadens: They got a smell at first.

[00:07:26] DJ Malone: Some of them won’t and they’ll blame it on work.

[00:07:29] Travis Eadens: Hey, that ain’t just the army though. Trust me. I’ve seen that in the Navy and the Marines. 

[00:07:35] DJ Malone: But that’s what makes us all family. 

[00:07:38] Jeff Aldrich: That’s right. We can all talk about each other, but nobody else can.

[00:07:41] DJ Malone: Exactly.

[00:07:42] Jeff Aldrich: Not unless you’re a veteran. 

[00:07:43] DJ Malone: “Unless”, that’s the underlying statement. But also in the military and outside of the military, and honestly on the civilian side, I’m a logistician. Logistics has been my background well over 10, 11 [00:08:00] years, so far, and I actually enjoy it. The different aspects of it.

[00:08:07] DJ Malone: One thing about it, this country definitely runs off logistics. But I’m also a media personality. I do acting, music, and also I host events. 

[00:08:21] Jeff Aldrich: Do you tap dance? 

[00:08:24] DJ Malone: No, I’m not against learning how to do it. 

[00:08:27] Travis Eadens: Okay. 

[00:08:29] Jeff Aldrich: You need to do some classes, buddy. 

[00:08:31] DJ Malone: Exactly. It’s I have flat wide feet. 

[00:08:35] Jeff Aldrich: Okay. 

[00:08:35] DJ Malone: And if you can find good tap dancing shoes… 

[00:08:38] Travis Eadens: When I saw some of your outfits on Facebook, I’m like, man, this dude tap dances.

[00:08:42] Travis Eadens: Do I give out tap dancing vibes? 

[00:08:44] Jeff Aldrich: No…

[00:08:45] Travis Eadens: No, you look sharp! 

[00:08:46] DJ Malone: Thank you man! 

[00:08:47] Jeff Aldrich: You definitely look sharp.. 

[00:08:48] DJ Malone: See, now look, if I find myself just starting tap dancing for no reason, I’m calling you. But, that’s [00:09:00] the beauty of, one of the beauty of this is podcasts we’re doing. Everything is all authentic. You know, we have great love for each other and we’re also gonna let you all experience it. But this is us collectively. And guess what? We still got another perspective of each other. Was I the last one? 

[00:09:23] Travis Eadens: Yeah, you was the last one.

[00:09:24] DJ Malone: Dang, I forgot! 

[00:09:25] Jeff Aldrich: Yeah, you were last. 

[00:09:25] DJ Malone: Tap dancing.

[00:09:27] Travis Eadens: I’m tap dancing around that subject. 

[00:09:29] DJ Malone: I’m tap dancin’ around it. 

[00:09:30] Jeff Aldrich: You tapped out. 

[00:09:30] DJ Malone: [laughs] 

[00:09:31] DJ Malone: I tapped out. 

[00:09:31] Jeff Aldrich: One of the things that brings the podcast to life is trying to be a better person. I know, I know personally and this kind of where this podcast is leading to is that we want all our listeners to feel like they’re part of us and that you have a say and that, you know, if you want someone to follow or a just sound advice, we don’t know everything.

[00:09:59] Jeff Aldrich: If it’s [00:10:00] any type of medical related thing where, Travis is a nurse, like you mentioned. He’s not legally binded to give you advice and you should consult your physician. If that’s the case, 

[00:10:13] Travis Eadens: Always seek out your physician for any medical questions that you may have. 

[00:10:17] Jeff Aldrich: We are striving here to be positive and to bring a positive forum where people of diversity can come together because when we’re talking teams, succesful teams, are diverse. There isn’t like a point guard or everybody’s a pitcher and nobody can hit the ball. You know, if we’re going to use sports analogies, but you know, another thing is we’re all, and I’m sure you guys too are always trying to improve yourselves. I, I like reading some motivational books.

[00:10:49] Jeff Aldrich: Like I just read David Goggins. “You Can’t Hurt Me.” It, it changed my life for real. I won’t go into it on the podcast, but I’m always striving to be a better [00:11:00] father. You know, all these labels that I have like I’m an employee, I’m a friend, I’m a son. Haven’t talked to my parents lately.

[00:11:10] Jeff Aldrich: You know, I’m, I’m a husband. But my, you know, anybody’s most important tribes should be your family for sure. But there are all these other tribes and labels that you can put yourself in whatever category you want. I mean, you know, there’s statistics for days about different labels and things that you can categorize yourself with.

[00:11:28] Jeff Aldrich: But most of all, I like to think that I am teachable and that I don’t know everything. I can’t possibly know everything and if these two gentlemen, or someone else, wants to chime in and give us a different perspective, something we didn’t think about, we want to know! That’s the whole purpose and you’re not going to be slandered.

