#220 - Jed Smith: Unearthing Wisdom in Meditation, Psychedelics, and World Affairs.

When Jed Smith sat across from me in Byron Bay, the air was thick with stories of transformation and the hum of cicadas. Our conversation swept from the tangible - dietary shifts post-concussion, to the profound - the interplay of meditation and psychedelics on our mental landscapes. Jed, returning for his third candid exchange, peels back the layers of his evolution from a journalist to a podcast co-host, offering a treasure trove of wisdom for those navigating the murky waters of personal well-being and the subtle political undercurrents of our times.

Our dialogue danced through the realms of spirituality and the rigidity of religious dogmas, touching on Tibetan culture's unexpected complexities and the universal search for inner peace. We wrestle with the teachings of ancient texts and modern-day mystics, like Wim Hof, threading a needle through the fabric of belief and practice. And, as we share tales of the personal impact Joe Rogan's podcast and financial happiness philosophies have left on us, you'll be reminded that the pursuit of contentment comes in many forms - sometimes, even in a block of land in an overlooked neighbourhood.

Wrapping up, we confronted the stark realities of global power dynamics and the heart-wrenching intricacies of the Israel-Palestine conflict. This is no superficial skim across the surface; instead, it's a plunge into the depths of critical, global conversations and the importance of not shying away from our collective complacency. As Jed and I parted ways, the mood shifted from the weight of the world's woes to the lightness of shared aspirations and the steadfast discipline needed to keep the creative fires burning. Join us on this journey of discovery, packed with emotional insights and thoughtful reflections, that just might provoke a change in the way you engage with the world.
Enjoy,
Shan

Use Code: THT (for discounts and support the show at the same time)

BELLMOTT - Ready to drink Coffee
Code: THT
(Get 15% off your first two online purchases).
Pre-mixed cans of coffee goodness, Iced Lattes and more. Ethically sourced coffee beans, made in Australia, made my Musicians, Skateboarders and Artists. It's all about caffeinating culture, inspired conversations and  shared creativity. 

KRUSH ORGANICS - CBD oils and topicals
Code: THT
(Get a HUGE 40% Discount...shipping is WORLDWIDE and fast).
Purveyors of the finest CBD oils and topicals. I think long and hard about who I want to be affiliated with. Do the research yourself, the health benefits of CBD are unquestionable. It’s done so much for me, especially during times of stress and anxiety, it’s improved the quality of my sleep and sped up my recovery-time post workouts, surfs and skates... and it’s all natural.

INDOSOLE  
Code: THT
(15% discount shipping is WORLDWIDE and fast).
Sandals made from recycled Tyres. Timeless footwear for the conscious consumer.

 (Intro) Music by Def Wish Cast.
Song: Forever
Album: The Evolution Machine

Use code: THT
Krush Organics CBD oils (40% off)
Indosole footwear (15% off)

Transcript

Shannon: 0:21

Hey, it's Shan here. This week I speak with Jed Smith. Jed has been on the show before. I think this will be his third time. Except, unlike the other times, this time it's in real life. So Jed and I met up in the beautiful area of Byron Bay, Australia, had a good afternoon, good chat, hanging out.

Shannon: 0:43

Jed's an interesting cat man. He's very endearing. I don't know how to describe him. He's raw, he's authentic, he's educated, he's opinionated. He's a former Vice Media journalist. He's a former journalist for News Limited. He's also a surf journalist for various surf media publications but most predominantly, he's the co-host of the most popular surfing podcast in the world. That is, the Ain't that Swirl podcast.

Shannon: 1:15

And Jed and I just talk about life and this experience. I mean we don't talk about surfing at all. We talk about diets and bio hacks and literally how we can be the best version of ourselves. I mean Jed's Aussie battler background has led him down paths in life that were very destructive and he's acknowledged that and he's rectifying that and has rectified it in a lot of ways and he's just going from level to level to level and is really apparent and I've seen it Just monitoring him and listening to him over the last few years. It's a great conversation.

Shannon: 1:53

We go off on some political bullshit tangents and I fucking hate talking about that stuff because I'm not a political commentator and there's so many better political commentators over there and I kind of brought up some of the shit and I kind of was like cringing at it. But I'm like, well, that's how the conversation went and I'm just going to stand by it. So I didn't cut it out. But please don't come at me with like telling me how wrong I am. I know I'm fucking wrong. Like I just started talking about it and Jed was kind of the same and I just sort of regret talking about that dark shit that's happening in the world at the moment. So, anyway, hope you enjoyed my conversation with Mr Jed Smith. What are you doing? The Keto thing?

Jed: 3:00

Well, I know it's good for concussion. That's the main reason. It's good to have your brain running on ketones. That's what I got told. I flick between the paleo and the Keto diet, but they'll have probably too many cheat days as well. But like the Keto is is yeah, is the one for concussion and depression.

Shannon: 3:20

I believe Right A lot of good data behind it, it feels like a lot of things you do are based around managing concussion and healing from years of it. Yeah, it's like a big part of your story.

Jed: 3:36

Yeah, man, it's funny because I never really thought about it until all that stuff about CTE came out around American Good Eye and all that. And then I was like fuck, it's the first time I'd ever thought about it, really. And I was like wow, and I started telling them up. And then I was like whoa, I've also had, like you know, kind of three to four dog shots and I'm like, is a dog shot worth like fucking five concussions? Like those things are out of hand.

Shannon: 4:04

Some countries fucking in total of your life? Oh, there's been recently.

Jed: 4:10

Oh, in the total, but they all came within a pretty short period, seven into 21, 17 to 19, even.

Shannon: 4:20

Yeah, my jaw has become really sensitive, like in my late 40s. And just recently my son he's like five and he jumped up and hit me square on the jaw, like between between the chin and where you know you're mandible right before it starts to curl up Didn't even get me that hard and a slight rattling of the head and for days I was really vague. I couldn't remember things.

Shannon: 4:43

Yeah, and prior to that I'd been boxing and doing MMA for years, inspiring, and I just felt like even blocking punches. I was walking away feeling rattled and I'm just I've stopped it all because I just my head feels too sensitive.

Jed: 5:00

Interesting, and did you have head knocks when you were younger?

Shannon: 5:02

Yeah, I've been knocked out cold twice. Yeah, once I'm a skateboard, another time riding a bike without a helmet and just went over the handlebars and just next thing I'm sitting in the gutter going how'd I get here? And then a couple of fights. I got hit. But I think also training a lot, just repeated little knocks.

Jed: 5:21

A lot of sparring.

Shannon: 5:23

A lot of sparring like a lot of touch sparring thinking oh, it's just touch sparring, so I don't know.

Jed: 5:28

Yeah, yeah, fuck me. The fight game is really the home of the concussion, but so too, like rugby league and rugby union. And then yeah, and then you just get unlucky a couple of times surfing and fucking get tagged by some older fucking bloke at the pub. You know some over some bullshit, like all adds up. But yeah, kido and Paleo, they're the fucking ones. And Paleo's the Terry Wall protocol is doctor, she does some great podcasts with Drew Paroet and Mark Hyman. They're two of my like go-to's for biohacking advice. They're about like fucking high end podcasts similar to Hooperman, but a bit more digestible, a bit less caught up in the numbers. Still have caught up in the numbers sufficiently, but not like fucking nerding out on it. Yeah, yeah.

Shannon: 6:26

Did you read that book by Mark Sisson called the Primal Palette?

Jed: 6:30

No or.

Shannon: 6:30

The Primal Blueprint. He was kind of at the start of it and he inspired Laird Hamilton to really go down that path with you know low carb, high fat diets. And I read it and I actually listened to the audio book numerous times and it gives you like a 21 day protocol to actually like he reckons. It takes 21 days for your body to adapt to it and in the first 21 days you're going to be head achy, your guts are going to be really like, you're going to be shitty, you're going to be shit in your pants all the time. 21 days and 21 days and then all of a sudden it just will make fat. Your bodies go to primary energy source. So it always goes for the carbs first, because they're easy to access, they burn quick, they burn rapidly but they have byproducts, and then it'll click into the fat. But he's trained itself It'll go looking for the fat first, apparently.

