
Life Liberty and the Pursuit
Welcome to the Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit podcast. Come join Eric and Matt who are freedom-loving, meat-eating, gun-shooting American guys as they discuss a broad spectrum of topics ranging from States' rights, culture, and the 2nd Amendment to scotch, bourbon, and cigars. Eric & Matt are both former US Army combat veterans who served together while deployed to Iraq during OIF III. Eric is most notable for his YouTube channel Iraqveteran8888 which has over 2.75 million subscribers currently as well as his outspoken and no-compromise stance regarding the 2nd amendment. Matt, founded Ballistic Ink, a branding and merchandising company that serviced 2A content creators and the firearms industry. He also is a partner of Alliance jiujitsu Roswell located in Roswell GA and trains daily and competes regularly. He is very passionate about the 2nd amendment and freedom. Come along for the ride!
Life Liberty and the Pursuit
LLP #112: Jiu-Jitsu, Politics, and Underwear: The Unexpected Comeback Episode
Ask us a question. We will answer it on the podcast.
Show sponsors:
Choq
choq.com
25% off any subscription
Promo code: LLP
Strikeman
strikeman.com
20% off your order
Promo code: IV8888
Undertac
undertac.com
20% off your order
Promo code: LLP20
After a long-awaited return, Eric and Matt are back behind the mics for an honest, unfiltered conversation about life's challenges and triumphs. This reunion episode dives deep into Matt's journey through a catastrophic leg injury that derailed his competitive jiu-jitsu career, sharing the raw reality of recovery and his determination to return to the mat.
The heart of this episode explores a topic many men face but few discuss openly – testosterone levels and their profound impact on energy, mood, and quality of life. Both hosts candidly share their experiences with TRT (testosterone replacement therapy), breaking down misconceptions and addressing how hormone optimization has changed their approach to fitness and daily living. They provide valuable insights for listeners navigating similar health decisions, particularly highlighting how trauma and military service can impact hormone production even in younger men.
Between personal updates on Eric's powerlifting journey and Matt's jiu-jitsu academy, the conversation naturally flows into observations about recent political developments, media manipulation, and the search for truth in an increasingly complex information landscape. Their discussion exemplifies the show's commitment to authentic dialogue about the pillars of a meaningful life – physical capability, mental clarity, and personal freedom.
This episode marks more than just a comeback – it's the beginning of a weekly schedule with exciting new features including listener Q&A segments and potential guest appearances. Whether you're interested in male health optimization, physical training after 40, or thoughtful perspectives on current events, this episode delivers substantive conversation with the characteristic humor and honesty that defined the show's earlier run.
Subscribe now and join us every Monday as we continue exploring life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in these challenging times. Have questions or topic suggestions? Click the link in the description to submit them for our next episode.
Welcome back everybody. This is Eric and Matt and this is Life, liberty and the Pursuit, your beacon of freedom and the American way of life. Tune in every Monday for a new episode as we dive into the world of liberty and what makes our country great.
Speaker 2:Welcome back everybody. This is Eric and Matt here with Life, liberty and the Pursuit. You're home for all things. Freedom in a world of craziness. And we are finally bringing back the LLP podcast. Boys and girls.
Speaker 3:Oh yes, very excited, very excited, man. It's been way too long, dude life has been really crazy.
Speaker 2:We've had a lot going on and I know whenever we do our podcast, we're always, you know, kind of like joking around a little bit beforehand and kind of talking about things. And I don't like to do that too much because I like things to be organic when we're doing the show, but at the same time I always like to catch up with you a bit and it's just such a great thing. And I know life has been crazy for both of us and we can talk a little bit about that as we go, of course.
Speaker 3:But you had an injury. Yeah, man, I mean I know we don't talk about it too much, we're trying to save it for the podcast, so it works out. Yeah, the last two years have been very crazy, a lot of life changes. I suffered a pretty catastrophic injury on my leg. Recovering from that and that was just. You know we've been training jiu-jitsu a lot.
Speaker 3:For those that don't know, I opened a jiu-jitsu academy in Roswell, georgia Alliance, roswell and you know been training, hard training. You know, two times a day, every day. We were getting ready to compete at Worlds and the Pan American Games and you know I was competing at, you know, all the local IBJJF Opens. You know, here in Atlanta, charlotte, new Orleans, to really get practice to go into these world-level events. And you know I was doing so good. I was winning all the tournaments, double-golding my division and open division. And one week before PANS I suffered a catastrophic injury on my leg, just a trimallular fracture broke tibia fibula ankle. It was brutal man, so now I got some screws holding everything together. But I'm back training now. So it's been about four or five months going on, five months now. So, getting back to training, I'm able to train on a regular basis now kind of easing into it and hopefully we'll make on a regular basis now easing into it, hopefully we'll make worlds and pans next year.
Speaker 2:man, it's been a crazy couple of years for me too on that front. I know you and I have always been pretty active. I've been doing the power lifting and stuff. You know that I recently got on TRT. I know I've made some episodes about this, y'all talking a little bit about it. We're going to talk a little bit about that because I think it's definitely related to you know all of the general health and everything of male health. And that actually brings us to our first show sponsor here, and that is Chalkcom.
Speaker 2:All right, our country just witnessed Donald Trump overcome political persecution, an assassination attempt and the entire deep state to retake the presidency with a historical victory. There's one secret ingredient that allowed Trump to do this, and that's testosterone. What most people don't realize is that testosterone makes men willing and eager to take on challenges. Sadly, too many of us have lost our fight, and that's exactly what the globalists want. They want us weak, out of shape and full of estrogen and microplastics with low T. That's why we're excited to partner with Chalk.
Speaker 2:Chalk offers a whole line of products formulated to increase your energy focus, detoxify your body and, clinically studied, boost testosterone. Ingredients in the chalk male vitality stack have been clinically studied to boost free testosterone in 87 in just 21 days, unlike the gimmicky vegetable pills or powder. You will feel the difference and they have the clinical studies to back it up. Right now you can get 25 off of your order for your subscription for life. Just go to Chalkcom and use the promo code LLP. That is Lima, lima, papa. That's 25% off any subscription for life and you can cancel at any time. Made right here in America, all American customer service. They're standing by to assist you. Check out Chalk and get your vitality rolling again. Today.
Speaker 3:you check out chalk and get your vitality rolling again today. What a great sponsor for the show. What a great way to to talk about trt. Yes and just yeah, just testosterone supplement supplements in general. Um, a great sponsor. They came at a great time and you know I'm a believer in it. I know that you've had you've made a few videos or a video on it. I personally use it myself. I'm 41, so I just age myself, but it definitely helps. I encourage anybody that is on that side of the age scale to look into it, because it is life-changing and you shouldn't have to go through life sad or with low energy. Go through life, you know, sad or with low energy.