[00:11:52] Jeff Aldrich: You’re not going to be called names. You’re not going to be spit at or anything like that. This is a positive thing [00:12:00] that society needs to see positivity between people working together because these people that are politicians and, and doing things for our country are just kind of one-sided. But we’ll get back to that.

[00:12:14] Jeff Aldrich: What, what kind of things are you guys doing to improve yourself 

[00:12:19] Travis Eadens: For me? I I try tolook at the latest research for the medical community in general doctors, nurses, psychiatrist, psychologist, everyone even at the scientific community, there are certain standards to maintain a license and we have to review evidence-based practices and peer reviewed articles to keep our knowledge sharp and fresh.

[00:12:44] Travis Eadens: There are procedures that are changing almost all the time. We wouldn’t know that unless we keep our ear to the grind, if you will, and listen to what’s coming out or look for what’s coming out. What’s new. So I try [00:13:00] to be on top and a leader in having the most up-to-date information on certain disease processes. Even as far as at home, what’s going on with my house I need to know how, how to fix it or who to contact to fix it. Cause I, like you said, we don’t know everything. But I’m, I’m more than willing to learn and accept when I don’t have the right answer to something to look and search for help, seek out that help [for] someone who does know something about that topic better than I do. That’s kind of how I like to maintain that, that humble approach to myself. Cause I know, I don’t know at all. None of us do. We just try our best to understand what’s been presented in front of us.

[00:13:49] Travis Eadens: My education that I’ve done, I’ve gone through and I’ve got my advanced college degrees. So just like [00:14:00] most of us here have some sort of college I believe. It’s not necessary. But it helps you fine tune your searching skills. I think that’s one of the biggest assets to staying in and, or going through college is to find, find out how to research topics and subjects to open your mind a little more.

[00:14:20] DJ Malone: Everyday I wake up. I want it to be better than I was the day prior. I try to find a good balance so I can excel in everything that I indulge in professionally. Also on top of that, I try to be a good leader, influencer, and a positive example of who inspires people. I enjoy learning new things and furthering my knowledge so that I can engage in intellectual conversations and to be able to converse well.

[00:14:45] DJ Malone: Reason being, like we said, we don’t know everything. And I think if you did know everything, life would be kind of boring because you wouldn’t be intrigued by nothing by anything anyone says, but by not knowing everything and, you [00:15:00] know, hearing different perspectives and opinions of others, it gives you a better outlook and also an alternate outlook with what you know, or the little that, you know, on the subject, depending on what you’re talking about.

[00:15:11] DJ Malone: So with all that being said, everything always circles around the positivity of it all. This podcast is nothing biased by any means. We’re not strictly on one side of another. We just want to be in the middle, meet in the middle… 

[00:15:25] Jeff Aldrich: We don’t have an agenda, a political agenda. 

[00:15:28] DJ Malone: Exactly. We don’t. We definitely don’t. We have a good platform that’s for like-minded people and people that want to have not necessarily a say so, but a voice to put out what it is that they want to talk about that they’re, like I said, they may be scared to talk about scared to voice their opinion on because the judgment of others based on what their beliefs are, you know, even the background, which go all reverse round tribalism.

[00:15:56] DJ Malone: Everybody just buckle up. 

[00:15:57] DJ Malone: We got ya. 

[00:15:58] Jeff Aldrich: I know, growing up, man. [00:16:00] My parents didn’t talk about politics. It was like a hush hush thing. And now it’s like, everybody treats it like it’s their favorite football team. And I just find it a little alarming that that’s the case that they, that they treat it like do or die.

[00:16:16] Jeff Aldrich: You know, this is my brotherhood and you know…

[00:16:19] Travis Eadens: Like it’s a gladiator sport. 

[00:16:21] Jeff Aldrich: Gladiator thing. You know, there’s like one thing was sports and everything. If you just enjoy the actual, for example, the game of baseball, you should be able to enjoy to watch the world series, you know, no matter what team it is and then at the end of it congratulate the other team for being better than you.

[00:16:39] Jeff Aldrich: Uh that’s what, that’s what true competition’s about don’t you think? I mean, that’s how I would like to have competition. Like if I lose, I don’t want people to call me a loser, you know, I’ll feel bad enough losing, but you know, if he comes over and says, “That’s a good fight” or you know, that’s, “That’s a good game, man.”

[00:16:58] Jeff Aldrich: And then it is what it is. And [00:17:00] that’s part of a competition is you lose. You lose in everything. I mean, I’ve lost many things in my life and I’ve gained many things in my life. It’s just things come and go. One of the things that we’re talking about in this podcast, ultimately the topic being tribalism is labeling.

