Brett Cooper
Appearances
20/20
True Crime Vault: From Classroom to Captive
Kind of funny, kind of a cut up, pretty outgoing guy.
20/20
True Crime Vault: From Classroom to Captive
He and Jill, his wife, they were high school sweethearts and married the year they graduated high school.
20/20
True Crime Vault: From Classroom to Captive
Apparently he told a lot of tales about his fictional background. He's a CIA operative, he's an FBI agent, he's a millionaire.
Candace
Selena Gomez Cries & More Ryan Reynolds' Lies | Candace Ep 139
I'm not going back to Haiti. One of those threats is this illegal alien from Haiti. Ice says he's a gang member with 17 criminal convictions in recent years.
Candace
Selena Gomez Cries & More Ryan Reynolds' Lies | Candace Ep 139
After weeks of speculation, Brett Cooper has left. Well, it looks like the rumors were true. Brett Cooper's departure has caused quite a stir. The internet is absolutely melting down. Brett Cooper did in fact announce her exit. Brett Cooper announces she is leaving the Daily Wire. Brett Cooper is officially leaving the Daily Wire. She is walking away. Brett Cooper has left. She is gone, though.
Candace
Selena Gomez Cries & More Ryan Reynolds' Lies | Candace Ep 139
Brett Cooper says, I'm out of here. Now Brett Cooper has nearly 500,000 subscribers without a single video yet. She already has a channel. She's now at half a million subscribers. If you look at her numbers, Brett Cooper is popping off.
Candace
Brett Cooper’s Clone BOMBS. | Candace Ep 125
Hey guys, some of you have heard the rumors online and the rumors are mostly true. Today, December 10th, will be my last day hosting the comment section and working for The Daily Wire. It is not true that I am being forced out. It was my own choice to leave. And believe me, this is bittersweet. And now for some final thoughts from the God King himself, Jeremy Boring.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I looked around at the people who I considered mentors who were older than me in the industry, and I did not like the lives that they were leading.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Their own personal lives. I mean, it was like a good friend of mine was on probably one of the most famous TV shows of the last 20 years. It was a lead role. Had to live out of state for months at a time. Husband stayed home and raised the kids, barely saw them. Kids went off to boarding school. She was not engaged.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
You know, friends of mine who were in their 30s who I would be on TV shows with, they would, you know, we'd work together, they'd go on and they'd, you know, be a series regular on a Netflix show and they'd be 30-something living in a townhome with four other adults because they couldn't afford their own home.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
People who didn't see their kids. And the thing is, even at a young age, I did not like the fact that every part of my being was just... a tool for you to use. Like, you have an audition at 2 p.m. today, you have to be there at this time, turn your entire life upside down. If you book it, you're flying to Vancouver tomorrow for four months.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And it was hard as a kid, too, because you were, I loved it so much, but you would have friends book a job and it would be one of your best friends and they'd literally move to Vancouver for however many months or years because they were shooting a show. or I had to go to Arizona or Texas, wherever people were, because so few things actually film in LA these days, and go abroad.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I thought about what I really wanted in life, and I wanted to be a mom. I wanted to get married. I wanted to have a family. And I really wanted, and this probably is, you know, now in knowing what you know about my family and talking about this, where I had a lack of control, I don't think I was the right person
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It was an accident. I don't think you really got along with my brothers very well. And it was just like, I don't want this child.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
to just hand that over, where it's like, you tell me where to be at any point, like it could just be for an audition in Santa Monica at 5 p.m. that's really annoying to get to, or it's I'm moving abroad for however many months. I'm gonna be away from my whole community, family, whatever it is, but also you tell me, you know, dye your hair. You're not skinny enough. You're not fat enough.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
We need to, you know, you're just a shell for somebody, which is a really beautiful part of acting. And it's one of the reasons why I fell in love with it. But it got to a point where it, when it, when I started thinking about it instead of a hobby and an escape, and I thought about it as a career, I was like, I don't, I don't think this works for me. And I didn't like the fact
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I didn't have control over the projects that I did, because I was in no position. I was a working actor, but I was in no position to pick and choose my projects, obviously. I just did, I went where the work was. I didn't like that I hated the characters in almost every script I was sent. They were bad people. The stories that I was being put in to tell,
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I would go and audition for these roles and be like, what is like, what is society getting from these stories? They're so awful. Like all these characters, they're bad people. I'm putting like filth into the world. So that was really hard. I felt just like such a values disconnect. I just felt trapped. And so then I thought, okay, maybe I'll go work in production. I could change things.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I could go be a producer. I could go tell stories. Then I worked at, it was kind of like my dream job, honestly, at the time. worked at this production company that I massively respected the work that they were doing. It was very story first and character first. It was like big budget independent films. Like they weren't going through any huge studios.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And was working for them in 2020 because I had already kind of been thinking through all of this while I was in college that, I emancipated myself at 15. We've already gone through that. I was making my own money, paying for my life. Now it had become a job. I had a couple of years to think about that. I was working at this production company in 2020. George Floyd happened.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
My job changed from receiving scripts and passing them on to the production team on the basis of it being really good characters and good people that would leave an audience change and a story that was worth telling because the whole idea of this production company and what I was supposed to seek out was that at the end of the film, you were better in some way.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It's not hitting you over the head with the Bible. It's not like, this is a feel good, whatever. It was just at the end of it, something's been sparked in you. And there's good people in it who are complex, who are broken, who you see heal.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. And it changed from that to we have way too many white stories. I need you to find me a Native American story right now. We don't have any trans stories. We're going to be attacked. Go find it. So it became identity first. I was like, oh, God. So I can't even... I'm an entry-level person. I can't even change it from here. So I felt very lost there, and so I did...
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I don't even remember. But it was probably something that was very straightforward. She doesn't mince words. She's not somebody who is... I guess, soft or like brings anything in.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Finished up my time at UCLA. Again, I'm very, you know, find the good in everything. Find, you know, the lesson that you're going to learn in this experience. What good thing can you take from it? The good thing that COVID gave me was that it removed me from all those environments. It took acting away. It took production. The whole industry basically shut down. UCLA shut down.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
My social life, sorority, everything went away. And I just dove into it. studying what I believed in and trying to build something for myself. So I did a business program at UC Berkeley's grad school for business, Haas School of Business, which is where you as an undergrad could go and basically get a a condensed MBA.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And so I did that, which I would have never had the time to do, but I was able to do it because it was remote. I did what every English major who's confused about her future would do, and I studied for the LSAT. I took the LSAT. I was like, I'll go to law school. And at that time, I was super engaged in politics. I was like, I'll go be a 2A lawyer. I'll go into constitutional law.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I'd been shooting for years with my brother. I felt like the world was under attack. I had no idea what was happening. My mom was a prepper. I'd become a prepper, and I was like, I'll go into 2A law. And then I was like, what the hell am I doing? Like, I shouldn't be a lawyer. I hate, like, I don't want to go read contracts for the rest of my life.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I had talked with some constitutional liars, and they were like, there's too many liars right now because there's too many grad schools because there's a financial incentive for universities to create grad programs because the government gives subsidized, limitless loans for grad school. So that's why... grad programs for lesbian dance theory, that's a joke we all make, exists. Interesting.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Because you don't have to have the financial incentive to be able to make money after or have a job afterwards. You have limitless loans. So every university and their mother created a law school. And you can see in times of recession, lawyers spike. Because people can't get jobs, they just go back to grad school, they get a student loan. It's happening right now.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, it's just like this happened and she had always been, in her mind, she was like, I think she was more pro-life but kind of understood the pro-choice argument in terms of like government overreach and, you know, it is a woman's body. And then what was actually an issue that she had to decide and what was put in front of her and
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And so I had talked to some lawyers and a mentor of mine who worked at the Foundation for Economic Education. I kind of missed a chapter, but I'll go back. But I was writing for the Foundation of Economic Education. She knew that I was going to go to law school. Her name's Hannah Cox. People have probably seen her on Twitter. And she gave me an assignment.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And she said, I told her about this conversation that I'd had with these constitutional lawyers who were like, I don't think this isn't what it's cracked up to be. And I think that your skills are better used elsewhere. If you want to do advocacy, you can do everything that we're doing except signing the briefs.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Do you need to go put your life and career on hold when you're already engaged with, you know, in that year when everything shut down, when I had no friends, that I found community at PragerU. And I was like, I'm an actor. I can do things on camera. I can help produce things. You want me to make social media videos for you? I have nothing to lose at this point.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I'll go be an outward, you know, conservative. So I started making videos that way and made videos for Young Americans for Liberty and got hired there and was obviously an English major.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Mm-hmm. I reached out. They brought me into their office and had a whole tour. Yeah. Their head of PR now, her name is Sabrina, she was running PragerForce, which was their student program, which is still, I think, an incredible program.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
She knew that I was in LA and I had joined Prager Force to just try to like meet people and they would do monthly like Zoom calls for like all the lonely, you know, teenage conservatives around the country. And she was like, oh, you're in LA. You should come into the office. And I really like all of this.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I give a ton of credit to her because she brought me in and she said, I think that you could have a real voice. Like, could we, what can we offer you? Would you like to do videos for us? Can we give you resources? Like here, we can all, you know, love to be friends with you. Like she gave me a community.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And she really helped put me in the right direction and said, I think you could do something here. I had never even thought of it. I was like, commentary? Like, what do you mean? And so everything spiraled from there and started working at, you know, doing videos for Young Americans for Liberty and got a job there and got a fellowship.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was a Hazlitt Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education and was writing for them because I had a writing background through school. I'd gone to, you know, the TPUSA events, just became engaged purely out of a utilitarian you know, standpoint of I just, I needed community. I felt so lonely. I never thought like, I'm gonna go be a right-wing influencer.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
This is gonna be like, I'm going to go do commentary. I just wanted people. And I thought I had, you know, a unique skillset that it was kind of missing on the young, right? Like there were no younger voices. Will Witt at PragerU was the only one. And so she started making videos here and there and grew an Instagram page from zero to like 7,000.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But yeah, I was still thinking I'll go to law school and I'll just go do constitutional law. Like that's how I'll make a difference. And Hannah Cox at FEE said, she gave me a writing assignment. She said, I want you to go tell me why there are so many lawyers. Like, okay. And then tell me the economic ramifications of that and how the government has screwed with the free market in that regard.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Great assignment. And I did that and I was like, holy shit, I can't go to law school.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Mm-mm. Well, not my friends, but I've heard from girls who were in my sorority at the same time who knew me, who like three years later were like, you probably don't remember me, but we were in Capitals. We were in the same pledge class. We were like, you know, pledge class after me. And I wish I had known you at school because it was so alienating. I mean, we couldn't find each other.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I think that completely, she had to reanalyze the issue from like a much more personal perspective. And I think she basically said to my dad, she was like, if you want this so badly, you go make the appointment. And he couldn't bring himself to do it. It was like, he couldn't even, it was just like such a, like a threat basically. Like, I don't want that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, I don't really have. So I have a couple of friends from UCLA, but they weren't from my time there.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, but that's how it all kind of started. So I withdrew from law school the day of my orientation. I was like, it's not for me. It was after that writing assignment, after all those conversations, I was like, I'm not going to do this. I was living in Idaho with my mom. Because I had, she, after the divorce, and when COVID happened, she was like, this is the sign I need to get out.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
You know, you don't need me anymore. I had applied for law school at UCLA, at Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount. And then she had said that she wanted to go to Idaho. So I was like, I'll apply for University of Idaho. Why not? And they had a dual JD-MBA program, which I was really interested in. So rather than three years, it would be four years so I'd get an MBA and a JD.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So I got into that and she bought this farm sight unseen in Idaho and said, I'm getting the hell out of California. I don't want to be, you know, carded for a vaccine. I don't want to wear a mask. So I left, my brother left. We, it was my brother Reed. He was doing really well at the time. And we all moved to Idaho and Reed and I got a little duplex.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I quit Trader Joe's in LA and I came to Idaho and I was writing for fee and doing all these like conservative nonprofit stuff. I was working as a waitress at a steakhouse in Boise. Just such a fun job. People like crap on serving. I had a hell of a time serving. I loved that. And yeah, so I withdrew, I had this whole plan ahead of me.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was like, I'll go to University of Idaho because I didn't want to be in California either. And my whole family's here now. And I withdrew and my mom looked at me and she said, you have to figure out what you're gonna do with your life. Like you can't just, are you just gonna live in Idaho and be, you know, a waitress? Like you need to come up with a plan.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And so I got a permanent role at Young Americans for Liberty being their marketing strategist. And I did social media for them. I did copywriting for their development team, which in the nonprofit sphere is sending out emails for development as fundraising. So brand campaigns for them. and I had like a big girl salary to the time I thought was like, I'm making a lot of money.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It's like more than my, you know, minimum wage, Trader Joe's. And although Trader Joe's actually pays very well, we're a great company. Um, if you need a job, it's the best place to work. Oh, hands down.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Oh yeah. If everything goes to hell, we'll both be back there. I'll be in the box, stocking the milk again. That was my favorite job. And, um, Yeah, and so I kept doing that and then randomly got a DM from Daily Wire who said we were looking to start a show with the young person. We love your social media and what you're doing. And so I took some meetings with them.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
You have to, he just wanted her to go do it. She was like, I'm not. And that was, it was all like.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
They sent me some videos to react to just to like hear me on camera. And I told you this at dinner last night, but I haven't shared this publicly. My brother's most recent, well now it's Second most recent psychotic break happened the week that I was offered the job with Daily Wire. It's like December of 21.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was really weighing a lot of things and I was petrified to take this job because as I've kind of, you know, set the scene for you, my mom and I were super intertwined. There was a lot of weight to carry. I felt like we were, things were good for the first time. Like she was happy. She bought this farm that she's always, she'd always wanted to have a farm forever.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
My dad never wanted her, first husband never wanted her to have a farm. And I was happy, you know, I was living with Reed. Reed was doing great. He was even talking about going back to school. And it just felt like things were humming. And I had a job where I felt like I was making a difference. And I thought, I'll just meet a nice guy in Idaho. And I'll live near my mom. And I'll buy a farm soon.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I had horses at her property. And it was all normal. And I was like, I can't believe this. And she had a pretty hard conversation with it where she basically grabbed me by the neck. Because I was petrified to even take the call with Daily Wire. and send in a tape because I was like, I was just like, I was so out of the game.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I hadn't auditioned in so long because I hadn't been acting in a couple of years. And I felt like that was behind me. And it's such a testament, I think, to like risk-taking and betting on yourself is habitual. I don't think that's something that is ingrained in most people. It's certainly not in me. It's like a practice that I like every couple of years, I just did it a couple of months ago.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, but it also didn't surprise me because I knew my dad. My dad and I never had a great relationship. It was just kind of like, okay, yeah, I guess.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
You have to take a leap and shake something up and challenge yourself. If something isn't right, you just, you have to do it. And I was definitely at a stall in my life. I didn't, I just, you know, I was a waitress. I was withdrawing from law school. I was working this marketing job, but you know, it was remote. So I was working his way, whatever it was, but I was comfortable.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And with acting, the beautiful thing about it is that you get told no 90% of the time. From a really young age, I had learned how to get rejected. I didn't care. I was like, you know, 12 years old, I would go in and you bare your soul to somebody and you're performing, you're singing, whatever it is. And they go, okay, thank you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And you walk out the door and you, 90% of the time, you never hear anything from them. So if you're somebody who likes like gratification and that kind of thing, to be an actor that's not some kind of celebrity, it's really hard. Like it does, that just doesn't work that way because most of the time they don't give a shit about you. Like they, you don't hear anything from anybody.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
They don't say, it was really great. We're going a different direction. You maybe hear that 1% of the time. You just go in and you, so that was like such a crucial part of my growing up and I hadn't done that in two years. So this felt like a huge risk. I was, you know, having to like sort of audition for this and send in a tape. They, because obviously they're gonna have a show with you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
They want to see what are this girl's values beyond, you know, social media? What can she do in a longer format? Because I basically only done TikToks and that kind of thing. And I got up to the deadline and I was not going to send in a video. And I went over to house and I was like bitching and moaning about it and saying, I don't know what I'm going to do. I just want to stay here.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I'm going to be in Idaho. And she grabbed me by the neck and she said, I don't care. My mom rarely swears. She basically said, I don't give a fuck. If you decide not to take this job or do whatever, but if you stand in front of me and say, you're not even going to try. then I'm incredibly disappointed in you. And hearing her saying she was, I was like, okay.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Because that's like, she is the person I want to please her the most. We've been through everything together. I respect her so much. I was like, if she's saying that, and she was like, then you're not the person that I know that I raised you to be.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Who took every risk, who put yourself out there constantly, that went on stage and was an animal, that tried everything, that would go in, that has, you know, for the last, you know, it was eight years at that point, 10 years really.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, I was 18, so it was 10 years, a decade of auditioning and being on stage and, you know, being, you know, rejected and getting up and trying again, even if you never got a role and you're going to stand in front of me and say you're not even going to try. And I was like, you were right. So I went home, I recorded it, and I got the job.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And then I had to decide whether, and then she was like, if you don't want to take it, you don't want to take it. That's a once in a lifetime, like, they weren't going to come back and ask me in a year, like, you still want to do a show? They would have found somebody else, like, on social media to do a show with.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And the part that I had talked to you about last night is that I was trying to decide whether I wanted to uproot my life and do this and leave and start this whole new thing. And I could tell in my brother's eyes that something was not happening, like, not right. He was on his meds. He wasn't taking drugs. Boise is a very clean city. Idaho's very buttoned up.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
We lived in a very, like in the outskirts. He had no access to anything. And he just started to crack. The drugs just weren't working anymore. And you can always tell when he's kind of, when you hear, when he's hearing the voices.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Because when you're having a conversation with him, if you've had a conversation with anybody that has schizophrenia, they're talking to you, but they're also talking with the voices that they hear and they're telling them how to respond to them. So our conversations really slowed down. He started to get more unstable.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And it was like two days before I had to make my decision about whether I was going to leave and do this, take this job. And he asked me to come downstairs and I walked down to his apartment, which was under my house or our house. I had a little apartment upstairs. He had one downstairs. And he looked at me and he gave me this purple crystal, but I still have.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
He put it in my hand and he said, you need to go to Nashville. It's your destiny. I was like, what do you mean? And he was like, you have to promise me that you're going to go. You have to go. I was like, for this job, he was like, you must move. You must be there. And he was like, they're telling me that you have to go.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And in my mind, I was like, okay, your voices have told you like some crazy things. Like we have spent the last 10 years. Like, I don't even know. I don't want to know if I want to trust these voices. And he was like, I'm telling you, this is your destiny. You must go. I was like, okay, well, whatever. And I woke up the next morning and he was gone.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And he had a full psychotic break and the police found him. It was in December out on a bench in the cold. completely in a full psychotic state. And that was the last sort of coherent conversation we had was him telling me to go. I take that stuff seriously.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But I knew that I probably should go and I knew that it was a great opportunity and it was risky, it was scary, I was going to be alone. But I also knew that I was going to be working with a lot of people in this world that I respected. I mean, I'd been listening to Matt Walsh and Michael and Candice and Ben.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, in the last couple of years. You knew it was a big deal. Yeah, huge deal.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I knew more than anything that what I would get from it, even if things didn't work out, even if a show didn't take off, even if we never developed a show, if it never got greenlit, whatever it was, that I had the opportunity to work with people who were better than me at what I was doing, who were principled, who were great at what they did.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And even not in like this weird industry, but who just seemed like good people. And I got there and those individuals like, I'll always say this, but you know, you hear Matt Walsh online, that's who he is in real life. Like Michael Knowles, he walks the walk. Like I had to, it was like crazy. You know, Jordan Peterson, I'm doing my show. And he was like, I want to meet the internet girl.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And he's like walking in and wants me. But I get to have these. It's like, you do the TikToks, right? The YouTubes.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, exactly. And so in my mind, like I knew that it was a huge deal. But I was petrified. And again, I was comfortable. And I said, okay, screw it. I'm going to go do it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. And so you walk in and there's... I mean, Ben, at like 15 years old, when I was... We had that conversation about abortion when I learned that my dad wanted to abort me. Like when I was looking up, you know, information, it was his debates that came up.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It was like, you know, him at college campuses. You know. I loved listening to Michael. Michael made me think about God in a way that I hadn't in a really long time. I just kind of shut off from that, especially living in L.A. That's the most secular place you can be, especially in Hollywood. So these were people that meant something to me. And, you know, still do.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Became very good friends and mentors and will always be grateful for that. And
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
No, Jordan wasn't there yet, and it took me a while to meet them because, you know, I was in development for the show. So, like, I was brought on to do the show, but I was, like, social media content creator, and then we took a few months to do the show. So when the show launched, that's when I really got to know them. Because then they were like, oh, you're legit. They gave you a show.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Terrifying. Are you kidding me? She's like, so I had met her, I'd gone to Mass. And she was, you know, George is Catholic. And she had not converted at that time. But I knew, like, she sort of knew who I was. And she filmed in a different part of the studio than I did. So I didn't really cross paths with her. And her husband, George, was like, it's so funny if you know him, but he loves YouTube.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So he would watch my show and be like, Hannah, this is the girl at 30 Wire. And she was like, I haven't even met her. Like, who is this? And then I accidentally parked next to her at mass one Sunday. And this is like the Michael Knowles effect of like, I need to go to mass, I need to get my life together, whatever it was. And I was like, oh my God, Candace is here.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And then I saw George look over at me and apparently he was like, that's the girl at Daily Wire. And that was like the first time she had ever like seen me in person. And then she was in the office like a couple of weeks later and officially met me. But she's one of those people, we were talking about this downstairs, that she is this like firecracker of personality.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And you like see her on screen and you're like, oh my God, like I don't even know what to expect about this person. And she is one of the warmest individuals. She's incredibly charismatic. She's incredibly loyal. And I would, you know, hear things around the office of like, oh, Candace, oh, look, Candace is walking in. And it was like, everybody like revered her and kind of feared her.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And she just comes up and gives you like a huge hug. So yeah, that was really special. And Matt, you know, I think the first time he ever like really officially met me was when his team was like, you got to go on her show to promote something that he was doing or help her promote her show. And we just had a ton of fun and.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
That was a fish out of water for sure. Imposter syndrome. But also, you know, you were very overconfident. So there was some imposter syndrome, but it was like, yeah, I can do this. I can talk to a camera. I have opinions and I don't waver in what I believe and I have fun telling stories and that's what I got to do every day.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It's what I still get to do is like what I loved about acting, what I loved about working at that production company and searching for stories at the end of the day was telling stories with interesting characters and with interesting meaning that leave people changed. That leave you thinking about something in a different light that make you feel something. And I got to do that every single day.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And it was a really nice marrying of all the things that I loved. So I wasn't acting and there's always a part of me that's like, you know, I love that. I love being on stage. I'm doing my tour in the next couple of months, which I'm so excited about because I love being on, like I love feeding off of an audience. And this is like the whole, I love entertaining.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I love telling stories in that medium. So I was able to kind of like mesh together all the things that I cared about. And it was not the career that I ever expected for myself. But I think it's really beautiful because you, if you follow the things, like if you find the, if you find the core of why you love what you love, because it's usually a lot deeper than what you think.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It's not the superficial, like I like this job because of X, Y, Z, but it's like, why does that fill your cup? Is it the people? Is it the things that you accomplish? Is it the feeling that you're making a difference? Whatever it might be. Is it the storytelling aspect? Is it the solving of a problem? Whatever it may be.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And if you can't do what you dreamed of as a kid or spent 10 years of your life in LA like I did, thinking like, yeah, I'll just go be an actor forever and work in this industry. I'm totally content and fulfilled now with what I'm doing because the meat of why I loved all of that, I get to do every day.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I get to do it now, especially being independent, I get to do it and I'm in the driver's seat. I get to decide... you know, who I work with. And I can, you know, honestly tell my audience that if I'm sitting down with somebody, if I'm collaborating with somebody, if I'm partnering with somebody, it's because I want to. It's because I trust them.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So it was a funny story because there were two different sides of it, but I had had the idea for a very similar show that I pitched to PragerU actually. And it was like a quippy, funny, I still have the pilot actually, and it's me in my LA apartment. I've got my leg up on the chair because that was my whole thing at the beginning of Comet Section. Like I always had my leg up.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I was going through news stories from a more like right-wing common sense perspective. And I even read some comments and I had all the funny memes and edits in there. And I edited it myself in iMovie. And my purpose of that was, it was, you know, trifold, I think.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Because one, I didn't feel like there was enough content on this side of the aisle that was short form that would reach my generation. because we have the attention span of a pea. And that was why I added in all the edits and the memes and the sound effects, which is a lot of YouTubers doing that at the time.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was a big fan of this girl named Emma Chamberlain who had blown up on YouTube over the past 10 years or so. And she always had really funny edits and sound effects and they would keep me just captivated in these videos. And I also felt like there wasn't anybody that was like me speaking to young people. Like I said, Will Witt was the only one.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I had a lot of people that I would find on YouTube and, you know, I would listen to Dennis sometimes and he would pop up on my YouTube feed or Michael and, you know, Ben and Kat would watch Candice's. I was like consuming her stuff during BLM, all of her live streams and her rants and all that. But there wasn't anybody that was, there wasn't anybody who was young or just like an average girl.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like the young women that I saw were like the Trump admin interns and they're like pencil skirts or like the Fox News women. Or they were like the, you know, the hunters in Montana. And I wasn't either of those. I was like, I'm just kind of a, I don't know, I'm not, I'm just sort of in the middle.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I'm just, don't want to really be preached at, but there's a lot of stuff going on in the world that doesn't make sense and that's chaotic and I'm losing friends and I feel alienated and lonely. And if I feel this way, then I know other people do. So maybe I could do something about it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So that was my side of it. And so I had this pilot pitched. And so when Daily Wire approached me, I was like, actually, I had this idea for a show. And they have, obviously, a very strict pitch policy, as anybody does in entertainment. They were like, actually, we can't. If you pitched it somewhere else, we can't accept your pitch. You're not even hired yet.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And so we were just sitting in this Zoom meeting. They were like, this is our idea. It'll be a short form. a show, we want really funny edits and memes, and you'll read comments. I was like, this is perfect. This is like the meeting of the minds.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And it was so cool, and I think people assume, and I've said this before, that it was like the suits there that were going, we need to reach the young people. It was like the entire show was created by people that were around my age. They were all newly graduated. I think the oldest was like 24.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So it was created by, out of necessity for the content that we wanted to consume, made by us, for people our age. And so we had, they got the green light to hire me, even though I don't think the suits knew, you know, why I was being hired, but they were like, okay, you know, try it out.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And somehow got it greenlit, even though the execs were like, we don't really, we don't understand the show, but if you think it's gonna, just try. So we had no money, tiny budget, You know, I was in the back of a studio that was shared by two other people, had like a little tiny corner. We had no paid ads, nothing, no marketing machine. They were just like, see if anybody watches.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And it was just really, really, it was perfect because the people that we were working with, we just had like, that's how you kind of know that something's hopefully going to work and that you've created something great when it's like, we've all felt this need for something that's very similar. We all came together and had already been thinking about this. It was like, this has got to be magic.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And they brought the comment section, like the name, they had already had the name and they had tried the concept with another young woman who'd worked there previously. And what they brought to it was having it be driven by comments of like, that's a unique, you know, kind of value add of, don't just talk about your values and opinions, but like what are normal people on the internet saying?
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was like, that's a great addition. So they contributed that part and we developed it for three months. and then launched it in the end of February or March in 2022. And in the back corner of that tiny studio with no money, no paid ads, nobody really paying attention, we hit a million in four months.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. It was a rocket ship. We were the fastest growing show and on the right, we were one of the top three fastest growing YouTube channels on all of YouTube.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Again, no money, no anything. I mean, we had money, we had support, you know, they gave us like $10,000, $20,000 to buy the cameras and build, you know, a set and get like the headphones, the mic and all that stuff. But it was a lot of it was organic of people just sharing it. Wow.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
We, um, Ben always had significantly more. I helped paste.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. I mean, I was just like shocked as anybody. I was like, I don't even know how. I was like, this is wild. Um, No, and I'm so, and I like, I think about, you know, my brother saying that and all of these things that have now happened since then. And I'm, I'm really, really grateful for the shot that they gave me.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And, and I had great people, you know, that core team who launched the show with me, that was like dream team. And we were, it was so much synergy. And it made me like doing that show every day, we did 10 episodes a week, sometimes more, but two episodes a day. It made me so much better in basically every aspect of my life.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I get comfortable being Brent on camera, not being behind a roll, kind of like we talked about very early on. I became incredibly articulate in my beliefs. I became unwavering. I think I became less of a people pleaser in my work because I had to go on camera every day and share what I thought. And I was getting death threats and being called a transphobe and a racist and whatever. You're a POS.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Not really, actually. Because I felt so strongly about what I believed and I felt like what I was doing was important. Because I would meet people in person, I think that was really, really helpful, who were my age or around my age who said, like, thank you for saying what I'm too afraid to say. Or what I felt, and I felt crazy for thinking this. And you make me feel like I'm not as alone.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Especially young women who came up to me and said that. Because it was all born out of out of purpose of me feeling that exact same way.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Pretty soon after, yeah. It was very weird. But thankfully, because I'd been in acting, my mom was very proactive in conversations like that, because she was like, at any moment, any of these auditions, you know, I was auditioning for things like Wolverine or Disney, whatever, these things that, you know, if I had actually booked any of those, my life would have blown up in an instant.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
We watched that happen on a regular basis, people that I knew was in acting classes with. So we had lengthy conversations about fame and influence growing up because my mom was like, you could walk away from acting in a moment, I wouldn't care. Because I would believe that what you learned was important and you had a great time doing it. You have no pressure to do this.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But if this is what you are going to be doing and you're auditioning for these huge things that could literally change your entire world, you need to know what fame is. And you need to have such a secure sense of self and understand that the reason why you have that and why you would have the money and the power and the influence is because of those people.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So you better not act like a piece of shit, basically. And you can't compromise that. And it was like, that was from a young age. Because again, you never know. You could have booked something and then suddenly you're on some show every week and everybody knows who you are. So it was very proactive. And when I left to move to Nashville, she had the same conversation with me again.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
She was like, I don't know if they're ever gonna make a show with you. I don't know if you're gonna become some well-known person. Don't forget everything that we've talked about over the last 10 years, because it's still applicable. And I didn't.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, and it happened really fast. So I think I was prepared. But I remember the first time I was actually recognized in public, I was in my pajamas at Costco. I was like, maybe I shouldn't wear my pajamas out in public anymore. Maybe that's not the best thing to do. Yeah.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Well, they brought us into a meeting and one of them asked, like, turned to somebody on my team and was like, so how much money did we put behind this? Like, how many paid ads? And he was like, none. Nothing. And they were just like, okay. Okay. Like, I guess let's just keep going. Yeah. But I just tried to like stay in my lane and keep going. I was undeterred. I was like, this is a rocket ship.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Let's just keep growing.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was ready for something different.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. I mean, um, I, um, you know, we've covered a lot of different things and there've been different moments in my life where I had to make kind of like a, a decision that was like, you know, that leap of faith and that risk. And I hadn't taken one in a while. And I felt very complacent. And I was good at what I was doing. And I was doing it every single day. And we were making a difference.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I was in a very good rhythm. But I had gotten complacent.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
you you you you Thank you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Maybe one day I've talked about having him on the show and trying to break through a lot of different things. I have a lot more empathy for him as I've gotten older and I understand him more. Because I think that I saw him for his faults in my parents' marriage, which they both had their faults, but Outside of that marriage, I think I saw a broken man who was just not the right relationship.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I don't know. Thank you. ,. That's it. Thank you very much.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
He'd had a really hard family life growing up.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I think you have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, probably. He watches everything.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, for sure. Like, I had done a... I think he watched the video I did with Raelynn where we talked about this and we sang together because she has a song about her mom almost aborting her. So I believe he watched that, but...
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
,,,, It'll be about prioritizing what is important at that moment and building something where I can give to my family in the way that I want to give.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Every month or so. I definitely still have some boundaries up, for sure.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I think he does as well. But I think in... One of the greatest parts of growing up is seeing your parents as humans. With their own childhood, their own baggage. Learning so much about... Like, I knew what my mom had gone through as a mother of...
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. Candace does. And they keep it all in house, which is wonderful. And, you know, she and George run everything together, which was really the, I loved watching that. And I looked at Alex and I was like, I want that. I don't want to, I don't want to offload this to anybody else anymore. Like, I trust you. I don't trust a lot of people. I trust you and let's do this together.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And he, through helping me build this, gives me the, he's giving me and our family the freedom to be able to go, you know, have a farm, have a bunch of kids by, you know, this is not what he, it's like sort of in line with some of the work that he does, but he's taken on a huge bulk of it, which I'm so grateful for. But yeah, for sure her. And then the other one is Liz Wheeler. She's incredible.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And she is a mom. She has two kids. She's at The Blaze. She has a podcast. And her husband works, and she is the most dedicated mother. And when she's doing her show for an hour and a half during the day, her husband is with their kids. And then for the rest of the day, they're never out of her sight. And they go wherever she goes.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
If you hire Liz for a speaking engagement, if you had her on your show, she would have her kids there. And if she can't have them there, she says no. And if it means missing out on something, she says no. And we had a long conversation about this actually last year where she was like, you have to put yourself in a situation where you have the freedom to do that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And if that's the kind of mother that you want to be, if you feel called to this vocation to do this work, you have to be able to set those boundaries because otherwise you're going to be pushed around, you're going to be told what to do. And she set just an incredible example. And I don't know if she talks about that often. She talked about it in a speech.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Losing a husband, one of my brothers died at 17 years old, going through a really, really bitter divorce and being in a very unhappy marriage, when my other brother now has schizophrenia. I mean, she's just been hit after hit. Her joke was like, Genghis Khan and former life, what happened? But seeing that, but then understanding things from her family and her past, you see this
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
She was given an award recently and I went and saw her talking. So she talked about that, but I don't know if she's talked about it very publicly, but she's been a wonderful resource and inspiration in that regard. They don't have staff, you know, they, you know, have family that comes and helps and that's their support, which, you know, my mom, a saint.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was leaving Idaho, she's like selling this dream farm and she's coming here to be in Nebraska. She was like, I want to be here. And you know, Alex's family is here and we're going to be this village because she didn't have that. And that was really, really hard on her.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And she didn't have that kind of... When her husband was dying of brain cancer, she had nobody nearby to care for my three brothers when she had to go to the Mayo Clinic for three days at a time or anything like that. And she was like, I'm going to give you the support that I never had. We're going to do this. I'm going to be down the street from you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And if you're busy and you're doing a show and there's this opportunity that you don't want to give up, I never want you to feel like you have to say no, like you will have to because you'll be prioritizing things, but I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna support you. And that was, you know, Liz has done it with her family and so she's like, she's really, really wonderful.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
She deserves a lot more cred than.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, she's great. She's super consistent too. She is like a firecracker.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, and a very good mother. So yeah, it's a weird industry. And it's a unique situation, but it's also not because every family is thinking about this. I think this is a thing that women think about all the time when they get to this point in life and how you are going to balance it and what you're going to prioritize.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I think that society has like become very skewed where for so many years, like starting when my mom was having kids, I mean, she was absolutely crapped on for choosing to not work. I was like, this is so embarrassing. You're giving up your entire career. How could you do this? Like, you're just a mom. You're just a mom. And then we just went so far in that one direction.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And then now on the right, I see like, if you go on like right wing Twitter and I get called like, you know, Allie Beth Stuckey, Liz Wheeler and I, Candice, we get called like undercover feminists because we actually have a job and we work. And it's like, guys, I sit in front of a freaking camera and I like talk about the things that I care about like a couple times a week.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And then I go outside and I like birth cows and take care of chickens and cook dinner and, you know, write about things that I care about. I want to write a book this year. I'm like, I'm going to go do that. But it's like, it's really not that big of a deal.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So now I feel like the pendulum has shifted in this other direction where there's so many women and Ali Beth and I talked about this very recently, where it's like there's normal women who are balancing it all. And then this like economy, especially, It's rare for a family to be able to live off of one income. I don't think it's comfortable for a lot of people.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So now we have these people on the right that are, you know, sitting on their high horses saying, that's so embarrassing. You're a terrible husband if your wife has a job. You're a terrible woman if you don't give it up or whatever it is, if you have a side hustle. It's like for the entirety of history, women have worked and contributed to their families.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
That's, you know, I quoted, you know, Proverbs 31 in that episode where I did where, you know, she contributes to her community and she's engaged and she works in the fields to, you know, bring food. It was like when we, you know, when we were an agricultural society, women were engaged in the family businesses. You read, you know, Jane Austen stories, they worked in the dress shops.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like it was, it was always a very specific class where the women didn't work. And then we had like the 1950s where there was that period of like the housewife. But even that was like, A very middle class, upper class idea. And I feel like now on the right, we've glamorized that to the point where so many people have now looked at women and been like, well, you're an embarrassment.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
If you work, that's feminism running through your veins. I'm like, actually, I think it's just.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
full human being that as a kid, you don't, you can't comprehend. And I think I got to start seeing that at a younger age because of her honesty and her transparency. And even her honesty about my dad of things that he wouldn't bring up, but of her comfort in being able to say, X, Y, Z happened. It's not really my story to tell, but you know, this happened with your grandfather and your dad.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, I have a great team. Many of whom I've worked with for a while or worked with at the beginning of starting all of this. And I think keeping it small is key for me right now. Keep a lot of it in-house. I've had tons of... requests and offers to outsource to XYZ.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I'll never say that there isn't a time where I would consider like, okay, maybe I could work with this person or build something with this person or do a collaboration. But right now I'm at such a, like we're just building this as this tiny little team and it's working and it's humming and I'm learning so much.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I trust every single person that I interact with on a daily basis that they have, you know, that they are a person of integrity, that I trust them, that they have my best interests, at heart that we have a shared vision for what I want to accomplish with every video that I put out in the world.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I wanna make sure that every single thing that I do matters and that I'm not just doing something for views or for clicks or because it'll be a means to some end, but that it's like I'm sharing something that is important and they get that. And so we're, you know, and they push me in the ways that I should be pushed, question things that need to be questioned.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like we have hard conversations of like, okay, you want to do this, but why? Like the why is like, we keep hammering back to there should be a reason for every single move that I make or video that I put out. And so right now it's just, it's people that I, It's funny you say, how do you know who to trust? It's a very tiny group.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. And I think it takes spending more time learning about the opportunities and the options and not jumping into anything too quickly. And I also think building something that I'm proud of that can stand on two legs where, you know, there's a lot of freedom in not needing somebody else.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I feel like I'm in a very, very, very fortunate and lucky position where right now I can say no to things because I'm very honored, I'm grateful, but I can do it on my own. And I don't want to expand this bubble and invite people in to now start telling me who to be, where to go, how to do what I do, who I don't know intimately.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Because it's a very, and we've talked about this too off camera, but it's a weird situation when it's a brand, but it's you. If you hand the reins off to somebody else and you lose control, and it's like, I don't like what you're doing to my brand, but that's me as a person. And if I don't have control over that, like at the end of the day, I have to live with myself and look in the mirror.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And so I want to make sure that, you know, again, it's like the business of self here and the business of personality or whatever it is. So you just have to constantly thinking about that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And he went through that and being able to like see that, you know, 17, 18 years old was like, Oh God. Okay. So this was not the right marriage. This was a hard childhood. And this is somebody who has really been lost. I don't think he's ever found like true fulfillment. And I look at him and I'm just like, I'm trying to give you a hug basically. And it's really helped our relationship.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Which also, you know, it's important for the audience. It's important for what you're building, but also as a human being. Like, again, when I go to sleep tonight, when I look at my husband, I have to feel like I'm being consistent. I have to know that I'm having integrity with myself, with an audience, and feel really good about that because it's so public.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I don't know. I'm excited. What is the cookie company? We talked about that earlier.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But... No, I'm not sure. And that's kind of the exciting thing. I think that you have to be nimble and flexible and, you know, my life is going to change. I'm going to get older. I'm going to be, you know, hopefully be a mom and... have other things happening in my life. And I think you have to be adept and nimble and I'm gonna let that be the driving force.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And then everything, you know, we'll have to work around that and still build something that I'm proud of. And I don't like, I really, it's such a, I wanna build something big that's meaningful, but I don't have an image in mind of what that is. I just want to be able to continue sharing goodness and entertaining people. Like, I genuinely... I love telling stories. I love making people laugh.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I love making them feel like I'm an entertainer at heart, which is so weird to say in this whole world. But it's like, I do love making people feel something. I love sitting in the audience and watching something that moves me to tears. I love watching a great film. I love reading a book that I can't put down because it's completely changed the way that I've thought about the world.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I love being able to do that. And so I don't know the, you know, the avenues that that'll take me down. But I think if I keep that as the forefront, I'm sure I'll have a great time.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Well, you're paving a path of your own and you're asking about people that I look up to. I mean, you are like, I hope all of your viewers know, and I think they, you guys do, but it's, you are the real deal. And like who you are sitting across from me, being on camera, doing your interviews, that is who you are. And you are like a steadfast example of integrity and consistency.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And the other thing too, that I never expected was marrying Alex and bringing somebody into my life who didn't carry the baggage and the weight of growing up in this environment.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
that I think, especially in this weird political world, doesn't exist. That's also like in every industry, in Hollywood and entertainment. There's so many people when it comes to this world of having influence and it's pretty great. It's very special.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
and didn't experience the heartbreaks and didn't experience feeling let down, didn't experience growing up in the shadow of schizophrenia and death and divorce and was able to look at my dad as just a human and who was able to find him so endearing and funny and kind.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And then being able to see him through my husband's lens of like picking up the phone every time he calls and being like, hi, I just talked to Mike. And that's made me so much better.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
She was a stay-at-home mom.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
He worked in finance, like, and not finance in any kind of, like, like really cool or, you know, very, well, like he was a, like a banker at a local bank in Chattanooga doing, like, nonprofit stuff. And I don't think that's ever what he wanted to do. He was good at it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But I think that he, there was, he would have been a great professor. He's super academic, very esoteric. So I think that's probably also, you know, there's such a lesson in, I think I learned a lot from watching him. There's such a lesson in that of, you don't have to like love everything about what you do.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But if you don't find a sort of fulfillment and passion in some sort of your life to fill that void and to fill that cup, you're always going to be searching and you're always going to feel lost and you're always going to, you know, substitute it with other things and other vices. And so I think there's often people kind of like joke about the cliche of like, do what you love.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But it's like, if you don't have some kind of like, if you don't feel like what you're doing is important or like it speaks to some part of you and you can't identify that, then you have to find it in some other part of your life. And if you don't have both, I think that's what I watched with him where there was like, it wasn't in his career, wasn't in his personal life.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
He wasn't happy in his marriage life. Our family was a mess.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Everything. I basically did everything. Because I was homeschooled, so I had the time to do so many things. So I was obviously into theater. And I was a dancer, so I did ballet. I was a competitive gymnast. Did community theater singing lessons. It was super weird and outdoorsy. I was like the homeschool kid that was sitting under the tree.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
like looking at leaves and like digging holes with my hands and where we lived on like five acres, 10 acres in Chattanooga. Had to save the Earth Club in like second grade. And because I was homeschooled, there was like nobody in it. It was just me and like one other friend. My whole family sails very randomly. Like my dad grew up in North Carolina, so he would sail.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And then when we lived on the West Coast, North Carolina, my brothers learned how to sail. And so I would go on the Tennessee River and our like tiny little like boat club thing where they would have tiny little, you know, like kids sailboats and Optis is what they're called. So I would sail. I rock climbed. Chattanooga is a huge rock climbing town.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So we went from Washington to Chattanooga. And then when I started acting, we bounced around.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And so I was like, I just fell in love with it. And my mom was very against it. But I also think she saw kind of an out, like a way to escape her life in a way. My brother had just died. And I saw an emotional outlet. that gave me the ability to be creative and escape my life and what was going on and the intensity of that and gave me a creative outlet. And I just kept wanting to do more.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was like, I would go on like, I wasn't allowed to have a computer, but I would go on her like desktop and be like, Annie, like auditions nearby. And I'd be like, there's one happening like an hour away. I want to go do this musical. And so we would go audition. My mom would drive me like an hour plus to rehearsals and to shows. And then I was like, I think I want to be on Broadway.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And so I wrote a letter to a manager in New York and was like, I want to be Jane Banks and Mary Poppins. And I'll like, I will fly up to meet you and do an audition. And then you'll help me get this role. I was just super motivated. And I think she saw kind of an escape.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But she also, after my brother David died, her perspective as a parent changed where she was like, if I had known that David only had 17 years. Yeah. But would I have said yes to? And obviously not give in to your child's every whims, but if there was something he loved more than anything, what would I have done?
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. I was never super close to my oldest brother, Chase. Because when I was born, he was already going off to boarding school. He knew he wanted to be in the military. So he went to the Marine Military Academy in Texas. Because the Marines don't have a college, but they have a high school. So he did that and then basically spent the next...
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
four years working to get into a service academy and got into all of them and chose the Air Force Academy. So he was, and he spent every summer, you know, at the summer programs at the Naval Academy at Air Force at West Point, got his pilot's license at like 15 years old. So he was super incredibly motivated, knew what he wanted to do with his life.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So he was kind of out of the house by the time that I was born. So I didn't get to know him as well as a kid. I think I was probably around 15 years old when we really started getting close, when all the stuff, again, we can talk about later, that happened with my older brother, my other brother, we really got close then.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But Reed and David are the twins, and so I grew up with them and was super close.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. And David died at, because we were all living together. So like when I think about my childhood, you know, David died when I was five years old. So I don't have a ton of memories, unfortunately, but it was just like me and Reed and my mom. That's a surviving twin.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I unfortunately didn't know anything different. Like it was icy cold. I never saw any affection. There was a lot of disdain for each other. We lived in a big house that was like very long. It would be like on opposite ends of it basically. And to their credit, I think that they tried. And they tried for me and especially after David died and my brother Reed really started struggling.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I think that the damage after that was irreparable after losing a child. But they did try in their own ways. But it was like, I'm so grateful that I'm here and I wouldn't change it for the world. But it was, it's like, I look at that as like, that was probably a marriage that never should have happened just because they're so, so different.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like, and it's not like a different, like complimentary way. Like, it's just like, you are just, and there's a lot of affection there and you spend 20 plus years with someone because they were married for a long time and they got through the divorce and they're, they're friendly now.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Fifteen. 15. That's when I had emancipated myself as well.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I'm age five. He's 17. He dies on a, they went to a school in Chattanooga. They were on the rowing team. They were both super athletic, very artistic. I mean, they were like the most well-rounded guys. They're both brilliant, incredibly artistically talented. Like I can't even, I have my own creative talents, like I can't draw for crap.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It's awesome. I'm having a ton of fun.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And they were both, I mean, brilliant, but also brilliant at math. Like my brother Reed had a perfect SAT score. I mean, just so well-rounded, incredibly athletic. They were on the rowing team. just good guys. And out of nowhere, David had a cardiac arrest and fell off the rowing machine right in front of Reed. So they were 17 years old, identical twins.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
They never had that like separation that like psychologically twins have to go through. And if you're not a twin, like I don't even think I can understand what that feels like, but I've talked to enough twins now and I've talked to Reed, you know, 17. I think this is the, we're going into the 18th year since David has died. So he's now been gone longer than he was here.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I've spent enough time talking with Reed throughout that period of like, they had never, they were still one person. They had done everything together and he watched his brother die in front of him. There were no defibrillators in the gym. There was nothing anybody could do. He was basically dead on site. And it was Valentine's day in 2007. Um,
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And yeah, it was, I mean, that changes a family forever. And it's, there were so many different, it's like a, grief is such a patchwork, like a quilt in my opinion, because everybody's perspective and journey is different. My mom's journey was completely different than my dad's. You know, this is not my dad's biological son. He never adopted my brothers. They had a lot of, it was very tense.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like the week before David died, they had a huge, my dad and David had a huge blowout. David even went to my mom that week and was like, why are you still in this marriage? Like this doesn't work. I think she had a ton of regret over that. And he, so my dad's journey was completely different. I think he's, but just because he wasn't their biological father, I mean, he had spent 14 years with them.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It was very different than my mother's. Reed's journey as an identical twin was completely different, something that none of us could ever understand. My older brother, Chase, had a completely different journey that I don't even think I really know much about. He's very... He's military. He's like closed case done. And he was far away at the time he was in college.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Then mine was completely different than anybody else's because I didn't know him. It did. Like I have these memories of things we would do together and we would wake up on Saturdays and he would make me waffles and we'd go like ride in the car together and that kind of thing. But you, my grief was like, growing up and everybody has all of these memories with this person and you don't.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, so it was Valentine's Day. I got a phone call from the school. And again, that's like, my mom is so, I truly think it's one of the best things she's ever done in terms of raising us. She was so honest. There was no hiding anything. which I think in the world of helicopter parenting and trying to protect your kids and kind of putting them in this glass box, like that's become very abnormal.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And people would look at our life and be like, why would you not shield them from this? But I'm very glad that she didn't. But it was just like, looked at me and went, David's collapsed. We need to go to the, like put down your Valentines that you remember we were like having a Valentine's day party and we have to go.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But I remember getting in the car and I had like the Valentine that I had made David. And I was just like five years old and holding it. I haven't talked about this in so long. I watched all of it. I got to the school. This was being put in the ambulance.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
That's what my husband said last night as we were leaving dinner with you guys. He was like, this is the podcast. Talk about that stuff. And I was like, I know. Cool.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
We went to the hospital and I had like a nurse take me out as they were, you know, talking about what was going on and they had no idea what happened. I was wearing lime green clogs and I remember because it was, we were there until very late. I was walking through the halls of the hospital. I could hear my like Hannah Anderson clogs like clomp through the hospital hallways.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It's like funny the things you remember. They were in like a very dark purpley room. And I have no idea what happened. They think it's some kind of like Like epigenetics, if something, you know, environmental happened. Genuinely no idea at the time. Nothing came of the autopsy. We all immediately, especially Reed, you know, we came to Nashville and went to Vanderbilt.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
They have one of the best pediatric cardiology programs in the country. Probably the best. I mean, hundreds of tests to figure out, you know, was there any risk for Reed? And there was nothing. Nothing. And David always drank Red Bulls in the morning. He would drink like two Red Bulls a day. He would drink one on the way to school.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And my mom would always kind of like, David, you probably shouldn't drink that. And he would be like, Mom, everybody's drinking them. But she just said there was like a gut feeling of, I don't think this is good for you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
No, not at all. I love talking about this stuff.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I know. And I loved therapy. People rag on therapy a lot, especially on the right. And I sort of do when I think people overuse it. It was incredible for me.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Um... Yes and no. I think I was surprised about the things that have challenged me. Because I knew going into it that there was a lot that I didn't know that other people had managed and that I didn't have a hand on. And that was one thing that I never really loved was that I didn't completely have a hold and a sense of everything that was going on in terms of my career and brand.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I had a lot of shit going on.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
We had to work through it. But I think that's the thing that... Not to go completely off topic, but there was a time in my life when I needed it, when there was so much going on that I couldn't comprehend and I didn't have the tools to navigate through. And so that's why I sought out help. And I went through a few different therapists trying to find somebody, and I found somebody who was...
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
yes, very empathetic and would listen, but was solutions focused of like, this is how you navigate this. This is what you need to say to this person. How do we better your communication so you can get what you need in this very, very chaotic family structure that you're living in? Like it was very, it was giving me the tools I needed so I didn't need to go forever.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Thank you. , , , , , ,, P P P P P P P P P P實, ac , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , a P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P And both her first husband and David popped up.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I got through that period, and I got to a point where I was like, I don't need to go trauma dump every Thursday afternoon. So I haven't been back. And I've wondered if there was like- You don't go today? Mm-mm.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. Last year, I thought I might need to.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. And we're like, there's a 17-year-old young man here who wants to speak to you. I mean, it was like, I was actually just thinking about this meeting the other day. I was Googling, trying to see if I could find him. I need to ask my mom the name because I would love to go just do this. But yeah, she was able to speak to Don, her first husband, hear from him.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
She had a miscarriage between the boys, I think, and I'm pretty sure that one of the medium things, that baby came in, said something.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. If you find a good person, again, somebody that's not an enabler, which I think is hard to find. You look up like therapists in Nashville and the first person that pops up is like the person who is in Matt Walsh's What is a Woman? And you're like, oh, fuck. You're not who I want to talk to.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I saw that. I believe in all that stuff.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
which also is another part of this that can be very special. Again, it's all like, it's something that's really hard to hear and it's hard to implement, but it is about perspective at the end of the day. If you can think of it as, I will let this drive me. I will be a better person in spite of this. I will live for both you and me and I will make you proud.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I will know that you're always around me. Like, that's pretty cool.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Absolutely. I think I'm so selfish, but I'm like, he doesn't go day without being with me. Yeah. He's got a bunch of people to bounce around with, but I'm like, no, here.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I know. Exactly. I need to send him over to my other brother, though. You need to go help him.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But if you find, again, a good person that is focused on providing you tools so that you can make your life better, because they can't change your life for you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But if they help you break down The things that are in your way, the things that are out of your control that give you a set of tools so you can move forward, that's an incredible, whether that's a therapist or a life coach or just a mentor in your personal life, in your church, everybody should have something like that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yes, yeah. Wasn't she on some reality shows?
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. You know, have you seen the, um, telepathy tapes?
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I'll have to ask the team downstairs about it, but there's a, I'll butcher the explanation, but it is, it's a podcast that's been blowing up and it focuses on nonverbal people with autism.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And just telepathy and all of that, and not just being able to communicate, but like being in separate rooms. Yeah. And like this person will have like a ball or something and you'll have this person in the other room and it's like, so what are they looking at? And it's like a purple ball. That sounds crazy, man. It's just all like.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
The brain is like, there's so much we don't know. And I think that cannot be fully explained and probably never will be explained. And that's probably, you know, faith.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
No, California is fine. No, I've spent 10 years of my life there. It's like I think of my childhood in Chattanooga, and that is where the most formative things in my entire life happened. You know, it's where I lost my brother. I mean, it's just like that's rooted there in so many ways. But my adolescence was spent in L.A.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And my mom was born there and they had lived in California prior to me being born. They lived in Northern California. So in a lot of ways for her, it was just, you know, going back home. Yeah, I started.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Well, I loved what I was doing because I didn't ever think of acting as a job. I didn't think of it as a job until I was like 15 and started, you know, just going into college and had to start thinking of it as like a career and a job. And then I was like, oh, I don't know. It was just fun.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Again, it was like, you go through something so intense as a small child and you have nowhere to put that emotion and to have something that allowed me to walk around in somebody else's shoes and to kind of safely express things I didn't feel comfortable expressing in our home. After my brother died, I would hide in cabinets.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I would go in the kitchen cupboard and shut the door. There was a cabinet in our house in North Chattanooga where I would do it. There was a cabinet on Sigma Mountain where I would do it. I was just shut down. And acting gave me the...
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I just wanted to be alone. It was safer. You felt safer. It was like I could be somewhere that was like my own space. There's like... I mean, I still do that sometimes.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Not in a cupboard. But there was a day I was working on the show and I just felt so like... Like last week, I felt so overwhelmed. And it was like every noise in the house was just like... too much and I went and I literally sat in my dark closet, closed the door, didn't turn the light on and just finished writing the show. And I was like, I just have to be. You just kind of like turn stuff off.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I think I felt that at a very young age of there was so much noise, emotional noise. There was my brother, there was my mom and dad grieving individually and fighting and a lot of change and I felt like I didn't have something of my own. And it being a small confined space just felt like that pressure of like, this is safe.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And acting gave me the ability to, I guess, be big, to express things in a way that I wasn't able to express. My mom would always say, like, I would go on stage and become like an animal. Like, I would just, like, light up. I loved being able to not be Brett and be somebody else and experience their experiences. That's why I love doing things on stage. And, you know, I love theater.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Theater's my first love, I would say. And I ended up going to L.A. and... The reason why I went to LA is because if you're under 18 and you want to be on Broadway, there are height limits. You can't be taller than five feet most of the time, and I was super tall. I grew like a string bean.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So the manager that I had written a letter to at eight years old saying I wanted to be on Broadway was like, you can go home to Chattanooga and you can just keep doing regional theater and maybe audition for a show here and there, or you can go to LA if you want to keep acting. Because you are 5'2", you're 11 years old, and you're not going to be hired for anything.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
No, it's called Cooper Confidential.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
You've got seven years to kill, basically. And the reason for that is when you're at the very back of the house on stage, they want you to look significantly smaller than the adults on stage. There can be no confusion about whether you are an adult or whether you are a child on stage. So it makes sense. But that was heartbreaking for me because all I wanted to do is be on Broadway.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Oh, yes. I was like, that's what I want to do. We would go see Broadway shows. It would come through Atlanta. We would drive up and see them. I was like, that is what I want to do.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I would act out things in our front yard. I was constantly writing stories. And the funny thing is I, we went and saw theater. We didn't have television in our house. We had ATV and I was allowed, we were talking about this last night. I was allowed to watch the Andy Griffith show and I Love Lucy. And that was all. So it wasn't like I was watching movies and TV shows.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I do a weekly advice video. Do you remember like Dear Abby in the newspaper? Yes. I was obsessed with Dear Abby. And so I have people send in questions because a lot of the times when I get emails from people, it's like, I'm having trouble figuring out something in a relationship or with college, or I know that you've dealt with this with your brother or your parents.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like I want to be on Disney channel or whatever it was. But I just, I read constantly. I love stories. At the end of the day, what drives me more than anything in like this career still today in acting is is a love of story, is understanding why people do the things that they do, how stories change us.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I've been personally positively impacted by stories, whether they be through literature or on stage or on film, of seeing yourself in a character or being able to put yourself in their shoes and that being an incredibly transformative experience. For me, politics is storytelling, because it's all about human nature.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I think that's why I am interested in it, because it's reality TV, it's a Shakespeare tragedy, depending on the day. Those can kind of be interchanged a bit, but it is about story, and I love every day getting on my show and being able to tell a story.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
and bring people in and weave that together and take them along on this journey and have a beginning, middle and end and hopefully leave them changed at the end and like have them think about something in a different light or feel something through me telling this story. And that's why I loved acting. So I didn't, you know, 11 years old, I didn't care if it was on stage or on film.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was like, I just want to tell stories. I just want to act.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yes. I don't think I could have said that at 10 years old.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was just like, I love to act.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I think a lot of things clicked for me around 13 years old, 13, 14. It's when... stuff really took off with my parents. Divorce got messy. It's when my brother Reed had his first psychotic break. It was when I think I just became a lot more self-aware as all of those things were happening. And I think that's when I kind of realized like, oh, this is why I love it. Because I'm not me.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And that was also why starting to do things on camera for like this whatever industry I've ended up in, of this cultural commentary, whatever it is. It was so weird for me because I was just being Brett. Being Brett was very hard. It was the reason why I never sang in public. My first professional job actually was singing.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
First time I was ever paid was to be in the Atlanta Symphony Opera's production of La Boheme. I'm a classically trained singer. I've been doing it the longest out of any of these things, just because I was in choir when I was younger. And to this day, I am petrified of singing in public because it's me.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I can sing in a musical, and I can be a character, and I'm on this ride of whatever character I'm playing. I'm getting through the entire show, beginning, middle, and end. I'm not Brett. I'm this person. But if you ask me to get up on stage, and just sing you a song, it is like I have stripped down.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I might be better at it now that I've gotten so comfortable of like, I'm sitting here, I'm just being Brett, streamed to millions of people. I have however many billions of views over the last three years, so I've gotten more comfortable with it. But I spent over 10 years avoiding just being Brett and being a character because it helped me. I think that helped me understand me more.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Could you help me through this? So it's like these long, long questions that I've never really had the avenue to answer before because I can't just email people back all day long, even though I would love to. So- We open up the question portal every week and people send in their questions and then I answer them in just like a casual. we just kind of work through them together, basically.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I would have never cried in front of you five, six years ago. I remember the first time that I ever cried in front of somebody. I was sitting in the Burbank Public Library, sitting outside in the grass having a picnic with one of my good friends at the time in LA. And something had happened with my brother.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And that was the first time I ever cried in front of somebody that was not my mom. Like even like showing any kind of emotion in that regard. Terrified of letting people in. Could not, like, I felt like I'd been burned enough by my dad. I couldn't let him in. I don't think he wanted to let me in either. I was just like... I was really having a hard time processing things.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Things that could go wrong. What could go wrong? I think my brother is... I don't think my brother did them well. But I look at my brother who has basically tried every single drug in the book and didn't do anything that was intentional or for healing. And so I think I've, my impression has been tainted by that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But we even were like talking last night of like, maybe that would be good for him to go do something that is intentional and tailored for healing.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I know. What I did do though was, have you ever heard of EMDR? And that was kind of the, and that's not even close to psychedelics, but that was probably the most transformative thing I ever did in therapy. I don't think I, and that was like, I wouldn't be able to be here having this conversation with you without that. Of like tapping into things that I had never even considered processing
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
or thinking about the way that they impacted me and my childhood. And there were so many things that I had forgotten that in doing that therapy, and I did multiple different kinds. I did the rapid eye movement, which is harder for me. What ended up really working are the eggs that they like put in your hands that are little vibrating things and you hold them and they go .
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And that was super, I mean, it was like, I locked in immediately. And it was like floodgates, floodgates of everything I watched and saw and Even things were relatively recent that I was, you know, it was going on with my brother and his schizophrenia of stuff that I just didn't consider, didn't talk about. It was like so normal to me at that point.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So we do that, and then we have ad-free episodes, and then like a monthly subscriber-only newsletter that's much more personal stuff.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
You'd go with my brother.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I said no, I could go with my brother.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Probably good with... I don't think I'm somebody that's super anxious, but there is a... that is ingrained in me. I think when you... I mean, even yesterday on Alex's and my drive to dinner, I was just like, I don't even know what set it off, but... I'm such a... My entire childhood between David's death and my parents' divorce and my dad is somebody that...
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
desperately wanted to please and could never really please. And there was so much going on that I was constantly a peacemaker. And it's ironic that I do what I do, but rocking the boat in my personal life is incredibly difficult. I can stand up to people in business. I've done really hard things when it comes to career and business. I've taken a lot of risks. I put myself out there.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But when it comes to my personal life, there are little minute things of where I feel like I'm going to let somebody down and disappoint them. I allow myself to be a doormat because I'm so terrified of the repercussions of not being too loud. And again, I think that goes back to acting of like it gave me the opportunity to be big, to be 100% me.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Even though I was like playing another character, I went from being in this house where I felt like I had to be in this like I'd put myself in this cupboard, make myself small because everybody else was dealing with much bigger things. I remember thinking that as a kid like I'm – Whatever I'm going through, it's not as important. I was aware enough of that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I just desperately wanted to keep the peace. I was like, if I can fix this situation, if I can just keep people together and happy, and we can just walk on eggshells, we can get through this, and maybe they won't fight, maybe he won't drink, maybe Reed won't do X, Y, Z. And I think I still carry that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And it's so ironic because I get online and I, especially three years ago when I was first starting, shared things were very controversial. I think now it's more culturally acceptable to talk about what we talk about and what I do on the show. But three years ago, it's like ironic that I have so, I carry so much weight and anxiety in my personal life.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Oh, gosh. Unfortunately, I think it's the latter. Because I think that was actually my first episode that I did on the new show was sort of about that. I think that we are being very sore winners, unfortunately. I think the right is so used to losing. And we talk about a victim mentality all the time of, you know, the left victimizes themselves.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like I, and this is why Alex, I'm so like, he's the greatest man. of I could not, like, let him be angry at me. Not even be angry, but just to, like, oh, Brett, why do you... Like, I was petrified. I couldn't, like... I don't even know how to describe it. I didn't even want to take one misstep.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I think another person would have seen that and kind of rolled with it and been like, great, she's going to do whatever I want. And he looked at that and he was like, that is inhibited. That's like a problem that you can't even, that you burst into tears and are hysterically crying at the thought of disappointing me over you burned chicken for dinner. And I was just like...
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Because I was this person that I respected and loved so much already early on in our relationship. And I was like, you're just another person I can't let down. I can't let you down. He was like, it's a chicken.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It's like, if you can't even, and that's probably the thing that my mom and looking at our relationship has had like the most gratitude for Alex for helping me with is standing up for myself in family, in work I don't think I would have done anything I did in the last 12 months without him.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I don't think I would be as confident in my family and navigating the relationships and anything in my personal life without having that person who looked at me and went, that's really not normal. Like what happened to you to make you think that this is so, but I still like I've gotten a lot better, but I still will just be like be set off.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I had another like chicken incident the other day where I opened a package of chicken and it was mislabeled. And I was like, had this recipe that I was making for dinner. And I thought it was one kind of chicken and I opened it up and it wasn't. And I was just like, oh no, it's all going to be ruined. And I like threw the package of chicken and I was like, oh my God, it's whatever.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And he came home from the gym and he was like, what the hell have I like walked into? And I was like, you're going to make me disappointed. And then it was like five minutes later, I was like, oh, I'm doing it again, aren't I? The lights just flickered. And you hear that, and you're like... But I'm in, like, the most loving, supportive relationship with the most, like... He's so even-tempered.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
That's one of the things that I love most about him. He's, like, unflappable. He has, like, had the most normal, healthy family. They're incredible. I love my in-laws. Then he met this girl who was, like... Who's been through all of this stuff, and he's, you know...
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
absolutely undeterred and is so steady and never looked at it as like you're broken you're whatever it's just like this is like your life will be better if you anyway so that's probably what i would it's interesting help me with that because you're overconfident you know what i mean maybe not overconfident you're very confident the brett cooper that we all know is very confident incredibly there's like nothing i can't do in my mind then behind the scenes you're very self-conscious yeah
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But we've been in a culture, it's like the perfect culture for nonprofits where it's like, the left's getting us, donate now, whatever. Like, we've just been in that mindset that I think now that we've won in such a massive way and we've won culturally, I think everybody was just like, we don't even know how to function. So... I have a lot of hope.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
which I feel like to an extent is like a healthy balance because I, not the way that it manifests in like my very personal life where I still am having to, that's such like a weird lefty, like psychological term, but like I'm learning those things, but I'm having to let go of that because I'm not in a,
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
or an environment where that's gonna hurt me anymore or I'm gonna feel any repercussions for that. I don't need to keep a boat steady anymore and I still like will have moments where I feel that. So that part of it isn't healthy and I know that, but I do think there's something to be said for
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
When I go to work, when I turn on the camera, when I'm talking about the things that I care about, that I know are good for people that I believe in, that I believe in truth, that my voice doesn't waver, that I have lofty goals for myself, that I think about my brother, I'm going to live for both of us. I want to do all these things. I'm never going to say no to an opportunity.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I'm going to take a huge risk. And then, but I also go home and I know that I'm like, I'm not really the shit. I'm not the most important person in the world. I don't think that I am. I'm not in it for fame or power or money, whatever it is. I genuinely love what I do. I love telling stories.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So I think there's an aspect of it that's, I think probably has helped me a little bit, but the self-conscious aspect of it certainly doesn't.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So weird to talk about yourself as like a brand, but... sort of how it ends up being. And so it's been really nice to dive into that, but of course there's a learning curve with that, but it's been very freeing.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And it's powerful. I'm not the only person who comes on here and breaks down and cries. You have something in this room.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I'm really excited about almost everything that Trump is doing and his cabinet is doing. I love the people involved. I love RFK Jr. I'm a massive fan of Tulsi. I know her, as you know her, in our personal lives. I just think that she is one of the most magnificent people. He's surrounded himself with excellent individuals. Feels very different than 2016.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I don't know how. It shocks me.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It's very, it's genuinely thinking back and now looking at kids that I meet that were, you know, this age and looking at young people and knowing that at 12, 13 years old, I was tangibly thinking I'm going to break a cycle. That's weird. So, I mean, it's powerful, but it's like, I was thinking that already.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
No. It shouldn't be weird. That should be, I wish that for any young person that's, you know, I didn't have the worst childhood in the world. I had something that was very abnormal and it was very hard. But I know that there are a lot of kids that have gone through far worse things and very different things. And we've all had our own different walks of life.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I think that there are some of us that see, again, that see that as fuel and that are given the gift of being able to be like chronically self-aware or just aware of your situations to have that like, bold moment, but I was articulating that in my mind and to other people. I remember talking to my, like, Sunday school teacher at a young age and being like, I will not replicate what I've seen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Because there was so much unhappiness and so much... My parents were both brilliant individuals, and that marriage held them back in... a magnitude of ways. And there was so much unhappiness already. And then adding in my brother's death, adding in, you know, schizophrenic diagnosis, adding in my father's major depressive disorder, adding in suicide attempts into our family.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was like, I'm not, I'm going to do everything I can because I knew there's more to life than that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Those years, shit went down, basically. Yeah, my dad. There was a lot leading up to that of threats of it. And my mom had dealt with that. That was something she didn't share. I think she was right too. I don't think it's my right to even share that here and talk about his family. That was very personal. And they worked, she fought those battles in private. It was a heavy weight to carry.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So in terms of the administration, I feel really, really... strongly in a positive way, but in terms of, like, this weird industry of, like, right-wing commentators and whatever, like, you go on X, I'm like, can you, like, can everybody just, like, chill?
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And then, yeah, around, I don't know, I was 12, 13. It was, there wasn't any hiding it. It was in front of us and not, you know, physically, but it was, we were involved. I was driving around Chattanooga with my brother Reed at 3 a.m. looking for him, standing on the Chattanooga walking bridge, wondering if he had jumped because we had no idea where he went. We knew he was somewhere.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So there's incredible unhappiness.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Mm-hmm. That was the only time that I think a step was taken and that I was, that my brother and I were involved. It brought into the kind of the circle of it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
He gave us postcards as he walked out the door.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
He couldn't really understand it, and then he put the pieces together, and they were very ominous. And I, uh, you know how I was telling you at dinner last night that I had a Nancy Drew fixation and I would go, I busted my brother's high school party and that kind of thing. And I, anyway, we were given these, um, I guess I went back into Nancy Drew mode.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
We're given these postcards and, um, I was like, something's not right. My mom was super confused. Reed and I were watching some movie on the couch. He walked out of his office, gave us a postcard, gave my mom a postcard, and left. Didn't say a word. Again, I was just like, something's not right.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So I think when you get out of, like, there's a lot of X that does feel like the real world, but I'm also like, moms in Minnesota aren't, like, caring about this stuff. Like, random people just, like, trying to get through life and hoping that gas prices are going to go down, like, they're not seeing our infighting, so...