Jed: 7:24

Yeah, and then the brain starts to run on ketones as its fuel and that's the money for concussion and Alzheimer's and depression and a lot of cognitive issues.

Jed: 7:35

It's where the brain tends to run on glycogen and glucose and carbs for the majority of its life and never gets the chance to run on ketones. And I guess, when you go back through the evolution of man, like a lot of carbs would have been in short supply, like there's fuck, they would have only been getting them from potato, really and yam, and they wouldn't have always had access to them, so it would have been meat and berries and greens and nuts. That would have been that. And that's the keto diet, basically, or the paleo diet, which is, yeah, they're both similar. The only difference is the keto has the, the cheese and shit in it and it doesn't have the sugary fruits. It's like you can have some, but you got to keep it at a certain point. And yeah, man, I relate to that feeling like shit during it and that's why I gave it up, cause I I'll. Yeah, fuck, it was impressive how bad I felt.

Shannon: 8:29

Do you find that you're getting that, what they call keto clarity at times?

Jed: 8:36

It's a good question, man, like I think clarity is important. Clarity is what you want, especially after a bunch of head injuries, but clarity at the expense of feeling happy and like, well, you know, I don't know if that's a good trade off. So it's like you can be clear, but highly strong, and then that's where that chouf comes in, cause it's very hard to be highly strong when you chouft, but I just chouft, I can't tell. That's good. It's cause of the ketones, the ketones and the fucking turpines. You know, microdose. This morning actually went hard on the supplements, the brain supplements.

Jed: 9:21

Today, Okay, so like new tropics yeah, neural nectar, never heard of it, it's just a mushroom blend from a super feast and I think forest foods are an Aussie mushroom company and they've made some amazing mushroom capsules like Lion's, may and Rishi Ashokanda Affordable Aussie made. You can trust it, you know. Like not to say you can't necessarily trust the Chinese stuff I mean, that's where the shit's fucking from, but you know what I mean. Like they invented like medicinal mushroom use pretty much so like they do also have the crammed other crammed, but hard to know who's who and what's what's. Again, I went go with the Aussie Bokes and yeah it's. And so Marshy's neural nectar magic mushroom, 0.2 gram B3 magnesium, the full Paul Stamets protocol.

Shannon: 10:17

I was just about to say that the Shilajit.

Jed: 10:20

Never heard it. Shilajit's this trippy. It's like a. They call it the sap of the mountains, and it's like it comes from, like the Himalayas, I guess primarily in India, I don't know about, maybe in Nepal too. But yeah, it's just this fucking. It looks like Nutella but like toffee, it's like a toffee version of that and it's not sweet. It's like fully medicinal and you just put a pea size of it in your coffee or tea and apparently it's meant to be amazing for Alzheimer's and these kind of cognitive elements that set in later in life and also earlier with concussions.

Shannon: 10:58

Under that Paul Stamets protocol, how many consecutive days are you doing it? Are you working to a strict set amount of days and have a break, or are you just doing it as per feeling?

Jed: 11:12

Man, if I was disciplined I would do it in a cycle. But yeah, I'm a little bit ill disciplined at the moment. But that's part of like my new year's resolution is to go get really disciplined and go really hard at like all of the things I know can impact my health and cognitive health, brain health and like love and enjoyment of life. So, like the health aspect is fundamental to all of that, I want to kind of like accelerate away from stress and hardship and accelerate into fun, enjoyment, calm, love and healthy living. They're crammed, deli, crammed in food caught by myself, grown by myself.

Shannon: 12:04

Do you think this general desire to be like that is the next chapter of your personal journey?

Jed: 12:10

100%. The chapter is a good analogy. I've been thinking about that concept a lot, like how at certain points in our life we just get to, you know, a tool gets given to us and from that moment you're able to just start a new chapter, turn over a fresh chapter of life, like and that tool can also be an event, like you know, losing a partner, for better or for worse. Sometimes, like I see mates in toxic relationships and like they just fucking axe the toxicity and then they're just like they feel like that they can't or that society will look bad on them or that they need this person and they cut them off and like, fuck, I'm free, I can do whatever the fuck I want. Like how good's this and those new chapters? Yeah, so I would say I'm entering a new chapter.

Shannon: 13:01

That's awesome I like that analogy, or saying where you know you can always press the reset button on your life, like at any time you know, and we're not defined by the past. So many people are living in the past and defining who they are and their character by their past achievements or past misdemeanours.

Jed: 13:23

For sure.

Shannon: 13:24

And whether it's positive or negative, it's just never a good thing to be attached to it.

Jed: 13:31

Man, that's so profound and so true, like it's crazy how defined we are by our past. You know even me. Like you know the stories I tell myself constantly. Like these stories, like they're the same stories that I keep telling myself.

Shannon: 13:50

Are they true though?

Jed: 13:53

Like it's such a good question. They're my recollection of things, which is not necessarily true and even if it is, it's not helpful. Like your best bet and I learned this on the way driving here yet again for the millionth time in my life it's just to meditate when you're driving, when you're, you know, just to focus on what it is you're doing and if not, then focus on your breath. And if you focus on your breath, you'll Figure out how you're feeling and if you you may need food or water or rest, you may need to just focus on your breath more and stop thinking these stories and they are because, yeah, you know, I just don't think you're meant to, you're not meant to stay stuck Telling yourself these stories and thinking all day about these stories like, but we but that's the trap we're always thinking about their stories in the past and in the future. I mean, isn't that what's for sure?

Shannon: 15:02

For sure, and for me personally, it always goes to negative things. And then those negative things are throwing me into this perpetual shame cycle, and the shame has just been limiting shame and regret shame, remorse, regret, then that leads to feelings of like, sometimes Impostor syndrome in adequacy. And then it affects. That affects my relationships, friendships, colleagues at work and it really does come down to me.

Jed: 15:30

I don't know. Yeah, the only solution to that, I know, is to Step outside of the thinking and the stories, and the only way I know to do that is through meditation, and that's why I do it. I mean, I didn't start doing it for that reason. I started doing it for fucking head knocks, because I read some half a paper saying like, yeah, meditation or grow your hippocampus and shit, and like it was legit, it's crazy science. I was like fuck, well, this is so good for my brain, I'm gonna do it. And then it's okay, or.

Jed: 15:59

And then it's transitioned into this fucking full-bone Practice of just letting go of thoughts and because those thoughts are your trauma and shit, and if you just fucking keep ramming the trauma into your own Central nervous system over and over again, you fucking destroy your self and your insides. So Meditations are key, like it's the key to it all. It's it's essential.

Shannon: 16:25

Have you heard about the research that says that you can regenerate brain cells?

Jed: 16:28

Yeah.

Shannon: 16:28

Paul Stamets talks about it.

Jed: 16:29

And you're a genesis. I haven't caught pace with that, but I remember when it came out and got me really excited.

Shannon: 16:34

Do you believe?

Jed: 16:35

it. I mean, I tend to believe what the numbers say and I haven't looked at like where that science is. Art. Hmm.

Jed: 16:43

Um, so I don't really know, but it sounded promising and I think like there's a lot of things that do, and I think psilocyber mushrooms are the one pretty much. It seems to me. Out of all, what all the science indicates, it's that psilocyber and LSD are just amazing for the brain and for offsetting it. Dementia and Alzheimer's and these kinds of brain cognitive diseases. It's fucking remarkable that a that is the case and be like it's been withheld from us.

Shannon: 17:24

Well, I mean, australia has legalized psilocybin, but still really inaccessible. I think we talked about that last one, we chatted, but for those that haven't done that protocol that you were talking about, like the B3 vitamins with a Micro amount of psilocybin, and lions mixed with lion's mane as well you know what are you, what are you noticing in terms of your Behavior and emotions when you, when you do that?