[00:17:18] Jeff Aldrich: You can label yourself a multiple different things. For example, I’m a veteran, I’m a father. I am a Denver Bronco fan. I will never like the Jaguars. Just so you know, but I’ve 

[00:17:30] Travis Eadens: He’s got to get them digs in.

[00:17:31] Jeff Aldrich: I gotta. I gotta. I got to talk some trash. But that’s part of the fun of sports is talking trash, I think.

[00:17:37] Jeff Aldrich: But you know, you can put multiple different labels things on there. So part of the research for this podcast we came across a quiz. That quiz, depending on how you answered and put a label on you, what yours politically was. And we, at the time we felt like, okay, yeah, that’s definitely where I am.

[00:17:59] Jeff Aldrich: I’m I, [00:18:00] to me, I am what they call…. have you ever heard the term soul rebel? Soul rebel is Bob Marley’s first album, by the way, but a soul rebel is constantly looking for the truth and not giving in until you know what the truth is. This quiz gives you the truth. Well, okay. Well, I personally thought my label, my label is a political label was “I’m in the middle.”

[00:18:26] Jeff Aldrich: I’m stuck in the middle. I like millions of other Americans I know out here that are listening to this podcast, don’t want to vote Republican and don’t want to vote Democrat. I find myself there. Then you have the liberal side and then you have the conservative side and then there’s extreme sides to both.

[00:18:44] Jeff Aldrich: And, you know, it’s just kind of crazy these days.

[00:18:48] Travis Eadens: But yeah, that, that quiz was actually pretty good. It had, it takes about 10 minutes to complete. If you’re like me and don’t read very fast. It has pretty good questions on it that help [00:19:00] define, not define but, point out the direction that you’re going politically, whether like he said, there’s a far left far, right.

[00:19:08] Travis Eadens: There’s medium left, medium right. And then there’s a like three labels in the middle and moderate is pretty close to the PR pretty close to the middle. And to see where we all fell on it. It was kind of, I wouldn’t say it was eyeopening because I feel that after talking with you guys before we, we sat down to record, I felt that we all had a different view of things.

[00:19:31] Travis Eadens: We, we come together on it and we were able to see certain things. 

[00:19:36] Jeff Aldrich: Well, you know, as far as labels, what would you label yourself? Would you label yourself, DJ? Would you label yourself a Democrat or Republican? 

[00:19:44] DJ Malone: No.

[00:19:44] Jeff Aldrich: What would you label yourself politically? Not just what the quiz gave and we’ll go over what you gave as quiz.

[00:19:50] Travis Eadens: If you want to.

[00:19:51] DJ Malone: Yeah. I, if I remember correctly, my quiz pretty much overall at the answer to all the questions. Yeah. I fell in the box of, you know, being [00:20:00] moderate. And I agree with it because I do feel like I’m quite moderate. 

[00:20:04] Jeff Aldrich: Yea but would you label yourself a Republican or Democrat is my question. 

[00:20:08] DJ Malone: I think I’ll be an independent. 

[00:20:10] Jeff Aldrich: Me too. And I think a lot of people are in that spot. Well, how about you, Travis?

[00:20:14] Travis Eadens: Me, I am maybe a little more conservative. I don’t, I don’t like the Republican or Democrat labels. But at the same time, I wouldn’t say that I’m independent because. I, I feel I’m more libertarian. That’s where I like to see things.

[00:20:32] Jeff Aldrich: Yeah. Why, why are you libertarian? What makes that different? 

[00:20:35] Travis Eadens: Because I want to see more limited government less taxation, probably a little more, less government intrusion or regulation, I guess, a little more open, free market economy and let the markets play out without meddling by politicians.

[00:20:52] Travis Eadens: I think the government has expanded so much. It’s unsustainable. As evidenced by social [00:21:00] security and what I think today of all days we hit $30 trillion in national debt. 

[00:21:06] DJ Malone: Oh wow. 

[00:21:07] Travis Eadens: That’s ridiculous. 

[00:21:09] DJ Malone: You know, I might have to change mine to a liberate. 

[00:21:13] Jeff Aldrich: Well, okay. So there’s, there’s, there’s two different things here.

[00:21:17] Jeff Aldrich: We’re talking about. There’s talking about what you feel that you will. And what that quiz told you, you were. What that quiz labeled you as. 

[00:21:25] Travis Eadens: The quiz labeled me as a traditional conservative. But like I said, as far as political affiliation, I identify more with libertarian. 

[00:21:34] Jeff Aldrich: Right? How about you DJ? What did the, what did the quiz say? 