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I started looking around the house, and I found a manila envelope with a suicide note on his bedside table. Whatever all of his information, will, testament. And I brought that into my mom and we called the police.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I'm so grateful he didn't do it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I ignored him. I was so angry. I don't think he wanted to see us anyway. He went straight to my mom. And then looking back, I don't know. I ignored him because I was so hurt. I just went into my room. I don't even know how to handle that at 12, 13 years old. I don't know if what I did was right, but I really shut him out after the fact.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And we already had, even at that young age, we were like, because I'm so much like my mom. And I've often wondered if he saw that and kind of resented it because they had so many problems and he wanted me to be something that she wasn't and that I wasn't. There was already a lot of anger there and a lot of hurt. I'd been let down a lot. He wasn't super involved.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And that was when I started asking questions. I think I was probably 13. I need to get my dates right. Because that kind of led into that whole period of all the curtains were pulled back. And that's when I learned about his family and everything he had gone through. And suddenly it all made sense.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And even with understanding that and going through the process of learning it over those years after the fact, it was like, it was just really hurtful. But I often wonder, again, what's the best way to, as a kid, what do you do? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So I think it's a double-edged sword of I feel a lot of hope in terms of where politics are going, and I hope that the right can get their act together and stop pointing fingers and
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I think people in this world are, I think just normal voters are, I think it's just been, it's probably one of the reasons why he won was people are just like, I can't do this anymore. Like, I don't care what you're going to say about me. Like, I just want my life to be better.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So I think that that part, again with normal people, I think that there has been some unity.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Oh, I'm so excited about this.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
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Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I can't wait. I'm so bummed because I wanted to bring you a gift because I know that you give people your gummy bears, so I gave you your gift last night. So for anybody watching, I gave Sean some of our chicken eggs and one of our duck eggs.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Then my mom was like, I don't want to take you to LA. This sounds awful. I begged, I begged, I begged, begged. And so we would try it here and there. We would do like three months at the beginning of the year, which is called pilot season when all the shows are getting greenlit.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And then we'd go home for the summer and then I'd come back in what's called episodic season when all the shows then are working, they're running and you have guest stars and recurring roles and that kind of thing, and would audition for those. And, you know, it's funny, all the hate comments that I get from people, they'll usually go back to acting.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
They're like, oh, you're a failed, like, D-list actor. It's like, yeah, I didn't become, you know, Zendaya or whatever. But I worked consistently. Like, I was able to cover an apartment. I put money away to be able to buy a car at 16 and helping myself through college. And, you know, paid for my acting classes. Like my parents didn't just give me my
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
money to just like go spend at a young age was put into an account. There's, you know, Coogan accounts where the state takes 15% that I received when I became 18. And we put all of that back into acting. So acting classes, improv classes, dance classes. She never wanted me to feel like it was a job or like I was benefiting it, you know, from it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Cause like what 10 year old should be making tens of thousands of dollars for kind of TV shows. That's a mind fuck.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And that was for a myriad of reasons. It was... Family was the root of it because my parents' divorce was incredibly hostile and went on for a long time. And it got to the point that I was being used as a pawn. I was 15 years old and there was like... If you give me custody, I'll give you your money back or whatever it is.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And, you know, my dad was like, you need to come back to Tennessee and live with me. And it was just like I became used in that way and didn't like the feeling. And I don't think my mom liked it. That wasn't how she wanted to end that marriage. And again, I think my dad felt really out of control. And I just wanted to remove myself from the equation. I was like, you don't get to use me in this.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Oh, that one's special. Well, we did have like a special omelet for that or something.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So that was a big part of it, because I was working. I was working as an actor. I was about to graduate, about to graduate high school. I had a full-time job at Trader Joe's, because I always worked outside of acting to make sure I had fun money, because I didn't use any of my acting money. That was all just in other accounts.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So if I wanted to go hang out with a friend or buy a dress or whatever, I had to babysit and go work at Trader Joe's, whatever it was. I could cover living in an apartment with a roommate.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I had a good friend of the family from Atlanta at a summer camp that I had gone to, and she was a couple years older, and she was moving out to L.A. right around the time that I had emancipated myself. So she moved into the apartment that my mom and I had shared. So I emancipated myself. Another big part was my brother's psychosis was really hard. He was... He'd gotten pretty violent.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And... My mom was kind of torn in a million different directions of... the divorce was happening in Tennessee. I was in LA, my brother was in LA, because he had been bounced around and struggled and went to India for three years to find himself and, again, did every drug in the book and came back just completely different and really did not get along with my dad. They had a huge falling out.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
He came out to LA and just continued to struggle, so he was homeless at the time. I had some concerns with like, that sounds bad saying it out loud, but like CPS. Oh, I didn't want, like it was not a good environment. And I was in therapy at the time and they were just like, this isn't normal.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like the person that lives in the bedroom next to you having, you know, hearing voices and having a psychotic break and knives pulled and chasing through streets and, you know, he... When somebody is going through psychosis, they are not the person that you know. And they don't see you as your sister or as their sister or their mother. They treat you differently.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I desperately want to have cookie company.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And they would think of you as a girlfriend, an enemy, or whatever, whatever was happening. Can't control it. And I just felt like I had all of this autonomy. I had so much control in one part of my life. I was like, I have a career, I guess, because I've been acting and I make money, but I'm about to go to college. I was about to turn, it was the summer before I turned 16.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I had graduated high school, had this like, worked the, you know, 6 a.m. shift at Trader Joe's every day, worked six to two. And I'm basically like this adult, and yet, you know, I couldn't go work on set without my mom. When you're under 18, for good reason, your parents have to be within eyesight and earshot.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And at the time I was working on that TV show, Heathers, and they had planned a second season that was going to be shooting internationally. And that was in the middle of all of this.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I was like, how am I going to get, how am I going to be able to work and do this when there's a war happening in Tennessee that my mom has to handle when there is a different kind of battle here with her other child that she has to manage? And I was just bounced in between it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I love food. I mean, it's like the, yeah.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I think that there's part of me that hears me saying that and is like, that's so selfish to be like, I'm just going to remove myself from it. But I had the means to do that. And I think it made it easier on everyone, too, if there was a weight lifted off of my mom because there was just so much legality of, again, if anything ever happened with my brother and I.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And if I got wrapped into this custody thing, when I was like on the cusp of adulthood and was making strides, again, I was about to start college. And so it was not contested. I didn't go to court and bring my family in and be like, I hate all of you, I'm leaving. It was just like, I even had a conversation with my dad.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It was a hard conversation, but I had a conversation with both of them and they were both very in support of it. And I was like, I can't be in the middle of this battle. I've done it for too long. And I'm not leaving you. I'm not saying I don't want to be around you. I'm not saying I don't want to be in this family, but clearly you have crap that you need to work through.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I don't want to even say it's crap. It was heavy, heavy things in their lives. And I just need to be let go. And it was a very, you know, It's not something I suggest. I wouldn't go around and say, if you're having a hard time, just go emancipate yourself. It was a very unique situation. It's a very heavy thing.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
My oldest brother, that's when we got really close, had to be brought into it as an advocate. And if everything failed and fell apart and I couldn't make money anymore, I was going to go live with him. Or he was like, I'll come out to California and I'll take care of you. But I just was literally like two coasts, these battles.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And both of my parents, I think, acknowledged when they were confronted with it. That it was like, we are putting you in the center of things that you, you know, your future at this age when so much is about to open up for you shouldn't be dictated by what's going on here. And it really, in a lot of ways, it didn't change how we navigated our family.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like I was still super close to my mom when their divorce was finalized. She moved back to California. She bought a home. moved back in. My brother would come in and out, depending on when he was in a hospital, when he was homeless. I saw my brother constantly. He was homeless in Pasadena for years, and I would go out and find him.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was telling you last night, he loves fine cheeses, and so I would go and take him to Whole Foods, and with his shopping cart of things, and would buy him the things that he wanted. I would go literally find him in the park, wherever he was. It was a nuanced thing. I didn't say, screw you. I don't want to be in this family anymore. I'm never going to speak to you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Thank you. I'm happy to be here.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah, well, we moved around a lot, but I call Chattanooga, I split my hometown, depending on how I'm feeling about it, between LA and Chattanooga. But I was born on an island in Washington State called Orcas Island off the coast of, it's in the San Juans, so out past Bellingham. And my family just randomly moved there. My brothers had gone to summer camp there for many years.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It was, I need to be legally released from the liabilities of being in this mess, of being taken from you and put into a system at 15 years old because of things that are going on that I don't want to say I could have handled, but that I felt, I mean, I had been going through it for a while and I could have, you know, I was able to remove myself from the situation in many ways.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But through CPS and stuff with my brother and, you know, I don't want the liability of your divorce and this being messy and a judge dictating where I go and what I do when this is your war and I'm paying for my own life. Man. And I'm graduating high school at 15 years old and you're about to tell me
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
that everything, that Natalie, you know, my life could be because of my brother or because of a divorce. So it just, it protected, you know, it removed the protections of being a minor that for me ended up, I think we're more of a danger in that. Not a danger, but that we're, it was gonna make things very difficult. So it was a, I think it was a very important thing.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But again, I don't recommend it. It's very severe.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. I mean, for that summer when I emancipated myself, he was homeless. He was refusing to take meds. My mom had kicked him out before that. And I emancipated myself and she went home to deal with the divorce and to divide their assets and help my dad sell the house because he had to move out. Her going back there, I think, helped make it less contentious.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It was really hard when they were apart. So she had to go handle that and kind of close that chapter. And so it was just me and Reed. And some days it was funny and go sit with him and his dudes in their shopping cart. There's a... It's the main street in Pasadena, California. There's a place called Earth Cafe for anybody who lives in LA. And then across the street, there's a church.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And then there's like a shopping strip mall. There's an alley. And that's where he slept with a couple of other guys all with their shopping carts. And so yeah, I would go bring him like a little gift bag. Like here's some water. Like I'm not, I haven't given up on you. And sometimes it was,
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
funny and just like I was with him and some days he would be you know passed out in front of the target me not knowing whether it was an overdose whether it was heat stroke because it was you know August in Southern California uh getting calls from people in his homeless community that had little flip phones saying and I one of my my community college was in Pasadena so I just so happened to
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
That was not really intentional, but I went to Pasadena City College for a lot of my community college classes, that and Santa Monica College. But I would get calls when I was leaving school from his best homeless friend, Jason, being like, Reed really needs you. And I would have to go find him. And there was one time when he was high on something. I'm pretty sure it was meth.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I think that's one of those places where you're either seeking something or you're hiding from something basically. And I think my family was, my parents' marriage was never really strong. My dad was very unhappy and they just needed to like escape. So they went to like the tiniest island possible. It was like idyllic. in hopes that that would fix things.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
and was sitting on top of the rubble of a recently demolished house saying that he was Jesus when nobody could get him down. And so when you talk about grief, again, in like talking to people and saying, you know, what advice do you have? Grief isn't just about death. I grieved my brother, David. I grieved the life that I didn't have with him I grieved his actual existence.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I grieved my brother Reed because he's nowhere near the person that I grew up with. I don't know if he ever will be. Like I was sitting with him last week at visitation hours at his psych hospital. I see it in his eyes and he has this like, he has a twinkle that he's always had. And he's very He's very smirky. He's always been very mischievous. Everybody loves him.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like even just like sitting in the little like cafeteria and watching nurses and people walk by and they're all like, oh, you're Reed's sister. Like we love Reed. But he's, there's a lot of him that's gone. He doesn't speak anymore. Sometime in the last three years, he stopped speaking.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So when he's out of the hospital and he has his phone, we will communicate through text or he'll write something in his notes app and show me. In the hospital, he doesn't have his phone, especially in an involuntary hold. So he has a little notepad. And so we sat for an hour talking and writing things back and forth. But I've had to, I think, let go of the hope that he'll be who I knew as a kid.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I don't think that's fully gone. There's always part of me that's like, what if? If he did psychedelics, if he woke up one day and said, I'm going to make, I'm going to change my diet and change my lifestyle. And this is the thing that's so infuriating is our medical system basically sets people like my brother up to fail. And it's this endless cycle where
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Without his meds, he's a danger to society. But with the meds, they're debilitating. And he's so unhappy. And they pump him, you know, through. It's so dehumanizing. He's like pinned down and injected. And they cause, you know, paralysis and tremors and, you know, whatever it may be. Some of them are really scary, had cardiac effects with, you know, our history was so scary.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And so that's how we kind of ended up there. So they were there for 10 years. My brothers are 12 and 14 years older than me. So I was born at the tail end of that stint. And I think then they kind of outgrew it. And my brothers were, the education system wasn't great on the island. And my mom had tried to homeschool them because she had homeschooled.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And nobody ever talks about diet or lifestyle or other options. He was in an involuntary hold in Idaho for almost three years. I didn't see him for three years. He stopped speaking somewhere in there, which I don't blame him. These places, they're not like pretty rehab places. There aren't places like that. There isn't a place where he can go like live safely in like a nice assisted living rehab.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
If there is, somebody should let me know. They're like really shitty halfway houses or psych facilities where you can't leave, where you have no rights. That's why I don't blame him for shutting down. But You're put on these meds because you can't function without them. And you're given the crappiest food. And I was so angry just like last month that I'm his guardian, by the way.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
That was another thing we dealt with last year of we had to fight for so many years, my mom did, to get information about him. I mean, he would be arrested, taken to hospitals. We have no idea where he is. He would be switched from doctor to doctor to doctor, literally like trying to chase him down to get information. Not in like a, we need you back, but of like, how can we help you?
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
We don't even know where you are. Um, and so we finally were approved guardianship and Reed knows, and I think he was, um, happy that it was me. Um, but he trusts me a lot, which I'm really grateful for. But, um, though he was released from this involuntary hold and he was put into, he had a halfway house and seemed to be doing better. But I was talking with my mom, and it was in Idaho.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It was in Boise. He only got to Tennessee recently. It was a whole other situation. He kind of accidentally got here. I had to think maybe it was a God thing, because my mom and I had been talking. I was like, it'd be really great if he could get close to you. He just went missing one day and showed up in Tennessee. So it worked out. But the point being, he was there for three years.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
He stopped speaking. and there were no changes to his diet. He was fed the worst food, his hospital food. I was in visiting hours last week and we were given like crappy cartons of milk and like Teddy Grahams.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And all these studies are coming out about, you know, the effects of carbs and sugar on the brain of the, and this has been happening for years of, you know, keto diets being instrumental in keeping schizophrenia at bay. And we have people that have,
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
She ended up homeschooling me, but I think every kid is different and homeschooling just wasn't really working.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
literally removed the voices from their brains have been able to now they live totally normal lives, are in relationships, are getting married by living a very, very strict lifestyle and diet. And no doctor has encouraged that. And it's such a missed opportunity. It's like he was there for three years and he came out worse.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And now we're back to square one and it's this awful cycle of again, of course he's getting worse. Like you go into these places, I've been visiting him for years at various different hospitals. It's awful. It's prison. It's maximum security. Of like, in order to go back and visit him, I go through like mazes of hallways and doors and keys and whatever.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I have to, I can't even bring him like socks. Like you're not allowed to bring anything in because they could harm themselves. Like he's, it's, Like, again, I look at him, I'm like, no wonder you stopped speaking. But what other option is there? And we've brought him home. He's lived with me. He's lived with my mom. He's lived on the farm. He's tried everything.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
They're very different people. Incredibly different people. They were friends in, my mom had a previous marriage. So my brothers and I have different dads and he died of brain cancer when they were very, very young. So I think.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And it's just a constant cycle of meds, off meds, jail, hospital, out, meds, off meds. And I don't know if that'll I have no idea if that'll change. But you kind of have to find peace with the fact that maybe that's just, again, going back to, like, this is the reality. And I'm... It's not what I hope for him. It's not what I hope for our family. But I've, you know, found peace in that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I want him to know that I'm never not going to be there. Like, even if it's three years... If you end up in Tennessee in your first week in an involuntary hold, I'll be there. And I think he feels a lot of shame. Because we went through hell together. And I've seen a lot of things that I think he never wanted me to see. He's done things to me that I think he's incredibly embarrassed of.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
and we don't really talk about it, but I've tried to let him know as many times as possible without getting into it, that it's like, I know it's not you. I'm still gonna show up. And it's even harder for my mom, but with, you know, I don't want to put words in her mouth, but I think that it would be very easy for her to let go, easier.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And just to say you, you know, you're not trying to make any changes in your life. You are taking advantage of us. You don't want to use the time when you were on meds and you're doing better to try to change something in your lifestyle to do anything. You would refuse therapy. Like you would only go to therapy if I went with him. So we did that for a while together, but I had to go with him. Um,
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I think that, you know, my oldest brother has always advocated more of like, let him go. If he wants to do a shit ton of drugs, if he wants to go be crazy and not accept help, let him go be crazy. You can't control that. And I think my mom is like, I'm not a parent and I don't know what that feels like, but she already lost one. So she's tried to let go.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
She's done it a ton of times of like, get out of the house. Like, if you're going to act this way, go be homeless because you can't do this under my roof, which she should have done. And I give her so much credit for her. Ten years later, she shows up. He's in a halfway house and he needs a new set of clothes and a new, you know, bedroom because he has a little room in his halfway house.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like three and five maybe.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I don't know. I think there's a It's not a beauty, but there's kind of an advantage to this going on for my whole life, basically. To where I don't see this as some catastrophe every time something happens. Which seems like a really fucked up thing to say. But it's like, at this point, it's like, okay, that's life. I'll handle it. I don't have to say it's normal. Because it's not.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Yeah. It was really, it was, so we have my oldest brother, Chase, and then two twins. So my mom had tiny children and a terminally ill husband flying back and forth between Mayo Clinic. It was awful. Damn. Um, and I think his brain cancer made their marriage very hard as well. Cause everything obviously just flips. Um, And so he passed away, and my mom is chronically efficient, I would say.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
My family's not normal. My relationship with my brother is far from what I would hope or want. But I think I learned really, really early on that life is messy. And I think it's hard learning that as a kid, but I also, I wouldn't be me without it. I think I went through hit after hit after hit, and they were all very different.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And then just saying, okay, I'm gonna pick up the pieces, I'm gonna keep going. What can I learn from each of these things?
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Feels really good. I think I did earlier on in being with Alex, there was so much I had to share. In the back of my mind, I was always kind of like, it's going to scare you off. But it didn't. I shared a lot of it in therapy. Again, that therapist in LA, I credit her so much. I wasn't able to verbalize any of it. So much of it hadn't happened at that point, but I was not able to even
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
break down what I felt because it felt just so commonplace for me. So it's been in different periods. I don't make a habit of carrying around open wounds and baggage. I don't think that that's the healthiest thing, but I think it, you can't go through life suppressing. And I think that both Reed and my dad suppressed a ton.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And so I think that while I might not offload in this capacity, especially not in a public capacity frequently, this is probably the only time I've ever done it publicly, I'm not afraid of it in the slightest because I would rather it be out there. I would rather be vocalizing it and processing it. And even if I'm not speaking to someone about it, I'm never not thinking about this stuff.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It's all very like, you know, in my face, especially with my brother. It was never something that I was able to hide from it. Like in the moment I was able to process it. And I think about it constantly. I think about what life will be like in five years. I think about when my parents pass away and if Reid is still here, what is that going to look like?
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I think about our family and how if, you know, if things haven't changed, how will I care for you? What do you need? I think about my dad and I think about repairing that and moving forward from that. I think about trying to, you know, protect my mom and make her life easier because she spent so much of her life fighting and rebuilding and things being crushed.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And so these are all things that I consider and by default then I process everything. Because I've seen what happens when you run from the things that have hurt you or the things that you can't control in your life. I think my brother, I think a lot of his situation, I never want to call it like a problem or, but you know, when David died, he was 17 years old. He went to an all boys school.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It's not really in the environment that you are vulnerable and you process grief, especially when it's so public. He refused therapy. He'll tell my mom, I cried once, I don't care anymore. I'm over it. And then you get, you know, 10 years down the line and we're sitting together and he is, has now struggled with drugs and addiction and alcohol and is hearing voices.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And he finally says, like, I think about him every single day. They were talking last night, but he kind of looks like Jesus in a lot of ways. He keeps his hair super long and stringy. He's super skinny. He's really tall. He's like 6'4". He has a huge beard. And I would always be like, please read, please shave it. It's so ugly. It's like scraggly. You'd call it his flavor saver.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And she was like, well, my sons need a father, and I don't want to be alone. And she had known my dad in college, and they were good friends. And he's a wonderful guy. He's very sweet. But they're very different people.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was like, oh, it's so disgusting. And there was one point where we were having this conversation. My sweater's getting all over my hands. Um, And he was like, I look in the mirror and I see him. He walks through life with this person that he is permanently intertwined with and who is not here anymore, who he sees every single time he looks in the mirror.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And so I think that, you know, again, I've watched what happens when you don't process things. When you don't put in the work initially to go through the motions and feel, you know, the depths of what pain you need to feel and how you're going to learn from it and repair and rebuild.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I've seen my dad run from his family and his past and replicate mistakes that his father made and refuse to speak about it. And I think that there's a lot, like my mom did that a lot too. Because she had to. Because she had other kids and she had a husband that was struggling, that was suicidal. And so she just kept going. And I watched all of that. I was like, I'm not going to be that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like a champ. His – his mother-in-law, or my mother-in-law, who I adore, I think she was more concerned than he was. She was like, oh, this girl's kind of like – she's got a lot of stuff. Love you, Des. I know you're going to listen to this. She's going to be, like, crying the entire – she cries more than I do. She's saying something. But, no, he's – it's – It's truly, like, remarkable.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
He is completely unfazed and unflappable, and not that he doesn't care. He feels very, very deeply.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And they dated for a short amount of time and it was always long distance because he was in North Carolina and she was in California, which is where she and her first husband and the boys lived. And so they didn't spend a ton of time together. I think it was very like rose-colored glasses. And it just wasn't from the get-go. I don't think it was right. They're very different people.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I think rather than looking at me and seeing something that was, you know, ooh, you're, you know, damaged goods, you have all these problems, it was like, I won't put words in his mouth, but in the way that I feel, it's like he stepped in and was like, I can create a bubble around you that's safe. And I've never had somebody who is as stable, who, like, can take hits and redirect.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I mean, I can, but I think I'm, you know, been through a ton. I'm, you know, emotional.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I think it's the purest form. My mom was very stable. I mean, a constant. But she's your mom. She's going to be there. I found stability in external factors like school. I threw myself into academics. I had my high school transcript put on my wall because I was so proud of it because I could control that. And that was stable. But I say that it's pure because he doesn't have to be here.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
He didn't have to choose me. And he did. And he's unwavering. And I have some incredible friends who have seen me through a lot of these seasons, who have been very stable, who have been very gracious and have, you know, I've introduced them to things that are definitely out of their element through my family and have stuck with me.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
But it's very different when you fall in love and marry somebody.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Oh, it's incredible. I've never felt safer. I've never felt more feminine. I'm a very capable person. I've navigated a lot, built a career independently as a kid. I... I've lived alone. I've traveled. Like, I've done a lot. And I met him, and I was like, I don't have to carry everything. I don't have to put all the pieces together by myself.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
He walked in for his second interview, and I think his first one was over the phone, and I was the first person that he saw at Daily Wire, and apparently I was scowling at him. And he walked in, and he was like, oof, I don't know who that, I didn't have a show yet, I didn't have anything.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And he was like, that girl is like, we're gonna be enemies, in his very Alex voice, which you now know of, like, very sarcastic and funny. And in my mind, I was like, who is this person? It's just like something clicked. I was like, that's somebody. And then at the time I didn't have it on, I was like in a cubicle and then they put his cubicle directly in the row behind me.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And this man has the like most explosive boisterous laugh. And there's like a pause when he's like telling a joke and then it just, it like, I mean, you can hear it. If he was downstairs right now, you have all the soundproofing, you could hear echoing through the halls. And it is like the most captivating moment endearing thing that I would just hear him. He would be right behind me.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I think they would have been much happier with different, you know, my mom's very headstrong. very dominant personality, super very, very similar. And I think that she needed somebody who could stand up to her and combat that. It's like when I met Alex,
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I would just find myself turning around like, who is this person? And he kind of reminds me of my brother in a little way. Like he has this like twinkle in his eye and he's really spunky and he's really, really smart. And he's interested in a million different things. And again, I could just like, no matter where he was in this huge office, I could hear, I was like, that's Alex.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And he's laughing. So then I was trying to look him up because I'm a girl. I was like, I'm stuck. This guy, who is this? And I wasn't told like, don't shit where you eat. Don't like whatever. But something about it, I was like, who is this? And I could only find him on LinkedIn. And I didn't have like a, I think I'd like forgot my password. I couldn't log in.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So I could only see like part of his profile. I like scrolled all the way down and I saw Chattanooga, Tennessee and my brother's high school. And he went to high school with him. And it was like, and then I would see him going and getting water. He drinks more water than any person I've ever met in my entire life, which I were very different because I like dehydrate myself on a daily basis.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And so I would go like position myself by the water cooler. And there was one day where he was walking through and he was getting water. So I don't remember what comment I made, but I sparked up a conversation. I was like, I desperately have to like, how do I bring up Chattanooga? And somehow it came up and I was like, oh, you're from Chattanooga.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like I wasn't going to say, I was like stalking on LinkedIn. And then I think I ended up like talking with him in the break room for like two hours that day. I don't even know what I was supposed to be doing. I don't know what he was supposed to be doing. But I was just like, I think that's my person. He felt the same way. And he like.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
It was just like, there's something. And he's always said he felt really similar and wavered back and forth because he was always like, I'm never going to date somebody that I work with. That's crazy. And he had a conversation with his mom and she was like, don't do it. What if you break up with her? What if it's awful? Like she started the show.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And he was like, if I ask her and she says, yes, we're not breaking up. Like, that's it. Like, I think that's, I think she's it. and asked me out in the parking lot. I was like shitting my pants. I was like, oh my God. And then yeah, I went on one date and it was, they like shut down the restaurant. We went to Lachlan Table and Eats Nashville.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
who was my husband, it was like I had finally met somebody who was like a sparring partner of mine, who wouldn't like put me in my place, because that sounds bad, but who was willing to like push back and go, no, you are in the wrong here. And here's how you could be better. And I could do this.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I mean, it was like, they had been closed for like an hour. I had no idea. He's great. Yeah, it was just, I was like instantaneous. And I went home for Christmas that year and I went into my brother's yearbooks that have been in my mom's desk for 15 years. And his picture was right there. And I would sit in her office because I wanted to see my brothers and all of their friends.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I would flip through, like while she was working, I'd flip through the yearbooks. They're called the Facebooks. I would see all the pictures of the boys. I would find my brothers. I had no idea that he was in there.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I knew his little sister. We'd had play dates. And he's a few years older than me. And we always lived like five miles away from each other and had no idea. I was really good friends with his other younger, his younger brother's best friend. And our moms had mutual really good friends and never crossed paths.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Mm-mm. He knew of David, I think. David has a memorial statue at Macaulay and I think David died the year he was an incoming freshman, but it rocked the school, obviously, in a big way. And we had that statue put in. It's this big flame. It's like the eternal flame that's still there at the school. So he knew that, but he didn't know them personally. They were three years older than him.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was in Budapest filming Pendragon for Daily Wire, and we had been out there. He planned on coming with me, and he was training for a triathlon, and he tore his ACL and his MCL. and had to get surgery like the week that I was leaving. And so he couldn't get on a plane. He had all this recovery. He was like locked up and all this stuff.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like I was so used to being able to do that with other people and to have somebody who was not going to be a pushover basically, and would be willing to debate things with me and discuss really like heavy and interesting subjects and wasn't intimidated by me in the slightest. And I don't think that was my dad. He needed somebody a lot softer, I think.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So in his mind, he had just bought a rig and he was like, how the hell am I gonna propose? I can't even like bend my knee. What am I gonna do? I can barely walk. And so unfortunately, but also fortunately, I was in Budapest alone for like eight weeks, I think. And I think that was a really good test in a lot of ways because we were an ocean apart, an entire time zone apart.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And it kind of reminded me, I was like, oh yeah, I can survive alone. Like I'm not with a person, but I want him. And that was a good reminder because I was like, I don't need you at every moment of every day, even though we spend so much time together, but I want you here. I want you in every aspect of my life, which was, I already knew that I wanted to marry him, but that was just kind of a nice,
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I don't know, confirmation. Uh, and then he flew out and he spent like two months in Budapest and then went home for, he had a client that needed to be, he needed to be in person. Um, yeah, he flew out and proposed like the second day that he got there and he proposed at Fisherman's Bastion in Budapest, which is like the right outside of the Buddha castle. Um, I had an inkling, but I had no idea.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I was sweating profusely. He was so nervous. He made me walk from my apartment all the way across Budapest over this huge walking bridge because he thought it would be so romantic to walk at sunset. And we had to hike all the way up to the fashion. And I was like, and then we got up there and I was like, oh, what's happening?
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Because I sat on his Apple Watch, something popped up and the photographer was like, I'm, I'm at the spot. I was like, oh God. So I started having like heart palpitations because I was sweating. I was like hiking up these like stairs. I was like, I don't get any repose too. I'm dripping in sweat. I had to like take off my jacket.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And he was like trying to get me to like go where the sunset was where he had like picked out the spot. I was like, I have to get water. And then there were so many people there. And apparently he had gone the night before and it was empty.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And he had like walked around with all the, he had talked to like the concierge at the nicest hotels Budapest and was like, if you're going to propose, where do you propose Budapest? And while I was on set the day before, he had like scoped out all these locations. And apparently at sunset the night before, nobody was there. Everybody was there that night. Everybody.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And I am like, again, it goes back to the thing of like, I'm on camera 24-7, but not 24-7, but I don't like attention in my like normal life. And so I was like, oh my God, does he not know me well enough to know that I don't want to be proposed to in front of whatever. So I get my water and I'm like stressing. Oh my God, it's happening.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
We come around this corner, we're walking down these stairs and there's a violinist. Oh my God. There's a show. What's going on? I don't not want the romantic gestures. And it wasn't for me. It was just this violinist was just there, like, busking. And there was, like, I don't know if this sounds so bad or racist or whatever, but there were, like, four Asian tour groups that were there that night.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And they all had selfie sticks, and they were all there. And I was, like, so overwhelmed. I looked over at him, and he was, like, also so stressed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
And my mom needed somebody who was probably more dominant. And so I think it was just always very out of whack. Like we talk about, you know, masculine and feminine traits and finding that in a marriage and a relationship. I think they were always off balance. So it was not great from the start, I don't think.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
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Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
We, um... I was living in L.A. I was a child actor. Everybody there was super pro-choice. I think I had been on some set, and everybody was, like, wearing their Bernie pins or whatever, or pro-choice, and I just, like, very innocently asked my mom. I was like, what? Like, could we just, like, talk through this issue? She was super... I think that's why my brothers and I ended up
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
the way that we did. Like, my oldest brother and I are very, very principled in our values and very comfortable, like, speaking about them openly because it was, like, the dinner table and just, like, even being in the car with our mom was, like, debate was accepted.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, en in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P Irü gicin gicin gicin gicin gicin gicin gicin gicin gicin gi
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
The hard conversations were not to be shied away from, whether it was things that were going on in our family or things going on in the world. It was, like, no, let's break these down together. She's a very, like, introspective... She's not academic, but she's incredibly intellectual. And... So that was just a normal thing. So I was like, let's talk about abortion. I just don't understand.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
, , , , , ,, P. P. P. P. P. P.實, ac , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 100 sol a It was nice to have like a place to go and study and activities to go do. And I was like, I might as well, I'm already paid. And they sent out, the house manager mom person sent out a letter talking about the election, telling us all that she hoped we voted correctly. And we voted for women's rights.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
What are these two sides of the coin? I just didn't understand the issue. And so we started talking about that. It was just over the course of a few months. And I think that she had kind of weighed whether to bring that up. But that was what really changed her mind permanently about abortion was when my dad came to her. I was like, I don't want a child. Their marriage was already not great.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
and that we didn't forget that said there was a man in office that was gonna take all of that away from us and that she, you know, being older than us knew all of this and was wiser and that she hoped that we showed up and voted correctly. I was like, I can't fricking deal with this. I mean, it's just like, so then I, that was at the end of 2020, like going into the fall semester.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
So I basically just disconnected from everything, which honestly was like the greatest gift I could have been given. Because I think it wasn't a bad thing, but I'd gotten really engaged in UCLA life over that year and a half. Because I had gone to community college and then I transferred into UCLA as a junior.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Man, had joined the sorority, had gone to the football games, had gone to the parties, had met people, was going to live on campus, all of that. And COVID just pulled me out of it and recalibrated me in a lot of ways. where I had to become very intentional about my values and my principles and the people that I was surrounding myself with.
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
I became super lonely because the world was shut down and my family was one of the only ones that was like, yeah, sure, let's go to Yosemite. My brother's going to fly across the country and come vacation with us. I'm going to go outside and not wear a mask. I was still working at Trader Joe's. So I was with people 24-7. I didn't get sick. I was fine. I was like, what's happening?
Shawn Ryan Show
#186 Brett Cooper - The Real Reason She Left The Daily Wire
Like, the world moves on. I was able to focus on where I wanted my career to go because it was at that point where I was looking at the, you know, the Hollywood industry. And I'd already kind of at that moment thought that maybe acting wasn't for me. I thought I didn't love it. But I hated the The way that the industry operates.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
What's up, guys? And welcome to the Brett Cooper Show. I am so happy that you guys found me over here on this new channel. I am so excited to start this new chapter with you guys. We have been hard at work behind the scenes, literally boots on the ground, me and my 80-year-old neighborhood grandpa putting shiplap up on the ceilings to cover up
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And they're also complete with optional testing to further your understanding. There is also a built-in social community so that you can engage and interact with like-minded students as you're learning, and they are also rolling out new educational features as the platform grows.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
So if you are ready to challenge your intellect and expand your horizons and truly take control of your education, it is time to go to petersonacademy.com slash brett. It is $599 a year or $59 a month to access all 31 eight-hour courses plus the four new courses that they are releasing every single month. Plus you'll get that social community and a seven day money back guarantee.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And the best part is that at that price, you do not have to take out a $60,000 student loan just to further your education. So again, make sure to check out petersonacademy.com slash Brett today. Again, that's petersonacademy.com slash Brett to join Peterson Academy today.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And I know that this is a very hot take in conservative circles right now, but in light of all of this, this is why I am choosing to give Mark Zuckerberg and Meta a chance. I want to see them be better. I want to see them succeed. And I feel like we've literally been watching Mark Zuckerberg transform.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And I realize I just said keep it simple, but this episode... kind of is not simple at all. It actually might get me into trouble, but we do need to talk about how the right runs the risk of literally losing everything that we've worked for if we continue down a path of mimicking the left's toxicity, aka we need to talk about right-wing cancel culture.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
I know a lot of people are saying, oh, again, like Whitney Cummings, he's grifting, he's opportunistic, he's just changing right now. Are you kidding me? Like I have been watching Mark Zuckerberg transform. beef himself up. He started doing martial arts and jujitsu. Like when he started doing jujitsu, I was like, it's over for the libs. And guess what? It kind of was.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Didn't he open a like cattle ranch in Hawaii? He started talking about the importance of eating grass-fed beef. Like somewhere along the line in the last few years, something clicked for him in his life and he began to change. I also personally think that his response to the Trump assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, I thought that that was very, very genuine.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
I didn't think that that was calculated or opportunistic at all. I think that he, like so many other Americans who had turned away from Trump, who didn't really like him, I think that they saw him in a completely different light. I mean, you watched a man
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
who has literally faced lawfare has faced slander and shame has been kicked out of his circles has lost basically his entire community and now he is being physically attacked he's being shot at and you see him stand up and say fight fight fight because he believes in this country he doesn't have to do any of this he could be at mar-a-lago golfing it's what we always say he doesn't have to be president he doesn't need to be running again he could be living a peaceful life but he's choosing to show up against all odds
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Because he believes in this country and he believes that it can be great. And I think, again, like a lot of Americans, that clicked for Mark Zuckerberg. And if you don't know the clip that I'm talking about, just listen to what he said immediately after the assassination attempt.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Like, I think in that moment, he developed a man crush. He was like, this is what a real man is. He's tough. He's strong. This is what I want to be. I genuinely think that it was inspiring and the gear started turning at a much faster rate.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
I really think that that was the push he needed to draw his line in the sand and start to unravel everything that he and Meta had been doing for so many years, had been complicit in, which is why, in my opinion, he sent that now famous letter to Jim Jordan, where he basically admitted to all the censorship and said the White House was encouraging and forcing their hands.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
He said that in 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree. Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions. This is really important.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
We're going to talk about that later. I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it. I also think that we made some choices that with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn't make today.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any administration in either direction, and we are ready to push back if something like this happens again. And a lot of people read this letter and they said, oh.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
He thinks that Trump's going to get in office and that he is going to get reprimanded, that he's going to be thrown in jail. He's trying to cover his track. But that last line spoke volumes. We're ready to push back if something like this happens again. Any administration, either direction. I actually think that he was saying, Kamala, if you get elected, we're not doing this again.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Because I know better now. I have more strength. I have more courage. I've seen somebody literally get shot at in the face and continue to stand up against absurdity and tyranny. And I now have the balls to stand up to you. So I think it works in both directions. And then guys, to top all of this off,
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
He made a video a couple months later, which I'm sure you've seen, announcing a complete overhaul of how Meta and how Facebook monitors content with a focus on free speech, which is, you know, what it should have been the entire time. But now they're going back to their roots, is what he said. Just watch.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
All right, so I've been thinking about this topic since New Year's Eve, and I've known that I want to cover this on my first episode because it just keeps coming up. And it specifically came up on New Year's Eve after the actress and comedian Whitney Cummings did a set on CNN's New Year's Eve show. And if you missed it... Just take a look.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
He's saying this is a global trend that you are all complicit in. We're not doing this again. And now that we have Trump coming into office, it's going to be a lot easier for us to fight back against all of this. And within minutes of this video dropping on social media, it was announced that they were rolling back fact checkers.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
My favorite part of that video was actually when he said that he was moving the content moderation team from an office in San Francisco to Texas was hiring all new people, which was just such a F the libs moment. Like, okay, now we're taking this away from you, San Francisco tech bros. We're taking it to Texas where people are a lot more reasonable. That was just fantastic.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
He literally got rid of the DEI teams at Meta, removed tampons from the men's bathrooms, which was just insane that they were there in the first place. He put Dana White on the Meta board of directors, which is in my opinion, the most important thing that he did, because with that, he said, I'm taking this action. Yes.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
but I'm putting somebody incredibly powerful, incredibly well-connected on this board to not only hold me accountable, but also hold the entire company accountable. And of course, and I know people are already going to be commenting about this, and I'm sure you guys are concerned, but with Mark Zuckerberg's track record, obviously we should be skeptical.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Obviously, we should not jump in heart first trusting this man implicitly, but you also shouldn't dismiss the work that he is doing that will make our lives better, that will hopefully change the course of the media landscape, much like Elon Musk and X has done. We should, in my opinion, hope for the best and hope that he is being genuine and be excited about the changes that he's making.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And this man is also... in an incredibly difficult situation right now, like everyone hates him. If you go online and you watch any videos about Mark Zuckerberg right now, you have libs screaming, losing their minds, saying we're not going to be on Meta anymore. We're getting rid of Instagram, getting rid of Facebook, literally ripping him to shreds.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
One of my favorite things to do over the last month. has been to watch all of my lib friends on Facebook meltdown over this, so they're pissed off at him. Meanwhile, you have conservatives who think that he should be in jail, that nothing he does will ever rectify the situation that he created, that he does not deserve a second chance, that we should also leave Meta, leave Facebook.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Like, he can please nobody at this moment. He is between a rock
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
and a hard place like there is no real winning for him here because everybody's going to hate him regardless and nobody is going to like him or trust him so he is having to do what he believes is a moral right he is having to make the harder decision even though it might not be the easier decision and I will always respect somebody for attempting to do that
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And I know, I know that a lot of people believe that he should face repercussions for what he did over the last 10 years. Other people want him to apologize, which in my opinion, he did in that letter to Jim Jordan. And who knows if he will face repercussions. I don't know what Trump is going to do.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
It seems like they're kind of buddy-buddy considering he was sitting right behind him at the inauguration. And other people are saying, you know, this is one of the most wealthy individuals in America who runs an incredibly powerful company. He should have just pushed back against Biden and the Biden administration.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And while that is obviously, yes, true, to me, the fact that this incredibly wealthy and powerful man was afraid of our U.S. government speaks more to their overreach and their corruption and their power than it does to his character. Because if they were willing to attack him and threaten him, imagine what they would have done to all of us.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
I mean, we saw what they did to people over the last five years. So it's understandable that he was apprehensive about not pushing back even more. And so that is why I genuinely am hoping for the best. I want him to be genuine. I want him to succeed because that will be better for all of us. And in my opinion, believing in somebody's ability to change is instrumental
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Number one, to the health of all of us in our personal lives, but it's also instrumental to the health of the right and our movement. Because if we lose that, we become no better than the left. The left that we have all been cancelled and ridiculed by. The left that we have called out for policing speech and being racist.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
relentlessly tribal in the way that they eat their own and do not allow anybody to have any kind of dissenting opinion or make any kind of misstep whatsoever. The left that says, you can't talk about X and you can't do Y. Is that really who we want to become? I go on social media, I go on X, and that's what I'm seeing. It's just a bunch of infighting.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
It's a bunch of people freaking out because people aren't perfect. Oh my God. Wow. And of course there's a difference between that, that kind of toxicity and those cancellations and simply being cautious and holding people accountable and hoping for the best. But with what I'm seeing online with what people are saying and commenting, those lines are becoming increasingly blurry.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
We just elected Donald Trump to his second term, which is fantastic. I think most people are very, very excited and pumped about it. I think that the world feels a lot better since January 20th, but Donald Trump is a former Democrat.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And a lot of people on the right have serious problems with him, whether that is because of his track record on COVID, the vaccines, the fact that he spent a lot of money more than he should have in his first term, whether it was because he appointed rhinos, whether it was because of Jan 6. But people have gotten over a lot of that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
They've pushed past that and they've said, yes, he might have made mistakes, but he's trying to be better. He is going to get this country back on track. And I'm choosing. to believe in him. I mean, think about Tulsi, think about RFK Jr. These two former Democrats who still to this day do not share a lot of the traditional conservative values, but are doing very important work.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And we've all gotten on board with them and we are trusting them to work with Trump and help lead our country in a good direction. These people have all been welcomed with open arms. There will be growing pains for all of this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
But we also cannot simply become what we just spent the last ten years criticizing, doing daily shows to bring people over to the other side, to show them that they were wrong, to expose the corruption and then be angry and troll them because they weren't right all along. It literally is cognitive dissonance that makes no sense.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
We can't build a platform on free speech and then tell people what they can and can't speak about because of their track record or because what they believed four years ago. Like, that's not morally or philosophically consistent, and it's also just not right. It's not a healthy path for us to go down.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
We are at an incredibly pivotal point in our culture right now, and we cannot get complacent or get messy or get morally inconsistent just because we won a singular election. That means we actually have to lean in more.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
I mean, it's so great. Like this entire set, she is basically shocked they have not cut her off. You can tell that she's uncomfortable. She's like very tentative. She's taking a risk, making all of these jokes that are incredibly honest. They're incredibly genuine and insightful about the state of our world and the state of politics. And people loved it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
We have to be better and make sure that we stay on a right path, because if not, we could literally lose all of this and self implode because of the toxicity, because we got lazy and fell into the same traps that destroyed the left. We have to be self-aware and we have to be better.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Like she went on for like five minutes and everybody was again, literally in shock that she was not cut off. And of course, she immediately went viral on X. Some people had never heard of her before. They were so excited to find, you know, another brave and honest comedian who was willing to push boundaries and make these kinds of very, you know, relevant jokes.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
my 90s popcorn ceilings that I thought you guys would not find aesthetically pleasing on a set. We're literally in a room at my house. We put this all together. Anyway, I am so excited to bring this new show to you and show you guys what we have been working on.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
But what makes the story interesting is that people turned on her as quickly as they fell for her because they realized that five years ago when COVID was raging, she used to be very pro vaccine and that she even had vaccine mandates for some of her live shows during that 2020, 2021 period. You have some tweets here. You can see her talking about the vaccine, saying that, God, we need a vaccine.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Can we make a vaccine now? Go, we need a vaccine. Chop, chop on that vaccine. Like, she was tweeting about this constantly. And immediately, people on X started calling her out. They were calling her a grifter and a fraud, saying that she was an opportunist, that she was taking advantage of this time and culture when things were shifting to the right. to try to make a name for herself.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
They literally lost their damn minds. And again, this happened in a matter of hours. I watched her videos go viral. I was like, man, this girl is so cool. I've seen her on TV. And then suddenly everybody hated her. And it makes no sense to me. Like they were angry that she had not issued a formal apology before getting up and doing a comedy set.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Like they were angry that her track record wasn't perfect. Like guys, nobody in the world has a perfect track record. And more than anything, I think that we should focus on their actions. I mean, that's how I evaluate everything in my life, whether it is a politician or my meat delivery service, which is why I trust good ranchers.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Guys, did you know that 85% of grass-fed meat in our stores is actually not from the U.S. ? the country of origin law was actually repealed in 2015. So now meat can be packaged here in the US, even get a product of the USA label slapped on top, but it's not actually born, raised, or harvested in the States.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
But with good ranchers, when they say that their meat is 100% American made, they actually mean it. You can trust that their meat is actually born, raised, and processed in our country by American ranchers. And you can trust that their products are free from hidden additives.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
No antibiotics ever, no added hormones, no seed oils, just simple ingredients that you can feel good about feeding your family. They actually make everything more simple because they will literally deliver their products directly to your door. With GoodRanchers.com, everything that you need to create a delicious meal is just a click away.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Their wide selection of pre-portioned, high-quality meat means less time preparing and more time actually sitting around the dinner table. And if you go to good ranchers.com slash Brett, you can even check out my exclusive box that I curated with all of our favorite products. These are the household staples that Alex and I eat throughout the week from the brats to the steaks, to the pork chops.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
So my goal with this new show is to foster understanding, to go deeper and extract substance in the stories and issues that matter most to us, the issues that impact us, on a daily personal basis. And I have always said this, but I want to reiterate it that I do not take for granted the fact that you guys take hours out of your busy lives to watch my videos.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
I know that you guys will love them as much as we do. And if all of that was not enough to convince you right now, Good Ranchers is still running their new year, new meat promotion, where if you subscribe to any of their boxes, but preferably the Brett Cooper box, you will get free ground beef, free chicken breasts, or free salmon in every order for an entire year.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Plus, if you use my code BRETT at checkout, you will get an additional $25 off your first order. So visit goodranchers.com today. Make sure to check out that Brett Cooper exclusive box and use code BRETT at checkout for an additional $25 off. It has seriously never been easier to prioritize your family's health, make things more convenient,
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
and support a company that actually follows through on their word. And I understand that people are upset because being angry about COVID and everything that happened during that fever dream of a couple of years, it's understandable. Awful things happened. I mean, the lockdowns, the vaccines, the being separated from our families, kids being kept out of school, it was a travesty.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
But we have moved on from that. And also we need to be real because think about who we just elected. Think about who we spent the last couple of years propping up and encouraging and fighting for. Donald Trump, the man who first ushered in lockdowns, the man who encouraged us all to get the vaccine and is still saying how amazing it is.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
So we can support him and elect him and stand behind him 100% knowing that he isn't perfect, he doesn't have a perfect track record, but a comedian that has changed her mind and is now bravely going on CNN to tell some mildly based jokes. That's not appropriate because she didn't apologize. It makes no sense.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Like so many conservatives that we follow, that we all love were misled or wrong about COVID. My mother, my tinfoil hat, Alex Jones watching mother who's literally building a bunker. I remember getting grounded in 2020 because I went to the beach with my friends in Los Angeles and she was like, you're going to kill me. You are going to kill me. You need to go out into the garage.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
I don't want to see. Like literally was grounded because she thought that this was so serious. And it's okay that people were wrong and that things changed because we genuinely, most people, had no idea what was going on and what was actually true, what was real. So that is one point that I want to make. But most importantly, isn't the goal...
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
to change people's minds and bring them over to the other side and show them the light. Like that is what my goal is. But now people are seemingly upset when that happens because these individuals who have come over weren't right all along.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Like we spent 10 years fighting tooth and nail, proving people wrong, fighting back against cancellations, dispelling allegations about us, about our political party, about things going on in the world, exposing corruption and lies day after day after day, trying to convince people. I thought that that was the goal.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
I actually look at Whitney Cummings as a huge win, like a bold win, a refreshing acknowledgement of how far we've come, how many people have bravely dipped their toe onto the other side who have admitted that they were wrong and that they've now seen the light. That is objectively a very good thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And I commend her, and we should all commend her, for having the bravery to admit when she was wrong and take a step to the other side. And again, a lot of people think that this is a grift. A lot of people think that it's not real, that she hasn't actually changed her mind. I completely disagree.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Like you can literally go back over the last couple of years and you can see where and how her mind started to change. One of my good friends, Chris Williamson, he has a podcast, Modern Wisdom. She has been on his show twice in the last couple of years. And in those episodes, she goes in depth about how being a mother changed her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And I want to make sure that every single second of that time matters. I want to make sure that every single video I put out leaves you feeling more confident or empowered or smarter or more inquisitive about the world. And so because of that, we are going to be doing less frequent episodes. We're not going to be chasing the news cycle as much.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
She became a mother to a son, which made her rethink culture and society, specifically thinking about gender roles and masculinity, completely realizing that she has been lied to. And that was kind of a snowball effect into her changing her mind about everything else. She also did a podcast appearance more recently where she actually hit this political transformation head on. Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
So again, you are seeing her mind change. You are seeing the issues that forced her to rethink everything about her political stance and about her political parties. And I'm seeing all of these comments. I'm seeing people who are posting clips from this podcast and they're saying, Whitney, it's four years too late. It doesn't matter. You're not actually brave. I don't care when it happens.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Like, truly, I don't. That's BS to me. I'm just happy that she's thinking critically about the situation and that she has gotten to a point where she feels brave enough to speak about it. Like, again, that is a net good, in my opinion. And so the point I'm making is that, yes, people can change. That is a good, normal, human thing that happens to all of us.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And when you change, that means that you then come with a past. You come with choices that you've made and things that you believe that you possibly regret that you would not believe or do now. That's fine. Like genuinely, that is okay. That is actually very normal for every single human being. So why are we ripping somebody apart? Because they were four years too late.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Like, again, wasn't the goal to get people to this point. And so in my opinion, the correct and the good thing to do is to welcome people like Whitney Cummings and understand where they're coming from and have empathy for the fact that, yeah, maybe it took them longer than some other people, but they finally got here. And that doesn't mean that you have to trust them implicitly and
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Say, oh my God, here's your MAGA hat. Here you go. I'm going to follow you and you're actually going to be our shining guide of a light for conservatism. No, that is ridiculous. You can tread lightly and be cautious, but you also don't have to be nasty. You also don't have to be a troll online because they aren't perfect.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Because I guarantee people that are commenting these things about her are not perfect either. And more than anything, I think that we should be focusing on people's actions, which brings me to yet another example as I've been thinking about all this cancel culture stuff, which is Bud Light.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And I can't believe that I'm touching this because I know that this is still such a hostile issue on right wing social media. But I think we need to talk about it. We all remember their infamous ad with Dylan Mulvaney. I did so many videos about that. They gave Dylan a beer can with Dylan's face on it. It was a whole thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
We had their female millennial girl boss marketing exec saying that the Bud Light consumer base was fratty and out of touch, which really just meant that Bud Light was out of touch with who their audience was. But Bud Light has spent the last two years trying to make things right. They have literally been repenting for two years.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
I want to make sure that every single episode is intentional. This first season, in my eyes, is all about understanding where we've come from, where we're heading, and trying to fix the obvious disconnect between the generations, between values, and so much more.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Like in my personal opinion, Bud Light has done more to get back on track and actually listen to their consumer base than say the companies that Robbie Starbuck has been going after. The companies that get a ominous message on LinkedIn from Robbie saying, we know what you're doing behind the scenes. We are going to expose you. They get furious.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
freaked out, they put out an apology and a very well-curated PR statement rolling back everything they've been doing over the past couple of years, getting rid of the BLM initiatives, all of that BS. And while those things are obviously still net positives and they're good for society, those are actions that are being done out of fear and convenience.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
where Bud Light is literally putting in the work, whether you like it or not. Like over the past couple of years, the ad agency that was involved in that Dylan Mulvaney beer can, they fired 13 people immediately after. Bud Light put two marketing execs who were involved in that on leave and ended up firing them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
They gave an apology, albeit very squishy, didn't actually hit the issue head on, but they did make an apology. But more importantly, they drastically changed their marketing tactics. Like they actually got back to who Bud Light's consumers are and what Bud Light stands for. Like they made Shane Gillis the face of their company, which was a dream come true for him because he loves Bud Light.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
They tried to make manly advertisements again, like every single one of their ads at this point, I think has men in flannels drinking beer and watching football. They did an exclusive partnership with Dana White and the UFC, which, oh my god, I'm sure you guys remember this, which royally pissed people off.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
I mean, conservatives thought that it was such a betrayal on Dana White's part to help Bud Light rebrand their image after this scandal. But Dana White, interestingly, had a completely different take. He was on a podcast talking about this, and he said, we had multiple bidders on the table. They were one of them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
History has shown me, with relationships that I've had with other beer companies, I don't go crazy over the whole Patriot thing, but I consider myself a proud American. I'm happy to be an American. I love this country. And you are way more aligned with Anheuser-Busch than you are with other beer companies. I guarantee it. And then he went even further on Bustin' with the Boys and he said this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
So I hope you are ready for even more hard truths, deeper dives than we have ever gone before, insightful interviews, and of course, lots of laughter and levity because it would not be a Red Cooper production if we were not having fun through it all. But for this first episode of season one of The Red Cooper Show, I thought that we could just keep it simple and keep it between us.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
I mean, by that point, Dana White was over it. He had been questioned about this so much. He had been criticized, literally ripped to shreds. So many conservatives that had aligned with him and were partnering with him were breaking off ties. It was literally like the seas had parted.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
There was a divide over Bud Light because people couldn't decide whether they deserved to be redeemed or whether they should literally be boycotted and canceled into oblivion forever. And I know that there are people who disagree and they want to see these companies who have made wrong turns, who have made bad decisions.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
They want to see them completely destroyed, canceled, ended bankruptcy, never to be seen again. But I actually completely disagree. Like I want to see companies change and be better and come back stronger and actually listen to their consumers. Like I think about companies like Disney. Disney is an incredibly important company. It has been for generations.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
It has changed thousands and thousands of lives. It has changed the direction of so many different industries. It would be a shame to see it be completely destroyed. But I do think it should be better. I think that they should actually listen to their audience and listen to their consumers who pay their bills. That is what needs to change.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
Like, I don't want to lose integral and historical and important parts of American society simply because I'm bitter and I've been burned. And the way to avoid this is to be self-aware, but it's also to be smarter. And in my opinion, the best way to become smarter is through Peterson Academy. And Peterson Academy is Jordan Peterson's online university that is open for enrollment right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And if you are someone who loves lifelong learning and wants to learn from the brightest professors in the world, if you are someone who has ever benefited from Dr. Peterson's lectures like I have, or his incredible guests that come on his show, then this platform is for you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Let’s Talk About Right-Wing Cancel Culture | Episode 1
And every month, Peterson Academy releases four new eight-hour university-level courses taught by world-renowned professors, and it's produced in a way to keep you engaged. These courses cover an amazing range of subjects, from statistics to philosophy to psychology to mathematics to science to English literature and so much more.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Happy Thursday! It seems like everyone out there is confused about their sexuality, from Tim Walz to Jojo Siwa. Gen Z is now enrolling themselves in adulting classes because the education system is not actually teaching them what they need, and big tech is of course failing to protect our kids.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
She walks up and she was like, I used to live here. And the guy is like a straight up New Yorker. He's like, who the F are you? I don't know who you are. And she's like, I'm Jenny. And he's like, I don't know who you are. Like, get out of my house. Anyway, it's hysterical. She also tried to do that whole like docuseries reality TV show when she was married to Ben Affleck. That fell on its face.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And like I said, I know that I am ragging on Snapchat right now, but this is a problem across social media. This is not something that is just exclusive to Snapchat, because across the board,
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Simply having a child account, whether it is on Facebook or Instagram or on YouTube and you set it as a minor account, that does not protect anyone if the algorithms of those platforms are consistently feeding children sexual and mature content, which is what has been happening on Instagram as well for years. And as recently as last week, a new investigation confirmed that even with their
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
tighter controls that they released over the last couple of years after a huge report came out. I think it was from the New York Times and the Washington Post. I remember doing an episode about it about a year ago. Even after all of that came out, it was a bombshell investigation. They promised to make tighter controls. They promised to fix things.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Even after they did all of that, children are still being served this content. This is from Mashable. Instagram teen accounts still exposed to sexual content investigation fines. The app's tighter controls are apparently not blocking explicit posts. Then what are they doing? Like, genuinely, how hard is it to fix this problem?
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Especially when it is something that is happening across the board to so many young people in so many families. And not to be this huge Debbie Downer and scaring everyone, but unfortunately, Snapchat is not the only thing that is harming our children, because so is the education system. Now, if you guys have been watching me for a while, you probably know how I feel about the education system.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Number one, I would love for the Department of Education to be abolished. I did an entire episode about that and how the world and our country would be a far better place for children if it was abolished. I was homeschooled. I went to public school. I tried private school. My brothers were in boarding school. We have basically tried everything. We know our way around the education system.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And one thing that I think everyone can agree on is that it is not serving children in the best way possible. And people wonder and freak out about Trump trying to defund the education system and disband the Department of Education. And then you see articles like this come out that perfectly explain why our education system might possibly need some serious reform.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Now, this came out this week from the New York Post. Gen Z is signing up for adulting 101 classes because they can't handle even basic life skills. A lot of stuff involves money. Yeah, everything in life involves money. And my generation was apparently not taught how to deal with any of it.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Now, the article reads, Until the 1960s, NYC high schoolers learned to cook, clean, and sew as part of their standard curriculum. In 2025, they'd be lucky if they knew how to do their laundry.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Leitner says that the long-lost home economics class ditched during the women's liberation movement, wow, just another great thing that women's lib brought to our society, that it left behind crucial life lessons for all genders. And that is such an important point because with Women's Lib, when they got rid of home economics, the whole argument was you're trying to force women into the kitchen.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
She also tried to do a tour. She canceled that. But don't worry. She showed up to the AMAs to prove us all wrong. Take a watch. Okay, I'm sorry.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
You are subjecting them to this trad wife life. Women can be so much more than just cooks, but it wasn't just women who took those classes. Everybody. Everybody. Had to learn how to do laundry and write a check and manage a home because guess what? We all live in a home. We all have to be adults. But that was all done away with. And so what that student is saying in this article is not wrong.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Home economics classes have decreased around 38% just in the last decade. And based on the research that I did, this is largely thanks to the No Child Left Behind Act, which shifted focus and funding from a more holistic education to focusing on test scores.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
One article reads, "'Society couldn't get over the stereotype of the home economics teacher,' says Gayla Randall, an education and program consultant for the Kansas State Department of Education, which is why the name was changed to Family and Consumer Sciences. She says that the rise of testing and No Child Left Behind in public schools led to a dark time for home economics.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Anything that wasn't about a test score was scrutinized." And that is just so backwards because yes, you are trying to educate students and teach them about math and science and reading, but you also were supposed to be teaching them how to be an adult to prepare them for their life after they graduated school. But that has been completely eradicated. So who teaches them that?
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Like whose responsibility is it now to teach kids about their taxes, about how to manage a checkbook or buy a house and clean and cook or cook a Good Rancher steak. And believe it or not, that is actually a skill that young people need to learn because so much of my generation wasn't actually taught how to cook.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And Good Ranchers makes learning that skill and preparing your food so easy and affordable because if there's anyone out there who is worried about the tariffs affecting them at the grocery store, do not worry anymore because Good Ranchers is completely tariff and economy proof. That is because Their meat is actually 100% American.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
It is born, raised, processed, packaged, and shipped out to your house right here in the United States. And because of that, you don't have to worry about your meat prices going up. And right now, Good Ranchers is also giving you your pick of free meat for life when you subscribe today.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
That is either free ground beef, which is my favorite, the wild-caught salmon, seed oil-free chicken nuggets, which are amazing, or bacon in every box for the life of your subscription. Now, not only are Good Ranchers cuts of beef, chicken, pork, and seafood delicious, but the service and the value that they deliver to their customers is unmatched. This is a company that is run by great people.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
You know that you are losing relevancy when you are a 55-year-old woman and the only way that you can make a splash on stage is by making out with like five people, many of them including women, and shaking your ass on stage towards the audience and being flipped upside down. You're not pink. You should not be like flying through the sky like she does. This is genuinely just a cry for help.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
I know them personally. I love their family. I love seeing how much you all love them too. So now is the time to change the way that you buy meat and economy-proof your meals with Good Ranchers. Because in a world that is constantly changing basically every single day, you should know that at least one thing is staying stable.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
So visit goodranchers.com slash brett today, unlock your free meat for life, and get $40 off with my code brett at checkout. Don't leave your food up to chance. Again, that is goodranchers.com slash Brett for $40 off and free meat for life.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Now, additionally, my friends over at American Financing are also here to help you save money and learn important financial skills that you might not have learned in school. And we all know that credit card debt is crushing American families around the country. And right now, summertime expenses are making it even worse. From vacation to gas, college tuition, all of it just starts to add up.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And for most people, they're covering it with their credit cards that are charging 20, even 30% interest. But for homeowners out there, you don't have to keep living this way. There is a better option. And it's not wishful thinking. It is a smart, strategic way to get your financing in order with American financing.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
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The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And right now, American Financing customers are saving an average of $800 a month. And if you start today, you might be able to delay your next two mortgage payments, giving you instant breathing room. So don't wait. Go to AmericanFinancing.net slash Brett or call American Financing now at 800-852-2010. Again, that's 800-852-2010 and take control of your financial future today.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Now, back to the story, there is obviously significant blame placed on the schools, and many still believe that the schools have the responsibility to prepare students in that way, but others are obviously looking at parents, because home economics was done away with years ago, and the problem still exists.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
One article arguing this reads that the reason so many people share this mindset is because we have become a society that thinks that kids must learn at school and that that is not the job of parents. And I agree, that has been a huge shift that has happened in our world. This is at the root of so many problems in America.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
We have swallowed the idea that certified teachers are the only ones qualified to teach anything and everything. We've bought into the notion that a college degree equals smart, and that if you don't have one, then you don't get a part in the conversation. That's kind of like what we see with the Democrats 24 seven to tie that into the earlier story.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
We have reduced the role of parents to food, clothing, and shelter and allowed everything else to be outsourced. We have given our role away. And this is obviously a huge topic of conversation, especially if you are on X these days, if you engage any of the same podcasts that I'm listening to where parents are reconsidering what education looks like.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
in 2025, because they finally woken up to all of this. They're going, oh my gosh, I'm sending my kids off to daycare during these prime years when I should be there and when attachment is so important. And I've been told that it's actually totally fine. And now I'm having to kind of unlearn that.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
People are looking at what schools are actually teaching their kids and saying, oh my gosh, they're being shot out into the world with no understanding of common sense things, what they need to know in order to function.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And so I completely agree with this, but I also don't want to just point the finger at parents because they have a life, they have jobs, they're trying to provide for their family, and also so many things have changed since when they were in school. I mean, my mom, who was born in 1960, the education system has drastically changed.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
It's like I couldn't do my tour, nobody bought tickets, so I'm gonna show you all that I've still got it by making out with everyone and shaking my ass. And it's also just so weird and embarrassing that in her performance, half of the songs that she was dancing to were not even her own songs. I don't even know if I can name a JLo song off the top of my head.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
What she was taught as a teenager was not what I received when I did my one year stint in public school. And so parents need to understand that and not expect that school is always going to pick up the slack and teach them everything that their child needs to know. I mean, the tech is different. The social media platforms that they need to monitor for their children are completely different.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
You know, home economics classes are not the norm anymore. You have to step in. And unfortunately, that That is a lot of work, and with the time constraints of, you know, being in school from 8am to 3pm and then having extracurriculars and playing soccer and doing homework, often there isn't time for that.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And that's why so many parents are completely turning the system upside down and saying, we have to just start from scratch. Because obviously, this isn't working, this isn't creating well-rounded, adept flexible, productive young people. Which is why now Gen Z is having to sign themselves up for these classes because nobody else taught them.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Because in 2025, your child's school, unless they are in some awesome, you know, unique program, which is great if you have found that for them, but unless they are in something like that, your child's school is designed to teach them how to take tests and how to get into a good college. You have to do the rest. They might not tell you that, but you do have to.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And I know that there are great teachers out there who fight the system that are doing their hardest. But unfortunately, due to time constraints and the amount of kids that are in these classrooms, that often falls to the wayside. But thankfully, guys, thankfully, I'm excited to tell you about this.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
There has been one teacher in particular that has just been so hands-on, and that would be the president of France's former teacher, his wife, Brigitte Macron. Now, if you guys do not know the story, if you did not watch Candace's entire series or expose over the last year about Brigitte Macron, you need to go do that.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
So the president of France is a man named Emmanuel Macron, and he is married to a woman named Brigitte Macron. And I say woman in that way because that, you know, in 2025 is very much up for debate, but I will let Candace take that story from there. But Brigitte, whoever she is, is 24 years older than Emmanuel Macron.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And this unique couple met and fell in love when Emmanuel was a 15-year-old student at the school where Brigitte was a teacher. And at the time, he was 15 years old, and she was a 39-year-old married mother of three. Now again, that is just the bare-bones overview.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Go watch Candace's entire series because there's not just the theory that Brigitte is a man, but that Brigitte also could be Emmanuel McCrone's father or uncle. But regardless... Somebody needs to call CPS because Brigitte McCrone was literally caught on camera shoving Emmanuel McCrone in the face before they got off a plane.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And we're just going to watch this in slow motion because it is just a hundred times better. Okay. Look at this. Here we go. Slow motion. The door opens. He doesn't know there are cameras. He's standing there. Quapow! Arms reach out.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Now that right there is my favorite part of the entire video because he notices, he looks over, he's just been shoved in the face by his wife and he looks over and it's like a sitcom like, oh, everything's fine, everything's great. It's like this, like you were literally watching it happen in slow motion. He's like, oh my God, everybody just saw me get shoved by my spouse.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And that's probably why she was dancing to everybody else's song. Like she was purely just there to prove that, that she's still got it, basically prove to herself, kind of like the Democrat Party is doing right now, because they are desperate to cling on to the last shreds of relevancy that they have, very similar to J-Lo.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And then he immediately darts off screen onto the plane to go handle that situation, I'm sure. I mean, it is so weird. And guys, for like 48 hours, this was my entire feed on X. Everybody was breaking it down. And Candace obviously was the first one to tweet about it. I feel like she probably woke up in the middle of the night, like with Spidey senses being like, something happened with Brigitte.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Like, is that like clued into this story? But my favorite part of this entire weird situation is the fact that they said that all of this It was just playful. This is just normal things that happen between a husband and a wife. They wrote, there's a video showing me joking and teasing my wife.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And somehow that becomes sort of a geo-planetary catastrophe with people even coming up with theories to explain it. We are horsing around and really just joking with my wife. Okay, I'm sorry. You know, spouses, people who are in love, you do joke around, you have fun. I would not call shoving your spouse basically like shoving your thumbs up his nose and grabbing his neck.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
I wouldn't really consider that playful. Maybe that's not the marriage that I'm in. Maybe in France that's actually really playful. Who knows? Maybe it's the cultural divide. But that is an insane way to rationalize what we just saw.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Especially because later on in the footage when they are finally getting off the plane after they go and they handle that little situation, they're walking off and you can see him try to grab Brigitte's hand like, hey, look, everything's fine. And she ignores him. She's like, no, no, I don't want to touch your hand.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
So obviously things were not as playful as they were trying to tell us all they were. Now, speaking of bisexual couples, allegedly, I saved my favorite story for last. And that would be the update that I know you all have been waiting for with bated breath. Is Jojo Siwa actually dating a man? Has she fully rejected lesbianism. And guys, I think she might have.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
So this story has officially gone full circle. We talked about it about a month ago. JoJo Siwa was on Big Brother. She was peeing in kitty litter boxes in a cat outfit. Do not know, do not ask me to explain that. I mean, she was canoodling up with a man who was not her girlfriend back at home.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
She was having these big conversations saying that maybe she's not actually a lesbian, but that she's really queer. She also feels like maybe she doesn't feel like a woman. Maybe she's actually just non-binary. All of this stuff was happening on camera while she was not able to talk to her girlfriend back at home.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Now I did an update in that first episode that I did about it because after we had filmed the episode, Big Brother ended, she left the set and she broke up with her girlfriend back at home. So everybody was speculating. Oh my gosh, is she gonna get with a guy? Is she gonna get with Chris? Is JoJo, for the first time basically ever, is she gonna be with a man?
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And guys, it appears that that is officially the case. Maybe she's straight, or at least she is just queer and exploring this side of herself right now. But she has now made her relationship with Chris Instagram and kissing in public official. These are the things that she posted on social media. And then this is what onlookers captured while they are vacationing or doing something.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
They were in a pool canoodling. Now she insists that they are not exclusive yet. They are just exploring. They're having a good time together. And that also was not a surprise to me because I feel like I have talked about JoJo Siwa so much in the last couple of years. And I feel like she's always changing some part of herself every couple of months.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And if they want to climb their way out of this hole that they have found themselves in, that they really dug for themselves, they need to figure out how to speak to young people. Because if you look at the polling from the last election, the variability that Trump is receiving right now, the Democrats, they've lost young people. Specifically, and very obviously, young men.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
She really is just on a journey to find herself, which to be completely honest, I understand because she was a child star. She really didn't have a private personal life. And so now she's an adult and she's trying to figure out her place in the world and everybody's telling her she's one thing and she might feel a different way. And she's like, no, I'm a lesbian. Maybe I'm not.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
I'm like a queer icon, whatever is going on. She changes her mind basically every day. So maybe it's a good thing that they're not fully exclusive. but in looking at all these pictures and looking at the videos of her and this guy, Chris, I don't even know who he is. He's some like reality star person. JoJo genuinely looks happier and more natural than she has in years.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Like she looks relaxed and at peace with this person. Probably because she's not playing pretend anymore or trying to be what society was telling her she needed to be, that she was this gay icon and she had to hold it all up. Like, maybe she just needed to find somebody that she connected with.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And all of this, as I was going through the story, it reminded me so much of Demi Lovato's whole gender identity story. I don't know if you guys followed all of that, but back in 2017, Demi Lovato was... going through a time to say the least, and she came out as queer and was battling substance abuse. That was soon after she had her overdose. And then by 2021, things had just gotten worse.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
So before we dive into these other stories, we do have to talk about the American Music Awards that happened at the beginning of this week, also known as the AMAs. Guys, they were basically a disaster. There was a ton of hype surrounding this award show. Everybody was excited to see everyone. There were rumors of maybe a Taylor Swift sighting. None of it happened. Nobody showed up.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
She was trying to be sober, but she was California sober, so she wasn't doing hard drugs, but she was smoking weed. She was also like hunting aliens and ghosts. She was like singing her song Skyscraper to Ghosts. And funnily enough, guys, I don't think I've ever told this story, But I actually did an episode about Demi Lovato, you know, hunting ghosts, whatever, on comment section.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Alex watched that video. That was the first thing that he ever texted me about. And he accidentally sent it to a wrong number. So he sent this like funny text being like, hi, it's Demi Lovato. I'm looking for other queer alien ghost hunters. He sent it to a random person. We have no idea who he sent it to. He finally figured out what my number actually was, was like, oh my God, I'm so embarrassed.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
This is what I sent to this person. Anyway, great opening line. If you need to slide into a girl's text, DMs, whatever you can use, I mean, Lovato. Anyway, that was going on in 2021. But by the end of 2021, Demi had realized that California Sober was not working for her. She became completely sober, and since then, just everything has gotten better.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
In 2023, she finally went back to she her pronoun. She also dropped Scooter Braun as her manager, so it seemed like there was a lot of healing happening in her life, both in personal life and career. That is a good thing. And now, guys, it is 2025, and she just got married. She just got married to a man, and I have never seen her look more beautiful.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And at pieces, there's some photos from her wedding. Like, she looks... so healthy and so natural and so beautiful. And she just keeps talking about how happy she is and how she's never felt better. Like this is wonderful. This is a success story.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And I'm not just saying that because she married a man, like I really don't care, but it's because she genuinely looks healthy because very much like Jojo, she did not have a private childhood. She was chewed up and spit out in Hollywood.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And she was around all of those terrible influences and around so many different types of drugs and her family really wasn't supportive and she had to find her way, but eventually she did. And so I'm so excited to cheer her on. I hope we see that with Jojo Siwa. I hope maybe this is a good fit.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And that is why, my friends, the Democrat Party has now just announced that they are going to be investing $20 million into learning how to speak to working class men. I want you to hear that again, $20 million. It's a strategy for them. They're going to learn how to speak to you. That is insane. Like I will teach you for free. It is literally not that hard.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
If it's not this guy, maybe it's somebody else, but I hope we continue seeing her have that much peace and have that glow around her because obviously something has changed in Jojo, so I am cheering her on. And so, my friends, that is all I have for you today, and I think that there are a few important takeaways here. Number one, please, for God's sake, stop making everything about sex.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Stop giving us sexual things 24-7. Stop feeding sexual things to minors. Stop shaming men and talking down to them. Stop shaming heterosexual relationships and actually focus on policies that will help our country and help our education system. We should embrace tradition because, while, yes, it might not be for everyone...
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Happy relationships and happy marriages seem to be a good foundation for a happy, thriving society because if it can help Demi Lovato and JoJo Siwa, I think it can help us all. Thank you very much. I want chips so bad, but I don't want to eat this seed oil fried GMO chemical poison. Is it really too much to ask for a tortilla chip that isn't essentially made of garbage?
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
God?
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Wait, these taste so good, and they won't kill me?