Jed: 17:51

won't do all those protocols. Yeah, it's interesting man, and then obviously as well, like fundamental, it's what I do every day.

Jed: 17:57

We'm off okay bit of stretching and meditation and a surf. So all that shit mixed in, yeah and um, I Do feel remarkable clarity and the keto kind of died. I'm only like fucking 16. No, what am I like? I'm not it like 10, 12, 14 hours into it. So I don't know if that's affecting me, but ultimately I feel remarkable clarity right now. And I was in the surf and I was looking at the clouds and they just had a bit of extra Radiancy to him where the light was shining in the distance. I do notice that that is a bit of a telltale sign of micro dosing, or or maybe not micro dosing, but a heightened sense of Connection to the beauty of the world. And and like, just, you're a bit more dialed in, a bit more optimistic. Yeah, you're enjoying. You're enjoying what nature has to offer and it's it's charging you up.

Shannon: 18:54

Because we need more optimism. I personally, I've been feeling the weight of the world lately. I just I keep Thinking and watching what's happening in the world and I just can't help getting like I'm just getting depressed by the news that I constantly keep hearing and, uh, you know this is gonna sound like. I don't want to sound negative, but I just feel like we're approaching end to times. I don't know man. I just want to share that with you because it's, it's Just dark shit happening right now and I don't see a way out of it throughout as a, as a, as a race, as a species, even I don't know.

Jed: 19:37

Yeah, I would say that it's. It's frightening, but the solution is really obvious and simple and it's up to people to implement it. And the solution is like it is something that exists at the grassroots level and it is simply wellness, as in it's breath, work and meditation, and psychedelics, if it needs to be but I don't think that it needs to be I think just those two things and exercise. But at a certain point those things just tip you into a level of consciousness that is not concerned with consumption, greed, gluttony, war, power, domination, ego. At some point you step into a space that's a lot more calm and ingeniously avoidant of catastrophe, and it's not that hard to get there. It's just like it's the only way. It's the only way I can say Does it?

Shannon: 20:48

make you feel more empathetic when you do that Like, do you feel like a sense of building empathy towards others?

Jed: 20:57

For sure. I mean for sure, no doubt about it. That's like one of the primary teachings of Buddhism is compassion and Buddhism basically is a religion. The Kremdela, kremavit, the Dalai Lama's Tibetan Buddhism is just all about meditation. How's this man? In the last 12 months last year I met both Wim Hof and the Dalai Lama. It's great.

Shannon: 21:31

In 12 months.

Jed: 21:31

I shook Wim Hof's hand in.

Jed: 21:33

Sydney at this huge fucking breath work thing where he was teaching 5,000 people to do Wim Hof and he was like running thousands of people through these ice barbs and I was one of the thousands of people that went through the ice barbs and you could shake his hand on the way through and how's this? He had fucking the people getting people into the ice barbs, the helpers, with all these hoodlums with chains on all the islanders and fucking just white hoodlums from the hazos and that's who he had as his little helpers getting people into the ice. Every detail was fucking so magic.

Shannon: 22:16

Yeah right.

Jed: 22:17

And so he had these hoodlums doing this major act of compassion, helping people into the ice barbs and he's educating thousands of people. And on the way around I shook his hand and I was like, thank you, brother, I appreciate you. You know what he said to me? He just went yeah, yeah, who's this fucking Nordish growl? He was frothing, the Cunning. Real Life was unbelievable.

Jed: 22:44

Like I sat in the front row I watched him come out when he did his little lecture and he was hopping around and his head was that weathered and blisted from fucking walking up mountains and bodies and his legs were so jacked and he had this full fucking cannonball gut that was just like rock hard and he was just bouncing around like the fittest, thickest fucking ball of human. Like look like he was from a different age. Wow, and man, I was saying to my grandparents over fucking Chrissy that like he is a biblical figure, a proper apocryphal character that's walked out of the pages of some fucking Modern day prophet. Yeah, really, 100%. Well, he's more than a prophet because he's not preaching anything. He's not even telling you fucking telling you like what to believe in. He's just like do this thing, mm, like you'll figure it out for yourself.

Shannon: 23:37

And then he's letting other people do the science for him.

Jed: 23:40

Yeah, he's like. That's the beauty of it.

Shannon: 23:42

Yeah.

Jed: 23:43

He's as an astute person would do, volunteering himself to the absolute cutting edge of where our species is at. Yeah, and he's come up with the most succinct way to good mental health and wisdom and coupled with meditation. Like I was saying, yeah, go on to India and meet in the Dalai Lama. His whole fucking speech. When we saw him, he said the gist of it was I wake up every morning and I do my breath work which allows me to be a kind and compassionate person and represent the Tibetan plight abroad. Right, so it's basically what the gist of what he said? Yeah, and meditation, obviously, but that was. He just shared his morning routine with fucking thousands of pilgrims. Everyone's like, oh, oh, my God, that's so true.

Shannon: 24:36

What was the vibe in the crowd was just electric.

Jed: 24:39

Yeah, it was really interesting. There was this old temple, big temple, beautiful temple, up in the mountains there in Durham, charlotte, and inside was hundreds of monks, as you'd expect, in robes, bald head, and then also just hundreds of Tibetans who weren't monks, who were just living in exile. You're typical, you know just Tibetans Like, and their dress is classic, like they have their traditional kind of clothing and it's stuff that's made to last and they eat traditional foods and they also have iPhones and but you had to leave all of them at the front gate. It was psycho. I couldn't believe that the fucking security was so intense. What's it? Oh man, these hectic, like Tibetan fucking like secret service cats were just like they made you use your like pawpaw in front of them and like the craziest free-skinned, like touching your genitals.

Shannon: 25:36

Why use pawpaw in front of them?

Jed: 25:38

Because it might be a fucking explosive or Novichok in a tube, you know.

Shannon: 25:43

So they can be staunch, because, like my image of. Tibetans are just these. They're all like monk vibes. No, because when tro yeah, yeah, you know how they're meant to be peaceful, non-violent.

Jed: 25:54

Like it's not exactly how it is, like they've definitely had warrior casts.

Shannon: 25:58

Okay.

Jed: 25:59

In that culture. I guess you need it at a certain point, otherwise you just get ransacked by the fucking Mongols or China or whoever's doing the ransacking at any which point in history. So they have those guys. But the Dalai Lama's message is simply yeah, to meditate and do breath work and just try to tap into that Buddha nature that. Christ consciousness.

Shannon: 26:25

Religion, I mean, do you align with any?

Jed: 26:30

No, because like, like at the end of the day, like it's the practice that gets you there, Not some cunts fucking teachings in a book. That's not helpful. Like you can't tell people how to think, but you can tell them how to act. Are you referring to the Bible? I've like pretty much all of them. Okay, so if you liked that, they're like. Oh, like here's all these teachings in this. Like I'm saying this about having read one of them. How ignorant of mine.

Shannon: 27:06

Well, the reason I've started reading the Bible in the last six months because I'm just like. I started just researching it and I was like, oh, there's 2.4 billion Christians in the world. Like, and then I read another stat that the Bible is the most sold book of all time.

Jed: 27:21

Yeah.

Shannon: 27:21

I'm like, fuck like it's pretty popular.

Jed: 27:23

Of course, I'd say that.

Shannon: 27:24

And I've never read it. I've never even looked at it, and so I've just started reading it, just to be less ignorant. It's fucking pretty interesting. Yeah, man, it's funny.

Jed: 27:34

You know, I grew up in such a Catholic household, and my granddad too. He's created a fucking icon of a man. You know, boxer from Forbes. Rough upbringing like fucking gnarly, like working class dude, but never drank or smoked, and he's read the Bible. He's read the Quran Like and I've. You know, I grew up Catholic, spent a lot of time in Indoe, where it's both Hindu and Muslim, and now, you know, my mum would probably be like pretty on the Buddhist spectrum, I reckon or at least like, yeah, that you know, yeah, I would say so Catholic, buddhist and then experiencing a lot of these religions. I haven't read the texts, though, but at the end of the day, like anything that preaches dogma or tells you how to live is. It seems a bit redundant to me when really the principles are simple. It's breath, work and meditation and exercise, and then the rest takes care of itself. You don't have to think about it.