[00:21:37] DJ Malone: The quiz said I was moderate, but the way Travis just broke it down, I’m like, Hmm. You know, by being a libertarian, I’m like, you know what, that I agree with a lot of stuff. He said, so, and I, and I identify as a moderate. So I think I’m a liberate. 

[00:21:56] Jeff Aldrich: I think you’re making up your own party. 

[00:21:57] DJ Malone: [laughs] I definitely did. 

[00:21:58] DJ Malone: I definitely did.

[00:21:59] Jeff Aldrich: [00:22:00] I mean, you can even make that a tribe like collectively.

[00:22:02] Travis Eadens: I think though being, as you said initially an independent, you could be swayed by either side, depending on the topic. And I feel that I’m the same way like that, but I will always. I can, I can confidently say that I will side on the, I’ll take the side of the legislation or what, whichever it is, that will keep the individual’s freedom intact. If there’s anything that says you can’t do this, or we’re gonna, you have to pay a tax on this. A tax is exactly what it is. They don’t say, oh, man, that work was taxing on me for no reason. It was hard on you. It was meant to make it difficult to do something. If there’s a tax on something that means that they don’t want you to do it. 

[00:22:53] Jeff Aldrich: Definitely. As someone that sells stuff, and makes a commission, I get taxed 33% of my [00:23:00] commission. That’s crazy. 

[00:23:01] Travis Eadens: That’s a lot. 

[00:23:02] Jeff Aldrich: Well, you said a bit to go back to what you were talking about. You said your mom also took the quiz and she was the same answer as you, which is a conservative, traditional concern.

[00:23:14] Jeff Aldrich: My wife also took it and she will. Traditional liberal, like I was. Here’s the plot twist guys. And not to, I can give the source, but Dr. Epstein on the, the recent Joe Rogan podcast talked about Google. Does anybody hear that interview? 

[00:23:32] Travis Eadens: I did hear that interview.

[00:23:33] Jeff Aldrich: That interview? He simply explained a thing called “S and M” and it’s something like search and materials.

[00:23:43] Jeff Aldrich: Basically that quiz is designed because there’s a lot of people that feel like they’re in the middle, like all of us, like, or like how we feel, you know, but then they don’t have a label. They don’t, they don’t like the Republican party or they don’t like Donald Trump or [00:24:00] they didn’t like Hillary, or they don’t like Joe Biden.

[00:24:02] Jeff Aldrich: I mean, I personally don’t think any of them are all the best quality leaders that the world has the offer, but there’s reasons that we won’t discuss right now why I think there aren’t great leaders raising their hand and want it. I mean, one of it’s money. I mean, if you’re a great leader, why not go out and make millions of dollars instead of 400,000 president. 

[00:24:25] Travis Eadens: 450 or 400? 

[00:24:26] Jeff Aldrich: I think it’s 400. You know what the crazy stat is? Do you know who the highest paid government official is? 

[00:24:31] Travis Eadens: Anthony Fauci? 

[00:24:32] Jeff Aldrich: No, the highest paid government official. And you can look this up is the U S air force football team head coach. You’re looking at me weird, but if you look it up, he makes over a million dollars a year. I’m just telling you, that’s a weird fact that… 

[00:24:46] DJ Malone: That’s a nice fact!

[00:24:47] Jeff Aldrich: I’ve carried that around with me for quite some.

[00:24:51] Jeff Aldrich: Yeah, but you guys can look it up and then if you proved me wrong. Cool. 

[00:24:54] Jeff Aldrich: Hey, at the collective perspective what we’re trying to do here is to bring multiple different [00:25:00] topics to your attention and just make you aware. I think a lot of people are really confused. I know I’m confused about the media and you know, Travis and I, and we’ve all talked about it to several extent, you know, it’s like, well, if you watch CNN or if you watch Fox, you can get two different things.

[00:25:20] Jeff Aldrich: And I mean, I personally, when I am looking for an opinion on something strong, politically… During the pandemic, I told my wife like, Hey, once a week. Cause we kind of stayed away from the news then, and it was so less stressful, but we would watch an hour of one side and an hour of the other and they were completely different stories, different agendas, different.

[00:25:45] Jeff Aldrich: And that’s where the collective perspective this podcast comes in is there is no place like this. So we want your participation. And I did want to talk about an avenue for you to be able to do that. [00:26:00] We want participation because look, we’re only three different perspectives and to be a collective, it has to be multiple diverse people.

[00:26:08] Jeff Aldrich: We can only fit four people in this room. We do plan on having interviews on specific topics, even tribalism, and the next one coming up, homelessness. But we would like to have a call to action at the end of every podcast. 

