The Lou Perez Podcast

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Jon Miltimore is back — writer, commentator, and one of the sharpest guys covering arts, culture, and politics on Substack. This is his second time on the show and we did not run out of things to talk about.

Topics include: why California can't fight wildfires and why Native Americans had better land management practices; the World Cup finally breaking through in the US; what to actually expect at a Bob Dylan concert when you're a Dylan fan (Jon didn't get what he wanted; he has no regrets); Ben Askren's double lung transplant and why elite athletes bounce back from things that would end most people; the new Stallone biopic about how Rocky got made — specifically the part where a broke, dog-selling, parking-car Stallone turned down $1 million because he refused to not play the role himself; the Rocky franchise and what it means that it somehow worked as it became more absurd; working out at 44 and 47 and why exercise is mental health; the case for travel sports (and why Matthew Yglesias is wrong); and why you should never outsource teaching your kid to ride a bike.

Follow Jon on Substack → https://substack.com/@miltimore

TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — Intro — Jon Miltimore, writer and commentator 0:31 — Canada's wildfires — black skies over New York and Minnesota 2:37 — Why California can't fight fires — federal land, bad policy, and arson 4:38 — Native Americans had better land management — and we stopped listening 5:21 — Private land vs. federal land — the tragedy of the commons 5:38 — Happy Hour Econ — a comedian and an economist walk into a bar 8:50 — The World Cup in America — how soccer finally broke through 10:26 — Bob Dylan at a Bob Dylan concert — what you should actually expect 13:38 — Lou cries at a Bob Dylan concert. He's not embarrassed. 17:21 — Ben Askren's double lung transplant — and why athletes bounce back when others don't 20:44 — Askren retires on his shield — and makes peace with his rival 23:26 — The new Rocky biopic — Stallone turned down $1 million to play the role himself 27:53 — Lou used to go by Rambo as a kid. Old ladies still ask about him. 28:29 — Jon's 13-year-old son shadowboxed like Clubber Lang at age two 29:11 — The Rocky franchise — from gritty 70s realism to superhero movie 32:50 — Working out at 44 and 47 — rowing machines, air bikes, and getting back at it 36:30 — Russell Crowe's comeback — individual agency and why exercise is mental health 41:14 — Travel sports — expensive, worth it, and Matthew Yglesias is wrong 45:34 — Teaching your kids to ride a bike — don't outsource the best moments 51:07 — Auto-deleting tweets and cancel culture — how we need to treat speech differently 52:10 — Outro — find Jon on Substack

Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081 Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

🍺 Co-host of Happy Hour Econ → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-hour-econ/id1863476697 📖 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r 🌐 TheLouPerez.com | 📧 info@thelouperez.com ✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: On the Death and Rebirth of Comedy

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Liza Libes is a writer and literary critic at Pens and Poison. Her parents escaped the Soviet Union. She went to Columbia. She found that Columbia's English Department had replaced literature with Marxist theory, postcolonial studies, and critical theory. She's been pushing back ever since.

We talked about: the teachers who made us both writers; reading Wallace Stevens's The Snowman — out loud, in full — and the seventh grade class that made Liza stand in the snow for an hour to understand it; Hemingway, Ezra Pound, and the fascism problem; what happened to Columbia's English Department and why it matters for publishing; why Marxism is fundamentally an ideology of resentment (Bertrand Russell said it 100 years ago); the novel Yesteryear and what it reveals about contemporary literary self-righteousness; why writing characters who disagree with you is the whole point; the Emily Wilson translation of the Odyssey and what "a complicated man" does to Odysseus's character; and Christopher Nolan's Odyssey film — specifically the Cyclops scene he cut, why it was the scene that defined Odysseus, and why its absence drains the heroism from the entire story.

Follow Liza at Pens and Poison on Instagram → @pensandpoison

TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — Intro — who is Liza Libes and what is Pens and Poison? 1:20 — Looking back on your 18-year-old writer self 2:51 — The teachers who made us writers — Brother Patterson and Poetry Friday 5:34 — Standing in the snow to understand Wallace Stevens — The Snowman read aloud 10:31 — The Lost Generation: Hemingway, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot — and the fascism problem 13:03 — Shakespeare and Co., Paris, and missing Notre Dame before the fire 14:57 — Columbia's English Department: literary theory replaced literature 16:58 — Marxist literary theory, critical theory, and postcolonial studies explained 18:28 — Her parents escaped the Soviet Union — why she takes Marxism personally 19:28 — What literature used to be — humanistic inquiry vs. class consciousness 21:41 — Academia made literature esoteric — and publishing followed 23:01 — The DSA voter: overeducated, underpaid, and resentful 24:44 — Yesteryear — the trad wife novel, Anne Hathaway, and literary self-righteousness 26:03 — When the author's voice drowns out the character's voice 27:14 — Dostoevsky, Lionel Shriver, and characters the author disagrees with 30:23 — Writing outside your experience — her trans character, Lou's gay character 33:22 — Lou's story published alongside Joyce Carol Oates and Junot Diaz 35:20 — Her new novel — exploring faith and Jewish theology 37:32 — Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter in Waiting for Godot 39:03 — The Emily Wilson Odyssey translation — "a complicated man" vs. "cunning" 41:10 — What makes Odysseus great — the Cyclops, the cunning, the hubris 43:25 — Nolan's film: the Cyclops scene is gone — and why that ruins everything 45:42 — Greek hubris — Icarus, Arachne, and why pride destroys heroes 47:24 — The sirens scene: what it should have felt like vs. what Nolan did 48:30 — The overall verdict on Nolan's Odyssey — heroism is missing 49:46 — Outro — find Liza at Pens and Poison

Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081 Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

🍺 Co-host of Happy Hour Econ → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-hour-econ/id1863476697 📖 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r 🌐 TheLouPerez.com | 📧 info@thelouperez.com ✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

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Michael Angelo Zervos is a Guinness World Record holder — he visited all 195 UN-recognized countries in 499 days. Along the way he interviewed people in every country about the happiest moment of their life. That project became a book, published by Penguin Random House, out February 23rd.