Jed: 28:32

You're on a kind of you're on autopilot, you're on like a bit of a cosmic pathway where your biologies and your chemistry is at a point that doesn't really allow you to be dogmatic or violent or depressed.

Shannon: 28:52

That's the big thing, like I'm starting to learn on my little journey with it and it's still a very early journey that it is. I don't actually I'm not actually getting the vibe that the Bible is preaching dogma. I feel like it's people creating the dogma and the organization is creating the dogma. And I've spoke to some God fearing Christians, bible strict Bible believing Christians that don't go to church, and I've really some of the most interesting people I've met and that, like they've said to me, and I've seen it, that it's the church is creating the dogma and people, these sinners, or people like these flawed humans and humans have been flawed forever, since the beginning of time. They've been doing atrocious things and it's like, well, what do you expect? You know, we're all flawed and we are self serving primarily. Until we are filled with God and start to serve God, we're always going to be serving our primal needs, our primal desires, you know, and some they refer to the seven deadly sins.

Jed: 30:02

Which is pretty much the ones I just listed. Right, yeah, exactly, and I think that's about half of the read the Bible and that's kind of my point is like you can take acid, you can meditate, you can do breath work, you can do all those things at once and you will reach a consciousness that is cross consciousness or Buddha nature, and therefore you don't really have to read the Bible. You are leaving the same reality as Jesus. You know more or less Like it's not as hard as the fuck it. That's the great slight hand of the Bible. It's making Jesus feel like he's this unattainable fucking reality man. He was a carpenter from fucking Palestine who had partners, I believe.

Jed: 30:47

I don't know and yeah, did some stoic, wise shit and was knocked off for it. But I feel like, like, I feel like Wim Hof is Jesus. He's the same thing he's like does so much hard work through his biology that he taps into Christ consciousness. He taps into and he won't be perfect. That's the beauty of fucking being a human is that he's gonna have flaws in shit too, and Jesus would have had his.

Shannon: 31:18

But Jesus was persecuted for his beliefs.

Jed: 31:20

And Wim Hof is being persecuted for his beliefs.

Shannon: 31:22

I was gonna ask.

Jed: 31:23

And it's classic. It makes his tale more and more biblical by the day. Interesting.

Shannon: 31:28

Why do we do that Like? Why do we wanna persecute free thinkers, progressive thinkers, change-makers?

Jed: 31:34

Because he's threatening to tip the card table over and cost cancel a lot of money in the pharmaceutical industry. I guess I don't have read the Bible, but who was it the Romans or who did Jesus piss off the Romans right and they knocked him?

Shannon: 31:48

Originally yeah, and then they exiled the Jews from Israel.

Jed: 31:54

And Wim Hof. Someone did his. It's a sad story why he's being persecuted, but really sad. This poor girl from a abusive broken home did Wim Hof in a pool and drowned and her mom had given her the technique to do when she was feeling anxious and fucked up and she did it. But obviously, like you could easily do that, I've had a friend do the same thing in fucking Cambodia and I think he was on.

Jed: 32:29

DMT as well and died and they had to resuscitate. Like he fucking flatlined and shit and they resuscitated him. He was sweet.

Shannon: 32:36

What breath holding underwater?

Jed: 32:38

Yeah, breath holding in water.

Shannon: 32:39

And then you pass out from the epoxy art.

Jed: 32:41

Yeah, it's not something to be done anywhere near water and it says that on the app and he says that in pretty much all of his videos. But if he gets to relate to someone orally they don't get the fucking warning and she died. And the dad is trying to sue Wim Hof and the mom is like fucking countersuing the dad for trying to sue Wim Hof, like she's like this is bullshit. You're a fucking sad old, fucking angry dude. She's suing the wife and Wim Hof for negligence and shit. But Wim Hof will be sweet, but man like you, poke your head up above the parapet and you start calling out fucking the pharmaceutical industry, the prison industrial complex, the military industrial complex, which he does. He has political views and look at Russell Brand and Joe Rogan. Like they fucking come after you. Man, the left as much as the right, the left maybe more than the right.

Shannon: 33:32

It's interesting isn't it Joe Rogan? I recently listened to a podcast with this guy who runs this organization called Ways to Well. Have you heard about it? And his name's Brian Bergham or something, anyway, and he was talking. This guy used to work for health insurance companies in America and he's just seen how broken the health care system is like internally, you know, and how much insurance private health insurance companies are completely rorting everybody financially, like in the system. And so he created this alternative ways to wellness through all, through alternative means of health and longer consultation times, and it's a bigger initial investment for long-term health and really pushing that preventative model as opposed to the curative model that we all function under. And he was saying how, like, joe Rogan got really condemned when he got COVID and for using ivermectin and the first thing CNN did was like completely obliterate his credibility or try to like, oh, he's using horse tranquilizer and really it never was. There was some really weak link to being a horse tranquilizer.

Jed: 34:45

Ivermectin was used in Africa to cure millions of people of this parasite that was sending him blind. Right, that's it. And it won the Nobel fucking Peace Prize and shit Like. It's an amazing piece of medical science that improved the lives of millions and millions of people.

Shannon: 35:03

Yeah.

Jed: 35:04

As far as I remember I mean fact check, do your own research but I'm pretty sure I read that as what ivermectin was invented for.

Shannon: 35:10

But what Joe Rogan highlighted in the whole situation. He said CNN went after him big time and in the end it actually discredited them, not him, and he was saying how like their view count is like. It's like 40, he said they're getting, on average, 44,000 views a night and he goes dude, I'm getting 40 million downloads like a month, fucking hell. And he goes and he goes, and he goes and I go and during all that he goes, he goes, he goes, he goes. Two million. In a month I've got two million new subscribers.

Jed: 35:43

Podcast bro, it's the fucking, it is the revolution and I say it on the podium every fucking week or second week that it is the most significant thing to happen in information technology since the printing press that printed that fucking Bible that is in such high circulation, allegedly. Now we have this way to communicate with the world at volume, with no gatekeepers, and that's what the printing press enabled in a much more finite sense. This is much more democratized. It's insane. And Joe Rogan credit to him is a psychonaut, is a wellness fucking advocate and Ripper Rinnara, meditator man the cunny's a fucking legend he's had. And it's not even about him, it's about the guests he has and his commitment to challenging himself and the various narratives that are getting put out by the mainstream media.

Shannon: 36:40

And also his willingness to change his position.

Jed: 36:43

That's the key to being a fucking psychonaut and a meditator man it's like, and a blue collar guy too. Like I think, growing up working class like man. Like I look at myself and I'm like what do I know? I grew up fucking digging holes and punching on and punching cones and playing football and surfing. And like I look at, like I look at myself as someone who fucking knows nothing and I'm continually learning and transmitting that knowledge and ready to self correct and correct, fucking all the time constantly. So that's what meditation does for me. It does man.

Shannon: 37:17

And I mean that was the point I wanted to make is that, yeah, like you just said, the podcast is independent media and long form conversation is becoming a key keystone to the, to some type of revolution and some type of re-empowerment against a really broken system, globally Massively. And I guess the question I want to lead into with that is like you have a dedicated audience with that as well, and I want to know, like, how do you balance, like entertainment Because it is pure entertainment a lot of time with the like, the responsibility of discussing important issues with a surf community through a surf community?

Jed: 38:00

I would say like I would say don't is it something you?

Jed: 38:09

consider yeah, I don't know if it is something I consider necessarily Like I feel like, at the end of the day, like there is a time for taking the piss and like, look man, at the end of the day, like as fucked as things ever get or as fucking corrupt as they can get especially if they're corrupt the best thing you can do is take the fucking piss, man. The best thing you can do is laugh at it all and that is. There's nothing more degrading than that when concert just pointing at you and laughing because you're a fucking crooked disgrace, so that's like that'll always be there. And then, actually, for the first time.