Speaker 2:You know there seems to be a divided consensus on how people feel about TRT, whether or not someone should undergo, you know, trt or any type of hormonal therapies and things like that, and I get it. There are many people that prefer more of a holistic approach where, okay, you're going to get your diet and exercise together. You're going to eat foods that you know don't inhibit production of testosterone but actually increase the production of testosterone. Heavy compound lifting in the gym is going to bring your testosterone levels up. You're going to produce more testosterone with heavy compound lifts. I know some people bash power lifters. They say, well, can you run six minute mile? Well, may not be able to run a six minute mile, but I can, you know, do a 600 pounds squat. So those heavy compound lifts, they really do cause the testes to really get into the mode of producing natural testosterone. The issue is, when you undergo TRT, your body begins to metabolically sort of shut down the production and your nuts go into atrophy, which is not a problem. It may be a problem if you want to have children or start a family, but I mean if you're in your 40s, chances are you've probably already done that and again, I know I've mentioned this in other videos, but I wanted to mention in today's podcast, not only for all of our emboldened listeners and those of you watching on YouTube, by the way.
Speaker 2:We are on all the different podcast forums all over the place. Make sure you're following us everywhere Stitcher, spotify, apple Podcasts. Obviously, we post over on IRAC Veteran 8888 on the YouTube channel so you can see this podcast in video form as well. If you want to see our ugly mugs, you can do that as well, so make sure you check that out. But we post these everywhere.
Speaker 2:But the discussion about TRT it tends to divide a lot of people and some people, you know, prefer the more holistic approach. But once you do start it, you kind of have to continue doing it. There seems to be a big disconnect about the age that people should be at when they start these regimens. You know some people say 40 is too young, or some people say you shouldn't even get checked until you're in your 50s or your 60s or something like that. But the truth is and I know I've discussed this in a few of the videos, matt is that when, especially if you're in the, you know public service if you're, you know a veteran, if you're law enforcement, if, if you're a veteran, if you're law enforcement, even if you're a paramedic or even a doctor or someone who's seen a lot of traumatic events it could be violence you've been exposed to.
Speaker 2:It could be death that you've been exposed to. It could be a number of things. Maybe you just witnessed some traumatic events, those things you know. When you develop, these triggers the post-traumatic stress syndrome and things like that it will cause your body to produce less testosterone. So an otherwise healthy young male 20 years old, 22 years old you would think would be brimming with testosterone may actually have low T even in their 20s. If you saw some real traumatic things or dealt with some really heavy stuff at a young age, maybe you saw your mother get abused by your father, or maybe you saw a family member hurt or a bad car wreck. It could be any number of things that would cause a person to to get into that mode of of sort of a self-destruction, know, and it can cause a man to shut down.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I think that that is the biggest point of contention amongst a lot of people. Is that the age factor. So what? When is it too young? Because, like you said, you know, jumping on any type of you know hormone replacement at a younger age does cause some adverse side effects. You know. There's no, no way around it. You're replacing a naturally producing hormone with a synthetic for all intents and purposes, a synthetic hormone.
Speaker 3:When you mention younger, like age 20, 21, 22, it's not uncommon for service members to experience low testosterone because of that, because of the things that they experienced, like overseas you are taking a kid that went overseas and their adrenaline was spiked for an entire year. You're basically over there for a whole year, at least in the army. I know Marines did like six month tours, but in the army we're doing 12 month tours or longer. You're getting spiked with adrenaline every day boom, boom, boom, boom. And then you get home and it's nothing and your body's like, hey, where's this? Where's this dopamine hit, where's this? You know, where's this high energy, high tempo, uh, environment, and you're not. It's not there.
Speaker 3:So now your testosterone is lower and that's the most common case you see is you see younger guys that have, you know, 300, 400 like test levels and they're 22 years old. Those are test levels for like a 50 year old guy. And then they're they have the memory issues, the cognitive issues, energy, so bad mood, bad mood. You really have to go and get that checked and I know that. You know we were talking about our sponsor, chalk TRT. The actual supplementation of hormones is only one aspect of it. There's plenty of other ways to try to boost that naturally without going like, directly into TRT. There's a lot of natural supplements, a lot of other stuff you can do that'll help with that. And then that kind of last stage is where we're at as a as an older guy, like, hey, we're going to have to supplement, we're going to have to have to put something back into it.
Speaker 2:I think you hit the nail on the head, dude Cause you know, I think if you can correct your testosterone levels without the need to get on TRT, that's probably the best thing to do. So that's awesome. Thatalk came in hard on this. I'm going to order some. I want to check it out. I want to see what it's all about. I'm going to try it out myself and see how I like it. So really cool stuff and a big thanks to Chalk for supporting being the first sponsor here on our podcast coming back, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:As you know, guys, we've produced many LLP episodes well over 100 episodes and the podcast has done really well. And over 100 episodes and the podcast has done really well. And Matt and I sort of took a break and many of you know that, obviously, and many people have been asking me to make more LLP episodes. So I'm really excited to get back in the saddle with this, and Matt and I go way back. You know he and I are battle brothers, so we've got a long history and it's always fun to talk about a myriad of different things.
Speaker 2:So I'll recap a couple of things. We'll go back and look at a few things that we've done before. You guys might remember some of the flights that we've done, the fight or flight series. The flight or fight series we would basically just do a flight of like different whiskeys, sometimes different peppers, different foods and things like that. So we'd like to kind of mix things up a little bit. You never know if you're going to see a special guest here.
Speaker 2:We will eventually start integrating some guests into the show. We'll have to see who can travel and get down, and I've actually been in the process of redoing the studio here and changing things around so you might see some different sets and everything that we're going to be building. And I want to do like a really bougie guest area where we have like a nice comfy couch and, you know, snacks and you know, just have like a really great environment for a guest to come hang out and then we can, you know, film together. So that's something that I hope we can all look forward to and I really appreciate you guys who have supported LLP for all this time and have constantly called for us to bring back more episodes of LLP.
Speaker 2:I really do enjoy the long form podcast because we can just let loose and just talk about life and it doesn't always have to be political, it doesn't always have to necessarily be gun related and things like that. So this is just a great way to be personal and talk about things. So Jiu Jitsu Academy is doing well. You got an injury, you hurt your foot, you've got screws in your foot. Now are you ever going to be able to compete again?
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, I'm S. I mean I have plans to compete uh later in may. Um, hopefully, if I can get back into uh where I feel comfortable, competing at a high level I plan on doing. There's an international tournament out in Long Beach at the end of May. So if I feel comfortable, if I do well here at the Atlanta Open, I'm going to probably go out to Long Beach and try my luck in the international tournament as it goes farther into the year. Um, the way jujitsu works is you kind of have like two seasons you have Gi season, which is the first six months of the year, and then you have no Gi season uh, which is the last six months. So, uh, they just did uh the Pan American games, um, I think maybe a week ago or two weeks ago down in Florida. And then you have Worlds that's coming up in August and then now after Worlds it switches to no gi and then hopefully we can.