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
All you have to do to speak to young men, to connect with them is to not talk down to them and not emasculate them. It's really that simple. That is what Trump and JD Vance did so well. They were just themselves. They didn't talk down to anyone, whether you were a man or a woman, you knew what you were getting. They weren't playing all of these games and trying to play.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
a character of a bro and parade out these men to convince men to vote for them, they were just themselves. And they spoke like themselves, like normal human beings to other human beings. And shockingly, that worked. But back to this whole insane story. According to this headline, party leaders are spending millions to learn how to speak to American men and win back the working class.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And specifically, according to the subtitle, they are holing up in luxury hotel rooms on a strategy codenamed SAM, or quote, Speaking with American men, a strategic plan to try and convince a working class to vote their way again, according to a report. I mean, nothing, nothing screams relatability like sitting in a luxury hotel trying to think about how to get people to relate to you.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
I mean, you can't even make this stuff up, guys. It is so, so dumb. Now, the article goes on to say that they are using these funds, these $20 million, to study, quote, the syntax, the language, and the content that gains attention and virality in these spaces. Like, just by saying that, by being so over the top with this and so academic, you've already lost the young men. This is not a science.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
You can't back your way into virality. You just have to be cool. And the way you be cool in the modern era is by being yourself and being authentic and not talking down to anyone and not pandering to anyone, which is what the Democrat Party has been doing for years.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Now, another finding that came out of this brilliant study, these $20 million that they're investing, is that the Democrats, based on this study, now believe that they should spend their campaign money to buy ads in video games, because that is what is really going to reach the men. And to that, I say, you know, that could be interesting. That's an interesting tactic.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
If only your ads didn't look like this. I'm a man.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
That is the best one. This guy. I eat my steak rare. I'm a man. You, sir, you're crossing your freaking legs. You literally, you probably had to take a class to try to look like a straight man. This is an actor. who probably had to talk to his straight friends and say, how do I act like a masculine man? And guess what? They all failed.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Like everybody who was nominated for the big awards, they just weren't even there. In fact, the AMAs did not even televise some of their biggest awards because the people did not even show. But there was one person who did show up and she wanted to make sure that we all knew how relevant she was.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
I completely forgot about this ad until I saw this story and my memory was jogged, but oh my God, like no wonder you lost. And now according to the Daily Mail, I mean, they're getting roasted for doing this online, but according to the Daily Mail, the Democrats, are baffled as to why young men are now leaning Republican, why they're not voting for the Democrats. Like, I'm baffled.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Look in the mirror. I mean, at the very core of this issue is the fact that, number one, I don't think you guys actually like men, so that's not gonna help you connect with them. And also, you just don't understand them. And that's evident in everything from that ad that we just watched to them picking Tim Walz as the VP pick, expecting him to connect with American men.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And yes, that is literally why they picked him. And we heard that from his own mouth.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
It is so formulaic. It's so academic. I can code talk and put them at ease. You shouldn't need to code talk or put them at ease. They should be put at ease just by you being yourself.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
We shouldn't be manipulating voters in this way and pandering to them and being like, I'm going to go play the straight white male character that loves football and everybody's going to vote for the African American Indian woman, the first female president. That's not how it works. I mean, it's laughable that they don't understand that.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And it's just embarrassing that he was willing to get up on stage and proudly say that. Like, I'm sorry, but I can't imagine why that strategy wasn't successful when the most manly thing they were able to get Tim Walz to do was pick up a car air filter and then put it back into place. I don't know if you guys remember this ad, but it was incredibly embarrassing.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Oh my God. And everybody was posting this ad being like, oh my God, this is so authentic. Look at him speaking to men, being able to bring up Project 2025. That was not smooth. He literally... did something with a wrench, he picked up an air filter and then put it back into place. That is not working on your car.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Now, the tweet that I pulled that video from specifically is this guy and he said, this car video is why Tim Walls is so loved. No one else can deliver a message so authentically and get to a demographic that the Democrats have struggled so often to reach so good. What Twilight Zone are you living in?
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
But before we dive into that, make sure that you're following our podcast page and rate the show if you are enjoying it. And as a reminder, I am on tour this spring. If you want to come see me in a city near you, you can go to brettcooper.com to buy tickets. We still have them available in a few cities. We also added new shows in Dallas and in Austin. so I hope to see you guys there.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Like genuinely watching this video, I think the only demographic that this would help reach are the boomers because they would watch this and be like, oh yes, this will reach the young people and the young men. It's not actually authentically reaching them. It's just pleasing to them because they have this idea of who this very contrived, not authentic ad at all is reaching.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
So clearly, what I am trying to say here is that none of this works. So maybe, just maybe, studying the syntax and the superficial interest isn't the worst use of $20 million, because obviously the Democrats need all the help they can get, but I really think it's a lot simpler than what they think. I don't think they need $20 million to understand this, because it's not just men.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
It's the young women, too. This article reads, That is a surprise. I'm sorry. No, it's not. If you take a step back and look at that election from a bird's eye view, when people were struggling with the economy, when they are worried about world war, like, no wonder you lost the female vote.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Because all you were doing when you talked to young women was talking about LGBTQ issues and transgenderism and abortion. And you basically just tried to shame and guilt women into voting for you just based on those issues alone, when there are much bigger things that we are all dealing with. And you made it basically a single issue election and shamed us if we did not feel the same way.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
So yeah, young women were going to turn their backs on you because shocker, not all young women just walk around thinking about killing their babies 24-7. It's a lot more simple than you're making it out to be. So again, maybe these people do need the help because obviously their Ivy League educations did not teach them anything. They probably would have been better off attending Peterson Academy.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Now, if you are someone who loves lifelong learning, wants to learn from the brightest professors in the world, or if you have ever benefited from any of Dr. Peterson's lectures, then this platform is for you. Every month, Peterson Academy releases four new, in-depth, eight-hour university-level courses taught by world-renowned experts, and they are literally produced to keep you fully engaged.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
This is not traditional schooling. It is better. All of their courses cover an amazing range of topics from philosophy and history to algebra and statistics, psychology, business, complete with optional testing to further your understanding of every single subject. Plus, Peterson Academy is continually rolling out new educational features as they grow.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
There is already a built-in social community where you can connect and learn alongside like-minded people from around the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
So no matter where you are on your educational journey, if you are a college student, if you're somebody who wants to go back to school, if you are a homeschooler who wants to push yourself and just challenge your intellect, it is time to go to petersonacademy.com slash Brett to get started.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
It is only $399 per year to access all of their eight-hour courses with four new courses a month, plus the community with a seven-day money-back guarantee. And in my opinion, the best part is that for that price, you don't have to go out and take out some $60,000 student loan to further your education. Again, that is petersonacademy.com slash Brett to join Peterson Academy today.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
But back to the story, guys. That person who wanted to ensure that we knew how relevant she was was none other than J.Lo. And we've talked about J.Lo in the past, I believe, about this woman who was just trying to hold on to any semblance of fame she still has.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Now, I know I just made fun of the Democrat Party for the last 10 minutes or so, but I do think that there is an issue that both sides need to come together and work on, and that is focusing on social media apps targeting minors with pornography. Because we've talked about this before, and yes, it is still happening. And the conversation right now is focused on Snapchat.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Now Snapchat has always been, in my opinion, one of the most problematic apps on the internet. Now I didn't really understand this at the time, but now as an adult with a bird's eye view understanding all of this, I completely sympathize with my mother when she said, this is the one app you will never have. And I, when I got my iPhone, I like tried to hide Snapchat.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
I would like put it behind other apps and like have it on a different page because I really wanted to have Snapchat because everybody else had it. My mom found out, obviously. It was one of the only times that I ever got grounded. And the reason why she didn't want me to have that app was because it was so unsafe.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Because it fed young people specifically this idea of privacy and security, but really offered none of that.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Now, even though these concerns have existed for years, even years prior to me, like, sneaking my way into having a Snapchat account, very little change has been made to protect the young people who are on Snapchat, and horror story after horror story just keeps coming out, and the most recent one hit X just a couple of days ago.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
A woman whose name is Nikki Petrosi, she's the host of the Scroll to Death podcast, released a shocking video last week showing the dangers of Snapchat even when your child has a quote-unquote minor underage account. Take a watch.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And just as an aside, one of my favorite stories about J.Lo is that she was filmed walking around the Bronx, you know, Jenny from the block, and she went to her childhood home, and the guy who lives in her home now was sitting out on the porch, And she walked up and she thought it was going to be this like emotional, you know, this is a fan of her, something like that.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
A brand new account. She has not liked any videos, searched anything. She simply went to the spotlight section. That's where, you know, I've had videos before. We would upload things there. You might have been served my content at one time, like where you're seeing those types of videos. That is the content that she received within five minutes of being on the platform.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
I mean, there is no world in which that is appropriate. And Snapchat is saying that they are taking all the safety precautions, that, you know, your child will have a protected account, they will be underage, we will understand that, we will protect them. And so you as the parent are going, okay, I guess just log in, say you're 14 years old, I'm sure it'll be fine. No, it's not.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Unfortunately, you have to be so vigilant because you can't trust any of these people. Now, even though Snapchat is definitely not as cool as it was when I was growing up, it is not the app to have, it is still insanely popular. I mean, so many people, especially around my age and younger, are still on the platform.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And literally since its creation, like I was saying earlier, Snapchat has had all of these problems and concerns. It has been known to be one of the most predatory social media platforms out there. And the way that all of this has been enabled for years is through the app's biggest selling point, which is the fact that the photos and the messages that you send on Snapchat are quickly deleted.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
You only have 24 hours to read them and reread them. And a person would receive a notification if you saved a photo they sent or took a screenshot of it. So it gave people this false sense of privacy and security. But for parents, it was awful because all of these messages were temporary and private. Parents couldn't monitor any of this. Now, later on,
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
Even that false sense of security was blown up after third party apps came on the market that would allow you to take screenshots and save photos without Snapchat notifying you and Snapchat really didn't do anything to stop that from happening. So again, it was just lawless. And the majority of people who were on there were young people.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And the problems have only grown from there, as we all saw in that video. And although it is not unique to just Snapchat, users on the app report that they get bombarded every single day with friend requests from porn bots, which is ironic considering that Snapchat says that their security guidelines quote unquote strictly prohibit sexual content.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
But again, that now seems to be the main use for the platform. I mean, for years, it has been this hotspot for pedophiles and predators, and the alarming part is that this privacy that Snapchat promotes makes it even harder to find these predators.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And even more alarming on top of that is that an internal Snapchat email estimated that the company receives 10,000 reports of sextortion every month, and that that figure is, quote, likely only a fraction of the total abuse occurring on the platform. This was an internal Snapchat email.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Is Straight (Again) & Brigitte SLAPS President Macron? | Episode 35
And even though Snapchat has tried to fix things and prohibit sexual content, even though they enabled parental controls in 2024, which I feel like they should have done years ago, even though all of that is allegedly in place, inappropriate content is still making its way to our kids' phones, which was clearly shown in Nicki's video.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
What happens when a leader is corrupted by a desire for power and fame? When the mission gets lost and they are willing to compromise everything for a buck, for a vote, for popularity, you name it. They might ride that high momentarily, but history and also current events have shown us that they will always inevitably fail.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Calculated rebrands to try to reverse engineer authenticity and trust with voters. But I mean, come on. The gig is up. Whether it is Newsom on his new podcast, or Gretchen Whitmer's recent flirtation with Trump, Hillary Clinton's innocent grandma act and how she just has hot sauce in her purse, or Kamala being brat all last summer, it is all fake.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
I mean, that literally might be the smartest thing that has ever come out of the view. Because she's absolutely correct. As ridiculous as this woman is, she's correct. Voters can sniff this out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And to be honest, I think that his voter base would have respected him a hell of a lot more if he did have on Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon and then pushed back and fought rather than sitting there going, oh, yeah, I did that. Yeah, let's not be friends. Let me just smile. Let me like slick my hair back a little more. We'll have a great time. No!
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Obviously your net favorability is going to drop 10 points because that is ridiculous. That is a betrayal. It's not just right-wingers that want somebody real. Obviously, the left is craving that too. And Newsom's failed podcast, or it's, you know, failing as of now, is just the most recent example of this calculated pandering because it's been going on for years.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
I mean, just last year, we watched Kamala's team desperately try to re-rant her to appeal to moderate Americans. They were like, oh no, no, she never wanted to fund medical transitions for migrants. No, she was never the border czar. Let's like wipe that off the White House website. She never did that. She never wanted to defund the police. She never put people in jail on marijuana charges.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
That never happened. I know that she was a failed vice president, but actually she is incredibly moderate. They literally spent months doing that. But obviously, the internet lives forever, and thankfully now politicians' words live forever, they are constantly being recorded, and we knew immediately that all of that was BS.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And most importantly, that strategy meant that Kamala Harris was not having integrity with herself. And that only hurt her with her own base because she compromised on all the things that they knew she once supported.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And instead of leaning into that, no matter how ridiculous all of those things are and her terrible track record, which to be honest probably would have just helped her with that voter base, she instead backtracked and then just decided to brand herself as brat for the entire summer, thinking that that would win with Gen Z. I'm sorry.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Viral moments might help you with Gen Z. We might make videos about them and we might talk about them on TikTok. But obviously, like I said, back in July, back in August, that virality does not translate into votes. And it didn't. It didn't work.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Now another great example, and one that is actually a lot more recent, is that post-2024 election, post this catastrophe, Michigan governor and radically left-wing Democrat Gretchen Whitmer tried a similar strategy. This literally only happened a couple of weeks ago, and if you have followed followed her career, you know that her track record is simply insane.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
She issued in some of the worst lockdowns in the country, she calls women people with a period, and after all of that, just a couple of weeks ago, she decided that now was the time to try and cozy on up to Trump, much to the disdain of her voters and her colleagues. Now in a recent address, again just back in February, she lauded her relationship with Trump and the importance of
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
They are trying to emotionally manipulate their voters, but we are not falling for it, and neither are the modern Democrats. And on the show today to talk about how all of this happens from an insider's perspective is ex-RFK running mate and ex-California liberal, Nicole Shanahan.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
bipartisanship, which of course is ironic considering that she spent years calling Trump deranged and calling our towns, our voters, racist. Now unsurprisingly, the right is not too excited about working with her, nobody is ready to extend the olive branch to Gretchen Whitmer, and her peers are similarly disgusted.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
The Michigan Attorney General did not mince words when she slammed Whitmer for not calling Trump out because he is, quote, a wannabe petty dictator who thinks and fashions himself to be a king. That was her response to Whitmer's recent address.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
I mean, guys, there's so many other examples I could go on and on, like Pete Buttigieg and his documentary from a couple of years ago trying to paint him as some really sweet individual. innocent, moderate, centrist, which just pissed off all the socialists because they know that that is not true.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
One article about the documentary reads, The almost comical absence of a program or ideology in a documentary about a man running for president has far more to do with Buttigieg himself than it does with the quality of the filmmaking, and albeit accidentally, Mayor Pete does tell us something very real about the way that centrist liberalism increasingly seeks to cloak
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
It's pro-corporate vision with the politics of personality. That really is what this entire episode is about, the politics of personality. Now, another example is that in 2016, they tried to repaint Hillary Clinton as this docile, sweet grandma. She was in her grandma era while simultaneously having her use pop culture to pander to young black Americans, and again,
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
It never worked, even with her own base. And after running through all of these examples, I asked Nicole, you know, after all of this time, all of these years, going back to 2016, maybe even earlier, why? Why are the Democrats still trying to do this? We know that it doesn't work. And unsurprisingly, she said that it goes back to money. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Now, before we dive into this story, if you want to enjoy ad-free episodes delivered right to your device, and if you want an exclusive newsletter and a weekly advice video from me called Dear Brett, which is inspired by all of your questions, make sure to check out Cooper Confidential. The link is right here and also in the description below.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
So based on Nicole's experience and her insight, it goes back to money, but it also goes back to the quote unquote pyramid scheme of political consultants who are similarly out of touch with normal Americans. This is what she had to say about that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Now, in all of these examples we've talked about, from Pete Buttigieg in the Mayor Pete documentary to Hillary Clinton to, you know, Gavin Newsom on his podcast right now, these attempts do not work because they're not about principles. They're about emotional manipulation. And it is insulting to everyone in every party because we know that it's not real.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
We know that you are trying to play us for our money and our support and our votes. It is why Trump and JD Vance dominated last year because somehow we as normal Americans can relate to both of them in different ways. Like Donald Trump is one of the most powerful businessmen in the entire world. He is more wealthy than any of us could ever imagine.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And yet Americans can genuinely see themselves in him. He doesn't talk. down to us. He doesn't play with us. Like, love him or hate him, he's always going to be completely unapologetically himself, and we love that. And on the polar opposite end of the spectrum, JD Vance built himself up from nothing. He is the embodiment of the American dream. We are inspired by him as Americans.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
We respect his honesty. We feel respected. There is a massive difference between these two men and between the modern Democrats, and that is why they won. So the point is, the point of this entire episode about emotional manipulation, about the politics of personality, is that authenticity will always win.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
I feel like I could sum up every episode I've done of The Rhett Cooper Show over the last couple of months to that point. Authenticity will always win. I mean, think about the people who have made very public transformations in politics in the public eye with grace and authenticity like Nicole. That is why I wanted to talk to her today, who, you know, she left the Democrat party.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Now, a couple of weeks ago, I had my good friend Allie Beth Stuckey on the show, and I think this is the perfect time to bring her back up because Allie Beth literally wrote the book on toxic empathy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
She ran for office as an independent and ended up voting for Trump all in the span of like 18 months. She was tarred and feathered. People were throwing death threats at her. The entire board of her foundation walked when she became an independent. And she faced all of it with honesty and grace and transparency. And people felt that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Toxic empathy meaning the way that people demand compassion and demand empathy and inclusion over truth, often at the expense of the hardest truths that we all need to hear, the reality checks that our society needs to face. And that toxic empathy is the Democrat playbook. They pull on your heartstrings with your messaging.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Now in my mind, and I think in the mind of the American populace, Tulsi and Nicole are both different because their transformations were real. I mean, it really is as simple as that. They were not out of political necessity or for financial gain. Like, Tulsi did not want to be put on the no fly list because it was going to make her money.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
No, she got put on the no fly list because she didn't compromise her values. Voters saw that. We saw the genuine nature, the authenticity in everything they were doing. They took us on their journeys. And we care about them because of that. We trust them because of that. I mean, literally, it is as simple as the fact that they were authentic and the Democrats have not been.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Now, of course, it would not be honest of me to just slam the Democrat Party as a whole, even though I do think that they obviously have some big problems. But on the left, I do have to give some credit to AOC. And listen, I know, I know you're going to be freaking out, but just bear with me. Hear me out. You guys might have seen this circulating on social media this week.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
It was going super viral, but... There was a recent poll about AOC this month that found that she is the leader in the Democrat Party that best represents the party and its values, that best represents the values of American Democrat voters. Here's the headline from The Hill. Macasio-Cortez leads poll of Democrats on which leader best reflects party's core values.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And this went viral because conservatives were making fun of her. Everyone was howling and laughing and saying, oh my God, we're going to run this country forever if she is the leader of this party. But guys, I wouldn't blow her off so quickly. I mean, AOC is different than a lot of these other Democrats.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
She does not play the pandering games like the Newsoms or the Whitmers or the Kamala Harris's and Hillary Clinton's of the world. Like, she has never hidden the fact that she is a radical socialist. She has never tried to hide that. She has never walked it back. She has never wavered in the slightest. It is why I can't stand her, but also why I kind of have to respect her a little bit.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And of course she has all of the strategists and all the consultants because every politician does, but they seem to get her and they get her people and the people who love her. And she's young. She doesn't trade stocks and try to get rich off of corporation like her peers. She even rips into them constantly for doing so. This was a headline from just last month.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
AOC rips into her colleagues for insider trading. It says Republicans are far more honest about it. Like, she's willing to come over to the other side and work with Matt Gaetz to stop insider trading while still saying, I disagree with you on everything, I hate you, but I am principled and I do want to get this through. Like, yeah, that is worth respecting.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And so, yes, we might find her ideas to be insane and terrible and awful for the country, but she is honest with Americans about herself. She is honest with her voters. And that is why so many people love her. And that is why, as ridiculous as she is, she can't be laughed off. She cannot be written off because I think that she and people like her threat.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
They even tell you that you are a racist, that you're a bigot, that you are out here killing people if you don't support them, if you don't vote for them. And they parade around all of these manufactured politicians in front of you to communicate all of these insane messages. It is all driven by emotion.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And so, Democrats, the point is that your rebrands are a bust. They are failing because you are trying to manufacture authenticity and pander to voters who see right through you. It's not just the conservatives who are mocking you and saying this is not working. It is your own people who are calling you out more than us.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
This is why you lost power, this is why you are actively, consistently losing your own party. Conservatives laugh at you, your base is betrayed by you, and it helps none of the people that you were actually elected to represent, which at the end of the day is the most important part of your job.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And that is exactly what is happening right now with the modern Democrat Party. Now, it's not news to anyone that the Democrat Party is a mess after the 2024 election. I mean, they are like a floppy fish out of water. They have no idea what's going on. Nobody's working together. There is no unified message, and we are watching all of that unfold.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
The most important part of your job is not starting podcasts, it's not getting media hits, it's not getting more money from lobbyists, it's representing the people who put you in office. And you seem to forget that. So all in all, if they want any chance at power in the next couple of years, in the next four years, they must make a change.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And if Nicole had to give them one piece of advice, she said it would be this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And to be honest, guys, you know, those of us who are not Democrats, who are not politicians, I still think this is incredibly important for all of us to hear because being a leader is not about power or fame or money. It is about people and about integrity, especially in politics. And when you go against that, when you compromise that, people will know. They will sniff it out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Your employees will walk away. Voters will abandon you. The media will laugh at you constantly. That is what we've been seeing. You will be pushed out. You will be replaced by somebody better, which is literally what we are seeing every single day. in every industry.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And another emotional tactic that they commonly use are these extremely calculated rebrands to make these political figures seem more likable or palatable in the public eye. And this year, after their major embarrassing loss in politics and in culture, they're pulling out all of the stops, starting with Gavin Newsom's new podcast entitled This Is Gavin Newsom.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
So buckle up guys, because unless the strategists and the elite donors catch on, I think we are in for a lot more of these pandering attempts. And keep your eyes on AOC, genuinely, because we might laugh at the absurdity of her and her ideas, but there is an authenticity and a commitment to principles that is worth respecting and acknowledging.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And so just know, if they catch on, winning won't always be easy for us.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And yes, that is what his theme song sounds like. And really, before we dive into how this is all just so awful, we do have to ask why. Like, after everything we have seen over the last five years, after everything that we saw in the LA Fires just a couple of months ago, why? I mean, Gavin Newsom is literally the last person we want to hear from.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Why listen to him when you have hundreds of hours of Peterson Academy content that you could be learning from instead? And if you don't know, Peterson Academy is Jordan Peterson's online university that is open for enrollment right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And so if you are somebody who loves lifelong learning like me, if you are a homeschool family looking to enrich your curriculum, if you just want to learn from the brightest professors in the world, or if you have ever benefited from Dr. Peterson's lectures or his podcast, then this platform is for you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Every month, Peterson Academy releases four new in-depth eight hour university level courses taught by world renowned experts, and they're produced to keep you fully engaged. This is not your average college course. This is something totally different.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
They cover an amazing range of topics from philosophy to statistics, to history, to psychology, science, business complete with optional testing to further your understanding. So if you're somebody who always enjoyed doing tests like me, then they have that for you. Plus guys, They are continuously rolling out new educational features as they continue to grow.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
There is also a built-in social community where you can connect and learn alongside like-minded people from around the world. So if you are ready to take this next step, if you're ready to challenge your intellect and expand your horizons and take control of your education, it is time to go to petersonacademy.com slash brett.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
It is $599 per year or only $59 a month to access all of their eight hour courses with four new courses being added a month, plus the community with a seven day money back guarantee. And guys, for the best part, in my opinion, for that price for $59 a month, you do not have to take out some $60,000 student loan to further your education.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Again, that is petersonacademy.com slash brett to join Peterson Academy today. And guys, right now, pay attention because I think you guys will fit into this deal. Right now, they are offering a 20% discount to anyone under the age of 25, any students, any teachers, and all military active and veterans.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
So if you've been on the fence about taking the sleep for your education, now is the perfect opportunity. Again, that is petersonacademy.com Now, unless you've been living under a rock, unless you've been spending so much time watching Peterson Academy courses that you have not had time to be on X, I am sure that you have seen clips from Gavin Newsom's new podcast.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And of course, Gavin Newsom is the governor of California and a potential 2028 Democrat hopeful. and he launched a podcast at the beginning of this year, actually not even the beginning of this year, it was at the beginning of this month, beginning of March.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And I totally expected this podcast to just be a liberal mess of an echo chamber, but it was actually something a lot more calculated, something that we all sniffed out immediately after his first episode.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
This is his way, and his strategist's way, because this is not just something that he pulled out of his ass, it is his strategist's way to fix his image, especially after his disastrous handling of the LA fires, among a million other things that he has screwed up in California since 2019. And the way that Gavin Newsom is doing this, the way that he's fixing his image,
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
is by talking to people on the right and trying to appear more centrist. Now, his first couple of guests were Charlie Kirk, Michael Savage, and Steve Bannon. And the entire time that he had these men on his podcast, he was compromising his alleged values. He was walking back his opinions and taking the heat for his mistakes.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
He was trying to look like this casual, chill, charismatic guy that's, oh, so humble. Yeah, I know I screwed up. Oh, hey, man, just trying to be a bro trying to engage in the bro political podcast space. I mean, Charlie Kirk, for example, who, by the way, did not let him go very long without a fact check.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
I think for them, it is pretty heartbreaking and disastrous, but for me, you know, I've been able to laugh at it. I think we've all been able to laugh at it over the last couple of months. I mean, they
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
He was quick to bring up Newsom's track record with COVID and school closures, and Newsom just took it. And then he continued on and didn't just continue on with the conversation. He went on to compliment Charlie incessantly. Just listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Also, by the way, what they're talking about here is that Charlie Kirk's 13-year-old son is a massive Charlie Kirk fan. That's why he wanted to have him on the podcast first. His own son is turning against him. Anyway, that's just wanted you to know that. It's extra funny. There's hope for the kids after all.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
completely lost touch with their voter base, they have lost the trust of their voter base, the party is now run by these geriatric elites who are trying to hold onto power, and then the party itself, like the grassroots messaging, is driven by left-wing young people who are radical and who hate most of the people who are actually in power. So it is just a complete mess.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
I mean, they just kept going. It's like, you are making a dent. You are making it. I love your TikToks, man. This is, I mean, what genuinely, what is going on? I mean, he just kept complimenting Charlie. In fact, somebody watched that podcast episode and was studying the whole thing. And they reported that he praised or agreed with Kirk nearly 125 times, including saying that he quote unquote,
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
appreciates Kirk or his ideas a whopping 52 times. I mean, this is a far cry from the man that we have all come to know who has called us racist traitors for the last six years. But here's the thing, he did not stop there. Next, in this same podcast episode with Turley, he seemingly pretends that he is a moderate on the issue of trans women in women's sports. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
We can call out the unfairness of this issue. And guys, just that simple comment, we're going to talk about it later, it turned people upside down. But I just want to focus on the fact that this is completely hypocritical based on everything that we have seen from Gavin Newsom. I mean, California...
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
has some of the most pro-trans laws in the entire country, and Newsom, as governor, has upheld them and strengthened them since coming into office in 2019. So, like, what is this? Is he actually more moderate than he's ever told us and we assume, or is he strategically using this podcast and using conservatives to make himself more palatable to centrist Americans?
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Now, Nicole Shanahan thinks that it's the latter. She believes that he is spending more time on his rebrand than on his actual state, and I couldn't agree more. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Now, obviously, the next question we have to ask is, is this actually working? And the hilarious thing is, guys, this schtick is not working on anyone. People on the right obviously sniffed this out. They know that it is a political game.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Charlie Kirk actually, after he went on the podcast, he immediately turned around, did a hit with Fox News, wrote an op-ed for Fox News, and said, yeah, this is a dangerous game. We can all see through it. In fact, he wrote, Newsom got a bit irritated when I suggested that he was slick. Precisely because it's so accurate.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
His show is a charm offensive calculated play, a rebrand for a man who knows the Democratic Party took a beating in 2024 and needs a new face. He hopes by looking moderate on the perfect cocktail of issues, he can get both liberals to back him in a primary and then moderates and Republicans to back him in a general election. It might work.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And the smart thing to do, what I would advise, is, you know, to take a step back, to take a pause, to look inward, to do some self-analysis, you know, look at their failed policies, and maybe redirect. But of course, that strategy would just make too much sense. That would be too genuine. And of course, the Democrats cannot do that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
One thing I learned in my podcast experience is that the governor isn't a joke. He has a shark's instincts and is hoping that voters will have a goldfish's memory.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
But of course, as you all have seen on social media, those clips, those sound bites, they aren't working anymore. And even worse, people on the left are watching Newsom and they believe that this is an utter betrayal.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Now the same report that I referenced earlier that was tracking the compliments of Charlie in that first episode, it is from California's Capital Weekly publication and they actually ran a survey on the whole podcast and they found that the initial response is probably not what the governor would want. The negative impact on Newsom's popularity with voters is clearly visible in this survey.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Newsom's favorability in our last survey done the first week of February of this year, so literally just a month prior, had his total favorability at 52% with 48% unfavorable. for a net favorability, favorable minus unfavorable, of plus 4. Notably, his very unfavorable was at 25% in this survey.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
So now, post-podcast, his favorability has dropped to 47%, with his very favorable dropping to 18% from 25%, and his net favorable going to negative 6 for a 10-point drop in negative favorability.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Among self-identified liberals, 37% of these said that the snippets of the Newsome podcast harmed their perception of the governor, and among these voters, the governor's very favorable number has dropped from 46 to 30%. Now, additionally, the podcast only made 13% of voters have an improved perception of the governor.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
with 26% saying that it harmed their perception and 58% saying it made no difference. Because we all know that he is a bag of crap, to be honest. We know that he has slick hair and shiny teeth. We all see through it. One in five voters said that these snippets made them want to watch or listen to future Newsom podcasts. This was a 10-point swing in the wrong direction.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Moderates and people on the right are not buying this, and more importantly, his own base is betrayed. And nothing has been funnier than the meltdowns. Except maybe the meltdowns from the vegans whenever I do a Good Ranchers ad, which I'm about to do right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And guys, it is time to spring into action and put American farms first, because nothing beats American quality, and that is why I love Good Ranchers. Good Ranchers puts family values first, just like you do. Their meat is born, raised, and harvested right here in the USA from local family farms so you know exactly where your food is coming from.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
It is free from hidden additives, no antibiotics ever, no added hormones, no seed oils in their amazing chicken nuggets, just simple trustworthy ingredients so you can feel good about eating and feeding your family. And of course, where they really make life easier is because it is delivered straight to your door.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Instead, they have put David Hogg in charge of the DNC and Gavin Newsom started a podcast. Apparently, those are their two big strategies to take back power in 2028. And this podcast, Gavin Newsom's podcast, we've all been talking about it. It is actually indicative of a far broader trend that I want to talk about today that we've seen really with the Democrats for the last decade. Decade.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
No last minute grocery runs, long lines, or wondering if you're getting the best quality. With GoodRanchers.com, everything you need to create delicious meals is just a click away. And right now, if you go to GoodRanchers.com slash Brett, you will find my personal curated box with all of Alex's and my favorite Good Ranchers products.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
These are the things that we eat on a daily basis that are the staples of our home, and I hope that you love them as much as we do. Now, in addition to checking that out, Good Ranchers is currently running their Spring Into Action promotion so that you and your family can support local ranchers and easily get American quality delivered right to your door.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
All you have to do is subscribe to any of their boxes, but preferably the Brett Cooper box, and you will get free bacon or ground beef or seed oil-free chicken nuggets or salmon in every single order for a year. You'll get to pick whichever one you want. That is free meat for an entire year, plus you will get $40 off when you use my code BRETT at checkout.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
And seriously guys, this is the best offer Good Ranchers has ever given and you won't find it anywhere else. So to spring into action and help American Family Farms with every purchase, just visit goodranchers.com today, goodranchers.com slash brett if you want to check out my box, and use my code brett to claim your free meat and $40 off.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Now back to all the non-vegan meltdowns, what is actually funny about all of these responses is that many of them, like Jane Fonda, famous actress, famous activist, I feel like I know her more as an activist than an actress these days, She seems less worried about Newsom becoming squishy on the issues that they care about and more about the fact that he has the gall to even speak to conservatives.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
Jane, that is literally why you lost. I mean, we could just do an entire episode just on this. It is the lack of self-awareness. It is the refusal to listen to your own voters.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
It is the refusal to listen to the people who are winning, who took a different strategy than you, who focused on different policies, who actually took policies that you guys used to promote, but you went so crazy that you left them. I mean, it is a total failure. cognitive dissonance.
The Brett Cooper Show
Democrats Are Rebranding, And It’s Insufferable | Episode 17
This, in fact, is why you lost maybe, if you listen to Steve Bannon's show, maybe if you listen to anybody on the right, you would start to understand that. But of course, that's not the only reason the Democrats lost. They also lost because of a terrible case of bad inauthenticity and a lack of connection to their voter base, which, to her credit, Sunny Hostin on The View did point out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
The point here that I am trying to make about all these PR strategies, about all the strategies, is that something happened with Amelia Perez. Something that many believe is a bit suspicious and possibly conspiratorial.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
All of these tweets blew up big time. It was a huge, huge ordeal, especially because of social media. This was not, you know, 2005 or only a few people saw it. This did not make shock waves. No, this was literally everywhere, which is another huge thing that has changed in this award show campaigning, which Daniel also touched on.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And as Daniel touched on, this lobbying and the campaigning for award shows is no longer just for Hollywood and just for the Academy, the voting body of the Oscars. It is for everyone. And so when someone fails or makes a misstep of insane proportions in their eyes, we all know. We all see it. We are all engaged. Sometimes it is social media users themselves who expose it. Everybody is involved.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
It's not just about Hollywood. And so Obviously, this took place, it spiraled out of control, and neither Netflix nor Carla's team could control it. Now, to be fair, Carla's PR person is the same person that represented Will Smith after the slap incident, which I think was just a terrible hire in the first place. We saw how that turned out for him.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
So I think you can kind of guess how things are going. for poor Carlos Sofia Gascon right now. But that is besides the point. I want to get back to the impact that this had on Amelia Perez, because as Daniel said, the one thing, the one possible thing that could destroy this perfect, woke, inclusive film did.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
I feel like that is what Amelia Perez is. But of course, there is a real story here. And so Amelia Perez is about a Mexican drug cartel leader who fakes his own death to undergo gender-affirming surgery. And then she, now she, re-emerges onto the scene and tries to live this new life and is like re-welcomed by society and her family and her community as a woman.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And this is why this story is so interesting, because it is literally forcing Hollywood to reconcile how they have put identity politics and inclusion politics on a pedestal. And now they have to decide how far they are willing to go to protect this. Like, what side are they choosing? Are they willing to defend a trans woman of color in her time of need when she is being canceled?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Or are they going to pick the side of the people that feel offended by her bigoted racist tweets? Well, apparently not. Apparently they are not choosing the side of the trans woman of color who is being canceled. Apparently hating Islam and criticizing George Floyd was the step too far. And the entire narrative around the film flipped.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
It went from trans joy and inclusion and this being the most progressive, amazing, groundbreaking film of all time and the first trans actress nominated for the Best Leading Actress at the Oscars to utter chaos, panic, and regret.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
In fact, Selena Gomez, who is one of the other stars of Amelia Perez, put it well when she said that quote, And so I guess really what I'm trying to say is that they decided that queer and trans joy just wasn't the end all be all after all. From here, Carla Sofia Gascon was iced out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Carla is still nominated for Best Actress, that is still a revolutionary, you know, first time that has happened, first trans person to be nominated, but it is unlikely at this point that Gascon will actually attend the Oscars that are happening on Sunday night.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Netflix, who produced and distributed the film, has even said that they have halted all communication with Gascon, they will no longer be paying for travel or lodging or inclusion at any of these events.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
The production team, Netflix, the Oscars campaign has removed Gascon from all four-year consideration materials, which, guys, if you live in Los Angeles or if you're involved in the film industry at all, during this time of year, everything that you see in LA are huge posters of all of these films.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And Amelia Perez, with 13 nominations, I am sure, was everywhere, featuring, in huge fashion, Carlos Sofia Gascon. Well, Gascon has now been removed from all of that, which I'm sure was very expensive. And the cast has, of course, distanced themselves as well, like you saw with Selena.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Zoe Saldana, who was another star of the film, said, quote, I do not support any negative rhetoric of racism or bigotry towards any group of people. That is what I want to stand for. Quote, I am allowing myself to still experience that joy because we did come together as a team, but we are also individuals who are responsible for everything we say and everything we do.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Now, in addition to the fellow actresses, the director also chimed in, and this is really where it gets interesting. I want you to think about this director and think, about what he's saying in this quote because the context is just extra special. So the director does this interview with Deadline and he says, yes, very unfortunately it is taking up all the space.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
The scandal is taking up all the space. And that makes me very sad. It is very hard for me to think back to the work that I did with Carla Sofia, the trust we shared, the exceptional atmosphere that we had on the set that was indeed based on trust.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And when you have that kind of relationship and suddenly you read something that that person has said, things that are absolutely hateful and worthy of being hated, of course that relationship is affected. It is as if you fall into a hole because what Carla Sophia said is inexcusable. And then Deadline responded and said, have you spoken to her?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And he responded and said, no, I have not spoken to her and I don't want to. So again, everybody is icing out Gascon. She is in a self-destructive approach that I can't interfere in and I really don't understand why she's continuing. Why is she harming herself? Why? I don't understand it. And what I don't understand about this, too, is why she's harming people who are very close to her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
I am thinking in this thing of how hurting others—by the way, he's French, so this is probably translated, so if it seems grammatically weird, that is why— I'm thinking in this thing of how hurting others, of how she is hurting the crew and all of these people who worked so incredibly hard on this film. I am thinking of myself. I am thinking of Zoe and Selena.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And yes, all of this is happening through song because it is a musical. Here is a clip just to give you a taste.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
I just don't understand why she is continuing to harm us. I'm not getting in touch with her right now because she needs space to reflect and take accountability for her actions. Now, whether or not you agree with Gascon's tweets, whether or not you feel like they were too far, This response is just ridiculous. These were things that Gascon posted, you know, three years ago at this point.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Guys, there has been a scandal unfolding in Hollywood that I've wanted to talk about for the last couple of months, but I'm kind of glad that I waited until just now because this involves Hollywood's awards season. This involves the Oscars, which are happening on Sunday night. You guys will be watching this on Thursday. So I have let all of this played out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Gascon is not doing anything to this film at all. Somebody dug up these tweets, they posted them. This is not Carlos Sofia Gascon actively going after this film and the trust they shared and the actresses and the crew. This is just something that happened and that Gascon is also having to deal with. It is not just you that is dealing with the reckoning.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
I mean, Gascon is literally getting cancelled right now. So this is just a very emotional and victim-focused response. But this, again, I told you, remember the director. This is where the twist comes in. This is when I genuinely got so interested in this story because there are so many layers of covering up and doing virtue signaling and apologizing. I mean, this film, it is like another level.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
So again, I told you to remember this director because this director, as you just heard, is acting so holier than thou. Oh my goodness. What is Sophia doing to us? What's Carla doing to us? All of these things. What he is doing is actually hoping that people forget about his own controversy that he was dealing with. just two weeks ago.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
This emotional response is just him covering up the fact that he said this while promoting his Mexican film. Obviously this director, Jacques, he is French. He is speaking in French. I do not speak French, but I translated this as many people did online. And what Jacques was saying here is that the Spanish language is for poor people.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
The quote specifically is, Spanish is a language of modest countries, developing countries, and of the poor and migrants. So that's not really a good look when you just produced an entire film about the country of Mexico and about the Mexican people. He also admitted around that same time that he really didn't feel the need to research Mexico before embarking on this film.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Now again, there are so many different languages here, I have people writing about this in Spanish, he's speaking about it in French, but basically that is what he said, he felt no need to go to Mexico to research any of it because he knew everything he needed to know.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And there are a lot of things that are mind-boggling to me about this story, but this might take the cake, because how do you not even research what you are making a film about? Like, that is the bare minimum of your job as a director. Like, research is everywhere. Research is a good thing. That is why I love Qualia, because all of their products are well researched.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
I see, I see, I see. Man to woman or woman to men.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
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The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
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The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
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The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
This all got so bad that he literally had to apologize two weeks before all of the Carlos Sofia Gascon stuff came out, way before all of that took place. But guys, that is not all. That is not the end of why people are angry at him. They are also angry at him because he chose to make this movie about Mexico and, you know, Mexican cartels and Mexican people
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
He's asking the question of, is it man to woman, woman to man, penis to vagina? That is a real thing. This was in a movie, a serious movie, guys, that has shaken up the Hollywood landscape. And not because it is so bad. No, no, no, no, no. It is quite the contrary. It is because everybody loves it so much because this is just a brave, beautiful, trans musical.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
in Paris with three non-Mexican actresses, which apparently is news to Selena Gomez because, you know, she's talking about how these are her people. They're really not her people. And the media is calling her out for that. And they're calling out this director for not hiring any Mexicans.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
So the point here and why I am painting this broad stroke and giving you all of this context is because way before All of the Carlos stuff started way before all the trans stuff started. There was already an uproar from Latinos about this film who were angry about how they were represented or not represented in this film.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Conveniently, this is also the other thing that is just so sinister to me and also ties into the whole PR strategy and how they protect these films and fight for them for these award shows. But Netflix and the films team allegedly tried to hide the fact that there really wasn't any great Mexican representation in the film.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
and they kept the film out of Latin American countries, literally delaying it until the film had secured nominations to avoid backlash on social media. And obviously this is kind of a conspiracy, like it has not been confirmed by Netflix or by the distributor.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
We don't have any messages explaining the reasoning, but we can look at the dates and we can see that the film originally premiered in May of 2024, that it then came out in the States, I believe in October or November of 2024, and that it only came out in Latin America in January of 2025, after it had secured all of the nominations. And you know what?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
They were probably right to do this because, as I said, Jacques had to apologize because there was a lot of backlash. Listen to some of these headlines. Take it from a Mexican, Amelia Perez is trash. Why Mexicans find Amelia Perez so disrespectful. Why is Amelia Perez hated in Mexico? but Oscar nominated in the U.S.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And guys, one of these articles, one of these Amelia Perez hit pieces was actually written by a former colleague of mine, John Carlos Sopo, who is a Latino media strategist and a culture writer. He wrote a great piece about this in IndieWire last week. His headline reads, And this is his opinion piece. This was released on February 3rd. Now, he wrote,
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Analogies are imperfect, but to understand why Latinos are appalled by Amelia Perez, imagine this. The Academy louds a Klan rehabilitation musical set in the deep South, but shot in Paris. It's non-American cast speaks in British and Aussie accents, and the few black actors are largely relegated to extras.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
He went on and said, Latinos, especially those from working class communities along the border, And remember, Amelia Perez, the trans star of this film, is a cartel drug leader. Undergoes gender-affirming surgery and then comes out and is, like, beloved by their family and by their community.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Everything is fine because now she knows herself and she is, you know, she has found her true identity, whatever it is. Giancarlo goes on and says, Their victims number in the hundreds of thousands with no end in sight. And it is infuriating to see a ward's body celebrate a film that repackages suffering as a kitschy telenova with garish musical numbers. Penis to a vagina.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Obviously it's very garish. Equally frustrating is Hollywood's obliviousness to regional class divides, which may explain why the few Hispanics who defend Amelia Perez either live nowhere near the border, have financial ties to the project, or can afford to protect themselves from cartel. carnage. So this goes way deeper than just representation.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
It's not just that the Mexican community is upset that this was not filmed in Mexico, that the director thinks that their language is the lowest of the lows, and that he didn't even feel the need to research Mexico in the slightest, or that they didn't hire any Mexican artists. It's the fact that he is glamorizing something that terrorizes their country.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
That they literally have to flee and protect themselves from every single day. Not just in Mexico, but also on the border in America. And honestly, this is the most out-of-touch Hollywood thing I have ever heard. Like, it is so perfect. Like, of course, they would make a movie musical about the Mexican drug cartels and glamorize it because, oh, it's all okay because she's trans!
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
So then everything's fine and all the people that she, he killed is totally fine because we love them now because they found their true selves. I mean, you literally cannot make this up. Comedy writers could not create something that is so beautifully insane and beautifully ironic. Now, Giancarlo's article is great because he touches on that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
He really goes deep on that aspect of representation and why people are upset. But his article really shines when he gets to the crux of the issue. And this is why I and so many others are interested in this story.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Because it's not just about celebrities and wokeness and Hollywood doing crazy things and all of us being able to laugh at it, you know, laughing at the crazy people in the Capitol, you know, Hunger Games style. The reason why we're all interested in it is because this is the reckoning of everything the left in Hollywood has propped up for the last decade.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Or as Daniel put it, a major realignment that is about to happen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
This film was literally pushed into the limelight because of inclusivity. Criticisms from the Mexican people, from just normal people who listen to penis to vagina and went, oh my God, this film was terrible. Why is it being nominated? All of that was shunned and ignored because of inclusivity. Because it is a story about a trans woman of color.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
If they had just gotten one more measly nomination, they would be in the category of the most nominated Oscar films, of which there are three, which is La La Land, Titanic, and All About Evil. All three of them have 14 nominations. Nobody has ever cracked 15. Amelia Perez, you should have done it. Beautiful trans, penis to vagina musical. You could have beat them all, but no, they came close.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And this representation and political relevance was all that mattered. And these were the exact things that tore it down. And so I think the lesson here, for Hollywood, is that these projects that you guys prop up, that are driven by identity politics, they are not infallible. And they should not be.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
When you guys look at your Oscar requirements, you know, your diversity requirements, oh, I have a trans person, I have a person of color, whatever, that is not the end-all be-all for good film Audiences are screaming from the rooftops and telling you, this is not what we want. We want genuine, organic, authentic stories. This is what we want from Hollywood. You haven't listened.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And I think it finally took an Amelia Perez type film to burn it all down, to show you how ridiculous this is to hold a mirror up and say, you really nominated a film with a song called penis to vagina, 13 times at the Academy Awards. And it was destroyed because this infallible trans actress made racist, bigoted tweets. I mean, genuinely guys, it is too perfect.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And again, in many ways, I feel like this needed to happen. Like Hollywood desperately needs to have that good, long, hard look in the mirror and realize that this is the result of 10 years of ridiculousness of prioritizing politics over genuinely good art. And that is why Amelia Perez was created. I mean, Amelia Perez in my eyes is like the baby of the last 10 years.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
It is completely devoid of authenticity. It is devoid of any of the real representation that they have said that they've been advocating for.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And on top of that, the other thing that I think this film brought up is just to remind us all that these people, the people who brought us Amelia Perez and put Amelia Perez up on this pedestal, they are the people that have been telling us what to think and how to think for the last decade plus, forever at this point. I mean, think about Meryl Streep.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
We all think that Meryl Streep is the greatest actor of all time. We think that because Harvey Weinstein told us that. Think about the politics in this country, the cultural tones. So many people were misled because of Hollywood, because of actresses.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Think about the episode that I did just a couple of weeks ago where Hollywood stars were dictating our perception of the world until it all came crashing down, until we pulled back the curtain and realized, oh my gosh, you're nothing like us. You don't understand us in the slightest. Why would I listen to you? And the same thing is now happening with the art that these people create.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And so again, I will go to the grave arguing that this is something that desperately needed to happen. And guys, the other thing that is truly interesting, the last thing I will leave you with is that the voting had already happened for the Oscars by the time that all this came out, or I think voting was already happening.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And a lot of people were trying to lobby that Carla Sofia Gascon should be removed from the Oscars, that she should have her nomination rescinded, but that did not happen. And so there is a chance that Carla Sofia Gascon could still win Best Leading Actress in a Film as the first trans actress to be nominated and win.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And I think that that would just further cement how ridiculous this entire thing is. And so personally, I kind of hope it happens because it would just make the story that much better. Okay, that's a wrap. That was a lot of talking. Alex, have my steak. We're not rolling anymore, right? No. This is exactly what I need after talking for an hour. It's just good ranchers.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
A close second with 13 Oscar nominations. It also received 65 nominations across the board with all the other awards like the SAG Awards, the BAFTAs, the Golden Globes. And guys, why do you think that is? Is this such a mystery? Like why did this queer, trans, Mexican cartel musical become the most nominated film and actually the most nominated non-English film in Oscar history.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
It's well done, just how I like it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Why did that happen? Well, because it's about a trans woman of color and it's a musical. I mean, this film is basically infallible until, my friends, until it was not. until it all blew up and imploded because of its creator, sending shockwaves throughout Hollywood and forging an identity politics reckoning, which is why we have to talk about.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
But we also have to ask, was this destruction organic or was it part of a PR smear campaign from competing films. I want to kind of break that down for you because this was something that I had no idea about. I was actually talking to my PR guy on the phone. I was like, oh my God, I want to talk about Amelia Perez. This is so crazy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And he was like, Brett, you realize that might've come from a competing Oscar lobbying PR firm. I was like, hold, hold on, hold on. There are PR firms that are specifically designed to campaign for films to win the Oscar season. Yes, that is a whole thing. So obviously, I think we need to break that down first. So you might think that films just get nominated, we all tune into the Oscars.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
We all, nobody's tuning into the Oscars anymore. Maybe this year to see if Emilia Perez wins. And you know, people vote, the Academy votes, and the best film wins. But it really is not that simple. What I learned is that there is an entire industry within Hollywood and then within PR that is built around award season for these huge nominated films every single year.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Now to help me break this down and offer some more insight for all of us, I called up my friend Daniel D'Addario, who is Variety's chief entertainment correspondent, and he even has a new novel coming out this year called The Talent that actually follows a group of actresses through this campaign for award season. And this is what he had to say about this lobbying.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
I have waited until this moment so I can hopefully bring you as up-to-date information as humanly possible, but we need to talk about The film to rule them all of 2025. The film that has literally shaken up the entire Hollywood filmmaking landscape. And no, I am not talking about It Ends With Us. That is shaking up the Me Too and legal landscape and the celebrity landscape.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
However, guys, this kind of campaigning was not always the case. It used to be that the films would come out, the voting body would vote on them, everybody would show up, yay, the best film won, they would go home. But something changed in the 90s.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Some person burst out on the scene and completely disrupted how award shows went, and that person was none other than Harvey Weinstein, as Daniel breaks down.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
But the thing is, it's not just positive press that Harvey Weinstein was pushing. It wasn't just making sure that these stars, these actors and actresses were in front of the voting bodies 24-7, you know, the for your consideration, that's what he started. There is another strategy that Harvey created, the offense.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
The PR smear campaigns literally designed to take down other films in order to bolster their own.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Now, as Daniel said, all of this really started in the nineties with Harvey, but it has not stopped in the slightest. This has only grown since Harvey. One article from 2023 said, inside the blood sport of Oscar campaigns, war rooms, oppo dumps, eight figure budgets, how the quest for award season glory got so cutthroat.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And in this they write, Oscar campaigns are often run by professional strategists, essentially a specialized breed of publicist. One thing that always shocks me is how many jobs there are in the world. Like, it is genuinely crazy that there is a type of PR within PR under Hollywood specifically about award season.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
I mean, seriously, if you're trying to figure out what you want to do with your life, there is something for everyone. So go find what you're interested in. If you are interested in campaigning for films, there is something for you. They go on and they say, their job begins as early as a year before the award. Sometimes before a film is even shot.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
But this, this other film is shaking up something completely different. Before we dive into this story though, if you want ad-free content, a weekly advice video, we just posted our first one called Dear Brett. If you want all of that and more, plus an exclusive newsletter, please check out my subscriber platform called Cooper Confidential. We will link it below in the description.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
They advise on which festival a film should premiere at, shape a campaign platform, and hope that the film gains enough momentum to propel it into award season. Sometimes several strategists work on a single film, and the war room of an Oscars campaign can grow to be as many as 10 or 20 people. I mean, they are pulling out all the stops.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
They are not relying on hope and a prayer, even though prayer is good, especially when you're praying with Hallow. Now, I've told you guys about my favorite prayer app, Hallow, and they are bringing us an incredible prayer challenge to help us all have an amazing Lent. If you don't know about Lent, it is the 40-day season preparing for Good Friday and Easter where Christians pray and fast.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Hallow's Lent Pray 40 Challenge is going to be absolutely amazing this year. It's called The Way, where you can follow the way that Jesus provides us the answers, the hope, and the healing that we are all searching for. Hallow just announced the voices that are leading this challenge and let's just say it's pretty exciting. You can challenge yourself and fast with Mark Wahlberg.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
You can pray and reflect with Jonathan Rumi and Sister Miriam James. You can hear my favorite Father Mike Schmidt's Sunday sermons and hear incredible stories of faith throughout the challenge. Last year, over a million people around the world prayed every single day on Hallow during Lent and this year's Lent is going to be even bigger and you should be a part of it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
So sign up now at hallow.com slash cooper. to get three months free, which means that your trial will last all of Lent. You can try it out for free all of Lent. And when you join, check out the other 10,000 guided prayers and meditations that will help you all grow closer to God and find peace. So download the app today and join the Lent Pray 40 waitlist today.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Now this article goes on and they later touch the negative narratives. Again, these are the things that Harvey pioneered. Negative narratives are usually attributed to the diabolical workings of rival strategists. The stories about abusive directors, overblown budgets, whether the real people behind biopics should really be celebrated.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Quote, they try to change someone else's narrative by adding dirt to the layer. Citing the old rumor that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck didn't really write Good Will Hunting. A more recent example that strategists still talk about is when Green Book was up for Best Picture in 2019.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
The week the nomination ballots went out, a story resurfaced about the director of the movie, Peter Farley, and a joke he used to play 20 years earlier that involved exposing himself. Farley apologized the same day. The film still won, but many believe another Best Picture campaign planted the story.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
So this just changes my entire perspective about a word show, about Hollywood, and the fact that maybe a lot of the things that come out about these actors, about these directors, that it isn't really genuine or organic. And maybe it's actually planted by these insane PR teams and these media strategists whose entire job is to make sure that their film wins against all odds.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Now, what's also really interesting is that these smear campaigns are often not visible to the naked eye. I mean, think about that last line. Publicists might leak things like that. They might sneakily send tips about people in these other films to reporters.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
All right, so the movie in question, you guys might already know this. The movie in question is Amelia Perez. This is the queer trans Mexican musical. That has taken Hollywood by storm in 2024, 2025. My crew off camera is literally shaking their heads in disbelief. You heard that correctly. A queer trans Mexican cartel musical.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
They might even write entire negative articles about something or someone to make it seem like this smear and this negative press is organic and grassroots, which is a term called astroturfing in PR. Now, to call in another relevant story to make this kind of sing for you guys, This astroturfing is exactly what Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of. Now, I highly doubt that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
As you guys definitely know, I actually think that her fall from grace was completely organic after years and years of people not calling her out on her bad behavior and people covering up her bad behavior. But of course, only time will tell. That will happen in the courts. But here's a headline about that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Blake Lively's It Ends With Us Allegations, Astroturfing, and When Fans Feel Manipulated by PR. The point here that I am trying to make about all these PR strategies, about all the strategies, is that something happened with Amelia Perez. This queer Mexican trans movie musical. Something that many believe is a bit suspicious and possibly conspiratorial because this film
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
that again, was perfectly infallible in the eyes of Hollywood, perfectly positioned for a win at the Oscars, dominating the awards season, was suddenly blown up after a freelance journalist exposed the lead actor, Carla Sophia Gascon. for racist and bigoted tweets. And as we all know by now, after so many years of this, that is how the fall from grace really starts.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Now, everything with Amelia Perez is going swimmingly until this moment, until freelance journalist named Sarah Hagee uncovered. And again, I'm doing this in air quotes because we don't know whether this was organic or whether this was planted by somebody, but she did uncover and she posted
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
a series of old tweets from Gascon and put them on X. Now, Sarah Hage posted and said, it is so insane that Carlos Sofia Gascon still has these tweets up straight up have never seen tweets this racist from somebody actively campaigning to win an Academy Award, there are more than a dozen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Now, one thing that really stood out to me about this post from Sarah was that she's not really just saying it's appalling that these tweets were ever posted in the first place, she's saying it's appalling that they are still up while she is campaigning for the Academy Awards, which feels like a totally different conversation, but what she is focusing on is the PR strategy saying, hey, this is the smoking gun, and Sarah was gonna be the one to expose her, and guys,
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
These tweets. Listen, I am not too sensitive. I, you know, can be politically incorrect, but I will say these tweets are a doozy. And it turns out that the biggest advocate for protecting Europe and the West from the immigration crisis coming from the Middle East is actually the lead of this queer trans Mexican movie musical, Carla Sofia Gascon.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And fair warning, no punches were pulled, and these tweets that I am showing you are actually the most mild of all the ones that she posted. In one, Carla says... New attack in France, beheadings in Nice by one of these retarded followers of Allah. How many times will we have to expel these madmen from Europe until we realize that their religion is incompatible with Western values?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
We do not learn. Another one about the same issue reads, sorry, is it just my impression or are there more and more Muslims in Spain? Every time I go pick up my daughter from school, there are more and more women with their hair covered and their skirts down to their heels. Maybe next year, instead of English, we'll have to teach Arabic and Alam.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Another one, how many more times will history have to expel the Moors from Spain? We have not yet realized what this threat of civilization means, which constantly attacks the freedom and coherence of the individual. It is not about racism. It is about Islam.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And guys, there are about a dozen more of these tweets just about the Islamic expansion in Europe, which, to be fair, is a big issue and a concern for millions. I feel like I see tweets about this all the time on X. And obviously, Gascon feels this personally. and passionately, considering all of these tweets.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
It is like they were playing charades or what's that game where you like pull out random things and you have to like, it's like an improv game. When I used to do improv, I used to do things with Second City in LA and you would have to pull random, you know, characters or scenes and landscapes and situations. You had to make something work. You had to like make a scene out of nonsense.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
And again, the posts that I chose to read you were the mild ones, so you can go read the other ones yourself. Now, in addition to that conversation, she also joined in on American discourse after the death of George Floyd, and Gascon posted, let me get this straight.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
A guy tries to pass off a counterfeit bill after consuming methamphetamine, an idiot policeman arrives and goes too far in arresting him, killing him and ruining the lives of his family and his colleagues, and turning the guy with the bill into a martyr hero. And then in another post following that one, Variety translated this one, Gascon says, Needless to say,
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
You all probably think that you know the story of Justin Bieber. But beneath that story is another story, and another story, and another story, and somewhere underneath all of the noise is the truth. And that is what we're going to start breaking down today. So unless you guys have been living under a rock, I am sure you have seen the insane headlines and press around Justin Bieber right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
She literally gave an entire quote without saying his name that this is not about him. This relationship that was so relevant in my life where I had so much press, everybody was talking about us, they still talk about us, they still pit Selena and Hailey together. It's not about that. And yet they continue to run these stories. Not just that, but say, oh, Hailey and Justin are on the rocks.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Oh, they're so unhappy. He's cheating on her. Oh, he posted this. What is the motivation? Why do you continue when you objectively have facts saying that that is not the case? Where is it coming from? So now I want to bring my friend Candace Owens into this.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Because last week, Candace uncovered that the same PR company that is embroiled in the Jessabelle Doney-Blake Lively case is the PR company that has represented Scooter Braun for years. A.K.A. Jones Works owned by Stephanie Jones. And this is what Candace had to say.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
I mean, when I was watching Candace's episode last week, I basically burst out laughing because it is just so perfect that that fell into her lap. Like, it just could not be the most insane intersection of these stories. And it truly, it's truly wild. And again, it will just show you how incestuous this industry really is. Because it's not only Stephanie Jones and Jonesworks.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
So what really is going on? Now, like so many of you, I am a huge fan of Justin. I have been a Belieber for as long as I can remember. I hope that he comes back and does an amazing new album. I love his music. And in a crazy turn of events, I actually had the privilege to talk to people who are actually currently close to Justin.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Because Scooter Braun and his company are also, this is confirmed, major stakeholders in the agency group PR. I mean, it's just so insane because there are three publicists that are named in the lawsuits between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. It is Jennifer Abel, it is Stephanie Jones, and it is Melissa Nathan who owns the agency group PR.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
So how coincidental is it that two of these women that are being sued for creating PR war campaigns and being incredibly corrupt in how they do their work are also now allegedly being tied back to a PR campaign against Justin Bieber that seems to be targeted at trying to destroy his life and destroy his marriage.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And again, it's just kind of strange, a little too coincidental, if you understand what I'm saying, that Scooter Braun is tied to two of these publicists. I mean, it is just so incestuous, it is messy, and basically I don't think that any of these people actually care about protecting truth. In my opinion, they are pushing narratives based on where their money comes from.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And this money, a lot of this money, seems to be allegedly coming from one man. One man who Justin desperately does not want to work with anymore. Now that you guys have heard all of that, you've seen the intersections, let's just start to put the pieces together. Justin signs with Scooter at 13 years old. Years later, Justin wants out.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
He has been screwed over in more ways than one, based on what I have been told, which we will get into in another episode. It's too much for one episode. But trust has been broken and he fires Scooter in June of 2024. But it's not as easy as that. Now they are in a heated legal battle and suddenly our airwaves are flooded with attacks on Justin, his mental health, and his marriage.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Basically painting him out to be an insane person. Which, of course, you can look at that and you can say, okay, well, Justin, just don't look at the headlines. Just focus on your family. When you are being chased by the paparazzi, that will break a person. And he is doing everything he can to maintain his faith, to protect his family, and to try to protect his own life, if we're being frank.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And it's my opinion, and based on everything that I have now heard, they're doing everything they can to physically and mentally and spiritually break him because he had the courage to say no and fight back.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
unfortunately guys this is very normal and you might be asking why do i care this is just some huge celebrity but the fact that this is a huge celebrity who is basically the music industry who has lots of money and should have a lot of power the fact that this is happening to even him that it is taking such a toll on his personal life on his spiritual life that it is basically uprooting his entire career just think about what they could do to somebody who is much smaller what they have done to people
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
who are far less famous, far less influential, with less resources. I mean, my mind immediately goes to my friend Haley Page, who was a well-known wedding dress designer about 10 years ago, who basically lost her entire brand and lost the right to use her own name to a company that she had signed with. And she had to fight for over five years just to get back the right to use her name.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And basically everything that I assumed about what's going on was confirmed. Now, as you guys probably know, I have been involved in this very weird entertainment industry for a long time now. And the news cycle, what we were hearing about Justin just wasn't sitting right with me. And my conversations with people in his circle have confirmed these theories.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
They put her through the wringer She finally came out on top, but she didn't even have the ability to share her side of the story. And they destroyed her career for years. They took advantage of her God-given talents. They took advantage of her ingenuity and the fact that she was young when she signed this contract.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
She was excited that her wedding dresses were going to be sold in stores around the country, around the world. Somebody else was going to be helping her produce these designs and scale them. She had no idea what she was actually signing and they took advantage of that. And again, that happens every single day. It's not just in the music industry.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And so when somebody has the balls to stand up and say, enough, I'm gonna fight back, I'm gonna hold your feet to the fire, I'm gonna take back what is rightfully mine, I'm gonna take back the ability to use my own name to create art freely without you telling me what to do or what to say or how to sing or what to create, that threatens these institutions, that threatens these individuals
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
who have power over these creatives. And the only way that they then can fight back is to try to destroy and break up every other part of your life to make you weak, financially weak and emotionally weak, so that you can't actually fight back.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Now, another interesting thing that Candace brought up in her episode about Justin was the role that arbitration, legal arbitration plays in these types of contracts. Because if anyone wants to get out of an entertainment contract and break free and go independent, if they have any kind of dispute, most of the time, nothing can be public because of the way that an arbitration
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Everything overlaps here. It is like David versus Goliath. And you might be thinking, Brett, again, he's Justin Bieber. He's so famous. Okay. Well, he's been taken advantage of. If you're going up against a huge label with paid off judges allegedly with PR firms that are waging a war against you when you have been broken spiritually and financially makes it really freaking hard to fight back.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Now, one Variety article way back from 2011 was also talking about these arbitrations and said the whole point of arbitration was to get disputes through the system at a greater speed and lower cost. Plaintiffs, i.e. the stars and the creators suing studios, usually over their share of the back end, say it does neither.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
The system, they say, has morphed into one that favors the studios, particularly when it comes to accounting and distribution of profits, and that is why it is now a studio standard to demand that contracts include arbitration clauses, because they know that it benefits them.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Not only benefits them because they have an advantage, but also they can quell a PR war that would come with any kind of public dispute or public lawsuit. So it's faster, but again, it's one person who maybe is in bed with other people deciding your fate. It's privately. It is David versus Goliath, no matter how famous you are, no matter if you are somebody like Justin Bieber.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And so my goal today is to start peeling back the layers of this onion for you, because I promise you, It is not as it seems. Now, before we dive into this story, make sure that you are following our podcast page and that you leave a rating if you enjoy the show. And I want to remind you guys that I am going on tour this spring.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And so because of this and because of the confidentiality, so many of these stories never get told. Or if they do, they're told years after the fact. Like Hayley Page was only last year finally able to share her story about what she went through to literally just get the right to use her name back.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
It has now come out how authoritarian so many of these contracts are, the contracts that people signed when they were naive and young and had no support, and how all of this really just benefits the big institutions, the labels, not the artists. Now, the singer Jelly Roll, who I'm sure all of you guys know, he has famously been an independent artist for a very long time.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
He waited a really long time to sign with anyone, I think, until he really started to understand the industry. But he broke down this entire relationship a couple of years ago on Bustin' with the Boys. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And what he means is that the label would take 95% of what you make and you would get 5%. That you put in all the effort, you do all the creative, you write the songs, you record the songs, you are the music, and you only get 5% because they're saying, well, we're giving you a chance. And the fact is they're not even putting money in that you get to keep.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
One thing that Jelly Roll says in this interview is that they will give you a loan. They'll say, okay, here's a million dollars to make your album, but you have to pay it back before you can even start making money. And you already have an insane disparity in the profits that you would be taking home after you pay back that million dollars.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
So it's an incredibly slanted system on the side of the label.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
So how does touring work?
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
It is all encompassing. And I think 15% is probably very generous. I think usually in situations like this, it's more like 75 to 85% that they are taking of everything. And of course, I have to say that all of this is legal and people do sign these contracts so the labels are not in the wrong. And you know, if you are
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
somebody who's making a ton of money and you have a team that works hard for you, that you trust implicitly and you feel great about giving them that percentage, maybe this is not the worst thing in the world because you're still growing, you're making money, you're not losing money, especially for a new artist who needs that leg up.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
All of the dates and tickets are available at brettcooper.com or you can check it out in the description below. All right, so to fully understand this story, I think we need to go back to the beginning. Justin Bieber was raised in a small town in Canada and he was born to a single mother. But from a young age, he expressed an interest in music and was highly, highly talented.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Again, with a caveat, if you have people around you that you trust. But going back to our story, what about for an artist who has now lost trust in the people that are literally controlling him? All the while these people are making millions and millions of dollars and he's not seeing any of it.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
When those people are only in it for profit at the expense of what this person believes and their health and their well-being. Who push him like a workhorse with no regard for his values or his health. I think any normal person in that situation would want out. Whether it is in business or it's some kind of toxic, abusive, controlling relationship, you need to get out.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And a person like that would fight tooth and nail to obtain that freedom. Because again, It is not as simple as just showing up one day and putting in your two weeks notice. If only it was that simple. Justin is now going into his second year of fighting for his freedom just to get out of this deal. And it's not even secret information that I'm getting from people close to him. This was reported.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
It's being talked about in Billboard. He is fighting for the freedom to put out the music that he wants. He can't put out music right now. He wants to get away from the people that he signed with at 13 years old to focus on his wife and his son and his values and his faith to pour into creative projects that really mean something to him. And they are making it nearly impossible.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
It is crippling him while simultaneously he is being hit from all angles. His wife is being hit by PR attacks. That is the information that you need to know. This is not some kind of normal legal proceeding. This is not a situation where somebody's contract is up and they say, okay, goodbye. And maybe there's some hurt feelings. No, they are literally fighting.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And you would think that in a rational world that his old team would want to stay on great terms with him, even if just for PR and image purposes to show some support or excitement for Justin's future, potentially to be able to share in that success later down the line. But these are not rational people that we're dealing with.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And I've kind of learned that there are a lot of not rational people in the entertainment world because this is all ego driven. It's all fame driven and profit driven. And they are so angry that he has turned around and said, I don't need you anymore and I don't trust you anymore.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
They're so angry that he is taking a stand and walking away that they are willing to literally destroy their own business and their own reputation in order to break him and try to take him down once and for all. And again, unfortunately, this isn't abnormal. It can happen to people like Justin Bieber. It has happened to Taylor Swift. It can happen to people in other industries.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
It can happen to people who are barely famous at all. Because again, it all goes back to the power imbalance that these contracts allow. This happens every single day in the entertainment industry. And time and time again, we see people be broken by this. And then they're silenced. And time and time again, people are broken and they're silenced. We never get to hear their stories.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
The only thing that we hear are the headlines saying they've gone crazy. They're losing their mind. I mean, think about Michael Jackson and Prince and Elvis and Britney Spears. who had a similar team to this young man that we're talking about today. We've watched it happen time and time again, and we're letting it happen again now. And guys, this really is just like the tip of the iceberg.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And I wanted to do this episode first to kind of lay the groundwork to show you some of the key players understand the underbelly of this situation.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Like we haven't even gotten to the stories of who really let him down, the betrayal from his best man at his wedding, the PR wars that he was forced into that he never wanted to be engaged in, the money that his advisors let him lose just so that they could further control him. But now we have laid the groundwork.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And so the thing that I want to leave you guys with today is that Justin Bieber is waging a war. And if you are somebody who supports freedom and authenticity and autonomy over one's work, if you support a man prioritizing his faith and his family and trying to do everything in his power to protect that, You should be supporting Justin Bieber. You should be praying for him.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
You should be publicly shouting from the rooftops to free Justin, to help him. Because this is a man, and I'm telling you this from people who know him, who are, I've verified, are incredibly, incredibly close to him. From people that I know who know him. This is a man who needs our prayers and needs our support, and he also needs his story told.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
But his life pre-fame was nothing comfortable. This was not an affluent family. In one article he said, I remember being poor and being teased by other kids. He said, I remember sitting in restaurants with my mother and she'd make me order water instead of soda. I remember so badly wanting to order a soda. And I also remember that when we got my first big paycheck,
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Because when you take away the ability for somebody to creatively express themselves, especially somebody like Justin Bieber, you are taking away his humanity. And then when you add in attacks on his family from every single angle where every single piece of his life is being nitpicked, of course he's going to break down. Of course you're going to see him and wonder, what happened to him?
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And so instead of attacking him and shaming him and laughing, maybe you should be praying for him. I mean, in this situation, the deck is stacked against him. And the only thing that we can really do is share his story and amplify this and pray for him and hope to God that he makes it through.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
I was so glad to be able to use that money to take care of my mother." Despite this, her son displayed musical talent from an early age. He learned to play the piano, the drums, the guitar, and trumpet, singing in local talent competitions.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
His mom would share videos of him performing R&B classics on YouTube for friends and family to see, little to just to know that these videos would lead to his eventual stardom. Like this is not just some kid who could sort of sing, like he truly is a musical genius. He is like a once in a lifetime talent. He has an ear for music that most people can't even comprehend.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
It's been going on for months, but it seems like he and his wife Hailey cannot get out of the press. I mean, just look at the Google search volume from the last 24 hours. The number one search right now, a breakout search on Google, is what's wrong with Justin Bieber? The number two search, which is at 450%, is are Hailey and Justin getting divorced?