Shannon: 38:49

then you look, I can tell you, a little bit stoned, as your eyes just went, a little bit slitty. It's the first time in the time I've been talking.

Jed: 38:58

Yeah.

Shannon: 38:59

Anyway, sorry, keep going.

Jed: 39:00

No, but, and also I get bored. I just talking about surfing. Fucking at a certain point bores me, like you know. I got. I got. I think there's more important shit in the world than throwing shapes on water.

Shannon: 39:13

Yeah, because like, but it's mad, it is mad, but I just, I'm just wondering, because, like you bring up some heavy issues, bro, we'll end up main and.

Jed: 39:22

But look, we're all grew up right and Bondi is like fucking, it's the mate. It's a battleground of like class and culture and in the city in general where I'm from, that's where I'm from, like you know, fucking Dramoyne to Bondi, to Maruba, that triangle basically didn't live in Maruba, played football there. Mum is there now, but I would even say Lape, let's say for argument sake. We got mates all in that zone, that big southeast quadrant and mate, yeah, it was a fucking, you know, it was revolutionary characters, revolutionary ideas down there.

Jed: 40:02

You had the wharves, you had a lot of marries that were involved in the Black Power like my mentor was anyway, and Rennes Squartz and really countercultural, staunch socialist ideals. You had like a bit of money and that and old money. I guess in certain parts you had a lot of Jewish war refugees and that, like who'd made good money, had fucking Iranians, philos ties, like you know. But beyond all that, like the place, I guess that's where the pommies landed and it's fucking been the hotbed of all. The national leaders in the last fucking five years have all come from this area. Scott Morrison went to Sydney High. Malcolm Turnbulls from Bondi Junction, anthony Albanese from fucking Campadown, tony Abbots from just the other side of the river in Waringo, manley Mate. That's all of our last PMs, pretty much like.

Shannon: 40:54

But aside from Albo, the rest it's because they're all from upper class families.

Jed: 41:00

Yeah, like not so much. So that and that's.

Shannon: 41:02

Turnbulls is an interesting.

Jed: 41:03

One man, turnbulls like, gets painted like that, but you know, I think single dad and I don't know exactly how he made his money, but he's from the junction, at least in a point of time, when it was like that yeah, there were socialists down the street, in your street. You had garbage men, socialists, warfies, rugby league players, surfers and likely migrants of various stock and we liked it like that. And there were some people wanted to profiteer off that and rip it apart and there's some people that didn't agree. And that's the socialism versus capitalism fucking debate in a nutshell. Right there been fought out in my hometown.

Shannon: 41:42

So you and your mom mainly.

Jed: 41:44

Yeah.

Shannon: 41:45

Just you and your mom. Do you have any brothers and sisters?

Jed: 41:47

I've got a half brother up here and I've got a guy I would say is my brother, who you know we adopted from the street and you're always renting.

Shannon: 41:54

Yeah, and so because of because you're always renters, you're always forced to move around Like you were never in a safe space.

Jed: 41:59

So you become acutely aware of the injustice of being born poor. You know like it's like. We live an unstable life and my mom is still in that life and you know she broke her fucking finger the other day and she massages for a living and you know she's renting still at, like you know, nearly 60. So it's a hard graph life. We're fortunate. Some people in the family have made a fucking mozza flipping homes, just being a chippy like mate. It's iconic. Like I was, my uncle's made a keeling and it was like, like cashed up bogans.

Jed: 42:34

Yeah, they are now like, and they, they're all from these bomb fuck towns in the bush and they started doing a bathroom was a bathroom? First renovate that and then fucking get a bit of loot and get a bit of fucking alone and you're on your way. Why don't you ship boxes and all the way to apartment?

Shannon: 42:53

My richest friend lived left school. I went to school with him left in year nine because his dad was a chippy. So come and be my apprentice, be my apprentice, yeah. And then that led to okay boy. What ended up? Buying his first home at 21? Flipped it Exactly and just flipped about 10.

Jed: 43:07

Butterbean, Butterburn, mate. If you rode the fucking property wave of city in the 90s, mate, it was a major city that popped in the world on the coast, Like how many of them are first world city out of it, and he was fucking dumb at school.

Shannon: 43:17

Like dumb for an hour and just now killing it yeah, and then often doesn't even have to work anymore.

Jed: 43:23

Fuck, mate. The question is, can they switch off and do they have the experiences or the understanding to achieve true joy and connection and those things can only be experienced through community and are they destroying the communities? Are they moving on the characters they love in life? And Turnbull and that like recognize this. They recognize what inequality and like, particularly housing inequality and gentrification was doing to the city, and he was. He tried to put a stop to it, man, and that's why he got fucking asked. And Albo has been sick on housing and fucked on the environment. But yeah, you know he's creating kind of like these easy. You know you need much less of a percentage of the deposit to start getting a mortgage and shit like that. And you know I think they're building a lot more like public and affordable housing, are they? I don't know? That's a question, mate. I've got to do exactly. I've got to do my fucking stock. Take on this con because, as much as I love him and he's a house I live in Dunno, if he's following through, I want to love him.

Shannon: 44:34

I want to love him, but I just I mean, I'm a renter now. I wasn't. I was a homeowner for like almost 18 years till I got divorced and pretty much lost it all, but it's so fucking tough being a renter, as you know like I mean, I have a tiny two bedroom unit in Newcastle and it was like I competed against 40 other people for that place.

Jed: 44:57

No, not good enough, that's fucked.

Shannon: 44:59

And and and thing is like I have a, I have a steady income. You know I'm on a teacher's salary. It's not huge but it's consistent. And, um, yeah, I mean I still had to like grovel for this, for this place, and I really feel like more people are going to start living in vans and we're going to. I think we're on our way to being like California, where, you know, like the people that are on Centrelink in our country living in housing commission in California, those same people are living in tents around Skid Row. Not any, it's all. It's synonymous with drug use and addiction. That area of California, in LA, but a lot of, there's a lot of people who are not on drugs. They just literally have nowhere else to go and I just feel like that's where we're, that's where we're not far off that I don't know. I see it more and more. I've seen more and more people living in vans Fuck, I don't know, especially around the city. I mean, I've been in Sydney a lot lately, have you? No, have you been in Sydney recently?

Jed: 45:57

Mate, I never for any major stretch of time, but yeah, I don't know.

Jed: 46:03

I don't know either. It's really hard to get a gauge on this kind of shit, like you can't. That's why you need the data and stats. But then you really have to be careful of who's giving you that data. Like I look at some of these companies that kind of give you the data on housing and they're also invested, though they're a part of the housing and building industry, and I'm like, well, can you trust it? Like mate, fuck, I just bought. I'm just wondering whether to share this, even but yeah, I just bought a block. Let's say Congratulations.

Jed: 46:34

And the block was fucking peanuts and it's in an area where there is a lot of fucking junkies and yeah, it's man, it's one of them, things it's like.

Shannon: 46:47

I mean, you don't seem like someone who's driven by money. Mate I want more money.

Jed: 46:54

I think you need a certain amount to live a fucking halfway decent, calm life in this country there's an equation. They say it's 80 grand, don't know. And then it take like, from that point on it's like your happiness doesn't go any high. That's the graph.

Jed: 47:07

I wish I had a fact checker on demand, Like yeah, my ex-girlfriend worked at a bank and she was telling me that. Anyway, she's like there's a graph that says 80 grand your happiness, basically flat lines, and it's a steep curve until 80 grand your happiness really improves, because at 80, you're like no worry about it. You're all you need to make.

Shannon: 47:27

And there's an equation you can put together and answer a bunch of survey questions for it for, like, what your financial happiness level is, and they ask you questions about, like you know, lifestyle and spending habits and what you need. And I actually did it and I think I worked out for me to be like really happy financially it's not that high, it's like 10 grand a month. Pretty much will give me everything I need. It'll allow me to pay off a mortgage based on the median house prices in Australia. It'll allow me to have money to travel when I want to travel. It'll allow me enough money to buy two to three surfboards a year. It'll allow me to pay for private health insurance and buy the quality of food that I want to buy, like. So, if I want to eat, buy a diverse organic fruit and vegetables.