Speaker 2:Now what's the difference of gi and no gi? I'm uninitiated here.
Speaker 3:Just explain, You're wearing your traditional kimono. It looks very similar to a judo uniform. It's like you got the long little ninja pajamas on, okay, yeah, yeah, the ninja pajamas I got you, okay. And for Nogi, it's very similar to like wrestling, so you're wearing like rash guard shorts. You're not-.
Speaker 2:Like a singlet or something.
Speaker 3:Not. Well, not a single Singles for wrestling. This is just like it looks like a rash guard you'd wear at the beach, basically like surfing type deal, um, and it's very similar to wrestling. You're not able to use any grips on the clothing, so everything is collar ties, wrist control. Um, I prefer nogi. I compete both gi and nogi, but I I prefer nogi personally, and that seems to be a little bit more popular here in the us, um, but everywhere else gi is is probably more popular.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't know that you know I've been've been doing the power lifting stuff so I know a lot of folks follow me, especially on Instagram and Twitter. You can follow me on Twitter IRACVeteran8888, directly if you want. Also, we do have an LLP Twitter handle if you want to check it out. For Life, liberty and the Pursuit we don't post a lot over there. Mainly if you want to get some of my musings, just pop on over on I Write Veteran, but I do post a lot about the power lifting which I've really been enjoying that a lot. I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about it because I've done a little bit of discussion in a few previous videos about it. So I won't spend a lot of time here. But it has been fun and I do have SPF Worlds coming up in November.
Speaker 2:So we've kind of gone back down on the training regimen to back it back down and do support work and try to get my shoulder better, because I did have a little bit of a shoulder injury and everything like that. So I'm kind of working through a little bit of shoulder pain in my right shoulder, which I don't know is from nerves or if it's muscle fatigue, but my bench is not as good as it should be. Before I experienced this injury in my shoulder, I was close to pushing 315 pretty clean on the bench, but then I was. We went in in December and we were doing some heavy shrugs in the rack, rack shrugs and I think I had 405 pounds doing shrugs with 405 and I think that's what did it. It might have been a little bit too much weight to do shrugs. I mean, that's some heavy shrugs and doing you know 315-pound bent over rows.
Speaker 3:you know that'll get your shoulder running. It will, man, but it'll build them lats too Right.
Speaker 2:Right, it does. So I think we might have overtrained the shoulder. But this last meet I squatted 525, deadlifted 475 and I only benched like 185. That is what we call token bench. So, uh, I'm working on getting the bench back up and getting the numbers up and I'm hoping around november. I want to squat, hopefully around 600, I want to pull 550 and I want to push three plates. That's the goal.
Speaker 3:okay, so you're getting close to that 1000 pounds, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, Well, getting getting, hopefully, you know, around 1500. Is you know if I can do 1500 pounds total as a as a 40 year old guy?
Speaker 3:I'll be pretty happy. Well, see, that's what it comes down to Like. As you get older, you, you want to be able to continue to enjoy the things that you do, and you know that requires you to do certain things. Um, you have to. So you can either have a choice of hey, I can just sit here and rot and not be able to do the things that I really want to enjoy doing, or I can take a initiative and do the things that I need to do in order to be happy and live a fulfilling life.
Speaker 3:Cause, when, when I think if, uh, how, I'm going to die, it's not going to be laying in a bed, uh, you know wishing I would have, you know, taken advantage of all the things that life has, I'm going to go out the way that I want to go out, you know, um, and, and that's enjoying life, spending time with your family, spending time with your friends, and really, for me, it's all about spending time with my daughter, so that, you know, being able to travel and, like, go with her. She, she's a little eight-year-old wrestler man. Like she just won, uh, aau nationals um up in tennessee. Like two weeks of may actually, I think it was saturday we went up to tennessee. Um, so being able to travel around to her wrestling competitions is those are the things that I enjoy doing and that's one of the reasons that, you know, you know, over the last two years we really had to kind of scale back on how busy I was, because I'm missing out on all these opportunities to spend with my daughter and my wife, and that's that's really what makes me happy is being able to, you know, go and see them compete and having a family that competes, like I compete a lot, or let me rephrase that I did compete a lot until this accident and it was.
Speaker 3:It was amazing, man, like my daughter, we're at a jiu jitsu tournament and my daughter's coaching me. My daughter is on the floor. She's like yelling at me, like watching her dad, like when these tournaments, and she's like coaching and yelling, and then now she goes to a wrestling tournament and I'm the one coaching her and it's just, it's a great feeling, man, to be able to do that oh man, I know that makes you so proud.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I have a smile on my face so huge. There's nothing a guy wants more than to be capable, be in shape, be able to take care of himself, look as good as he can, look for his partner, take care of of his kids, take care of his family. You know, live your best life and I don't have a problem with that at all. I think that you know where I've been on my journey in the last, you know, year or two. Especially is this fitness journey that I've been on.
Speaker 2:I've been a little obsessive about it, you know. I mean, I work two hours a day in the gym, four days a week, so I do eight hours in the gym a week and I work hard. I mean we do, we do a lot of work and, um, it's, it's addictive, you know it gets to a point that, uh, that I miss it. Like if, if I, on a day that I'm resting like I know I'm going to rest on Wednesdays I'm like I feel like I want to go to the gym, you know I don't want to rest, you know. So of course, the TRT does help with that.
Speaker 2:I am on TRT as well, just like you are, and, and I like it, I like the way I feel. I mean not to beat a dead horse, but you know it's not bad. Overall, though, I do feel like with the working out aspect, I think it's something that every person should strive for. Everyone should, you know, see the best version of themselves that they can be at least once in their life. And you know what better time than in your golden years? As you get older, you know if you can see the full measure of your physical physique. I feel like you have a better chance of getting like really yoked when you're in your 30s and 40s.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can't beat the natural Like. So let's not make any mistakes. If you're 20 or 30 and you have 900 to 1,000 tests, naturally you're fine. You can't out-supplement that. That is a natural test level. That is just phenomenal. You're going to be able to go to the gym. You're going to be able to just get absolutely shredded. The problem is, when you are 30 or 40, you have like 300 tests like you're not going to get nothing out of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm talking about just like the, the, the opportunity for a person to get like absolutely yoked. I mean, you look at some of these power lifters, you look at some of these um bodybuilders and things. It's like they don't really get like into their prime until they're like in their forties, you know, in early fifties, and then they start to like wow, like that physique is perfect, that lift is perfect, like, wow, they're strong as they've ever been. So it's like this is an exciting time in a person's life. When you're in your late thirties, early forties, you know, if you do want to make a change, if you do want to, you know, get in the gym and have a go, especially if you didn't do it younger in life.