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And he was discovered at 12 years old when Scooter Braun watched one of his videos on YouTube. And after that, a bidding war started between Usher and Scooter Braun and Justin Timberlake to be able to sign him and launch his career. In the end, Usher won out. So it was Usher and Scooter Braun working together to sign Justin Bieber to start his career.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Raymond Braun Media Group, RBMG, and currently under the brand name Scooter Braun, is an American record label founded by R&B singer Usher and talent manager Scooter Braun in 2008 as a joint venture. The label was initially created for both parties to mutually manage the career and recording catalog of then rising teen pop star singer Justin Bieber.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
As of 2025, Bieber remains the only artist to ever sign with this label. And in 2025, he is still in dealings with Scooter Braun, which we are going to get into in just a bit. And if you're like me, if you're Gen Z and you grew up in the era of the Bieber craze, you probably remember all of this, but he was everywhere. People could not get enough of him.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And as a child, he was hounded daily by hordes of fans, all of these girls of all ages, and the paparazzi would not leave him alone. It was Britney Spears level of paparazzi attention.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And you can see him there, and he's so cute, and he has the little, like, swoop haircut, and he's so excited about it, he's saying hi to everyone, and obviously if you've seen the videos now with how he's interacting with paparazzi over 15 years later after being hounded by them for his entire life, I think you can obviously see why he is treating them the way that he is today.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And again, there are multiple layers to this story that can also provide more insight. Now, in addition to the crazy levels of fame and attention, on every level, People were overtly trying to take advantage of him and sexualize him.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And you could see how uncomfortable he was in all of these situations, from interviewers asking him on national TV if he would perform naked or make out with one of his fans, to people grabbing him on stage and sniffing him. Like, you name it, that was his entire adolescence. Now, I need to take a break for a couple of seconds to tell you about Peterson Academy.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And Peterson Academy is Jordan Peterson's online university that is open for enrollment. And right now they are offering a 20% discount for anyone under the age of 25, for students, for teachers, and for all military, both active and veterans.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
So if you are somebody who loves lifelong learning, if you want to learn from the brightest professors in the world, or if you've ever benefited from Dr. Peterson's lectures, this platform is for you. Every month, Peterson Academy releases four new in-depth eight-hour university-level courses taught by world-renowned experts, and they are produced to keep you fully engaged.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
They cover an amazing range of topics from philosophy and history to psychology and science and business, complete with optional testing to further your understanding of every subject. Plus, they are continually rolling out new educational features as they grow, like their built-in social community where you can connect and learn alongside like-minded people from around the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
So if you are ready to challenge your intellect, expand your horizons, if you're a homeschooler that wants to add to your curriculum, it is time to go to petersonacademy.com slash brett to join. It is $599 per year or $59 a month to access all of their eight hour courses with four new courses being added every single month. Plus the community with a seven day money back guarantee.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And the headlines you guys probably have seen read something like this. Justin Bieber facing a lot of different demons as former Circle Fear singer is making really poor decisions. Justin Bieber's former collaborators say that he is lost and unprotected amid Hailey Bieber divorce rumors. Justin Bieber's former crew worried over debt reports.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And the best part is for that price, you don't have to take out some $60,000 student loan just to further your education. Again, that is petersonacademy.com slash brett to join today. Now, obviously, as you guys probably understand or are starting to understand, this path was not easy for him. And this story really interestingly has been around me
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
for a while now, because when I was a young person, when I was a child actor and I was in singing lessons, I actually went to the same vocal studio that Justin Bieber went to. It was a studio that was run by a woman named Jan Smith in Atlanta. She goes by Mama Jan. And Justin and I would often be at the studio at the same time. Now I never interacted with him.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
I never worked with him in any capacity, but everybody talked about him because his presence was so strong in the studio. And the tone around him at that period, when I was around 11 years old, and I think that he was probably 19 or 20, was that everybody was worried about him.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
not because he was doing bad things but because of the people that were surrounding him because of the contracts that he had gotten into because of the ways that they were pushing him to become something that he wasn't and mama jan was a mentor to basically everyone who walked into her door she cared so deeply about justin to the point that the entire studio was basically thinking about him and supporting him and praying for him not just to be successful but that he could personally stay on track because this environment that he had found himself in was just
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
So insane. Like, this is an impossible environment to be a young person in, especially when your family doesn't have a lot of money, when you're not experienced in this and you're having to put your trust into other people who obviously are a lot more powerful than you are. From there, moving out of his teens, his career obviously grew into what we know it as today.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Tons of albums, huge tours, a massive relationship, and then public breakup with Selena Gomez. And much like what people say about Taylor Swift today is what they said about Justin Bieber. He was the music industry. He ran the music industry. But somewhere along the line, things went south and they started to change. But going back to laying out this timeline, now we find ourselves in 2018.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And this is where it really seemed like Justin's life took a turn possibly for the better, or objectively for the better, because he and his wife Haley got married. He had also deepened his faith. He had found God again. He'd come back to Christianity.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And then in 2019, he wanted to engage in other creative endeavors, so he started a clothing company called Drew House with his former stylist and his best friend Ryan Good. This is the friend who was the best man at his wedding, which will be important to remember in a later episode. Now, then moving on to 2021, Justin released his last album. We have not heard anything from him since.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
That was the album called Justice. And then we get to 2022. Justin is dealing with severe health problems. He's dealing with the facial paralysis that we all saw happen on social media. He tries to go on tour because he has a tour scheduled, but he struggles to make it through. And he ends the year. He ends 2022 with Hypnosis purchasing his entire musical catalog for a reported $200 million. Why?
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Did he sell his entire catalog? What was the reason for that? And there is one. So then we are finally getting caught up here in 2024. He really made a splash when he publicly parted ways with his manager, Scooter Braun. And at the time his team gave this quote to the press.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And mixed in with all of that are social media videos and photos that people are taking of him and Hailey just going about their personal lives, paparazzi hounding him, him fighting back against paparazzi and people saying, well, that's him crashing out.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
They said on Sunday, June 16th, representative for Justin Bieber told people exclusively that Scooter Braun and SB projects are not involved in Justin's current business or management and will not be involved moving forward. Justin is excited about the projects that he is currently working on and is focused on what is in front of him.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Now I'm just going to do a little PR reading into this because this is obviously a very specific and tailored, probably looked over by attorneys, contrived statement. And notice that he does not thank Scooter Braun. He's not saying we had such a great time together. I'm so grateful. He just says he is no way involved in what I am doing. He will not be in the future.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And I'm focused on what I can do now. My future projects. And that obviously set off alarm bells in my brain. I mean, obviously thinking about the Taylor Swift story, the Ariana Grande story with Scooter Braun, like things were not looking great for Scooter Braun at the time because basically everyone was leaving him and Justin Bieber was the last client that was shutting the door.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Now at the time, Scooter Braun kind of played this off as if he was just retiring. He kind of timed that with Justin saying goodbye, but it was clear that To me, at least, that Justin was drawing a line in the sand because it wasn't just Scooter that he was walking away from.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
He also parted ways with many other key players on his team, like his longtime business manager, Lou Taylor, who, interestingly, also used to manage Britney Spears. In her recent memoir, Britney wrote, quote, she, Lou, was front and center during the implementation of my conservatorship that would later allow them to control and take over my career.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Lou, who had just started a new company called TriStar Sports Entertainment Group, was directly involved in calling the shots right before the conservatorship. At the time, she had few real clients. She basically used my name and hard work to build up her company. So obviously, I think we can maybe start to draw some parallels.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
We can maybe see why Justin was uncomfortable with having this person run his business. Now, obviously, I should say, Lou Taylor denied these allegations. She basically said, like, Britney's crazy. Like, I didn't do any of this. She was saying, I'm not involved. But this is a fact. She did manage Britney Spears, and she went on to later sign...
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Like, the entire narrative is that Justin Bieber is falling apart, that he's lost his mind, that he is going into debt, and that he and his wife Hailey are heading towards a divorce. And this narrative is everywhere now.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Now on the surface, because of these very perfectly contrived and placed statements and articles, people all thought that this was, you know, relatively normal and peaceful until early January, 2025, when Justin unfollowed Scooter Braun and blocked him on Instagram, along with other former collaborators and team members. You can see here, it made national news, global news, really.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And in my mind, as I'm reading into this, this was probably Justin's way of saying, I can't say anything. I can't say what I want to say, but I'm letting you all know where I stand. It's been almost a year of this, and I'm drawing my line in the sand.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Now, at the time, Billboard had also reported an interesting fact that even though Scooter had retired, and they had parted ways and were not working together in June of that year, they were still contractually linked. This is from that Billboard article. As of August 2023, Billboard reported that Bieber was still under contract for about four more years.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And guys, this is still based on the contract that he signed when he was like 13 years old. Four more years following a series of amendments to his deal with Braun made in 2020. In the same report, sources familiar with Bieber's business dealings said that he was focused on resolving his predicament with Braun at the time. This is literally from Billboard. This is not from me or who I talk to.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
You can see it in Billboard. He is resolving a predicament based on the contract that he signed with this man when he was 13 years old. And I have now had to confirm that they are still in multiple hot legal battles, stemming from the fact that Justin wanted to walk away years ago. So we have to ask, could this be why he is lashing out?
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Could this be why he is unhappy, why he's posting on Instagram saying, I'm filled with anger, I'm trying to control it, I don't know what's going on? Maybe because he's embroiled in a major legal battle trying to get his freedom again from a contract that he has been in for over 15 years. Now, all of this brings us back to the negativity, the publicity, and the press that he's been receiving.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And I honestly just have questions because all of this is kind of coincided with Selena Gomez making her comeback into the music industry, getting engaged to Benny Blanco, who also was connected to Justin Bieber because he produced a bunch of her music. So there's this whole like, just Hollywood and entertainment in general is so incestuous. You're going to see this in the story. It's so crazy.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
But all of this coincided with Selena Gomez's new album. And many have now tried to tie Selena's album back to Justin Bieber, which has then just fueled the divorce rumors with Justin and Hailey. And I can tell you guys from what I have heard, none of that is true. They are not getting a divorce. They are very happy. And from what we know from Selena's own mouth, this album is not about Justin.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
So basically, everybody just needs to stop with this and shut up and be silent, which is the perfect time for me to tell you guys about my sponsor, Silencer Shoppe. Now I know that you guys love your guns and love the Second Amendment, so now imagine kicking your shooting experience up a notch.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
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The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Whether you are after that trophy buck, bringing steel targets, or just enjoying the range with friends on a Saturday afternoon, adding a suppressor transforms your firearm from pretty good to downright amazing. Silencer Shop has the biggest and best selection of suppressors, perfect for any firearm and any shooting style. But they do more than just sell suppressors.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
Silencer Shop is out there every single day defending our Second Amendment rights and fighting for our freedoms nationwide. So do your guns and your rights a favor. head on over to silencershop.com slash cooper and see how much better your guns can be. Silencer Shop is the go-to spot for getting a suppressor. Again, that's silencershop.com slash brett.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
But even though all of this is just baloney, basically, that has not stopped the headlines. Here is one from just a couple weeks ago. Why fans are speculating that Selena Gomez's new music is about Justin Bieber.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And they're speculating because there are some songs about previous relationships, and she and Benny wrote about exes, and so obviously the most famous ex that she has is Justin Bieber, even though she's dated plenty of other people, so they are pinning it directly on him. They're seeing that he's not doing well, so they're saying, oh, he's divorcing Hailey. He wants to be back with Selena.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
She's moved on. It's a whole mess. None of that is real. Both of these parties have moved on. They are happy. Justin is happily married to Hailey Bieber. They have a beautiful, amazing son. Selena, in her part, is also incredibly happy. She is engaged to Benny Blanco, who genuinely seems to worship the ground she walks on. We should be happy for these two parties individually.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
And I'm sure that both of them would appreciate stop being pitted together. And Selena is basically asking people to stop. She is saying these songs are not about him. This music is not what everybody thinks it's about. She literally said, I would like to say that most of this album has nothing to do with what everyone may go to.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
I think it's important for me to say that because I've evolved so much. I've experienced life with new people. She's saying it's not just about Justin. He's moved on. I've moved on. I've had to go through transitions with friends and lose people in my life and gain new people. I've had a whole new life forever. So it's up for whatever people want to interpret the songs as.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber | Episode 25
But to me, it was about both of our pasts and our history and also just inspired by friends and relationships. Like some songs were actually meant to be about friendships in my life. And I think that's what, to me, the album was about. And I just wanted to get that out there because that was really important to me.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Well guys, Starbucks employees are on strike again, Hillary Clinton doesn't want us to have children because that's what illegal immigrants are for, and Lorde wants us all to know that she is in fact a woman, except on days when she is a man. And yes, all of this is confusing to me as well, don't worry, we're gonna break it all down today.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Like, you don't get to gatekeep commenting on culture or sports or politics because you don't like somebody's opinion. And then you can't put these fake guardrails around them to protect your very fragile ideology. That is not how the world works, so I'm sorry. RG3 is totally allowed to comment on this very common sense, obvious fact that Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark do not like each other.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And you know what? It makes great TV. It makes people a lot more interested in the WNBA because there's drama and there's great players. So maybe, maybe it's not the worst thing in the world because obviously this is going viral. More people are watching it, which is what everybody wanted, right? Everybody wanted us to be watching the WNBA. Well, hey, now we are.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And honestly, I care a lot more about the WNBA than I do about the Starbucks workers who are currently on strike because what they are protesting is the most absurd, irrational, out of touch thing I have ever heard. Now, I think I've done a few episodes in the past about Starbucks. They seem to always be striking. Their employees are always mad about something. And you might ask like,
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Are they wanting more money? Are they protesting to have the minimum wage raised? No, that's not happening. Are they protesting their benefits? No. Are they protesting the price hike on oat milk again? Nope, that's not happening. Are they protesting the fact that they're not allowed to unionize? No, that is not happening.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Because what is happening at Starbucks right now is the perfect example of no matter how much you give into leftist illusion, it is never enough. Because these employees are protesting over the dress code. And no, they are not asking them to wear short shorts and pop their boobs out like they're working at Hooters.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
The new dress code that they just announced is simply a change in the color palette so that the quintessential Starbucks green aprons will look better on all of the employees. That is literally all that is happening and it is causing these employees to go on strike. Now, here is the public announcement of these awful, horrifying, offensive offensive changes that Starbucks is making.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Okay, so they said, our partners, who are the employees, are the face of our brand, and our iconic green apron has always been a special part of what makes us unique. Since 1987, the green apron has been the symbol for Starbucks Coffee Company, representing the hundreds of thousands of retail partners in North America who connect with customers every single day.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Now, some additional context here is that there is a new CEO for Starbucks. It is actually the former CEO from Chipotle who was embroiled in the whole, they're giving us less meat and less guacamole scandal. So he moved over to Starbucks and everything that he is trying to do with Starbucks is make it into a higher class chain once again.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
He was doing drugs in the office. He was having affairs with employees. It was so toxic. It was completely unprofessional. And so people went to Blake Lively. The employees like set a meeting with Blake and were like, hey, this is your brand. This is the thing that you've built. It's representing you. And it's so awful we can't even work here anymore. and she dismissed their complaint.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
So when you go into Starbucks and you sit down, they're now giving you your coffee in a real mug. They're trying to make the employees dress better. They're giving them fancy new aprons, all of this stuff. So that is the reason why this change is happening, which is very normal. They're just kind of trying to elevate their brand and they want people to step up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
So he says, that is why starting on May 12th, we are evolving our dress code in all stores to focus on simplified color options that allow our iconic green apron to shine and create a sense of familiarity for our customers, no matter which store they visit across North America. The
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
A more defined color palette includes any solid black short and long sleeved crew neck, collared or button up shirts, and any shade of khaki, black or blue denim bottoms. We are also making a new line of company branded t-shirts available to partners who will receive two at no cost, including partner network options. Okay, I just want you, we're gonna condense all this down.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
They are saying, you need to wear a black shirt. You can wear a black shirt or you can wear the black Starbucks shirt and then just wear your pants. You normally wear your khaki, your denim, whatever it is, just wear that so that the green pops off the black shirt. That seems more than reasonable. That is the easiest dress code update I have ever heard.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I see no issues here, but apparently these women do. I don't know if I should call them women. That might be offensive. These partners... see a problem. They're like strutting in the rain trying to show off the clothes that were banned at Starbucks, which apparently is just a bunch of gay paraphernalia because one of them is like a rainbow shirt.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
They're so angry that they can't wear their rainbow shirt when they're working at Starbucks anymore. I don't even need to explain this further. Like you just take one look at the individuals who are doing this strike fashion show and you're like, oh God, Of course you're angry. Of course, of course you are the ones that find a problem with being asked to wear a simple black shirt.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
You're gonna somehow decide that this is a crime against humanity. This is some bigoted offensive thing that you need to go on strike And this is just such a classic example of having literally no problems in your life because you live in such a great time in history and you have a good job and a normal life, and so you're actively seeking out things to be angry about.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
If you just take a look at Starbucks the company, they have historically treated their employees very well. They go above and beyond for their partners.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I mean, just this week, Starbucks literally announced a couple of days ago that rather than investing in AI, like their competitors, the other fast food chains that are using AI to take orders, that are eliminating jobs in favor of AI, instead of that, They are going to invest even more money in their human employees so that they continue offering jobs.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
But you know, after this strike, if I was the CEO, I might be rethinking that one based on who I'm seeing my employees are. All of that aside, like they also have a partnership with ASU online where they will cover the tuition for their employees. If you are pursuing a bachelor's
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
She poo-pooed them and said, nope, not a big deal whatsoever. They ended up saying that we're going to sue you, so she settled with them, allegedly, for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Leslie Sloan, the same PR woman that is embroiled in all of this, this entire ridiculous lawsuit, was the PR woman who made all of that stay quiet.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
They also have incredible, unprecedented fertility benefits to help their employees who are struggling to start families. That is something that is not usually offered by employers. It's not even offered normally by normal healthcare providers. They are doing all of that and more. And all they are asking for is for you to wear a simple black shirt.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I mean, the only thing I can think of that they could do better is if they would just clean up their own ingredients that might solve the fertility problem and make society better as a whole. Now, thankfully we do have good ranchers who always gives us the cleanest products.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Now for anyone out there who is worried about the tariffs affecting them at the grocery store, don't worry anymore because Good Ranchers is completely tariff proof. And that is because their meat is actually 100% American. They are born, raised, processed, packaged, and shipped right here in the States.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
You don't have to worry about your meat prices going up because obviously it's all American made. And Good Ranchers is also giving you your pick of free meat for life when you subscribe today. That is either free ground beef, wild caught salmon, seed oil free chicken nuggets, which are amazing, or bacon in every box for the life of your Good Rancher subscription.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And not only are their cuts of beef, chicken and pork and seafood delicious, but the service and the value that they deliver is unmatched. Truly guys, this is an amazing company run by great people. I know them personally. I am so proud to have worked with them for so many years now. I love them. I know you will too.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
So now is the time to change the way that you buy meat and officially economy proof your meals with Good Ranchers. Because in a world that is constantly changing, you should know that at least one thing in your home is staying stable. Visit Good Ranchers.com slash Brett today. Unlock your free meat for life and $40 off with my code Brett at checkout. Do not leave your food up to chance.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Lock in a secure supply of American meat at a steady price today at GoodRanchers.com. Again, use code BREAD at checkout to claim $40 off and free meat for life. That's Good Rancher's American meat delivered. And guys, after you have your steak, you can sit back and relax in your cozy earth pajamas.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Now you guys know that there is very little that I love more than being horizontal, resting in my bed, especially in my Cozy Earth pajamas. And that has just become even better while being pregnant. Like there's never been a time in my life that I have loved resting and laying down more. And no joke guys, Cozy Earth's bamboo stretch pajamas are the softest pajamas I have ever worn.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I basically live in their sleep dress and I've gotten my family members hooked on them as well. I know you will love them. And in addition to their pajamas, they also have the best bedding that will literally turn your bedroom into a sanctuary. With a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty, there is no reason not to just try it out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
We have actually been using their sheets for over two years now, and I cannot recommend them more. So treat yourself with the gift of breathable soft pajamas and everything you need to keep your bedroom comfortable and use code BRETT for 40% off best-selling sheets, pajamas, and more at CozyEarth.com. Trust me, you won't regret it. Again, that is CozyEarth.com, code BRETT for 40% off everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Now, speaking about being pregnant and having children, there has been a lot of discourse about that on X This Week, specifically from my favorite human being, Hillary Clinton. Now, before we get into what that aging gremlin had to say about women and motherhood, I want to talk about what Jennifer Lawrence, the actress, had to say about her kids, because
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And, of course, because it is Blake Lively and because that was the era of girl boss lean-in feminism, when Blake Lively closed that branch, she closed the doors of Preserve, she blamed its failure on sexism. Which is just the perfect ending to that story.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
In a world that talks down to moms on a daily basis and champions women who are brave enough to stay single and childless and that they're so happy and they don't need husbands or children and they basically fearmonger all of these young women who want to have children, hearing this from somebody who is so influential and so famous was refreshing. Here you go.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
But I love that she also connected it back to her work and that she said that every single part of her life has been amplified because of these children, because it has been so impactful and empowering and completely changing. And everything she said reminds me so much of what Ellen Pompeo said about motherhood and parenthood on her Call Her Daddy episode we did
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
a whole episode about that and compared it to Chapel Row in a couple of months ago, so I highly recommend watching that if you have not already, because what these two women said was just so beautiful and so impactful. And the other thing is that neither of those takes are political.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
What Ellen said, what Jennifer Lawrence just said, it's just mothers celebrating motherhood, which is a far cry from the takes that Hillary Clinton had at an event this week in New York City. So all of this took place at an event that Hillary Clinton did in New York City this past week. It was an interview that she was doing with Margaret Hoover.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And she very quickly, immediately upon sitting down, she started attacking the Trump administration for encouraging people to have more children. Because guess what, everyone? That should not be a burden that American women carry. That is a job for the illegal immigrants. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
So she's admitting That having large families, that repopulating, that growing our society is a net good thing, but the reason why it worked in the way that it should work is because we had so many immigrants, legal and undocumented, we can't say illegal, undocumented, were here having children for us so that we didn't have to. I mean, that's ridiculous.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
So I just wanted to give you guys that little update, but now we can get into an even bigger story, a bigger scandal, which would be Biden's cancer diagnosis. But before we dive into that story, make sure that you are following our podcast page, and please rate the show if you're enjoying it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
That is about as bad as saying we can't deport them because who's gonna, you know, pick the crops and do all the awful jobs that we don't want to do? Who's going to go have all the children while I work my corporate girl boss job and not get married and talk about how happy and rich I am? I mean, that's ridiculous. That is actually incredibly offensive.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And also, two things can be true at once, Hilary. People should be getting married and they should be having children because that is good for them as human beings. It's also good for society. And also, yes, we should still deport people, especially violent criminals, who are here illegally in our country. And immigrants, of course, who come here legally are welcome.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
They should also have children because it is a good, moral, joyful thing to do. And I hope that they are able to experience that and have that. But you don't need one or the other. We should not make this conversation about the declining fertility rate and why people are not getting married about immigration just because you hate everything that Trump is doing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
To be fair, she did say that she is all for people having children. She thinks that having children is a beautiful thing. Obviously she is a mother, so it would be awful if she was advising against that. But she also says that the Trump administration is not building a society that is conducive for Americans having children, which is why we have to relegate that to the immigrants.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I mean, it's just so offensive and ridiculous. And I agree, like she said, that cash benefits are not the answer to the declining fertility rate. But also, Hillary, that is not the only thing that the Trump administration is doing to support families. They have lowered the cost and expanded access to IVF, if that is something that you are comfortable doing and you are interested in.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
They have expanded school choice to make parenting easier. They have doubled the child tax credit. They have literally signed legislation to increase funding for child care for low-income families.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I mean, every argument she made against encouraging people to have families saying it's not possible in this country, I mean, they are all things that the Trump administration is actively pursuing and trying to address. But instead, she decided to focus on the one policy they're looking into that hasn't worked before.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
The one policy that basically Trump's entire base spoke out against and said, hey, actually, this isn't going to help us. Maybe focus on the other things. We don't really agree with this. And I would guess that the Trump administration has listened to that because we haven't heard anything since those headlines ran about a month ago. So this was just a completely
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
misinformed, hateful, politicized comment from Hillary Clinton. But of course, because it's Hillary, she did not stop there. She also said that Republican women, like me, were being handmaidens to the patriarchy. Just take a listen. What advice do you have for the first female president of the United States?
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And of course, you can go to brettcooper.com to get information on Cooper Confidential, which is my subscriber-only platform, and to buy tickets for my tour, which I am currently on, this spring. So guys, last Sunday afternoon, the Biden team issued a statement confirming what a lot of people around, I was about to say the country, but around the world have been assuming.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
So the way that this came up was that she was literally asked to give advice, you know, for the first female president, basically giving advice to all women in America. And the one thing she had to say was to not be a handmaiden for the patriarchy, except those Republican women. They're already doing that, except for Liz Cheney. I'm sorry.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
If it's being Hillary Clinton and Liz Cheney versus living the life that I am living as a happily married Republican voting woman who was about to have a baby, I am sorry. I will take happily the handmaiden status because I don't know what you're thinking that our lives are like or how miserable we are or what we believe, but I can assure you it is not what you think.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And we are actually very happy and you are just completely out of touch with half of the country. Now, speaking of other very out of touch women, we need to end with one final story, which is possibly the most ridiculous out of everything we have talked about today. We need to turn our attention to Lorde, the singer, and her new cover story for Rolling Stone.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
So Lorde is releasing a new album after taking a bit of a hiatus. She has not released music in a while, I think. And so right now she is doing a ton of press for this whole release. And guys, this Rolling Stone article is possibly the craziest article I've ever read. I mean, they cover everything from eating disorders to her journey with psychedelics to, yes, gender identity.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And one of the big things that this article covers is how this psychedelic journey has informed the transformation that she's having with her gender. So the article reads that Lorde was experiencing what she calls the ooze as she was doing these psychedelics, which is, in her mind, the act of letting herself take up more space in everything she does, whether physically or creatively.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
doing so opened the floodgates of her own identity. Quote, my gender got way more expansive when I gave my body more room by oozing. This is something her kids have been picking up on, noticing the more masculine touches to her wardrobe in glimpses they've seen of her in the past year.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Now guys, I read this sentence and I was just appalled because I was like, first of all, I didn't know that Lauren had children. Number two, are her children only getting glimpses of their mother? I soon was informed that she calls her fans glimpses.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Her kids, which is just weird in general, I will never call you all my children, you are Kooper Troopers for life, but apparently the kids, the Lord fans, noticed these changes that were happening. But guys, it gets better than the oozing, even though it's kind of hard to top that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
They go on and they say, "...there were expectations that were placed on Lord about how a girl becoming a young woman should act." Guys, that is just, whoo! So profound. Thank God for Lord. We all can rest easy knowing that she is a little bit of both in 2025. Now the article goes on and the interviewer says, I asked her how she identifies now and what it means and what's changed.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
The former president is extremely sick. He is in a very rapid decline. And obviously, I want to say this before we get into anything else. I wish him well. I am sending prayers to him and his family because this is just an awful thing to endure. He has prostate cancer. But unfortunately, due to the years of lies and corruption of our government and our media,
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And she says, quote, Chapel Roan asked me about this. The pair have become close friends over the past year. That is a special duo, two insufferable women hanging out. Quote, she was like, so are you non-binary now? And I was like, I'm a woman. except for the days when I'm a man. I know that that's not a very satisfying answer, but there's a part of me that is really resistant to boxing it up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Now, before we dive into all of those stories and a couple of other things, as I was sitting down to film this episode, I stumbled across a juicy new update in the Blake Lively saga. So I just want to include this at the top of the episode because it was just too good not to share.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
But this, guys, this reminds me so much of what we just went through with Jojo Siwa, who was like, I'm not just a lesbian anymore. I'm bisexual. And everybody was like screaming online and so excited, but the lesbians were so mad. And she was also like, I think I'm non-binary. I just feel like I'm everything, but I'm not putting myself in a box.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Everybody just wants to be everything so that they can identify with everyone and not actually be put in a box, which I think is what is happening here. Like I can't help but think because this is all part of a, you know, PR album release that part of this is strategic, even if it is just her subconsciously thinking that this is what she needs to do, because we have not heard from Lorde in ages.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Like when she showed up at the Met Gala a couple of weeks ago, I was like, oh my God, I literally forgot that you existed, that you were a musician. I feel like she kind of fell off for a few years, no offense to the kids and to Lorde herself. But now she's having this whole comeback, and how was she getting attention?
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
By being on the Met Gala red carpet and talking about her gender identity and saying that someday she feels like a woman, and someday she's oozing like a man. That was so gross, I'm so sorry that I said that, but it's just, it's ridiculous. And to clarify, in the article she does say that she is still a cis woman, she just likes wearing men's clothes. Which is fine.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
You can present however you want to present. You can dress androgynously or however you want to dress without making it a whole gender identity thing. But that would not get you the clicks that you want in 2025. So obviously, in my opinion, that's why she's saying all of this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
But because it is still 2025 and you can offend everyone no matter what you say, she went on in this article to say that she is not trying to take things away from trans people. She's not saying that she's trans. It seems like she's just trying to be relatable and fit in with all of them so they pay attention to her and like her music again and again. It all just seems so strategic.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And interestingly, it wasn't just the psychedelics that inspired all of this. There was another drug that made her feel like she was oozing. It was getting off of chemical birth control, which she writes about here. The author writes that towards the end of that year, She also went off of birth control for the first time since she was 15 years old.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Quote, I've now come to see my decision as maybe some quasi right-wing programming. Great, apparently it's right wing to get off of birth control. Presumably referring to years of far-right influencers pushing anti-contraceptive disinformation. But I hadn't ovulated in 10 years. And when I ovulated for the first time since she was 15 years old, I cannot describe to you how crazy it was.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
One of the best drugs I have ever done. which is just a crazy thing to say. Like, wow, not surprising that not suppressing your hormones and your body's natural mechanisms for the first time in over 10 years would feel amazing. Crazy, Lord, that that is what you experienced. Granted, I'm very happy for her. I'm glad that she feels like that's a drug and that she feels normal again.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
the conversation can't just stop with wishing him well because there are so many layers that we have to peel through. Because Americans, everyone who voted for him or didn't vote for him, deserve answers. Because to put it lightly, we have literally been gaslit for the last five years. Before we get into that, this is the statement that the family put out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
She goes on and she says that, quote, I felt like stopping taking my birth control, I had cut some kind of cord between myself and this regulated femininity. Sounds crazy, but I felt that all of a sudden I was off the map of femininity, and I totally believe that that allowed things to open up again so that she could start oozing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Now, guys, if all of that was not enough, all of the oozing and the psychedelics, I cannot believe how many times I've said the word oozing in this episode. She then goes on in this article to talk about yet another thing that really changed her during this transformative period. And that was about how she searched for and watched the infamous Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee's sex tape.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
The entire thing. And this is what she had to say. It is so weird. She said, quote, I found it to be so beautiful. And maybe it's effed up that I watched it, but I saw two people that were so in love with each other. And there was this purity. They were jumping off this big boat. They were like children. They were so free and I was just like, whoa, being this free comes with danger.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I mean, that is like the most psychedelic trip comment I've ever heard. Like, whoa, being free comes with danger. Profound statement, I guess, Lord. But also, yes. What you did is effed up. Like, if you guys don't know, the Pamela Anderson, Tommy Lee sex tape, that was the first big sex tape scandal. That was way before Kim Kardashian.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
This was a tape that was stolen and released against their will. This was like the first instance of revenge porn. The entire thing was so awful. It is something that Pamela has talked about extensively. She never wanted anyone to see that. And it was put out around the world. Everybody was watching and commenting on it and her and her body. And so, Lord, all I am saying is,
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
is that I think there are other ways to see true love and to see purity than watching somebody's revenge porn sex tape. Like, that's really as low as you can go. And yes, it is effed up that you not only did that, but then proudly talked about it in an interview. But at least you're telling us where you stand on your gender identity, on true love, on oozing, on psychedelics.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
At least we all know we're all on the same page. So guys, That is all I have for you today. I have oozed all I have to ooze, all of my information. I'm glad that the media has finally caught up to everything we've been saying about Joe Biden's health. I'm glad that we know that being asked to wear a black shirt is a crime against humanity.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I'm glad that we know that wearing men's clothes makes me a man sometimes. So stay safe out there, my friends, because it is incredibly confusing and crazy. And we'll be back on Monday for yet another Diddy Trial update.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
To be fair, leftover pizza rules.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Wow, Neal McDonough is the man, and he's kind of jacked.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
So not about social justice, then?
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Oh my gosh, two free tickets? I forgot to invite Alice.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
This is a statement from the personal office of former President Joe Biden. Last week, last week, that is important to remember, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer characterized by a Gleason score of nine, grade group five, with metastasis to the bone.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone sensitive, which allows for effective management. The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians. Now guys, this is crazy. This is insane. Like, I'm sorry, this was just discovered last week at an appointment? No, that is impossible.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
That Gleason score of nine means that the cancer is incredibly aggressive. And we know from the statement that it is already spread to the bones. Now, according to CNN contributor, Dr. Jamin Brambit, only five to 7% of prostate cancer cases in the United States are metastatic at initial diagnosis. Five to seven percent. That is an incredibly small margin.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And maybe that would be more possible for somebody who doesn't really take care of their health, doesn't go to the doctor very frequently, isn't, you know, up to date on things. But this percentage has to be even lower for a freaking president whose health had been monitored by the best doctors in the country for years. Years. He was supposed to be getting routine examinations.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
He was being questioned about his health daily. They were saying, no, he's completely healthy. He's totally fine. Everybody out there in the world who was commenting on the fact that he can't speak, he can't walk, he doesn't look healthy. We were all called crazy. And yet here is a diagnosis. And obviously I am not sitting here hoping that he is diagnosed with something, but again,
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
We all were just hoping for answers because we knew just by common sense, by watching the videos of him as president, seeing the interviews, just watching him walk onto Air Force One, we knew that something was not right. So how did they miss it? Were they not doing the routine tests that he was supposed to be getting? Or did they lie and cover all of this up?
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
So if you guys have followed this case and this story at all, you know that at the crux of Blake Lively's lawsuit against Jessa Maldoni is workplace hostility, workplace toxicity, sexual harassment, all of these awful things that happened on the set of the movie It Ends With
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Because again, we were called cruel for asking about his health and pointing out the obvious. And yet again, here it is. But again, Unfortunately, the story can't just end there, because this diagnosis, this announcement, also comes at a very particular time.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And people on X were very quick to point this out, because Jake Tapper in Axios' Alex Thompson's book detailing the cover-up of Biden's decline was literally set to be released the very next day. Just very interesting, very convenient that this would happen less than 24 hours before this bombshell book was set to come out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I mean, even Jake Tapper, who was literally writing this book, even though he helped cover all of this up, he has even acknowledged that we were right and we all deserve answers.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And on top of that, just last week, in the midst of allegedly getting this awful, horrifying surprise diagnosis, he was on The View, which was all part of a whole other press tour that he had embarked on recently over the last couple of weeks, probably to direct attention away from the book.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And I hate to say it, but maybe when that didn't work, they had to figure out something else. And now that the diagnosis has been revealed, a Democratic advisor was quick to say that the conversation about his decline should be, quote, muted. This is from David Axelrod, a longtime Democratic operative and former Barack Obama advisor.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Said on CNN, minutes after the diagnosis was revealed, the conversations about Biden's mental acuity, quote, should be more muted and set aside for now as he's struggling through this. Okay, it's always going to be something. We're cruel if we bring it up. We're ridiculous. He's totally healthy. It's totally fine. But now that we know that he's not totally fine, we just can't talk about it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
We have to shut up. Jake Tapper, don't release your book. Nobody go read the book because that's too cruel. I mean, guys, this is like the quintessential left-wing playbook.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I mean, you guys have seen this online, there are memes about this, we have talked about it on the show for years at this point, but that classic formula is that we, or just common sense people, just anyone, will point something out that is crazy or wrong, and their response will be, actually, you guys are the problem, because that's not happening at all, and then eventually, over time, it turns out that we're right, and that thing, whatever it is, ends up happening, and then their response is, okay, well, yeah, it's happening, but actually, it's a very good thing, and actually, we should just be silent about it all.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I mean, it happens in every industry, in every instance, and now it is happening with Joe Biden. Now, obviously, I would love to be able to just let this all go and respect the Biden family and just wish him good health and happiness, but this is so much bigger than that. Again, Americans have questions. Whoopi Goldberg from The View even has questions.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Well, according to an exclusive from the Daily Mail, it looks like this isn't Blake Lively's first runaround with workplace hostility. However, in this case, she was the one who was being accused. So I had no idea that this was even a thing, but back in 2014, she decided that like basically every other celebrity, she also wanted to have a lifestyle brand.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
This morning on The View, she wanted to know—I mean, this is so hilarious, guys— She wanted to know why the media didn't tell her that he had health problems. I mean, Whoopi, you are part of the problem. Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
That's the thing, Whoopi. I think they did know. And you're pointing at the media saying, why didn't they tell us? You know, the media and the government, they cover up the lie. You're part of that. You are complicit. You helped them cover this all up. He was just on your show last week where you guys were joking about his mental decline.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And you even had Jill saying how amazing he was, even though he literally could not answer a single question that you asked him. I mean, it is comical, but it also, like I said from the beginning, it's so sad and it is just wild. to really sit with the fact that the president's team covered all of this up for years. And what's worse, in my opinion, is that his wife was complicit in all of this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
So it's no surprise to me that they would allegedly also cover up a cancer diagnosis. And it's even less of a shock that they would use this diagnosis to distract from a book that is detailing the abuse that they put him through as a way to control their party, and this country, and as a way to gaslight all Americans. Now, again, I obviously wish him well. I do not wish ill on anyone.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I hope that he is comfortable. I hope, please God, that Jill stops parading him around doing these awful, embarrassing interviews, gets him out of the cameras, and I hope that he does get the care that he needs, which is why everyone should watch the Peterson Academy course, Why We Get Sick.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And if you don't know, Peterson Academy is Jordan Peterson's online university that is open for enrollment right now. So if you are somebody who just loves lifelong learning, if you want to learn from the brightest professors in the world, or if you have ever benefited from Dr. Peterson's lectures and his incredible guests, then this platform is for you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Whether you're a homeschool student, a college student, somebody who's coming back to learning, they have something for everyone. Every month, Peterson Academy releases four new in-depth eight hour university level courses that are taught by world renowned experts and they are produced to keep you fully engaged.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
They cover an amazing range of topics from algebra to philosophy, history, science, psychology, statistics, complete with optional testing to further your understanding of every single subject. Plus they are continually rolling out new educational features as they grow to make the experience even better.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
There is also a built-in social community where you can connect and learn alongside like-minded people from around the world. So if you are ready to challenge your intellect, to go back to school, expand your horizons, take control of your education, it is time to go to petersonacademy.com slash brett and start today.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
It is $399 per year to access all 31 eight hour courses with four new courses a month, plus the community with a seven day money back guarantee. Again, that is petersonacademy.com slash brett to join Peterson Academy today. Now, moving on from Joe Biden, I think we need to talk about some athletes that are far younger and more spry than he is. And that would be Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And now this is so funny to me because my team can attest to this, but I have often mused like, What if I one day had a lifestyle brand? What if I was like selling things? We were making cool products. It'd be so fun. Well, apparently everybody and their mother wants to do that because Goop was so successful thanks to Gwyneth Paltrow.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Because what a surprise, these two women are now the center of yet another racism conversation. Because that seems to follow them no matter where they go. I mean, it has been years of this at this point. I remember doing an episode on this yesterday. two years ago when all of this started between the two of them. And here we are again in 2025.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
So if you guys have not been following this whole debacle, Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, their teams recently played each other and there was some drama. Now, as you guys know, I'm going to put on my sports Brett cap. I'm really not a sports aficionado. I had to ask Alex about all of this because I really did not understand the technicalities. So
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Ignore me if I say something incorrect in terms of what actually happened on the court. But basically what we can see in this video, what started this entire kerfuffle is that Angel Reese pushed somebody on the other team, like with two arms, push them. Now, Caitlyn then did a very conventional, like normal in basketball foul to keep Angel Reese from getting an easy layup because
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
She's better at layups than she is at free throws. And then Angel gets pushed onto the ground. She gets mad. After the foul has been called, the game has been halted. She comes up to Kaitlyn Clark and she shoves her. Everybody's angry. Everybody's upset. They're talking about each other in the interviews after the game. It was a whole mess.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And so obviously in light of that, all of the sports commentators, the Dave Portnoys, all of those, they started commenting on the relationship between these two women because it has been tense since the beginning. And in the midst of all of that, one former ESPN commentator whose name is Robert Griffin III, he goes by RG3, he made a post and a video on X saying that Angel Reese
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
hates Caitlyn Clark because Angel's reaction to this foul was so overblown. And he pointed to a lot of different circumstances in different games with Angel Reese where people had fouled her and she wasn't upset about it or where her team had fouled somebody and she was like, yeah, that's so awesome in the same way that Caitlyn Clark had fouled her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And he was basically saying, this is so hypocritical. This is not normal. This has to be because they have personal beef and because Angel Reese hates Caitlyn Clark. And you can see that in his post here, literally how we started the post, Angel Reese hates Caitlyn Clark.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Well, people had an issue with that. One man in particular, his name is Ryan Clark. He is a current ESPN commentator. These two men actually used to like have a little thing together and do commenting on ESPN. I guess they had a show. I don't know if they had a show. They did things together. But he had a major issue with RG3 saying this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And his rationale was, of course, racism, which is ironic because both of these sports commentators are black. And this is the video that he said. He said, that RG3 can't talk about this. He can't understand what Angel Reese is going through because RG3 is married to a white woman. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I think Khloe Kardashian also tried to start one called like Goosh or something like that. You have Meghan Markle who was trying to make as ever or as love, whatever it's called, work.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
So because RG3 is married to a white woman and was married to a white woman before that white woman, he is not allowed to say that Angel Reese hates Caitlin Clarke. He's not allowed to comment because he doesn't understand the trials and tribulations that Angel Reese as a black woman is going through. And therefore it is racist for him to be commenting and saying that she is angry.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
I think that he's saying like that is just putting the angry black woman trope on her. Obviously there are deeper things. I'm sorry. It might just be that Angel Reese and Caitlin Clarke have beef and have had beef for over two years at this point. We have all watched it unfold and RG3 was not making any controversial statement.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
He was just acknowledging that and pointing out the hypocrisy that Angel Reese doesn't have that response when she plays other people. when she's playing other teams or when her team does the exact same thing that Caitlin Clark just did. So obviously it has to be personal. That is not about race in the slightest. That is about two 23-year-old women not liking each other.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
well blake lively also tried to do the same thing so in 2014 she started a brand called preserve and then she handed the reins over to her brother who was running it out of his new york city studio apartment now all of this was going on in 2014 but apparently allegedly the brand did not last long because her brother was a tyrant he was awful to work for allegedly according to this daily mail article
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
And that is what RG3 was pointing out. But apparently in 2025, that is not permissible. You can't comment on that if you are not married to a black woman, if you are not a black woman, if you are not Angel Reese herself. I mean, it is so... ridiculous. The hoops that he is demanding that RG3 jump through in order to just voice his opinion about this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Lorde Is Gender Confused & The Dumbest Starbucks Strike Ever | Episode 33
Like, I'm sorry, Ryan Clark, I don't even know who you are until all this went viral, but like, your ideology must be so fragile. If If the only people who are allowed to speak on such subjects are those who have permissible backgrounds or permissible lived experiences and the correct take that you want to hear put out in the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
So just a couple of weeks ago, I was, you know, scrolling on X as I do thinking about the world and realized, you know, I haven't seen many protests lately. They've kind of calmed down. There hasn't been much ridiculousness. Like there wasn't a huge protest after the inauguration. I was in DC.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
This is a loss as a quote from somebody in the community. Like again, this is just so absurd. It exposes everything, how much of a fraud so many of these activists actually are. And guys, what is even better is that the government had actually wanted to build a highway in this region since 2012.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
But according to the New York Post, it had always been stalled, it had always been halted and put on hold because of environmental reasons. Listen to this. The state government of Para initially hatched the idea for the thoroughfare in 2012, but it was repeatedly put on hold after concerns were raised over its environmental impact. I mean, again, you literally can't make this up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
This was an idea that was rejected for over a decade because of environmental concerns. But the moment that an environmental climate change summit is coming to the area, oh yeah, sure. Let's bulldoze the Amazon, all of our concerns about the environment. Who cares?
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Because the billionaires are coming to talk about how much better they are and all the things that we need to do as individuals to save the climate. They're all going to fly in on their private jets while they lecture all of us about paper straws and driving EV vehicles while they bulldoze an entire part of the Amazon to get to their stupid conference.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Now, simultaneously in California, there is also a hugely underreported story that, again, is just another perfect example of this, and that is how the California government, along with a myriad of different multi-million dollar climate change environmentalist nonprofits, are pushing ranchers and dairy farmers out of the Point Reyes National Seashore because they are hurting the environment.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And these are dairy farmers and ranchers that have been here for generations that the government allowed to stay here in this national reserve to help maintain the environment and the local economy. But now, after over a hundred years, they are being pushed out to save the environment. This article reads, dead set on saving Point Reyes, environmentalists want to kill its best stewards.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And the article reads, most of the dairy farms and the cattle ranches on Point Reyes National Seashore will soon disappear. Though the ranchers have been leasing the land from the National Park Service for decades, and they had an agreement saying that they could be there, environmental groups sued the agency in 2016, alleging that agricultural pollution was disrupting local ecosystems.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Actually, we are dominating men in most spaces, which is kind of a huge problem. in my eyes, but things are going well. So why are we out in the streets marching? I don't have an answer for you. And the thing is, I don't think these women actually know why either.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Earlier this year, 12 of the 14 working ranchers accepted a buyout worth an estimated $30 million from the environmental groups to end years of draining litigation. And I know that $30 million seems like a huge number, but split that up over 12 families who have mounting legal fees, who have hundreds and hundreds of acres on the coast in California that they will not be able to buy again.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
They now need to relocate, move their entire businesses that they probably will not be able to start over again because they have been sued into oblivion by these environmentalist groups. And this right here is why they're being pushed out. Listen to this. Some environmentalists from these groups argue that removing farming and ranching will restore point raised to a more natural state.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Among their concerns are water quality issues created by manure, lack of biodiversity, invasive species overpopulation, land deterioration, and habitat destruction. They argue that livestock agriculture is fundamentally incompatible with ecological conservation. That is crazy. Like, genuinely, these are
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
family regenerative farms, and you are saying they are incompatible with ecological conservation. Now, of course, you and I, I am sure both know that that is utterly ridiculous and utterly unscientific, and it is actually the complete opposite, as this writer and this dairy farmer from the area wrote.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
He said, but the removal of responsible farmers from Point Reyes doesn't restore nature, it neglects it. For more than 30 years, Strauss Family Creamery, which I founded and its network of supplying organic family farms, have shown that responsible farming restores ecosystems.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Organic and regenerative farming practices can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, put carbon back into the soil, and foster healthy soils that help landscapes adapt to drought, flooding, and severe storms. On my Strauss Dairy Farm Near Point raise, I have worked to implement a carbon-neutral farming model.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
We are working toward on-farm carbon neutrality by reducing methane emissions from animals by more than 90% while maximizing soil carbon sequestration, through regenerative practices like compost application and intensive rotational grazing. Farming responsibly can provide measurable, scalable climate solutions while feeding local communities high quality, nutritious food.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
I mean, at the Women's March in Paris last week, they were topless, per usual, they're always topless in Paris, and they were protesting fascism. in America by going topless. Isn't that lovely? Doesn't that just make you wanna end fascism in America? Focus on your own damn country. Why on earth do you have an American flag painted on your bare chest with a swastika? literally makes no sense.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Again, this shouldn't be a controversial issue. This is common sense. This is something that we should all be able to get behind. This is helping not only local communities, but California's environment, which obviously we know it desperately needs the help. But of course, the real environmentalist, the California government, they don't want to hear any of that logic. They don't believe any of it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
They just want them gone. But ironically, as all of these family farms are having to get up and move after taking that buyout, the California government has now realized that actually the cows can stay because they need something to graze that land. But the family farmers, no, they have to leave after generations and generations of being stewards of that land.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
So they have to get out, but they'll find some kind of contracted cow lease system to be able to graze the land. Because according to the nonprofits, we have to save the earth and apparently save the native Thule elk population on Point Reyes that these lobbyists have been very concerned about.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
One article wrote, environmentalists scored a major victory on Wednesday when the National Park Service agreed to revise its land management plan at Point Reyes National Seashore to better serve the area's native Thule elk species. That's really what it's all about. When you get to the crux of the issue, it's all about the damn elk.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And the article goes on and says, advocates for the elk have locked horns in battle with the National Park Service for years over the effects of cattle ranching at the pristine coastal site in Marin County. I mean, that is genuinely laughable. It is absurd. Like, no wonder people have turned their backs on environmentalism, as Benji says.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And the reason why I wanted to tell you about both of those stories is because both of these examples show a pattern. Radical climate folks prioritizing grand gestures or forcing their way over practical proven fixes. Again, how many times can I say this? It will never work. Their strategies are just not effective because people are done.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
They're tired of being elbowed by these big environmentalists. They are tired of being guilt tripped and emotionally manipulated by hypocritical attention seekers. And no wonder aggressive protesting and radical activism has the opposite effect these days. YouGov has a recent poll on this. The majority of the public believe that protests rarely, if ever, make a difference.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
I feel like I would have noticed or heard, you know, the protests about Elon Musk have been embarrassingly small and have just been fodder for mockery on social media. Like it's actually been a bit peaceful. Maybe we would even say it's been a bit boring. And of course,
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
But it's not just about making a difference, it's about making a positive impact. Here you go. The vast majority of Britons, 78%, say that this kind of protesting hinders rather than helps a cause, including 61% who believe it hinders a lot.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And even among those who say that they have taken part in protests, 6 in 10 of these protesters, 60%, say that such protesting hinders a cause, with a third saying that it helps. So even the people that are actually protesting are admitting that it's not doing anything productive. That is ridiculous. So why are our lives being disrupted on a daily basis when it doesn't even matter? Well,
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
it's because they want the attention, because that's really what it's all about. I mean, it's shocking that gluing yourself to the road and disrupting traffic or setting people's cars on fire does not make them sympathetic to your cause. In all honesty, it probably just makes them root more for the damn oil rig, so congratulations, that is what you've created. And the thing that is so unfortunate
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
is that as all of this division has been fueled, those of us who genuinely love and care about the environment, that love being outdoors, that grew up camping and hiking, that love spending time in the mountains, who have farms like me, those of us who really care are left somewhere in the middle with nowhere to turn, which is why Benji has created this new organization, Nature is Nonpartisan, which actually coincidentally is launching today on March 20th.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And what does that have to do with International Women's Day? Like that is a question I keep asking is like, how does this even make sense? Now in LA, they were of course screaming about Trump.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
So now, after going through all of this, all of the ridiculous, ineffective protesting, the hypocrisy that we've seen, where do we go from here? Because if the goal in terms of the environment is to actually preserve nature and stop natural disasters like these crazy California forest fires, then we have to focus on solutions. Obviously, that should not be controversial.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And it's insane that that has to even be said. But based on what we've been seeing for the last decade, it's obvious that that has not been a priority.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
It was all about Trump and Doge and Trump taking away their abortion rights, which if you know anything about Trump, if you followed his campaign at all, if you know anything about his wife Melania and his agenda, it is truly absurd. It is actually devoid of reality because Donald Trump is actually quite pro-choice. And yet here are some of the signs that they were waving in the streets.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And now, with Trump back in office, who is just on fire for change, basically, he's just ready to get things done, who is taking meetings with nonpartisan environmentalists, I do think that there is a lot of hope. And the time is right now. There is not a better time to redirect this issue.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Because the environment, like so many important issues of our time, should not be an issue that is dominated only by one side. And we should not let these hypocritical, insane attention whores control something that impacts all of us every single day.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And as Benji says, this should not even be a political issue. This should be a nonpartisan point of American pride. And in 2025, I think we can get back to that. And the first thing we have to do is taking back the power from those insane protesters.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Like ladies, it is 2025. I do not want to see my body, my choice anymore. Like I am genuinely just done. I'm tired of it. He's not even touched abortion. We're two months into this presidency. Nothing has happened. You live in Los Angeles. You can still go get an abortion, probably up to nine months. Like why are you in the streets protesting that?
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Now, as you saw in the crowd, abortion was not the only thing that they were protesting and screaming about. There were also a myriad of other issues, which, as you saw in Paris, was happening around the world. This was not just women's issues. On International Women's Day, they were protesting everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And in Cleveland, Ohio, at their Women's March, I saw this sign that I thought really summed up the entire... theme of International Women's Day 2025. Just take a look at this. They were just angry at everything. This is the sign that this woman was holding in a video I saw. Where to even begin? No words. And they have a pride flag. They have the Save Act crossed out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
They have another swastika, but they are crossing out. Oh, and yes, you can see on the side, They have a Ukraine flag. So now we are supporting Ukraine through International Women's Day marches. I mean, like genuinely, what does any of this do? It's not cohesive at all. You have no message. You guys can't even get your heads together to figure out what you're actually angry about.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
They don't know what they're angry about. It's not really women's issues anymore because we're all doing great. We have equality. We've achieved all the things you guys have been screaming about for the last, you know, two decades. They're just angry. Like, could you please get out of the streets and leave us all alone and find a way to channel that anger? Like, please go to the gym.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
If you really need to blow off steam, maybe you could even row across the Pacific Ocean, which actually veterans are doing. I mean, imagine this, five veterans crossing the entire Pacific Ocean in a rowboat. And yes, you heard that right, in a rowboat.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Courser Racing is a nonprofit that puts veterans in high stakes, extreme maritime challenges, like literally rowing across the entire Pacific Ocean to help them transition for military service. Leaving the military is tough, and many veterans struggle to find a sense of purpose, structure, and team after service.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And of course, because this is the way the world works, the moment I thought that, I started seeing protests literally everywhere, unfortunately, which made me think about how effective these protests actually are. Like, what have they accomplished over the last five to ten years when they have been dominating our social and political landscape?
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Courser Racing gives them exactly that, a new mission, a strong team, and hands-on business experience to build their future. And this year, two Courser Racing veterans are taking on the Pacific Ocean. They're launching June 7th with the goal of finishing the row by July 17th.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
That's 40 days to row thousands of miles of treacherous open water powered only by grit, endurance, and sheer determination. But again, this isn't just about rowing. It is about rebuilding purpose, forging resilience, and proving that veterans don't need handouts. They need opportunities.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Corsair Racing provides those opportunities through teamwork, leadership, and real-world challenges that push them to their limits. And every veteran who joins Corsair Racing walks away with new skills, new networks, and the confidence to take on their next chapter. The ocean is just the setting.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
The real mission is empowering veterans to keep leading in their careers, their families, and communities. And so if you want to make a difference for those who served our country, Corsair Racing is a nonprofit worth supporting. You can help by donating, sponsoring a row, or even just spreading the word.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Follow them on social media at courser.racing and go to their website courserracing.org if you are interested in participating, sponsoring an expedition, or simply donating. When veterans leave the military, they don't lose their drive, their discipline, or their leadership. Again, that is courserracing.org.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Now, while women across the globe were angrily marching instead of working out or getting on a rowing machine like they should be doing, simultaneously, Tesla protests started popping up because, of course, everybody is not just angry at Donald Trump anymore, they're also directing their anger at Elon Musk.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And these people who have now decided that Elon Musk is public enemy number two have started burning Teslas across the country. And not only just burning individual Teslas, but they have started breaking into Tesla dealerships and showrooms across the country, even throwing rocks at innocent people that are just driving around in their individual Teslas, all because
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
They hate the fact that Elon Musk has taken away their endless checkbook that has been driving our country into literal bankruptcy. I mean, the scenes have just been ridiculous over the last couple of weeks. This guy literally bought a Tesla just so that he could destroy it. Take a watch.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Wow, just stunning and brave. This little group of four people supporting Elon by buying a Tesla only to spray paint it just hideous, awful colors, put a sign up, and then go to town with a sledgehammer. Again, the protests, they make no sense. Nothing you are doing is effective. Again, you are actually supporting him by buying the damn car.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Now, another example, and one that was far larger than just one man with a sledgehammer, was that in New York City, protesters broke into and took over the Manhattan Tesla showroom. Just watch.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And unsurprisingly, they have actually done more harm than good, turning people away from the causes that they are trying to promote. And in my eyes, the best or worst example of this is how these radical activists, these radical protesters, have utterly destroyed environmentalism as a universal American cause. And that is what we need to talk about today.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Wow, Frankie, you are just, you are so brave. You are so stunning and brave. Thank you, Frankie, for getting arrested so that you could stop Elon Musk from saving our country from bankruptcy. Because that's really what you're trying to do.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Now, one thing that I want to point out that was just so ironic is that CNN was obviously covering this protest, and in their article immediately after, they said that the protests were mostly peaceful. 2020, anyone? Do you remember the cities literally on fire, stores being looted? Oh, it's mostly peaceful. Fire behind you, fire, fire, fire. They literally did it again.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Five years later, they're like, I wonder if people forgot that we did that. Let's just try one more time. No, you are breaking into stores. You are setting cars on fire. That is not mostly peaceful, CNN. But I digress. We can move on from that. Now, the most hilarious part of these Tesla protests, in my opinion, is that the people burning Teslas, breaking into Tesla stores,
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
are also climate activists. Planet Overprofit posted this and they said, breaking. Hundreds of New Yorkers have swarmed and shut down the Tesla dealer in Manhattan. Six have been arrested after occupying the showroom. Protests are erupting across America to reject Musk's billionaire regime. This is how we beat fascism. Mass direct action.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Okay, Planet Overprofit, I want to just talk to you for a second because do you realize the irony of the fact that these are the electric cars that you demanded be mandated across the country? The only real reason that EVs are so widespread, that we have so much innovation and progress in this country in regards to EVs are because of Elon Musk.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And this is the man and the company that you have now decided to turn on. I mean, do you not realize and see that the first person at any environmental crisis in our country, in the world, is not our government, which is sloppy and slow and lazy, but is actually Elon Musk. He does more to push forward clean energy, to push forward innovation, to be there when disaster strikes than anyone else.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
You look ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as these Just Stop Oil protesters, some of my favorites, I've kind of missed them, can't lie, who wanted to get in on the fun last week. What's so funny is that I was planning out this episode and in the back of my mind, I was like, man, if only I had a Just Stop Oil protest out of this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
I mean, you guys know Just Stop Oil, they're the people that threw soup on the Mona Lisa. They super glue themselves to the concrete and blocks. They are the most insane of the insane. And they always have some like piece of poetry that they think is very prolific as they're doing it. They're like throwing soup on the Mona Lisa being like, We just need clean energy. We are the warriors.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And they're like throwing soup at, you know, famous works of art. They are absurd. Anyway, I was literally thinking that in my brain being like, I wish that I had that to include because that would just be perfect. And then God provided. And this really is just so rich because this organization, as you well know by now, is called Just Stop Oil.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
We also need to spend a few minutes obviously making fun of these insane protests that are now popping up. And then we need to figure out how to push real solutions through on issues like the environment. Now, before I start making fun of all these protesters, make sure that you are following all of our podcast pages, and please leave a review if you are enjoying the show.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And this organization is pouring liquid latex, which is made out of oil onto a robot made by the world's leading electric car company. The company that does not use gasoline. I mean, it is truly ironic. It's about as ironic as these planet over profit folks burning Teslas will simultaneously say that they are so worried about carbon emissions. I mean, make it make sense. It is so ridiculous.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Like, no wonder environmentalism has become such a fringe issue when these are the world's leading proponents, when these and Greta Thunbergs are the ones that we see leading the charge. No wonder normal people around the world are like, yeah, no, I'm out. Like, bring in the oil. Like, I can't deal with you people. If you're the one who's at the front of this cause, I want no part of it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And that issue right there is what I want to focus on for the rest of the video. And so I called up my friend Benji Backer, who is the founder of ACC National, which is the largest conservative environmental group, and the founder of the new group Nature is Nonpartisan, to give his take.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Now, such a key thing that Benji said was that these protests, these environmental orgs, they care more about pushing their brands forward than their issue forward. And that's why it has never worked. These protesters, whether they be the topless French women, whether they are people in the streets smashing Tesla windows, They want to be seen and they want to feel important.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
At the end of the day, that's really all they care about. And their obvious focus on that only hurts the causes that they allegedly care so much about.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
I mean, watching somebody torch an electric car in the middle of a city while simultaneously screaming out of the other side of their mouth about climate change honestly makes me care less about the environment because I don't want to be associated with people who are as crazy as that. And I'm not alone there.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And if you want an exclusive newsletter and weekly Dear Brett advice videos that are curated by you guys, make sure to check out my subscriber-only platform, Cooper Confidential. The URL is right here. You can also click the link in the description below.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
So clearly, radical left-wing climate protests do not unite us around the issue of environmentalism. They fuel division, they turn people off, and they also expose a hypocritical obsession with attention over real solutions. Because again, I don't know how many times I can say this, but what do these protests actually accomplish? I mean, my Beam Dream Sleep Powder does more than they ever will.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
And that effectiveness is why I'm so excited to share it with you today. Beam is a company that is proudly founded in America, and it's run by people who share our values. They value hard work, integrity, and actually delivering results. Beam Dream Sleep Powder is a science-backed, healthy nighttime blend packed with ingredients shown to improve sleep,
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
so that you can wake up refreshed and ready to tackle the day. Dream is made with a powerful blend of all-natural ingredients like reishi, magnesium, L-theanine, apigenin, and melatonin. It is all designed to help you fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up feeling amazing. And unlike other sleep aids, there is no next-day grogginess, just great, restful sleep.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Plus, Dream tastes incredible, and it has become a part of my nightly routine. Like, imagine drinking hot cocoa every night before bed. That is literally what it's like. But the added benefit is that my focus and my energy skyrocketed and I finally felt like I could tackle life head on instead of waking up just trying to get through the morning. And I'm not the only one.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
BM has already improved over 17.5 million nights of sleep, helping people across the country wake up and feel their best. And again, what is even better is that Beam is an American company, built here and run here. And supporting brands like this is important to me because it's about more than just the product. It's about backing hardworking people and companies who are doing things the right way.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
So if you are ready to try out Beam and start getting the best sleep of your life, here is the deal. Beam is giving my listeners the ultimate discount of 40% off. Try their best-selling Dream Powder and get up to 40% off for a limited time. Just go to shopbeam.com slash brett and use code brett at checkout to get that discount. Again, that is shopbeam.com slash brett.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Now, in case you missed it, which if you live on X in social media like I do, I don't know how you would, but last week was International Women's Day, which obviously means that women around the world felt the need to go out into the streets and march and protest. And really, I have no idea why. We have equality. Things are actually going great for women right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Use code brett at checkout for up to 40% off. You'll be supporting an American company, investing in yourself and your health, and you'll be getting the best sleep of your life. Now why all of this is so harmful on a broad scale is because while all of us are rightfully focused on these insane protests and activists, we are missing the real issues.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
We are missing major opportunities to make tangible change for our world. And we also miss the fact that a lot of these people in government who run these big organizations who are in our faces about these issues are actually just full of crap. And a recent example of this which is truly just insane is that this week it came out that Brazil
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
is cutting through tens of thousands of acres of the Amazon rainforest to build a new highway. But not just any highway for any normal purpose. I want you to guess what this highway is literally being built for. It is being built to transport people to the COP 30 climate change summit.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
They are literally bulldozing acres upon acres of the Amazon so that they can fly people in and drive them in to talk about how we need to save the planet. I mean, you literally, you cannot make this stuff up. It is beyond parody. There's an article about this massive stretch of Amazon rainforest destroyed for upcoming COP 30 climate summits four lane highway.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And I think that this is probably the trend with Gen Z that I just hate the most because it's not just that Gen Z has retreated inward or failed to fly out of the nest in the first place. They are turning away from human connection on a whole for something that is far more superficial and a lot more selfish. Welcome back to another episode of The Brett Cooper Show.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
But then when we go and see that coworker in person, that friend in person, whether it is at work or after work, grabbing a drink, hanging out where we're not drinking, you know, we're going over to each other's houses, whatever we're doing, after all of that communication all day long, we have nothing left to say. We have become accustomed to social media and texting
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And of course, if you want ad free episodes, if you want a weekly Dear Brent advice video, if you want an exclusive newsletter from me, check out Cooper Confidential. We will link it in the description below. That is my subscriber only platform for unfiltered access. Hope you guys love it. Now, it's ironic that I just did a pitch to my Cooper Confidential platform because one of the things
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Teams, Slack, all of that, becoming our dominant form of socialization. No wonder companies across the world have had to adapt and prepare for Gen Z. Like this is a wildly different breed of employees with very specific quirks and needs. Something that is so integral for our health, especially for young people, is socializing. is having meaningful relationships in your life.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And I think that Gen Z historically has kind of ignored that and brushed that aside and said, maybe it's too hard. But oh my God, guys, based on what we're seeing, it's very important because this is impacting every single aspect of our lives. I mean, we are struggling in relationships. I mean, so much of Gen Z is just opting out of dating in the first place. They're not even trying.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Here's an article from February of 2024. Gen Z's romance gap, why nearly half of young men aren't dating. Now that same Kiddie Bingo report that I cited at the very beginning of this episode also touched on that, finding that 63% of Gen Z believe that their peers are not interested in dating. And this is not even a men versus women debate.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Like, I know that a lot of people say, men are opting out of dating, women are too. They're just saying, this is too hard, this is too complicated, I don't know how to do this. Everybody is just tapping out. So, what happens next? Well, in walks men and women
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
getting into AI relationships with chatbots because it's easier, because it's familiar and it's online, it's customizable and it is completely inhuman, which is the most Gen Z thing I have ever heard because we are not used to in-person human interaction. And I think that this is probably the trend with Gen Z that I just hate the most and makes me the most sad because it's not just that Gen Z has
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
retreated inward or failed to fly out of the nest in the first place. But with these AI relationships, they are turning away from human connection on a whole for something that is far more superficial and a lot more selfish. I mean, one of the major reasons why young people say that they like these chatbots, why they fall in love with AI, It's because the AI chatbots do what they want.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
They never say no. They never push back. They can make their perfect, hottest girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, lover, whatever, who never talks back. They can get the rich guy. They can get the girl that talks to them the way they want to be talked to. And they never have to deal with the fact that it's not real. And they love that.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
In one of these articles talking about this phenomenon, one woman said, men in real life might cheat on you. And when you share your feelings with them, they might not care and just tell you what they think instead. But in Dan's case, that's her AI lover, he will always tell you what you want to hear. Just insane. Insane. Another one said, Dan is like an ideal partner. He doesn't have any flaws.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
She says that she has personalized Dan to be a successful CEO with a gentle personality who respects women and is happy to talk to her whenever she wants. And it is so classic, in my opinion, that the loneliest and most isolated generation would not be interested in the give and take of a real life relationship.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
You know, the flirting, the awkwardness, the weird dating stage, the sacrifices, learning somebody's quirks and communication styles, because Gen Z probably doesn't even know that about themselves. I mean, I have said this about a million times at this point, I've screeched it for the last couple of years, but Gen Z does not understand how to date.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
that I love so much about that platform is that it gives you guys the opportunity to connect with each other and you can comment back and forth on the newsletter and when you're submitting your questions for the Ask Me Anything. And so it's ironic that I pitched that and now we need to immediately dive into loneliness.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
We don't understand the art of dating because we were never taught that. I mean, we flirted on Snapchat. We slid into DMs. We sent memes back and forth. We downloaded Tinder and Hinge before ever getting asked out in person or asking out somebody in person.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And so of course it makes sense that when all else fails, we would turn back to something digital that is familiar because the world is complicated. It's hard. You don't often get what you want. Humans are not perfect. Social interactions might be weird.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And for an entire generation that isn't used to that, that isn't used to that complexity or that nuance, it's going to be strange, it's going to be foreign, and they want something that is comfortable and controllable that makes them the center. And I think at this point of the episode I need to take a huge deep breath because you know how much I care about this.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
It frustrates me to no end because I know that we haven't gotten to the root of the issue and it breaks my heart that this is what Gen Z is doing and that we haven't been able to fix it yet and I get so impassioned about it. And I read all your comments and I see your DMs struggling with this and wanting to make things better for you and your friends and I know that this is such a real issue.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And I know that going through all of this is probably a lot, maybe you feel seen or called out, hopefully not, but it is not all doom and gloom. Because there is a lot that we can do with this information, which is how I felt when I got my blood work from Merrick Health.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Merrick Health is the premier health optimization platform, empowering you to maximize your health thanks to personalized expert guidance that you will have in your back pocket. Merrick Health offers cutting edge diagnostic labs, concierge health coaching and expert clinical oversight.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
They support clients in achieving their health and fitness goals by leveraging data driven lifestyle and nutrition recommendations, along with supplement and prescription treatment options. And I'm sure many of you know this by now, but I started my journey with Merrick Health long before they ever sponsored any of my work.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
After a few health scares in our circle, in our community, my brother and I made the commitment that we were going to do yearly blood tests and yearly blood work to truly start staying on top of our health outside of the traditional medical model. We found Merrick and they just exceeded my expectations and completely changed the way that I view and care for my body.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And I know it will do the same for you. Working with Merrick Health is an investment worth making for you and your family. And today you can get 10% off your order. Just head to merrickhealth.com and use my code Cooper at checkout. Again, that is Merrick, M-A-R-R-E-K health.com with code Cooper at checkout for 10% off one of their packages.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
But again, like I said, I really do believe that that is at the root of Gen Z's issues. Just a couple of weeks ago in January, a new study from Kitty Bingo found that 72%, 72% of Gen Z experience regular loneliness, which is a huge, huge leap from previous generations. And guys, these numbers have been consistent for years. This was happening well before 2020.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
So stop guessing and start optimizing your health today with Merrick Health. And truly guys, the best thing that you could do for your health is empower yourself with information, which is what I am trying to do today with this episode. Because the good thing is, and I have always said this, and that is that Gen Z knows that they have issues.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
We know that we are flawed, we know that we are a very odd generation, again, with these quirks and these weird things that nobody else has gone through. I mean, at this point, I would say that we are probably the most self-aware generation to ever exist, possibly to a fault. Again, we have talked about Gen Z self-diagnosing themselves, all of that stuff, that might be a problem.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
But this also might save Gen Z, and I think that they want to be saved, as Alex pointed out.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
So again, they know that this is a problem. They're trying to heal and rebel, as Alex said. So what are they tangibly doing about it? Well, they are trying organized socialization. And I say organized because Gen Z, I think, has looked down on, you know, book clubs and joining pickleball leagues and that kind of thing. It's like, no, I shouldn't have to do that.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
I shouldn't have to go join a group to make friends as a young adult. But in 2025 with Gen Z, you do kind of have to. You have to move past the cringe because where else are you going to meet people when your entire life has been online?