Jed: 48:17

Here's the thing, man, that 120K a year, that's not realistic for any of us. But maybe it's not realistic.

Shannon: 48:24

What do you mean? It's not realistic, oh fuck man. Like not achievable, oh man.

Jed: 48:27

I don't think, oh man, achieving that ethically, but my point more like it would be hard. My point more is like you can get chaplanned, build homes with your mates, grow your own food, catch your own food, and you don't need 120k. Okay, yeah, and that's what I'm doing. Interesting yeah and the trick is to get near waves, and I've kind of managed to do that, but I'm surrounded by some rough characters.

Shannon: 48:54

Do you think I mean? I feel like a lot of people living beyond their means, probably myself included.

Jed: 48:58

Oh yeah, I refuse to, and yeah, completely. I've never had a credit card or a fuse to go into debt. This is like one of my Founding creeds and that's right, though it's hard, it's hard and the only way I've managed to do it is through living in a garage at my fucking grandmas for fucking aeons, for like living, you know care, taking my dad's joint while he was looking after my grandma while she was sick, and like living in Bali and, like you know, living in a fucking display unit on my uncle's building site, like just.

Shannon: 49:27

You've been like scrolling away Money.

Jed: 49:30

Yes, always as a gift to my partner and child at some point, but a gift in the the sense of like Not having to worry about money, because that's all I ever did grown up.

Shannon: 49:41

Yes, brother. I get it, I get it. I came from a single parent household as well. Man never had anything. And then I Really was so focused on making money, just and just would cling on to it, you know, because I just never had any, and then I actually had a taste of what it's like to have some good money, mmm. But then the universe has this really uncanny way of going. It's not good for like. I think it was actually going to be bad for me if I kept having too much money.

Shannon: 50:07

Hmm and then it somehow just all went does.

Jed: 50:10

Yeah, that's interesting, man, that you're making good money. I've never made good money and the idea of making 120k year below is my mind, but really there's numbers that people dragging in this fucking joint and some.

Shannon: 50:21

Some would say that's that's, that's low income.

Jed: 50:25

That's insane. Like that's. You know, that's like that's pretty much a teacher's salary, faulty wow, that shows how out of touch with economics I am in this country. But, that said, I'm out of touch with my earnings in my business too. Like it's, I'm fucking. I just much my whole understanding of Finance. I just look at my savings and I'm like, well, that's what it needs to be to get me this block in this house and this thing, and that's.

Shannon: 50:50

I don't care about anything else and I'm not writing like stringent budgets and stuff.

Jed: 50:54

No, not at all. Just spend as little money as I can, and Without being a fucking tight ass, okay, and have all the things that I need, yeah, and nothing more. Hmm, I like I can't think of it in terms that, yeah, but budgeting, and it's a full shortfall in me. Like I'm learning that the hard way. Now, looking into the accounts of the business and how much money we've been making, where it's been going and shit, I'm like, fuck, I should be paying way more attention to this, paying 40 grand of the tax man and shit, like me and more and like you know you have to pay that to the tax.

Jed: 51:24

Because we're just idiots.

Shannon: 51:25

You know what the fuck you didn't do your bad statements Did you oh?

Jed: 51:28

I don't know what one is mate. I'm not even joking business activity statement.

Shannon: 51:32

But so I've got so many trading friends that got to get fucked up by that because they're the subbies and subcontractors and they don't do their bad statements every three. They're gonna be every three months and shit.

Jed: 51:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Shannon: 51:41

Claire, like they're spending is up. It's just way too much for fuck it's too much, yeah, and it comes to tax time and they just push it all across the counter to the tax man.

Jed: 51:49

Yeah, that's me, it's like you gotta pay this now. Yeah, it's heavy. That's pretty much what we're going through, but yeah, so on and out living a very expensive country may we do, and that's why I lived in Bali and and that's why I'm Intent on growing and catch my own food, because I already I enjoy that process and I'd rather that be my job than making money. They then go fucking Buy food. It's worse.

Shannon: 52:12

It's a beautiful way to live. Yeah, if it can be done.

Jed: 52:15

I'm sure it can, and I think, as communities, if we band together and Think in these terms, I think that's a major solution to the way the planet is going.

Shannon: 52:25

I was in Malambinbi today and, yeah, I know there's a lot of stereotypes associated with that place and there's a lot of dudes cruising around in.

Jed: 52:32

Malam, the whinging capital of the world.

Shannon: 52:33

All right and there's a lot of dudes in my friend called them Malambinbi starter packs which, like they wear like linen pants and sandals and and stuff like that.

Jed: 52:45

Yeah, yeah, it's made Durham, Charlotte, like you go to all these like kind of Hessian hotspots and fucking this. Heaps of constant look like that. Yeah, and generally like I don't want to be too disparaging or generalize too much, but generally like the people who have to virtue signal their alternative identity are the least likely to be doing the work.

Shannon: 53:03

That's been my 16th summary of the point I was gonna make, though, is, like you driving there, yes, there's that big aspect of it, but there's also this beautiful massive permaculture farm.

Jed: 53:13

Yeah, oh, bro, roddy, shout out to Roddy, my man the Brazilian, you fucking, I don't know how it's functioning.

Shannon: 53:20

I don't know how they're functioning within the community, but either way, it is advocating for growing your own food Organically and, by it, with biodiversity. Yeah, amazing. And then also I went to this amazing health food shop there and everyone that worked there was a certified and qualified natural path and they had all their Certifications up whether they're legit or not, I don't know and they, you know I wanted to buy some products. I've had this ongoing shoulder issue. I wanted some natural products to help with, like tissue repair and whatnot, and I basically got like a free Half-hour consultation with the naturopath who, just you know, I asked me all these questions about my health system and my and some of my health and lifestyle behaviors and you know, usually I'd have to pay good money to go and see a naturopath for an hour for a consultation. I sort of got it for free and I'm like wow, that's crazy busy.

Jed: 54:07

Dude like crazy got a free consultation Just like, yeah, he just like.

Shannon: 54:11

He gave me a solid half hour while I was in the shop. I've just, you know, going through every my body and asking me all these questions. That's cool man and medical history. And yeah, just how do I look at a pinpoint?

Jed: 54:23

Yeah, my mom is. My mom studied naturopathy. She's a remedial massage therapist and a naturopath and I grew up on like a lot of that stuff. Like was trippy, you know playing fucking, you know elite football and like mom's getting the arnica dropper out when I'm all Corked out and bruised up and fucked up and like, but also going to see that crème de la crème osteopath in Sydney Fucking who looked after the swans and that Ross partington was a genius man. I the wizardry that is in that Medical space as well like osteopaths, natural paths.

Shannon: 54:54

I only see osteos now, yeah.

Jed: 54:55

Yeah, it's critical to know the differences. You know, I've never seen a physio or a car in my life. I've only ever seen like massage therapists and osteos and interesting. Yeah.

Shannon: 55:08

Yeah, and I guess, and overall I just sort of like yeah, because I sort of had this like Bit of a chip on my shoulder like a fucking hippies everywhere, and you know, and I went to this like bougie fucking sauna and ice bath place which was like epic, epic May, that joins.

Jed: 55:23

Like the look I was saying on the phone, like you go to some places and you like, oh wow, a complete life gets this good and it's, yeah, cost to be, but it's like I didn't know that was possible. That was a new reality, blew me out.

Shannon: 55:36

Yeah, exactly yeah, it was bad and it was just like, regardless the advocating for some really good practices here and I was sort of left there a little bit inspired. You know, and I know there's all sorts of like, they're always the easiest people to criticize and condemn and and and accuse of hypocrisy and contradiction and whatever it's.