[00:26:23] Jeff Aldrich: You could put your own voice on the air, or this gives us a good avenue of being able to collect what your perspective is. What, you know, whether you think what we were saying was incorrect information, or it was just a different perspective on something, but if you go to PODINABOX all one word, P O D I N B O X.com.

[00:26:47] Jeff Aldrich: And search for “The Collective Perspective Podcast”, all one word, all one word as well. And you can even go on our Facebook page, a group under collective perspective podcast. [00:27:00] If you are listening and want to be part of that group, you can ask and we will add you to it. But all this information is on there.

[00:27:09] Jeff Aldrich: Also another thing that keeps us afloat is that we are trying to at least keep the lights on and pay for this podcast. Well, we have a great team assembled to help us put out the best content for you guys and to be the most open. And we are trying to do that through buy me a cup of coffee that is also on our Facebook page.

[00:27:33] Jeff Aldrich: But it’s buymeacoffee.ee/collectivepod. And we’ll post that on the Facebook page. We’ll have links on our web, on our show page as well. 

[00:27:46] Travis Eadens: Back to your topic about all of the different perspectives, how you were saying you and your your wife were watching Fox for an hour or CNN for an hour MSNBC for an hour.

[00:27:56] Travis Eadens: And they all had different views and different tones [00:28:00] as DJ pointed out. I think that’s great. They do speak differently to their audience and I think they know their audience. So that’s why they’re able to speak to them in those tones. What we want to do here is maybe take those views that they have and say, all right, where did they get it wrong?

[00:28:17] Travis Eadens: Where did they get it right? Is there a way that they could have come together and actually reported something a little less bias, probably. But that’s where we want to come in as maybe help somebody see through the bias or develop their opinion based on more than just their own echo chamber or where they’re hearing all their information from all the time without giving thought to anyone else.

[00:28:45] Travis Eadens: If we’re going to make it in this day and age, we all have to come together and be able to say, Hey, you’ve got something that will help me. Maybe I have something that can help you. How can we work together? 

[00:28:59] Jeff Aldrich: You know, one of the [00:29:00] things is social media’s impact on things and has got me back to thinking about the quiz.

[00:29:06] Jeff Aldrich: And when I was saying about Google and they, how they have their search engines and everything like that, you know, And there’s the saying that if it’s free, you are the product. That is what we are in social media. We are a product and they are selling our information. And by sealing our information, they, you know, if I take that quiz and I come up with this label, then that’s the way that I’ll vote.

[00:29:34] Jeff Aldrich: I’ll vote Democrat if I’m one way or I’ll vote Republican if I’m another. But the problem is, is that we all know there should be multiple different ways. There should be multiple different parties. There shouldn’t just be two choices. And I, you know, that’s part of what, I don’t know if you guys heard of Russian troll farms, Travis.

[00:29:57] Jeff Aldrich: Anybody that doesn’t know what a Russian troll farm is, [00:30:00] is that you’re on Facebook and this like really freaks my wife out because they are tracking everything we say they probably, yeah, I got my cell phone on. They probably heard this whole conversation. And then after the, I mentioned the San Diego Padres shorts that I want for my birthday, that I did that on purpose.

[00:30:16] Jeff Aldrich: Then maybe it’ll show up on my algorithm on my Facebook page. I bet you will, man. 

[00:30:23] DJ Malone: Hopefully they follow us. 

[00:30:25] Jeff Aldrich: But that’s what, that’s what the, that’s what, that’s what Google is. And so it’s all about the search engines that you use. So if you’re using Chrome or if you use in safari there’s a couple. 

[00:30:34] Travis Eadens: Duck Duck go doesn’t track as much. I don’t think they track anything. But they’re not a internet crawler, they’re a database crawler. They look they’re databases where Google is your most prolific and one of the better search engines because it searches the entire web. Brave is another web browser that also does not track any of your content.

[00:30:58] Travis Eadens: And they block a lot of ads and a lot [00:31:00] of suspicious malware. Any other tracking apps on that are embedded on a lot of webpages. Those are the ones that I know of. 

[00:31:09] DJ Malone: When you was, when y’all was talking about social media, that we are the product I was thinking, are we like the product and the consumer?

[00:31:16] Jeff Aldrich: Yeah, of course. I mean, we consume. 

[00:31:18] Travis Eadens: If you think about how we’re their product though, it’s not just us is data. We have our data, our data is the product, how we swipe.

[00:31:27] Jeff Aldrich: At what point are they going to read our minds? 

[00:31:29] Travis Eadens: What we look at, what we spend time on. That’s that’s the data, that’s the product. 