Speaker 2:You know I never really did a lot in the gym, ever when I was younger I was just kind of a scrawny, nerdy kid. You know I never really did a lot, even in the military. I remember A very ripped guy Like I was. Just, you know I was kind of scrawny, I mean, I was pretty tiny, you know. But now though, it's just really interesting to see that you know you can definitely take that physical fitness to a new level, which I think is very important. So I'm glad to hear that the Jiu-Jitsu Academy is doing well.
Speaker 2:And you know, you know what I've been doing with the power lifting. I've been working a lot on the house, doing some improvements. I know every time I call you you're working on the house. I know, man, I know I've been doing a lot of work and, um, things have been really good. I'm I'm very blessed. I have a wonderful partner that I love very much and she treats me really great and, dude, it's been, it's been going so well that's what it's about, man yeah, yes, sweet girl, she's great and uh, she and I've been doing a lot of fun things together, going on trips, going places.
Speaker 3:Enjoying life, yeah, and I mean just to kind of go Playing with the dogs. To go back to what you were saying about TRT and I know this whole episode isn't about TRT, no, however, I think it's very important that people understand like there is a divide. There's people that they're like hey, you, you shouldn't do trt. Like, but why why right? Like the real question, why not? You're 40, 50 years old and I'm gonna. It's going to allow me to enjoy my life significantly more than if I didn't do it. And what's the harm? It's a victimless. Like. If you're like oh, it's not natural. Like who cares? Like the epitome of freedom I can do what I want. Like it's me, it's my body, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Speaker 2:That's it, man. Like, why not? What's wrong with pursuing happiness? I mean, as long as you understand the risks and you understand what goes into it and you understand all of the underlying implications, well then that's up to you to decide whether or not it's for you.
Speaker 2:And I, for one, I really enjoy the idea of medical science. I mean well-studied, well-backed, well-funded, well-researched science that you know. Look, we have so much at our fingertips that people didn't have in the fifties and forties. And you know, back in the day, the golden era of power lifting and bodybuilding, people didn't have all the supplementation. And, yeah, sure, you have some, really, you know, yoked natural lifters. But man, it's just, it's exciting to know that you know even people who are having some issues with, let's just say, their testosterone, that they can still experience good gains in the gym and a healthy male lifestyle. And hey, what's wrong with that?
Speaker 2:Anyway, so we'll move on a little bit and I tell you a lot has happened since you and I have made a podcast, and I know that. You know, in some previous episodes we've talked about a variety of different subjects. For those of you who are just tuning back in and maybe you haven't tuned into an episode in a while or if you've never heard of LLP. We have done a variety of different things. As I mentioned before, we did the fight or flight series, but also we've done talks about prepping and talks about, you know, different firearms and all sorts of gun stuff as well. So you know, at our core we love guns and we've talked about a variety of different subjects some political subjects, subjects of war, you know foreign affairs, world events and things like that. So a lot has happened.
Speaker 2:Okay, in the last year or two. I mean, we haven't even really spoken that much. I know you and I will occasionally text each other, hey, how's life, but not a deep conversation like this where we're really diving into what's really going on. And when I say what's really going on, how are you feeling about the world? How are you feeling about society? How are you feeling about how things are going? You know the direction of the country. You know we just had this crazy election. I mean, we know the president. Now you and I have not even had a discussion since Trump was elected. So spill the beans. How do you feel right now about it?
Speaker 3:all. So spill the beans. How do you feel right now about it all? And this was when she had just started kind of turning more into like the second amendment and she was going to shooting ranges and she was, you know, she was professing her love for the second amendment in general. She kind of went back to like why she felt feels the way she did, why she kind of turned her back on on the democratic party and, um, you know, I never had a problem with her. After she did that. People were like, oh, you can't trust her. Like if that was the case you'd never trust anybody. Because the whole point of changing someone's mind if you change their mind and then you say, well, okay, I managed to change your mind, but I don't trust you Like what was the point of that?
Speaker 2:Someone must be willing to accept new information process, that information and potentially have a change of heart. Exactly new information process, that information and potentially have a change of heart, exactly.
Speaker 2:Is that to say that Tulsi Gabbard has had a change of heart about the Second Amendment? I mean, one would certainly think so, you know, based on a lot of the things that she's talked about in some of her. You know stances and we know, you know now, that she has a position in Trump's cabinet along with Kennedy. So, you know, I think he's great too. You know, I know that during the election, there's always going to be this mudslinging fest that occurs during an election, and they're always going to. You know, even people who, after the election, they're going to be kind of buddy-buddy beforehand. It's like there's this, this competition of ideas and this competition of of literal consequence of elections, right, you know. And rfk uh ran against trump, and early on he dropped out, of course, and and supported trump, but at first, though, he was running against trump.
Speaker 3:So so, and so was vivek there was a lot of people that were running that were kind of like they were good but not not trump, like they weren't as good as Trump.
Speaker 2:Right. And Vivek, you know, I do feel like he was a good candidate. He's a very well-spoken guy, he's very intelligent. I do think he's a very smart guy and I think he has a lot of good, forward-thinking ideas that are not progressive in nature, but really more conservative in nature, but still progressive if that makes sense. No, it does.
Speaker 2:And I think that there is a fine line between, you know, being a progressive and being a conservative. You know you want society to progress in a way that is, you know, going to look out for the best interests of a collective society. You know, to the truest form, that you possibly can and be as fair and equitable as possible, but you also never want to completely abolish or do away with the institutions that make your country what it is. And conservatism at its core is really all about respecting the past and acknowledging the past, but also understanding where we came from, how we got here, who built this country, what principles it was founded on, and we really have to ask ourselves what do we really want to accomplish as a country? You know, vivek, you know right, it's not that Vivek wasn't a good candidate, it's just that he wasn't Trump. And you're right there, you took the words right out of my mouth in that Trump is a larger than life force and many people know from following me over the years that you know I have not always agreed with Donald Trump on everything. Trump and I have not always agreed and saw eye to eye.
Speaker 2:Many people consider Trump to be a closet Democrat, or maybe even blatantly a Democrat who runs as a Republican, and you know what. Or maybe even blatantly a Democrat who runs as a Republican, and you know what. I'm willing to say. That's all right, honestly, because I look at a person's actions. I look at what they do. I look at where their heart is at. I look at the consequences of everything. I look at the way they represent the country. I look at the bravado and bravery that they apply to the standards that they have. Do they represent me as an American? If I was sitting in the room, would I have a moment? Would I go wow, that guy really just said something that resonated with me, or he did something that resonated with me.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's like the way to look at a president in a way is and don't take this the wrong way, I'm not saying Trump's daddy, but you almost have to look at like a family unit, right, like, okay, if the father in the family is going to be a good father, he's going to occasionally have to do some things that are going to make the family unit a little bit distressed here and there. Right Like, the kid may go to mom and go well, daddy took away my iPad because I was acting up. Can I have it back? Well, and the mom's going to say well, I'm not going to give you your iPad back because your dad took it, right. So I'm not suggesting that people are like infantile, like children have to be treated like children, but it's almost like, when you have such a high power like that, someone like a president, it doesn't matter what decisions you make or how well-intentioned your decisions are going to be. You're going to upset somebody. Someone somewhere in the mix is not going to be happy with what you have to say or what your actions are.