We talked about: how the record works and what actually counts as "visiting" a country; a year and a half of planning vs. the Brazilian who claimed he did it by accident; getting jailed overnight in Liberia for taking a photo of a building; being deported from Nicaragua because they thought he was a journalist; how he got into North Korea during a two-week window that's since closed permanently; what North Korea is actually like (his answer: Plato's allegory of the cave, in real life); Cuba on the ground vs. what the left says about it; traveling through Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, and Sudan; asking people about happiness in active conflict zones; and what his grandfather being forced to fight for communist guerrillas in the Greek Civil War has to do with any of it.

Get the book → The Happiest Moment of Your Life: True Stories from a Journey to Every Country in the World

https://amzn.to/4pHdYav

Follow Michael on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/theprojectkosmos/

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 — Intro — who is Michael Angelo Zervos?

0:34 — Greeks in America — diners, Coney Islands, and the varsity jacket problem

5:05 — Christopher Nolan's Odyssey — not a single Greek in the cast

6:25 — 195 countries in 499 days — how the Guinness World Record works

8:04 — A year and a half of planning — and the Brazilian who claimed he did it by accident

9:33 — What counts as "visiting" a country? The Guinness rules

11:08 — Project Cosmos — interviewing people about the happiest moment of their life

13:13 — Brand deals, sponsorships, and the reality of Guinness World Record celebrity

14:35 — Traveling as a man vs. a woman — the real differences

16:37 — Married with two kids — how he pulled this off

20:24 — The happiest moment of the trip — waking up in Ghana

21:33 — The Swiss man who came out as bisexual at a phone-free party in Zurich

23:45 — The worst moments: jailed in Liberia for photographing a building

26:57 — Deported from Nicaragua — they thought he was a journalist

27:41 — Left-wing dictatorships and the memory hole

29:50 — North Korea — getting in through a two-week window that's now closed

32:14 — North Korea as Plato's cave — the allegory of the cave in real life

33:44 — His grandfather forced to fight for communist guerrillas in the Greek Civil War

35:29 — Dennis Rodman's translator was a libertarian

36:44 — Cuba — what it's actually like on the ground

38:40 — Poverty porn, romanticizing socialism, and what Cubans actually think

43:42 — The Facebook argument: "Oh no, Starbucks is going to ruin Cuba"

45:38 — What's actually lost when wealth is generated — community and dependency

47:27 — Traveling through conflict zones: Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, Sudan

49:37 — Asking people about happiness in a war zone

50:27 — The book: published by Penguin Random House, out February 23rd

52:23 — Chicken soup for the soul meets Anthony Bourdain — what the book actually is

54:14 — Outro — follow Michael and get the book

Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ

Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081

Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

🍺 Co-host of Happy Hour Econ → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-hour-econ/id1863476697

📖 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r

🌐 TheLouPerez.com | 📧 info@thelouperez.com

✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

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Germania Rodriguez Poleo — journalist, writer, and Venezuelan exile — escaped her country at age 11 after the Chavez regime accused her mother of terrorism, tortured their bodyguard to death, shot at their car, and raided their home. She arrived in Miami as a refugee. Then she went to NYU and voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary.

Her Reason magazine article "My Family Fled Socialism. Then I Voted for Bernie Sanders." tells the story of how that happened — and how she found her way back out.

She's also the narrator of the documentary Escaping Venezuela.

We covered: her mother's escape on a boat to Curacao and what Interpol red notices actually do to dissidents; the Pinochet whataboutism that follows every conversation about left-wing atrocities; what NYU taught (and didn't teach) about communism, socialism, and US foreign policy; why the pipeline from wealth and privilege to socialism is real and why it matters who makes the culture; the DSA's old platform calling for nationalization of media — and what that looks like in practice in Venezuela; the 32 Cuban soldiers killed protecting Maduro when the US captured him; the 2024 Venezuelan election that was stolen in plain sight; the recent earthquake with 40,000 missing while the dictatorship reports 3,000 dead; why she believes the US should be the policeman of the world; and the tragedy of exile — what it means to have your entire family legacy erased.

Follow Germania on social media → @iamGermania

TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — Intro — who is Germania Rodriguez Poleo? 0:31 — The Reason article: "My Family Fled Socialism. Then I Voted for Bernie Sanders" 1:43 — Her mom: the #1 journalist exposing Chavez — accused of terrorism 3:30 — House raids, shot at their car, bodyguard tortured to death 4:59 — How democracy is lost — and why people allow it 6:07 — Her mom escapes on a boat to Curacao, then flies to Miami 7:07 — Born in Miami — how that gave her some protection 7:26 — Interpol red notices — how dictators use them against dissidents 8:47 — Her grandfather arrested in Rome on Interpol orders 9:13 — The UN Security Council problem 10:06 — The Pinochet whataboutism — and why the left always pivots there 12:05 — NYU, Karl Marx, and an incomplete education 13:26 — No readings on the Soviet Union, Mao, or Cuba — only US horrors 15:03 — The 2002 Venezuela coup — US engineered or not? Her mom was in the room. 16:41 — "Whatever the US does is bad, everyone opposed to it is good" 17:21 — NYU's Karl Marx birthday dance party 18:39 — Why aren't we winning the argument against communism? 19:04 — The pipeline from privilege to socialism — and who makes the culture 20:08 — The documentary Escaping Venezuela — and why it matters 21:06 — DSA, Bernie Sanders, and the Norway vs. Cuba confusion 22:08 — Che Guevara shirts — racism, homophobia, concentration camps 24:08 — DSA's platform: nationalizing media — the Venezuela playbook 26:21 — How authoritarianism starts: shutting down speech in the name of morality 29:04 — Race, identity, and the boxes put on Latinos at NYU 31:06 — NYC Mayor Mamdani — victimhood politics and who's actually brown 32:22 — If the US is so racist, why do people lie about being minorities? 33:56 — Paid propagandists for left-wing dictatorships 36:13 — The US captures Maduro — and the 32 Cuban soldiers protecting him 37:39 — Should the US be the policeman of the world? Her answer: yes. 39:23 — Venezuela is not Libya — why intervention wouldn't cause a civil war 40:09 — The 2024 election Maduro stole 41:14 — The recent earthquake — 40,000 missing, dictatorship says 3,000 42:30 — That's socialism in practice — from richest country to this 42:54 — Cuba: communists vs. thugs — and the cancer it spread 46:04 — "I want to go to Cuba before Starbucks gets there" 48:23 — Her mom: still fighting, now critical of Trump, 200K YouTube views 50:16 — Does she want to go back? The tragedy of exile. 52:20 — Exile is different from immigration — what was taken from her family 54:39 — Trying to revive her grandfather's newspaper 56:05 — Outro

Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081 Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

🍺 Co-host of Happy Hour Econ → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-hour-econ/id1863476697 📖 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r 🌐 TheLouPerez.com | 📧 info@thelouperez.com ✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

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Meghan Murphy is a writer, podcaster, and one of the original people to get canceled on Twitter — permanently banned in 2018 for tweeting "men aren't women, though" and referring to a man who wanted to get his testicles waxed as "him." She's been writing and podcasting independently ever since, and she now lives in Mexico.

We talked about: the tweet that got her banned and the Yaniv waxing lawsuits that triggered it; Canada's Bill C16 and what it actually means to have gender identity law on the books; losing venues, hiring private security, and getting stalked around her Vancouver neighborhood; how Joe Rogan and Elon Musk both played a role in keeping her career alive; why she left Canada in January 2021; the cartel "protest" that burned some cars, got wildly exaggerated online, and tanked the tourist season in her Mexican town; the fear of fun — Andrew Huberman, Bryan Johnson, Gen Z, and the obsession with optimizing yourself out of actually living; why she's happier single; why "nobody wants you after 35" is not true; and why guys who call attractive women "mid" are almost certainly not having sex with real women.

Follow Meghan on X → @MeghanEMurphy Meghan on Substack → substack.com/@meghanmurphy

TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — Intro — who is Meghan Murphy? 0:45 — The tweet that got her banned: "Men aren't women, though" 1:36 — Jessica Yaniv and the waxing lawsuits — the rabbit hole 3:20 — Trans widows, skin suits, and Lou's Black Mirror idea 5:15 — Canada's Bill C16 — gender identity legislation and its consequences 6:07 — Getting banned at 11pm on a Friday — and crying at the bar 7:22 — Losing venues, getting no-platformed, and hiring private security for talks 7:46 — Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, and getting back on X 9:10 — How a ban silences other people — the chilling effect 9:54 — Her entire left-wing social circle turned on her 10:43 — Canada's speech laws — brushing up against criminal charges 12:05 — Leaving Vancouver in January 2021 — Covid authoritarianism and fear 13:27 — Stalked in her neighborhood, verbally attacked in public, constant threats 15:03 — Canada vs. America — why things changed here but not there 15:37 — Trump, Canada as the 51st state, and touring with Scott Thompson 18:18 — Life in Mexico — why she stayed and never went back 20:29 — Gentrification, gringos, and the cartel "protest" that tanked the tourist season 26:59 — The fear of fun — Andrew Huberman, Gen Z, and the obsession with optimization 30:55 — Bryan Johnson measuring his son's nighttime erections 33:40 — Living forever for what? If you're not having fun, what's the point? 35:46 — Lou weighs his food — and his brother smokes and has the same cholesterol 37:53 — Being single vs. married — and why Meghan is happier alone 40:12 — "Nobody wants you after 35" — why that's not true 44:10 — Porn, Instagram filters, and why guys don't understand real attraction 48:04 — Lou meets his wife — the audible "wow" at the bar 50:23 — Bitterness is unattractive — and everyone in Mexico is still having sex 50:44 — Outro — follow Meghan on X and Substack

Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081 Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

🍺 Co-host of Happy Hour Econ → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-hour-econ/id1863476697 📖 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r 🌐 TheLouPerez.com | 📧 info@thelouperez.com ✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

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Meghan Murphy is a writer, podcaster, and one of the original people to get canceled on Twitter — permanently banned in 2018 for tweeting "men aren't women, though" and referring to a man who wanted to get his testicles waxed as "him." She's been writing and podcasting independently ever since, and she now lives in Mexico.

We talked about: the tweet that got her banned and the Yaniv waxing lawsuits that triggered it; Canada's Bill C16 and what it actually means to have gender identity law on the books; losing venues, hiring private security, and getting stalked around her Vancouver neighborhood; how Joe Rogan and Elon Musk both played a role in keeping her career alive; why she left Canada in January 2021; the cartel "protest" that burned some cars, got wildly exaggerated online, and tanked the tourist season in her Mexican town; the fear of fun — Andrew Huberman, Bryan Johnson, Gen Z, and the obsession with optimizing yourself out of actually living; why she's happier single; why "nobody wants you after 35" is not true; and why guys who call attractive women "mid" are almost certainly not having sex with real women.

Follow Meghan on X → @MeghanEMurphy Meghan on Substack → substack.com/@meghanmurphy

TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — Intro — who is Meghan Murphy? 0:45 — The tweet that got her banned: "Men aren't women, though" 1:36 — Jessica Yaniv and the waxing lawsuits — the rabbit hole 3:20 — Trans widows, skin suits, and Lou's Black Mirror idea 5:15 — Canada's Bill C16 — gender identity legislation and its consequences 6:07 — Getting banned at 11pm on a Friday — and crying at the bar 7:22 — Losing venues, getting no-platformed, and hiring private security for talks 7:46 — Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, and getting back on X 9:10 — How a ban silences other people — the chilling effect 9:54 — Her entire left-wing social circle turned on her 10:43 — Canada's speech laws — brushing up against criminal charges 12:05 — Leaving Vancouver in January 2021 — Covid authoritarianism and fear 13:27 — Stalked in her neighborhood, verbally attacked in public, constant threats 15:03 — Canada vs. America — why things changed here but not there 15:37 — Trump, Canada as the 51st state, and touring with Scott Thompson 18:18 — Life in Mexico — why she stayed and never went back 20:29 — Gentrification, gringos, and the cartel "protest" that tanked the tourist season 26:59 — The fear of fun — Andrew Huberman, Gen Z, and the obsession with optimization 30:55 — Bryan Johnson measuring his son's nighttime erections 33:40 — Living forever for what? If you're not having fun, what's the point? 35:46 — Lou weighs his food — and his brother smokes and has the same cholesterol 37:53 — Being single vs. married — and why Meghan is happier alone 40:12 — "Nobody wants you after 35" — why that's not true 44:10 — Porn, Instagram filters, and why guys don't understand real attraction 48:04 — Lou meets his wife — the audible "wow" at the bar 50:23 — Bitterness is unattractive — and everyone in Mexico is still having sex 50:44 — Outro — follow Meghan on X and Substack

Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081 Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

🍺 Co-host of Happy Hour Econ → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-hour-econ/id1863476697 📖 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r 🌐 TheLouPerez.com | 📧 info@thelouperez.com ✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

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Aaron Brown is a quantitative analyst, risk manager, and author of the new book Wrong Number: How to Extract Truth from a Blizzard of Quantitative Disinformation. https://amzn.to/4frmg3n

He's also about to debate gun control at the Soho Forum in August — and his preparation for that debate is a pretty good preview of what's in the book.

Topics include: why out of 28,000 gun control studies, the RAND Corporation found only 20 that weren't statistically crippled; the smoking analogy and what it tells us about legislation that runs ahead of evidence; why gun laws burden legitimate owners and not criminals; why we have a crime problem, not a gun problem; The Lancet paper that claimed US aid saved 92 million lives; how to spot three red flags that tell you a statistic is BS; and Wonder Bread's motto "Helps build strong bodies 12 ways" — which nobody ever actually wrote down.

Get the book → Wrong Number: How to Extract Truth from a Blizzard of Quantitative Disinformation https://amzn.to/4frmg3n

TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — Intro — Aaron Brown and Wrong Number 0:34 — The Soho Forum gun control debate — and who he's up against 3:45 — The proposition: abolish all restrictions on adult firearm ownership 4:48 — Lou on navigating gun laws across state lines (NJ → PA → NY) 7:25 — The wide cultural divide: Scranton airport vs. any other airport with guns 9:04 — RAND Corporation: of 28,000 gun control studies, only 20 weren't crippled by errors 10:04 — The smoking analogy — legislation running ahead of the evidence 12:15 — Gun control laws only burden legitimate owners — not criminals 12:43 — The Glock switch ban and the AR-15 — targeting the popular, not the dangerous 15:18 — "Trump is a fascist" — and you want him to take the guns? 15:42 — Stop calling it a gun problem. It's a crime problem. 17:47 — We can identify the 1% of kids likely to commit 20–30% of violent crime 19:31 — Genetic markers for violence — and why that's controversial 20:48 — The Nordic prison model — does it work, and could it work here? 22:09 — Immigration data: why lumping everyone together gets you bad answers 25:20 — Lou's joke about open borders (for immigrants like his dad, not his cousins) 25:39 — Aaron's Jewish smuggler ancestors — blocked from junk dealing by licensing laws 27:04 — Did US aid really save 92 million lives? The Lancet paper that can't add up 29:13 — They saved 114% of the people — including 46M in China, which gets no aid 31:22 — Most published research findings are false — and we've known since 2005 32:42 — DOGE cuts and the "millions are dead" narrative 36:15 — Three red flags that tell you a statistic is BS 39:18 — Wonder Bread's "12 ways" — nobody ever wrote them down 40:18 — Outro — Wrong Number and the Soho Forum debate

Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081 Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

📖 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r 🌐 TheLouPerez.com | 📧 info@thelouperez.com ✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

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Rambo Van Halen is a pseudonym. He's a Hollywood producer — the real kind, the below-the-line kind, the guy making sure the steel gets to the factory — who worked in the industry for decades, walked away in 2019, and wrote a book about it.

The book is called Hollywood Samizdat: Notes from Below the Line. It's published by Passage Press. Lou read it. He dog-eared it. They talked for an hour.

Topics include: what a producer actually does (mostly administration, definitely not what people think); what happens to actors when nobody says no to them for 20 years; the feminization of Hollywood and why straight guys stopped being able to do their jobs; military veterans vs. film school graduates on set (no contest); Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, and the Amazon river; the unwritten casting rule about who can and can't be the butt of the joke; MeToo — the careers it should have ended, the ones it shouldn't have, and the Joe Gatt story that will make your jaw drop; and why Rambo Van Halen is not his real name and probably never will be.

Get the book → https://passage.press/products/hollywood-samizdat?srsltid=AfmBOorHefB5b7WS0T_hiObEIcPzGEWLHKXoL-4gInHttqmha-D5SLui Rambo on Substack → https://substack.com/@rambovanhalen

TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — Intro — who is Rambo Van Halen? 1:40 — What a producer actually does (it's mostly administration) 3:50 — Building a bubble around the creatives — and what it does to them 6:20 — Film is a business, not a public service — and film school gets this wrong 7:25 — Jim Carrey, Michael Jackson, and what happens when nobody says no 10:55 — Plastic surgery, masculinity, and actors who should leave their faces alone 12:46 — Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman, and the men who used to be on screen 16:25 — How Hollywood got feminized — and why straight guys couldn't do their jobs anymore 19:06 — Military guys on film sets — why they beat film school graduates every time 21:32 — Fitzcarraldo, Werner Herzog, and Klaus Kinski's on-set meltdown 25:04 — Why he made his lateral move out of LA in 2019 27:30 — White male shit libs coming at him on Facebook 30:56 — Comedy as a masculine art form — why wokeness couldn't kill it 35:00 — George Floyd, Memorial Day, and saying what you actually think 37:25 — The unwritten rule: the black guy can't be the butt of the joke 43:28 — Roy Price, MeToo, and the careers that got destroyed 45:01 — John Lasseter, Aziz Ansari, and Joe Gatt — three very different MeToo stories 50:37 — The sushi bar incident — actress hits on producer, ignores her date 54:24 — Bikini casting, auditions, and what actresses will do for a role 58:12 — Who is Rambo Van Halen — and why the pseudonym? 1:01:16 — Why he wrote Hollywood Samizdat as a journaling exercise 1:03:08 — On publicist spam, bad podcast guests, and only booking people worth talking to 1:04:01 — Outro — where to find Rambo Van Halen

Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081 Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

📖 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r 🌐 TheLouPerez.com | 📧 info@thelouperez.com ✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

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Kira Shishkin is the CEO and founder of Informed.now — a news-by-SMS service that sends you one text per day covering what actually changed the world in the last 24 hours. No ads. No bias. No storytelling. Just primary sources, direct quotes, and a link so you can read the original sources yourself.