[00:31:36] DJ Malone: I think ways that we become the product is like when it comes to becomes us and we as people and people on social media, one becoming brand ambassadors, ’cause you’re, you’re being a, an influence on social media, which you’re helping other companies continue to sell their products because you are now a part of the product. [00:32:00] 

[00:32:00] Jeff Aldrich: Well, Right. If you were to try to say the, Hey, I got a cure for cancer, they’re never going to come up with a cure for cancer because they will lose money.

[00:32:08] DJ Malone: Exactly. 

[00:32:09] Jeff Aldrich: They want repeat customers. 

[00:32:12] DJ Malone: Maybe, and I might not see or hear from you again. 

[00:32:15] Jeff Aldrich: That’s right. So there are, I feel that there are two different tribes that are, could kind of potentially be dangerous and something that we need to be aware of in the next election. And maybe we can do more research and talk about these more topics in depth.

[00:32:34] Jeff Aldrich: But I don’t know if you guys know this, but there are white supremacist organizations that have multiplied and have grown over the year and militias in the United States that I would say, hands down, is a dangerous tribe. That’s kind of a, maybe where I think and where I, you know, when I was first talking with [00:33:00] Travis and how my perspective of tribalism has changed. To me, and you guys can comment on this of course, political tribes and racist tribes, not racial tribes, if you want to be part of the black community and, and support that, I’m all about that.

[00:33:20] DJ Malone: Black lives matter. 

[00:33:21] Jeff Aldrich: Well, if you want to get into black lives matter that that’s, that’s two different things now, like I th and I know you already know this, but there is black lives matter because they do.

[00:33:33] Jeff Aldrich: And then, because that’s not an organization. And then the black lives organization that is, is a Marxist group. Am I not right? 

[00:33:42] DJ Malone: You’re right. 

[00:33:43] Jeff Aldrich: And they, they’re basically Antifa. No? 

[00:33:47] Travis Eadens: I think I don’t, well, they obviously don’t call themselves the same, but they don’t label that. But they are aligned in they’re in their thinking. I believe.

[00:33:56] DJ Malone: They fall in the same track.

[00:33:58] Jeff Aldrich: They got millions of [00:34:00] people to say black lives matter and post it all over hashtags and even painted on the street and in DC. Yeah. And I don’t disagree that black lives matter. And for people to get a sense that all lives matter. I mean, black lives matter to me, but. You know, not to get too crazy into this, cause this is a whole nother topic, but there are kids being sold for sex.

[00:34:25] DJ Malone: Yeah. Sex trafficking. 

[00:34:26] Jeff Aldrich: And we’re worried about, I mean, not saying that it’s not like important. It definitely is, but I think what society puts us as important and what needs to stop, it’s a little one-sided sometimes. 

[00:34:40] Travis Eadens: I think I misheard you earlier when you mentioned that, you know, the two tribes that could be dangerous, one is political and the other one as racist.

[00:34:50] Travis Eadens: I thought you said racial, but now I hear, I heard it better and yes, I think that those can be very dangerous tribes. Just as you had [00:35:00] explained what you meant by racist, the militias that are out there that are promoting just one thing. And they’re out there for violence. They ran over that group in Virginia, man.

[00:35:09] Travis Eadens: Yeah. Heather said I was going to talk a little bit more about the political tribes being dangerous because they divide us into whatever tribes they want us into. They pit upper middle-class against lower class upper, upper class and lower middle class. They will divide us that way.

[00:35:29] Travis Eadens: And then they’ll divide us by race. They’ll divide us by sex. They’ll divide us by gender. They’ll divide us by ideology. 

[00:35:37] Jeff Aldrich: Why do you think they’re dividing us? Why do they want us divided? 

[00:35:41] Travis Eadens: Because divided, we are weak. 

[00:35:43] Jeff Aldrich: You know they said, “United we stand, divided we fall.” That was said in the 1700’s.

[00:35:49] Travis Eadens: It’s just as true today.

[00:35:51] Travis Eadens: And the political parties going back and forth, they back back to that. Yeah. They, they want us divided so they stay in [00:36:00] power. Doesn’t matter which, which side it is. If it’s R or D, they’re the ones making the rules as to who gets on the ballots. And they’re the ones that they don’t want to lose power. So with the, with the political tribes being, I think they are more dangerous at this point than some of the others because of how much power they can wield in keeping everybody divided. With the divisions in the politics, when I was growing up, it was there. You could see it, but I saw more of the handshakes across the aisle where you would see more Democrats and Republicans coming together on really good legislation. Now, if one side has a great idea and there’s a couple of bad ideas in there, they can’t come together and say, all right, well, let me put this good idea with that good idea.

[00:36:59] Travis Eadens: And let’s [00:37:00] get rid of these bad ideas and shake hands on it and be it let’s move forward. That would be some how seen as one side being weak and saying, yeah, let’s I give in to compromise. There’s no compromise there when there has to be. I think our founding fathers set the country up right in having multiple parties because it takes a long time to get things done.