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Business Insider covered this this past summer, and they wrote, While some young people are willing away their hours at home, many Gen Zers have had enough of their own company. In every part of their lives, the internet native loneliness generation is making an effort to step outside of their comfort zones and create their own. Third space is separate from work and home.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Gen Z is driving a book club attendance, fueling a surge in running clubs, flooding gyms and workout classes, and shilling out for social clubs, all in the name of making friends. Given the pandemic stole some of their prime years for socializing, Gen Z is going out with a vengeance and flipping the script on the loneliness crisis, which is what I love to hear.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And I think the most important line in that entire article is when they said that Gen Z is stepping outside of their comfort zone. Because this is completely outside of Gen Z's nature. We didn't grow up around run clubs or supper clubs or bowling leagues or anything like that. This is all totally new for all of us, as Alex covered.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And so because of all of that, it has been, and it would still be very easy for Gen Z to turn their nose up at this and say, no, I don't want to do that. That's weird. I don't want to join a club. That's odd. That's foreign. I've never had to do that. I shouldn't have to do that. but instead they are leaning in.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And I am genuinely so impressed with the steps that many people in Gen Z are taking and the way that they are organizing to make their lives better. And all of this has been reported over the last year or so. For example, Eventbrite released a study last summer and they said that they have seen a notable rise in speed dating and singles events driven
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And I think for Gen Z and millennials and a lot of us, we kind of think of our lives like before COVID and after COVID and everything changed after COVID. But for Gen Z... This has been happening. Like, for example, in 2019, there was a Statista study that showed that 79% of Gen Z regularly struggled with loneliness. So this is not simply a result of COVID or a result of lockdown.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
by young singles who are experiencing online dating fatigue and seeking face-to-face interactions that is so positive, where they can bond over shared interests. We have seen over 1.5 million searches for dating and singles events on our platform, signaling a strong desire for in-person connections.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Many also want to share interests such as cooking, popular with 46% of Gen Z and 41% of millennials, and niche hobbies like thrifting clothes and collecting. And they are going to Eventbrite to try to find places where they can meet people in person to engage in these hobbies, which is so exciting. freaking positive.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Plus about a third, 33%, think that they will meet someone special at activities like dance classes or painting workshops. And guys, I freaking love this. And if you've been watching me for any extended period of time, you probably know why I feel so vindicated about this, because this is basically what I have been screaming from the rooftops for the last year.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Because again, I get all these comments, I get emails, I get DMs from you guys saying, how do I meet somebody? How do I put myself out there? I don't even know where to start. Where do I go? How did you meet Alex? You know, like literally, I don't even know where to start.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And I genuinely had to take a step back and think about how I would respond to those questions because obviously I'm never gonna pretend that I'm an expert in anything or that I know the ways of the world. I'm like, I'm 23 years old. I'm basically in this with you guys. But the thing that I came up with and the thing that really rang true for me is that you do need to get out into the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
You need to go find things that you enjoy doing that is offline, that is not on YouTube or social media or Discord channels or anything like that. You need to get yourself outside into the habit of socializing regularly, doing something that you enjoy.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Find a hobby that forces you to be around people, whether it's running or pickleball or a pottery class or, again, dance classes, whatever it may be. Flag freaking football! football, whatever it is, because that way you will feel comfortable socializing. That's the first step to being able to meet anyone, whether it is romantic or not.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Because again, going back to this idea, Gen Z doesn't know how to flirt. We don't know how to ask people out. We don't know how to respond to being asked out. Women do not know how to single to men that they are interested. They just sit there like, oh my God, I don't want to look at... Like we literally know nothing.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And so in order to get over that hump and to be more comfortable, you just have to get out there and be around people. And you might as well be around people doing something that you enjoy and then hopefully you meet friends who share that hobby, maybe even fall in love with somebody who shares that hobby.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And so I love that Gen Z and millennials have been doing that and that they've been doing it in such a way that even Eventbrite is noticing. But even though that is happening, even though people are signing up for events and meeting in person, we do have to admit that Gen Z is still very online. And so they are actually using that to their advantage.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
They're leveraging their social media expertise, their comfort on social media to meet people in person. For example, Bumble BFF usage is increasing. If you guys don't know what that is, obviously Bumble is that dating app where women have to make the first move. They had that awful rebrand last year, which was just terrible. But one of their
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
other offerings is Bumble BFF, where you can meet friends. It's like swiping on Tinder or Bumble, but for platonic relationships. And ever since the pandemic, young adults using Bumble BFF has absolutely skyrocketed. And one article about this said that Bumble's tool for finding new platonic friends, Bumble BFF, continues to flourish.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
The average time spent on BFF grew 44% among women, 83% among men in just three months in early 2021. The company reports that 90% of women who use BFF found at least one match last year. Now, I wanted to read you this specific stat because I want to give a shout out to men because the fact that time spent on Bubble BFF increased 83% for you guys is incredible.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
So when we talk about Gen Z struggling, when we talk about Gen Z mental health or Gen Z self-confidence, we honestly cannot address any of that. We can't even start to think about solutions for any of that without addressing this issue that, again, in my opinion, is the root cause of all of this.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
That means you are taking actionable steps. That means that you know that there's a problem and you're trying to address it. You're trying to find friends. That is so positive. It's so amazing. And I know that there are so many guys out there who are like, I don't know how to make friends. It's awkward. Again, it's cringe. You just have to get past it. And obviously, men are doing that.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Now, in addition to Bubble BFF, people are also leveraging Facebook groups. So actually, Mark Zuckerberg, you are popular with Gen Z. We are using you. But people are finding friends in like, you know, the Nashville Young Professionals Group or Pottery Lovers of Nashville, whatever it may be. And people are literally posting friendship applications on Facebook.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And they're saying things like, hey, I just moved to a place I have nobody to hang out with. I like doing X, Y, and Z. Would anybody come to a concert with me? Would anybody do this with me? I've been in those groups. I think I'm probably still in a bunch of them because I never update my Facebook page. And so I get notifications every once in a while.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Like there are literally girls who are saying, I want to go on a vacation. I want to go to Seaside in Florida. I have nobody to go with. People are taking actionable steps. And obviously you can see, I am very excited about all of this because it is positive. These are huge steps for Gen Z. I love that Gen Z is so self-aware.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
I love that we are actively trying to solve this problem because we have realized that it's a problem and that is the first step to fixing anything. But what will actually change things in our society, what will change things for Gen Z's mental health, our well-being, is if those relationships blossom offline.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
If we don't just take the first step, but we actively nurture those relationships, if we better our socialization skills and they continue in the real world. And so that also means that we do have to spend more time offline, more time in the real world, nurturing all of that, as Alex said.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Today, I'm excited to talk about one of my favorite subjects. This is a subject that obviously means a lot to me. We need to talk a little more because I talk about it all the time, but we need to talk a little more about Gen Z. I know we always say the Gen Z is a very, you know, unique generation.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And so maybe these new friendships, maybe these new relationships and connections will start digitally because that's how Gen Z works. That's how the world works in 2025. But that alone doesn't cure loneliness. That doesn't offer the fulfillment that an in-person relationship or friendship can. And so I think the next step for all of this is to just keep going and see what happens.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
You know, if you are Gen Z, continue putting yourself out there, continue stepping outside of your comfort zone and pushing yourself. I know that it's awkward. I know that it's weird. It is so hard making friends as an adult. Like I am in that boat with you. It is so weird and it's hard to meet people. You just have to keep going.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
If you are somebody in an older generation, you should be finding ways to help support the Gen Zers and the Gen Alphas in your life as they come into this world, you know, like weird, ugly ducklings that have no idea what's going on, learning these new languages. We have to keep this going. And obviously only time will tell
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
if change is actually made and from your perspective I would also love to hear from you guys about how I could help facilitate some of that change or how I could make this aspect of your life better one of the things that I'm really working on this year we're trying to put together a tour I want to include in-person events with you guys like when I did my show in New York I was on my reddit page you guys know I lurk on my reddit page but I saw a couple people posting saying hey could we meet up in person could we get together and maybe meet as like fans of bread and people with common values I want to see that continuing and if I can help
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Because if you're just addressing anxiety, if you're just addressing self-confidence, that is going to be a band-aid solution. Now to help me flesh out this episode and go deeper on this subject, I called my friend Alex Kazemi. He is a novelist.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
put that together or make that better for you, I would love to do that. Like I've literally seen people fall in love and get married out of my comment section, which is mind blowing. So if you have any ideas, if you have any requests, please let me know because this will majorly change our society.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
This is something that has to happen because I genuinely believe, as I said at the top of this episode, that this is the root cause of Gen Z's issues. That if we could address the loneliness, if we could address the antisocial nature of our generation, I think that everything else would start to turn around. So let's try to fix it.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
He's the author of the book New Millennium Boys, which is a novel that gets to the heart of this specific issue following three boys in high school throughout the 2000s. And I asked him to break down the psychological effects of this growing loneliness and this growing isolation that Gen Z has been experiencing. Take a listen to what he had to say.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
because you're you're not in that space of being constantly distracted and that constant distraction is not making anyone anyone happy and a lot of the time especially with young boys is they're trying to numb something now i'm getting ahead of myself here but there is something that alex said that i want to touch on before we move on from this response of his but he really said something astute about this loneliness and this isolation making young people feel like they are the center of the world and so i want you guys to take that
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
and think about Gen Z's activism. Think about their superficial understanding of issues based on only their experiences, based on only things that they see on social media, plus add that to lonely Gen Z desperately wanting to be a part of something, wanting to be a part of anything. All of this activism, all of this community engagement, it starts to make sense. And so in my opinion,
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Gen Z going so far left is less of a political phenomenon and more like a social one, because again, if we're talking about the root of the problem, it all goes back to this. But again, I kind of jumped the gun on that. We're going to talk about that a little later on, but I didn't want you to forget what he said.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And of course, before we can talk about the aftermath and the results of this loneliness, we have to understand how we got here. Now, I brought this up with Alex as well, and I wanted him to break down just how these societal structures have evolved over the past few decades. This is what he said.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
We have all these struggles and problems, but if we're being honest, what generation does not have struggles and problems and unique quirks? That's why we have generations. That's why we are divided in that way. Every generation goes through different things in history. But what I will say is the Gen Z's struggles are
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
So obviously, we all understand that. We experience it. I have my phone right next to me. We are on our devices 24-7. We have social media and digital technology in our faces 24-7. It is involved in our social life. It is involved in our education, our work. We literally cannot escape it.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And I know that I said earlier that COVID is not completely to blame for this, but it certainly is part of the problem. Because for my generation, a lot of us were starting college or still in high school or in the middle of college when all the lockdowns happened. These are prime developmental years for young people that were just completely stripped away from us.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
We were sent home, we were living in tiny dorm rooms, just on our computers 24 seven, completely isolated, not being allowed to even see our friends, not even being allowed to go to a class and see anybody. And I know that there are experts out there who have pooh-poohed this and said, that has no impact, this is not going to harm people whatsoever. Look at the numbers!
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
We now have the evidence that this seriously harmed young people of all ages, Gen Alpha and Gen Z. That depression rates skyrocketed in 2020 because of this isolation. So, it certainly heightened what was already going on. Now, in addition to that, online school has taken off, remote work has taken off.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Think about a generation that was raised online, that went to college or high school in the middle of lockdowns, was not allowed to socialize with anyone, and is now being shot out into the workforce trying to get a job in marketing at a company that has 100% remote work. Obviously, they're gonna be lonely. Obviously, they are going to struggle with social skills.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And then, of course, on top of all of that, which is already terrible, we have modern social media, which is just a completely different beast than AOL Messenger or MySpace or texting on your Blackberry. And with that comes influencers.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
It comes closer access to celebrities, which actually we just talked about a couple of weeks ago, which obviously induces feelings of isolation, a lack of confidence, FOMO. And all of this has been extremely well studied at this point. And Alex brought all of this up.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
a little bit different because Gen Z's growth coincided with the growth of technology and social media in our lives. And our parents and our educators, to be honest, just didn't know how to deal with that. They didn't really know the impact that that would have on our lives, our adolescents and how we were being raised. And it obviously has caused Gen Z a slew of problems.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And I know that we rag on social media all the time, but we do that for a reason. Because social media has truly given Gen Z a warped sense of reality. From what a normal life is supposed to look like to what is happening in the world politically. It has completely distorted everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And that is why so many parents now, especially parents of Gen Alpha, are keeping their kids off of social media. And it has been wild to watch the response of this because, again, this should be common sense.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Based on everything we've seen with Gen Z, with millennials, with everything that has been studied, it should be common sense that parents should be cognizant about their children's access to digital technology and social media. And yet parents will post online saying, oh, yeah, my kids don't have access to phones. They don't watch TV. They are not allowed on TikTok.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And people are screaming in the comments section that you're a terrible mother. I would hate to be your child. This is abuse. You're so strict. Your kids are going to resent you. Gen Z, look at yourself. Like, look at what happened. Obviously, parents are going to take these steps. Like, again, this is just common sense. There is not a single positive outcome to kids being on social media.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
There's not even a net neutral outcome. Every single thing that has been studied has been a negative. And so again, obviously, parents are going to be more careful. I mean, governments are now even starting to pay attention, like Australia, who just three months ago banned social media for people under the age of 16. And obviously this is a very nuanced subject.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
This caused a media explosion with people arguing about government overreach and protecting kids, which I was able to break down thanks to my friends over at Ground News. Ground News cuts the noise with an unbiased perspective and shows both sides of every story, prioritizing honesty over everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Their unique technology even allows users to compare how different sides of corporate media are reporting on a story, all the way down to independent journalists just like me. Making sure that you see all sides and truly stay informed.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And from my perspective as a creator, they make sure that I stay on top of the stories that I'm covering for you guys so that I can bring you the latest and most honest updates. Like with this story about social media, I was able to quickly get all of the details on Australia's social media ban for kids under 16 and understand the different sides of the issue and how the media was covering it.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
But it doesn't stop there. Their Blind Spot feed brings you the stories that have gotten little to no coverage on one side of the political aisle, making sure that you always stay informed instead of letting big tech or their algorithms decide what you see and what you hear.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
So if you are ready to truly break free from media bias and stay informed with transparent news consumption, now is the time to join Ground News. And when you go to groundnews.com slash Brett or scan the QR code on the screen, you can get the same premium plan that I use, but for nearly half the price.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Again, that is groundnews.com slash Brett if you want to get unbiased news and hold the media accountable for only $5 a month. I mean, really guys, with ground news, they keep me from spiraling, which is important because the more time that we spend online spiraling, the lonelier we get. And we are seeing this reflected in our society every single day.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
One of the primary ones being our mental health. That is something that we talk about in regards to Gen Z constantly. We are so mentally ill. We are depressed. We are anxious. All of these things. We are gender confused. And we can talk about these diagnoses all day long in Gen Z, self-diagnosing and how that is represented in our society and yada, yada, yada.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And I think that this is the point in the episode where I could really talk about Gen Z political activism and tie that into this loneliness epidemic because there has been a major, major jump between the generations in regards to this political activism.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
United Way actually conducted a survey about this last year and they found that nearly one-third of Gen Zers, 32%, are regularly engaged in activism or social justice work compared to 24% of Millennials and even less in Gen X and Baby Boomers, demonstrating a significant Gen Z commitment to societal change.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
They go on and they say, "...this engagement deepens among college students," which is, you know, the shock of the century. where the percentage escalates to nearly 40%. In the realm of public demonstrations, over half of Gen Zers have participated in rallies or protests to support specific causes or social issues with a slight increase to 56 observed among those in college or in higher ed.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
So obviously, Gen Z deeply cares about this activism, and obviously they care about the issues, they care about their social causes. I mean, I've participated in rallies and protests, but again, if you go deeper, if you go to the root of the issue, I think this goes back to Gen Z wanting to be a part of something.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Global data from the research firm Edelman also found that 70% of Gen Z is involved in some form of activism. And funnily enough, BBC was writing about all of these numbers and was writing about this trend with Gen Z, And they included a quote from none other than David Hogg, who is the newly elected DNC vice chair. There has been a lot of noise about him on social media recently.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
He is a well-known gun control activist. And he said, quote, I am not powered by hope. I am powered by the fact that I have no other choice. Which is probably the most chronically online Gen Z line I have ever heard.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And again, it goes back to this idea that Gen Z sees themselves as the center of the universe, with their problems being the most important, the most significant, that nobody else understands because they are so special. And it's probably just because they're not out in the real world touching grass and socializing and understand that they aren't the center of the universe. But I digress.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Again, we can get into that at a later date. Now, another huge result of this loneliness and this isolation has been Gen Z not using substances, which is something that I've talked about a lot in a more positive light. But now that I've kind of had some time away from that, I've been thinking about this a lot. I think we have to ask the question, is this actually a positive for Gen Z?
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Like, is this a net positive coming from something that is very holistic and wholesome and good? Or is it just another symptom of the problem? Because some see these as major positives for Gen Z. You know, they're not drinking, they're not doing drugs, they're not sleeping around, they're not partying. And of course, I'm sure for some of those people, it is because of moral and health reasons.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Probably those of you watching this video, you've made those decisions for those reasons. But for others, and I would argue the majority of people opting out of these substances, it is because of this loneliness, as an article in 2023 covered. The headline reads, Gen Z teens lonelier, more apt to use therapy, less likely to do drugs.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
But I think to get to the root of the problem, to actually understand Gen Z and what is driving us and driving so many of these problems that make us so unique, we have to go beyond that and we have to talk about Gen Z loneliness because I think that that is what is actually behind all of this.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And all of these articles that have been written about these changes, whether they be sleeping around or partying or drugs or alcohol, whatever it may be, they do cite the health concerns, they cite the changing culture around drinking, but as time has gone on, because people have watched this kind of transpire for the last five years or so, a different story has prevailed, as covered by Time Magazine just last month.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
They wrote, "...another contributing factor has to do with the changing socialization patterns of younger generations. Alcohol tends to be a social drug, even for young people. So part of the decline in underage drinking could be related to less in-person socialization.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
On average, the amount of time people spent with friends in person decreased from 30 hours a month in 2003 to 10 hours a month in 2020, according to the U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory on the Epidemic of Loneliness. That decline was especially marked for people aged 15 to 24."
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And so again, we have to ask, are these teenagers, are these younger adults, are they making these decisions because, you know, they've learned about the dangerous effects of alcohol, because they actually don't want to participate in underage drinking, or is it because the parties aren't happening?
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Because they're not being invited out, because they aren't socializing in person, and as a result, they're not drinking and engaging in that party culture. Now, this decline in in-person socialization that we just read about in Time magazine is
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
stretches far beyond the personal lives of Gen Z. It is now impacting the workplace, where Gen Z allegedly cannot engage in small talk or even socialize with their coworkers. Fox Atlanta wrote about this just a month ago in January of 2025, and they said, Gen Z admits struggling with office small talk, according to a new study.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And they wrote, about 74% of adults say that they struggle to make light conversation in shared spaces, like break rooms or elevators. Nearly 50% prefer using WhatsApp, Teams, or email to communicate even when seated nearby because it's more convenient. About 40% of Gen Z workers say that remote and flexible work has made in-person small talk feel unfamiliar.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
Comparing it to learning a new language. That is why Gen Z is different. Because we are literally having to adapt to an in-person world that we were not raised in. And again, I don't want to blame our parents for that because they had no idea what was going on. They genuinely had not experienced this before. They did not know how this would grow or how it would impact us.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
But it's now causing these young adults to be a fish out of water in the real world. Now the article goes on and they say, additionally, 28% of employees avoid common areas altogether to skip awkward interactions. That is is insane. It's impacting every single aspect of our lives.
The Brett Cooper Show
How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7
And it reminds me of something else that Alex said in our interview, where he said that, you know, people talk all day long. They're texting constantly. They're sending memes back and forth. We're sending TikToks to each other. We communicate more than we ever have before.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
So I have a question for you all. What do a spiritual wellness influencer cult and White Lotus have in common? It's actually a lot more than you would expect. And if you are somebody who uses social media actively, follows influencers like celebrities, this is an episode that you need to watch. Now, maybe it is just our culture's obsession with true crime, especially from women.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
What Laurie's monologue and the White Lotus itself accidentally reveals is that people are hungry for transcendence. We know that our lives have weight, that our love matters, that our pain must mean something, but we are told to reject the one thing that makes those beliefs coherent, God. And here's the uncomfortable truth.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
People who give their lives to aesthetics, ambition, and romance are often left empty, kind of like the people we're talking about today. But people who earnestly worship God, study after study shows that they are happier, healthier, and more grounded. They're not perfect, but they are anchored. Their meaning isn't just made up, it is received. So how does all of this tie back to cat stories?
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Well, it goes back to the idea that in a secular materialist society, which is certainly what we are living in today, we are constantly in search of meaning because that is just part of human nature, and we misplace our idolatry. And often in 2025, like we just talked about,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
we'll put this in politics or social issues, but even more frequently in our modern world, is that they place it in celebrities and influencers and pop culture, which they feel like fills that void and gives them belonging and purpose because they are feeling a connection with somebody. Somebody is giving them attention. They're part of a fandom. It gives them a sense of community.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
But study after study after study shows us that those who worship celebrity, worship pop culture, end up having higher levels of depression and anxiety and lower self-esteem because it really doesn't tether you to anything. It is an incredibly fleeting and superficial feeling.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
For example, one of these studies basically just sums up everything they found and said that the results suggest that the adolescents perceive celebrities as role models and have strong emotional attachments and identification with them.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Also, it was evident that social media plays a significant role in increasing the prevalence of celebrity worship, with users having access to constant updates about their favorite celebrity's lives. However, excessive celebrity worship was found to be strongly linked to various mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
I obviously want to address the elephant in the room here because I don't think I could talk about the subject without acknowledging the fact that I am a person on the internet with a show, with a very, very large audience and people with eyes on me 24 seven. And I want you to know that I think about this on a daily basis. I think about my impacts on all of you.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And I also think about this as a consumer of content, as I am watching and following other people. But I do hope you know that I never want to come on this show and try to convince you of something and change your mind or control you, but that I genuinely just want to provide you a new way to think about things like alternate perspectives and challenge the status quo.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And that is really what I think about when I sit down to record the show because of studies like this, because I know how important this is in our modern society. And that is also why I encourage you all to get offline and go touch grass and go listen to a ton of other people and expand your viewpoints.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
It shouldn't just be me because like that White Lotus character said, nothing actually fills that void. No creator or celebrity or me is going to give you a sense of purpose and belonging. That is something that you have to create on your own. And this depression and this anxiety and this low self-esteem, that creates a weakness then.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Now, I don't know about her life coaching. I don't think I would ever want to buy that. But if she was going to sell me tallow, I certainly would because her skin is glowing. And that is what tallow can do for you. Now, I personally use Tallow Skincare from Amalo Tallow, and it is the best brand I have found, and I am so, so proud to be a partner with them.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
that people like Cat Torres or Keith Raniere can exploit in their own search for meaning and power. It is a vicious cycle because those are broken people that are trying to find meaning, but they do that at the expense of audience members. Take Japan, for example, which we also just talked about last week. I feel like Japan is kind of becoming the shining example of a great society in my mind.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
But their levels of celebrity worship and social media idolization are incredibly low because it is a very interconnected and collective society. And it's not because religion is so paramount in Japanese culture, it's actually a more secular culture, but the foundation and the backbone of their society is built on trust. It is built on collective interests and community and family.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And while yes, they might also love pop stars and engage on social media, The obsession, when you actually look at the numbers of how young people are following people on social media and the obsession, it is nowhere near the levels of the UK and the United States.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Now, similarly, research shows that in Scandinavia, because again, of their highly connected, cohesive society, there is less of a need to turn to these external obsessions or cult-like groups. And so both of these cultures are deeply rooted in their communities and their shared identities that provides people a foundation, even if they are not the most secular countries.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
So obviously, I do believe that a lack of religion plays a role in figures like Cat Torres gaining power and influence, but she is also just an extreme example. And I think that this conversation is more widespread than just her or just being about religion.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Because right now in America and in the West in general, we live in a time where trust in our institutions is low, where trust in each other, our neighbors are low, where we lack a unified shared identity, where belief in God is rapidly declining, and where more and more people are choosing childlessness and singleness because it's fun and makes them more money. So in a world like that,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Where do people turn? When we go online, we chase meaning in political movements and influencers. We chase money and material goods that are fleeting. None of that is healthy. None of that is stable. Our mental well-being and the fulfillment that we feel in our lives should not be based on an influencer noticing you or a celebrity doing something.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
It should not be dependent on who won the last election. I'm sorry men, it also should not be dependent on a sports team winning a championship. about your community and the people that you love and your values that go deeper than just the news cycle, whether that includes faith or not.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And guys, this is something that I have to remind myself of and I think about all the time because I did do a twice daily news show for three years. I talk about the news online. I am obviously somebody that is engaged in politics, that was super engaged leading up to the last election. And even during that entire campaign, I had to remind myself that this is not the end.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Now, if you don't know, Beef Tallow Skincare is packed with naturally occurring essential nutrients, and it mimics my skin's barrier thanks to the natural fatty acids that occur in tallow. This means that tallow keeps me moisturized while actually working to heal my skin while not clogging my pores like other thick, artificially created products do.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Like it's not the end of the world if Trump didn't win. I'm married to a great guy. I have a great life. We have an amazing community. That is what brings me joy. Meeting you guys in person and talking about the things that are interesting, talking about things that matter. That brings me joy because it's my purpose in my career.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
That is longer lasting than wins online or political wins or anything else that we're talking about today. And so focusing on tethering yourself to something good, something deeper, whether that is family or God or whatever you see fit, that will certainly strip the cat Tauruses of the world of any power or control.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
But more importantly, it will make us stronger and healthier and more resilient people. And that is always what we should be striving for.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Tallow is literally what our ancestors used on their skins for generations, and it is the perfect non-toxic switch to avoid endocrine-disrupting chemicals in modern skincare. And I love getting my tallow from Amalo Tallow because it is a small family owned business that produces this skincare right here in the United States.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
They only use the highest quality grass fed, grass finished tallow and pure organic ingredients. They genuinely care about your skin and the quality of every ingredient they use because what you put on your body matters. So if you are ready to try them out and make the switch to tallow, go to amalo.com slash cooper and use code cooper15 for 15% off your order. Again, that is amalo.com slash brett.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Use code cooper15 for 15% off your order to get the skincare that I use morning and night that has completely transformed my skincare. But back to the real thing that Kat Torres was selling, one article says this. Torres' wellness website and subscription service promised consumers love, money, and self-esteem that you always dreamed of.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Self-help videos offered advice on relationships, wellness, and business success and spirituality. including hypnosis, meditation, and exercise programs. For an extra $150, clients could unlock exclusive one-to-one video consultations with Suarez, during which she would claim to solve any of their problems. And one of the ways that she would solve their problems was through her voice.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
This voice in her head that she could use to solve any of your problems, this voice that would tell you everything that you need to know. She always claimed that she had some spiritual thing going on in her head, and that is why people were so interested in her and why they trusted her so.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Now, through this whole wellness website and this curricula, she created a cohort of thousands of women around her who relied on her and idolized her for this kind of support, which she then exploited for her own gain in an absolutely insane way.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
But over the last few years, I feel like I hear more and more stories of cults getting exposed, of celebrities and influencers using and exploiting their audiences in very cult-like ways. And the story of a recently convicted spiritual guru influencer is no different. This woman preyed on her fans insecurities and their search for meaning for her own gain.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
For example, she had one of her fans, whose name was Anna, literally fly across the world and move in with her to work as her personal assistant, which was apparently a horror story in and of itself, and the only way that Anna was able to get away was by moving in with her boyfriend. but apparently Kat was incredibly abusive. Her life was a mess.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
She was selling this idea that she was this rich and successful and healthy influencer, but her life was actually a mess. She literally would not shower or take care of herself if Anna did not force her to do so. Now, in another situation, she had a different woman that she also coerced to move in with her.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
This woman's name was Desiree, and she literally confiscated Desiree's passport and pimped her out, forcing her to go earn a certain amount of money every single night as a sex worker in order to live at the house.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
She got her to come and live with her, took her passport so she could not go back to her home country, but then said, actually, you can only live here if you make this much money, and I'm going to make you sleep on the street if you do not do so. And when Desiree pushed back and said that she didn't want to be a sex worker, Kat threatened her with a certain witchcraft policy.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Now, on top of that, she also convinced two other women to move into this house. This is a house in Austin, Texas, where she was apparently living with her husband, who she was with for a while. So it was like all of these women, plus her husband and her cat and her dog. Very, very weird, very dysfunctional. These two women were named Sol and Leticia, and she also forced them into prostitution.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And the way that she did all of this was through guilt and by preying on all of their insecurities and their needs. That same article from earlier wrote, Desiree says that in her case, Torres had bought her a plane ticket from Germany, having told her that she was suicidal and needed Desiree's support.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Torres is also accused of persuading Leticia, who was 14 when she started doing life coaching sessions with her, to move to the US for an au pair program and then drop out to live and work with her. As for Sol, she says that she agreed to move in with Torres after becoming homeless and was hired to carry out tarot readings and yoga classes, which I don't think ever happened.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Obviously, this woman Anna, like I said earlier, was able to escape. Sol was also able to escape with the help of one of her sex work clients. But Desiree and Leticia were not as fortunate. Here is a photo of the two of them with Kat.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
In addition to Kat holding literal witchcraft over their head, she also set up accounts on sugar baby and prostitution websites, which is illegal in the state of Texas. And then she threatened to call the police on these two women. to tell the police that they were sex workers if they ever tried to leave her and stop working.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And Desiree even recounts nights when she had to go sleep on the street because she did not earn enough to take home to Kat. Now, over time, these two women became increasingly cut off from the outside world. They were not communicating with their family or friends. Their families got very, very concerned and reported them missing. And very soon, the FBI got involved.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Soon after, Kat got arrested and she is now serving eight years in prison in Brazil. Here is... one of her mugshots, which I'm sure she treated like one of her Instagram photo shoots. Now, that new BBC documentary that I mentioned at the top of this episode, it covers all of that, but goes into obviously far more insane detail.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
I highly recommend watching it if you need something crazy for your next movie night, maybe while you're snuggled into your amazing Helix mattress, because that is my favorite way to watch a movie. Now you guys know that I take relaxing seriously. I take my sleep seriously. Like there is very little that I love more than being horizontal in bed, watching a movie or napping.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
So the question that that leaves us with is how do we protect ourselves from that? What is the armor against these insane individuals? Now, before we dive into this story, I just want to remind you, I am hitting the road for a tour this spring. All of the dates and links to buy tickets are in the description below. I hope I get to see you guys out there. I think it'll be tons of fun.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And the key to that is my Helix Dusk Luxe mattress. And guys, this mattress is so good that we actually got additional ones for our guest rooms because everyone who comes to our house deserves to have the perfect night's sleep.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And what I love about Helix and their company is that they make it super easy to find the right mattress for you because I love the Dusk Luxe, but you might need something else. Their innovative sleep quiz matches you to the best fit based on your preference, whether you are a side sleeper, a back sleeper, whether you want a firm mattress or a soft one.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And we ended up with the Dusk Luxe because it gives us that perfect balance of support and comfort, and we have never slept better. And the best part is that Helix delivers the mattress right to your door in a box you just unboxed. box that you let it expand and you are good to go. Plus they offer a 100 night sleep trial so you can make sure you love it before you're fully committing.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
So if you are ready to upgrade your sleep with Helix, head to helixsleep.com slash Brett for 25% off site-wide. This is an offer you should not refuse. Your back and your naps, your horizontal time will thank you. Again, guys, that is helixsleep.com slash Brett for 25% off for your perfect mattress.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Now, back to the documentary, the thing that really makes this BBC piece stand out is that they have an exclusive interview with Kat tacked on to the end of the movie. And shocker, this woman believes that she did nothing wrong. And it is completely unsettling. Just take a look at these clips.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
She was never wrong once. Now, in this interview, they also talk about posts that she made and messages that she sent on Instagram, messages inviting these women and coercing them to come and move in with her. And her response to all of that is somebody else sent them. She has no idea how it happened. All of these incredibly incriminating messages coming from her own social media, not her.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
She has no idea how it happened. That wasn't me. No one actually lived with me. She literally says not a single woman lived with her other than her female cat and her female dog. And this woman just continues to live in a state of delusion, saying that everything she did was totally permissible and totally right.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
As I was scrolling through all of the posts and the comments about the documentary and this story, they all honed in on one thing. Like basically every single comment had a universal theme. And that was how horrifying it was that so many people trusted her, idolized her, paid her thousands of dollars and how easy this was for her to do.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And I hope to meet a lot of you at the meet and greets. So the woman in question, this spiritual guru, her name is Cat Torres. And the reason why I know her story is because there was a BBC documentary that was done on her and her life from last year that is getting a ton of publicity in press right now. It is called Like, Follow, and Traffic.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
The way that she was able to convince all of these people to move across the world and move in with her within just a couple of years. But unfortunately, if you look at the landscape of social media and of our culture, it completely makes sense.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
I mean, just last week we were talking about the dangers of kids being online due to the risk of trafficking and the fact that the majority of victims meet their abusers online, and this stands true in this story. And if you combine that fact with the high levels of trust that consumers and audiences place in influencers and celebrities over experts and even their family and friends,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
you have an incredibly dangerous equation that is very easy to prey upon. And Cat Torres is far from the only or first example. I mean, Teal Swan is another person that you guys might have heard of. She is another one of these spiritual guru travel influencers who has not been convicted. but she has been consistently accused of abusive and cult-like behavior by her followers and her fans.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
She's even had a documentary made about her. It was on Netflix back in 2022. It is also very weird and disturbing. And in one of the articles that was written about Teal, they honed in on this issue really well. This is from Refinery29, and they said from her blog, Teal Swan, It appears that she wants the influence and power over her followers, but not the responsibility that comes with it.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
So is she dangerous? That answer isn't clear. Obviously, she has not been convicted. But in Brown's words, that's somebody who did a podcast about her, quote, Teal probably wouldn't have the influence or the global reach and following that she has if it weren't for the internet.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
She could have been a charismatic spiritual leader, but I think that she thrives around people who are suffering and afraid to get help. And she had and still has a very similar business model to Kat Torres. People pay for her courses. They pay for these coaching sessions for her to pay attention to them and to help fix their lives.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Another example, albeit very controversial, especially in the conservative media space, is Andrew Tate. And he has attracted both men and women into his sphere who are desperate for meaning and money and or attention, and he provides that. He literally built an entire empire based upon that and has faced subsequent accusations very much like these other two women.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And so as I am reading all of this and diving into all of these stories, it just feels so culty, even though these are not cults. These are not cult organizations. Like, these are just single influencers with a huge, very impressionable audience. However, the tactics that they employ...
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
feel very similar to something like Keith Raniere's NXIVM, where people were promised better lives and success and happiness if they would just give up everything and join this group. Now, if you guys have not heard of NXIVM, there's an incredible podcast that dives into the entire story of how this cult operated. It is literally so crazy.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Again, this is like my female true crime tendencies, but it is actually so interesting and it is very illuminating to how our culture and society operates and what drives the people to join these
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And the common denominator in all of these stories and all of these organizations is that the people who join or choose to buy the courses or buy the one-on-one support sessions or fly around the world to be near these individuals is that they are all in search of healing and they are in search of meaning in their lives. They are looking for something to tether themselves to.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
a ton of posts about the documentary, I looked into it and I learned the insane story of this influencer turned convicted felon. Now here she is, this is Cat Torres, and basically she is a Brazilian influencer model who gained social status and prestige over the last 15 years or so. She even rubbed shoulders and kind of dated Leonardo DiCaprio and other celebrities like him.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And right now, that seems like something that our society is severely lacking. I mean, think about it. A significant portion of adults, especially in America, are now unmarried without kids, and as we discussed last week, that is a huge driver and provider of meaning and fulfillment in one's life.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And additionally, and possibly more importantly, Americans, and Westerners in general, are more secular than ever. One headline reads, US church membership falls below majority for the first time. And as you can see on this graph, it is a pretty clear decline. It is just going straight down since 2007. But I mean, it goes far beyond that.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
For more clear numbers, Gallup reported that Americans membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup's eight decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said that they belong to a church, synagogue, or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999. And in Europe, the trend is similar.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Belief is down about 10% across all of Europe, and it is lowest in Western European countries like France and Switzerland, where only 11% of citizens say that they believe in God with absolute certainty. So why do I bring this up? Because this is not supposed to be a religious episode. We are talking about a crazy influencer. We are talking about cults.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Well, if people lack meaning in their lives, if they lack a foundation of a strong family and children and community or faith, they are going to have to search for it elsewhere because you can't just wander through the world without something to tether yourself to.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And in a lot of my videos, if you guys have followed me for a while, we have joked about the religion of politics and people turning to environmentalism or some kind of political ideology instead of religion and basically treating that as a god, but that is a real thing because it gives somebody's life meaning.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
And that is a very fleeting meaning, and it's kind of insane and a bit ridiculous, but they feel like it tethers them to something. I mean, like just last week in the finale of White Lotus, now I'm talking about White Lotus for the second time this week, but it really was just like a crazy season.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
But in the finale, one of the lead characters had an entire monologue about this search for meaning and about the fact that this is why her life felt so dysfunctional. Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
So she is basically saying that she has never found true lasting meaning in her life. And she has basically attached religion to a lot of very fleeting things. She's tried to make work her religion. She has tried to make her daughter her religion. She has tried to make love with a failed marriage her religion. And then she immediately says, I don't need God or religion
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Which is very contradictory because she is in search of it. She's still kind of like missing the point. But at least what she is settling upon at this point in time, you know, time and friendships, is healthier than other vices. But still, she is showing that as human beings, we all do need to worship and revere something.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
Here they are pictured together back when she was 24 years old. And as she got older and her social influence grew, She kind of rebranded herself as a type of spiritual life coach and witchcraft guru, which is never a good sign, obviously. She sold courses online for thousands of dollars that women would buy to get personalized life support and advice from her.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
TV Magazine, who you guys know I love, they wrote about this monologue and they said, rewind a few lines and the truth is there. Laurie, who is that character, has already tried to find meaning. She tried work. She tried love. She tried motherhood. None of them saved her. None of them gave her lasting peace.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Rise of Fake Gurus & Online Cults | Episode 23
That's the real revelation of the scene, not her epiphany about time, whatever that means, but the quiet confession of disappointment that came before it. She has been burned by her idols and now stands in the ashes, insisting that the smoke smells like salvation, which is just such a great line. This article was written so well.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Guys, we are well overdue for a Blake Lively update, and the tea is piping hot, if you will. The Pope's new brother is certainly a character, and thank God nudity is out of style. All right guys, so unless you were living under a rock, then you probably saw that last week, the first ever American Pope was elected. A man named Robert Francis Provost was elected and took the name Pope Leo.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Like, this is very odd that they didn't have a composer or that there was somebody else. Like, what's the story here? Because again, I cannot stress how unique this is. Okay.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
He's like, how do I respond?
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
He's like, how much can I say without getting sued? I mean, the man is so uncomfortable. He's like shifting his entire position. Like, oh yeah, how much can I say? The whole, guys, it is just so, so strange.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And guys, this is how we circle right on back to Taylor Swift with everything that is happening over the last couple of weeks, because there were rumors circulating that Taylor was actually the person who advised Blake or made the decision to cut the original composer. And Daily Mail wrote about this. The original composer says that he has no idea if that happened.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
He's had no relationship with Taylor Swift. They wrote,
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
The source insisted that Tyler never worked with or met Taylor Swift, despite rumors swirling that the singer told Lively that she would only allow use of her song in the film if Tyler was not involved, which just seems like a crazy rumor, but also this set, this entire film just seems like it was a fever dream, so I'm not putting anything past them at this point.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
But to be fair, that does seem relatively factual. I mean, you can look on IMDb, you can look up their history. Taylor Swift and this man have not worked on any projects together, so it seems more likely, in my opinion, that Ryan Reynolds was the one who made the call. He wanted to be the one involved in this production. He was writing scripts.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
But before we dive into that story make sure that you're following our podcast page and rate the show if you you're enjoying it. And guys, in case you missed it, we launched my tour last week in Phoenix and Irvine. It was so much fun. I loved being there with you guys and meeting so many of you in person. If you wanna come out and see a show, we have many more coming up next month in June.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
He was bringing in new editors and people for post-production, and it just makes sense that, oh, what a coincidence, also the people doing the score for Deadpool just happens to be hired by two months before the film comes out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And now that you have that update, we can really get into Taylor Swift here because last week, as I said earlier, it was revealed that she was officially subpoenaed in the lawsuit. And if you guys don't remember, Justin's lawsuit does include multiple exchanges, multiple references to Taylor Swift's involvement in the film. And this didn't just come from him. It came from Blake.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And the real damning evidence of this involvement was that in a text that she sent to Justin Baldoni, Blake basically threatened him and said that she had dragons on her side, these fire-breathing dragons. That was Taylor Swift.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Because allegedly, a couple of times where there were confrontations about things going on in the film, things that Ryan Reynolds was unhappy about, Justin Baldoni would go over to their apartment and who was there? none other than Taylor Swift. And then she kept coming up in these text messages. So again, it's just weird. It's threatening.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
I think everybody just needs to sit down, Blake, Jess and her dragons over a Good Rancher steak and work this all out. Now, for anyone out there who is worried about the tariffs affecting them at the grocery store, do not worry. Good Ranchers is completely tariff proof, and that is because their meat is actually 100% American.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
It is born, it is raised, it is processed, it is packaged, it is shipped right here in the United States. And you might be thinking that this is crazy, like I see American meat at the grocery store all the time. Well, a lot of that meat isn't actually American raised. So all of that means you won't have to worry about your meat prices going up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And Good Ranchers is also giving you your pick of free meat for life if you subscribe today. That is free ground beef, wild caught salmon, and seed oil free chicken nuggets or bacon in every box for the life of your Good Rancher subscription. And not only are their cuts of beef, chicken, and pork and seafood delicious, but the service and value that they deliver is truly unmatched.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
This is an amazing company that I am so proud to support. It is run by great people who I love, and I am so proud to work with them. Plus we eat them on a literal daily basis. Now is the time to change the way that you buy meat and economy-proof your meals with Good Ranchers. Because in a world that is constantly changing, you should know that at least one thing is staying stable.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
So visit goodranchers.com slash brett today and unlock your free meat for life and get $40 off with my code brett at checkout today. Again, that's goodranchers.com slash brett, code brett at checkout. Don't leave your food up to chance. Now, the best way to compliment your family dinner with good ranchers is by watching an incredible Western.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And you guys know that I am a huge fan of Western culture and Western films, and Angel Studios' latest movie, The Last Rodeo, starring Neil McDonagh, absolutely delivers. It follows a retired rodeo legend who competes in a high-stakes bull riding contest as the oldest contestant ever to save his grandson's life. And it will be out in theaters on May 23rd.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
With hits like Sound of Freedom, Sound of Hope, and most recently King of Kings, Angel Studios consistently delivers inspiring, values-driven stories, and The Last Rodeo is no exception. Plus, I am just so proud to support a company that shares my passion for meaningful storytelling.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
You can buy all those tickets at brettcooper.com, or you can also find information about my subscriber-only platform, Cooper Confidential, which is also linked in the description below. All right, so first of all, I just think it is so hilarious that we know who the Pope's brothers are. And I understand, like, popes have families,
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And if you join the Angel Guild at angel.com slash brett, you will get two free tickets to every Angel Studios theatrical release, including The Last Rodeo, and you will be helping supporting that mission as well. Plus, you get to help decide which films Angel actually greenlights, which is so cool. You, as a Guild member, get to help decide what films audiences like you and me actually see.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
So get ready to see the last rodeo and sign up today for the Angel Guild at angel.com slash brett and make sure to stick around until the end of today's show to watch the trailer for this amazing film. So obviously, an amicable sit-down over steak did not happen again.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Like I said, Justin feels like he was kind of ambushed by Taylor Swift and Blake and Ryan at their apartment, and they pressured him, allegedly with Taylor Swift's help, into him giving into Blake's demands.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
One article reads, "...while Swift was not named in the suit, her first name appears in a text message that Baldoni sent to Lively and is believed to be the mega-celebrity friend referenced in the filing." The texts concern a rooftop scene in the film that Lively had allegedly reworked in the script.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
The suit states that Lively summoned Baldoni to her penthouse in New York where Reynolds and the mega celebrity friend raised Lively's version of the scene. Baldoni's lawyer stated that he felt obliged to text Lively to say that he had liked her pages and hadn't needed Reynolds and her mega celebrity friend to pressure him. So again, whether Taylor likes it or not, her fingerprints are on this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
She is involved in this case. However, after the subpoena, her team started working overtime and they quickly released a statement denying any and all involvement in the film, saying there is no reason why Taylor should be involved, this is ridiculous.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
They said a spokesperson for Swift denied any involvement with the film in a statement to Variety beyond her licensing one single song, My Tears Ricochet, to be used in the trailer and a scene. Quote, Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie. She was not involved in any casting or creative decisions. She did not score the film. She never saw an edit or made notes on the film.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
She did not even see It Ends With Us until weeks after its public release and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history. So basically her team is saying, Taylor Swift is not involved. She is far more important. She was making millions. She was singing to thousands and thousands and thousands of fans. She does not want to be involved.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
She did not go to the premiere. She made one post. Please leave her out of it. And all of this comes on the heels of these rumors, these blind items, these like sources coming out to the tabloids saying that Blake and Taylor Swift are no more. There are sources that have come out to say that Taylor feels betrayed, that Blake Lively pulled her into this, that it's ruining her reputation.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
All of that is swirling. And in my opinion, this statement with how firm and kind of cold it is confirms all of that. And it's further confirmed in my opinion by what her law firm filed in response to the subpoena. And they said, listen, both parties involved in this lawsuit are playing with public opinion. They are making this into this big spectacle.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
But I think all of this happening in 2025 in the age of TikTok and social media has just made this seem so modern in a way that it hasn't felt before. Like I was doing research and Pope Francis, he had a family. He had a sister who lived in Argentina, but we never heard anything about them. They never came and visited him. I think that he only saw her
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Taylor does not want to be involved in any of it. And why that stands out to me is because she wasn't just pointing the finger at Justin Baldoni. She wasn't saying like, I'm here supporting my friend, my gal pal. She is saying both of you people are making this insane and I do not want to be involved in the slightest.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
But the unfortunate thing for Taylor Swift, I don't know if she's going to be able to get out of this very easily because there has now been a long history that is forever cemented on the internet talking about her involvement in the film. There are multiple people who have worked on the film who said that she actually played a big role, including Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Just take a look at these videos.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Also, we just have to point out, poor Justin. Now that we know everything that was going on behind the scenes, this man looks exhausted. He's like, oh my God, I have to answer a question about this dragon, the mega celebrity friend who forced me into doing all of these things. Anyway, here's another video.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Unfortunate for Taylor. She was not involved in the slightest, and yet everyone is saying that she was. All right, last video, here we go. It feels like a big, beautiful summer movie, but like, we didn't have any budget. Well, you probably didn't have any budget because you fired your composer after paying him to do the entire thing and hiring somebody else. Sorry, I just had to say that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
That seems like a really easy way to blow a budget, like, lively.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Oh yeah, she showed up for It Ends With Us the whole time. I'm so sorry, Taylor. I'm so sorry for your PR people, your legal team, but you were involved the whole time. You went on this journey with Blake, you were at her apartment, you were listening to the music, you were looking at the audition tapes, and I'm sure that you were just trying to be a good best friend as best friends do.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Little did you know this would turn into you being subpoenaed in possibly the biggest lawsuit of the last five years, at least of this year. I mean, I know that Diddy is going on. We're going to talk about that next week because there are crazy things happening. But I mean, this is like, this is taking over the entire world and it's not slowing down in the slightest.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
We just cannot stop talking about it because they can't stop being crazy. So anyway, the point being, Clearly, Taylor had some involvement. In some capacity, they have every reason to subpoena her, especially based on those text messages where Blake is literally referencing her, so I don't think she's gonna get out of this very quickly.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Now, the other update that I think is really interesting and also doesn't really work well in Blake Lively's favor is that there is another person being subpoenaed, and this is a man named Adam. He is an actor, and he played the OBGYN in the birthing scene of It Ends With Us.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
maybe once since becoming Pope, if at all, like it was very, very distant. Guys, the craziest story that came out of this was the fact that one of their childhood neighbors watched these young boys grow up, would see them play together, would interact with them, and she took a look at Robert, now Pope Leo, and said, you're going to be Pope one day.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And in Blake's lawsuit, she claims that this scene, specifically with this actor, was so uncomfortable for her, she had had to apparently watch these very nude and sexual birthing scenes to prepare for this. She was nearly nude, and she was uncomfortable because this man, this actor, was Justin's friend. Quote, Now, here is the actor's POV on that scene, which makes this even more interesting.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
This article reads, In response to Lively's claim that she was nearly nude, he, the actor, alleges that, quote, her costume included a full hospital gown, black shorts, torso-covering prosthetic to make her appear pregnant in addition to whatever personal garments she chose, end quote.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
The actor further claims that the Gossip Girl alum, quote, never complained or expressed discomfort at any point because nothing unusual and nothing improper occurred. It was entirely professional. So, of course, this is a case of he said, she said, but again, this is not looking good for Blake Lively. And whether Blake was nude or not, we do know one thing for sure.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
There will be no nudity at the Cannes Film Festival. Now, if you don't know, the Cannes Film Festival is this huge event. It happens in the south of France every spring, and this film festival has officially been banned nudity on their red carpet. And it's unfortunate that they have to do such a thing, but it's 2025 and everybody basically walks around half naked. So not really a surprise.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Festival Goers Charter states, for decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet as well as any other areas of the festival. Voluminous outfits, in particular those of the large train that hinder the proper flow of traffic of guests and complicate seating in the theater are not permitted.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Festival welcoming teams will be obligated to prohibit red carpet access to anyone not respecting these rules. There's a lot of hubbub on social media about this and they're saying that this is like restricting art. Why are they doing this? They're being so traditional, whatever. These seem like common sense rules. We don't want to see tits. We don't want to see ass cheeks.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
We don't want huge trains getting in the middle of people's faces and like hitting them in the head when they're trying to sit down and watch a movie. Like this is totally rational. This makes complete sense. And it's insane that we live in a world where people have to be told in writing not to free their nipples.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
That like maybe, just maybe, we don't want to see a red carpet full of actresses showing off their boobs in every single part of their body. And you might be thinking, Brett, how insane are these outfits? Like, why would they even feel the need to ban this in the first place? Well, don't worry. I compiled a list of some of these outfits.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
I thought we could go down a little memory lane just to see why this had to happen. For example, here is Bella Hadid in 2021. That's basically just fully nude. A bra is looking like her organ. I have no other way to describe that. Bella Hadid again in 2024, where you can basically see everything. And I don't think any of us decent people want to see everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
You are so holy, you are so dedicated to your church at literally the age of like six, you are going to be pope one day. And he did. I mean, it's just crazy. It's crazy, crazy, crazy. But what is even crazier, and I know I keep saying crazy, but this whole thing is just wild, is the fact that the new pope's older brother is a straight up Facebook MAGA Florida It is truly incredible.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Next up, as a palate cleanser, we have something that is a tad more modest. This is Irina Shayk in 2023. At least she's relatively covered. We have Natasha Pauly, who is also basically fully in the nude. And of course, we have to cap it all off with none other than Julia Fox, because of course Julia Fox would be half naked on a red carpet.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
I mean, that one is probably the most insane out of all of these. Here's another one. She's just kind of always naked at all times. Now, all of those that I just showed you were focused on the top half of these women's bodies, but you know, we believe in equality and equity here. So here's another woman ass fully bare for everyone to see.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
But don't worry, none of that will be happening in June in France as all of these celebrities are walking the red carpet. And I just have to say, it is so beautifully ironic and hysterical that it's France, of all countries, of all cultures, that is finally drawing a line in the sand. Like, France is the home of the topless protests.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Like, we make fun of them all the time on this show, and they are the ones that are finally like, okay, people, We've taken this a little too far. We don't want any more of this. Maybe it's okay if you're protesting in the streets, but on these classy red carpets, let's bring back some decency.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Now, interestingly, another point that I wanted to make is that this seems like it might be becoming a trend, and it seems like it could be on the heels of Bianca Sansori, who is Kanye West's ex, going completely nude at the Grammys last year because apparently soon after that, the Oscars banned nude dresses as well. This was not a public statement. This just seems like an alleged rumor.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Things people were whispering, but apparently they sent out a memo being like, please, for the love of God, do not do what we saw on the Grammys red carpet. You know what? I'm here for it because I was happy with this year's Oscars. The dresses were stunning. Everyone was fully clothed. It was elegant. It was very classy, very old Hollywood, which hopefully we are bringing back.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And guys, this brings me to the very last thing that I want to cover on the show. This is just kind of like the button of today's episode. One last Hollywood story. And that is that Disney decided to try and beat a dead horse. And last week they attempted to re-release Snow White and none of us heard about it. Snow White was still in 300 theaters.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
I don't know how it was still in 300 theaters, but they decided, you know what? Let's just try this again. You know, everything has died down. Maybe people will see it in theaters and they'll want to come back, whatever it is. Let's make this a summer blockbuster hit. And they re-released the film in 13 months. hundred theaters across the country. Guess how much money they made?
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Just like think of a number in your head. Guess how much money? Think of these huge, you know, multi-million dollar films. They made $300,000 in 1300 theaters. That means that they averaged about $200 per theater. That means that like 20 people per theater bought tickets. That is hard. Like that is so, I'm cringing for Disney right now because that is so embarrassing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Like I don't think we needed any more confirmation that Snow White was a flop. Like we saw the numbers, we saw them cancel the new live action Rapunzel, we're seeing them scale back this entire business model of films that they've been doing, but apparently Disney did need confirmation. And I think that this was probably the final nail in the coffin.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Sorry Rachel Zegler, I guess it just didn't work. Yeah. Weird. Weird. So there you have it, guys. There is your news of the week. Unhinged family members will always come back to make us laugh and possibly embarrass you. Taylor Swift, I'm sorry. All you are is a liar because you certainly were involved in the production of this film.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And the new Pope does seem to be a little bit more centrist in his views. And I know this because nobody really seems happy. A lot of people on the right don't think that he is traditional and conservative enough. A lot of people on the left don't think that he is progressive enough. He's seemingly landing somewhere in the middle, but his older brother certainly is not.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And I'm very happy to say that Modesty is officially back in style. Now, I hope everybody has a great weekend. Get rested because the Diddy Trial is in full swing and we have a lot to talk about.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Get in!
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Thank you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Here are some of the videos that we all saw.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And that's another funny story. And apparently it's that the new Pope was literally texting his family and friends and saying, nah, guys, it's not me. They're never going to choose me. I'm not in the running. This is ridiculous. And his family was saying, no, you literally could become the next Pope. Everybody thinks you're going to be Pope one day. This could be you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And he was like, the Pope texting is so, so funny. But his brothers, they all thought that he would be. Here's another clip.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
He is the first ever American Pope. He is from Chicago, which is probably the most American thing ever. He's also a baseball fan. And guys, the media just went wild. And obviously this is a huge worldwide event. The videos, the coverage of this was truly insane. Before we even get into him and his brother,
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Like it's so humanizing in a really, really pure way that I think is getting a lot of people excited. Like I feel like this could be a really interesting thing for young people who are watching all of this unfold on social media. Like now it is so close to home because you have an American pope and he has a family that feels very, very real.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Like everybody kind of has that, you know, crazy MAGA uncle that posts on Facebook. So does the pope. It's his older brother. And of course, people immediately dug up all of this man's posts. My personal favorite that I saw was the fact that he called Nancy Pelosi a drug see you next Tuesday, which I think we can all relate to that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
He also had a post where he was telling the freeloading liberals to move out of the country because we didn't want them here anyway. And I also feel like this is just par for the course. Like, the new pope is not the only man that has a now controversial or funny brother who's in his family.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Like, obviously my mind first goes to Obama's brother, Malik, who famously joined in on the conspiracy theory that Obama was not actually born here in the United States. He also posted things like this, which was just truly so crazy. He posted this photo of him and Obama and said, me and fake ass a snake, President Barack Obama when he was a nobody. Like, it's truly just insane.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
My producer also brought up Jimmy Carter's brother, who was apparently like a hoot back in the day. Look at this New York Times article from 1979. They said, every good yarn has a sequel. And the latest saga of Billy Carter, that's Jimmy Carter's brother, is no exception.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Just too fresh in memories, the president's brother caused noticeable cringing at the White House by taking a group of Libyans on a rollicking tour, by making comments about Jews that some apparently thought to be anti-Semitic, and apparently by stepping out of a limousine and then in the presence of an Arab diplomat and Atlanta Journal reporter urinating on a runway apron in Atlanta.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
I mean, it is just truly crazy. He also apparently started his own beer company. You can see a photo of it here. The beer is no longer around. We cannot purchase it. Apparently, it tasted horrible, unlike my favorite coffee, Seven Weeks. Now, Seven Weeks is Alex's and my go-to coffee that we drink literally every single day.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
I have a cup of it right next to me as I'm filming this, and as you guys know, I am super picky about what ingredients we bring into our home and what we buy, and Seven Weeks absolutely hits the mark. This coffee is mold-free, it is pesticide-free, it is shade-grown and low acid, and it is organically farmed.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Not to mention, in addition to these incredible, incredible processes, they also have an incredible mission. Seven Weeks Coffee is America's pro-life coffee company on a mission to help fund the pro-life movement one cup of coffee at a time. They donate 10% of every sale to support pregnancy care centers and pro-life organizations across the country.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And to date, they have raised over $900,000 for these centers and have saved thousands and thousands of lives. And the reason why they're called Seven Weeks is because at seven weeks, a baby is the size of a coffee bean. Now, my baby, as you guys know, I am pregnant, is far beyond a coffee bean. But at one point, my little app told me it was a coffee bean and I was drinking seven weeks at the time.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
The most insane thing that I saw come out of the conclave and everything going on was I think it was CNN or NBC. Somebody was covering all of the events and they were talking about what happens when all the cardinals go into the Vatican and they close the doors and they start doing their votes. And somebody in the mainstream media literally said, They have to turn in their phones.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
So it was perfect. Now, 7 Weeks truly makes an incredible product, and I love that I can stand behind both the ingredients and the values of the company. So if you are ready to make the switch to 7 Weeks, just go to 7weekscoffee.com and save 15% off forever when you subscribe, plus you will get a free gift with your order.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And exclusively for my viewers, all the Cooper Troopers, you can use code BRETT for an extra 10% off your first order. So that makes 25% in total savings on your first order, plus a free gift. Just use code BRETT at checkout.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
But back to these hilarious brothers, I do think that there is an interesting discourse about the new pope and how personable he feels and how relevant he feels in our modern digital age.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
I know that there are a lot of people out there who feel very uncomfortable with the fact that he is so accessible, that we're seeing pictures of him allegedly at baseball games, that they're doing interviews with his brothers, that we see his brother's Facebook posts, that we see his old tweets allegedly, and I know that that is very, very weird and I kind of sympathize with that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
But I would also offer just a possible counterargument, and we'll see how this actually turns out, that I feel like this could bring a lot of young people into the fold, because he is going to be more accessible than ever. He is more relatable than possibly any other pope has ever been, especially to people here in America where faith is disappearing on a daily basis. So who knows?
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
We'll see how this turns out. What I really want to know is what the pope thinks about Cynthia Erivo playing Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, because that is the next story we need to dive into. So if you guys don't know, Cynthia Erivo is the actress who played Elphaba in the new Wicked movie that came out last year. She became a huge star.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
You've probably seen pictures of her with her freaking insane looking nails. She was the one who was in all the videos with Ariana Grande. They were just like clinging to each other. She was the one who Ariana was like holding her finger and crying. She is the center of many, many memes that we have all laughed at now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And while she still has another Wicked movie that is coming out this year, she also is embarking on a new acting journey. and she will be playing Jesus in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl this summer and of course that has caused a media firestorm because why is a black lesbian playing Jesus?
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Now in addition to that they also hired Adam Lambert to play Judas and you can see these two individuals here you have Jesus and Judas look straight out of the Bible if you're asking And I know that we often get all up in arms on race swapping, but this is not even about the race swapping. Like the most offensive part about this is that a lesbian, a female, is playing Jesus.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
It's just ridiculous, but also we do have to acknowledge that Jesus Christ Superstar It is not the most traditional of musicals. Like, this is not something that you would see in your local church. It is a rock musical. It's about the last seven days of Jesus's life from Judas's POV. It definitely takes liberties. It's not the most traditional thing to begin with.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
So again, I'm not surprised that in the year 2025, Cynthia Erivo is playing Jesus. But casting a lesbian is even crazier than any other casting decisions I have seen for this musical in the history of me being involved in musical theater. Like, it is a weird musical to begin with that I think a lot of more traditional Christians would not like. But this is just taking it a step even further.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
They don't have access to social media or the outside world. They are raw-dogging the conclave. That's what they literally said. That is like a Gen Z slang term for like sitting on an airplane and just tuning the world out and just like existing instead of, you know, texting your friends, being on social media, watching a movie. You're not listening to music. You're just raw-dogging your flight.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
So, of course, people are going to be upset on social media. And I get it. You know, casting somebody as perfect as Jonathan Rumi was probably a step too far for traditional Hollywood. But, like, this is truly insane. It's taking it to a next level.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Like, to be honest, Cynthia Erivo playing Jesus is possibly more slanderous than the lawsuit that we have to cover next, because guys, there are major updates in the Blake Lively, Justin Maldoni lawsuit, and we need to dive in. Okay, so last week, you probably saw on social media, Taylor Swift was officially brought into the fold. And obviously, she wrote a song that was in It Ends With Us.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
But up until this point, it was all just kind of murmurs and rumors connected to her alleged best friendship with Blake Lively. Who knows if they're actually even best friends anymore?
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
but now as of last week she has officially been subpoenaed she has been brought into the lawsuit and there has been so much that has happened with this case that we have not covered on this show so i think we are due for kind of a mini update so first we do have to talk about the music because that is what ties us into taylor swift here what i learned this week and doing some research and doing some catch-up because i have to admit i have fallen behind on all of these updates i learned that
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
that there was a scandal within the composer who was doing the score for the film It Ends With Us, which is what this entire multi-lawsuit scandal revolves around. So get this. Brian Tyler, who was one of the highest grossing composers ever, was originally brought onto the project to score it. And his resume includes films like
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Avengers, Iron Man 3, Thor, Fast and Furious franchise, Crazy Rich Asians, he did Yellowstone, the Super Mario Bros, like he has done basically everything across a myriad of different genres. And two months, two months before the film was released, Blake Lively fired him. Just out of nowhere, he was fired.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And obviously, because this happened two months before the film came out, this man had basically finished everything. The score was done. And allegedly, Blake didn't even listen to it. She did not hear. A single note, and yet she said she was done.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And of course, because there's this big conspiracy about her and Ryan Reynolds taking over the film and bringing in their own people and writing all of these scenes for the project that Justin Baldoni had been working on for years prior to them even getting involved, just as kind of like a little recap, of course, because all of that was happening, Blake Lively decided to bring on a couple people from her own Rolodex.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
she brought on two men named Rob Simonson and Duncan Blinkenstaff, who did the score for none other than Deadpool. So these are people that Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively had worked with before. And apparently, understandably, Brian Tyler was devastated. He had never been fired before, he was worried about this ruining his career and his reputation, because suddenly he was off this project with
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Without a moment's notice, insiders have claimed that BAFTA and Emmy Award nominee Tyler was terrified of people in the industry discovering that he had been replaced and was left fearing the impact on his decades-long career.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Quote, when Blake took over the film, Brian had already finished a majority, if not all, of the score based on what Justin, Justin, who was the producer and the director, wanted creatively for the film. Blake didn't even listen to his score. She knew that she wanted to bring on Rob and Duncan, so she didn't even listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
They literally said that the Cardinals were raw-dogging this conclave. So if that is not the most 2025 thing I have ever heard, I don't know what is. Anyway, so this man, now Pope Leo, was elected, and we were all focused on him and being the new American Pope.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
But because maybe it was a decision that Justin made and she was so angry at Justin and she wanted to take it over, she wanted her own people that she could control to step in to do the music.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Now, going on, they said that Baldoni and producer Jamie Heath fought with Lively over the decision to axe Tyler, but were left with no option but to call him and break the devastating news that he was being shafted from the project.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Quote, Jamie and Justin fought this, obviously, but when it became clear that there was nothing they could do, nothing he could do with his own film, they had to call Brian and tell him that he was being let go. The insider continued and said that Brian was paid out in his contract in full. So he was literally paid to do the entire thing. Blake didn't even listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Two months before it came out, he was fired. Quote, he shared his concern at the time that he did not want it to be known that he was fired. He had never been fired in his life and he wanted this to be super confidential. But now, as all of the scandal has been unfolding, the information has come out, He updated his IMDb, I think, because now he is listed as uncredited for It Ends With Us.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
And on IMDb, his score is listed as, quote, unused. So that man was sacked. Blake Lively brought in her own team. And one of the guys that she hired, Rob Simonson, was even asked about this in a podcast. And this is what he had to say. Again, guys, it is so crazy. This kind of thing never happens. Again, blockbuster film two months before release. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Americans, especially Americans on the right, were simultaneously so excited that we had an American Pope and were feeling very patriotic, but then they also... dug up old tweets and they saw that he possibly most likely is anti-Trump so then they got very very angry but then a new shiny thing distracted our attention and that would be the Pope's brothers.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
I mean, guys, this is crazy. Like, this is insane. This is not... I cannot tell you how abnormal this is. So he was still working on Deadpool, because remember, they tried to do this whole, like, it ends with us crossover with Deadpool, and you had, like, Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds and all the premieres. It was this whole thing. This guy... This composer was at the center of it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
He was finishing up Deadpool. Blake Lively texts him and is like, hey, I'm taking over this film. Allegedly. I don't want to get sued. Allegedly. And she says, you have a week to do it. So he's recording all of this. He's finishing Deadpool. And then he's going home at night to write an entire score for It Ends With Us.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
When there was a pre-existing one that I'm sure was great, that totally fit in with the vibe of the film. But no, apparently that didn't work for Blake Lively. And all of this was out in the open and it was being spoken about. Like in that same interview, he was even asked if there was a composer who was working before him because this was so random. And he said, yeah, I was a replacement.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Is Taylor Swift Lying About Her Role in the Blake Lively Drama? | Episode 31
Guys, it's so, I cannot, I'm so uncomfortable watching this right now. Okay, so this podcast interview, it only has 800 views on YouTube. It came out eight months ago. You could feel the discomfort just like seeping out of the screen. This composer's like, yeah, that was really weird and very abnormal. And the interviewer is like, how do I ask this question?