Speaker 2:So, and when I say that I disagree with Donald Trump on a lot of things, that doesn't necessarily mean that I don't respect him as a person or respect him as the president, or think that he's doing a fantastic job. Because he is, I think he's doing a fantastic job, I agree and go. Hey, I can disagree with you on this one little area like, such as the bump stock ban, or his position on some of his two way positions, which have been lukewarm. To me personally, some of his statements have been lukewarm and fallen on a lukewarm place in my heart. It's okay for me to acknowledge that that exists, but still think that he is a fantastic guy, you know, a brave guy who represents my values, even if he's a self-proclaimed Democrat, even if he is a closet Democrat, that's okay. Kennedy was a Democrat, right, and he was a very well-respected Democrat. Everyone loved John Kennedy, that's right, all right. What did John Kennedy want to do? All right, all right. All these Kennedy papers just got released. Let's talk about you. Have you been?
Speaker 3:reading up on that. No, I haven't had time to sit there and read through all. Well, I don't think anyone has.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of documentation, but look what happened to Kennedy. Kennedy was trying to blow the entire lid off of this banking cabal and this you know world government and this you know, this sort of underhanded crap that's been going on in our country. He was going to blow the lid off of it and shut it all down, and what happened?
Speaker 3:Took him out and that that they already and he was a Democrat. Yeah, they already said that there was some some ties to to some inside job there.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, and, and there's talks of Mossad, there's talks of CIA, there's talks of dark money, there's talks of slush money, and there's there's talks of all sorts of nefarious things. And if it's one thing our country has always been in the business of matt is regime change.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, not just with our country, but with other countries, like even oh, we love to meddle in other countries. Yeah, absolutely, we're like, hey, we're gonna, but you know what it never works out. Every single time, every single time we put our, put our hands in the cookie jar, it's come back to bite us. Man, yeah, look at the Bay of Pigs. Yeah Well, yeah, bay of Pigs, you had Saddam, you had like all of the Middle East, the whole Egypt and the what is it? The Brotherhood, whatever that was like. We Brotherhood, whatever that was, I was like, every single time that we meddled in there for thinking that we were going to do something good, came back to bite us, you know what really gets me, man, is we had such a great relationship with Iran in the 70s.
Speaker 2:I was like what happened? We completely screwed that up. I was going to drop the F-bomb, but I didn't want to. We completely screwed that up. I mean, we had such a great relationship with Iran. They were very westernized, they were very forward-thinking, they were very progressive, which you know for a country like Iran. I mean, believe me, you had women walking around wearing western clothes, acting you know, going to clubs. It's like wow, what is this? We had a great relationship.
Speaker 3:Well, think about how much of a relationship we have with a country that we sell them. No, we don't sell them. We allow the sale of one of your best naval fighter jets, which was like the F-14 Tomcat. At the time, they were the only country to receive that technology. They were able to purchase that technology and that was the sole reason that America stopped producing that and they deadlined all of their F-14s was because they didn't want Iran to get spare parts for their existing jets. That's never happened. Now we sell F-16s, like to other countries. Oh, but we got so many planes that will smoke F-16 now, but like the F-14 at the time, revolutionary, biggest baddest, yeah, biggest baddest. And they were like oh, yes, please, iran, you're allowed to buy these. And then we dropped the ball and we're like deadline, all the aircraft.
Speaker 2:You know, I'd like to be a fly on the wall to just know how those conversations go Like. When does diplomacy dissolve to nothing? Like at what point does diplomacy just go out the window and it's like, well, we were friends, now we're not. Imagine how scary that is as a world leader to think. I mean, imagine how incompetent Biden was. I mean that's a whole nother discussion. I mean he was not presidential, he was not there. You know, definitely experiencing I don't know Alzheimer's or no telling what sort of cognitive, you know degeneration in his brain or whatever. You know, you get older you begin to lose your marbles a little bit. And I'm not saying the guy you know is a bad person or whatever. I mean some would say he's a bad person. But I'm just trying to be objective here and just say that you know the man definitely was unfit to serve.
Speaker 3:I can objectively say that through my entire life on this planet, that was probably the worst four years that I've ever experienced. Like it was very, very bad. Like it was.
Speaker 2:Imagine being bad Like it was Imagine being a world leader and you're meeting with that Magoo guy. I mean, he's just such a Magoo Like he's just Like Weekend at Bernie's, like they've got him propped up on telling what kind of meds and handlers, and it's like you're going to have a discussion about the wherewithal of the power of the world, the struggle of the world power, and he is your person that you're sending to have that discussion. Like imagine how and how crappy your hands you're in at that point.
Speaker 3:And then imagine going from that to trump so to touch on that, I just remember the when they had the easter, like the little eas celebration, they had one of his handlers in that pink bunny suit. The pink bunny suit guy was like walking Biden around to make sure he didn't wander off. I was like that's, that's crazy. But to go from that to Trump and I, and just real quick, the reason that I like Trump is because he he treats people like if you do something wrong, he'll tell you. Like when he was meeting with zielinski, he was like you never said thank you, you never.
Speaker 3:140 billion dollars. You never even said thank you and the next thing, you know, the next day he comes out and he gives a public, a public thank you for. Like hey, thanks for thanks for giving us so much. All you had to do was ask. But the whole time they were just giving these people money, money, money. Never even asked for anything. No, thank you nothing. That's our money, man. That's money that the Americans have given to the government and a lot of that money was being filtered all the way back through PACs and everything.
Speaker 3:Half of it is unaccounted for. So I'm like, where did all this go? Oh, we, we know where it went. It went right back here into some pocket, something, something bugatti, veyron, I don't know, but I mean. But I mean so and look at the p, the cabinet people that he put in place. Man like this is like the biggest, and that's why I appreciate he goes hey, we're gonna put kash patel, dan Bongino, tulsi Gabbard. He's putting the people that were spited for the entire last presidency. He's like well, these are the people that you guys kind of bent over. We're going to put them in charge and then now they get to go through and find out everything.
Speaker 2:I'm not a huge fan of pam bondy. So far it's been kind of lukewarm with you. Notice I left her out.
Speaker 3:I'm like I'm not a huge fan of that yeah it's, it's been a little lukewarm with her.
Speaker 2:I mean I'm I'm really hoping that we're gonna see some indictments, we're gonna see some arrests, but I don't know.