Kira grew up in Ukraine, came of age in Israel, and built this company after watching both countries get torn apart by information warfare. He knows what happens when people can't trust what they're reading — and he built something to fix it.

We got into: why American news is designed to exhaust and trigger you; how Informed.now sources directly from government agencies; why they link to the actual PDF instead of a story about the PDF; what today's top stories were (OPEC output increases, China blocking US sanctions on Iran oil traders, Vietnam getting flagged for IP theft); how real humans — not bots — answer your follow-up texts; and why the only way to keep news unbiased is to make the reader the client, not the advertiser.

Try it → informed.now

TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — Intro — who is Kira Shishkin and what is Informed.now? 1:45 — Why reading the news in America has become exhausting 3:10 — How it works: one SMS per day, primary sources only 5:20 — Why they link directly to the source — and why no one else does 7:30 — The UN, the White House, and healthy skepticism of primary sources 10:15 — Facts vs. storytelling — why Informed.now doesn't tell you what to think 13:40 — How they decide what makes the cut: the significance filter 16:55 — Today's top stories live: OPEC output, China-Iran oil, Vietnam IP 20:10 — The two-way SMS — real humans, not chatbots 24:30 — Lou suggests FOIA requests — Kira puts it on the roadmap 27:15 — What to do when there are no primary sources (war reporting) 30:40 — Growing up in Ukraine and Israel — information warfare up close 34:20 — AI-generated war images, radicalization, and the social media echo chamber 37:50 — Kira's background: think tanks, TurboTax, private equity, crypto 41:10 — The business model: reader-funded, no ads, no investors, profitable 44:00 — Outro and where to find Informed.now

Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081 Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

📖 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r 🌐 TheLouPerez.com | 📧 info@thelouperez.com ✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

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Salih Hudayar is the Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile. He was born in East Turkistan, fled to the United States as a political refugee at age 7, and has spent his life working to bring international attention to what the US government and over a dozen Western parliaments have formally recognized as a genocide.

We covered: how China invaded and occupied East Turkistan in 1949 with Stalin's help; the 1996 secret document that became the blueprint for genocidal policy; how China created a fake jihadist organization to justify its crackdown; how China and Turkey funneled 20,000 Uyghurs into Syria to manufacture a "terrorism" narrative; Xi Jinping's "show no mercy" speech and the bombing that followed two hours after his plane left; the 2.2 million Chinese officials sent to live inside Uyghur homes; the forced removal of over a million children into military boarding schools; 16,000 mosques destroyed; Muslim names, Ramadan fasting, and the Arabic greeting "Assalamu Alaikum" all banned; and the ongoing organ harvesting program in which an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 young Uyghurs are killed annually for their organs.

The genocide is now in its 13th year. Millions remain in concentration camps. This is happening now.

Learn more and get involved:

📲 Follow on social media → https://x.com/ETExileGov

📖 Recommended reading: "The Xinjiang Procedure" by Ethan Gutmann (organ harvesting research)

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 — Intro — who is Salih Hudayar?

0:25 — What is East Turkistan — and why China calls it "Xinjiang"

1:59 — Mao, Stalin, and the 1949 invasion

2:25 — Born in East Turkistan, fled to the US at age 7

4:37 — His father's mission: never forget where you came from

6:18 — Chinese raids on his family home

7:22 — ROTC, Oklahoma Army National Guard, and a kidney disease that ended his military career

8:13 — The Turkic world: Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks

9:46 — China's 1996 Document No. 7 — the secret blueprint for genocide

11:51 — The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and crushing the independence movement

14:03 — How China created a fake jihadist group to justify the crackdown

17:31 — Were there actual terrorist attacks in East Turkistan?

18:31 — The Tiananmen Square car attack — false flag?

22:04 — How China and Turkey funneled 20,000 Uyghurs into Syria

24:23 — Grooming, brainwashing, and Chinese intelligence operations

32:23 — Xi Jinping's "show no mercy" speech

35:07 — The anti-extremism law: beards, Ramadan, and thought control

37:10 — Phase two: arresting everyone

38:12 — 2.2 million Chinese officials sent into Uyghur homes

41:02 — Children forcibly removed to state "orphanages"

43:19 — Why Muslim countries stay silent — Belt and Road leverage

44:45 — 16,000 mosques destroyed. Muslim names banned.

48:38 — Returning to East Turkistan in 2012 and 2014

53:11 — The Kant massacre: 3,000–4,000 killed

55:26 — His grandfather refused to leave

55:55 — The asylum process

59:05 — Organ harvesting: 25,000–50,000 killed annually

59:28 — How to support East Turkistan

Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ

Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081

Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

📖 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r

🌐 TheLouPerez.com | 📧 info@thelouperez.com

✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

#UyghurGenocide #EastTurkistan #China #Xinjiang #SalihHudayar #CCP #HumanRights #LouPerezPodcast #Uyghur #GenocideAwareness

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I sat down with Victor Varnado — comedian, founder of Supreme Robot, and the man behind the Worldwide Tic-Tac-Toe Championship. Victor is also King Super Nuts. That's not a joke. Well, it is. But it's also real.

Victor built disability gaming software that could let paralyzed, blind, and deaf players enjoy video games without any extra hardware. He got a National Science Foundation grant to develop it. A tech company bought it for pre-IPO shares worth $500,000. The IPO never happened. The company got in trouble with the SEC. Victor never saw a dime. He tells the story without bitterness, which is somehow the most remarkable part.