[00:37:25] Travis Eadens: Not everybody comes to the same agreement at the same time. Things in Washington, aren’t supposed to move fast. That’s the point. 

[00:37:33] Jeff Aldrich: That would be dangerous. 

[00:37:34] Travis Eadens: That would be extremely dangerous. I think that’s the point of having the opposing groups and then trying to hash things out together, but they don’t want to hash them out together these days.

[00:37:45] Travis Eadens: And I think that’s where us as the podcast, as a collective perspective, come, come in and say, Hey, look, let’s get together because we, the people have the power over our representatives, they are, [00:38:00] and that’s what they’re supposed to be representing us. And right now, big money there. This is another topic that we can get into in a future episode is the, the money controls the votes.

[00:38:14] Travis Eadens: If we, the people aren’t donating money and writing our representatives, then we control nothing, but we are supposed to control everything. 

[00:38:23] Jeff Aldrich: So a lot of these politicians, I would say most of them, they don’t even read the bill. They, they go in and they it’s so convoluted with so much verbiage and stacks of stuff that they don’t have time to sit there and read all that.

[00:38:38] Jeff Aldrich: Right. 

[00:38:39] Travis Eadens: It’s a 3000 page bill and they have got 24 hours to before they vote on it. They can’t. 

[00:38:47] Jeff Aldrich: That’s crazy. And you were just saying that it should slow down, man. There’s a lot of things that need to change. And one of the things I’m worried about is the next election and, and tribalism in that next election, because, you [00:39:00] know, things have gone to being fake news and not believe in one side or the other, or who’s telling the truth.

[00:39:06] Jeff Aldrich: And who’s to say that, you know, that’s not going to be an issue in the next election. There’s going to be people that you know, like the last election. But it’s just going to, I feel is going to be 10 times worse. 

[00:39:21] DJ Malone: Yeah. I think it’s going to be more feelings involved with the next election, because it’ll be an election.

[00:39:28] DJ Malone: It’ll be a campaign of pretty much two former presidents. If, if that’s the case. I mean, I know I heard Donald Trump…

[00:39:39] DJ Malone: I’ve heard speculations of it, but it’s not been confirmations on it, but hypothetically, if that was the case, you’re going to have people that remembers Trump’s election. You will have people that remembers Biden’s election.

[00:39:53] DJ Malone: And I think it’ll be one of those situations where it’s like, Hmm. Okay. [00:40:00] Which one do we want to deal with? The most. Because when is, when is the next election, 2024? 

[00:40:05] Travis Eadens: 2022 is a midterm election. 

[00:40:12] DJ Malone: Yeah, exactly. 

[00:40:13] Jeff Aldrich: Are you talking about like who they’re going to vote for?

[00:40:16] DJ Malone: Yeah.

[00:40:17] Jeff Aldrich: Okay. 

[00:40:17] DJ Malone: Like, where’s it going to be swayed at? Because I think everybody’s going to put in perspective and everything they did each president did during their time. And I think it, I think people are just going to weigh it on a scale. 

[00:40:30] Jeff Aldrich: Well it seems to me, like there are people that are never going to vote Republican and there’s people that are never going to vote.

[00:40:38] Jeff Aldrich: That’s one thing that we can’t change, we can have them involved and they can change, but they’re going to vote Republican and Democrat, no matter what. 

[00:40:46] Jeff Aldrich: Then there is a huge amount of people that are kind of in the middle. 

[00:40:50] Travis Eadens: And they’ve always voted one way, but they’re willing to vote another way. And I think that’s where we would fit in and ask for the [00:41:00] listeners’ response on this, would you be willing to vote a different way than you have in the past? 

[00:41:04] DJ Malone: Exactly like, if you are definitely on the fence where you don’t know that you don’t have an exact pick of who, who you actually want to vote for or you just like. 

[00:41:14] Jeff Aldrich: Well it’s because neither of them are really qualified.

[00:41:16] DJ Malone: Yeah. 

[00:41:17] Jeff Aldrich: I mean, I mean, okay, so let’s talk about what the term “qualified” is. 

[00:41:21] Travis Eadens: The White House is not an old home. It is not a…

[00:41:26] Jeff Aldrich: Yeah. Why do they gotta be 80 something, man? Like we don’t have some sixties. I mean…

[00:41:31] Travis Eadens: You only have to be 36 or 39.

[00:41:34] Jeff Aldrich: 36, I think.

[00:41:35] Travis Eadens: 36 to be president.

[00:41:37] DJ Malone: Dang. 