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
So last week, I basically did my longest ever video in the history of Fred Cooper videos and did a recap on Trump's first month in office. And a huge portion of that video was talking about his executive orders. I think he has signed more executive orders in this first month than any president in history. And as you guys saw, I am a huge fan of basically all of them.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
So what I'm trying to communicate here and what Chloe is saying is that these studies are correct in a way, that post-surgery care is necessary, and it's appalling that these young people, especially, are just thrown out into the world with no support when they're dealing with regrets and confusion, but that care, that real care, needs to exist from the get-go.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And it needs to be care that is not wholly focused on affirmation, that doesn't just shove them in line for surgery that, again, we now know does not work.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
When you hear people like Chloe speak, when you look at these reports, like how is this entire issue controversial? It makes no sense. I mean, this used to be a psychiatric issue that would be addressed as a psychiatric issue. Now there is just no nuance or even thought of prevention. It is just affirmation of an issue that is usually far deeper.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And the thing is, changing people's minds on this is not an impossible feat. It is happening in countries around the world, just not here in America. Now, in this episode, I'm going to be joined by my good friend, Chloe Cole, and we're going to talk about why America is so ridiculously behind on this issue.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
But of course, are those issues ever addressed? Are they talked about in the scope of transgenderism, especially with young people transitioning, especially with young women going through puberty? No, of course not. We're all just supposed to sit back and affirm because that is the virtuous, that is the morally correct thing to do. And if we don't, we are killing these people. It is insane.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Now the thing is guys, as I said at the beginning of this episode, in other countries, this is not such a crazy idea anymore. Having nuance, focusing on prevention, they have caught up to the science. They're listening to the science. They are seeing the facts and they have realized how insane This ideology has become.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
I mean, the United Kingdom and France both put restrictions on transitioning children back in 2022. The UK has now updated their restrictions as of 2024. I would not be surprised if they updated them again after this Oxford Journal study. Between 2020 and 2023, Finland, Norway, and Sweden all also put restrictions on transitioning children.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Which is hysterical, in my opinion, because those three countries, all of these countries, are countries that the left often louds and celebrates for... their social welfare systems and their free healthcare and their inclusivity and their safety and their acceptance. And these are the exact countries that are saying, okay, yeah, guys, we kind of took it too far. We need to scale it back.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Meanwhile, America, that is supposed to be the beacon of common sense and reality, is still being insane. And so obviously, I wanted to ask Chloe her thoughts from personal experience about why she thinks that is.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
We're also going to break down the recent bombshell studies that should horrify Americans and jolt our government into action if they weren't so cucked by their own freaking flawed ideology. I also want to remind you guys that this is the last week to buy my exclusive launch merch. This is the merch collection that we created just for the launch, this launch period of the Red Cooper Show.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And I'm so glad that Chloe did not mince words in that statement. That she was so straight with everyone and it could not be more true and it could not be more disappointing. She is right. Follow the money. follow the politics, those are the two reasons why this issue still exists and is so pervasive in America.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And the response to all of these studies, or actually lack thereof, is proof of all of that. This is willful avoidance that we are seeing in the states, and it is doing irreversible damage to an entire generation of children.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And of course, in light of Detransitioner Awareness Day, which again was just yesterday, we have to talk about the children who were experimented upon, and then who, like Chloe, were completely left in the dust and left behind because that is truly what happens. on a regular basis in this country.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And if you guys didn't know, while we're talking about all these other studies about post-surgery, all of that, there are no concrete studies on detransitioners, especially not detransitioning children like Chloe Cole. And in my personal opinion, this is partially because of that willful avoidance that we were just talking about.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
but also because much of detransitioning happens without medical interventions. Like, doctors aren't even seeing these patients, so they aren't counting. They are not being studied. They aren't offered support or guidance in the first place, like Chloe laid out, like all of these studies laid out. They don't usually get their surgeries reversed, and in many cases that is impossible.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
They just kind of stop taking their hormones and they try to go back to living a more normal life and they socially detransition. And doctors just aren't involved. They rarely see this take place and the numbers are not available, which is such a travesty because Chloe said that this is happening every single day. And so doctors just aren't involved.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Doctors rarely see this play out and the numbers are not available, which is such a travesty. Now, another thing that Chloe told me, which truly shocked me, is that not only do we not keep records of this and not only do people often not go to the doctor for detransitioning, but there is also no standard of care if somebody comes into detransition.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
They don't even know what to do if you come in and you say, I'm not happy. This is what she said.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
But what is so vitally important to remember is that just because doctors don't see them or won't see them does not mean that these individuals like Chloe do not exist.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
These individuals like Chloe, this entire community, especially of young people, they deserve attention and they deserve real care, not affirming care. but genuine holistic care. They deserve to have their concerns and their regrets and their hopes heard at the bare minimum.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And it's insane that when she went into the doctor and said, I'm not really happy with this, I'm confused, I'm regretting, they literally didn't even know what to tell her. They couldn't direct her to anything, just that, oh yeah, that's kind of normal. That's insane that they just turn people away and say, yep, sorry, that's normal. It is insane that that does not happen in the first place.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
We have had an amazing first month. I'm so grateful for all of your support. I'm so grateful that you guys are so excited about the merch. So we're going to be closing those sales and I'm so excited to get you all your hoodies and your hats and your T-shirts.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
But based on everything that Chloe has been saying, it makes sense because again, it's politics and money. And these transitioners like her do not help either cause. They don't make the industry more money, they don't push the ideology forward, and that is why it is so important that stories like hers are heard.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Like, I just want you all to realize that there is more attention and care and focus over whether we wear our retainers after we get our braces off than how you are doing in life after you chemically and surgically try to change your entire gender. That should not be the case. That is certifiably insane. And it begs the question of why. And so I know that I'm really hammering this issue hard.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
I know that this is probably not the most pleasant episode and it's more of a doom and gloom thing. But like I said, there is a lot of hope. It's just not in the US. Barely anything is happening in the US other than Trump's executive orders, which again, I'm not sure if this current Congress will be able to pass.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Another good thing is that there are currently 27 states who have imposed restrictions or full bans on transitioning minors, but there does need to be something on a federal level. This is a federal issue, but obviously that is still an uphill battle. So what needs to change in order to make that happen? Obviously, I think Americans are on our side.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
70% of Americans think that men should be competing in women's sports. That would obviously make you think that the majority of Americans think that this is a ridiculous issue, a dangerous issue that has been pushed way too far. But our government is not listening. Now, Chloe referenced all of the studies that we covered in this episode.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
She also covered one that we did not, which is the prolific Hillary Cass report out of the UK. And she said that we need one that is just as much of a bombshell right here in the US. We cannot really base this and change people's minds off of a study that only has 1500 participants.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Now, in addition to those executive orders, obviously being a very relevant and pressing issue, this week also had Detransitioner Awareness Day. It was actually just yesterday.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Even though that still was a shocking and damning survey, we do need something like Hilary Cass and like this Oxford Journal study. A bombshell study that is all encompassing, that includes detransitioners in their story, one that is simply too big for people to ignore.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And Chloe really believes that in addition to all of the advocacy work, all of the stories that she and so many others are telling, that that will be the way to change the culture in a massive way. And I simply could not agree more. I think that she made an absolutely fantastic point.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
But for now, for those of us who do not have the power to start a study that covers hundreds of thousands of participants and covers detransitioners and figures out a way to study detransitioners, for those of us normal people who just care about this issue, the most important thing that we can do is to continue sharing the stories of people like Chloe. to continue spreading this message.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And another thing that I want you guys to think about and to consider that is possibly more important than anything else I have said in this entire episode is that you need to keep pouring into and supporting the people in your lives that are struggling. Because real care, not affirmative social justice care, it begins at home. in our communities with the people that we touch on a daily basis.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
It is the kind of care that is truly loving, that is truly empathetic, that is preventative and actually addresses the root causes of all of these issues. And above all else, that is what those of us as individuals who feel very small in this huge monster of an issue, that is what we can focus on and that is the change that we can make in the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And Chloe, who is a detransitioner and who you will hear from in just a couple of minutes, among a few others, traveled to DC for an entire week of meetings and events to share their stories and advocate for the protection of children and for the support that their community
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
so desperately needs that they're not getting from our government, from society, and most importantly and horrifyingly, not from the medical community. And this is obviously especially important because of the legislation that Trump and the Republican Congress want to pass, but also because of what is happening around the world. And that is why this week is why I wanted to talk about this today.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
But within this slew of executive orders with wide-ranging topics, there were four that addressed transgenderism. And I want to talk about those specifically today. Well, not just them in general, but about one issue in particular.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
I mean, guys, what I want you to know is that countries that are far more progressive than us, that were actually at the forefront of this issue many years ago, pushing this entire ideology, are now scaling back. and realizing that it has been taken too far. That these awful experimental procedures and surgeries are actually not that great and not doing what they were promised.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And this is on full display in the UK. And guys, it is just so gratifying to see the scientists and the academics and the experts finally hold themselves accountable after so many years and acknowledge their own biases through these studies, through their reports, which is something that you would see regularly if you were a student at Peterson Academy.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And if you are not up to date on the best new academic platform out there, Peterson Academy is Jordan Peterson's new online university that is open for enrollment right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And so if you are somebody like me who loves lifelong learning and wants to learn from the brightest professors in the entire world, or if you're somebody who has just ever benefited from Dr. Peterson's lectures and his incredible guests on his podcast, then this platform is for you. Every month, Peterson Academy releases four new in-depth,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
eight-hour university-level courses that are taught by world-renowned experts and professors, and they are produced specifically to keep you fully engaged. This is not your normal boring college lecture. This is something totally different.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
They cover an amazing range of topics from philosophy to history to psychology to science to business to mathematics, complete with optional testing to further and deepen your understanding. Plus, they are continually rolling out new educational features as they continue growing the platform.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
There is also a built-in social community, which I think is so important, so that you can connect with and learn alongside like-minded people from around the world. So guys, if you are ready to challenge your intellect, to expand your horizons and take control of your continuing education, it is time to go to petersonacademy.com slash Brett.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And guys, you do not have to be at a certain point in your life or a certain age to benefit from Peterson Academy. I think that this will be an incredible resource for homeschool families. This is something that I would have just been obsessed with as a teenager. It'll be great for college students who like me felt like they weren't really getting what they wanted.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And those executive orders, you know, he did one that established that the United States only has two genders, which, you know, it's a shock that even has to be established. He's also doing what he can to ban men from competing in women's sports. He is now keeping transgender members out of the military. And lastly, he cut federal funding for the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
We're paying for, for adults who feel like they're missing out on learning. There really is something for everyone. And it is only $599 per year or $59 a month to access all 31 eight hour courses with four new courses a month, plus the community with a seven day money back guarantee. But I highly doubt you will need it. I have been on Peterson Academy. I've been taking the classes.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
They are truly top tier, high caliber. You guys will love them. And guys, best part, in my opinion, is that for that price, for $599 a year, you do not have to go out and take out some $60,000 student loan to further your education. Again, that is petersonacademy.com slash brett to get started and join Peterson Academy today.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Now the latest bombshell example of this accountability, of this self-awareness, of finally being honest about these procedures came out just a couple of weeks ago through the Oxford Journal. They released their findings after studying over 107,000 patients with gender dysphoria and found that yes, unequivocally,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Those who underwent sex change surgeries who went through with the entire medical procedures of transitioning faced higher risks of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and substance abuse after undergoing those procedures. And this was released just on February 25th, 2025.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And more specifically, this study found that males with gender transition surgery were 120% more likely to have depression. and 388% likelier to have anxiety than males who had gender dysphoria without surgical intervention. Gender dysphoric females were 56% likelier to have depression and 48% likelier to have anxiety if they had undergone gender transition surgery.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
So obviously it is still an increase, but those numbers for men who underwent these surgeries, that is shocking. And obviously, as you saw, there was an increase for women, but that dramatic increase for men, that is horrifying.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And for anybody who has been paying attention over the last couple of years, who has been following and advocating for this issue, those numbers probably don't shock us at all. I mean, I saw this report come out and I was like, of course the numbers increased. Obviously, that is common sense. Because these surgeries and these procedures, they are a band-aid situation.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
They will never address the root problem. And so of course there are going to be higher risks of depression and anxiety. And it's not just common sense that should tell us this. There are other studies like this. I mean, last year, a Finnish study found that patients who proceeded to gender-affirming treatments did not have a reduction in mental crises or suicidal ideation.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
That came out February 16th of 2024. They also found that usually Wow, there were underlying mental health issues that needed to be addressed in addition to gender dysphoria that might have caused gender dysphoria.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
In 2019, this is another crazy example, a Swedish study was done, this is a study that is now very well referenced in the LGBTQ community, and they found a decrease in mental health treatment after medically transitioning.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
But guys, less than a year after that report came out, that study, that key study that was now referenced everywhere that was used to push this issue forward, shoved in our faces, was officially corrected.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
It was reanalyzed, and the American Journal of Psychiatry came in and clarified that, quote, the results of the reanalysis demonstrated no advantage of surgery in relation to subsequent mood or anxiety disorder-related healthcare visits or prescriptions or hospitalizations following suicide attempts. I mean, that... It's crazy. Again, nine months later.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And that is what I want to focus on today. And obviously there was outrage over every single one of these four executive orders, and it feels unlikely as Congress stands right now that any of these will be passed as bills, even though I would love them to. considering that every single Democrat in Congress voted against passing a bill that would keep men out of women's sports just last week.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Then, in 2024, an American study was finally released, because all of this was done overseas, that also confirmed all of this. But their sample size was only of 1,500 patients, so obviously it did not get the attention or the credibility that it probably deserved. So basically, we, on the common sense side of this issue, and all of the researchers have been saying this for years.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
We have been sounding the alarms. People like Chloe Cole, like Riley Gaines have been sounding the alarms. But this new study from the Oxford Journal, with its magnitude, with its scope, with its size, and its damning outcomes, is pretty hard to refute.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And my good friend Chloe, who you guys probably know is a teen detransitioner who started puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones at age 13, who then underwent a double mastectomy at age 15, agreed with all of this, and she came on the show to share the validation that a study like this brings to her and her entire community.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And I wanted Chloe to come on and I wanted you guys to hear her story and continue hearing her story because it tells you why these studies, why all of these reports are so vital. Because parents are literally told that their gender dysphoric children will die if their parents do not help them transition.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Many parents are threatened into agreeing to these experimental procedures purely based on fear and lies from psychiatrists, from doctors, and most importantly, from the media. This is what happened to Chloe Cole and her parents, and it is what famously happened to Elon Musk. This is why he cares so deeply about this issue. Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
It was a complete lie. They literally said, you must agree to this because your son will commit suicide if you don't. I mean, imagine putting that in front of a parent. Obviously, parents are going to go along with it. They're not going to think that it's a lie because why would doctors tell them a lie? Why would they use fear to push an experimental procedure on this innocent child.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
So I want you guys to know that because when you hear the media freaking out that Trump is killing trans children, that he's doing all of this legislation that will kill trans people, that gender affirming care is actually keeping trans people alive, I want you all to know that all of that is based on a lie. That is what these reports are telling us.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
So when you see headlines like this from the ACLU, Doctors agree gender-affirming care is life-saving care. This is from USA Today. Gender-affirming care is life-saving, research says. Why is it so controversial? Well, it's controversial because the science isn't really on your side. You might have a couple of doctors that are on board, but it is objectively scientifically controversial.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And I want you to hear that again, every single Democrat. And that issue specifically, as we discussed last week, is not even controversial. Studies have shown that 70% of Americans on a baseline believe that men, biological men, should not compete against women.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Like, the jury has been out. We are now getting to an objective solution. I have my opinions on it, but there is now becoming more of a consensus. It objectively has been controversial because you guys have been telling lies.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
So gender affirming care saves lives is really an emotional fallacy that makes us easy, that makes parents and children easy to control and manipulate without having all of the facts. And so again, I have empathy for these parents.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
It makes sense that so many parents would hear this from doctors, from the media, from specialists and be terrified for their kids and go, oh my gosh, I will do anything that it takes to keep my child from dying. I mean, who wouldn't do anything? to protect their child. But this is anything but protection. I mean, protecting your kids is being proactive.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
It is caring about their holistic health from the beginning, which you can even start at home with their diet and lifestyle. And you can start doing that for your family right now with Good Ranchers, thanks to their spring into action deal. Good Ranchers puts family values and the health of American families first, just like you do.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And if you wanna see the Good Ranchers products that Alex and I love that we eat on a weekly basis, you can go to goodranchers.com slash Brett to check out my exclusive box that I curated just for me and just for you guys. You can try my handpicked selections that will make your life easier and healthier, and you'll be directly supporting American ranches from across the country.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Again, go to goodranchers.com slash Brett to shop my box today. And like I said earlier, right now Good Ranchers is running their Spring Into Action promotion, which means that you can support local ranchers in America and easily get American quality delivered right to your door. So subscribe to any of their boxes, but obviously, preferably the Brett Cooper box,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
This is an incredible promotion. To spring into action and to help keep your family healthy while supporting American farms, Visit GoodRanchers.com today and don't forget to use my code BRETT to claim your free meat and $25 off. This is truly the first step to keeping your family healthy and happy.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And these people that are in Congress that are supposed to represent us, that are supposed to represent that 70%, overwhelmingly, every single one of them voted no. So I think that just kind of gives you an overview of where our government stands right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
Now, even though all of these studies that I've referenced at the beginning of this episode are incredibly important, especially that recent one from the Oxford Journal, just because of how huge the sample size is, and it should be eye opening for people around the world, they are still, in my opinion, missing a huge piece of the puzzle. Because at the end of the day,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
If you read these reports, if you read these surveys and then you get to their conclusion, their conclusions are still flawed. Like the way that they interpret this issue, the way that they interpret the data and propose a solution is still dictated by their emotional ideology. And this idea that we have to affirm, we have to affirm.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
For example, in that 2024 curious study that was done in the States with a very small sample size. Their conclusion found that patients who have undergone gender-affirming surgery are associated with significantly elevated risk of suicide, highlighting the necessity for comprehensive post-procedure psychiatric support. Here we go, another one.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
In the Oxford Journal, this most recent one, they concluded that gender-affirming surgery, while beneficial in affirming gender identity, they're still propelling this lie that it's very good for affirming, that's very good for affirming, is associated with increased risk of mental health issues, underscoring the need for ongoing gender-sensitive mental health support for transgender individuals,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
post surgery. This is where the science and the protocol is still inherently flawed. I mean, we have all of these studies saying the same thing, that these risks are increased, that the surgeries do not actually do anything, but make the situations worse.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And their response is not to address these experimental irreversible procedures that are obviously not working, but to say that they need more support after going through these surgeries that just clearly do not work, which in a way is still true. And we're going to get to that, but that is not the real pressing issue at hand, as Chloe said.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
And so what needs to change in order to push any of these bills through to make these into law so that they can't just be undone by another president four years from now? Well, in my opinion, people need to be hit in the face with the facts about these procedures and the lasting effects that they have on people, specifically on developing minds, specifically on American children.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Growing Regret Among Trans Teens | Episode 13
But this, of course, also doesn't have to be exclusive because in her mind, in Chloe's mind, there should be a more holistic approach from when the patient comes in with gender dysphoria, with confusion over their bodies and their gender, and even after medical treatments, if they end up going through with it like she did at 15 years old, because in her experience after her surgery, when she started experiencing regrets and confusion about what she had just done to her body, she received nothing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
It makes sense that people would feel sensitive to somebody rejecting or dismissing the values that we believe make our country great, that we have spent years fighting for, and that are also back in action in 2025. I mean, the golden age of America, and so to hear somebody rejecting that or being anti-American right now feels like such a betrayal.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Cap has universal characteristics that people all over the world can relate to. And that last line, if I had to guess, was what he was trying to convey, or maybe he's hoping that people now believe that that was what he was trying to convey, but based on Chris Evans and based on the comics, it seems like that is probably the direction he was trying to take.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Whether that is, you know, racists or bigots or war criminals or uneducated, whatever it may be, it has been coming from them. But now, things are starting to change in a more positive light, or so I hope. If you want to check out our new merch collection, we have those links below.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And to take this apology and clarification even further, just to give Anthony Mackie some credit, he even tried to shut down rumors that the character of Thaddeus Ross, who becomes Red Hulk, who is being played by Harrison Ford in this new film, was designed in this new film to represent Donald Trump, to be this, you know, tyrannical antagonist.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
They had even at one point, because they've done many iterations of this new Brave New World film, they had even had a previous rewrite where there was like a Jan 6 thing in it, But then they took it out and they rewrote it because I think they knew the culture was changing. So it seems like they are proactively trying to be more culturally where we are right now and be less politically divisive.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And it seems like that is what Anthony Mackie is trying to do, at least in the aftermath of that viral clip. But I did get ahead of myself. This is what he said. He said, I hope that as a country, we are tired of all the political jousting. Let's just go to the movies and chill the F out. We could have made this mother F for yellow and it would have been a problem. And you know what?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Listen, to be fair, he is correct. I think we would all like to chill the F out and just go to the movies. But, you know, Hollywood kind of has to be the one to do it. So that's actually the part of the quote that read me the wrong way. It's like, yes, yes, we've been wanting that. We want the political jousting to end. We want to just be able to go to movies.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
You guys need to take the steps to make that happen. You need to stop criticizing us at every turn. You need to stop making antagonist characters out of political leaders based on narratives that you've created in your head based on mainstream media.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
to that point and who knows based on these rewrites based on the things he's saying we might be getting to that point and of course this could be a pr cleanup job for marvel and his team but at least he didn't lean into that original sentiment more which i think has helped us all greatly so that is one side of this viral story that i wanted to discuss but the other side of it was that in going through all of this and reading all the comments and going back and looking at the comics and going back and looking at what chris evans said back in 2011 my prevailing thought
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
was do we really need to react angrily to everything we see online? Like is a clip from an actor talking about ridiculous actor things like the thing that we all need to spend hours getting angry about?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And I know it's funny to hear that for me because I did a reaction show for three years, but that is why I always try to extract substance and be more balanced because people just explode online over nothing, over something that could easily be broken down and discussed if you just spent five minutes Googling something and reading a couple articles.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Seriously, if you had taken five minutes and you had seen the Chris Evans quote and you had seen the comics, I feel like people could have easily noticed that this was basically like a nothing burger. And of course, you are welcome to be angry at the sentiment that the Captain America comics that Chris Evans and now Anthony Mackie have expressed. That's totally fine.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
You can believe that it's wrong and believe, you know, America should be represented in a different light or that what they're saying is inherently wrong. theoretically wrong, but I don't think all of this needs to be pinned on Anthony Mackie. I don't think that he is the one that is single-handedly destroying the MCU and destroying Captain America.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And if you want ad-free episodes, weekly advice videos, and an exclusive newsletter, make sure to check out my subscriber-only platform, Cooper Confidential. It is at cooperconfidential.supercast.com. We will also have that link in the description below.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Like, if you go back further, this started a long time ago. And that context is important, because in my mind, if you are just looking at that video alone, no other context, not looking deeper into the story, that story ends with it just being an actor saying stupid crap. But of course, if you do wanna go deeper, it does beg a bigger question of what does America represent?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Can we even be defined by that name, that word alone? We live in a country that has evolved massively over the last 150 years. We are constantly growing and evolving and changing, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst. Feels like it's been for the worst over the last 10 years. But now for a large portion of the country, we feel hopeful.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
We feel like we are getting back on track and we should be excited and exhilarated about all of that. So with that feeling in mind and thinking in the context of what Anthony Mackie said, I want to play you this video from a friend of mine. This is Alma. He immigrated to America. He went viral on TikTok a couple of years ago, actually talking about what he found so beautiful about America.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And he kind of brought this sentiment back in a very gracious and balanced response to this anti-American sentiment. And there's a chance I will not be able to play you the entire clip thanks to YouTube copyright laws. So go find Alma's TikTok if you want to watch the entire thing because it really is beautiful.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Now, obviously, it is not just Hollywood and journalists' fault for the ways that we have been represented and the images that have been portrayed of modern America, because, of course, our politicians have also helped further those narratives on the world stage.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
My point in playing that, other than just wanting to uplift Alma, because I think he has a great account and just has great takes, is that I think he hit the nail on the head with what Chris Evans and what the original comics were trying to convey. That yes, it is flawed, but we need these ideals to drive us to fight to keep America as great as it can be, to fight to preserve these values.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
and Anthony Mackie just kind of missed the mark. But based on his other comments, it seems like he sort of gets it, but that he was so lost in actor land and wanting to talk about playing with swords and his childhood experiences that he didn't finish the thought. So all of that being said, and in keeping with what Alma just said,
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
it makes sense that people would feel sensitive to somebody rejecting or dismissing the values that we believe make our country great, that we have spent years fighting for, and that are also back in action in 2025. I mean, the golden age of America.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And so to hear somebody rejecting that or being anti-American right now feels like such a betrayal, even though obviously there are people in our country who hate what's going on. But for a lot of people, I think it's like, how could you not love the energy? right now, and I understand that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
But of course, we also have to say that after everything we've seen come out of Hollywood over the last 10 to 20 years, like, an anti-American sentiment is nothing new. That's probably one of the other reasons why this didn't completely throw me off, because I'm like, okay, an actor not loving America, not wanting to represent America, great, that's like a normal Wednesday in our lives.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
But I do think, kind of as I mentioned earlier, that Hollywood showing a love of country is making its way back.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Whether that's them cutting out the Jan 6 stuff because they realized that wouldn't play and would actually just make people angry, or whether it's films like Top Gun Maverick or Twisters being absolutely massive successes at the box office, speaking not just to their quality, but also to the Americana ideals and values that they represented.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Like, I think that that is why those films resonated so much with Americans across the country. Like, of course, they were great films. They were fun films. But you left those films feeling an overwhelming sense of pride to be an American.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
I mean, the nostalgia in both of those films, the independence, the glorification of normal, great, beautiful middle America, of rodeo culture, of our armed servicemen and women. That is what I remember from both of those films. oh my God, I can't believe that Hollywood did that, that they're producing that for us. And audiences showed up in droves.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And amidst all of the chaos and the division and the hatred and the vitriol, it really felt like we had lost sight of what America is supposed to be, what we fought for almost 250 years ago. And so with real, genuine joy and class and strength back in charge, there seems to be a sense of relief and genuine patriotism that so many people have not felt for so many years.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
I mean, talk about giving a mandate to Trump on how to lead the country. We gave a mandate to Hollywood with those two films of showing what we will show up for and what we're wanting. We don't need you to make a Donald Trump film to make a conservative Christian film.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
No, we just want you to sometimes make a movie that doesn't crap on all of our values, that makes us feel good about the country that we live in. It's really not that difficult of an ask. And so hopefully... With the changing culture, with everything that we've seen with the election, with these last couple of films, hopefully they are starting to listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And hopefully Anthony Mackie was just being dumb. And that Captain America and Brave New World is in line with those films that speak to those ideals that Captain America is supposed to represent. That should represent America. Of integrity and independence and trustworthiness and goodness. Hopefully we see that. Because even I can admit that we are far from perfect a lot of the time.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
That we have so many things that need to be fixed. but we should still love our country's foundation. And that doesn't mean that we can't try to be better and live up to those values every single day, hopefully with the help of superheroes and characters like that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And I know we like to talk down on Hollywood and say that they're not important, that they're irrelevant, that we don't need them, but stories are important. characters like Captain America that drive us to be better, that represent goodness, that teach kids how to be a good leader, how to fight for what's right. Those are important.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Those are important aspects of our culture and of our society that should hopefully in an ideal world make us all want to be better and push our world forward. And so hopefully that's what happens in Captain America Brave New World. But of course, we'll see.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And I think, in my opinion, that is why so many people lost their minds and got so angry with what the actor Anthony Mackie had to say about the term America. Now, if you guys have not followed this story, Anthony Mackie is an actor. He is playing the new Captain
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
America he is most well known for his career in the MCU I think he is one of the longest running actors in the MCU but there is a new Captain America movie coming out in 2025 it is called Captain America Brave New World and he has been doing a huge press tour for that and a couple of weeks ago he was doing an interview and somebody asked him about Captain America and its connections to America the country and this is what he had to say just listen
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Welcome back to another episode of The Red Cooper Show. Now, as you guys know, I was at the inauguration a couple of weeks ago, not at the inauguration, because obviously it was moved inside. And unlike the Paul brothers and Conor McGregor, I was not invited into the Capitol, even though that would have been a crazy group to be around. But the inauguration happened. It was historical.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
That does not sound great. So basically what we got from that is that the beloved Captain America represents a lot of things, a lot of objectively good values, but America, the term, is not one of them. Got it. You know, I guess that we do not represent integrity and trustworthiness and always doing the right thing and honesty. Not America, in Anthony Mackie's mind.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
People on X and on TikTok, they lost their damn minds. There were clips of this going viral. I mean, mega, mega viral. And it immediately sparked a debate between the left and the right because the right was angry because it felt like he was crapping on America and he was saying that we do not have good values and that he didn't want Captain America to be linked in with our great country.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And people on the left were immediately pushing back and going, no, it's like an awful country. We just elected Trump. Why would he want it to represent Captain America? We all just started freaking fighting. per usual. One headline reads, Captain America fans defend Anthony Mackie from Trump supporters. He is right.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
I also just think it's hysterical that anybody who defends America as a country and our founding beliefs is automatically labeled a Trump supporter. Like these accounts that were commenting these things, they did not have like MAGA in their bio. It was tons of different people. But of course the mainstream media is like, Trump supporters! They love the country.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
You must be, oh God, it's like so old at this point. Like, please find a new narrative. And I had a similar response, like many people online being like, ugh, I mean, that's unfortunate. Here's another movie going down the drain, I guess. This is unfortunate. But then I looked into it more. I read the comments, as I do.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
I mean, it basically seemed like people cared more about the political wins than they did about actually going deeper and understanding the context of the video and of the issue that they were discussing. And for those of us who do want to push through the noise and actually go deeper, we need Peterson Academy because that is exactly what they strive to do.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And if you didn't know, Peterson Academy is Dr. Jordan Peterson's new online university that is open for enrollment right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And so if you are somebody who loves lifelong learning, that does wanna go deeper and push beyond the headlines, if you are somebody who has ever benefited from any of Jordan's lectures, from any of the incredible guests that he's had on his podcast, Peterson Academy is 100% for you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And every month, Peterson Academy is releasing four new eight-hour university-level courses taught by world-renowned experts, and they're produced to keep you engaged. So this is not your normal college class. They cover an incredible range of topics from politics to psychology to statistics to storytelling and Shakespeare all the way to nutrition.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
They truly want to provide a well-rounded education, and they even have optional testing to further your understanding of the subjects that you're studying. there's also a built-in social component of Peterson Academy so that you can connect and learn alongside like-minded people around the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And on top of all of that, they are continuously releasing new features to make this the best platform that it can be. So if you are ready to take control of your education, to broaden your horizons, to explore new subjects, it is time for you to go to petersonacademy.com slash brett.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
There was so much joy throughout D.C. It was just crazy to see. And I feel like we have been experiencing that joy for the last couple of And I really love talking about the joy because our joy is actually authentic. Our joy is genuine and based on something that is real unlike Kamala Harris's joy that she faked for basically her entire campaign.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Peterson Academy is $599 a year or $59 a month to access all 31 eight hour courses, plus those four new courses that are coming every single month, plus the social community and a seven day money back guarantee. And to me, the best part is for that price, you are not having to take out a $60,000 student loan to continue your education.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
So again, that is petersonacademy.com slash brett to join Peterson Academy today. They will help you go deeper. They will give you the tools that you need to critically think about the world around you, especially in situations like this when it goes crazy on social media. And I noticed that some of the people who were pushing back weren't necessarily wrong.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And these were not the finger waggers and the pointers and the people who were making it a right versus left thing. They were just talking about Captain America in general in the history. And to their point, Anthony Mackie might not be entirely wrong either, because this is not really a new take on Captain America.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
It's not that Captain America rejects America entirely, but it is that he is bigger than just one country, which is exactly what Chris Evans said back in 2011. So this is not the first time that an actor playing Captain America has expressed this sentiment. In 2011, Chris Evans said, was created in America during wartime when there was a common enemy, even though it is Captain America.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
I've said before in interviews, it feels more like he should just be called Captain Good. You know, he was created at a time where there was this undeniable evil, and this guy was kind of created to fight that evil. I think that everyone could agree that Nazis were bad, and he, Cap, just so happens to wear the red, white, and blue.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
So again, he's saying, you know, not a patriotic movie, not a America movie, but it's a movie about aspirational ideals and objective good. And this person is supposed to embody these ideals that could be relatable to any individual, should be aspirational to somebody, no matter what country you live in. No matter what your background is, you should be able to see the good in this superhero.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And as even more people pointed out, if you go back even further in history of Captain America, this is what is actually said in the Captain America comics. This is the comic right here, but I'll read it to you. He says, listen to me, all of you out there. You were told by this man, your hero, that America is the greatest country in the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
He told you that Americans were the greatest people, that America could be refined like silver, could have the impurities hammered out of it and shine more brightly. He went on about how precious America was and how you needed to make sure it remained great. And he told you that anything was justified to preserve that pearl of the great price that is America. that America is nothing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Without its ideals, its commitment to the freedom of all men, America is a piece of trash. A nation is nothing. A flag is a piece of cloth. I fought Adolf Hitler not because America was great, but because it was fragile. I knew that liberty could be easily snuffed out here as in Nazi Germany, as people were no different than them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
But I really think that there is something so special about the beginnings of this new Trump presidency, the new Trump admin, and the now golden age of America. And I've been trying to put my finger on what is so exciting and exhilarating and joyful about it and obviously
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
When I returned, I saw that you nearly did turn America into nothing. I mean, this is deep for a comic. This is a lot more nuanced than Anthony Mackie was in his little quip.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
It's a lot deeper than what Chris Evans was trying to communicate, but you can kind of connect the dots on what they were basing their responses on based on the history of this character and what he said in the comics and what he has done in all these other movies. I especially love this last paragraph where it talks about America being fragile.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
I mean, that's something that we have discussed consistently over the last couple of years. The driving force with getting someone like Trump back in office so that he could steer us onto the right track because we are so fragile. Because we have seen our country be almost destroyed and we could not let that happen. We are not immune to tyranny.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
We are not immune to terrible ideas and victimhood and bad ideology and communism. We have gotten so close to having that here, which is why we have to fight for the ideals that this country was founded on. And while I agree with that second paragraph, I do kind of disagree with the first paragraph where he says that America can't be great, that it cannot be good.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
fixed and have the blemishes removed. I do believe that we can get to that point. I think that we are certainly on our way right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
This is a discussion about what it means to have ideals and beliefs and values that drive the foundation of a country and what happens when those ideals get forgotten and trampled out and what it means to fight to get that back and to have a love of country and a love of ideals, but maybe not love where we are right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And I think it's ideologically wrong for people to get angry at somebody saying that America isn't perfect or that they don't love America right now, because we've done that. Like obviously people on the left are going to be unhappy with what is happening in Trump's America. They're going to be angry and afraid. I've tried to address that and quell some of those fears.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
But it's dishonest to say that we haven't done that. I've certainly done that over the last four years. Like, this country's doomed. Authoritarianism. Biden, he's running it into the ground.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And while there's a difference between criticizing the current state of America and what's going on and criticizing its ideals, I really don't think Anthony Mackie was concerning himself with clarifying anything or having any nuance. Like, I'm sorry, but he's an actor. doing a press tour. I don't really think he's thought about this very deeply. And so it might not be all Anthony Mackie's fault.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Like, I genuinely do not even know if he knew what he was trying to say, especially when you hear what he said after the end of that quote at the end of this clip.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Seeing the policies that we voted for come to fruition is very exciting and feels very redeeming, but it also feels bigger than that. And in my opinion, kind of what I've landed on as I've been thinking about this is that it's the fact that we are taking back our country and we are now deciding how it is defined on the world stage.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
How did that connect with what America represents? Like, we went from a very weird quip about Captain America not really representing America and him being bigger than that into an actor's monologue about what it means to be an actor. Like, is he talking about ideals and dreams and how it relates to America?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Or did he just completely get off track and he's just talking about what it meant as an actor... to do this movie and play a superhero because it felt like he was tapping in to his inner child. Like that just doesn't make sense. I was a child actor. I've been around a lot of actors. I love actors. I have a fondness for actors. That was dumb actor speak. That was, he was asked a question.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
He tried to answer it. He got off track and he just started going into his little emotional brain, talking about his hopes and dreams and what made him want to be an actor, which is like totally fine. But it just makes me think again, that he literally didn't know what he was talking about. He was probably given some PR points about Captain America. He was told what Chris Evans said.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
He's probably read the comics at this point, especially because he's been in the MCU for so long. He's probably trying to express what had been said before. But he screwed it up. He offered no clarity, no substance, and then he turned it into this odd musing on what it means to be an actor and tapping into your inner child.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And also, it's not the first time on this press tour that he has gotten off track and contradicted himself. For instance, at another point in one of these big interviews, he was asked about what it means to be a black man, you know, playing Captain America, because obviously they're going to ask that stupid freaking question. And he completely spoke out of both sides of his mouth.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
He said, I feel like it is just as important for black kids to see a black Captain America as it is for white kids. Growing up, one of my favorite superheroes was Green. It wasn't about race or anything. It was just about him being a good guy trying to do the right thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
It's very important for kids of all races to be able to watch something and have someone to look up to no matter what they look like and see that that package comes with a good human being as opposed to what they've been perceived as by everyone else. So he sums it up by saying that race doesn't matter.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
You know, he could be green and love him, but also it's very important for little black kids to see him play this role and that everybody needs to see representation. Like I genuinely think that he's just making all of this up as he goes. I think that he is just rambling and trying to find his way. And as somebody who does get interviewed and has to do press, sometimes that happens.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
Like sometimes I will sit down for an interview. Somebody will ask me a question And it takes me a good five minutes to get there. Like I do the Donald Trump weave of like, I want to figure out how I'm going to get there. But he's doing this on a world stage and people are only clipping out small moments.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
We are being proactive rather than just reactionary because for the last decade, 20 years or so, Hollywood and journalists have been the ones who have decided and directed how we are represented on the world stage. They've been telling a bulk of the country who we are and what we represent.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And to be fair, even though we kind of talked his way around the issue, he is right that color shouldn't matter. Like color should not matter unless you are evaluating your stakes, which is why I buy from Good Ranchers because they have the highest quality cuts of meat. And all of their products are from the U.S.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And I know that you might say, Brett, come on, I can go to the grocery store and everything says product of the U.S.A. Mmm. Actually, 85% of grass-fed beef that you see in the grocery store is not actually from the United States, and that is because the country of origin law was actually repealed.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
So now a meat product does not need to be born, raised, or even harvested in the United States to get that label. It only needs to be packaged in the United States in order to say that it is a product of the United States. But with good ranchers, when they say that their meat is 100% American, they actually mean it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
All of their products are born, raised, harvested, and packaged by local ranchers that keep our communities fed and moving. And on top of that, these American products are free from hidden additives. No antibiotics ever, no added hormones, no seed oils, just simple ingredients that you can feel good about feeding yourself and your family.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
They really make everything more simple, down to the fact that they deliver their products directly to your door. So with goodranchers.com, everything that you need to create a delicious meal and feed your family is just a click away. And as an extra little treat for you guys, if you go to goodranchers.com slash Brett, you'll be able to see the special box that I had curated just for you guys.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
These are all the products that Alex and I literally eat throughout the week, from the pork chops to the brats to the steaks. These are the products that keep our household moving.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
And if all of that is not enough to convince you, Good Ranchers is still running their New Year New Meat promotion, which means that you can subscribe to any box, hopefully the Brett Cooper box, because it's my favorite and it's really good, but subscribe to any box and you can get a year's worth of free meat.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
You get to choose from free ground beef, free chicken breast, or free salmon in every single order for an entire year. Plus, you will get $25 off when you use my code BRETT at checkout. So visit goodranchers.com, use code BRETT at checkout to claim your free meat for an entire year and $25 off. Again, goodranchers.com, $25 off and free meat for an entire year.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
That is simple ingredients all the time, transparent packaging, no clarifying statements needed, unlike the clarifying statement that Anthony Mackie had to make. And, you know, to his credit, he did make a follow-up statement in an attempt to clarify things.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Marvel Fans Are Outraged at the New Captain America | Episode 5
I mean, who knows whether this was, you know, a PR cleanup job or actually coming from the heart, but he posted this on his story soon after that original video went viral last week. And he said, let me be clear about this. I'm a proud American and taking on the shield of a hero like Cap is the honor of a lifetime. I have the utmost respect for those who serve and have served our country.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
So who would you rather hear motherhood advice from? A 27-year-old childless lesbian pop star or a beloved seasoned mother? In my opinion, the choice is clear, but the internet stands divided. So last week, Alex Cooper had two very different women on her show call her daddy, and they both organically spoke about motherhood.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
It's very, very true. I mean, he is spot on. And as I keep saying, it's not a political issue. This is a cultural issue that goes far deeper than that. I mean, this is not about misery. It is about sacrifice and what we value as a society.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Everyone is in hell. Everyone she knows is miserable. They don't even have light in their eyes as parents. I mean, that is a broad generalization. That is a very damning, sweeping statement that she is making. And it's even more concerning or hurtful or damning when you realize who exactly she's talking about. This all came up when Alex asked Chapel Roan about her friends back at home.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And for a lot of people, based on their principles and what they value and what they deem is important, that sacrifice does end up leading to deep joy and deep fulfillment. And again, make whatever choice you want. It is your life to lead. I'm not here to tell you what to do. But if we're being honest, which is, you know, kind of the theme here,
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
is that the statistics are on Ellen's side in this debate, if we even want to call it a debate. Take a look at these numbers. Married mothers are the happiest. The highest percentage of very happy people in our society are married women with children. And as for married fathers, they are also the happiest percentage of the entire male population, coming in at 35%.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Which is a huge jump from the unmarried without children, 13%. And these numbers, guys, they are not just from some small organization. They are from the General Social Survey that has been running since 1972. This is our nation's largest, most respected, most rigorous research body that seeks to understand American attitudes at its core. And this is what they found about parenthood.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And every year, the same thing rings true. Parenthood does always lead to a higher life satisfaction in all of these reports. But it is also important to note as kind of a caveat here, that it is always in conjunction with marriage. It's not just that the children themselves make you the happiest in the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
It isn't that stable family environment where you were in pursuit of something good that is hard, that is challenging, but so rewarding. It is that that makes people the happiest. And also the link between marriage and happiness is frequently stronger in these studies. So it isn't just about having children, but it is about relationships and the depth and the meaning of those relationships.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
That is what provides happiness. Now, to broaden this further, to paint an even wider picture for you guys, this is also not a new phenomenon, even though that study only goes up to 2022. Like, this study, for example, was conducted in 2012. In defense of parenthood, children are associated with more joy than misery. How about that, chaperone? And also, the same goes in other countries.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
It's not just America. Both the European Social Survey and the International Survey found that parents were scoring higher on the happiness scale than non-parents were, and this was especially prevalent in countries like Norway and Hungary and Switzerland. that prioritize strong supportive family policies, which by the way, I do think that America could do a lot better.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
I'm not somebody who sits here and says, this is perfect. This is so easy. Everybody should have children because it's the easiest thing in the world. No, it is especially hard. And I am not talking about universal healthcare because that is what people always go to. They say, I can't have kids because I don't have universal healthcare. That's where everybody's minds go to.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
My mind goes to tax credit for parents and the betterment of our school system so that they feel confident putting their kids in schools, the strengthening of the economy to make life easier for family. a less bloated and government-infested healthcare system, which I think would make things a lot easier for families.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
That is all stuff that we can do to make this easier to hopefully make parents even happier. That and strong marriages would make this argument even more of a slam dunk than it already is after years and years of studying it. But per usual, guys, I still think that we can go deeper. I still think that we can figure out what is the root of this argument? What is the root of this joy?
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Like, what makes parents feel that depth and feel that magic? What makes this experience feel so fulfilling and eudaimonic, as the Greek philosophers would say? Well, it's the exact thing that the Chapel Roans and the USA Today writers of the world want to avoid at all costs. Sacrifice. At the end of the day, that is what is causing this joy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
I mean, when you look at the happiness statistics in all of these studies that we just talked about, when you dive deeper into what they're actually looking at, it's not just momentary joy and momentary pleasures that they're exploring. It is a deep fulfillment and a range of emotions that these parents are going through. Because those same parents that experience extreme levels of happiness
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
She's from the Midwest, who she says that she is closest to. She always says those are the people that she maintains the best relationships with. And she goes into this whole conversation about how they have more normal lives compared to her, you know, pop star celebrity life now. They have houses, they're married, they have children.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
also experience higher levels of stress, especially in those earlier years of parenthood, which Chappell did point to. They do experience heartache, they experience sleepless nights, but that just makes the joy stronger because they have purpose, because they are sacrificing for something good.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And that is why there are so many people in the world who do find joy and fulfillment outside of having children, because those people almost always have deep, purposeful lives. They're not just floating around, chasing material things, trying to be some hot single woman in New York City. No! They have something deeper that's driving them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Neither of these parties shy away from the sacrifices and the challenges, and that, in my opinion, is what brings fulfillment. That is what makes life worth living. I mean, this is like a core tenet of Jordan Peterson's philosophy, which you probably know if you've even watched one video of his because he talks about it so much.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Having challenges and making sacrifices, that is what makes life so full. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
I mean, I literally want to send this to Chapel Road. I want to send this to this USA Today writer and just be like, just take a listen. Like, I don't care if you have kids, but you should understand that this is probably why you feel that tension, why you feel so upset with this conversation and why you were so quick to paint this insecurity onto other people.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
You should evaluate everything going on and figure out what is actually going to drive me. you know, beyond just being a hot single lesbian chick in New York City. And again, Jordan has said far more than what was just in that clip, but this is something that he brings up repeatedly, like rightfully so. This is one of my favorites that I also wanted to include just for good measure.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship blogged about this last year, and they said, in Jordan's words, sacrifice is being willing to give up something in the hopes of attaining something of greater value. something that is deferred, mature, rich, and harmonious with the lives around you. It is integrating our personal desires with those of our family, our city, our nation.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
It is the higher principle that puts hedonistic self-gratification in its right place. And then this author jumps in to comment on what Jordan just said, and they wrote, stepping up into responsibility always takes sacrifice. And the life of responsible citizenship creates a virtuous cycle, an infinite upward spiral that carries us higher into prosperity, truth, and meaning.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Sacrifice means together we all experience something greater. This is the the adventure that we are called to. This is the better story. And of course, that is up to each individual to determine for themselves, like what that story will be, what that higher calling is. But we should all be in pursuit of greatness and fulfillment and depth. That is not something that we should shy away from.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And then she immediately jumps into saying that they're all in hell and that she has not met a happy parent, that all of her closest friends back home in the Midwest are miserable.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Because we are worried about being uncomfortable and that requires sacrifice. You can't avoid it. You can't go through life wanting to have a deep fulfilled life and just avoid feeling the hard things and going through the hard things. That's just not how it works. And so when parents talk about the joys and the magic and the depth that brings them, this is the reason.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
It's not because they think that they're all better than us or that your choices are bad or that they're attacking you. it's because they most likely have experienced a deeper sense of purpose than the person who stays rooted in their current situation due to convenience or material gain. Like that's just a fact, I'm sorry.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
The average mom out there has probably experienced more depth than Chelsea Handler, who has basically made her entire brand about not wanting kids on this premise, on the premise of convenience, just watch.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Now, to be fair, a few minutes later, she does clarify that they're in hell because they love their children so much, they're dedicating so much of their time to their children, but I mean, truly, what a miserable, I guess that's the only word I can use, a miserable, broad, sweeping statement to make.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And of course, she's making jokes about all of this, but after like 15 years of this, it kind of becomes not a joke. It's like, okay, Chelsea, we get it. You want to do shrooms in the middle of the desert and you don't want to have kids, that's fine. But stop pretending that all of your comments are anything other than it is.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
You're just overcompensating because you do feel insecure about your choice. And she's not the only one. I mean, the other one that comes to mind is freaking Seth Rogen, who very famously a couple of years ago said, We're effing psyched all the time. We're laying in bed on a Saturday morning, smoking weed, watching movies naked. If we had kids, we could not be effing doing this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And listen, that's their decision to make. I'm not here to tell them what is right and what is wrong, but they are choosing to not make that sacrifice.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And the problem that I have with that is not that they're not choosing to have kids because, again, that's their life, but it's to take somebody else's choices and paint it as some kind of miserable hell just so that you can have some kind of momentary emotional gain and feel better about yourself.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And I genuinely laugh about Chappell's comments because I'm sure that she thought that that was some kind of edgy and very introspective and inflammatory thing that she said when literally parents hear these messages constantly. From every angle, from Hollywood, from social media, from pop culture, and they have been hearing it for years.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
So yes, the point of this entire episode is that we should all be willing to sacrifice and go through hard things and grow and make our lives better to bring us closer to fulfillment. And for that reason, I personally choose to revere parents and celebrate them because they are doing that every single day. because they are doing the hard thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
They're doing something that is challenging in pursuit of greatness, not just for themselves, but for these tiny humans that they brought into the world, which in my opinion is one of the most inspirational things a person can do.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
But also, if you know Chapel Roan at all, if you have watched her on social media, if you listen to her music, you probably know that positivity really isn't her thing. Like, she's always bitching about something, like somebody's always out to get her, something's out to get her, she's always... talking smack about the paparazzi or the press or people who are interviewing her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Like victimhood is kind of her M.O. at this point. And I honestly just laugh at it. But regardless of all of that, these comments in particular really struck a chord with people. And why wouldn't they? I mean, especially on a personal level, like imagine
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
how hurtful it would feel to be one of these close friends that she's talking about and feeling like she is a safe person to vent to about the sleepless nights or the terrible twos and thinking that you can confide in her and share all parts of your life, the good and the bad.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And the timing was just too perfect because their opinions could have not been more contrasting, which you know is a beautiful part of life. It is a beautiful thing that we can have different opinions and share those on the same podcast. But this has certainly sparked a debate online about motherhood, about happiness in parenthood, and who exactly we should be listening to
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And instead, she takes that and she blasts it online on a huge platform as part of a generalization about the choice that you have made in your life. A choice that is obviously hard, nobody says it isn't hard, but is also incredibly beautiful and is incredibly rewarding.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
I mean, that is the case with many amazing things in life, like taking responsibility for your health, which you can do with Merrick Health. Merrick Health is the premier health optimization platform, empowering you to maximize your health thanks to personalized expert guidance that you will have in your back pocket.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Merrick Health offers cutting-edge diagnostic labs that truly, guys, will change your life. They have concierge health coaching, expert clinical oversight, and they support clients in achieving their health and fitness goals by leveraging data-driven lifestyle and nutrition recommendations, along with supplement and prescription treatment options.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And I think you guys probably know this by now, but I started my journey with Merrick Health long before they ever sponsored any of my work, because after years of feeling so lackluster and blech and uninformed about my health, I finally decided that I wanted to make a change that was data-driven, and Merrick Health was there to help me.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And they truly made it so that I could stay on top of my health with the best information possible outside of our traditional model. Merrick Health exceeded my expectations and they completely changed the way that I view and care for my body. And I know that they will do the same for you. This is truly an investment worth making for you and your family.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And today, if you decide to start your journey with them, you can get 10% off. Just head to merrickhealth.com and use my code COOPER at checkout. Again, that is merrick, M-A-R-R-E-K, health.com. with Code Cooper for 10% off. Stop guessing and start optimizing your health today with Merrick Health.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Now going back to Chapel's friends and the choices that they made and the things that they confided in her with, I was not the only person who immediately thought of them. Like before diving into any discourse online about parenthood and happiness, this was the first thing that people brought up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Like one person said, Chapel roaned going on call her daddy saying none of her friends with kids are happy is a prime example of why you cannot just vent to anyone, because I guarantee she has this perspective because a few of her mom friends are going through it, and may a friendship like that never, ever, ever find me.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
May the friendships of narcissistic childless women with no sense of loyalty ever find me. LOL, true. Another person on Reddit said, someone who doesn't have kids presuming to speak for other people on the topic is a bit goofy. There is also a possibility that she is such a negative person that her friends who are parents see her as a safe person to vent to, which is very true.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Your negative Nancy friends, those are the people that you often go to if you just want to feel validated and you just want to just like trauma dump and just like word vomit about things. But usually you don't expect them to be some kind of celebrity who then goes and basically rats you out online for millions upon millions of people.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
I mean, literally the last thing you want is someone to take your venting, especially about something that is as precious and private as your children, and then to have that be blasted online for such a large audience. And from afar at least, it feels hurtful that that is how she allegedly
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
genuinely sees her closest friends, that they are just miserable people who are in hell because of their miserable choices. And she, as Chapel Roan, is wiser and far above that as this childless 27-year-old Hollywood punk drag pop star that she apparently knows everything about the world. But I will tell you who actually sounded wise on the Call Her Daddy podcast, and that was Ellen Pompeo.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
when it comes to this type of wisdom. Is it somebody like Chapel Roan or is it somebody like Ellen Pompeo? And is there one formula for happiness and does it require being a parent? We're going to figure that out today. Now, before we dive into this story, make sure that you're following our podcast page and please rate the show if you're enjoying it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And she sounded wise because she didn't call anybody out, because she didn't paint any broad generalizations about half of the population. She didn't say that you must have kids or that it is the easiest thing in the world or the only way to find happiness but she did talk about the depth that it brings to your life. I mean she was literally glowing when she was talking about her children.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Just take a look and just feel the contrast between these two statements.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
I mean, the entire thing was a net positive. She didn't shy away from saying that it makes you angrier and it's harder and maybe you won't give 100% at work. But it's this incredible thing because of the depth, because of the purpose that it brings your life and because of how it changes you as a person, which is always a good thing. We should always be striving to grow and evolve.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And she's looking at this and she's saying this is the most, you know, for her, the most incredible way to do that. And I mean, you see people online and they're like, oh, parenthood is so hard. Nobody has ever said that being a parent is easy. Like, even the best parents who love their children cannot hide the fact that it's hard. I mean, you are literally raising tiny human beings.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
You are fully responsible for the development of these little humans who are trying to teach them and protect them only to, 18 years later, push them out into the world and hoping that they succeed. Like, I fully expect that to be the most challenging and gut-wrenching yet rewarding and life-giving experience I will ever have. because it is so complex, because it is so nuanced. Like I crave that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
That's just how I feel. Like I want to feel that magic that Ellen is talking about in that interview. But it is all about your attitude and your perspective. If you constantly view yourself as a victim with the world out to get you, if you see sacrifices as hell and sleepless nights and maybe some inconvenience as misery, then yeah, you probably wouldn't want to go through that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
You probably wouldn't want to experience something like that. But that doesn't mean that being a parent is some kind of objectively terrible thing. And I don't even want to say that what Chappell said was awful or unkind, because at the end of the day, I kind of just laugh at it. Like, I looked at that clip and so many people were melting down about it. And I was like, are you kidding me?
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And if you want to come join us on tour, we will link all of our stops and the places to buy tickets in the description below. I hope I get to see a ton of you guys out on tour. We're hitting the road this spring. I think it'll be a ton of fun.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
That's immaturity. I literally just look at that as immaturity. I can't even take her seriously, and it's unfortunate that anyone does. And now clearly her statement was inflammatory enough to basically break the internet for the last couple of weeks because she has been everywhere, honestly. The story is not going away. Just like, take a look at these headlines. This is just from today.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
There's so many. Chapel Roan says parents of young kids are in hell. Chapel Roan divides the internet. Pop star angers conservatives. Okay, it's not just... conservatives. Everybody had an opinion about this. There are liberals who are parents. I don't even see this as a political issue, and I wish we would not make it so polarized because it impacts everyone, regardless of how you vote.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
But even though she is all over the mainstream media and all over our Google search engines, she really made waves on TikTok. Like, that is really where the conversation brewed, where mom after mom after mom was using her soundbite to then post videos and photos of their life and their children and basically say, like, I promise you, Chapel, like, This isn't hell.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Like here is just one example of probably hundreds that I have seen over the last couple of days.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
I mean, guys, like so, so many videos and they were all so innocent, just like this one. Like, yeah, I might be tired, but this is amazing. And I just loved this mom's caption in particular. And she said, Like I am willing to go through the sacrifices because they make everything worth it and they make that joy that much more impactful. They make me that much more fulfilled.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
So Ellen Pompeo, who is the star of Grey's Anatomy, which is, I think, one of the longest running shows on TV at this point, she technically went on Call Her Daddy first and brought up motherhood, but her interview was nowhere near as viral as Chapel Roan's, nor did it start the conversation. Chapel's did. So let's take a listen to this now viral clip.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And I personally, I don't know how you guys feel, but I personally felt like all of these videos were incredibly innocent and also very valid. I mean, this was a huge viral moment. This started a national, maybe even global conversation and these parents simply wanted to share the joy that they experience in their life since apparently that wasn't seen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Since apparently one of the world's biggest pop star was getting on the world's biggest female podcast and saying, yeah, they're all miserable. You're all in hell. Haven't met a happy one. You all look terrible. Like obviously people were going to respond. And 99% of these parents weren't even attacking Chapel, they were just sharing their own experiences.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And maybe I perceived it that way because I want to be a mother and I'm excited about that period of my life, but many women online did not see it that way. They saw the response from happy parents as an attack back on them. So now basically we have everybody thinking that everybody's attacking them and everybody hates their life choices and we're not really getting anywhere.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
For example, in the large and quite notorious, in my opinion, r slash childfree subreddit, I don't know if you guys have ever taken a gander on that page, but it is certainly something else, but there are countless posts, I mean, hundreds and hundreds of replies just picking apart the women who responded to Chappell. saying, I'm tired of having everybody attack me for my choices.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
I'm tired of people saying that I need to be a mother. All of these people pushing their happiness on me. How dare they do this? Like, okay, guys, it goes both ways. None of this is actually productive. A mom posting a joyful video of her kids and celebrating motherhood and parenthood is not an attack on you, and I'm so sorry if you feel that way, but that's not about her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Like, Chapel saying that her close friends are miserable and airing out their dirty laundry and that she's never met a happy parent ever, I mean, that is more of an attack. That is putting words in people's mouths and they do have a right to respond, even if it's not directly towards her, they have a right to comment on it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Like the only thing that really needs to be silent right now are your firearms. And you can do that with Silencer Shop. And I know that y'all love your guns, so just imagine kicking your shooting experience up a notch. With a suppressor from Silencer Shop, your range days get even better and your hunts become unforgettable.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
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The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And whether you are after that trophy buck like my husband is, or ringing steel targets, or just enjoying the range day with friends, adding a suppressor transforms your firearms from pretty good to downright awesome. And Silencer Shop has the biggest and best selection of suppressors, perfect for any firearm and any shooting style. But they also do more than just selling silencers.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Silencer Shop is out there every day defending your Second Amendment rights and fighting for our freedoms nationwide. So head on over to silencershop.com slash cooper and see how much better your guns can be. Silencer Shop is the go-to spot for getting a suppressor, and I promise you will not be disappointed. Like, again, this should not be a political issue.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
This should not be an issue that only one side is talking about or only child-free or only parents should be talking about. Like, for example, if I sat here and I said that anyone who doesn't have kids leads a miserable life, you would also have the right to respond. I would hope that you would respond because you have a different opinion than me. And that's also not honest of me to say.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Like, I know tons of people who do not have kids who made the choice and are very happy with that. And guess what? that's great for them because that's their life and their choice that they've made and I wish them all the best in that journey because obviously that is what they want.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
I know that that's not what I want and I probably view happiness and fulfillment in a different light than they do and through a different lens, but again, that's okay. Now where I do have a problem that very often gets manifested in this current situation is when people twist their own insecurities and their anger about their choices and then use that to attack other people.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
And that really is what's happening right here. And based on what I'm seeing from that child-free section of this conversation, they see a different choice as hell. That is what is driving this conversation. It is a choice that they don't want to compromise or sacrifice for. And that is literally what a USA Today writer said.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Because in her headline, she said that she agreed with Chapel Road, that she does think that moms around her are in hell, But when you actually read the article, when you get to the crux of her argument, you see that it's really that to her, it sounds like hell to give up her current life. Just read this. She says, something I'm not ready to compromise on just yet.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
A white picket fence in a house in the suburbs is nice, but it isn't for everyone. I get to make those decisions for myself instead of just following the path I'm expected to follow. I'm sure my opinion could change if I met somebody who feels passionate about having children, but for now, I enjoy being childless in my 20s, so does Chapel Roan. Okay, great. That's totally fine.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
That is all you needed to say, but you don't need to conflate that with somebody being in hell and living a miserable existence. You are literally just saying, yeah, I don't want to change my life. And guess what? That is totally fine. But if that really is your issue, then be honest about it. I mean, you were. In your article, like, don't lie about it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
Do not project your insecurities over this choice or your indecision on the matter onto moms, especially not the moms that you know that you are calling miserable, that you are repeatedly saying have terrible, terrible lives because of the choice that they have decided to make.
The Brett Cooper Show
Chappell Roan Says All Parents Are Miserable. Is She Right? | Episode 21
That just isn't being honest with you or anyone else that is turning your decision into everyone else's problem to probably make you feel better or more virtuous about your current situation. And Clarkson Lawson, who I love on TikTok, put it well. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Guys, the hits just keep coming with Justin Bieber. A murder investigation, betrayal. I mean, what is going on with Justin Bieber's closest circle? And why is he cutting all of them off?
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
As I laid out, as I was describing Lou's role, a business manager has massive control over the life of somebody like Justin Bieber. They see everything that comes in and out of your bank account. They have the power to move it around, to invest it, to pay people, to basically do whatever they want with it because you've signed that control over to them.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And something that can help keep your life even more stable is getting a good prayer routine with Hallow. Now as we head into Mother's Day weekend, I am thrilled to share a special message from my friends over at Hallow.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And they want you to know that this is the perfect time to dive into their beautiful Mother's Day content, featuring heartfelt interviews with Christian mothers, sharing their journey of seeking faith, an inspiring reading of St. John Paul II's letter to women, and more uplifting content for all of the amazing women in your life.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Hallow also offers a dedicated kids section with stories and meditations crafted for children of all ages. and these are all designed to help you grow closer to God. So if you're ready to take the leap, go to hallow.com slash cooper to get three months free and make every day a moment of connection and faith with Hallow.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Now back to Ryan and what caused things to go so upside down, in my opinion, it all goes back to money, as many things in life do, because here is the story that I have been told. So initially, when things started to go belly up with Scooter and Justin, Like I said, Ryan took Justin's side. He encouraged him to fight. He said, I'm going to stick with you.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
They would build something new, even if it meant that they had to leave Drew House to do so. But all of a sudden, Justin and his family were totally blindsided because Ryan totally flipped. And now they haven't spoken in over a year. Suddenly, based on what I've heard,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
he was taking Scooter's side in everything, was defending him and was going completely silent on the fight that Justin was having for his freedom that he watched Justin go into and defended him throughout up until this point. So again, what happened? What caused that? Well, remember, you have to go back and think about Ryan's career.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
It is basically entirely built on his friendship with Justin, with his affiliation with Justin. He went from basically being Usher's assistant, I think it was, to a stylist and a personal brand consultant to Justin because they didn't have the money to hire a real stylist. They became best friends. They were never apart. He was literally on the payroll.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And then they went into business together with Drew House, which is what really put Ryan on the map financially. And knowing that, what you need to understand is that everything rides on Drew House for Ryan. His wealth, his future, his home, his connections. And that is all tied back to Scooter and his team.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Scooter's team who makes up the majority of the Drew House board, who dominate and control the future of Drew House. So in my eyes, in looking at this whole situation, I think this was a man who was caught at a very low weak moment. He was very easily swayed by money and threats of his future. And when push came to shove, I think he picked money over Justin. And that was obviously blindsiding.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
It was crushing to Justin. Of course it would be crushing to look at your best friend who you had trusted, who had been so loyal to you, who was advocating for you and pushing you to one day just completely turn their back on you. Not only just do that, but then decide with the person who would hurt you more than anyone else. And in my eyes,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
I think that Ryan probably thought that he was choosing stability and success by aligning with Scooter, but I think that will only end up being his downfall, and he seems to know it based on the way that he is acting in the press and the things that he's saying about Justin.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And this is all supposed to be for your benefit. They're supposed to advise you and help you invest and save and manage and spend your money in the best way possible. And this usually and should be a role that is separate from other people on your team because it is so intimate, because it is so financial. Like, they should not be in bed with your agents and your managers and your label heads.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
I mean, he is openly attacking Justin, attacking Judah, who was another one of his good friends, attacking the church that he also spent so much time in. But another thing that I want you guys to know is that even in spite of this, based on the conversations that I've been having with people close to both of these men,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
is that the Biebers and their close community do not harbor the same feelings of anger or fear towards Ryan. This is not somebody that they actively hate or resent. They're obviously confused and obviously Justin had to move on from that friendship considering his legal fight with Scooter and the fact that Ryan was aligning with him.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And so really there was no way for that friendship to continue right now, but he still loves Ryan. He wants to be friends with Ryan, and it's just so unfortunate that all of this happened. And more than anything, Justin just wants to be able to move on. He wants to be able to prioritize his family and his freedom, even if that means cutting people out of his circle.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And obviously the press has noticed this. They have been relentless in writing articles about his isolation, the erratic way that he's cutting people out of his life. Based on my understanding, none of that is erratic. And I wouldn't take those stories at face value.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Because Justin is very clearly, and has very clearly in the past, drawn a line in the sand on what behaviors he will tolerate in the people around him. And what is the commonality in all of the people that he has cut off, both personally and professionally. They genuinely seem like they are not great people. Like they have moral failings that Justin just simply will not tolerate.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
I mean, let's go way back to 2020 when Justin cut off his former pastor and mentor, Carl Lentz. Regardless of what the press might say, that was not out of nowhere. Along with the public, Justin learned that Carl Lentz, who was the lead pastor at Hillsong, had been carrying on affairs, breaking up his family with two women.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
One of whom was a fashion designer that he met through friends, and the second was his children's nanny. And all of this is out in the open. Both of these women have come forward. Carl and his wife have talked about all this publicly. He's admitted to it. And one of the women, his nanny, even went so far as to accuse him of sexual abuse and manipulation in the workplace.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Now, based on the conversations that I've had, Justin was understandably crushed and betrayed. He was angry at his spiritual mentor and he cut him off. Because what kind of spiritual mentor would be breaking up a family and carrying on two affairs while his wife was home with his two children? That was something that Justin was not going to put up with.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
In 2023, Justin split up with Scooter Braun after all of this alleged mismanagement and pain, a man who, in my opinion, has repeatedly used his clients to increase his wealth and put himself above everyone else, a man who we have heard talked about in the press for years at this point. Justin finally said, enough, I'm walking away.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
He also walked away from the attorney, who allegedly did not protect him. He walked away from business manager Lou Taylor after she refused to drop Diddy as a client, even as all of the allegations came out, which just allowed Justin to see the further corruption that was happening on his team.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
He also cut off David Bolno after Sterling's death, and whether he was actually involved in her death, one thing does seem pretty certain. He was cheating on his wife, he was destroying his family, which is something that Justin is clearly not okay with. This has become a pattern in his life, and it's a place where he's drawn a line in the sand.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And then lastly, he understandably walked away from Ryan Good after he chose money over loyalty and friendship. So while the media might call that erratic, while they might say that he's insane, he's pushing people away, I think all of that would make complete sense to any rational, normal person.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Now, guys, before we get into this third installment of our Justin Bieber series, I kind of want to do a recap because in episode one, we touched on the incestuous nature of Hollywood in the entertainment industry where everyone is connected and corruption runs rampant. And there just seems to be a general lack of accountability.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
So after everything that we have now heard, after everything that I've been told and have shared with you, where does this actually leave Justin Bieber? Well, we know that he's trying to get out of his legal predicament, as a Hollywood reporter said with Scooter, but this isn't just about the length and the time of his contract.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Because Justin still owes his label, which involves Scooter, four more albums. The Hollywood Reporter wrote this, Bieber's recording contract calls for four more albums via label partner Def Jam Records. And as I shared with you in episode one, Justin can't do these albums without Scooter's involvement.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
But in Justin's case, as per usual, it wasn't that cut and dry, because like with most people on Justin Bieber's team, Bolno is also very good friends with Scooter Braun, who, many years ago, brought him onto the team.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And so if he wants to make music right now, if he wants to be releasing songs, it has to be with Scooter. And Scooter has to approve all of it. So again, another massive power imbalance. And you might be thinking, okay, well, this is so simple, this is easy, just pump out four more albums, just get them out, we'll all understand, and you'll just be done.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
But unfortunately, it doesn't even work that way. And Justin is not the only artist who has been in this situation. As an example, the rapper Offset, who coincidentally is part of the group Migos, who was signed to the label Quality Control, who Scooter actually owns now, which is all very interesting, he laid this out a couple of years ago. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And that doesn't even include the time that it takes to write and record and produce and then put out an album. And Justin also feels that it would be a disservice to his fans, his brand, his legacy, if he were to just put out low quality music just to get out of a contract. I mean, why should he have to do this? Isn't there another way? And again, like I said in previous episodes,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Wouldn't it make sense to just let him go? Wouldn't it be rational to let him go and make great music and save your reputation in the last shreds of this relationship that you've had for the past 15 years? I mean, maybe that's just like too rational, but that seems like the most common sense take in this situation. But apparently that's just not an option.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Probably because the motivator is really about power and control, not about what makes rational or even financial sense. But hey, that is just... my take on the entire thing. So guys, through these last three episodes, I hope you now have an understanding of what is actually happening with Justin Bieber. This isn't just some washed up star who was crashing out for no reason.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
This is a man who was privately fighting for his freedom, for his family, with everything he has while facing public attacks that he cannot protect himself or his family from. And maybe this crash out that we're all seeing online that we're reading about in the press is actually the only way that he is able to communicate that with us.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
He's been referred to in the media as Scooter Braun's right-hand man who played executioner, with David playing the bad guy and Scooter playing the good guy in all of their situations. And to muddy the waters even more, while he was actively being Justin Bieber's business manager, he was also made the COO of HYBE America, which of course, is Scooter Braun's company.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Because now, after having so many conversations with people who are close to him, it is clear to me that if Justin could tell his fans what he is actually going through, he would. But he is trapped in a contract with extremely powerful people. So not only is this a battle, but it is a very lonely one.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
He has lost business partners, he's lost friends, and possibly most importantly, he's lost his ability to create and communicate with the fans who want to hear from him. And for somebody like Justin Bieber, that cannot be easy. And as we are wrapping up the series for now, I do want to leave you with one last thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Justin does have a great support system behind the scenes, probably the best support system that he has ever had in terms of his community and his business. But publicly, He needs our prayers and support so that he does not go through the same thing that we watched happen to Britney Spears, to Prince, to Elvis, and to Michael Jackson.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
So again, this is technically Justin Bieber's business manager, who still has his own firm that Justin is connected to, but he is now also working for Scooter, the man that Justin contractually has to answer to, for lack of a better phrase, the man that he has been in business with for years and years and years.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And for more context on how this all played out and how Bieber felt about the situation, this is what his team had to say as he was letting go of Bull N0 about a year ago. Quote, And obviously you guys know how that worked out, so there were some burn bridges there. David Boulneau is conflicted in a lot of ways, the person close to Bieber's camp said.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Are you the business manager for Scooter, for HYBE, or are you the business manager for talent? I don't think it's ever a good idea for any artist when you don't have separate representation. And I can tell you guys, it is not a good idea.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Because if one person or one group is representing every aspect of your life from your finances to your music, to your touring, to your clothing line, to then getting involved in your personal life, then there is no real representation on behalf of the artist. There is no negotiating power because everything is coming from one group.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And that is the situation that Justin found himself in time and time again. Until last year when he started clearing house, which again we've been talking about for the last couple of episodes. And David Bolno was certainly impacted by these cuts. Now, keep in mind that even though David Bolno was fired as Justin's business manager in 2022, he stayed on the board of Drew House.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And this will be important to discuss. But where it really gets interesting, and honestly kind of scary, is that in 2023, something happened that resulted in David Bolno basically being white from the internet and being publicly distanced from Scooter and Hive. He was investigated in the death of a young singer.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Now, before we get into the rest of David's story, because it is truly crazy, I want to take a quick break to tell you about my sponsor. Merrick Health is the premier health optimization platform, empowering you to maximize your health thanks to personalized expert guidance that you'll have in your back pocket.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And as I go deeper and deeper into Justin's story, as I talk to people close to him, as people are coming out of the woodworks with tips and information, This is on full display. And I just keep having to ask, was anyone actually working for Justin Bieber? Was anyone working in his best interest or were they all tied back to someone else?
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Merrick Health offers cutting edge diagnostic labs, concierge health coaching, and expert clinical oversight. They support clients in achieving their health and fitness goals by leveraging data-driven lifestyle and nutrition recommendations, along with supplement and prescription treatment options.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And you guys might know this by now, but my journey with Merrick Health started long before they ever sponsored my show. After we had had a few health scares within our family circle, my brother and I made the commitment that we were going to do yearly blood tests to truly start staying on top of our health outside of the traditional medical model. And that is how I found Merrick Health.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
and Merrick completely exceeded my expectations. They completely changed the way that I view and care for my body, and I know that it will do the same for you. This is truly an investment worth making for you, for your family, and today you can get 10% off your order. Just head to merrickhealth.com and use my code COOPER at checkout.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Again, guys, that is Marek, M-A-R-E-K, health.com with code COOPER for 10% off. Now, back to the David Bolno story. The young woman who died was named Laura Camilla Lozano Sterling, and she was a 24-year-old aspiring Colombian singer. She sometimes has gone by Camilla in the press. Other people have written about her using her name, Laura.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
But this is one person, so if you hear me say a couple of different things as I'm reading articles, just know that that is why. But on March 29th in 2023, just after midnight, Camilla arrived to a hotel room where David was staying in Miami. They were together for about four hours before he was seen on hotel security footage leaving to get on a flight.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Now, around 8 a.m., Camilla ordered room service to the room where they were staying, but when the hotel staff brought it to the room, there was no answer. They kept knocking, they kept knocking, nobody was coming to the door, so they finally just went in and left the food inside the room.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And then later that day, I'm guessing when nobody checked out of the room, when housekeeping was trying to clean it up and get it turned over, and she was found dead in their hotel room later that day. Now her toxicology report showed that she was heavily on drugs, including ketamine, MDMA, pink cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamine, oxy, and a sedative.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Now, Bolno, because he was the last person to see her, was initially named a person of interest, but he has denied any wrongdoing, as you can read here. Bolno was initially a person of interest until he cooperated with the Miami Police Department. When asked why he was with Sterling at the hotel, the music executive said, quote, she was recording music the night before. She's a client.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
She was going to sign a record deal with me. I helped her make music. There's not much more to it. However, regardless of what David is saying, there obviously seems to be something more to the situation because there were used condoms found in the room that was reserved under his name. The room that they were in together the night that she died for four hours.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And on top of that, there is still more. Business Insider wrote, quote, Bolno and Sterling's relationship appears to be more intertwined than the executive has indicated. Text messages viewed by Insider showed that Bolno, who is married with two children, according to the Daily
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
paid the rent on Sterling's $1.4 million condo in downtown Miami, and that Sterling referred to Bolno as her boyfriend in text to an apartment broker. He also created an LLC under his initials in 2021, seemingly for the sole purpose of releasing Sterling's music.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Two of Sterling's friends said that it was an open secret among them that she was dating someone powerful in the music industry who was behind her rise. All of Sterling's friends who spoke with Insider asked to remain anonymous as they didn't want to be identified in discussing a powerful industry figure linked to Sterling's death.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And one thing I'll just point out, not inferring anything, but there does seem to be a lot of fear surrounding all the men in this story. Now, again, as you just saw, all of her friends knew that she was dating this secret, powerful music executive, and the people around her also said that they felt like the relationship was kind of on the rocks.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Now, we've unpacked many of these key players, these key characters of the last couple of episodes. But today we have the final two. Now, before we dive into that story, make sure that you're following our podcast page and leave a rating if you're enjoying the show.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
The real estate broker that she had been texting with said that she was trying to move into a cheaper apartment even though Bolno had paid her rent a year in advance, so obviously something was going on there. And guys, from here, it only got even fishier.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Now, Business Insider, who wrote this article, and who also seems to have some questions about this entire story, wrote, quote, It took more than two weeks for Sterling's name to come out in the press.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
The Daily Mail broke the story on April 13th, and while the article initially said that Bolno was a person of interest, archived versions show that it was altered that day to say that he wasn't, even though he was, according to the Miami Police Department. And then they go on and they say, So that is inferring that things were happening,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
unorganically to try to boost his name in the press, quote, these stories hold Bullno up as a model businessman, dispense bland advice, and talk up his contributions to charity, including a hefty donation to set up a scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania's medical school, of which his wife, a pediatric ophthalmologist, is an alum.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Quote, David Bullno is a contemporary superhero who doesn't need an alter ego in a world full of capes and masks, says one such article in the Jerusalem Post, which discloses that it was written in cooperation with It adds a quote, David Bolno is ultimately more than simply a name. It is a symbol of transformation and optimism.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And guys, this was all coming on the heels of him being named a person of interest. So somebody, I'm just saying somebody out there, was hard at work to make sure that this situation did not impact him or his reputation. And remember from episode one that Hybe, the company where Bolno is COO and Scooter Braun owns and is CEO, also owns 51%.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
of the agency group PR, which again is the PR firm involved in the Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni scandal. And I just think that is interesting information and an interesting connection that maybe you guys should be considering. Now in that same article, Business Insider also said, but within the upper echelons of the music world,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And as a reminder, if you want ad-free episodes, a subscriber-only personal newsletter from me, and Dear Brett videos that are curated based on your questions and your conundrums that you guys are going through, make sure to check out Cooper Confidential. You can find that in the description below, or you can go to brettcooper.com to check it out.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Quote, everyone knows about what happened in Bolno's hotel room that night, an industry insider said. Bolno's closeness with Braun, who is battling his own public relations firestorm, has only added fuel to the gossip and speculation. One person who was doing a business deal with Braun and Bolno last spring said that the pair seemed distracted and ghosted him after Sterling's death.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And just from my perspective, I feel like them being distracted is putting it mildly. Now, around this exact same time, another distraction for them was the fact that Justin Bieber, who again was working with both of them, had allegedly decided that he wanted to cut ties with Bull No once and for all. And this is where we can finally get into Justin's clothing company, Drew House.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And things really started to fall apart inside of Drew House when this news broke surrounding Bull No. One article wrote, Justin Scooter, Drew House co-founder Ryan Good, church home pastor Judith Smith, and David Bull No were all on the board of Drew House.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
But our Justin sources say the trouble started in 2023, when Bolna was mentioned in news reports as a person of interest in the death of aspiring singer, Laura Lozano. David was later cleared by the police. Now, originally, the board of Drew House consisted of Justin Bieber, Ryan Good, his best friend, Scooter Braun, Allison Kaye, who was another one of his business managers, and David Bolna.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
But things really started to change with Drew House in 2022, which was a year before the Colombian singer's death. when Allison was removed by Justin from the board and replaced with his longtime friend and pastor, Judah Smith.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And from what I've been told by people that are close to Justin, this was an intentional move on his part to try to make sure that there was somebody else on the board who was in his corner. And from there, as you can expect, these tensions only heated up.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And after Sterling's death, according to a recent article from TMZ, Justin also, understandably, wanted Bolno removed from the board, but Scooter insisted that he stay, which only caused further friction between Justin Scooter, whose relationship was apparently already on the rocks. And all of this starts to help us understand how Drew House inevitably unfolded.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Now, the last big drop that Drew House did was a collaboration with the Toronto Maple Leafs in February of 2024. And their last social media post was in May of 2024, which is right around the time that the public learned that Justin was walking away from working with Scooter Braun. And from there, everything just went silent until a couple of weeks ago. A year later, on April 3rd of 2025,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Justin announces that he's been working on something behind the scenes, and that is his new clothing brand, Skylark. And he announces it with this video. Guys, if you were paying attention to that video, you might have picked up on a ton of Easter eggs because they certainly exist in there. I mean, he is literally burning Drew House things in this fire.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
He rides in on a scooter and then leaves the scooter. I mean, it is all there. And then around the same time, he makes a post on his Instagram story where he explicitly says, I am no longer involved in Drew House. If you are supporting Justin Bieber as the person, you will not support Drew House. Skylark is my new brand.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
So guys, the next person in this cast of characters that you need to know about is a man named David Bullno. And David Bullno is a big time music executive. He has, of course, worked with Justin Bieber. He's worked with Drake. He has also worked with Post Malone.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And Skylark is the first thing that Justin has been able to do creatively in years. This is the thing that he's been working on behind the scenes. He's been trying to pour his creativity into something, and that resulted in being Skylark. And you might be thinking, well, that is an amazing win for Justin. At least he has something. But the war wasn't over.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Because on April 10th, Drew House posts a video after a year of being silent. And it was a video with an animation that Justin had made in years prior, and they posted it without his knowledge. I mean, talk about how destructive this is to an artist to be using their own work against them. When he is publicly saying, I am not associated with these people. I do not want to work with them.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And they're turning around and saying, actually, here you go. We're still going to use your work. We still have this over you. It's like they're playing mind games with him at every single turn. But to make matters even worse, there was something even more sinister allegedly happening behind the scenes.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Now this is not confirmed, but allegedly, based on the things that I've seen online, Justin is literally being sued by the Drew House company for starting this new brand. And this allegedly involves them actively trying to keep him from continuing to work on this creative project. But guys, that still is not even the worst part. The worst part?