Jed: 55:57

It's the people who wear the ome symbols and I, like you know, just kind of have all like dreadies and like I'm like just have all these kind of counter-cultural motifs but don't do the work. Okay, they're misrepresenting the work and that's a fuck up. It is fuck up like they've come to define meditation and breath work and yoga and shit. Those people and they often don't even do it and the people that need it are the cunts on the fucking job site and in the Houses and like in this kind of hoodlum blue collar culture. But they should be in that space and normalized within that context and cultural context. But I feel like those kind of the hippie set of kind of Cat pissed all over him, just soaked it in patchouli oil, fucking, throwing some lentils at it and it does, and just winged so much fucking winging about fucking internet towers and shit. I mean, maybe they're on point with that, I don't know, fucking us and it does smell like patchouli in the streets there.

Shannon: 57:00

I love it. It's funny. You know you're a good social commentator. I reckon I've always said that and I think it. You know there's been. You know your podcast is popular and there's a reason for that. Okay, do you think that you know that? That upbringing and being surrounded by that diversity in the eastern suburbs, you know, and the moving around all the time Do you think that might have been a gift in disguise for you?

Jed: 57:24

Yeah, I reckon Mate Fuck in hindsight. Yes, like you know, like it, it schooled me in the forces of of capitalism and Economics and great, at a very young age. I've been learning about broken systems for a long, long time. Interesting and and not learning about I'm leaving it, so you know where the fucking holes are when you're leaving in it, as you're finding out now renting and as I'm not finding out, because I'm fucking, I'm not paying rent and I'm like I got this. Yeah, trippy setup comes at a cost, are?

Shannon: 58:01

you feeling more?

Jed: 58:01

peace, though. Are you feeling peace? Fuck man, it's, it's is there. Like this drama is involved in it. It's like, yeah, you pay a cost is always some cost until you have your own joint. But uh, what? I mean, I lost my train of thought, but yeah, it's gone.

Shannon: 58:22

Sorry, I took you off track a little bit when I asked you if you felt content, content what we told me up before that. Well, I was just.

Jed: 58:27

I was sort of like sort of all the traveling around on that Mate.

Jed: 58:30

Yeah, so traveling around taught me a lot about the world, yeah, and then getting the job as a journalist and not knowing what really a journalist was and how to be one, and not knowing anyone who was one, I was like, fuck, if I just travel and learn and just live as many different realities as I can and walk in as many people in as many people shoes as I can, then I will learn about the world and I will be a good journalist and a good writer.

Jed: 58:54

I need to fast track my learning in this world to survive in this trade, because every other kind was like in older you know, there's no dude to a like 22, 23, 24, making equities, a fucking freelance journalist. But I didn't have a choice or I could have maybe worked in an office in North Sydney or something. Yeah, I wasn't that interested enough. So, yeah, and I just traveled and traveled, and traveled and read, and read, and read and experience, and experience, and experience, and eventually it's given me a bit of a Just get to compare realities, all these different realities and that like.

Jed: 59:30

Brawlins your experience of the world, or something.

Shannon: 59:31

That's been your education.

Jed: 59:33

Yeah.

Shannon: 59:34

Yeah, I mean you must feel different. After doing years of of article writing, interviewing, you must be a different human from when you started out, aside from getting older.

Jed: 59:44

I think it's just the getting older mostly like Must be smarter. For me, I'm pretty simple when it all boils down to a light surfing and football and children remains and like getting stoned occasionally and you know like I. But yeah, I'm interested in politics for sure.

Shannon: 1:00:01

What about journalists that you really respect and admire? Who are they?

Jed: 1:00:05

May. It's all about John Pilger and he fucking just passed the, the icon Scumvalley's finest himself, johnny Pilger, 84, the Richie Beno of investigative journalism, and, but seriously, mate, oh fuck it, I knew he was old. I've seen him talk a couple times, I've asked him questions in the, in the flesh, he lives in London and he serves. He's from Bondi serves. He lives in, I believe, cornwall so he can serve. I did, did and he you know.

Jed: 1:00:42

But what he's known as is the most fucking fearless investigative journalists of all time that I've ever heard of and I know, as far as I know, I know everyone of note in the trade. There's not that many of them like Mate, because they all get fucking shot and imprisoned and this bloke never did. And his whole career he made you know. His career coincided with the end of World War two and American imperialism via the CIA and their imperialist wars in, and it will imperialist wars and coups in many, many countries. And this is a totally untold side of history and it's it's ongoing and it's it's fucking completely insane that we aren't told about this.

Shannon: 1:01:30

Well, what made him so credible in your eyes? Just fearless.

Jed: 1:01:35

Going there, you know, going to these places and just talking to people. It's really all you have to do. You know. You go there with an open mind and you ask people what's going on.

Shannon: 1:01:51

Yeah.

Jed: 1:01:52

Even the biggest, like even me. I could understand when I went to these countries for the first time. Why are they so poor, like where they're not done so why don't they have anywhere near as much money as we do in the West? Like, why are these kinds of so fucking doing it so tough? Doesn't that up? Yeah, one plus one doesn't add up to two. Because they're smart, industrious people and as I grew up I was like, oh, because most of the time they have resources, they're being pilfered by colonial superpowers like Europe and America and yeah, that's what happened all through Central America and Southeast Asia and, in ways, australia. And like he dedicated his whole career to documentaries and exposing the criminal manipulation of society by big industrialists and big capitalists in the military industrial complex and the fucking fashion industry and the food industry and it's crazy.

Jed: 1:03:01

Oh man, a very close confidant of Julien Assange's.

Shannon: 1:03:08

Yeah, the goat People don't want to hear Julien Assange as a goat.

Jed: 1:03:12

And Pilger. Yeah, yeah both.

Shannon: 1:03:15

Yeah, like people don't want to hear the truth and it's so easy to cover the truth these days. It really is.

Jed: 1:03:21

Yeah, mate. Just I would suggest watch as many of his films as you can, because it's all you need to see. If you, just if you really want to know, like, do you want to know, if you want to know how it works, just watch his films.

Shannon: 1:03:31

People don't, in my opinion, especially in Australia. People are happy to be complacent and they don't want to know until it's directly affecting their lifestyle.

Jed: 1:03:38

Yeah, sure, I mean, I guess some people like that, but like the thing is it will affect you, Like, if they're going to do it to some other, they can't, they're going to do it to you. Why do you think you're special Because you got the same color skin as them? Give me a fucking break, you idiot. I don't give a fuck what skin color you are, mate. They give you a fuck, whether they, whether you're in their bloodline, or you can make them some money or you can get fucked by them, like in the physical, sexual sense. They're all about fucking prostitutes and like, mate, I'm just watching all these Epstein shit go down and I'm like, yeah, that's, that's what it's all about Ego power, dick swinging antics.

Shannon: 1:04:16

But I find it so interesting you mentioned Epstein, for example, and there's now like a Netflix series about him. So like the information is so readily available for people and it's almost like they've designed it and presented it in a way that's able to be a Netflix documentary. So it's like it's visually appealing, it's very well planned and organized, and then people still just they hear about it and then they just forget about it a few days because it's not really important to them.

Jed: 1:04:46

Yeah, and how can you change the reality? And it's, I'm feeling like that, I'm feeling what you're feeling with the depression. We've paying attention to what's happening in Palestine at the moment and I mean, like I listen to democracy now, listen to the empire files, and there's like hard hitting, hardcore investigative journalist fucking podcasts and it is so fucking. You know you at the point where you just go on oh man, I fucking do I have to go self-immolate, like not really Self what I'm joking, but like self what, like what the monks used to do, like themselves on fire in the streets to protest war and shit, yeah, you know, like that.

Jed: 1:05:25

But like it feels like that, feels like you're going to explode, like there's just these fucking raging Nazis slaughtering people in the Middle East, like unapologetically just slaughtering just wasting human life and dancing about it on Tik Tok. And when you say, are you referring to Israel?

Shannon: 1:05:44

Yeah, I went on a bit of a deep dive, like just trying to understand why they're being so brutal, and and and I did, I really made a really big effort to and I spoke to some friends who are Israeli as well.