We also talked Richard Pryor, AI, the UCB rap battle scene, and why tic-tac-toe is actually a strategy game.

Play the game → highscoregamearcade.com

Here's what we got into:

🎤 Richard Pryor over George Carlin. Victor's case: Pryor holding thousands of people simultaneously is a technical feat that only becomes visible once you've seriously studied performance. Lou spent years in the Carlin camp. He's reconsidering.

📚 The histology class that changed how he sees the world. One class rewired him. The example that hit hardest: Carnegie's public library was originally open during hours when the public was at work. It started as a leisure club for the elite. The thing we think of as universally good was a lot more complicated at the start.

💡 Supreme Robot: build the IP first, find investors second. Victor's framework — create something, prove people want it, then go to investors with evidence instead of a pitch deck. His definition of strong IP: when he explains it, nobody says it's a bad idea, and most people who are even partially in the market for it want it immediately.

🤖 AI is like discovering electricity. What stays valuable no matter what: people's time and attention. Whatever you're building, that's what you're actually competing for.

🕹️ He built disability gaming tech — and a company buried it. Voice control layered on top of any game, no extra hardware required. A procedurally generated audio-description track for blind and deaf players. An NSF grant. A $500K acquisition that paid in pre-IPO shares. An IPO that never came.

⭕ Tic-tac-toe is a strategy game — if you put it in the right arena. The Worldwide Tic-Tac-Toe Championship launches to 100 million players via Facebook, YouTube, and Samsung TVs. Grand prize: $0. The system is incorruptible.

TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Intro: Victor Varnado and Supreme Robot 01:35 — Growing up in Gary, Indiana and the Jackson 5 04:40 — Richard Pryor vs. George Carlin 06:15 — The histology class that changed everything 09:30 — Bombing at the HBO Aspen callback and going solo 11:30 — UCB, the Hammer Cats, 20 years of NYC comedy 13:50 — Battle Ish: 7 years of rap battle comedy at UCB 18:30 — Supreme Robot explained 21:10 — AI and what stays valuable when everything changes 24:40 — Opening for Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall 26:40 — Opening for Gilbert Gottfried at Caroline's 29:20 — Norm MacDonald on Sam Kinison and what comedy is about 31:55 — The Worldwide Tic-Tac-Toe Championship 37:55 — The NSF grant and the disability gaming tech 40:10 — The $500K he never got 41:40 — Neuralink and the medical future he actually wants

Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081 Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

📖 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r 🌐 TheLouPerez.com | 📧 info@thelouperez.com ✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

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I sat down with Jason Gagne, fitness trainer and creator of the 90-day beginner program Good 2 Go Body. Jason has been training people for over 20 years and specializes in beginners — the people who've been told they're not in good enough shape to start working out.

Check out Jason's 90-day program:

https://good2go.podia.com/?coupon=LOU

(Every sign-up puts a few bucks in my pocket. Thank you. 🙏)

TOPICS INCLUDE:

Why 20-day intense programs set beginners up to fail
The three basics everyone skips: sleep, water, and walking
Consistency vs. intensity: why 25% every day beats 90% three times a week
Gym functionality vs. functional training — what's the difference?
Pilates, yoga, and the small muscles nobody talks about
Fitness influencers, gear, and the Instagram trap
Nutrition: don't change everything at once
The 85/90 rule — and why the Twinkie is fine
How 40-year-olds today look nothing like 40-year-olds used to

LOU'S LINKS: Book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r Website: https://www.thelouperez.com Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez

Watch full episodes and more on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ

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Lou Perez sits down with investigative journalist and TV producer Rob Rosen, whose debut book Crimes of Omission: Distorted Justice, The Media's War on Truth is available for pre-order now. Rob produced A Reasonable Doubt on HBO Max, which led to nine wrongful conviction releases, and spent years at KCBS covering the OJ Simpson trial alongside Harvey Levin.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

How newsroom monoculture shaped anti-police coverage
Ferguson and Michael Brown: what Eric Holder's DOJ report actually said
The full Michael Brown story the media buried — including his mental state
Hands up, Don't shoot: why it never happened
Philando Castile, Diamond Reynolds, and what the dash cam showed
The stat: how many unarmed Black men did police kill in 2019?
A Reasonable Doubt on HBO Max: nine people released, the system mostly works
The Serial podcast, credulous journalism, and how Reasonable Doubt was born
Weaponized empathy: Norman Mailer, OJ Simpson, Luigi Mangione
Suicidal empathy and Queers for Palestine
BLM: what their own website said that journalists refused to report
Defund the police was literal — Hawk Newsome said so on Rob's own podcast
Why we don't have a shared reality anymore and what journalism has to do about it

GUEST: Rob Rosen — Investigative Journalist and TV Producer Pre-order Crimes of Omission: https://amzn.to/4triFFV Watch A Reasonable Doubt on HBO Max

LOU'S LINKS: Book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r Website: https://www.thelouperez.com Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez Watch full episodes and more on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ

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Lou Perez sits down with Stu Smith, investigative analyst at the Manhattan Institute, who has spent months infiltrating DSA meetings, Zoom calls, and internal channels to find out what the Democratic Socialists of America are actually up to.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

What most people get wrong about the DSA
The DSA's internal "right wing" — people who just believe in elections
The Red Rabbits: DSA's new armed security task force
The Doctor Phil clip: Black Redguard's origin story
DSA's global travel: Cuba, Colombia, Sweden, Brazil, and beyond
The F-35 supply chain and DSA as a quasi-national security threat
Salting: how DSA plants operatives inside companies to organize
Zoran Mamdani, the Overton window, and how DSA took NYC
DSA's youth wing: getting a Cornell student on Ithaca City Council
The Calla Walsh pipeline: from DSA delegate to Hezbollah apartment in Lebanon
North Korea tourism, tanky influencers, and where the far left is trending
Bill Ayers is still active — Stu has been on Zoom calls with him
What to watch: Mayday, upcoming primaries, and the Socialism Conference

GUEST: Stu Smith — Investigative Analyst, Manhattan Institute Follow Stu on X: @thestustustudio Manhattan Institute: https://www.manhattan-institute.org

LOU'S LINKS: Book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r Website: https://www.thelouperez.com Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thelouperez

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Lou Perez is joined by Harris Sockel, lead editor at Pirate Wires — the tech media company that covers Silicon Valley without hating it. They cover a lot of ground in this one.