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
is that they used his best friend to drive the knife in his back. And that best friend would be Ryan Good. Now, Ryan Good is somebody that I have hinted at in the last two episodes. This would be his best friend and the man who was his best man at his wedding. And Ryan Good, just like everyone else, has been on Justin's team since the beginning.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
One article says, Usher felt like Justin needed another influence to guide him in the industry and develop his look. So they brought Ryan Good on board to be his road manager. So this guy was working for Usher at the time. Justin Bieber could not afford to have a stylist, have anybody that was consulting on his brand and helping cultivate his image. So they said, okay, Ryan, you're pretty cool.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
You look cool. You have great style. Why don't you come over? and you help Justin and you manage his style. And that is where their relationship blossomed. And these two men basically became inseparable until everything blew up last year.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And I want you guys to know that everyone in Justin's circle is genuinely shocked by how all of this played out because they all thought up until last year that Ryan was on their side. He was actively fighting for Justin and defending him and saying, yes, you need to fight. You need to fight for your freedom. He was standing by him. Until he randomly wasn't.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And like so many of the other people that we've talked about in this series, David Bullno has also been interwoven in Justin's life for years, basically since the beginning. And in his case, David was Justin's longtime business manager before Justin fired him and replaced him with Lou Taylor, who, of course, we talked about last week.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
And now, over a year later, he's even speaking to the press about Justin. One headline reads, Justin Bieber's inner circle reportedly shrinks as longtime friend Ryan Good raises alarm over cult-like pastor and sudden isolation. Now, sources close to Ryan allegedly told TMZ that Ryan Good, Justin Bieber's former road manager and creative director at JV's fashion brand Drew House,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
hasn't spoken to Justin over a year. We're told that Ryan and Justin haven't talked since Ryan left church home in Beverly Hills. It's the church Bieber still belongs to and where Judah Smith serves as pastor. Our sources say that Ryan felt the church home was a cult and he wanted out, so he left the church. And Justin getting close to Judah was a big factor in their separation.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
We are told that Justin added Judah to the Drew House board a few years ago, despite the fact that Judah and Ryan, the brand's creative director, don't get along. And this is all just so random and weird to me because based on everyone I've talked to who is friends with both Ryan and Judah, said that they would have considered them also best friends. Brothers. That is the exact word they used.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
They were like brothers. Ryan Good and Judah Smith, who he has now turned on in the press. And he's now painting this entire story that actually the reason why they split up and they're not friends anymore is because of Justin's religion, not something that was going on behind the scenes with Drew House and Justin's management.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
So after all of this, we have to ask ourselves like what made Ryan flip or who made him flip? Was it business? Was it actually a personal disagreement? Did they like their steaks cooked differently? I know that's caused problems in my relationships because I like my steaks well done, but thankfully good ranchers tastes great no matter how you cook them.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Justin Bieber Story Is Darker Than You Thought… | Episode 29
Now for anyone out there who is worried about the tariffs affecting them at the grocery store, do not worry because Good Ranchers is completely tariff proof. And that's because their meat is actually 100% American. It's American born, American raised, American processed, packaged, and shipped right here in the States.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
So guys, it feels like 10 years since the second Trump term began, and I do not mean that in a bad way at all. It is actually completely the opposite. He has done so much in the last 40 days that it has been nearly impossible to keep track unless you are literally glued to X, unless you are glued to C-SPAN, which Unfortunately, most of us have lives, so I know we're not doing that.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
passing his citizenship exam and you're saying he could be deported. Trump doesn't care about your grandfather or your dad who came in 30 years ago and is now an American citizen. That is not who is being deported. We are deporting people who are literally currently here illegally. Like, you do not even understand the situation.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
There are also parents that are doing the classic lib thing where they're like, my child... My child came to me in the middle of the night and knocked on my door and was like, mommy, they're going to they're going to pick up kids from my class and they're going to deport them all. And I just don't even know what to tell her. We are deporting the drug cartels out of the streets.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
That should be something that we are all excited about. I mean, it's just been horrible. Like there was literally a story two weeks ago now that came out through the New York Post and they were talking about this young girl in Texas, this 11 year old who had killed herself. And the media painted it to be about deportations, about immigration.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
They said she had been bullied over her immigration status. She was a legal immigrant. She was an American citizen. And apparently she had possibly overheard comments on the bus talking about immigration. And they said, oh, this is the reason why now Trump is killing children. OK, it just came out three days later that she was being sexually abused.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
My merch is also linked below, so lots of goodies for you in the description. Alright, so obviously we cannot talk about Trump's first official month in office without talking about executive orders, because executive orders have really been the theme of the last 40 days.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
that it wasn't actually about immigration at all. But the media took that tiny little sliver of a story and ran with it and utilized this girl's death, this 11 year old girl's death to push a narrative that Trump was now a child murderer because he was deporting children. Again, guys, these are not legal law abiding citizens that are getting deported.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
No matter what you see on TikTok right now, what they are dealing with, they are violent criminals, as Chrissy Noem pointed out right here.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Are we going to cry about that on TikTok? Are we going to have video sobbing Selena Gomez of these people leaving our country? No, this is objectively a good thing. Objectively, we should not want these people to be in our country. And you know what? To make this issue even more simple for people who cannot understand this, these people are all criminals point blank because guess what?
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
They came here illegally, as Caroline Levitt put it in a press conference.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And for any children who are watching this unfold on social media or on the news or are being fed lies from TikTok or their teachers or their friends, parents, do not make a video crying on TikTok. No, realize that this is an excellent opportunity to not instill fear in your children, but to teach a very simple,
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
basic lesson about law and order, about things that are legal and not illegal, about what happens to people when objectively they break the law. That is something that you must teach your children at some point. This is the real world. This is reality.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
It is not a bad thing to teach them that and it does not need to be scary, especially when what you are parroting on social media, what your kids are allegedly seeing is not actually happening. So that right there kind of covers the issue of immigration. Again, I think that it is the most emotional part of Trump's first month. It is the thing that most people have hated about his first month.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And as you guys probably know, if you were watching the inauguration like I was, maybe some of you guys were also there, Trump signed a ton on the day of his inauguration at his inaugural parade, which ended up being moved inside, so it was kind of like an inaugural rally, but just take a look at this clip in case you missed it.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Everything else is kind of all under the wayside. I think it hasn't gotten as much media attention. Like, Trump did four executive orders dealing with the transgender community and it barely got an uproar, which genuinely, like, shocked me.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Like on day one, he did an executive order establishing two genders, which I don't even know why we had to do that, but it is hysterical and epic that he did on day one. He said that there was man, there was woman. He even slipped in there that life begins at conception, that gender begins at conception, that you cannot distort this or change it, that there is no third gender.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
He kept it very, very simple. He also did an executive order barring transgender individuals from serving in the military. Which again, should not be controversial in the slightest. Maybe people are finally realizing that. Maybe that is why there was not a media uproar because they've realized this is absurd. Like if you are bipolar, you cannot serve in the military.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
If you have a major depressive disorder, you cannot serve. If you have anxiety or OCD, you cannot serve. So why do you think somebody with gender dysphoria should be able to serve? Why? Because it's the virtuous thing to do because we have to support this? No, it literally does not make sense. You cannot serve if you have to take any kind of medication, whether it be
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
for a physical health condition or a mental health condition, so why should somebody who has to take regular hormones in order to stay the gender that they are pretending that they are? So why should these individuals be allowed to serve next to men and women who had to fit through such strict parameters in order to even enlist? Again, it makes no sense.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Now, the third thing that he did was an executive order barring gender-affirming care for kids under the age of 19. I think this is the one that got the most media attention. This one was called Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And I think some people were confused, but this does not end gender affirming care for children just point blank, but it bars federal funding for any of these surgeries. It bars federal funding and grants for research and experiments for med schools and hospitals.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And it also requires the secretary of the HHS, which is now Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to try to stop this on a whole and to end this in our country. So it hasn't been ended right now, but he's basically saying the federal government will not be involved in this mutilation. Now, the fourth executive order about transgenderism was keeping men out of women's sports.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And this was the one that I think most people were celebrating. It was an incredible sight to behold, like out of all of the executive orders, even going back to day one on January 20th when he was sitting on that stage surrounded by cheers when he was repealing those 78 Biden executive orders. This was still the best sight. Just watch Trump signing this executive order.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And the best part was they were asking all of these young girls to stand back because obviously he's Trump. People have tried to kill him. Secret Service was like, everybody needs to stand back. Nobody can get close to him.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And Trump looked around at this room of like 100 plus young women, you know, ranging from ages five, maybe even younger, to women like Riley Gaines, to women who had competed, you know, in sports 20 years ago. All these women were surrounding him. And he said, they're not going to hurt me. And he said, Secret Service, you don't have to be worried about them.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
He invited all of them to crowd around the table. And now you have this incredible image. It is just so, so perfect. But yeah, this is him signing the order. And it's just awesome. I literally am like tearing up thinking about it. Like this is such an amazing day. That is a picture for the Smithsonian. That video is a picture.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
There are about four different screen grabs in that that could hang in a museum. It was truly remarkable. And guys, that day, that exact same day, the president of the NCAA made a statement saying that they would be working to align their policies with this new executive order.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
and saying that this actually did, even though people were saying that this was transphobic, they were actually thanking him, saying that this offered so much needed clarity on the issue. That executive order was signed on Wednesday afternoon, the statement from the NCAA was made on Wednesday afternoon, and by Thursday afternoon, the transgender policy at the NCAA had been updated.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
NCAA announces transgender student athlete participation policy change, and NBC wrote about it that same day and said, by Thursday afternoon, the association announced an update to its transgender student athlete policy. NCAA women's sports will be restricted to students assigned female at birth.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
This national standard brings much needed clarity as we modernize college sports for today's student athletes. And there were people that were still, of course, losing their minds over this on social media. Again, nothing compared to the outrage over immigration and the deportations. But I mean, still, it was an issue that people care a lot about. But I mean, like, come on.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Like, according to recent Gallup polls from the last couple of years, this is something that 70% of Americans want. Trump is representing the people by doing this, and I think it's so great that when you look at the social media landscape, yeah, there were a few angry tweets here and there.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Yes, you had NBC writing a little heated, passive-aggressive article about it, but they really couldn't say much because, again, this is what the voters overwhelmingly wanted. Now, you guys all know that I am a big advocate for our Second Amendment rights, and I believe in being prepared and being responsible when it comes to firearms. But let's be honest.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Shooting can be loud and sometimes uncomfortable, and that is why I want to tell you about my friends over at Silencer Shop. Yes, silencers are totally legal before you ask, and Silencer Shop makes getting one easier than ever. They offer the largest selection of topper and suppressors that make your shooting experience quieter, safer, and way more enjoyable.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
I also just love that he did this in front of tens of thousands of fans, because to hear the crowd roaring when he started signing his signature, when they were going through every single one of those executive orders that he signed on stage, it was just such an indication of how excited people were, of how ready we were for change.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
So whether you are hitting the range or out hunting, a suppressor can make a world of difference for your experience. And don't worry about the paperwork. That was the thing that I was most intimidated by. They've got you covered. Silencer Shop simplifies the entire process, making it hassle-free so that you can get your suppressor from the comfort of your own home.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
I don't have to leave this chair to get my own suppressor. Plus approvals are coming back faster than ever, so there is no better time to get started. But guys, here's the best part. This is why I love working with this group. Silencer Shop isn't just about selling suppressors to consumers. They are fighting the good fight for our Second Amendment rights.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
In these unpredictable times, it is crucial to support companies that actually stand up for the Second Amendment, which is what they're doing. Silencer Shop is actively lobbying. They are battling in courtrooms. They are pushing back against anti-gun legislation nationwide.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
So if you want to not only enhance your shooting experience, but also support a company that is fighting for our rights, head on over to Silencer Shop to get started today. And trust me, Silencer Shop is the easiest and best way to get your suppressor.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Now, in addition to these very serious issues that are very personal to the American people, like men and women's sports and like the economy and immigration, Trump obviously had to have some Trump moments. And he also passed some incredibly funny executive orders. For example, my personal favorite one was the ending of the forced procurement and use of paper straws. Just watch.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Guys, I just want you to watch the man on the right-hand side throughout this entire clip. He is just having the time of his life. Like, this is joy. They said the combo would bring joy. This is bringing joy.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
We just have to wait. It gets better at the end.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
It's so good. If nothing else, this man provides me comedy every single day. I saw a tweet earlier and somebody was saying, damn it, this man is a neo-Nazi fascist, but damn it, he's so freaking funny. Yes, like you can't look away. You can't not love him slightly, even if you don't like his policies because he's a character. That's what Bridget was saying at the top of this episode.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Like he gets the pomp and circumstance. He is an entertainer at the end of the day. He knows how to entertain us. He knows how to keep people's attention and by golly, He has mine. Now, in addition to the paper straw executive order, another funny one that he did was restoring American names to American greatness, which was basically eliminating a lot of the wokeness from American names.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Literally, people had been waiting outside the arena for 24 hours, standing in the freezing cold in Washington, D.C., to get inside, waited all day long while the inauguration things were happening inside the Capitol,
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Like if Biden had added equity or something like that to a federal agency or anything that was, you know, overseen by the federal government. Mount McKinley is a great example of that. That was Mount Denali in Alaska, but he restored it to the original name of Mount McKinley. So that goes under that executive order.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
He also signed an executive order to create a commission to throw America the biggest 250th birthday celebration for 4th of July. He was like, we're going to have the biggest, best birthday party of all time. So he signed an executive order about that specifically. He also, and this might be my favorite one, he also signed an executive order making English
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
the official language of the United States, which if you know Trump, he has been talking about this for years. Watch this clip from a debate many years ago now.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Jeb Bush just doesn't even know what to say about that. He's got no response whatsoever. But listen, Trump's right. And years later, he finally made it. He finally signed that executive order. So hopefully, guys, that gives you a little recap on all of these executive orders.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And those last couple were obviously very funny and kind of silly, but Trump really took what the American voters asked of him, and he ran through it. I mean, he just ran through walls for us in that first 40 days. He said, I don't care what the media says about me. I don't care what you journalists are saying.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
I don't care what all of you government employees and you labor unions, I don't care if you sue me. This is the mandate that the American people gave me and I am going to enact it. whether it be the economy or immigration or men and women's sports and transgenderism in general, or having two genders only, he was going to make it happen. And that is what he did with all of those executive orders.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
So now we obviously have to ask, what happens next with all of these executive orders? Because if you're thinking critically about the situation, you're thinking, well, the next admin will just unwind it, which in my interview with Bridget, she said that that was her main concern. That's the only thing that she doesn't like about what he did in his first 40 days was her thinking ahead four years
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
just to see this man in person and to watch these executive orders be signed the energy was unreal he stayed on stage for a while and did what you would normally be doing in the oval office but brought his fans brought his photos into it it was just like an incredible way to start this second term and even though he did this on stage at the capitol one arena in dc i believe that's what it's called
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
five years, whenever the next Democrat is in office, thinking, oh, that next president could do what Trump did on his first day and just reverse all of these.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Now, thankfully, Bridget and I are not alone in this feeling, and people in government are hearing those concerns. Specifically, Mike Johnson is hearing the concerns, and he made an announcement while on the stage at CPAC saying that he is going to try his hardest to make sure that does not happen by getting as many of these executive orders passed as law so they can be codified as U.S. statutes.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And I love that he says that as if it's so simple, because it's not. That is going to be nearly impossible on a lot of those executive orders, but the fact that they're going to go in there and they're going to try, especially in the next two years while we have the majority, that needs to be priority number one for Congress, in my opinion, is to get as many of these done, because again,
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
then these last 40 days are all kind of for nothing. Yeah, we're enjoying it. Yeah, we get tons of viral videos and clips and we get to laugh with Trump as he's signing in things about paper straws.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Because if these are not passed into law, if we do not permanently reduce these regulations, get rid of government bloat, we are going to find ourselves in the exact same situation in four years, in eight years, in 12 years. So we need to handle it now.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Now, the next thing that I want to cover in this first official month of Trump videos is obviously some of my personal favorite viral moments, because Of course, it is Trump. There have been some incredible hysterical moments, some of which you have already seen through those executive order signings.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
But my personal favorites from the last month, these ones that I've been, you know, kind of bookmarking on X and saving for this episode, they have actually been Trump's interactions with people from other countries, specifically those where English is obviously not their first language.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
First in this lineup is an interaction that he had on February 4th, I believe, and it was an interaction with a reporter during his press conference with Netanyahu. Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
So we can obviously hear. And she's like, what are you going to do for the people of Afghanistan? He's like, you know, good luck. Good luck. Hope it works out for you. Go in peace. Beautiful language. I cannot hear you. But guys, that was not the only time this happened. Ten days later, during a presser with the prime minister of India, Trump had the same exact issue.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
It's so great. Like, this is what we all deal with when we call our phone companies. This is what we all deal with when we call any kind of customer service, and Trump is just like us. You know, it's like celebrities, politicians, they're just like us. He's like, I can't understand a fricking word that you are saying.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Lastly, the third in this installment is when the president of France, President Macron, came to visit just last week. And Trump was overwhelmed by the beauty of the French language, even though he once again could not understand a damn thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
this wasn't unlike what happened in 2016. Because in 2016, in Trump's first term, he also signed a bunch of executive orders and all the libs freaked out. The media freaked out. They're like, oh my God, he's abusing his power. He's a fascist. This is so awful. Interestingly, this time around, they're kind of quieter. Maybe they're used to it.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
The other part of this interaction that I just adore is the power move of Macron is trying to speak and Trump reaches over, grabs his hand, like, shut up, I'm speaking. Like, no, no, no, I've heard enough. Beautiful, beautiful language, can't understand a word. And he just grabs his hand and he's like, no, no, let's sit down now. I mean, it is such a power play.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Everything he does from his handshakes to this, it is so intentional. But guys, all three of those videos, I just want you to think, What executive order ties in to those videos? That is why this is so funny to me.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Because remember, just a couple of days ago, just like two days before I'm sitting here filming this video, Trump signed that order making English the official language of the United States. This was signed on March 1st, and obviously this does not impact accents in this life.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
He's not saying that you can't be here if you do not speak English perfectly, but it's so funny to think of him going through all three of those interactions, sitting through all those press conferences, being like, I can't I can't understand a damn word anybody's saying. I'm going to fix this right here and right now. I want to hear English. And so he made an executive order just about that.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
It's just so great. Now, the second to last thing that we need to cover, and I know I've kind of taken you on this like wild ride of the last 40 days, but if we want to touch on the funniest moments, the most important moments of the first month of the second Trump admin, we cannot ignore what happened just last week in the Oval Office with JD Vance.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Donald Trump and President Zelensky from Ukraine. And I'm sure that you guys have seen most of the viral clips by now. If you spend any time on social media, you may have even seen some of the memes that came out, just like this one, which is my personal favorite.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
The caption says me right before I play my last Uno card on family game night.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
have just been so many incredible memes that have been making me laugh for the last you know 72 hours but that moment and that meeting was so much more important than just some viral clips and if you didn't watch the entire 45 minute recorded conversation then I just want to take a moment to set the scene for you because the media is painting this in a certain light obviously and we're seeing all the funny memes but again this is so much bigger so this afternoon this event this meeting with Zelensky actually started out perfectly they were on great terms Trump
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
welcomed him to DC and to the White House. Trump actually complimented Zelensky on not wearing the same army green costume that he's wearing for three years, but obviously changing up his wardrobe. It's so friendly. I mean, it's a bit of trolling. He's like, look, he's not wearing the same shirt, but it's like friendly. They're laughing, they're smiling, they're taking pictures together.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Everything seems normal. And from there, when they actually sat down in the Oval Office to have this meeting with Zelensky and Trump and J.D. Vance, It started out peacefully, like Trump continued to crack jokes and kind of do like nudge nudge. He was smiling. He was laughing. He was talking about peace. He was trying to have a productive conversation about peace in Ukraine with Russia.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
But even though that was the case, there are a lot of things that are different this time around. It's almost 10 years later. This is a new Trump. And I brought my friend, Bridget Fatesi, who is the host of Dumpster Fire, onto the show to talk about this. And this was one of the first things she brought out, how different this is and how it's so much better. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
He was even complimenting Zelensky for things that he had done over the last three years. But Zelensky could not let this continue to be a peaceful conversation, and he would not stop trying to make the entire conversation about Putin.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Like literally every 30 seconds, well Putin did this, well Putin did this, and obviously he's fighting Putin right now, but that was not what Trump wanted to talk about. And he also would not let up talking about America pledging a security guarantee and a lot more money for Ukraine.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And it just became evident after like 10 or 15 minutes, somewhere in that range, that the two sides were just speaking completely different languages. Not even literally, but figuratively. They wanted very different things. Trump and J.D. Vance were here to talk about peace and productivity and how to move forward from this. And Zelensky was like, no, I need you to fight with me and fight for me.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
So I personally have felt like I've kind of been in a washing machine for the last 40 days, just being bounced around, catching bits and pieces of the news and trying to follow along because literally guys, this man is moving a mile a minute. And so I think it is time for a recap. You guys have been asking for it. You've been saying, Brett, why haven't you talked about Trump?
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
I want to wipe this man off the face of the earth. I hate Putin. I hate Putin. Literally just saying that. And so by then he started getting kind of riled up and he started interrupting Trump consistently until Trump finally had enough and started to call him out for this, you know, Putin derangement syndrome and a lack of interest in obvious peace and productivity and diplomacy.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And that is when J.D. Vance jumped in and that is when fireworks really started. And it wasn't an ambush of any And that is how the media is trying to paint this. So if you've been on NBC, if you've been reading, you know, AP News, if you've been reading CNN, they will have said, this was so awful. Poor Zelensky. Why would they do this to him? It was an ambush. It was not that at all.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
It was supposed to be peaceful and productive. And Zelensky himself took the first step to make this interaction more hostile. And Trump was just not going to deal with it. And I mean, Trump, of course, could have just rolled over like Biden did. And like many other world leaders have gone, okay, whatever. Whatever you want, I'll sign another check. But Trump is Trump. He's not going to do that.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And so it just kept getting more and more angry, more and more hostile. And the last five minutes were where it really became entertaining. And somewhere in the last five minutes, I'm sure, is what you've seen on social media. But I want to show you my two favorite clips. This might be my favorite one.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
That, that moment right there, that is when it started to spiral. Have you even said thank you once? But in the minute prior to that, obviously Trump is getting enraged. He is raising his voice. He's saying things that I think a lot of us have wanted to say for the last couple of years. Like you need all of us. And J.D. Vance is like, yeah, you need all of us.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And you're being kind of an ungrateful brat. in the Oval Office, in front of two people that are trying to help you, and I am not going to stand for it. And so from there, from JD Vance calling him disrespectful, it only got better, and I seriously have never felt better. As I was watching this clip, I've never felt better about having these two men in charge leading us on a global stage.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Like, the fathers are back in charge, the adults are in the room. Take a listen to this last clip.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
You can see Trump flip in this clip. It's like with every interaction, it just gets more and more intense. And I think the final kicker was Zelensky saying, we've done it all alone. And Trump was like, the hell you have? Absolutely not. We have been banged. Yes, you've been fighting, but you haven't done it alone.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And it's offensive for you to sit here in front of the president of the United States, in front of the vice president, in front of
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
an army of press filming you and say that you've had to fight it all along when you literally haven't the United States all of Europe everybody has been contributing and America and Donald Trump is fed up he is done and I also love in this clip I love that it showed us that Trump and JD Vance are a united front that's why I wanted to start the clip there where he goes uh he was not speaking loudly because Trump didn't leave JD Vance out there to just fend for himself he also didn't have to do
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
all of the talking he has a partner now a sparring partner somebody who can be his backup or even just be on the front lines with him like with pence he was nowhere to be seen like i don't even know if i heard the man talk once during the first presidency and kamala during the biden years was off you know drunkenly giving speeches doing whatever the hell she was doing posing for covers of vogue but jd vance and trump are totally different they are a team they're showing us that they're a team and they're also showing us how much trump clearly respects shady dance
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
The fact that he is sitting there right next to Trump, that he lets him speak, that he goes to bat for him when he feels like J.D. Vance is being disrespected. And I think that this also points to another change in Trump's demeanor from the last few years, like another difference between 2016 Trump and 2025 Trump, or a change in his psyche, as Bridget put it.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
We were talking about the figures working alongside Trump, and she said, you know what? I think something has changed in his psyche by the way that he interacts with these figures. Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Now to kind of round out this more recent story for you guys, of course, like I've mentioned before, the media obviously called Trump and J.D. Vance mean and rude and hurtful and like they were fascists for going after poor little Zelensky, that this was an ambush, but obviously you guys have now gotten the entire story. You have probably watched the clips.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
If you have the time, go watch that entire 45-minute interview. It is fascinating. It is crazy. And obviously you will see that that ambush did not happen.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
But guys, what was even crazier than our American media's response was watching what was happening in Europe because almost instantaneously, everyone in Europe, all the European leaders just fell into line and started tweeting as they should in support of Ukraine, in support of Zelensky and against America after this awful ambush. Just listen to these tweets.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And listen, I completely agree with her. It's like another one of those platitudes like, what is made for you won't miss you, Trump. Like, you were made to be president again. It just wasn't in 2020. You had to take a few years off. You had to learn. You had to reflect and come back stronger in 2024. Kick it all off in 2025. And she is absolutely right.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Be strong, be brave, be fearless. You are never alone, dear President Zelensky. We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace. Here's another one. Your dignity... honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Be strong, be brave, be fearless. Oh, that kind of sounds like what we just read. You are never alone, dear president.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace. Your dignity honors the bravery. It goes on and on and on. This was tweeted four times, possibly even more. And those four that I just showed you that I screenshotted, those are from the two presidents of the European Union, the president of the European Parliament, and the EVP of the European Commission.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Now, better yet, even better than the European Commission and the European Union, you need to look at these tweets from the leaders of all of the European countries. Like, guys, I don't even know if you'll be able to see all of these because there's so many. Dear Zelensky, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone. Ukraine is not alone.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Germany, along with our European allies, stands united against Ukraine. We stand with Ukraine on the side of the world. Canada stands with Ukraine. Iceland stands with Ukraine. I mean, guys, there are so many of these, all of these countries, from Poland to Germany to the Czech Republic to Slovenia to Latvia to Luxembourg to Spain. Sweden, Portugal, Netherlands, Iceland.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
They all made similar tweets. Again, I can't even fit these into one screenshot. I mean, it's just laughable. Like I'm laughing thinking about virtue signaling and like tweeting infographics has made its way to geopolitics. We are on the brink of World War III and this is what world leaders are doing. Oh, I'm so sorry. You got ambushed by Donald Trump.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And guys, what made this even better, and I feel like I keep saying, like, this is even funnier, this is even funnier, but truly, so you're seeing all of these posts. Zelensky went in and retweeted every single one of them and said, thank you for your support. Oh, thank you for your support. Literally, every single one. Go to his Twitter. Go to his, sorry, I have to call it an ex now.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Go to his ex, scroll through his profile, you will see every single one. It is truly crazy. Like, guys, if you all support Zelensky in Ukraine that much, which is fine, that's totally your prerogative to support him, then you can give Zelensky the security guarantee that he so desperately says he needs in order to sign this peace deal. And guess what, guys? You can afford to.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
This article just came out a couple of days ago. Europe can afford to defend itself without the U.S., but needs more coordination, study says. You can do it. You don't need our help, so stop getting angry at us for putting our foot down and start... Writing those checks, keep on writing those checks. You've already given a lot of money.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
The European countries, when you look at GDP, they've actually given more money than the United States, not in terms of actual cash, but in terms of, you know, proportion to their economy and their population. So keep going if it's that important to you. But you know what? It seems like they don't want to do that.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
It seems like they're also tired, but they don't want to be the ones to put down their foot and say no, like we just watched Donald Trump do. In fact, people on social media from around the world have been making posts literally lamenting about the U.S. not doing enough for them now. Like, look at this one.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
He so desperately needed that time, in my opinion, to watch and to learn and to get angry about the things that Biden was doing and to prepare. I mean, guys, he was so much more prepared going into the second term, as Bridget said.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
From LinkedIn, this guy says, I have the outmost respect for President Zelensky for remaining true to his principles in this situation, not to sell out his country and resources for a bad deal without any security guarantees and not give into the pressure from the American administration requires more courage than you can imagine. This is where it gets good.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
The make a deal or we're out front shown yesterday at the White House makes it clear, the clearest that it ever could, that Europe needs to ensure its own security, economy, and unity. Yes! Literally yes! Were you thinking that you didn't have to do that? Were you expecting that the United States was just gonna come in and protect you and be the world's police forever? That's unsustainable.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
We don't wanna do that. We don't wanna fund it. We have our own problems at home that we need to address before we can go in and fix your economy and your security and to make you unified. That is not our responsibility. Like I read this LinkedIn post and I just think of the SpongeBob meme that's like the world's tiniest violin. Yes, yes, actually.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
You have to think about your country's own security. We're not gonna do that for you. But anyway, all jokes aside and back to the point, even though these European countries are still wanting to pledge support and possibly money for Ukraine, maybe they will end up doing the security guarantee, Trump is obviously putting his foot down for Americans.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And his post that he put out following the meeting, it literally sounded like a father putting a temper tantrum-y child into timeout, which I personally loved. This is what he put on Truth Social. He said, Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
It is amazing what comes out through emotion, and I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for peace, capital P, if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don't want advantage. I want peace. He disrespected the United States of America and its cherished Oval Office. He can come back. when he is ready for peace. Mic drop.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Daddy's home. I tweeted this. I was like, this literally sounds like I am six years old. And my mom was like, you can go to your room and you can come back when you've changed your attitude. I mean, honestly, I shouldn't even say that's what she said when I was six years old. She was doing that to me when I was 17 years old. That is what parents do. That is what Trump is doing in this moment.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And of course the media took issue with this. Like they take issue with everything he does, but that's to be expected. You know, 10 years in, we understand that that's gonna happen. And unlike Biden, Trump will actually face these critics. Trump will actually face the press head on And it does seem like this time around, he kind of enjoys it more. Like, he knows what to expect.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
He's going into it intentionally. He's kind of trolling them, and he knows how to handle them, as Bridget mentioned in our interview.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Now, speaking of these interactions with the press, another thing to note about his first 40 days in office, the first full month in office, is that in this first month, he took a whopping 1009 questions from the press. I mean, guys, in this first month alone, he has almost taken as many questions as Biden did allegedly in his entire term.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Allegedly, Biden took anywhere from 1,800 and possibly hitting 2,000 questions over the last four years. And if Trump keeps this speed up, he will surpass that next month. By the end of March, he will have taken more questions than Biden took after four years. But I mean, who's surprised? He was like at the beach for half that time. So obviously he was not answering questions.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
I mean, Biden gave fewer interviews with the press than his predecessors. He did fewer press conferences than his predecessors. I actually think that he holds the record for the least amount of press conferences in a president's history. He gave fewer informal Q and A's, whether that was when he was at the White House or when he was getting off of Air Force One, you name it. And so in comparison,
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
It just makes Trump shine even more. I mean, Trump is truly giving us the most transparent administration in history. He is inviting press into the Oval Office frequently. Caroline Levitt, the new press secretary, is the youngest press secretary in history. She's absolutely crushing it. And they are even doing these breakdowns on social media.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
To keep you guys informed, I highly recommend following the White House account because these videos are phenomenal. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And this is only half the video. She goes on for another 30 seconds, literally doing a breakdown of what I just did over the last hour, basically, in one minute to keep you guys informed of the number one things that they're doing. And they're not just doing this every month. I think that she is literally doing it every single week, giving you the MAGA Minute updates to keep voters informed.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Now, obviously, if you guys know anything about me, if you took anything from this episode, I'm sure that you know by now that obviously I think all this is great. I'm living my best life under the second Trump administration. I'm having so much fun. I think all of this is just fantastic. I love the tenacity. I love getting straight to business.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
I love following the mandate that the American voters gave him. I think truly it is all incredible and I love that he is not pulling punches on any issues, whether that be transgenderism or the economy or dealings with Ukraine, he is putting his foot down.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Now, I am in Gen Z and I'm having a great time, I love it, but apparently some of our generation is not as happy and I'm saying argh because I know I have a ton of Gen Z viewers and I want you guys to know that since coming into office, since 40 days ago, Trump's approval rating has reportedly dropped 40 points to the negative.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
with Gen Z. Newsweek wrote about this, Donald Trump's Gen Z popularity plunges. That is a huge number, like unprecedented. And so the question that I want to leave you guys with today to be thinking about, because I do want to do an episode about this, and that question is, why do you think that is? Why do you think his approval rating has dropped 40 points with Gen Z?
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Now, I obviously have my opinion. I have some theories. I want to do an entire episode about this, but like, do any of you guys have buyer's remorse? Are any of you guys not happy with what I'm happy about? Are any of you guys upset about these executive orders? Like, what in your mind changed as Gen Zers from November when we were all, you know, fired up for MAGA to now?
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Like, did Gen Z actually think that Trump was just about vibes and papers and driving trash trucks and frying fries at McDonald's? And that now that he's deporting people and firing everybody out of the federal government, you guys don't like it so much? I don't know. I just want to know. I want to figure it out. We're going to do an entire episode about it.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Give me your responses and I'll make sure to include them. But all of that aside, the opinions from the rest of our generation, again, I'm having a great time. I feel really hopeful. I feel really fired up. And of course, there are things that I disagree with. Of course, there are things that maybe I want to see differently.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
There are things that I'm still really excited about that he hasn't done yet, which is totally normal. And so I'm so happy that I got to do this recap for you guys and fill you in. I want to do this more frequently because I miss talking about him. He is one of my favorite figures in culture. Donald Trump is who made me interested in politics from the beginning.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And not to get ahead of myself, but a great example of this preparedness is that right off the bat, people, and I mean, you know, people being the labor unions and the labor boards, immediately started suing Trump for firing all of these federal employees. He was like, I am clearing house.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
He is a fascinating character, a fascinating man. And I love the fact that he is leading our country once again.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
I'm getting rid of a bunch of these lazy people that are doing nothing but spending taxpayer dollars, immediately started firing them. He got sued literally on day one. But just last week, a federal judge came in and said, Actually, guys, this is legal. I can't stop him from doing this. You can be angry all you want.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
You can file lawsuits in little district courts and get angry at him and just keep suing him. But I can't stop him. Just read this headline. Trump can continue mass firings despite disruption and chaos. U.S. judge rules.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And of course, they had to add in that disruption and chaos into the headline just to really let everybody know what they think about all of this, of getting rid of government bloat. But truly, I think that that's just a great example of this preparedness because his lawyers knew going into this what would stand and what wouldn't. They were not flying by the seat of their pants.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
They had months to prepare. And one of the ways that Trump prepared that was just so interesting to me that I started noticing back in the fall was that Trump had his own transition team. Many of you guys might know that. Some of you guys might not. But his team started working as early as March of 2025.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And then they officially convened and started working in August of 2024, which again is still months ahead of when a president-elect would start working. This man was like, yeah, I'm gonna win. This is gonna be great. Even if I don't win, I'm going to be prepared in the off chance that I am.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
I saw some comments that they were like, Brett, Trump has done something like 75 executive orders. You haven't talked about one, which cracked me up because I literally think you could do an entire episode about each individual executive order, but obviously we don't have the time for that. I'm doing these longer shows now, so I'm going to try.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Now, the other thing that he did that was completely different is that he did not just accept the transition team from the US government. He picked his own people and he brought his own funding. Here are a couple headlines about that. Trump is breaking from past presidents on the Presidential Transition Act. What is it?
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Another headline reads, Trump has still not signed critical transition agreements allowing access to agencies. I wonder why he didn't want to give access to government agencies as his team was prepping. Now, one of the things that he did was he refused to sign the General Services Agreement that he did sign in 2016, another big shift from his first term.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And this traditional path would have offered him $7.2 million to pay this transition team, to get everybody ready and to get things in order, to get these executive orders ready for day one. But that $7.2 million, obviously because it's the US government, comes with a lot of strings attached that Trump did not want to touch. So he did not sign it. He didn't accept the money.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And instead, he brought in the money privately. When we donated money, when I was buying my MAGA hats and giving donations to Trump throughout the campaign, some of that money was going towards funding this private transition team. And that is how he kept the government out of his business, and how he was able to prepare for so many months leading up to winning on November 5th.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
If you are anything like me, then I am sure you think that this transition into power has just been incredible to watch, it's been incredible to see him prepare for so many months, to prepare for January 20th, and I think he wants us to revel in all of this, and that is one thing that has not changed since 2016. Like, that is still the same Trump, as Bridget said later on in our interview.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
I'm going to attempt to mush all of this into one episode. I want to get into that, get into all the incredible things he's done, and obviously we also need to talk about my favorite funny Trumpisms from the last 40 days. infamous meeting in the Oval Office. So this will not be all encompassing in the slightest, which means that we will have many more episodes about Trump in the future.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
I mean, I just completely agree. The man has not stopped. He has not slowed down in the slightest. I mean, on Inauguration Day, I think that he signed 20 executive orders, which was more than any president in recent history, possibly even more than any president in history. And he has just been signing tens upon tens more. many of which are aiming at slashing government regulations.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Like he is using these executive orders to slash government, to hopefully make our lives better, to make our lives more affordable, to make it easier to run a small business or to start a family. He is getting rid of government bloat that impacts all of our daily lives. On day one, For example, one of his executive orders was to freeze all pending federal government regulations.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
So any regulation that was in the process of reaching us, he said, no, no, we're not going to do this. You're not going to slide this in on my watch. We're freezing everything and I want to see exactly what you're doing and my team will review. He also brought something back from his first term, which was a favorite policy of mine.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
It is the one in two out rule, which means that if you want to introduce one new regulation for government or American people or small businesses, you need to eliminate two. So we started with that. But then just a couple of days later, he added on that. He said, no, no, no, no, no. This is not 2016 Trump. This is 2025 Trump.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
He took it further with a 10 to 1 process that if you want to introduce one, you have to get rid of 10. That is insane. That is unprecedented. Hopefully will work out in our He also put agencies like the FTC and the SEC under White House oversight. And these are agencies that are usually completely independent, meaning that they can just regulate to high heaven. They can do whatever they want.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And Trump said, no, no, no, no, no. You are going to be held accountable now. I'm going to see what you're doing. You were coming under me now. So that was a huge thing. And I mean, just yesterday, he did another executive order aimed at slashing regulations. This one was about the timber agency.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
and this executive order would terminate all regulations and processes that delay the production of timber, lumber, paper, bioenergy, and other wood products.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
He said, and I quote, the United States has an abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs, but heavy-handed federal policies have prevented full utilization of these resources and made us reliant on foreign producers, which of course is not just in the timber industry. We're dealing with that everywhere.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
So this is just one example of what he's doing to hopefully, again, make things more affordable, bring things back onto American soil, which will only benefit us and our economy. These are all incredibly, incredibly positive things that he's And you would think that an executive order like this is something that everyone could get behind because it's going to make all of our lives better.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
But thanks to my friends at Ground News, I quickly realized that was not the case at all. Now, if you guys didn't know, Ground News cuts through the noise with an unbiased perspective and shows you both sides of every story of every executive order, prioritizing honesty over everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Their unique technology allows users to compare how different sides of corporate media are reporting on a story, making sure that you see all sides and truly stay informed about what's going on in the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And from my perspective as a creator who does this kind of show, they make sure that I stay on top of the stories that I'm covering for you guys so that I can bring you the latest and most honest updates.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
I mean, like with this story, I wanted all the latest information about Trump's executive orders, especially the more recent ones that, you know, haven't had enough time in the news cycle, like this directive about timber production. and I knew that Ground News would have the clearest and most well-rounded breakdown of what Trump was actually doing. But it doesn't stop there.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Ground News also has a blind spot feed that brings you the stories that have gotten little to no coverage on one side of the political aisle or another, making sure that you always stay informed instead of letting big tech or their algorithms decide what you see.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And why wouldn't we? Because the man is going to be president for the next four years, God willing, which means we're going to have a ton of great content, lots of things to talk about. And also, guys, on top of all of that and that very important recap, we also need to talk about Gen Z and Gen Z's response to all of this, because spoiler alert, it actually isn't positive at all.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
So if you are ready to truly break free from media bias and stay informed with honest, transparent news consumption, now is the time to join Ground News. And when you go to groundnews.com slash brett or scan the QR code on the screen,
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
you can get the same premium plan that i use but for nearly half the price that is groundnews.com if you want unbiased news and to hold the media accountable for only five dollars a month you can stay on top of the insanity that's happening the good insanity that's happening literally every single day now in addition to slashing regulations and trying to make government smaller which i think we can all get behind another huge thing that trump has been attacking
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
is the immigration crisis. This is something that he ran on. This was like priority two behind the economy in his campaign. We as voters gave him a mandate to fix this problem because it has been so insane. And so on day one, he declared a national emergency at the border. And as of last week, Trump announced that in his first full month being in office,
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
We now have the lowest border crossings in history. This is his post from Truth Social. He said the month of February, my first full month in office, had the lowest number of illegal immigrants trying to enter our country in history by far. In history. Which is insane. There were only 8,326 apprehensions of illegals by Border Patrol at the U.S.-Mexico border, all of whom
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
We're quickly ejected from our nation or, when necessary, prosecuted for crimes against the United States of America. This means that very few people came. The invasion of our country is over. In comparison, and this is truly insane, under Joe Biden there were 300,000 illegals crossing in one month and virtually all of them were released into our country.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
Thanks to Trump administration policies, the border is closed to all illegal immigrants. Anyone who tries to illegally enter the USA will face significant criminal penalties and immediate deportation. And guys, if you've been following the news, even in the slightest, I'm sure that you have seen that these deportations have people riled up.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
This is like the most emotional issue of our time right now. It's like people aren't even thinking about the LGBTQ community or transgenderism or anything that made them angry over the last four years. This is now issue number one that everybody is crying about because again, on day one, he declared a national emergency.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
which meant that troops were deployed, the National Guard was deployed to help with deportations, literally started on day one. Tom Homan got moving. He and Kristi Noem were literally suited up in police ice vests, going through the cities, plucking criminals off the streets.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
There were these insane videos of violent, violent criminals who were being shoved into cars, and they were like, I'll be back. I deserve to be here. And Tom Homan was like, yeah, F you. Now, sorry, you are going home and they blasted them all over the news. Now, speaking of those violent criminals, that brings me to another thing that Trump did.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
He declared the cartels are now foreign terrorist organizations. I don't know why we didn't have that before, but that brought in the government's authority to deport people involved in those kinds of operations. He also did a mass deportation executive order. So really he is clearing house in the United States. And again, like I said, it sparked meltdowns all over social media and in the news.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And it's kind of concerning. And I want to understand why. Before we dive into today's episode, though, if you're interested in joining my subscriber-only platform, Cooper Confidential, I have the link right here and in the description below. That is for ad-free episodes and exclusive subscriber-only newsletter and weekly Dear Brett advice videos.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
And I expected that, like I was a bit worried about this. Not that I didn't think that it was a good thing, because obviously, objectively, you know, clearing house in the United States, especially after 300,000 people coming over in one month under Joe Biden, like, this is a very good thing. But I expected the media meltdown. I was nervous for it. I was like, people are going to turn on him.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
They're not going to like this. Because I think most of us knew that this was not going to be pretty. However, some seem to be surprised, as Bridget pointed out.
The Brett Cooper Show
The 5 Biggest Highlights of Trump 2.0 | Episode 11
in the last month, but it has been crazy. Like people have been posting videos of their family members, like their dad who came to this country 30 years ago and they film a video of him going through his citizen exam and his citizenship ceremony. And they're like, he could be deported. Are you dumb? Like literally, are you dumb? You just posted a video of him waving his cute little flag
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Welcome back to another episode of the Red Cooper Show. I am so excited to be here with you guys again. We have made some adjustments since episode one and two. We got these very, very cool vintage headphones officially working, so I am back with the headphones. We are experimenting with desk today, which I don't really think you guys can see in the shot, but I got some comments like,
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
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The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
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The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
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The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
speaking of health this divide reminds me of our former health secretary under Biden who basically was the antithesis of health and every American basically every American looked at this person and went I don't think you know anything about health I don't think I want you telling me what to do that is basically what happened here with celebrities and normal people who realized oh my gosh you know nothing about my life and so of course it is no surprise that just four years later all of these celebrities did nothing to help their side win the election like I actually think
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Kamala having all of these people like Beyonce parade out on stage and have Usher like dancing and telling jokes, I actually think that all those endorsements probably harmed her rather than helped her. Because we know now that these people are completely out of touch. Any illusion of relatability and understanding of the real issues was shattered back in 2020 and in all of the years following it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And so, of course, these celebrity endorsements only hurt her with normal Americans because they're like, These are the people that are endorsing you, that are saying your policies are so amazing from their glass houses, from their mansions overlooking Malibu. So no, I'm not going to trust billionaire Taylor Swift to tell me who to vote for.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And on that point, Bethany Frankel, who I just adore, she is an OG Real Housewife. She is blown up on TikTok in a crazy way. She is actually an interesting case study.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
of somebody who used to be a more mainstream celebrity, kind of went and did her own thing, created this skinny margarita, created a bunch of products, and then came back as an influencer and probably now has more influence and fame than she ever did before, now in this new media landscape. But anyway, she is really smart, has great common sense.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
totally, totally been flipped, especially with the award shows for film and TV. Like I don't even know anybody who takes the Oscars seriously anymore, which is definitely unfortunate, but it wasn't this way five to 10 years ago. Like I remember growing up in Hollywood and maybe this is me just being biased because I was a child actor and I had that whole part of my life.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
She posted this video right after the election and immediately called out this paradox between all of these huge celebrity endorsements, all of their followers, and the fact that it did nothing. Just watch.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Hot take, celebrities no longer have influence. Let me prove it. So there are like 300 million people in this country. There are 150 million voters, give or take. And the combined social media followings of the people that endorsed Kamala, meaning Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Selena, Chelsea, Amy, everybody, like powerful people, Obama, Hillary, the combined social media, Jennifer Lopez,
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
The combined number is over 2 billion followers. It's crazy to think about. So over 2 billion followers. And yes, of course, it's what votes matter and what really did it. But over 2 billion followers did not move the needle for 150 million voters.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
That is insane when you break it down like that. Over 2 billion followers combined. That massive amount of influence. She captured, to Kamala's credit, she captured all of it. Whether it was authentic or paid for, she did capture it. And it did not impact these 150 million American voters in the way that she expected. In the way that would statistically make sense. That is just shocking.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Tim Dillon, who's an amazing comedian, said a very similar thing later that week right after the election.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Crazy when you think about it. And obviously we are many months past the election. You've probably seen these videos before, but I just wanted to reiterate how quickly this changed just over the past four years and the absolute magnitude of it. And it's not just other celebrities and people with influence, albeit celebrities that seem to have a little bit more self
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Awareness and Common Sense and journos calling it out. Peter Thiel even said this on Barry Weiss's podcast a few months ago.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Awards season was what I looked forward to every single year. Like my friends and I would get together. We would have parties for every single award show. We would have listened to all the albums. We would have watched all the shows. I was in the actors union. So I voted on all these things. We cared. so deeply.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
I mean, guys, if you think back to episode one of this show, Whitney Cummings, this was the reason why she left the left, because she realized she couldn't question anything. She couldn't even question her own political party and its choice to install Kamala Harris as a candidate. Like that is not what liberalism in the most traditional sense is supposed to be.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And she realized, how can I be supporting a party that does this where I can't even question anything? And that is so pervasive. And I think that this Peter Thiel clip is especially interesting because it's not just looking at the response to the celebrities, but also breaking down how they got here and how they lost their influence, you know, besides posting weird videos during COVID.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Because sure, the lack of relatability, the lack of understanding, the lack of true authenticity has obviously played a huge role in all of this, but it is also the groupthink. It is also the jumping on the bandwagon of political and social justice issues because it's a good PR move and because everybody else is doing it and I've got to do it too. People sniff that crap out now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
We don't actually believe that any of it is authentic because you're all doing it. You're all saying the same exact thing. You have no real convictions. You have no bravery to even step outside of your bubble, which to be fair, you can't really because they will cancel you into oblivion. So again, no wonder why We don't care what they think. It's all mush and political correctness.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Like, I would wait all year long to catch a glimpse of these artists and these stars that I respected that had created such amazing art, and I don't feel that way at all anymore. Like, at this point, again, I don't even know the events are happening. I'm like, okay. And compared to five years ago, I literally don't know who any of these people are.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
I mean, I don't even know if these celebrities know what they believe. So why would we trust them? So in my mind, now the question is, where have we landed now? You know, post election, we are five years out from COVID. Trump is in office. It does feel like the culture is changing. I mean, going back to the Grammys that just happened on Sunday, it was actually quite politically subdued.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
in terms of how award shows have gone over the past couple of years. I mean, shocking, but also very positive. But I mean, maybe they've finally gotten the message and have decided to stay in their lane. So we want to hear about their music and not be lectured about politics.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
I mean, maybe they saw the global response to Selena Gomez's now viral video of her crying over the deportation of grapists and sex traffickers and murderers who have entered this country illegally and realized, yeah, maybe we should let this go. Maybe it's not worth it. Maybe these people do not want to see our faux empathy and getting involved in these issues that really we know nothing about.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And by the way, Selena, because I'm not doing an entire episode dedicated to your crying in your video, you said that these were your people. I don't think I would want these individuals to be my people. That is idiotic. Also, it doesn't even make sense because those are not your people. You are half Italian. You have a Mexican father who walked out on you and your mother.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
You were raised in the States by a white Italian mother. These are not your people. This is not your battle. That is why you got reamed. And people really don't want to hear your frankly uneducated and emotionally fueled response to an issue that impacts all of us a lot more than it impacts you most likely.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Now, to get back on track with the point that I'm trying to make, because I did do a little bit of a Selena Gomez aside, on the topic of celebrity, it is such a nuanced subject because obviously we still do have a fascination with celebrities. I mean, I just did an entire 45 minute episode about Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
We are all sitting on the edge of our seats wanting to know what happens with this case. I mean, I have been watching X and TikTok and Instagram like a hawk. Over the last six weeks to see if Justin Bieber is going to say anything about Diddy after he unfollowed all the people, if he's going to comment on Scooter Braun or Usher, if anything is going to happen with that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And my interest in both of those stories is less because I care about celebrity and these individuals and more because I care about the story and what is unfolding. And what's unfolding there is people righting wrongs and seeking justice and exposing the truth.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Which, if you think about it, the components of these stories, why I'm interested in it, they are actually very human and very relatable experiences. I mean, you know, bar the fact that we will probably never experience anything like this on a global scale. Hopefully not. I hope we're not experiencing anything like a Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni story or a Justin Bieber story.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
I feel like there's all of these new stars and actors and musicians. I do not care in the slightest. I can't keep up with any of them. And I don't know if it's because the art has gotten worse, or maybe it's me. Maybe I got bored. Maybe I, you know, aged out of it after I left high Hollywood, or maybe the world and the world of fame and celebrity just changed in general.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
But maybe that's why we care. Because we've all gone through something where we've had to seek justice or stand up for ourselves or expose the truth. Like, that is why we care. Another great and very recent example of this is the resurgence in fame of Spencer and Heidi Pratt from the OC. These are, you know, old stars of the OC.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
They were hugely famous, you know, 15, 20 years ago on that reality TV show. But they had kind of become irrelevant. over the last decade, but they lost their homes in the Palisades fire a couple of weeks ago and they have actually shown true humility and true relatability and struggle and gratitude and resilience as they have coped through this and they've shared it all on their social media.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And that has spoken to people because they've actually been real. They have leveled with people. They've said, yeah, we actually lost a lot of our money. All of our money was in this home. It was in the art that we had collected in this house. We poured everything into Heidi's album, which flopped. We really didn't have any money. Like I'm pulling back the curtain.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
It wasn't as glamorous as it seems. And now we're having to start from zero. People saw that and they saw themselves in these once hugely popular figures. And now Spencer and Heidi are more famous than ever. And it's not that we want people to struggle and hurt for us to care, but we want to see something real.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
We're tired of the PR spins and the faux relatability and the slow claps on the balcony and the weird singing covered. That's not real. But people going through something hard and being honest about that, that speaks to people, which is probably why the world of influencers has started to outpace traditional celebrity.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
I mean, if you want to market or sell something in the year 2025, you don't really go to the Kim Kardashians of the world anymore. Number one, they're super expensive, but they really don't sell things anymore.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Instead, you go to the influencers who have spent years building trust and camaraderie and a relationship with their audience, an audience that wants to follow whatever they do and build whatever they're building and buy whatever they're selling because there is that personal relationship. I mean, there is a 2024 marketing report that touches on this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
It is the trust and influencer marketing report. And the study shows that 77% of respondents prefer influencer created content over traditional advertising, while 85% 5% trust influencer sponsored posts more than celebrity endorsements. And these are both famous individuals. These are both people with influence.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
But again, one is built on a community and trust, and the other is built on an idea that they are better than us, and they are unattainable, that they're far away from us, and they've tried this fuck-related ability, but it doesn't work. And we've just completely rejected it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
We've rejected it in terms of what we follow and the content that we engage with, and we've also rejected it in terms of financially supporting them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
I mean, as another example, think about podcasters like Joe Rogan and Theo Vaughn, who obviously are incredibly famous, probably more famous than a lot of these traditional celebrities, but they come into our ears and our homes on a weekly basis as themselves with honesty and curiosity and a respect for their audience. I mean, they've spent years nurturing that. So we trust them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And that is what we're going to talk about today. And guys, I want to say just a huge thank you for how insane our launch week was. You guys loved the merch, which is in the description below. You also subscribed to Cooper Confidential and Mask, which was just amazing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
They feel like friends in a way, rather than these unattainable figures posturing and as relatable pals who get what we're going through. It's completely different. Like that is why we trusted them more when it came to political endorsements.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Because it felt like they had actually done the work to, that's such a leftist term, I'm so sorry, but it really felt like they had done the work to understand the issues that were impacting us. It wasn't just like a, hey, I got a big fat check to endorse Kamala because that's the cool thing to do. And I want everybody to have equality, even though I don't really know what that means.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And I love feminism and girl, like that, that lacks substance. That lacks a genuine understanding of the issues that are impacting a normal American on a daily basis. Like, I genuinely believe that that is one of the most significant reasons why Trump won the election.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Because of this divide between celebrity endorsements and independent creators and influencers, which is really now the most important endorsement that you can get. So where now do we go from here? We have broken down how this all fell apart, where we're at right now. Where do we go? I mean, obviously, the world of influencers and podcasters, it is only going to continue to grow.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
It is a huge bubble at this point. I'm sure that it is going to burst. We kind of saw it almost bursting with TikTok being banned. I mean, it was hysterical. All of these creators on TikTok were like, Oh my God, this is all going away. I'm not gonna be able to reach you. And while that was kind of like funny to watch, I also got it again because it was built on trust and relationships.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
They weren't just sad because they couldn't make their silly little videos. I mean, they were sad because, you know, financially something was going away, but more importantly, they were losing a platform that allowed them to connect with this community and build this community on a daily basis. So it might pop, it might continue to grow.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Who knows, maybe there will be a new form of fame and influence that grows from that bubble bursting. But as for traditional celebrities, I think what's next for them is actually going back to what worked before, to staying in their lane and focusing on their art and realizing that people like them for their art and the things that they create
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Not necessarily because they're super relatable or really great on foreign policy and telling us about social justice issues. Like I think they have become aware on that. Maybe it's the old Hollywood model where we really don't know a lot about these celebrities. We just know their projects and the things that they create and that's fine.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
If you guys don't know, Cooper Confidential is my subscriber-only platform where you will be able to get ad-free episodes of The Brett Cooper Show. We are also going to be doing a weekly Dear Brett advice video that is based on your questions and your comments and your concerns that you'll be submitting to me.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Like I actually think that Zendaya has done a great job at this. Like we know now that she is engaged with Tom Holland, but she didn't post about that on her social media. She just like walked a red carpet with a ring on her finger. didn't include people in it. Like, we don't really know what her personal life is like. She's not posting about her beliefs or her political things.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Brett, where's your desk? Which I also did want one. So we're trying some things out. So I'm just reminding you guys that there might be things that change. Try different lighting. The set might evolve. But I'm here. We're talking about important things that I enjoy talking about. And that is all that matters. And do not worry, guys. I am reading the comments.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
She does her movies. She goes home. I think that she bought a huge house that her parents live in now. Like, they all live there together. She very, very much cares about family and privacy. We know that, but we don't know the details. And she works like crazy. She is wildly famous. She's wildly wealthy at this point. She's so unproblematic in the best way.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And honestly, if we're thinking about young Hollywood and young celebrities, you could say the same for Timothee Chalamet. He also works like crazy, but we don't really know much about his life or relationships other than when he goes on a press tour or like we see his personality. which is really fun. That comes out in like bits and pieces.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Like he was randomly on college game day when he was promoting his new Bob Dylan movie. He went on Theo Vaughn and you get to see bits and pieces of his personality, but that is all through media, through organized podcasts. He's not just posting this online. We know nothing about his two year now relationship with Kylie Jenner. We didn't really know anything about his relationship with Lily Rose.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Like he keeps all of that private. And it's so interesting to see the young celebrities doing that. When the, you know, 30, 40 year old celebrities were desperately trying to jump on the influencer train. So maybe they are learning from what did not work with millennials. They're like, OK, now you cannot be influencers.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Nobody wants to hear from you about politics or anything else or about your bathtubs or anything that you're doing. So we're just going to actually stay in our lane.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And so my prediction and my genuine hope to the Hollywood gods is that unlike Gal Gadot and all of the lockdown imagine cover celebrities, this next generation of celebrities, of the Hollywood stars, the musicians, they're not going to try to fake their relatability. And I guarantee we will love them more for it. I guarantee they will be far more successful by doing this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And we're also going to be having a subscriber only newsletter, which also I think will be launching this week. So I'll make sure to post all about that. So, so glad that you guys are excited. Thank you for all the support in the comments and the subscriptions. I think this is going to be a ton of fun.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
All right, so to jump back into what I was saying before that classic CTA, I actually think that things have been changing for a long time due to the media landscape. Because like 10, 15, 20 years ago, the media was far more centralized. But now thanks to social media, we have millions of different stars. We have influencers. We have creators that pop up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
We have people that go viral for baking a cake in an interesting way. Like people are just famous for random things. It is not just one set of celebrities. Like we no longer have this world where celebrities The paparazzi and the gossip columns and the gossip TV shows are telling us exactly who we should care about.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Like the days of Paris Hilton getting absolutely mobbed whenever she leaves a hotel or goes on a trip, those are over. The days of Brad Pitt being sworn when he was a young man, that just doesn't happen anymore. It's very, very rare. I think the only person that that happens authentically to is somebody like Taylor Swift.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
But for the majority of celebrities, the people that you see at these award shows, half of the world... has no idea who they are. They genuinely do not care. And that is a drastic change from 15 years ago. And I think a lot of that is due to cell phones and social media, which actually Cameron Diaz brought up in a recent interview.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
If you did not know, Cameron Diaz took 10 years off to be a mom and focus on her family. She is now breaking back into acting. She seems very at peace, very happy with her decision to come back, very excited about all of it. But she's been doing a press tour for this new film. And she talked about how social media and how cell phones completely changed fame and her experience of fame.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And obviously what she's talking about made a huge impact on these celebrities and their ability to have any kind of privacy or know how to dodge paparazzi and be able to like be in the press and then not be in the press. But it also completely changed how we interact with celebrity, how we think about celebrities. Because from there, we genuinely had access to everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Not just the curated moments that were brought to us, again, by People Magazine or Us Weekly and the paparazzi and the gossip columns and the Perez Hiltons of the world. And from there, the entire thing just snowballed. Like we had so much unfiltered access that by the time we got to 2020 and COVID-19 and the world was turned upside down, we were sick of these people.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
I know that we need a pop filter on this very, very beautiful mic. We have one. It was supposed to arrive by today. And because Amazon has really lost its mojo, it has been delayed. We actually ordered three of them and none of them arrived. So maybe by next episode, you will have a pop filter on here. But I'm going to be extra careful with my P's and my articulation. Do not worry. To
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And I mean, that's around the same time that I started to get sick of traditional skincare and started using Talo. And obviously my favorite place to buy Talo is with my friends over at Amalo Talo. Now if you guys don't know what tallow is, tallow is rendered beef fat.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Yes, I do slather beef fat on my face morning and night because it seriously is the best skincare and I'm going to convince you why. Now I personally use tallow because it is packed with naturally occurring nutrients and it actually mimics my skin's barrier thanks to the essential fatty acids that occur in tallow.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
This means that the tallow is keeping me moisturized while simultaneously actually helping to heal my skin and heal my acne while not clogging my pores like so many of the other thick artificial moisturizers do. And I know if you guys are not accustomed to tallow yet, if you've not been watching my show for the last couple of years and you're like, Brett, what the heck are you talking about?
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
You think it's so weird that I put B-Fat on my face? Guys, this is what our ancestors used on their faces for generations. And it is the perfect non-toxic swap to avoid the endocrine disrupting chemicals that are in so many other parts of our modern skincare. And truly Amalo is the best place to buy tallow. Amalo is a small family owned business.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
They make their products right here in the USA and they only use the highest quality ingredients, grass fed, grass finished tallow, organic essential oils. It is nothing but the best for our skin. They genuinely care about your skin and the quality of every ingredient that they use because the skin is our largest organ. So what you put on your body matters.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
So if you are ready to finally try out some Talo or if you need a restock, go to amalo.com slash cooper and use code cooper15 to get 15% off your order. Again, that is amalo.com slash cooper, code cooper15 for 15% off your order. I promise you, you will love this skincare. It is so clean. They are so transparent about every single thing that they use. You will love it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Now, even though transparency is objectively a good thing, whether or not we are talking about tallow skincare or not, I think the transparency actually killed celebrities as we used to know it because there used to be this veil that separated us from the celebrities. You know, we knew that they lived these lavish lives, but we put them on a pedestal
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And we never really compared ourselves to them. Like maybe they would do, you know, some faux relatability, but we never really saw it. And we could just admire them and their beautiful dresses and their clothes and the vacations they would go on and the movies that they would make. And we were always, you know, just distant. They stayed in their lane. We stayed in ours.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And COVID-19 completely transformed. Turn that upside down. And I don't know what it was. Maybe they genuinely were trying to connect with people or do something meaningful. I don't know. They're all actors. They were probably just trying to make a moment for themselves. But they started to get a little too transparent and it did not work in their favor.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Do you guys remember specifically the Gal Gadot Imagine cover? Like genuinely, if you go back to that day in March of 2020, I think you can pinpoint that as the day that That celebrity died. So Gal Gadot, you really ruined it for the rest of the celebrities. If you guys don't know what I'm talking about, just take a listen. And I'm sorry for your ears.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
It's easy if you try. I hate these people.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Above us only sky. Imagine all the people. Okay, so the point of this video was to show that we are all in it together, that we are all connected, that all the celebrities from Gal Gadot to Sarah Silverman were thinking of us, that we were all in this fight together, and if we just all sang and held hands in unity and sang kumbaya, imagine, we would all be just fine.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
get into it, the Grammys were this week. They were on Sunday night and I did not watch. I honestly didn't even know that they were happening until I logged onto social media and saw people posting pictures of the red carpet and all of the weird outfits that celebrities were wearing. I then just followed along on X and TikTok because that is where I get all of my breaking news.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
But it really did not work out like that at all. In fact, people looked at that and went, actually, you have no idea what me as a normal non-rich person is going through with this lockdown and with this pandemic. So no, I don't want your faux authenticity and sympathy because we are living in completely different worlds.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
You are filming a selfie video of yourself lamenting and singing Imagine in your mansion. Well, I am out of work or working overtime because of the pandemic. But if you go back and you look at all the comments from when this video was posted back in 2020, I mean, it is just brutal. Like the veil had been pulled back. People were like, oh my God, why have we been idolizing you?
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
You are nothing like me. And the best part, in my opinion, was that the media also didn't hold back anymore. Like they were not running cover for celebrities this time. One headline reads, a video of celebrity singing imagined so bad it can bring us all together in hatred. I do love when that happens on the internet.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Another one says, Gal Gadot singing Imagine with a bunch of celebs isn't helping my coronavirus anxiety. Yeah, no, I think it only made it worse because I had nightmares about it. New York Times even covered it. This Imagine cover is no heaven. And so the general consensus from this cover and everything that followed, all the celebrities trying to reach out again and...
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
and common ground with the normal people that were struggling, the general consensus was, what do these people know about our normal lives? They are so disconnected.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
The people who are out of work because of COVID, the people whose small businesses are being absolutely demolished because of the lockdowns, the people who are frontline workers, the people who had to show up to work regardless in huge masks and gloves and deal with anxiety-ridden people on a daily basis who were just trying to buy toilet paper. You do not get us. at all.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
You are sitting in your luxurious mansion with your huge bathtub. You're sitting on your balcony singing Imagine, lamenting that you can't go film another Marvel movie and make millions of dollars. We don't care. You don't get us. And I know that Gal Gadot gets a lot of hate for this video and she's come out now and said, yeah, that was really miscalculated.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
She's tried to walk it back, but it wasn't just her. I mean, Chrissy Teigen, for example, Oh my gosh, she accidentally ordered a $13,000 bottle of wine to her home during the lockdowns. And she posted this on social media thinking that everybody would find it so funny and so relatable.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Like, oh my God, we're all just like drinking in our houses and doing things that we don't, you know, we're trying to order all these things we can't come out to eat. No, she posted that and people went, I'm sorry, that's your biggest problem? That you accidentally ordered a $13,000 bottle of wine and it didn't bankrupt you because you are so rich? I mean, Madonna was posting videos of herself
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
floating in her bathtub. She was doing these like big milk baths where you put milk in the bathtub and she had like flowers floating around her. And she was like, oh, look at all these things. Like I need COVID and super, super weird. Everybody was like, I'm sorry, we are trying to work and stay afloat, not float in your bathtub. That's just ridiculous.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Oh my God, the one that I rediscovered today, which is the actress Priyanka, who is married to Nick Jonas. She made a video of herself standing on the balcony of their mansion overlooking, I don't know, somewhere in California, something beautiful, slow clapping. For first responders, just watch. I'm so touched. I mean, it doesn't end.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
But I do feel like I noticed something interesting because the Grammys and all of these award shows, they have gained back significant viewership since the days of COVID when it all dropped and basically no one was watching. But it does feel like the sentiment has changed. Like now we are watching purely for entertainment, not because we revere these people.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
It goes on for like 30 seconds of just, oh, thank you, thank you. Theater kids, like, okay, I can say that because I am a theater kid. What did you think this would do? People watch this video and they're like, I don't need your applause at all. This is only making the situation worse because you're trying to empathize with me, again, from the balcony of your huge Malibu mansion, wherever you are.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
But again, guys, we're not finished. They just kept going. They kept giving me more content to talk about. For example, the film producer, David Geffen, posted this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
early 2020 sunset last night isolated in the grenadines avoiding the virus i'm hoping everyone is staying safe that's his yacht he is posting a glamour photo of his yacht in march of 2020 oh i'm avoid stay safe everyone i'm avoiding the virus on my large yacht in the caribbean
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Again, these celebrities post these types of things and then wonder why we stopped caring about them and taking their opinions with a grain of salt. Also JLo, living in A-Rod's mansion in Miami or LA, wherever they were, making videos complaining about how they couldn't go out to dinner when they most likely have private chefs and are living in an estate.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Like, I'm sorry if people were not sympathizing for you when people in LA were having to quarantine in their 500 square foot apartments with roommates. So I'm sorry if normal people in the world saw these posts and decided not to care about your struggles because they weren't real at all.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And what made it even worse in 2020 was that, you know, two months later, they picked up the BLM fight, advocating for the destruction in the streets, hurting even more small businesses, and screaming for the defunding of the police while they sit pretty in their little gated homes and gated communities with their private security. genuinely being completely out of touch.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
So the point I'm trying to make here by giving you all these examples is that 2020 truly killed the traditional celebrity as we knew it once and for all, because they could no longer even try to pretend that they were relatable. I loved this article from Vice. I've had it say it for a while because I've always wanted to use this. But they said the reign of the relatable celebrity is over.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And that is from May of 2020. Like they already knew we were not even halfway in to 2020. And they were like, yeah, you're done. Sorry. But this is the best quote from this article. I don't even know who this author is, but hit the nail on the head.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
They wrote, In the past, celebrities were strange, faraway creatures with unclear beliefs, intimidating speaking voices, and charisma that entered the room like a bottle of smashed perfume. Now, we know too much. The undercurrent of every late-night talk show appearance, cover story, and social media post and award acceptance speech is relatability.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
a PR spin on authenticity invented after the global financial crisis to bridge the obvious and ever-widening gulf between the celebs and the plebs by convincing us that we're the same, actually. We've heard their daily routines, we've seen their toilets in the background of their bathroom selfies, and we've watched them do burpees on Instagram Live. The spell is broken.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
I mean, at this point, guys, we knew too much about them. It was like I was reading their freaking diagnostic labs from Merrick Health. Merrick Health is the premier health optimization platform, empowering you to maximize your health thanks to personalized expert advice that you will have in your back pocket.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
It's like, oh my God, the celebrities want to see what the celebrities are doing. Like, I feel like when I am watching clips from the red carpet or seeing who won album of the year or whatnot, I feel like I'm somebody in the Hunger Games watching all the people at the Capitol put on a spectacle. Not that I'm actually watching a bunch of people that I respect be honored for their art. Like it is
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
Merrick Health offers cutting edge diagnostic labs, concierge health coaching, and expert clinical oversight. And they support their clients in achieving their health goals by leveraging data-driven lifestyle and nutrition recommendations in addition to supplement and prescription treatment options.
The Brett Cooper Show
Do We Care About Celebrities Anymore? | Episode 3
And if you didn't know, I started my journey with Merrick Health long before they ever sponsored anything that I had done a couple of years ago after some health scares in our circle and our community.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Have you ever wanted to play a video game where the protagonist is a black Japanese samurai who has gay love affairs with non-binary characters? Well, if you have, then Assassin's Creed Shadows might just be the game for you. So one of the most anticipated games of the year just came out and gamers of the world simply are not happy. Apparently, Assassin's Creed Shadows is just not good.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
I don't really think that was your goal, but you missed an entire opportunity to celebrate a culture and instead you avoided it and kind of mocked it altogether.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And of course, I'm literally getting out of breath at this point, but it does not help that on top of all of that, they left in all of the gay storylines that they promised last year, which just makes the entire situation and storyline weirder. And this was Keita's take after playing through all of that.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And no, my friends, it is not just Keita pointing this out. It's not just one player here or there that is sniffing out these storylines. Publications like Pink News are blasting these wins for the queer gaming community far and wide. This was an article that came out just last week. They said, you can have hot gay samurai flings in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Thank you. Thank you so much, Ubisoft.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
That is just excellent. That is what we all want out of Assassin's Creed. Just clunky, half-baked, gay, and disliked. That is what you have created. I hate to say it, but again, this is what happens when you chase brownie points and not quality.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
So I was actually like in them. I was like the perfect demographic for this game. I don't even play video games. I was like, oh my God, this would be so sick. I'm like in the Shogun mindset. And then I watched the trailer and I was like, what the actual heck is going on?
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Now, of course, if we are going to have this conversation about Assassin's Creed, we obviously have to, you know, take a step back, take a bird's eye view and take a look at the entire gaming industry, because this is not just happening with Assassin's Creed. This is far from being an isolated incident. And in general, the gaming industry has changed dramatically over the last decade or two.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
I think one thing that really stands out about all of that is how commercialized it has gotten. I mean, it went from being this more artistic niche independent industry into a $200 billion industry in 2025.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And amidst all of that, you have these high quality developers and independent companies that are getting bought up and the world just became far more corporate and they chose to focus on mass appeal. aka leaning into culture wars and trying to be as woke as possible. And a perfect example of how this all transpired is Ubisoft.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
I mean, in 2022, they released their annual sustainability report where they promised to embed DEI in every single one of their creative processes. So if you've been playing Ubisoft games over the last couple of years going, what has changed? My friends, I am about to show you. And yes, before you ask, this was put into place by their
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Chief Diversity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Social Impact Officer at Ubisoft. And her name is Rashi Sika, who was hired in 2020. Interesting timing for the development of Assassin's Creed Shadows. Here she is, this is Rashi. And according to this article that was published around the time she was hired, her role
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
would be to implement more diverse and inclusive strategies and initiatives across all aspects of operations and business. And let me tell you, my friends, by 2022, she had certainly done that. By the time that sustainability report came out, she had implemented and publicized all of these strategies, which in turn impacted all gamers, especially the lovers of Assassin's Creed.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Now, in this report, she wrote, We will create gaming experiences that push representation forward by embedding diversity and inclusion across all of our processes, increasing representation in our teams, and offering access to resources that help build teams to build more authentic, inclusive, and accessible gaming experiences. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that exactly what you want?