Speaker 3:That was a whole dog and pony show about the. You know we're gonna release the files. And then was like we already know, this stuff, this whole binder, is stuff that was already published.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about that a little bit, but before we do I do want to give a quick thanks to another sponsor for our show here today. Listen up If you're serious about improving your shooting skills, saving money on ammo and training anytime anywhere, then you need to check out Strikeman. This is the real deal for dry fire training. The problem is, look, you know, we all know ammo prices aren't getting any cheaper and hitting the range as often as we'd like just isn't always practical. Whether it's time, money or just finding a good spot to train, it can be a hassle. But what if you could get in real practice reps from the comfort of your own home? The solution is Strikeman, and we've done a lot of videos on the Strikeman stuff y'all. It's really good and check out my YouTube demo videos if you want.
Speaker 2:But that's where Strikeman comes in. It's a dry fire training system that lets you train with your actual firearm, no live ammunition needed. Their laser cartridges drop right into your firearms chamber and every shot is tracked in real time through their app. You get instant feedback on accuracy, shot placement and reaction time. It's an absolute game changer for anyone looking to tighten up their skills, whether you're a first-time gun owner or an experienced shooter, check this out. Strikeman offers full training kits with everything you need, including targets, phone mounts and their precision laser cartridges. If you're a revolver guy, they even have a six-pack of the 38 special 357 magnum laser cartridges so you can fully load your wheel gun and get that continuous trigger pull practice. Plus, there's no subscription fees. Their app is totally free to use train whenever and however you want to.
Speaker 2:Now here's the best part because you're part of the iv8888llp family, strikeman is giving you 20% off of your order. Just head over to strikemancom and use the promo code iv8888 at checkout to claim your discount. That's 20% off. No gimmicks, no nonsense, just a great deal to help you train smarter and save big on ammo. Get yourself a strikeman system today and take your shooting skills to the next level again that's strikemancom and use the promo code ivy8888 for 20 off. Train hard, shoot straight and, as always, stay free awesome.
Speaker 2:Thanks very much y'all for the support and we really do appreciate y'all supporting the show and uh and trusting us, uh, getting back into this and uh, I'm really looking forward to cutting more lop and I really appreciate you guys being a part of what we do and I would encourage all of you to go and support those guys, uh, who support us, and thank you guys very much for supporting the show. Absolutely, let's get back to it. So, epstein, all right, there's all this talk right now and everything going on with how Pam Bondi withheld, uh, let's just say, the juice, juicy details of the Epstein file. Uh, due to concerns for national security.
Speaker 3:So that was the big thing. It was like it's like, what is it? Yeah, like if you are going to put out the information, that you might as well just put out all the information and redacted it. There would have been no difference between what you did by saying, hey, we can't put out this information Cause it's not, it's a a, you know it's bad for national security. You could just put it out and just redact it. You would have had the same, the same effect. People would have been like, why is all this redacted? But now you're gonna, you're just. But at least they'd have it, but at least they'd have it. But now they're still not gonna put it out. Yeah, redact the names.
Speaker 2:Do something you know protect the identities of the accused, or whatever.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to hold my breath that anything else is going to come out of that, because that that well is very, very deep.
Speaker 2:Well, I think and you know this isn't just what I think I've also, you know, done some research and been, you know, reading a lot and, and you know, opinions are on the internet, are what they are Everyone's got an opinion, and there's a right opinion, there's a wrong opinion, and then there's something in between where maybe the truth is somewhere in there, right, but you can't help but think that the whole Epstein drama was just a honeypot operation. They were saying that Epstein was Mossad okay, working for the Israelis, mossad okay, working for the Israelis, and that he was trying to basically run this honeypot operation to get damning evidence against world leaders of the P word.
Speaker 3:Okay, I'm not going to go there, but let's just say child abuse for a better lack of term, which, which is happens to be the number one thing that they always use, because it's very, very like unequivocally damning.
Speaker 2:Yeah and taboo. I mean, there are very few places in the western moral society where that type of behavior is going to be tolerated. So they know, if they can peg you for abusing children, they've got you. And if they've got you and they've got you made, uh, they've, you know, conducted this honeypot operation, then that means that jeffrey epstein got you. And if they've got you and they've got you made, uh, they've, you know, conducted this honeypot operation, then that means that jeffrey epstein owns you and whatever he tells you to do, you're going to do, or he's going to use the evidence that he has against you. And uh, and what do you think he's? You know, where is he getting his marching orders? Well, if he's massad, well then israel's giving him those marching orders.
Speaker 2:And I think that there's been, you know, to kind of go back to the JFK files getting released and you know, people finally getting some closure on what happened to Kennedy. You know there are some pundits within the industry that have said, well, that was back in the 60s and we shouldn't be worried about something that happened so long ago. Come on, no, you're just saying that because the people that are involved in it are your people and you don't want to, you know, say anything negative about. You know israel, and that's really what it all comes down to. Now I'm not going to go there, but you know it. It begins to paint a picture that you know over time it ends up being like the same people. It's always the same people. It's always the same people. It's always the same. And I mean, at what point do you have to eventually call that what it is? You can't ignore that for much longer. You have to eventually go.
Speaker 2:Well, wow, like, okay, this regime was toppled. This is who was involved. This president was assassinated. This is who was involved. You know the jury's out on all this stuff. Oh, this huge ring of child abusers and Mossad was involved. Oh, these people were involved. Well, after a while you kind of start to think, well, damn, every bad thing going on these people were involved with somehow. And you kind of think, well, man, they got their hand in many a dirty pot. And that kind of makes me wonder about who these people really are and what their intentions are.
Speaker 3:Well, what it comes down to is, if you look at all of the people that are running the government per se, the that's the reason that trump was such a disruption, because look at, like israel had netanyahu, netanyahu, netanyahu the guy's been there forever, man like I can't remember the guy before him because he's been there so long. But look at the us government trump. That wasn't supposed to happen. Man like he. That was not supposed to happen. That was a complete wrench in the system.
Speaker 2:Little trump, really does support israel, though you know he's a, he's an ally to israel. He did he, he moved the.
Speaker 3:He moved the. Uh, what is that thing called?
Speaker 2:Overton.
Speaker 3:Window. No, no, no. He moved the diplomatic office from I guess somewhere to Jerusalem, which was like a big deal, like they moved the whole thing. But when you look at it, so look at all the presidents before that. The only other president that was new to the game was Obama. So Obama was like a first term senator. You know that got the presidency cool, everything else before that there were lifers. They had been in government. They were sent like biden senator since oh look at biden 50 years, 50 plus years in government bush yeah, they're some form of government.
Speaker 3:they had been suckling off the government's teat for, you know, their entire life. And then you have two guys that come in and just completely turn it upside down. Obama turned it upside down First year. Senator Trump comes in one term, then he comes out, comes back for that. I don't think that's ever happened, actually.
Speaker 2:And they just knew that Hillary was going to win in 2016. That's what's so crazy about it. Like fox was showing the polling numbers like 97, oh, hillary clinton's polling 97. It's gonna be an overwhelming victory for hillary clinton, like they had it pegged for her. It's like the media was literally pulling cover for her and what, what a disappointment when when they did this, they did the same thing for biden.