TOPICS INCLUDE: - What Pirate Wires is and why it started on Substack during the pandemic - Why AI doom coverage is dishonest (and why the doomers won't go full prepper) - Lou's experience using Claude AI for press kits, pricing, and writing courses - Can AI actually replace long-form journalism? Harris says not yet — and explains why - AI chatbots, teen suicide cases, and the litigation playbook against tech companies - Humanoid robots: cooking, sex, and whether to charge yours in the hallway - The data center water myth, debunked — they use less water than golf courses - Nuclear power's comeback and what went wrong with Biden's AI regulation approach - Harris's doctor pulled up ChatGPT mid-appointment and told him to read it - Waymo self-driving cars and the future of driving as a rich-person hobby - Harris goes to a Starbucks strike in Brooklyn — almost nobody worked at Starbucks - California's wealth tax, billionaire flight, and one very quotable anonymous billionaire - SAG-AFTRA dues and the gap between union theory and union reality

GUEST: Harris Sockel — Lead Editor, Pirate Wires https://www.piratewires.com

LOU'S LINKS: Book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r Website: https://www.thelouperez.com Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thelouperez

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New York City is heading in the wrong direction — and Rafael Mangual of the Manhattan Institute is here to explain exactly why.

In this episode, Lou and Rafael break down the real story behind the Washington Square Park snowball attack on NYPD officers, the media's deliberate misframing of the Gracie Mansion IED attack, Mayor Zohran Mamdani's dangerous blind spots on public safety, and why the city's revolving-door criminal justice system keeps putting violent repeat offenders back on the street.

Topics include:

The Washington Square Park "snowball fight" — what really happened
Anti-police disrespect and what it signals about NYC's future
The Gracie Mansion IED attack and the media's shameful spin
Mayor Mamdani's failure to name the perpetrators or their motivations
Why disbanding the NYPD's Strategic Response Group is a dangerous idea
The revolving door of criminal justice (the average prisoner has 10–12 prior arrests before incarceration)
New York as a "luxury product" — and why people are leaving

Rafael Mangual is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of Criminal (In)Justice. His work appears in City Journal, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

📖 Lou's book: That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: On the Death and Rebirth of Comedy https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r

🎬 Watch Lou's sketch comedy on Red Coral Universe: https://redcoraluniverse.com/en/serie...

👕 XX-XY Athletics — 20% off with code LOU20: https://www.xx-xyathletics.com/?sca_r...

✍️ Substack: www.substack.com/@louperez

📬 Newsletter: www.TheLouPerez.com

🎧 Listen: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/.../the-lo... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7e... Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/.../2b7d4d.... YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

Lou Perez is a comedian, author, and producer. He's appeared on Gutfeld!, FOX News Primetime, and One Nation with Brian Kilmeade. He was Head Writer and Producer of the Webby Award-winning We the Internet TV, and his sketch "Wolverine's Claws Suck" has over 20 million views. He hosts The Lou Perez Podcast on the Lions of Liberty Network.

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German historian and author Dr. Rainer Zitelmann is currently under criminal investigation in Berlin for retweeting a meme comparing Putin to Hitler. He's one of the world's leading experts on Hitler and National Socialism — and the tweet was a historical warning about dictators who say "just this much, then I'll stop." He faces up to three years in prison.

Lou and Rainer dig into Germany's Section 86a speech laws, government-funded neighbor-reporting hotlines that echo the Stasi, how cancel culture has escalated into legal repression across Europe, and why the laws designed to stop neo-Nazis are now being used against historians, libertarians, and center-right journalists.

They also get into Rainer's new book New Space Capitalism (Skyhorse Publishing) — the case for private property rights in space, how SpaceX transformed an industry that 50 years of government programs couldn't, and why capitalism is the only system that has ever actually worked.

Follow Rainer at RainerZitelmann.com. Pre-order New Space Capitalism on Amazon.

The Lou Perez Podcast is part of the Lions of Liberty Podcast Network.

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From Sound Factory to Suing Live Nation: Tommy Dorfman's Wild Ride Through NYC Nightlife

NYC nightclub legend Tommy Dorfman joins Lou to tell the story of how he built a club empire from the ground up — and how Live Nation allegedly destroyed it all in 2011.

Tommy started throwing parties at 16, packed out iconic New York venues like Sound Factory, Tunnel, and Limelight, and was on the verge of launching the largest EDM festival on the East Coast at MetLife Stadium. Then Live Nation stepped in. He's been fighting them in court for 15 years — and the DOJ is now making his case for him.

They also get into the golden age of NYC club culture, mob run-ins, the drug landscape then vs. now, how Live Nation monopolized the live music industry, and what a bleak future looks like if they aren't broken up.

Follow Tommy at https://www.tommydjuiceentertainment.com/ and shutdownlivenation.com.

The Lou Perez Podcast is part of the Lions of Liberty Podcast Network.

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Comedy producer and podcaster Hatem Gabr (Live from America Podcast) joins Lou for a wide-ranging crossover episode covering Ramadan, Team USA's Winter Olympics hockey gold, the Eileen Gu controversy, Trump's locker room call to the hockey team, and nonconsensual snowball fights in NYC.

Hatem — a practicing Muslim, former professional soccer player, and heart transplant recipient who captained Team USA at the Transplant World Cup in Italy — brings a perspective you won't hear anywhere else. Whether it's breaking down what Ramadan actually is, what it's like to play elite sports while fasting, or why the Eileen Gu debate says more about us than it does about her, this is one of those conversations that goes everywhere and lands everywhere.

The Lou Perez Podcast and the Live from America Podcast — one crossover episode.

Follow Hatem: @hatemnyc on Twitter/Instagram.

The Lou Perez Podcast is part of the Lions of Liberty Podcast Network.