[00:41:38] Jeff Aldrich: But the thing is okay, so that’s getting into a whole topic and… but why isn’t there a better choices?

[00:41:45] Travis Eadens: Money.

[00:41:46] Jeff Aldrich: Definitely.

[00:41:47] DJ Malone: Yeah. I just felt like and pushing out or whatever agenda it is.

[00:41:53] Jeff Aldrich: And here’s another thing is if I can log on to the IRS and access all my account information and [00:42:00] I have, it’s a secure link with the little lock and stuff like that. And supposedly nobody can tamper into it or I can log into my bank account and I have a password and everything like that.

[00:42:10] Jeff Aldrich: What is the big deal about having the ballot? For elections on the phone, on, on a device. Yeah. Cause it’d get hacked?

[00:42:20] Travis Eadens: It can very, very easily. 

[00:42:23] Jeff Aldrich: Okay. Well, why aren’t they saying that’s what, how the other law, the last selection was? It was hacked. And it ain’t on there.

[00:42:30] Travis Eadens: But my, my thought was that you can’t hack paper ballots.

[00:42:35] Jeff Aldrich: At the end of the day, it goes into a computer.

[00:42:38] Jeff Aldrich: It goes into a machine at the end of the day.

[00:42:39] Travis Eadens: There are analog machines that count them.

[00:42:42] Jeff Aldrich: Yeah. But they’re not going to go, okay. Number eight and draw a number eight on the wall and go, okay, we got eight votes. It’s put into a computer is what I’m saying it. And then that number can be manipulated at any point.

[00:42:54] Travis Eadens: It wasn’t always put into acomputer.

[00:42:59] Jeff Aldrich: But we’re talking [00:43:00] about 2022, bro. 

[00:43:03] Jeff Aldrich: We’re not talking about the 1700’s where they scratched it. 

[00:43:07] Travis Eadens: I’m not either. We always had election day, one day. They counted all the votes, even though there weren’t very good computers, there were tabulating machines, and they had a result by the next day. Period. They didn’t stop counting for any reason until it was done. 

[00:43:24] Jeff Aldrich: Well, you know , in our lifetimes, in many people’s lifetimes, there hasn’t been an election during a pandemic, whatever you feel about that pandemic that’s different. But the way that reacted to it, it’s hard because I, I didn’t do. I didn’t do the written ballot. I went in and I voted. 

[00:43:44] Travis Eadens: I wouldn’t, I didn’t do the “write-in” either. I would do it in person. I just don’t. I don’t trust that the mail would get there in time. And even though there is a deadline for mailing in your ballot.

[00:43:58] Jeff Aldrich: Who’s to say it was even [00:44:00] collected. 

[00:44:01] DJ Malone: Exactly.

[00:44:02] Travis Eadens: Perspective. 

[00:44:03] Jeff Aldrich: No, those are two different things, same word, but different.

[00:44:08] Travis Eadens: I get the context. 

[00:44:11] Jeff Aldrich: I know it was fun. 

[00:44:12] Travis Eadens: Bad Dad jokes. Stick around for more.

[00:44:14] Jeff Aldrich: Trying to get some younger folks in here, Travis. 

[00:44:17] Jeff Aldrich: So we’re trying to get some younger kids. I said, folks 

[00:44:21] Jeff, DJ, & Travis: [laughs]

[00:44:22] Jeff Aldrich: “Tryin’ get some younger folks!” Cause that’ll attract them. I was just going to talk about the call to action and how we would like for the audience participation. And I alluded to it earlier with the “pod in a box”. That’s the one word by the way. And it’s “The Collective Perspective Podcast” in one word. And you could actually it’s a paid service, so you can actually leave a… 

[00:44:44] Travis Eadens: A voice message…

[00:44:45] Jeff Aldrich: …voice message. And. Let us know… 

[00:44:48] Travis Eadens: Your thoughts, where are we going wrong on this? Or what did we get right on this? 

[00:44:52] Jeff Aldrich: Yeah. Or maybe something that you want to hear more about because we can definitely go into tribes a little bit more [00:45:00] and the dangers of those tribes, but also if you had some local interview possibilities or suggestions, Or you feel that you have something else to add?

[00:45:13] Jeff Aldrich: We can maybe consider that.

[00:45:14] DJ Malone: Most definitely. 

[00:45:16] Jeff Aldrich: So, Hey, we’re going to sign off for today. Hit us up.

[00:45:20] DJ Malone: Collectively.

[00:45:21] Travis Eadens: Looking forward to your comments.

[00:45:23] Jeff Aldrich: Yes. Thank you for listening. 

[00:45:25] Travis Eadens: Buy me a cup of coffee. 

[00:45:27] DJ Malone: Collectively.