Speaker 3:It was like the wildest thing. They're like, yeah, they're like, oh, he's, he's, he's polling so high and he's going to blow it out. It was literally the complete opposite. It was like I've never seen numbers that low.
Speaker 2:It's like they had they actually had the receipts to back it up that time, you know, in 2020. So, anyway, we're not going to necessarily get into the wherewithal of 2020, but let's just say there was a huge disappointment. But now fast forward to where we are now and yes, it's been a very eventful couple of years and, you know, I'm I have hope that things are going to get better. You know, yes, are there things that I disagree with Trump on? Obviously there are. I mean, and I feel like, if you have a friend, or if you have an acquaintance or just anyone that you do business with, or if you just someone in your life, someone you have a relationship with, it could be a spouse, a partner, it could be anyone right, you're going to have some inevitable disagreement about something and I think, if you're not honest with yourself in that, if you can't go, okay, well, there's one little tiny hiccup here and let's talk about it, let's discuss it, let's have some discourse about it and then let's see if we can change our minds on it. I mean, I think that's what the apex of being an adult is is the ability to change your mind with the, you know, addition of new information and everything like that. So you know, I'm trying my best to keep an open mind about Trump. I do think he's a good person, I think he's trying to do the right thing.
Speaker 2:I mean, the guy could be on a golf course right now, but instead he's taking the most stressful office the country has to offer. I mean, being president is a stressful damn job. The most stressful office the country has to offer. I mean, being president is a stressful damn job. It's not an easy thing, you know Well, I mean Biden took what? 200 vacation days or something. I mean that's a whole nother. That's a whole nother. A whole nother bag of apples. But but when taken for face value at its full potential, you know, being president is not easy. You know you're on call 24 seven. I mean you, you were basically the leader of the free world in a lot of ways. Like everything that goes on geopolitically in the entire planet is going to cross your desk. If something happens, you're going to know and you may have to respond.
Speaker 3:And everything you do, every response, every action there's, there's going to be a reaction, whether it's adverse or beneficial. That's a very, very tough way to live the next four years of your life To know that everything that you do is going to be scrutinized, everything that you do is going to have a reaction to another country. Like you do one thing and somebody says oh, you were talking bad about. You know this, we're going to put tariffs. Or you know, why are you playing so much golf? Why are you spending time with your family? Why are you not, you know, getting these briefings?
Speaker 2:And because you're a Republican, the media, of course is going to freaking paint you with the worst light possible. They're going to be very unfair to you when you're a Republican. Of course, the media plays cover for the Democrats, which we know from a lot of information that's been put out, especially when we look at the whole Facebook debacle and Zuckerberg going before Congress. Now we know that intelligence agencies or law enforcement agencies actually went to companies like Facebook and, you know, pressured them to censor people. So when you look at it under that light, you realize that the entire media complex is really just a disinformation propaganda complex that's controlled by the Democrats. And when you look at that, you follow the money and you see where all the money goes. All this slush money is sort of going out to these projects and they're getting sent out through PACs and they're, you know, essentially sort of laundering the money to their buddies, to, I mean, gosh.
Speaker 2:I think when Doge was looking, we haven't talked about Doge. We might have to save that for the next episode. We're going to talk about Doge in the next episode. Stay tuned for next week, y'all? Okay, we post every week here on LLP, so there's more. However, when you look at what Doge has been uncovering, which I agree with, with what they're doing, of course. They saw that there were some like millions of dollars worth of subscriptions to the New York Times yes, I said the premium subscriptions, yes, and it's like well, why did they?
Speaker 2:have all these subscriptions, you know. So what you learn is that well, why do they have all these subscriptions? So what you learn is that's essentially a way they can launder money to the New York Times. Oh well, we're giving them millions of dollars worth of subscriptions, taxpayer money or wherever it's coming from, pacs or whatever. However, they have to wash it. But when you look at it under that guise, what do you think the New York Times is going to report? Are they going to report what the truth, what people need to hear? Are they going to report what their Democrat handler, who just sent them that fat check for the subscriptions for the year, wants them to report? You better believe they're going to have some editorial control over the content when they're pumping millions of dollars into that company and, and dare I say, propping up the company by doing so.
Speaker 3:No, it's true, and half of what you're reading in those uh, you know newspapers per se? Um is not editorials. They're editorials that it's literally an ad disguised as whatever. Then it's the ad for the democratic party or an ad disguised as whatever. And it's an ad for the Democratic Party or an ad for a certain pack. It's just insane. And it's getting harder and harder to discern what is what.
Speaker 3:And the one thing I'm glad you brought up Zuck, the one thing that I noticed, was the complete change of his demeanor, of his attitude, of the way he looks. When he was, when he first went on rogan and it was the, it was the biden harris administration and they were talking about you know the whole like hey, we're um censoring what was on facebook. He looked like a hostage. He's like very robotic. He like he was made of wax. It was like those hey, blink twice if you're in distress. Like no facial expressions, very, very scared. He looked scared, like genuinely scared.
Speaker 3:Fast forward to him going back under a completely different administration. Dude, looks like a surfer. He's like hang out, hang 10. He's like very open with what he did, like this is what they told me to do. This is why they told me to do it and I'm like this is a complete 180 from what, from one administration to another, and it just goes to show you the power that these administrations have over these social media companies. They can really kind of control what they want. And what kind of power do you have to make somebody like freeze up like that? He's just like oh.
Speaker 2:I know that's wild and I'll tell you. Um, what Zuckerberg could use is some tactical under bridges, all right. So that leads us to our next sponsor. We're going to go ahead and give a chat about under tackcom, and we have some tactical under bridges here that we're gonna be checking out. So I'm gonna tell you what. Why don't you show them off while I talk? All right about that? Here you got some under bridges. Now we haven't opened these up, y'all. One is recon and one is infantry. So he's thinking that the recon is gonna be like little white. Yeah, they were like the white. Okay, you ready here here'd be like the white. Okay, you ready here here. All right. So I'll read and you be my Vanna White over here, all right.
Speaker 2:When it comes to gear that can handle anything, there's no better choice than Undertak Ding. Designed for and tested by an elite special forces team in Africa's harshest conditions, undertak is made to perform when it matters most, whether you're navigating tough terrain or just tackling your day. Their underwear, socks and shirts damn son, they keep you dry, comfortable and mission ready. Gosh made from premium materials like modal 50, more moisture wicking than cotton. Under tack offers tactical performance that goes beyond the basics, from the ultra-comfortable boxer briefs to the American-made battle weave merino socks. You got the socks right there, matt. You'll feel the difference. And don't forget the hoodies and EDC t-shirts. Rugged enough for anything, yet comfortable enough for everyday carry or for every day.