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Today I'm joined by Neoborn Caveman to discuss the Shakespeare-Lou Perez-David Duchovny connection, the Alice in Wonderland Protocol, and over (re)sharing.

Check out my book, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: On the Death and Rebirth of Comedy https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r

Watch my sketch comedy streaming on Red Coral Universe: https://redcoraluniverse.com/en/series/the-lou-perez-comedy-68501a2fd369683d0f2a2a88?loopData=true&ccId=675bc891f78f658f73eaa46d

Rock XX-XY Athletics. You can get 20% off your purchase with promo code LOU20. https://www.xx-xyathletics.com/?sca_ref=7113152.ifIMaKpCG3ZfUHH4

Support me at www.substack.com/@louperez

Join my newsletter www.TheLouPerez.com

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/.../the-lou-perez.../id1535032081

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU

Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/.../2b7d4d.../the-lou-perez-podcast

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ

Lou Perez is a comedian, producer, and the author of THAT JOKE ISN'T FUNNY ANYMORE: ON THE DEATH AND REBIRTH OF COMEDY. You may have seen him on Gutfeld! , FOX News Primetime, One Nation with Brian Kilmeade, and Open to Debate (with Michael Ian Black).

Lou was the Head Writer and Producer of the Webby Award-winning comedy channel We the Internet TV. During his tenure at WTI, Lou made the kind of comedy that gets you put on lists and your words in the Wall Street Journal: "How I Became a 'Far-Right Radical.'"

As a stand-up comedian, Lou has opened for Rob Schneider, Rich Vos, Jimmy Dore, Dave Smith, and toured the US and Canada with Scott Thompson. Lou has also produced live shows with Colin Quinn, the Icarus Festival, and the Rutherford Comedy Festival.

For years, Lou performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (both in NYC and L.A.) in sketch shows with the Hammerkatz and his comedy duo, Greg and Lou. Greg and Lou is best known for its sketch "Wolverine's Claws Suck," which has over 20 million views on YouTube alone.

In addition to producing sketch comedy like Comedy Is Murder, performing stand-up across the country, and writing for The Blaze's Align, Lou is on the advisory board of Heresy Press, a FAIR-in-the-arts fellow, and host of the live debate series The Wrong Take and The Lou Perez Podcast (which is part of the Lions of Liberty Podcast Network), and co-hosts Happy Hour Econ with Phil Magness.

How'd Lou start out?

He began doing improv and sketch comedy while an undergrad at New York University, where he was part of the comedy group the Wicked Wicked Hammerkatz.

Lou was a writer for Fox Sports' @TheBuzzer; produced The Attendants with Lorne Michaels's Broadway Video; produced pilots for FOX Digital and MSN Games; and was a comedy producer on TruTV's Impractical Jokers.

Lou hosted the stand-up show Uncle Lou's Safe Place in Los Angeles, performed at the Big Pine Comedy Festival, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, Punching Up Comedy at Freedom Fest, and co-created the political comedy podcast Unsafe Space.

Lou taught creative writing at the City College of New York, "writing the web series" for Writing Pad, and comedy writing workshops for the Moving Picture Institute.

Lou worked with The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression as Communications Manager and later as a producer and consultant. Their video "Taking a Knee in Sports? For what?" was broadcast during a USC vs. Notre Dame football game and was a SILVER ADDY® WINNER at the American Advertising Awards.

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PODCAST COPY

On today's episode, my friend Randall Bock returns to The Lou Perez Podcast — or do I return to his podcast? Both really.

As the good doctor describes our conversation:

Growing Up As The World Lost Its Marbles

Reflections on cities, family life, and institutional collapse

As prelude to Christmas and looking back on the year, comedian and social analyst Lou Perez speaks with the ease of someone who has lived through several versions of adulthood. He talks first about how California flattened experience for him, stretched days into a pleasant sameness, and dissolved memory as quickly as it created it. "California is like an orgy of perfect weather with the occasional wildfire (!)" he says, and the line works because it carries both pleasure and warning. When he left, the place left him too. "I don't remember living in LA," Family life pulled everything back into focus. Marriage and children changed what space meant and altered what mattered. Apartments that once felt fine began to feel constraining, while a house with a yard suddenly felt necessary rather than aspirational. He describes watching his children move through space differently once they had room, and he frames that change as something obvious only in hindsight. COVID accelerated those realizations and stripped away illusions about urban life. Neighborhoods once marketed as communal began to feel regulatory, and neighbors who once ignored each other began to enforce rules by proxy.

Leaving did not feel dramatic, and returning later did not feel restorative. The city no longer matched the memory, because time had moved on without sentiment. He talks about a favorite restaurant that closed after marking several stages of his adult life, and he describes paying the final check with clarity rather than grief. The moment mattered because it marked an ending, not because it demanded mourning.

Institutions enter the frame because institutions shape daily life, especially when they fail. Universities, media, public health authorities, and police departments all appear not as villains but as systems that stumble when certainty replaces judgment. COVID exposed that weakness quickly. Policies enforced mask-wearing during maximal exertion and restricted physical spaces in ways that made no physiological sense, even to MD-professionals who understood the body well enough to know better. Doctors complied anyway, because enforcement rewarded obedience rather than reasoning.

Perez uses humor to puncture abstraction. "You can't abolish prisons until the moment you want (some criminal) put in one," Reality resists theory, and fear reorganizes priorities without asking permission. Police body cameras' ironies: anti-police activists demanded cameras as a corrective; departments adopted them, yet: "Nothing has hurt the anti-police movement more than the very body cams they demanded police wear," Perez says. The recordings restore context; show why simplified morality tales fail. "For every bad police video, there are hundreds showing what officers deal with every day."

Follow Dr. Randall Bock on

Substack: https://randoctor.substack.com/

Instagram: / randoctor

X: https://www.x.com/DrRandallBock

Tik-Tok: / drrandallbock

Find Dr. Randall Bock's articles at

Brownstone: https://brownstone.org/author/randall...

The Daily Sceptic: https://dailysceptic.org/author/randa...

America Out Loud PULSE: https://www.americaoutloud.news/autho...