Shannon: 1:05:58

And you know, like one of them put it to me like this, and I'm just going to put it out there and I'm not just presenting the idea, I'm not, I definitely am not advocating for the slaughtering of anyone, of any innocent people. I think it's disgusting what's going on as well. I want to make that clear. But he compared it to the plight of the indigenous in Australia and said well, you know, we, the indigenous in Australia, they believe this land always was and always will be, you know, and I agree with that. And he actually compared it to the Israelis and said, like that land was theirs Historically, they were there first.

Jed: 1:06:31

The Israelis are.

Shannon: 1:06:32

And then they were exiled from the land, okay, by the Romans and the Egyptians, and then that was when the Palestinians moved in, but they weren't called Palestinians and they were just coastal dwellers who were encouraged to move in to literally like as a way of eradicating the Jews from the area, from the Holy land. And then eventually, the Jews were able to come back in slowly and and live harmoniously together, and they did for a long time and until in 1948 is when they were like well, they started to accumulate wealth, power, allies such as America, who needed an outpost in the Middle East because they're the only ally in the Middle East which is direct access to oil.

Jed: 1:07:11

So the serving colonial imperial interests? Yes, somebody's got to do it.

Shannon: 1:07:16

Exactly. And then he's like so they're now coming back, and I mean this is a really heavy analogy. He said well, imagine if the Australian indigenous people were able to accumulate wealth and power and become the the powerful force in this country. Do you think they would want to fucking? How do you think they would treat? Would they treat, the people that stole their children, raped their women, forced their culture away from them, isolated them? Do you think how do you think they would treat the white man that came here and did that to them? And that's, that was the comparison that he was made, just to get into that.

Jed: 1:07:53

Yeah, it's nice to hear. It's nice to hear a bit of a history like that and another perspective on it.

Shannon: 1:08:02

Yeah, because I just I can't rationalize how they can be so brutal. You know, I do have a listen to the Timpul podcast. So you can't rationalize how Israel yeah, I just can't rationalize how they could just be so, so brutal. Yeah, I just, I still can't rationalize it.

Jed: 1:08:17

Yeah, yeah, no Timpul, I mean sorry if I it's simple no not at all yeah. I'm just thinking. I mean, yeah, like just my take on it is that all lands are fought over, all wars are fought over land and women. I think that's the quote from Shanoram and that's what this one is being fought over precisely. It's been fought over, I guess, in increasing the theft of land by Israel in Palestine.

Shannon: 1:08:50

And that's where you, that's where you will get opposition from Israelis.

Jed: 1:08:52

Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't you, why wouldn't you Like? And that's I don't think anyone's disputing that. Most Israelis won't dispute that. Well, let's say, your moderate Israeli would not dispute that. This is why there was fucking hundreds of thousands of people protesting against Benjamin Netanyahu in the outbreak in the lead up to the outbreak of this war. Part of the reason because he was implementing judicial reforms that took away power of the courts and judges, which would allow him to enable power. He's a political survivor. He's been done like 16 years as prime minister in various terms, so he's doing that and he's aggressively seizing land on the West Bank. Like these two facts aren't in dispute. So he's been protested against. He's doing these judicial reforms and he's seizing land on the West Bank. He's a classical right wing conservative, war hungry leader.

Shannon: 1:10:00

Zionist.

Jed: 1:10:01

A Zionist.

Shannon: 1:10:02

As well.

Jed: 1:10:02

Of course he's all about the state of Israel ruling both lands. Hamas is about the same thing. They want a one state solution. So you've got a two state and a one state. Both Netanyahu and Hamas want the same thing. They want a one state solution. They're just two pit bulls going at it. The bummer is there's all these fucking innocent people in the middle and they're getting slaughtered.

Shannon: 1:10:27

Well, that's what's interesting and then I mean you're not allowed to do that and there's so much like I don't know if it's like false information. You know stories of some of those Hamas leaders hiding out in orphanages.

Jed: 1:10:39

So then the Israelis are bombing the orphanage, but then the other point it doesn't even matter, does it Like? If they're hiding out in an orphanage, you don't get to kill fucking 50 kids to kill one Hamas guy.

Shannon: 1:10:50

I agree. But the other point is that was made to me was like you know, Hamas are running Palestine under Sharia law and they have. They have been for years. So they follow the Quran like literally, and there's philosophies in the Quran such as an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Jed: 1:11:10

Did you know that's from the Quran. Yeah, so and so, the argument being that, like by butchering 27,000 people, they're helping to eradicate this hard line interpretation of Islam.

Shannon: 1:11:21

Well, yeah, well, that's it. I mean, that's where the Israelis are just really also running on fear, because they, it's like I think their mindset is like these savages who, if we don't- exterminate them they're just they're going to, they're running under those philosophies of like that might be not a matter of if or when they're going to commit what they did on October 7.

Shannon: 1:11:43

Yeah, remember when they that terrorist attack where they went to the festival and and it was done in a very, very brutal way, like very hands on brutal way yeah, they did it. So it's just they've just completely running on fear now. That was another view point on it.

Jed: 1:12:02

So yeah, so they're trying to unapologetically ethnically cleanse a land like so they started by kind of doing that in a more subtle way, seizing land on the West Bank, this aggressive kind of apartheid policy like different. You know, one street to Jewish Street, israeli Street, one street to Palestinian Street, palestinians constantly going through checkpoints got this fucking two sets of rules for two different people and then obviously it blows up. We did a whole episode on this. Yeah, we've loosey small system failure. The first one we did the goats Bruce. You want to go listen to it because I got a bail and I fucking yeah, I'm going to go yeah.

Jed: 1:12:40

And we like, yeah, we fucking smashed this out with all of its factual, as deep of a dive as we could pull off, being, you know, a career journalist of like 20 years, so. But I'm trying to give a summation of it like the land theft has turned to ethnic cleansing and Israel is running on fear, so they're just butchering people. That sounds a lot like what the Nazis did to the Jews or what like. What any like this is just a classic butchering. It's a classic genocide and there's no justification for it.

Shannon: 1:13:22

And religion can be, that can be, can be like part of that to take responsibility for it. It's two conflicting ideologies, as well. Yeah, at the bottom of it as well.

Jed: 1:13:33

Yeah, yeah, I guess I mean the leaders will have you think that the leaders of Hamas, the leaders of fucking Israel, will tell you that, but I feel like there's a lot more common ground in the in between and in the ordinary, everyday working people who just want to go home to their families and break bread.

Jed: 1:13:51

And I think when you listen to that podcast, that system failure on of Lucy Smalls, you will find out that a lot of the people who were butchered in that that October 7 attack were peace activists from Kibbutz Berea, who raised over 400,000 euros, I think, for this. I forget the exact name of the charity, but it was a charity designed to take Palestinians to Israeli hospitals across through the checkpoints. And these were the peace activists in Israel and they were butchered in that attack, along with the people at the rave who were generally counter cultural drug taking, the least likely people to be fighting a war. So it's almost as though Netanyahu sacrificed the enemies within his own community to To create a reason to then fucking wipe out a people with American bombs and guns.

Shannon: 1:14:41

Hey, aside from aside from, you said being more disciplined this year, maybe with the podcast and stuff, like you know what's what's happening with that. That's well this year, like any exciting plans or aspirations or you got any new articles or oh man, I'm just the same.

Jed: 1:14:56

I'm just pumping them out when I can.

Shannon: 1:14:59

You pump out a lot right.

Jed: 1:15:01

Oh man, I don't pump out as much as a bricklayer lays bricks. So you know, just keep him entertained out there.

Shannon: 1:15:07

And I got one, like you got to run now, like how long you got? Like two minutes, five minutes.

Jed: 1:15:12

Yeah, I gotta go now, okay.

Shannon: 1:15:13

Well, man, it's been a pleasure, as always, and yeah, man, have a great afternoon. I'll check you out.

Jed: 1:15:19

Thank you, Shan Lord richter.