Speaker 2:Go to Undertakcom that's Undertakcom and use LLP20 for a 20% off site-wide. Whether you're gearing up for adventure or everyday life, you can trust Undertak to have your back and your bottom, plus a portion of profits. Support veterans-run organizations fighting human trafficking. Now that's a no-brainer. Visit Undertaccom, use the code LLP20, and get yourself 20% off site-wide. Again LLP20. You get 20% off. Go get yourself some underbritches.
Speaker 3:Bro, these are nice man.
Speaker 2:Damn son, Let me see one of them.
Speaker 3:These are like. So I was completely wrong man.
Speaker 2:The infantry are actually a little bit shorter, are they? Yeah, I want the short ones, man, those are not, but they're super soft, man. They even say infantry on them. Look, I can have britches that say infantry dude.
Speaker 3:They have like a little pouch in the front. I don't I you're going to put in there.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, okay.
Speaker 3:I'm liking that Dude. The socks are straight too. Those are really soft, yeah, like a merino wool blend.
Speaker 2:I mean, what infantryman doesn't need socks and underwear? I mean, now come on the basis of your entire existence. I mean that, right there, that's everything a grown boy needs. Well, maybe zuck could get him some under tack. You know, it is strange when you you look at the way these people act. They don't act like real people. They act very robotic and I always thought that strange. You know, you look at the way things are going and but he didn't look like a robot.
Speaker 3:On the second one that was the. That was the weird thing he looked like like his skin was a different color, like he was actually like a human. The first one he was like a like a robot man.
Speaker 2:I was like you know, I feel like this conversation is going to kind of end up flowing into episode two. Um, you know we are back y'all. Dude, we're doing llp now once a week, so you're going to see a new episode. Um, I think we're going to release on fridays, although I believe this first episode is going up on April 1st, and I promise this is not an April Fool's joke, not an April Fool's joke. We are back y'all, and I'm very excited to see where LLP is going to go.
Speaker 2:And you know it's been great to catch up with Matt, but we have much more catching up to do. So I hope that you'll tune in next week for our next episode, and we're going to discuss probably more of the same, but we'll get into some gun stuff too. There's some things I want to talk about that's been going on in the 2A world, as you know at heart. You know we obviously are a gun channel here on IRAC Veteran 8888, which is probably where many of you are consuming this particular podcast. Matt, you had mentioned that there's a forum where people can submit questions.
Speaker 3:So, yes, we're going to have a link at the top of the description underneath all of our episodes so you guys can click on that link and send us messages and questions and we're going to take our time. We're going to answer some of those questions on every podcast. So that way, and it can be questions about anything, because the podcasts are about everything. It's not anything specific. Like Eric said, yeah, we are a gun channel at heart about anything, because the podcasts are about everything. It's not, uh, anything specific. Like eric said, yeah, we are, we are gun channel at heart, but a lot of these long format conversations have a way of deviating into the more everyday life. So, whatever questions you guys have, uh, we're happy to answer them yeah, um, so I do have a bunch of questions.
Speaker 2:I I went on twitter earlier. I just wanted to acknowledge you, uh folks that submitted some questions. I really appreciate y'all doing that. I will answer. Matt and I will both answer some of these questions in the next episode next week. So make sure you tune in next week and we'll hit a Q&A session.
Speaker 2:I wasn't able to hit the Q&A session up for this particular episode, but I'm glad that we're able to just stick to Chewing the Fat. That's what LLP is about. It's about life. It's about us just doing our thing, and I really enjoyed this first episode. It was so great to get back and we have so much cool stuff in store. And also, if you do go through the questionnaire and send us some comments, let us know. Are there some guests that you would like to see on here? Give us some episode ideas, or there's some things you'd like us, some topics to discuss and cover in a long format? Let us know and we'll definitely try to jump into it. We'll take your suggestions to heart and, of course, ask any questions you want or just give a comment, whatever.
Speaker 2:Are you liking the show? Do you like the format? How's the lighting, how's the audio? How's Lisa's editing? Look guys, matt's wife, lisa, is doing the editing. So a big shout out to her. She's helping us edit the show and she is a battle ax and I know she can do it and I know it's going to be fantastic. So thank you, lisa, and I'm telling you I'm looking forward to what we're going to be able to come up with and let me know. If you guys have any questions or whatever you know, or if you're on YouTube, feel free to drop into the comment section and, you know, let us know what you're thinking. Did you enjoy the show? Do you like the format? Do you like the long form format? Do you like? You know, tell me what you like, what you don't like, give me your feedback and we'll take it to heart. We'll integrate it into the show.
Speaker 2:I do just some housekeeping. You know I am going to upgrade some of the lighting. You know I'm happy with the mics. You know these Shures are great. This is the same ones Rogan uses and they're great. But overall I feel like the audio is pretty good on these shows and everything. But just from a housekeeping standpoint, I am wanting to do some upgrades in the studio. So I know we had discussed some ceiling lighting so we'll see we're going to bougie it up y'all so we'll have fun with it. But thank you guys so much for tuning in to this week's episode of LLP. Thank you all so very much for supporting what we do, and a big thanks again to our sponsors today for taking care of us and allowing us to have the resources to record these episodes for y'all.
Speaker 3:And Matt, anything before we go? No, I mean, I'm just happy to be back. I know there's going to be a lot of happy people. I get messages. There's been people that have messaged me and said, hey, why are there no shows, like, where are they at? So as soon as this thing goes live, they're going to get that alert. So if you guys aren't already subscribed, subscribe either on YouTube. If you want audio only, I know a ton of you guys listen while you're at work. So you guys can hit subscribe on either Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Listen to the audio only format as well. But that's mainly where we get the questions. Guys are like hey, I need something to listen to at work, I need something to listen to on the way to work or I'm driving a truck. So, guys, you know, at our height two years ago, we were in 140 countries. We were being listened to in every single state in the U S. It was amazing. So thank you so much, guys. We were, we were doing really well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know those of you that are out there, you know hitting the daily grind. You're out there driving to work, you're driving home from work. You know you got a long commute. You're in your car a lot. You're listening to the radio, you know. Just you know, keep hammering it out, keep, keep on keeping on like. You know you guys are rocking it and I know you know that it's hard. Sometimes Life can be hard and you know my grandpa was a truck driver. He was on the road a lot and I know there was a lot of times we missed having him around and you know. So, just know, if you're one of the people you're commuting, you're working hard, you're out on the road, you know the country's pulling for you. You know it takes a lot of people to make this machine operate and I appreciate you being a part of that. Thank you so much. Many more on the way. We'll see you guys next week. Lop, we're out. Bye, everybody.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to Life, liberty and Pursuit. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, spotify and anywhere else podcasts are found. Be sure to leave us a five-star review. We'd really appreciate that you can support us over on Ballistic Inc by picking yourself up some merch and remember guys, dangerous freedom.