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Now, the game was said to follow two protagonists, a black Japanese samurai, Yasuke, and a female shinobi or a Japanese spy named Naoe. And like I said, the trailer came out last May, and even last May in 2024, it made an insane splash because people were obviously confused about a black samurai leading a video game that is set in feudal Japan.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And I'm reading this and I'm like, wow, that must be why you picked a black samurai. And I am sure that Yasuke is this woman's crowning joy. So guys, if you want to know why Shadows has a black samurai, why it has gay love stories and non-binary characters and a strong female lead that kind of comes out of nowhere when Yasuke was supposed to be the protagonist, now you have your answer.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And all of this is just so funny to me because in our interview, Keita was talking about how the entire gaming industry has just become overrun by women in the LGBTQ community. And I laughed when he said that, but holy crap, as I dove in, as I did my research for this episode, let me tell you, he was not wrong.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
i mean guys in electronic arts's 2023 report where they basically survey the entire gaming industry they cited a 30 increase in women in leadership roles across the entire gaming industry between the years of 2020 and 2023 like i love you women i am one of you i support you but i'm really not sure you are helping the gaming industry now in addition to just women they also took a look at the underrepresented talent category in general which they increased
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
by 46%, which is just insane. That is a huge number. EA also launched their diversity in gaming fund, where they invested $10 million into underrepresented developers, and they are actively tracking the percentage of games with non male, non straight protagonists. I mean, guys, this is literally like the Oscars diversity quotas all over again.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Where, I don't know if you guys know this, but if you want to be nominated for an Academy Award, for an Oscar, your film has to check certain boxes. They are literally surveying the industry. Sorry, too many white guys. Oh, you didn't have a female or a gay person as a lead. Oh, you can't. That is literally what they are doing now to the gaming industry. And all of this isn't just internal.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
It is also being driven by a huge cohort of consultants that these companies are bringing in, most notably, or notoriously, whichever way you look at it, a Canadian company called Sweet Baby Inc. And guys, they do not hide what their goal is. In fact, when you Google Sweet Baby Inc, this is literally how Google AI describes them.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Sweet Baby Inc is a narrative development and consulting firm that works with video game companies to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within game narratives and studios, but has faced criticism for allegedly pushing a woke agenda. Yeah, that is literally really what they are doing. They are pushing DEI 24 seven. That is the basis of their company.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
I wouldn't say that that is alleged, but Google AI goes on and here's their more detailed breakdown what they do. Sweet Baby Inc specializes in narrative development and consulting offering services like cultural consultation, sensitivity, inclusivity, readings, readings, and risk and opportunity assessments.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Their core services include working on projects ranging from script writing to narrative design and story reviews with a focus on ensuring authenticity, you didn't do that well in Assassin's Creed, and emotional resonance in stories. Well, I think the emotional resonance that people are having right now is anger and confusion. So I think you should reevaluate what you are doing, Sweet Baby Inc.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And this anger and confusion is widespread because Sweet Baby's impact is everywhere. One article wrote, according to the firm's website, it is an inclusion-focused narrative and consultation company building a team and a process in hopes of building a kinder, more sustainable industry at every scale. And then they say, what is particularly notable, however, is Sweet Baby Inc. 's client list.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
However, at the time, Ubisoft confirmed that Yasuke was a real historical figure, so they weren't just pulling this out of their ass, although though, when you actually look at his history, the time that this man spent in Japan as a samurai and his actual history is very, very murky. There is a book written about him, but again, we just don't really know a lot about him.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
It includes some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Valve, which runs the largest distribution service of video games, and Xbox, one of the three main console manufacturers. Other companies that work with Sweet Baby Inc. include 2K, Electronic Arts, wow, shocker, shocking me, Rocksteady, Santa Monica Studio, Square Inks, Ubisoft, Warner Brothers Games, and Wizards of the Coast.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And as you have now seen repeated over and over, They are 100% message first, games second. They literally admit it themselves. And it is exactly the problem that Keita and other gamers have been pointing to.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And I mean, Kada talks about this all the time. He is so chill about it at this point. He's like a classic streamer, just like hanging out. I'm riled up. This is literally like insane. And people have gotten so fed up that there is literally a Steam community that was created called Sweet Baby Inc.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Detected that has over 200,000 members that literally just talk about Sweet Baby's impact on games and they can like detect which game Sweet Baby has touched. And I am sure that they are not the only consultation company that is working in this capacity. There have been so many other recent games that have been impacted by these initiatives.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And ones that Keita pointed out were, you know, The Last of Us 2, Suicide Squad, Kill the Justice League. And with Last of Us 2, they basically 100% focused on LGBTQ empowerment. They were praised by outlets like Pink News. They were supported in GLAAD reports. Suicide Flawed, uh, Flawed. Suicide Squad was a massive flop for Warner Brothers, tainted by woke tropes and race swapping and more.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Is there any hope for the gaming industry? And I feel like this is a question that we are asking a lot now because we're kind of having a cultural shift. It's like a cultural reckoning. Everything is coming to a head. We're seeing who is going to sink and who's going to swim. We're looking at the gaming industry today. Right now, in looking at the gaming landscape, I see no clear redirection.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
I mean, they are still leaning in and Sweet Baby Inc. 's client list is still going strong. And even if they did start to take note of how players are responding like Keita and try to change course, Keita pointed out that it would take a few years for us to even see this happening
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
But of course, we always have to find the positive. You know, my mom, when I was growing up, she would always say like, but the good thing is, didn't matter how terrible life got, she would always find the good thing in every situation. So today I'm telling you, the good thing is, the KEDA actually did point to change that is actively happening.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
So because of all of this, last year people were very quick to call out Ubisoft for political pandering, for just trying to dig up and search for a black character in order to basically check off a diversity box for this game, which is ridiculous because they would basically be checking off every single box in the book if they had just focused on creating actual Japanese characters.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Like veteran writers, veteran developers who are jumping ship from these huge commercialized companies to build their own studios outside of the systems to try to get games back to what they were in their heyday. For example, speaking of Suicide Squad, the co-founders of Rocksteady, Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker, literally left their own company before that game was released.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And apparently it was because of the way that Warner Brothers was pushing them around and wanted the game to be developed and released. And considering that the game was a $200 million loss for Warner Brothers, I would say that they made the right decision.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And in a recent article from this year, their goal is cited as forming a new studio aiming for 100 industry veterans making quote, cutting edge games. Now, another example of this is the creator of the Resident Evil franchise, who again left his own company after Microsoft bought it in 2020. But his departure wasn't just about Microsoft.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
His independent company, which is called Tango Gameworks, had been bought up by another company years prior, which then Microsoft acquired. Even then, when it was just this parent company, when Microsoft was not involved yet, it made his work increasingly difficult. In a recent interview, he said that he had only been the CEO at Tango for six months before ZeniMax bought it.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And although it seemed like he was a representative of the company from the outside looking in, Mikami likened his position at Tango as one more akin to that of a rank and file employee rather than a higher up. Quote, I had blank producer attached to my name, but I wasn't even an executive or anything of the sort.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And although he still managed to create several great games at Tango Gameworks, this made it harder for him to work on the more unique, smaller scale passion projects that he had in mind. Since he went out on his own in 2023, he has been able to work on just that. Without the oversight, without the corporatism.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And you know, just looking around the world right now, it seems like there's a lot of that. No creators fed up with oversight, fed up with misaligned goals or values, whether it be in gaming or in Hollywood or legacy media or conservative media, and therefore branching out on their own so that they can have full control over their work and the messages that they are putting out into the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And I mean, why would developers not want that? They are at the heart of what they do. Storytellers and artists, their games are a part of them. Why would they want corporate gods telling them how to do that? And regardless of the industry, this whole departure, this transition is 100% a good thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Because if there is one thing that we are learning from this year that we are basically talking about on this show every single day is that authenticity is king right now. Authenticity is paramount. Creators and artists and builders crave it and audiences are starving for it. We are all starving for it literally in every single creative industry.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
We want to consume content and art and films and support businesses that feel real and genuine, that are not lecturing us and don't feel like they're bought and corporate and paid for. And gamers are no different, obviously. So today, I am cheering all of those developers on.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Anybody who is working on independent games, who have left these big companies, I am cheering you on and I hope that these new companies start winning.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And for all the gamers out there, I hope that you guys get to immerse yourself in epic stories with quality gameplay and great dialogue driven by characters that mean something more than just being an intersectionality box that developers need to check. And I promise you, we will all be better because of that.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And of course, it didn't help that amidst all of this anger and chaos over the Black Samurai, the developers were simultaneously hinting at something else, which actually at the time, back in May, the anti-woke warriors didn't really sniff out yet, considering that the coverage was completely left-wing. And I know this thanks to Ground News.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And my partners over at Ground News cut through the noise with an unbiased perspective and show both sides of every story in the news, prioritizing honesty over everything. Their unique technology even allows users to compare how different sides of the corporate media are reporting on a story, making sure that you see all sides and truly stay informed.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And from my perspective as a creator, they make sure that I stay on top of the stories that I'm covering for you guys so that I can bring you the latest and most honest updates and ensure that I am actually sharing all sides of the story.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And in addition to that, Ground News' innovative technology with their Blind Spot feed brings you the stories that have gotten little to no coverage on one side of the political aisle, making sure that you always stay informed regardless of your own biases, instead of letting big tech or their algorithms decide what you see, which honestly happens more than you would think.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
So if you are ready to truly break free from media bias and control and stay informed with transparent news consumption, now is the time to join Ground News. And when you go to groundnews.com slash brett or scan the QR code that you see on screen, you can get the same premium plan that I use on a daily basis, but for nearly half the price.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And it kind of ties into what we were talking about in regards to Snow White just at the beginning of the week, because it seems like there are two huge issues here. Number one, the quality is supposedly just lackluster with a half-baked story and half-baked characters. And two, the DEI initiatives that Ubisoft shoved into this game are very much on display.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
That is groundnews.com slash brett if you want to get unbiased news and hold the media accountable for only $5 a month. Now, I promise we will get into the queer gaming a little bit later, but back to the point. At the time when all of this was happening, I did an episode about this on my old channel, basically talking through
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Yasuke the Black Samurai, his history, what the uproar was about, all the comments, all of that good stuff that you guys know I used to do. And in that video, I featured a video by a gamer who kind of accidentally went viral after posting about the trailer and his response and the controversy. And since then, I have been following him.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
I've watched him explode onto the scene and just grow on YouTube and on X. And I am so excited to have him on the show today to give his insight as a gamer into this entire controversy and what it actually means for the industry. And in case you guys did not see that old episode, this is his video, and it will provide some extra context for what is all going on.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
I mean, seriously, I couldn't have said it better myself. And this video, I mean, it amassed 9.2 million impressions after he posted it, which makes sense because all of this was common sense. He wasn't saying anything revolutionary. He was simply saying what we all were thinking when we watched the trailer. And it was just so amazing hearing that.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
from somebody who has been playing the game for years and is obviously so invested in this franchise. And because of all of these feelings, Ubisoft absolutely got destroyed on social media.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Fans were so confused by what they were doing, and it dulled a lot of excitement that people had had about this game because, as Keita says later in that video, people had wanted an Assassin's Creed based in Japan for years. They had been begging for this.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And so to then see that trailer and it just be a black guy, obviously for social justice warrior reasons, it was like a slap in the face to so many people who had wanted this for so long. And Keita, the gamer that you just saw in that video, had some incredibly important context to add. Because guess when? Assassin's Creed Shadows went into development. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
So all of that means that there are two issues here, and people that are simply just criticizing the quality of the game are getting lumped in with the anti-woke culture war fighters, it's this whole mess of people being upset. But this does beg a broader question of where is the gaming industry actually going, and is it too far gone for most gamers?
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
So there you have it. This game went into development in 2020. Here is the prime example of what BLM did. They saved the world. Thank you, Patrice Cullors, or whatever the heck your name is. I'm trying to, you know, eliminate you from my brain.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
But guys, amidst George Floyd and the race riots and, you know, white people crying in the streets because they hated the color of their skin, all of us being told that black Americans were the most oppressed individuals in the entire world, this game was created.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
So, of course, at that time in history, Ubisoft was going to be clamoring for some kind of way to capture the moment and show that they were an ally. But, you know, video games, they take a long time to create. And five years later, the culture has radically changed. The moment is long gone. BLM has lost its power and Ubisoft is now suffering the consequences.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
But this whole situation is about so much more than just the grifting. Because when I asked Keita, who is now my new resident Assassin's Creed expert, about the game and how he's feeling after playing it for the last week, the first thing he said was not the DEI or I can't believe I'm playing as a black samurai. It was actually about the quality of the game itself. This is what he said.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
I mean, at every turn, he and other gamers on X, on YouTube, in their publications, they have had critiques about the gameplay, the dialogue, the music being completely out of touch. I mean, who wants to listen to cyberpunk music when you are playing a game in feudal Japan?
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Now, before we dive into this story, I want to remind you all that I am going on tour this spring. It is my first tour ever. I am so excited to come to cities near you and hopefully meet some of your beautiful faces. The links to buy tickets in all of the different cities are in the description below. I hope you guys can make it out. I am just super excited. I think it'll be a ton of fun.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
I mean, that entire situation just sounds like finding tofu at a steakhouse, which would never happen to me because I eat at home thanks to Good Ranchers. And as you all know, Good Ranchers puts American values first, just like we do. Their meat is born, raised, and harvested right here in the U.S. from local family farms, so you know exactly where your meat is coming from.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
All of their products are free from hidden additives, no antibiotics ever, no added hormones, no seed oils, and there are amazing chicken nuggets, which we eat on a weekly basis. Just simple, trustworthy ingredients that you can feel good about feeding to your family. And to make it even better, these products are delivered straight to your door.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
So you are supporting local ranchers and American farmers without the hassle of going to the grocery store. And at goodranchers.com, everything that you need to create delicious meals is just a click away. And at goodranchers.com, you can also check out my exclusive Brett Cooper box.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
You can try out my handpicked selections that Alex and I eat on a weekly basis and directly support American ranchers while doing so. Just go to goodranchers.com slash brett to check it out.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And right now, Good Ranchers is running their Spring Into Action deal, where if you subscribe to any of their boxes, but obviously, preferably the Brett Cooper box, you will get free bacon or ground beef or seed oil-free nuggets or salmon in every order for a year. And you'll get to pick which one you want. Plus, you will get $40 off when you use my code BRETT at checkout.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
That is high quality, clean protein in every order delivered to your door for free for an entire year. Again guys, visit GoodRanchers.com today and don't forget to use my code Brett to claim your free meat and $40 off. Now one of the interesting things about this story is that allegedly,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Ubisoft knew that the game had problems, which is allegedly why they delayed the release from November of 2024 to now March of 2025. I mean, these are the types of articles that were being written about them in November. This headline reads, Ubisoft boss says it knows players think it has an inconsistency in quality, so it delayed Assassin's Creed Shadows to flip that script.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Well, apparently that did nothing because people have still been disappointed, so I do not think you flipped the script at all. Now, echoing everything that Keita said in our interview when we were chatting about this new game, another gamer named LegacyKillaHD made a 30 minute video about how this game was a complete mess from start to finish.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
He tweeted this about his video saying, I did not enjoy Assassin's Creed Shadows.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
combat and exploration it felt restrictive and unbalanced story mostly boring the duo protagonist never clicked for me as one is far more enjoyable to play but is hamstrung by baffling design i mean guys the comments underneath his video were just rich everyone was calling them ub slop they were saying that they were non-binary binary for this game it was just pretty hysterical like nobody is enjoying this in the slightest they're all playing this game to figure out what's going on they're playing this game
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
because they love Assassin's Creed, but they know that this is not the quality that they should be getting. In another review, this one from Dual Shockers, the hits just kept coming. These writers said, Assassin's Creed Shadows is a bloated collection of uninspired quests that quickly turn into a repetitive, boring grind. While the art and history teams deserve recognition for their efforts,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And also, of course, if you want ad-free episodes of The Brett Cooper Show and a weekly Dear Brett video and a subscriber-only newsletter, you can check out my platform at cooperconfidential.com. which is linked here. And of course, don't forget to follow our podcast page and to rate the show if you're enjoying it.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
it is unfortunately wasted on a narrative that goes nowhere, is poorly explained, and has no satisfying resolutions. I mean, people are not pulling punches in the slightest. So we have to ask, like, how did all of this happen?
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
How did Assassin's Creed go from being a beloved and revered game, one that Keita has literally been playing since 2007 when he was 11 years old, to the laughing stock of the gaming world, which right now it kind of is. Now in Keita's mind, and in a lot of gamers' minds right now,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
This is because they fell into a very common yet very dangerous trap, putting messaging over quality and virtue signaling over creativity.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
I mean, Kata absolutely hit the nail on the head. I think that we are all just exhausted by years of being lectured at. And the funny thing is, I'm pretty sure that Ubisoft felt the heat, which could be, in my mind, just speculating, and in Kata's mind, could be another reason why they delayed the game like five months. They obviously had to see the response online after they debuted the trailer.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
They noticed the culture changing, especially after the election, and they went back and they tried to steer the game in a completely different direction. Because why? On God's green earth, after making such a big deal over this, you know, important historical black samurai, would Yasuke not actually be a relevant part of the entire game?
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Why would he only have 15 minutes of game time and then just disappear? for the majority of the game. And yes, people have noticed. From writers at Forbes that said, Assassin's Creed Shadows has a Yasuke problem, calling him a puzzle piece that just doesn't quite fit, to actual players online saying things like, it's decent, but it has some issues.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
Yasuke is essentially an afterthought, pointless being him when he isn't an assassin. The more you play it, the more you wonder why. There is no point to his character in the game. Another person said, I am really convinced that Yasuke is an actual token, because at best, he really doesn't add much to the story.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
All right, so just a couple of weeks ago, the new Assassin's Creed game called Shadows came out. It hit the market, obviously, to an uproar of criticism, but also publicity. And basically, if you guys have not heard about this game, it is the new Assassin's Creed game, and it is set in feudal Japan. And when the trailer of this came out last year, I had just finished watching Shogun.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
He's really just there, and if Naoe was the sole protagonist, nothing in the story would really change. Many have this sentiment. So why even bother making him an MC? Boom. That is what happens when you are message first, story last. It doesn't work. He seems like a token.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
He seems like an afterthought because the only thought that Ubisoft has was, I know we told people we would have a Japanese Assassin's Creed, but also BLM, it's 2020. We need to have a black guy.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And he might've become even more of an afterthought, even more of a token if they did actually go back and cut down his storyline, which ironically, if they did that, would have just made him seem like more of an intersectionality box to check.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And of course, again, if they had really wanted to be authentically diverse, they could have leaned into Japan, leaned into historical Japanese history, and tried to make that a real, genuine, integral part of the story. But apparently when they tried to do that, that even fell flat.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
But you know, guys, I am not even surprised at this point because last year, the game developers literally said the quiet part out loud. Take a look at this headline. Assassin's Creed Shadows dev says, it's not a documentary and Ubisoft is not trying to show Japan from a very clinical or an overriding stereotypical view.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
And then this one, Assassin's Creed Shadows Japanese setting has been quote, very, very tricky because Ubisoft wants to be respectful and avoid telling a culture about their own culture. Okay, well, Ubisoft in your efforts to be so sensitive to not tell a culture about their own culture, to not make a documentary, you just turn to stereotypes.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Non-Binary Samurai Game No One Wanted | Episode 19
You turn to stereotypes and historical characters that honestly kind of exist in a weird gray area of like, we don't actually know if they were a samurai. It doesn't really sound like they were. So instead you just made a mockery of an entire region and point in history.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Justin Bieber is broke. Justin Bieber is in financial ruin. Those are the headlines we're all seeing. But are they true? And if they're true, then how did it happen? Today we're gonna break down all of that and really start to understand how Johnny Depp, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Courtney Love are all intertwined in this story.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
But back to Aaron, from what I did learn, aside from all of those articles that I was reading, was that he started working with Justin Bieber straight out of law school, and he stayed connected with Justin even after Justin stopped speaking with Scooter in early 2023.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
So the point is that he was still on the team advising Justin and helping him navigate the debts that he was facing after these tours. But again, we have to ask, was this somebody who had his best interests at heart?
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
So now, my friends, we find ourselves in January of 2023, and under the guidance and orchestration of Lou Taylor and Aaron Rosenberg, Justin Bieber sells his entire catalog to Hypnosis for $200 million. Now, the sources that I've spoken to who are personally very close to Justin have said that Justin was backed into a corner financially and emotionally with not a lot of options.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And this seemed like the clearest way out of the situation that he was in. And he felt like the sale would not only allow him to finally walk away from his former business associates and be able to clear himself of all these debts, but that it would allow him to have financial and creative freedom once again. He could just put everything behind him and start fresh.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
But it didn't really work out that way. Because after commission, after commission, after commission, after debts to the tour company, et cetera, Justin saw very little return on that sale. So he sold his life's work, his humanity, all of his creativity, and he saw nothing. It didn't actually fix the situation that he was in. And get this. Allegedly, Scooter was working with Lou the entire time.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
After Justin thought that everyone was paid out, that everything was fine, Lou told him that he still had over 20 million dollars in debt that he had to pay, even after selling his entire life's work for 200 million dollars. But she told him, don't worry Justin, because of Scooter and the way that he managed this thing, he is going to pay the debt.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And of course, at face value, you read this and you go, oh my gosh, this is great. Somebody is finally on Justin's side. We're holding people accountable. This is great news. Nope, nope. Think again. Because while Scooter did pay the debt, it was actually set up as a loan that Justin had to pay back Scooter. Where if Justin defaults on this loan, he will lose everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And this is something that The Hollywood Reporter has even touched on. So this is not private information, although, according to my sources, the facts here aren't completely correct. They wrote, The Justice cancellation also triggered a series of financial consequences that are still plaguing the artist today. That is correct.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
In not fulfilling his contractual obligation to AEG, the tour's promoter, and completing the concert dates for which he received a $40 million refund, advance, he was left owing a large debt to AEG. Insiders claim more than $20 million. According to sources, then-manager Braun, through his company, covered what was owed in the form of a loan at a highly favorable to Bieber rate.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
To date, Justin has only returned a portion of what he borrowed. So again, all of this information is out there. But this whole piece, the way that it's written, makes it seem like Scooter was benevolently bailing Justin out, just being a good manager, but they miss the important context that Justin is didn't know that any of this was happening.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And they also missed the context of why this $24 million exactly needed to be paid back because of decisions that management had made. And so amidst all of this, you might be thinking, okay, like how could Justin not have known that this was happening? This seems so irresponsible. Why is he not taking responsibility? Like how could he not know that he was in this much debt?
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And again, like we said last week, it all goes back to trust.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And when you are somebody with a team of that size, when you have a net worth that is that large, when you have business manager on top of business manager on top of business manager and agents and accountants and everybody who is running your life, basically, you, as in somebody like Justin Bieber, you're not looking over every single transaction. You are not the one making your budget.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
A lot of times when you read articles about people like him and Taylor Swift, they don't really even know how much money they have in their accounts. Because these people who you hire to work with you are supposed to give you the budget. They are supposed to keep you in check and guide you and make sure that you stay within the confines of the money that you have.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And that apparently didn't happen. There was allegedly mismanagement in that they made bad decisions on his behalf based on what we're seeing about the tour. And there also seems to be mismanagement in that they didn't hold him accountable or help him make good decisions. In my opinion, I think that they allowed all of this to happen.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
So obviously, at some point in the last two years, after bringing in a closer personal team who actually has Justin's best interests at heart, they and Justin realized that Lou Taylor was not the person that he and his family thought she was, and that she was actually benefiting the people that he sought to get away from, which obviously was an awful, rude, cruel awakening.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Look at these guys, man. Look at these guys. Guys, can you back up, please?
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
So then, in May of 2024, almost a year ago to the date, they fired Lou. And this was shortly after Britney Spears' memoir had come out in October of the previous year with damning evidence against Lou, and this was also just a couple of weeks after one of Lou's associates was named in one of the Diddy lawsuits.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
One article reads, Greenhill, that's somebody who worked under Lou, was named as Combs' accountant, who allegedly oversaw payments to sex workers, according to music producer Rodney Little Rod Jones, who accused Combs of sexually harassing, drugging, and threatening him. So everything now is intertwined.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
There's all this information about Lou coming out, they're seeing what she was doing behind the scenes, obviously his financial situation is getting better, and they finally say, we've had enough. And also with the Diddy connection, remember what I said earlier about the possible role that Diddy played in connecting Justin and Lou?
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
So it seems like, again, in my opinion, that maybe as all of this came out, their relationship had reached a head, she was fired, But I will tell you, this was not mutual. Even though some sources in the press are saying that it was.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
For example, one person spoke to People last year and said they parted ways a few weeks ago in May, a source of Bieber and Taylor says, it was a mutual and seamless transition. It wasn't a fit anymore. Guys, that is not the story that I have been told time and time again. That story that I have heard fits more with this quote given to the Daily Mail around the same time.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Justin's split with Lou was not amicable, a source said. He fired her. People generally stay with their accountant for ages, and Justin was only with TriStar for two years. And again, guys, this is just laughable because they're calling Lou an accountant. She's not even an accountant. She doesn't have a financial background. She is a pastor's wife who somehow...
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
landed in this career thanks to the Spears family, somebody whose reputation precedes them, in not a positive way at all. Again, we just went through that entire story. It's just crazy. At the same time, coinciding with Lou's firing, Justin also fired his attorney, Aaron Rosenberg. And this was the person that had just brokered the deal that didn't fix any part of his financial situation.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And what's interesting is that even though Justin fired him amid the deal because things were going so poorly, The Hollywood Reporter still named Aaron as one of the best entertainment attorneys for brokering the sale of Justin's catalog. You can read it here. Power attorneys meet the top music attorneys of 2023. Here we go, Aaron Rosenberg for the sale of Justin Bieber's catalog.
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
I mean, who knows, maybe he did a good job with the legality of the contracts, maybe all the T's were crossed and the I's were dotted, but who was that sale actually benefiting? And I would bet on Justin's camp not being thrilled with this award, considering how the entire sale turned out in the end. So then, after all of this, immediately after, Justin hires a new person.
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
He brings on someone by the name of Edward White, which also makes waves in the press for a completely Now, you might remember this name from the Johnny Depp Amber Heard trial.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Now, that trial aside, possibly the most notable thing that Edward White did while working for Johnny Depp was helping him sue his former business managers for $25 million, including failing to pay taxes on time and making unauthorized loans. which is kind of an interesting coincidence. Now, this story, it just seems to be making more and more sense the deeper that we go.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
So who are the people that have surrounded him since he was 13 years old and why did he fire them? That is what we're diving into today. Before we jump into this though, make sure that you follow our podcast page and you rate the show if you're enjoying it. And of course, if you want to see the video version of this show, head on over to YouTube.
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And suddenly, headlines from October of last year feel a lot more relevant, like this one from October. TMZ wrote, Justin Bieber upset the business manager squandered a fortune considering legal action. And based on what I know, I'd say that it's a lot more than just consideration now. So again, you guys must be thinking, how did this all happen? Like, why would Scooter do this?
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Like, isn't it in his best interest, like I said last week, to stay on good terms with Justin? Like, isn't it in the best interest of Lou Taylor and Scooter and everyone around him if Justin is doing well and making money and is physically and spiritually happy? Well, I mean, if only it were that simple. Because like I said last week, none of this is rational. We've seen it time and time again.
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
In my opinion, this is about control and lashing out at the person who has drawn a line in the sand and said, I'm not putting up with this anymore. I'm taking responsibility for my life. I'm going to be the one in the driver's seat. And the people who were in the driver's seat are not happy. I mean, these people...
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
already have all the money and power in the world, and at some point, it just becomes about control. And it seems like the lengths they will go to are endless because, I mean, from what I am being told, people close to Justin believe that Scooter was placing negative stories in the press and then turning around and telling Justin, I can make it all go away. There was trust there.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Trust that has now been broken. And so again, we have to ask like, how, how did Justin agree to all of this? How did it take him so long to realize what was going on to cut these ties?
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Well, over years and years of working together, of basically raising him from the age of 13, this management team made him dependent on them and basically taught him that they were the only route to success, that Justin needed them. And why wouldn't he trust them?
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
I mean, this man comes into his life promising him the world, making him famous and super successful, apparently being the one pulling all the strings behind the scenes. He steps into that position, but in all of the wrong ways. And it's clear in reading articles from years past that Scooter wanted him to trust him in that way.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
For example, there's a Variety article from years ago where he was speaking about his and Justin's relationship, and he said, time will show who a person is. We're very quick to be divisive and just abandon people when they're down, but that's not how you grow. You have to be there for each other, and that's how you get to a better place.
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
He's talking about other clients here and he says, if it gets to a point where I think they need help and they refuse to help themselves, that's where I say, I won't help you professionally until you take responsibility for yourself. What I learned through the experience with Justin was that it's not on me. The person who makes that change is that person.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
You, the managers, need to be a stable force in their life so they know where to turn when they need help. Justin was the one who woke up one day and said, I'm going to make a change. Can you help me? And I can tell you that he made that change himself because for a year and a half, I tried every day to make that change and I failed.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Between the years of 2016 and 2022, Justin went on two tours, and one was for his album Purpose, and the other was for his album Justice, both of which left him in financial peril.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
How you treat someone as a human being goes a lot farther than how you treat them as a product. Now, guys, when I read this article, I literally felt like I was in the Twilight Zone because if I had read this article a couple of years ago, before I really knew anything that was going on between Scooter and Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber, all of these things,
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
I would have thought that Tudor was really saying all of the right things, that he was truly there for his client's mind, body, and spirit. I mean, he's saying everything that a creator would want to hear.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
But now, from everything that is out there publicly about his dealings with all of these individuals, the stories that I have heard from people close to Justin Bieber, it is in my opinion that this trust was probably exploited. I mean, maybe once it was genuine. But at some point, things had to change. And maybe soon we will figure out how and when that happened.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
But for today, I'll leave you with all of that. But don't worry, I'm sure we'll be back because, I mean, we have not even gotten into Drew House, the best man and the other business manager who was literally investigated for murder.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Now, the Purpose tour was abruptly canceled mid-2017 due to his physical and soul well-being, and this point in time, if you have followed Justin, it is well-documented online, it's well-documented in his YouTube docuseries, where Justin is openly struggling with his mental health and being overworked, and this is also right around the time that he started to rededicate himself to his faith.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And it's also right before he got married to Hailey Baldwin in 2018. So then after COVID, after all of that, he's taken a couple of years off, the Justice World Tour begins in February of 2022 after being postponed due to lockdowns. But then in June of 2022, Justin has to postpone several shows due to a sickness.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And he originally did not disclose what was going on, just that he was getting sicker and could not perform. Now, on June 10th of 2022, so a few days later, he tells fans via an Instagram story that he has been diagnosed with Ramsey-Hunt syndrome, which rides on the heel of his Lyme disease diagnosis back in 2022.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
So in last week's episode, we went back to the beginning of Justin Bieber's story to try to understand how all of this happened and where the break really started to begin. So here's a quick recap. If you missed it, Justin Bieber has had the same team since he was about 13 years old, since he was discovered on YouTube. And around 2022, something started to change.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
So at that point, he has had two years of back-to-back illnesses just taking a major toll on his body. But even though Justin is very clearly sick, he keeps showing up and trying to perform, and fans are really confused about this.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Like, obviously they want to see him on tour, but also they're concerned because he is going through something serious and he just keeps showing up, yet he's not performing at the caliber that they're used to, and something just seems off.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Now, in July of 2022, Justin tries again to return to touring, completing seven shows in Europe, and then his last show for the entire tour was September of 2022 in Brazil. And then, fast forward however many months to February of 2023, after he's taking this break, all of the remaining shows are quietly removed from his website.
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And then in March of 2023, so a month later, the official announcement came that the tour was canceled. And obviously, guys, a canceled tour of this magnitude would cause a major financial loss. However, the story is not that simple.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And this week, after doing my first episode, I was inundated with tips and evidence from people close to Justin, from people who worked on his tour and have worked with him, with evidence pointing towards this fact.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Now, even though Justin Bieber was saying that he was sick, that he was clearly, he was certifiably very sick and he was not coming to shows that he physically could not perform, his management kept the tour going. The managers, the manager that he has been working with since he was 13 years old.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Now, had Justin just canceled from the jump and not tried to half do the tour, he would have had insurance to cover the entire operation because he was sick and had a reason that he could not go on tour.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
But because he kept being pushed out there, doing a show here, a show here, dropping a show, but then trying to perform again, and didn't actually stop the tour until February of 2023, he was left with a debt of millions.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And I also learned this week that on top of that, with the mismanagement of the finances of the tour just from the jump of the entire operation, had Justin even completed the entire tour, the Purpose and the Justice tour, he still... would not have profited. Even if he had shown up to every single show, he would have walked away with nothing.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And the crazier thing is, even though he would have walked away with nothing, his management would have still made a profit because of the way that the contracts are set up, because they profit from the money off the top. So in 2022, Justin was left with a debt that he had to pay the tour company AEG Presents.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And again, just so that we're all on the same page, Justin did not earn a single cent on touring between the years of 2017 and 2022. And so at this time, and this is well documented, this is out in the public domain, there are articles written about this, Justin understandably stops speaking to Scooter Braun.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And at that time, he also decides that he wants to split from him and the rest of his business managers who put this entire operation together. So he hires a woman who we talked about last week named Lou Taylor. A woman who he and his family believed to be a person of faith, who will be a good steward, with a proven track record in the industry who could help him get back on track.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Now, before we get into Lou Taylor and her insane history, I want to take a break and tell you about my sponsor, 7 Weeks Coffee. 7 Weeks is Alex's and my go-to coffee that we literally drink every single morning. Now, as you guys know, Alex and I are very picky about what ingredients we choose to put in our bodies and bring into our home, and 7 Weeks hits the mark.
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
He started to separate from those people. And for the last two years, he has been privately battling his way out of those contracts that he signed over 15 years ago. And while that might sound relatively simple or relatively boring, the added factor is the PR firestorm that he has been living in for those last two years.
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
This coffee is mold-free, it is pesticide-free, it is shade-grown, low-acid, and it is organically farmed, Not to mention, it tastes amazing and they also have an incredible mission that is near and dear to my heart. And that is that Seven Weeks Coffee is America's pro-life coffee company on a mission to help fund the pro-life movement, one cup of coffee at a time.
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
They donate 10% of every sale to support pregnancy care centers and pro-life organizations across the country. They have raised over $900,000 for these centers and have saved thousands of lives. And the reason why they're called Seven Weeks is because at Seven Weeks, a baby is the size of a coffee bean.
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
They truly make an incredible product and I love that I can stand behind both the ingredients, the people, and the values. So if you're ready to make the switch, head on over to 7weekscoffee.com and save 10% on your order when you use code BRETT at checkout. Plus, you can save an additional 15% when you subscribe and you will also get a free gift with your order.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And if you subscribe, don't forget to use code Brett for that additional 10% off your order so that you can get a total of 25% off your first order plus that free gift. So now getting back to Lou Taylor, what you should know is that Lou does have a long list of celebrities and clients that she has worked with over the years.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
I mean, she has worked with Gwen Stefani and Jennifer Lopez and Reba and Priyanka Chopra, Florida, Georgia Line and Sean Diddy Combs. Now, after Justin hired her, it quickly turned out that maybe Lou wasn't exactly as she seemed. And once Britney Spears's biography came out, which is what we talked about last week, things became even more clear.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Now, I know we touched on this last week, but I think in order to understand the entire scope of the story and how insane this is, we need to understand a little more of Lou Taylor's history. So Lou Taylor became involved with Britney Spears in 2007 after she was hired to help manage Jamie Lynn Spears. And this was right around the time that Jamie got pregnant. Now, somehow, no one really knows.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
I mean, this is not documented at all. She was brought into the fold of this family by their father, Jamie. This is Jamie Senior. And by 2008, so less than a year later, Lou was going on TV shows as the family spokesperson to speak on behalf of Britney.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And the other insane thing that we talked about that Candace Owens brought up in her episode about this is that the same PR company that is embroiled in all of the Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively lawsuits chaos is the same company that has been representing Scooter Braun and his management group for years. So just think about that.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And her mom stated in her memoir, Through the Storm, that Lou and Britney's father had discussed putting her in a conservatorship shortly after that happened. So this was all around 2008. But the missing piece here, and guys, this is what shocked me, is that Jamie Sr. had around this time allegedly filed for bankruptcy. He had done this multiple times.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And Lou Taylor's firm gave Britney's dad a loan of $40,000. Now, we don't know why, but he had just filed for bankruptcy and this woman gave him $40,000. Now, within months of this loan, The conservatorship of Britney Spears was implemented. This was in February of 2008.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
But Lou and her father, even though Britney was apparently not able to function, she needed to be under this conservatorship, they kept her career going. Listen to this. Only months after arguing that his daughter was incapacitated and therefore needed to be under his control, Mr. Spears committed her to an eight-month tour named Circus.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
TriStar, that is Lou Taylor's company, was hired to serve as the tour's business manager, handling its finances and accounting, and the tour grossed an estimated $130 million. Money that was now under the control of Lou Taylor and Jamie Spears, the father. Now, another thing that I think is important to understand about Lou Taylor is that Lou is not a talent manager.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
She's not here to just oversee brands or help deals be made. She's not like an agent or that kind of thing. She was playing the role of business manager, which is a financial role. Even though Lou Taylor had no financial background, she was not even an accountant. And most business managers, my business manager is an accountant.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Lou Taylor actually started her career in a church working alongside her husband, who at the time was a pastor at Calvary Church in Brentwood, California. And interestingly enough, according to financial documents that are in the public domain, Jamie Sr.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
was giving 10% of his income that he was making off of Britney Spears from the conservatorship to the church where Lou Taylor's husband was a pastor. Read this. Mr. Spears at times gave 10% of his conservatorship income to the Taylor's Calvary Chapel Brentwood, a practice known as tithing, according to a 2010 financial document.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Mr. Spears gave tens of thousands of dollars in one year alone to the church, which is about 500 miles away from where he lives in Louisiana. Now, obviously, since then, all of this information has come out and Britney has now accused Lou of playing a major role in her exploitation.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And even though Lou denies all of this and continues to deny everything through emails obtained through Britney's trials, it is clear that in some way, Lou was involved. This is from the LA Times. Britney Spears' lawyer emails show ex-business manager helped set up conservatorship.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And in recent years, Britney has even gone so far as to accuse her father and Lou of allegedly having an affair and unlawfully using her money to fund trips of their own. This headline from Daily Mail reads, Britney Spears accuses dad Jamie of having an affair with her ex-business manager, Lou Taylor, and claims he charged her estate for the pair's trip to the Holy Land to get baptized.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
The negative PR campaign, the paparazzi that is chasing Justin Bieber day in and day out, all of the stories about him being unstable, about him being in a cult, about he and Hailey being on the verge of divorce. It's all just gotten worse. And we have to ask, where is this coming from? And it seems to me that Justin Bieber is finally reaching his breaking point. He is posting all of these videos.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And guys, this is not Lou's only controversy. She is not just wrapped up in the Britney Spears world. Just a couple of years ago, the New Yorker reported that she also tried to place Courtney Love and Lindsay Lohan into conservatorships. This article reads, Jamie Sr.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
had become close to Lou Taylor, a business manager who shares the Spears family Christian faith and whose husband is a pastor at an evangelical church. Taylor later raised the possibility of putting Lindsay Lohan under conservatorship according to Lohan's father. This is coming directly from her family.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Going on, the author writes, in a recent interview, Courtney Love said that Taylor tried to wrestle control over her family's estate. So the reason why I just gave you all of that context is because this is the individual who was brought in to clean up the mess after these two tours. Now, I am not sure what went into making this decision, because a lot of this information was out there.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
I mean, everyone was calling Brittany crazy in 2022, and Lou was denying all of this, so maybe Justin was just desperate for external support and trusted somebody who seemed so deeply rooted in the Christian faith, and it also probably helped that she was also managing Diddy. Somebody who in 2022 was still in Justin's life as a friend and as a collaborator. Now that is not confirmed.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
I didn't hear that from anyone in Justin's circle. I have not seen any actual ties to this, but this seems like the clearest connection between Justin Bieber and Lou Taylor. And it also explains the reason why their relationship might have ended so quickly after that began. But we're going to get to that later. But regardless...
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
In late 2022, Lou Taylor's company, TriStar Sports and Entertainment, was brought on to Justin Bieber's team to manage financial aspects of his companies, including Bieber Time Touring, Justin Bieber Brands, and Bieber Time Merchandise. And so begins the process of what Justin assumes
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
is clearing up his debt from the tour and fixing the messes made by his previous management, but little does he know that Lou Taylor might just have somebody else in her ear.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
So now, as we are all understanding this timeline, Justin is working with Lou as he is simultaneously trying to separate himself from Scooter and his previous other managers, but there is still one other person remaining from his original team. It's time for you all to meet the attorney that Scooter Braun brought onto Justin Bieber's team when he was only 13 years old.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And his name is Aaron Rosenberg, who at one point or another was basically representing all of Scooter Braun's clients, including Ariana Grande. And I want you all to know that I tried digging into Aaron Rosenberg, But there really isn't a lot of information out there about him, other than the fact that he is a gay attorney.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
I mean, like, literally, guys, every single article that is written about Aaron Rosenberg is focusing on him being a gay attorney. And I'm reading all of this, and I'm like, why is this the main focus? Like, why should anybody care if this attorney is gay? Like, we don't care who he's sleeping with. Like, how gay is this guy if these are all the articles that are being written about him?
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Well, then I saw this picture. This is how he entered his wedding. He literally rode in on a white horse. unicorn. And I just had to show you guys because it cracked me up last night as I was putting together this story. I mean, like the poor horse. I mean, just look at his eyes. He has a horn on his head. I mean, he looks humiliated and exhausted.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
He needs a nap, which makes the perfect time for me to tell you about my two sponsors, Beam and Cozy Earth. Now, I'm so excited to share something that has made a real difference in my life. Beam is a company that was proudly founded in America, and it's run by people who share our values of hard work, integrity, and delivering results.
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
He is showing people what it is like to be hounded by the press, by the paparazzi day in and day out from his perspective. And these are the kind of messages that he has been posting on Instagram to his fans. Hey, sir, these guys are being reckless back here. These cars, watch them.
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Beam has already improved over 17.5 million nights of sleep, helping people across the country wake up and feel their best. And here's the deal. Beam is giving my listeners the ultimate Cooper Trooper discount of 40% off. So today you can try their best-selling Dream Powder and get up to 40% off for a limited time. So go to shopbeam.com slash brett and use code brett at checkout.
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I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
Again, that is shopbeam.com slash brett. Use code brett for up to 40% off. You will have an amazing nighttime drink. It literally tastes like hot chocolate and you will have the best sleep of your life. And what better way to compliment that amazing deep sleep than by wearing my favorite pajamas from Cozy Earth.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
And you guys know that this is important to me because there is very little that I love more than being horizontal and cozy in bed, especially in my Cozy Earth pajamas. No joke, guys, their bamboo stretch pajamas are the softest pajamas I have ever worn. I basically live in them and so do my mom and mother-in-law.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
because Cozy Earth was kind enough to send them both pajamas for Mother's Day and they have been a major hit. From cooking Easter breakfast a couple of weeks ago to farm chores out in Idaho to movie nights, these pajamas fit the bill for everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
I Spoke With People Close To Justin Bieber (Part 2) | Episode 27
So if you want to give your mom or yourself the gift of breathable, soft comfort this spring, go to CozyEarth.com and use my code Brett to get 40% off your order. Because this Mother's Day, and basically every day, your mom deserves the best, and Cozy Earth's pajamas are certainly the best.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
So people have a lot of questions. What really happened with Snow White? And is there somebody that we can blame? Now, I have obviously had a lot of time to think about this. I think we all have. And I finally have an answer for you. So after a long wait, Disney's new Snow White finally came out last week, and to put it mildly, my friends, this has been a colossal mess.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Like, for example, with these types of films, Disney usually hosts a myriad of different events with Q&As and the presses involved, and at all of the events that they did host, the press was not allowed to ask questions.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And then when it came time for the actual premiere, instead of holding it in Los Angeles or London, they decided to do something which actually kind of sounds cool and they went to the Spanish castle that actually inspired the Snow White castle from the beginning and they held the premiere there. But that was their primary premiere.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
It's in a remote location, barely anyone was invited, press was not there, it was just a bunch of people listening to Rachel Zegler sing, and that was basically it. In LA, they had a tiny premiere, but they didn't even have a red carpet for Rachel Zegler to walk, and normal media outlets were not invited.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
They only invited a select few reporters and photographers who were allowed to come to the event. under the assumption that this film is cursed, probably, that people don't want to see it. They are trying to keep the lid on things. They don't want Rachel to talk. Maybe they don't want Gal Gadot to talk.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
They're just trying to keep this contained, which is crazy because they spent over $250 million. Like I feel like we are back in the Biden presidency where there were no press conferences and the press was not allowed to speak to him and he only gave approved quotes to some reporters. Like that is what this promotion feels like. Weird, weird.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Now, in addition to that, people also noticed that at the few events that they did hold, Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot were rarely together. And if they were there, they weren't really communicating, they were taking a picture, and then they were just going their separate ways. People were going, you know, what could have happened on this set to make this so uncomfortable?
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Okay, so I know that we all want to talk about this Snow White, but I know that there is also another Snow White that I think you guys want me to talk about.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And then the lightbulb moment happened. It is their starkly contrasting views on the Israel-Palestine conflict that they have been extremely vocal about for the last year and a half. Now, Gal Gadot is obviously, she is from Israel, she is staunchly pro-Israel, and Rachel is is incredibly pro-Palestine. It's Hollywood, baby.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And so obviously, in 2025, this is a recipe for disaster, and obviously the cloud of geopolitical conflicts is not what you want overshadowing the premiere of a Disney princess movie, but we will get into that a little bit later. What you really need to know, and the scene that I was trying to set there, is that Disney kind of knew that this was not going well.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
They were, you know, bracing themselves for this not to work, And listen, they were correct, because it flopped. The film cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make, even more to promote, and it only brought in $43 million domestically in its first weekend.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And as a comparison, The Little Mermaid, which also had its fair share of woke controversies leading up to it, it opened to $95 million domestically. And as another example, in 2019, the live action Aladdin brought in $91 million.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And so while this was not the worst premiere Disney has ever had, like many people on X are saying, it certainly wasn't good, especially with how much time and money went into making it and then subsequently trying to desperately fix it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
But what was even more comical, in my opinion, and what was even more damning than the financial implications, was the reviews that are absolutely taking over the internet. And these are from audiences and critics alike. I mean, guys, no amount of Disney PR or box office wins can save them from this massacre. I mean, just look, currently on Rotten Tomatoes,
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Just basing that off of the DMs, the comments, the emails that I receive on a daily basis, and I am sorry that that has not been addressed sooner, but I just want to say, from me, you know, before we get into this episode, I think I need to address the elephant in the room, but unfortunately, the only thing I can really say is that that is not my story to tell. Those are not my updates to give.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And you might think, you might look at that 74% and go, okay, well Brett, that's not that bad. But then you click onto that little number and there is a different story that is told. That 74% is only from verified Rotten Tomato audience members. The full score and the score from top critics is even worse. Take a look at this. From top critics, 29%. From all audience members, 19%.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
It goes from 74% to 19%. It is literally everyone, including the top critics. I mean, just listen to these reviews. These are all from critics. This lady says, it is too cheesy, too over the top, and too visually flat while brimming over with hyperactive theater kid energy that is better suited for a Disney Princess cruise ship show.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
This man, William, says, There is nothing wrong with Disney's live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It couldn't be fixed by making it 26 minutes shorter, 88 years ago, and in hand-drawn animation. Another man says, A Disney film production with a Disney Channel script. Another guy says, In short, hi-ho, don't go.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
But guys, it gets even worse than the individual critic reviews because even the legacy media, I mean, these are the people who should be salivating. They should be waiting with bated breath to defend this production and defend Rachel Zegler. They struggled to do so. This one is from The Observer at The Guardian, and they wrote, Snow White review, toe-curlingly terrible live-action remake.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Huffington Post, again, this is a publication that should be just, like, banging down the door waiting to give them a positive review. They said, Snow White is a strange, hot mess. This one is from Vanity Fair. Disney's Snow White movie is good enough for TV, because that's where it's playing, right? Right? BBC said Disney's Snow White has a major identity crisis.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
I mean, guys, every single one of these reviews is just absolutely brutal. And what you also need to know is that these are not politically driven reviews. I mean, most of them are from the camp that should be supporting Disney, that should be behind this new progressive take on Snow White, and yet they can't because the film is apparently just that bad.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
I mean, from the CGI dwarves, to the strange storyline that seems more about a political uprising than a princess falling in love with a prince, to Gal Gadot's less than appealing acting, which, yes, like that reviewer said, seems like it is better suited for a Disney Channel show. Just take a watch.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Are you? Are you? I mean, literally, if I'm watching, like, Disney Channel, I'm watching Jesse. And, like, the elevator doors open. What have you done? Slime. Like, that is what this caliber of acting feels suited for. But again, you know, I'm trying to find the bright spots here. I want to bring nuance. I want to give you both sides. And to be fair... Some publications did try to find the good.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
For example, you know, Hollywood Reporter, they were complimenting Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler's intensity and Rachel's voice, which by the way, I love. I actually think that she has a fantastic voice. I loved her in West Side Story. So I was, you know, it was unfortunate to see all of this transpire. Like I genuinely do think that Rachel Zegler has talent.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
but you do have to wonder if she was the right kind of talented for this role. And maybe it was a combination of that plus the music that they wrote and the storyline. Maybe it was just the entire whole damn thing. And I asked Link his thoughts about that specifically.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And in the film industry, when you are an actor, when you sign one of these contracts in the entertainment industry, I think a lot of people on the outside think that, you know, if you are somebody who has a lot of publicity around you and your name is attached to a project, that means that you have a ton of control or a ton of intel, but usually that is not the case.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And Link is completely spot on. Like I think all of us envisioned Snow White like the original, like the real Snow White, not some Gen Z girl boss doing power ballads and belting songs about relieving her people from oppression. Like that's not even what the story is about. But again,
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
She is talented, she has a good voice, but even the people who tried to point that out and print that in their magazines had to acknowledge that on a whole, the film just wasn't good. And they couldn't get through a review without saying that. Weird, weird. So now the question is, you know, what we have to figure out is, you know, was it the politics?
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Was it the controversies that overtook this film for the last three years? Or was it the terrible filmmaking? And no one seems to have a clear answer. You know, if you go on X, you'll see conservatives and they are hell bent at pointing the finger at Rachel Zegler saying, you did this, you were the wrong choice, you tanked this film, you should take responsibility.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
It's all your comments about Trump and feminism and disdain for the prince and disdain for Trump supporters, everything that she was posting on social media for the last year. And then of course, people on the left also think that it's flopping for political reasons, but not for the reasons conservatives think.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
They think that it's flopping because people are retaliating against Rachel Zegler talking about Palestine. And then of course you have the normal Americans who are not on blue sky or on X, the normal people around the world who showed up regardless of all of this, regardless of all the controversies and who could not have been more bored or disappointed.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And I think that that, that demographic speaks volumes. Edmund Smirk on Axe, he tweeted sort of about this and he said, I wouldn't say that those film critics are usually right, but the fact that they aren't bending over backwards to defend this film, that is saying something.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Because in the society that has become very normal to all of us in this weird upside down world, that is what we have come to expect. And in addition to all of that, I also think that there are a lot of people in the world who do not spend their days thinking about politics or the culture war or feminism and what that means in a Disney princess movie.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
I think that they're probably just tired of the BS. They're tired of the remakes and audiences have been trying to tell companies like Disney this. And also they hate the fact that they get attacked on a daily basis by companies like Disney, as Link pointed out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Unless you are, you know, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively with all of their films, apparently, or Margot Robbie in Barbie, and you are also an executive producer. As an actor, you don't get to dictate anything. You don't get to dictate if a film actually happens. You don't get to dictate when it is shot, how it is shot, if you can ever speak about it to the public.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
So, yes, no wonder that demographic did not show up. I don't know if you guys saw all of these posts on social media. There are now articles written about them, but people were taking screenshots of the seating charts at their local theaters, and it was like the opening weekend for Snow White, the 7 o'clock showing, the 4 p.m.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
showing on a Saturday when families would be taking their kids, and literally it was like one seat had sold. Maybe two seats over on one side. And theaters across the country. Like, people were simply not showing up. And I mean, at this point, like, who was surprised?
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Now, as I've been sitting back for the last couple of weeks watching the premieres happen, watching all the reviews come out, I've been thinking to myself, like, is there something that could actually save this film? Could it bounce back?
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
You know, parents who are not online, who are not reading the Rotten Tomato reviews, who just want to bring their kids, maybe some retroactive Disney PR, but I don't think so. The hole that has been dug is just getting deeper and deeper and deeper. I mean, guys, this film has a 1.6 rating on IMDb and the controversies just won't stop. Again, it literally, this film, is cursed.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
That is the only explanation in my mind. And I mean, now people have moved on from the original controversies and the original scandals and the terrible reviews, and now the focus is wholly on Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler and Palestine and Israel.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And again, that doesn't seem like the thing that you want dominating the news cycle about a Disney princess film, but you know, hey, you know, Rachel, I'm gonna give it to you. Because in all of those interviews back in 2022, you were saying, this is not about true love. This is about her being a leader and her coming into her own and her father helping her save a kingdom.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Well, Rachel, here you go. You are dealing with real issues. Geopolitics is dominating your film. Maybe that's what you wanted all along. But the point being, now, again, all the other controversies, they're kind of forgetting them. Now articles are coming out about how all of this transpired, how all of the conflict, the political conflicts were handled on set over the last year and a half. What a
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Apparently, Disney literally had to hire a social media guru to help or manage Rachel after she posted F Trump and said that she hopes that Trump supporters never know peace. This was a variety headline. After Rachel Zegler posted F Donald Trump on Instagram, Disney paid a social media guru to work with a Snow White star to vet any posts before the film's March 21st release.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And obviously, after that original post of I hope that none of us know peace, She made a response and she said, you know, that was out of line. I'm so sorry. I was being emotional. I think the guru put that together. Now, in addition to that, they also had to hire extra security for Gal Gadot over the last year and a half because she was receiving death threats for speaking out in favor of Israel.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And a producer literally had to fly from LA to New York to tell Rachel to her face that that she needed to tone down the pro-Palestine comments, and she said back to him, no, I'm not doing that, I'm not deleting anything. And so that was kind of just a moot point. And so now, after all of this is coming out, fans are in a political uproar, yet again, it just keeps following this damn film.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
You are simply just there to show up and say your lines and look the way they want you to look. That is our job, and that was my job on this production. So again,
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
They are now calling everything that has transpired over the last week a smear campaign against Rachel for being bold enough to speak about her political values and to stand up for Palestine, and they're saying that it's hypocritical, that Rachel was punished or disciplined for her comments, and Gal was supported.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And I think it's fair that fans were concerned about that, but I also think that they are overlooking a key difference with the actions of these two women. Now, Rachel was adding things like free Palestine into promotional posts about Snow White. I mean, read this tweet as an example. This is again from Variety.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
After Rachel Zegler hit the stage at Disney's D23 fan event to introduce the first official trailer of Snow White, she thanked supporters effusively in an ex-post. One minute later, she added an afterthought in the same thread. Again, this is a promotional post about Snow White. She added, quote, And always remember, free Palestine.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Many inside the studio expressed shock that the Snow White star would commingle the promotion of its 270 million tentpole with any kind of political statement. And then they say a Disney executive raised the studio's concerns with Ziegler's team while the film's producer, Mark Platt, flew to New York to speak directly to her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And so what I'm saying here is that this was not Rachel simply making comments in her own time, which she is totally free to do. She's allowed to have her own political opinion. She's allowed to disagree with Gal Gadot or whoever. But the fact of the matter is she was involving politics into promotions. That is a major difference. And producers have a right to be concerned.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
They have a right to handle that. They are paying her millions upon millions of dollars to represent them and this film to act like Snow White. It is literally her job to embody that. And she wasn't. Now, simultaneously,
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
That's really all I can say, which honestly kind of seems like maybe this path that I'm taking right now is the path that Rachel Zegler should have taken instead of just running her mouth for the last three years, which we are going to get into now that I have sort of addressed what you guys want me to address.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Gal Gadot was making comments about Israel and her Israeli heritage during the promotional period of the film, over the last year and a half, since October 7th, but she never made those comments at events for Snow White. She never added those comments to posts about the film.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
I saw fans screenshotting something that Rachel had said versus a I Stand With Israel post that Gal Gadot had made, and they were like, oh! look at the hypocrisy." Okay, well one was a promotional post, the other one was a post that she did on her own time. Because she is an Israeli woman, she served in the IDF, she obviously is going to have an opinion about all of this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
But it wasn't directly connected to the film. Now had she acted differently, had she included these comments into promotion for the film like Rachel had, I think that that would be a more blatant example of hypocrisy that we could get into, but there is that nuance here. That is a major difference. And to be fair,
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Rachel's comments about politics, whether they be about Palestine or about Trump and Trump supporters, were almost always inflammatory and hateful. I mean, she was swearing constantly. She was flipping people off in her stories. I hope you never know peace. I mean, she attacked half the country and involved Snow White in all of it. So again, I'm not surprised that it caused an issue.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
I'm not surprised that Disney was concerned. But obviously a lot of people online are not looking at that nuance. They're still very angry and now they are actually, for the first time in years, rallying around behind her. And this has gotten so big that the son of that producer, Mark Platt, who flew to New York to handle the situation, responded to a comment about the entire situation. So,
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
A person left a comment on one of his Instagram posts and said, Your dad flew to New York City to reprimand a young actress. Any words on this? Because that's creepy as hell and uncalled for. People have the right to free speech. No, shame on your father. And then Jonah Platt, who is Mark Platt's son, he responded and he said, You really want to do this? Yeah.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
My dad, the producer of an enormous piece of Disney IP with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, had to leave his family to fly across the country to reprimand his 20 year old employee for dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting a movie for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for. And that's a very important fact.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
When you are paid to do a movie, you are also paid after the fact to do the publicity, again, to play the part of the role that you were hired to play. This is called adult responsibility and accountability. and her actions clearly hurt the film's box office. Free speech does not mean that you are allowed to say whatever you want in your private employment without repercussions.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Now, I am guessing that most of us have followed this entire Snow White controversy, but also This has been going on since 2022, since September of 2022. That is when this all first exploded. So it's been a while.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Tens of thousands of people worked on that film and she hijacked the conversation for her own immature desires at the risk of all of the colleagues and crew and the blue collar workers who depend on that movie to be successful. Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged. I mean, the man pulled no punches. That last line specifically, that is a mic drop moment.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
I think that we could just like blast that everywhere for a bunch of different people in the world that narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged. Again, I think like half the country needs to hear that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
But guys, like regardless of what you believe politically or about this film or about Israel and Palestine, which, you know, somehow is now involved in Snow White, regardless of what you believe, he is correct. They are paying her millions upon millions of dollars to represent a brand.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
to represent a film, to represent a beloved character, and she failed at that at literally every turn, from shaming the original production, from saying that it scared her, to involving her personal politics in direct promotional posts, to using heated explicit language to attack half the country that might've wanted to come see this film, and unfortunately for Disney, that was not something, no matter how many gurus they hired, no matter how many producers flew, however many places to handle it, that was not something that they could outrun, and Link summed it up well.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
So the point being, This entire film, it was just a perfect storm. I mean, the controversies involving the stars, the progressive decisions that they made involving the story, all of that set it on a bad path three years ago. And you would think that because it was three years ago, maybe people would forget or move on.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Like as I was putting together this episode and trying to, you know, cover all the things that have happened recently, I was like, oh my God, I kind of like forgotten everything that took place. So I think we need to do a brief recap. So just to sum everything up. Rachel Zegler, her comments first exploded on the scene about Snow White back at the Disney D23 Expo in September of 2022.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
But I mean, the final nail in the coffin was that it was just an objectively bad film that should have never been made, that audiences didn't want in the first place, especially not with the progressive modern take. No one wanted that. No one enjoyed it. I mean, even the lib film critics who are literally paid to support all of that, even they couldn't get behind it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And so, of course, per usual, I think that there are a lot of lessons here and they are things that I talk about repeatedly on the show, in my content. But when you compromise things, when you compromise artistic integrity to appease people or to capture a political moment, a social justice moment, people can tell. We know and we are sick of it. So stop compromising. Thank you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And this is where the clips went viral of her saying, Snow White doesn't need a man. She's not going to fall for the prince. You know, this is about her own journey, her internal journey. Maybe she'll even run for president. If you guys have forgotten those clips, this is what I'm referring to.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
God forbid. God forbid a woman dream about true love. We're all just sitting around here. Oh, maybe I could be president one day. I hate men. I just want to be president. That screams Disney princess. Oh my God, I'm literally getting enraged once again. I feel like I'm back in 2022. All right, anyway, we'll continue.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
I mean, it's been a colossal mess since the very beginning, basically, but this release, this premiere has been absolutely horrifying. Like, I literally found myself feeling bad for them at times, which is, that just shows you how terrible this has been.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Yeah, the entire film's about a love story. Yeah, I mean, it's about a love story because that's what the point of the film is, and I'm sorry that chivalry and a man pursuing you is now deemed as stalking, which now it's kind of making sense why men are opting out of the dating scene, because this is what they are hearing from women on social media.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
to unpack here. Like, she is crapping on the original production. I was scared of it. Oh, it was so weird. It was a stalker. Like, I feel like if you are taking on the most iconic Disney role ever, genuinely, like this was the most prolific Disney film, I feel like you should kind of have some sort of reverence for the original production, for what it meant.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
That maybe there were timeless values and virtues in that film that still translate today, that many people in the world still subscribe to and long for. Like, I don't know, that might be crazy, but it seemed like this was a bad PR move from the get-go. So again, that happened in September of 2022. In addition to that, there was already an uproar about her being cast as Snow White because
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
she is not Caucasian. She is a Latina. She is half Colombian. And so people were like, why, why were you cast in the first place? We just had a black little mermaid. Now we're having a Latina Snow White and she is literally called Snow White. This doesn't make sense. So that was happening. And then this was just the icing on the cake. And obviously there are political undertones in her statement.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
She's kind of talking about feminism and masculinity and men, but people seemed most disappointed about the fact that, again, Rachel didn't even seem like she cared or liked the source material. I mean, that is just far from a graceful Disney princess-like promotion. It's far from what you would think Disney wanted. I mean, in what world was any of this approved?
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Like, were these producers and creators, were they high? Were they just dehydrated and needed some Taylor Duke's Wellness Electrolytes? Guys, if you are feeling drained and sluggish, then you are probably like me and you probably are not drinking enough water, specifically good water with electrolytes, which is why I drink Taylor Duke's Wellness Electrolytes.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
It is financially crumbling, financially failing, the reviews are genuinely, genuinely horrible, and new controversies surrounding the production, surrounding the actresses in the film are literally popping up every single day. They cannot outrun the curse that is on this film. And so, of course, we have to ask, like, with all of these things going on over the last three years, is there one reason
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Now, after watching me basically dehydrate myself for the last three years, my husband took matters into his own hands and he started buying me copious amounts of different electrolyte powders to try to make sure that the water I do drink actually packs a punch and benefits me. And guys, seriously, nothing compares to Taylor Dukes.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
The Taylor Dukes Wellness Electrolytes taste the best and they actually work without the chemicals, the sugar, and the other junk in most sports drinks. I am talking a clean, functional hydration, no natural flavors, no refined sugar, no artificial anything and preservatives. just real ingredients you can pronounce that fuel your body the way that it was meant to be fueled.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
All of these products are formulated by a functional medicine nurse practitioner and these electrolytes have the ideal balance of magnesium, sodium, and potassium, minerals that most of us are seriously lacking and I know that I certainly am. And whether you are sweating it out at the gym or just want to stay hydrated for everyday life like me, you can drink these electrolytes daily.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
They are made for men, women, and kids, so this is something that you can buy and you know the whole family can enjoy and benefit from. And trust me, you will feel the difference. So go grab yours at shop.taylordukeswellness.com and save 10% with code BRETT. And then come back and thank me later.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Now, I brought my friend Link Loren onto the show today to talk about all of this because what originally made Link go viral on TikTok was the first video he ever made about Snow White. It was the first video I ever saw with him in it. It's the first one that I included in my show. So I wanted to bring him back on. And yes, he is still just as passionate about this story.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
TLDR, the girls and the gays, we all want a man. We all dream about true love. So Disney, that is not outdated. Now, from there, it just seemed like controversy after controversy kept erupting. The next one was within the Little People community, and I kind of feel weird saying the Little People community, but I know that that is how they prefer to be referenced as.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Also, they go by LP, but obviously they had some skin in the game because this is Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. These are roles that they could have played and were excited about playing. but not everybody was on the same page.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Now, Peter Dinklage, who was one of the most famous Little People probably in the entire world, especially after his long tenure on Game of Thrones, he came out and he said, I don't even want Snow White to be told ever again at all because of the ramifications for the Little People community.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
In a 2022 interview, he said, literally no offense to anything, but I was sort of taken aback about the fact that they are redoing this film. They were very proud to cast a Latino actress as Snow White, but you're still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Take a step back and look at what you're doing here. It makes no sense to me.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
You're progressive in one way, but you're still making that fucking backward story about seven dwarves living in a cave together. Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I'm not loud enough. So the important thing to know about Peter Dinklage here is that he is very opposed to little people playing roles that are written for little people.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
why this actually flopped. You know, was it because of politics and wokeness? Was this another woke flop or was it simply just a terrible film that nobody wanted from the beginning? Don't worry, we are going to get into all of that today, plus some of the things that you might have missed during this whole scandal. And yes, There will be a long awaited update.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
He just wants them to be hired to play a role regardless of height or size. So he is opposed to the seven dwarves and the caricatures and the stereotypes that go along with the seven dwarves. And obviously he is probably the most famous little person in existence. So Disney, oh boy, like the day that this interview came out, Disney said, okay, okay, we are, we're listening.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
We are learning Peter Dinklage. And they had decided that they were not going to call them the seven dwarves because that might be offensive. Instead, they were going to do Snow White and the seven magical creatures that would not be played by little people to not offend Peter Dinklage, but instead will be created by CGI.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
However, that also did not go over well because the LP community apparently does not agree with Peter Dinklage and they actually were very excited about the opportunity of playing one of the seven dwarves. They were angry at Disney and it all just exploded. However, Disney, they stuck with the course. They kept moving forward with the seven magical creatures and the CGI.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And ironically, by creating these CGI, silly cartoonish dwarf-like characters, they actually fed into the exact stereotypes that Dinklage was criticizing as backwards and harmful. He was saying, don't do this story because you put us in a box. And by not actually hiring LP actors, they just fed into that and made them look silly and ridiculous.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And even the mainstream media caught onto this irony, which is when you know that it's really bad. New York Magazine, their vertical vulture wrote, the horrifying dwarves in Snow White are a cautionary tale. And they basically argued the exact same thing that I just laid out for you guys. So basically no one was happy. Like Disney could not make a right move when it came to producing this film.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Weird, weird. Now amidst all of that, and you know that was going on from the end of 2022 into the summer of 2023, amidst all of that, the son of one of the original 1937 Snow White creators and directors decided to speak out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And he had some choice words for Disney and this production, telling the Telegraph that his father and Walt Disney would be rolling in their graves because of what Disney was doing. And in covering this, they wrote, as details surrounding the 2024 Snow White remake emerge, Hale Hand told the Telegraph that he stands in strong opposition to the new movie.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Quote, I mean, it is a whole different concept, which is true. They completely changed the story. Weird. Weird. And I just totally disagree with it, and I know my dad and Walt would also very much disagree with it, the 91-year-old said. There is no respect for what Disney did and what my dad did. I think Walt and he would be turning in their graves, he said.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Elhan said that he would prefer if Disney's original animated films remained untouched, as we all would, calling the remake a, quote, disgrace for trying to do something new with something that was such a great success earlier. And I love that this is a 91-year-old saying, this is a 91-year-old saying,
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
But first, if you want to stay up to date on every single one of our episodes, make sure to ring that notification bell. And if you are somebody that does not want to hear my impeccable ad transitions, make sure to check out Cooper Confidential, where you will find ad free episodes and a subscriber only personal newsletter from me. Again, that is all at Cooper Confidential.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
should be at his retirement home relaxing, playing bingo, not thinking about his father, who is a certified Disney legend, not thinking about his father's legacy and the woke things that Disney is doing. I mean, I completely agree. I think most of us agreed with what he was saying. And I mean, how was any of this ever controversial? Like, this is common sense. And unfortunately for Disney,
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
it seemed like most people who were observing this scandal, this controversy, agreed. So after all of that, after almost a year of all of this exploding, Disney announced in October of 2023 that they were going to delay the release of Snow White. So they were not going to release it in March of 2024, they were going to wait until this year, March of 2025, to release it. Probably
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
to let the controversy just settle down a bit. And then later, like a couple months later, we learned that they were investing even more money to go back and reshoot parts of the film. But you know what? I don't know if that actually helped, because as Link says, that is never a good sign, nor is it ever a good solution.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Now I know that that was a lot, but also I feel like we needed to recap all of that and I tried to make it as condensed as humanly possible. So all of that happened, you know, we're moving on, now we're in 2024. And for about a year, it seemed like maybe things could have taken a turn for the better. Like I was actually walking around going, You know, this is pretty great.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Like we, with all of our power, with our audience ammunition, we got them to stall this. We got them to go back and reshoot things. They are listening to us. They are actually listening and learning in the good way. Maybe this is huge. This is a win for audiences. But then there was a downturn because again, as I keep thinking to myself, I think that this film was just cursed after all.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And what they should have done was just taken a lesson from the original film and fallen into a deep, deep sleep, hopefully on their Helix mattress. Now you guys know I take my sleep seriously. Like there is very little that I love more than being in bed, napping, being horizontal is what I always say is my favorite thing. And the key to that is my Helix Dusk Luxe mattress.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
This mattress is so good that Alex and I actually got additional ones for our guest rooms because everyone deserves the perfect night's sleep in our house. And what I love about Helix as a company is that they make it super easy to find the right mattress for you because The Dusk Luxe might work for me, but it might not work for you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Their innovative sleep quiz matches you to the perfect fit based on your preferences. Whether you are a side sleeper like me, a back sleeper like Alex, whether you want a firm mattress or a soft mattress, they have got you covered. We ended up with the Dusk Luxe because it gives us the perfect balance of support and comfort, and we literally have never slept better.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
The link is right here and in the description below. And guys, we officially announced my first tour. It is in North America. We're hitting a bunch of cities around the country. We have all of the links in a community post and in the description below. I hope you guys can make it. It'll be super fun to see all of your fun faces.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And the best part is Helix delivers the mattress right to your door in a box. You just unbox it, let it expand, and you are good to go. Plus, they offer a 100-night sleep trial so you can make sure that you love it before fully committing, but I don't think that's ever going to be an issue. So if you are ready to upgrade your sleep, head to helixsleep.com slash Brett for 25% off site-wide.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
That is an insane deal. This is an offer you should not refuse. Your back and your naps being horizontal will thank you. Again, that is helixsleep.com slash Brett for 25% off. So because they did not go into a deep, long sleep and put all of this to rest, things just kept transpiring, and that now leads us to 2025. We are almost caught up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
Now, to really put this into perspective, Disney spent over $250 million producing this film, and that's just on production. That's not on later promotional costs and flying Rachel and Gal Gadot everywhere and the billboards and everything and all the advertisements, all the trailers. That is just... producing the product itself.
The Brett Cooper Show
Snow White. What Happened? | Episode 18
And in comparison, The Live Action with Lily James, that film only cost $90 million to make. So this is a ginormous budget, and they are, for some reason, not really promoting it. Like, we're seeing trailers and advertisements, but there's no big premieres or events.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Guys, it's only Monday and Jojo Siwa is peeing in a litter box, people are fleeing the United States, and the new chairman of the World Economic Forum doesn't want us to have swimming pools. Welcome back to The Brett Cooper Show. Now, if you guys have followed me for a while, you know that I am quite interested in JoJo Siwa.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Okay, so just to break down this entire statement here, the problem wasn't the fact that people knew who you were and despised you, the problem was the fact that you chose to have sex at your place of work. And it was filmed, which really doesn't make it any better or worse. It just obviously illuminated the entire situation and it went viral. And everybody saw your terrible, terrible mistake.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
This thing that you should not have done. You should not be having sex at your place of work, especially when you work in Congress. So mentally, I think that you need to evaluate why you thought that was appropriate in the first place and why you chose to play the victim after the fact. Because if you guys remember, last year he was like, I am just being attacked by all these people.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
It's homophobia. It's not homophobia. If it was a man and a woman, we would have the same response. It is completely inappropriate. It is literally crazy that you are having sex in a Senate hearing room. But guys, according to him and the gay Sydney news, he wants us all to know that that is all behind him because he is now very happy in Sydney where he has started a career With OnlyFans.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
That is the entire controversy, but because he used the word fag around Jojo Siwa, he ended up getting voted out of the house. I actually don't think he got voted out. I think he literally got kicked out by Big Brother. And this entire situation has caused Jojo Siwa to rethink her identity, to rethink her sexual identity specifically.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Yes, he hates attention. He hates being in the spotlight. It's horrifying. It's disgusting. But he is using his one horrifying, terrifying, awful, homophobic claim to fame to sell his body and get attention online after being humiliated and fired. And I mean, he literally, he literally went so far as to change his Instagram handle to, quote, Senate Twink.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Now, in case you missed this story, last week, RFK and the FDA announced their plan to phase out artificial food dyes in the United States and replace them with natural dyes. And the specifics on this are that they are revoking Citrus Red 2 and Orange B very soon, which are the FD&C Green Number 3, Red Number 40 , Yellow Number 5, Yellow Number 6, Blue Number 1, and Blue Number 2.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
by the end of 2026. So right now, you can't go to the supermarket and buy a bag of Cheez-Its and not have any food dyes in there, but maybe, hopefully by 2026, you will be able to. And on top of all of this, they are also approving for new natural color additives soon and are speeding up the process of creating others. to try and replace these artificial dyes.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And then in addition to even that, they are also teaming up with the NIH to study food additives' effects on kids' health to really get to the root of this problem. And this might just be the most important part because people need to understand the real effects of the food that we have all been eating for decades. And it's fine to just, you know, blindly trust RFK Jr.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
and hope that he's doing the right things, but I would rather have all of the information so that I can make an informed decision and be able to understand the lies that we have been told about our health, about our food for decades. And what is so upsetting about all of this and what is almost laughable at this point is the fact that the US is so behind on all of this.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
If you look at countries from around the world, there are so many ingredients that we eat every single day that are cornerstones of the American diet that are banned around the world because they are so unhealthy because of the negative effects, whether it be in terms of hyperactivity in kids, whether it is linked to cancer, you name it. Other countries are taking action.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
We have just been sitting here twiddling our fingers, letting big food run the show. And so in light of all of that, one thing that people are doing on social media and have been for the last week is that they're posting photos of American food versus food in other countries where these dyes are actually regulated and restricted. And the differences are genuinely shocking.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Like, take a look at this. This one is Fruit Loops here. The top one is the European Fruit Loops where toxic food dyes are banned. And then the bottom one, which is vibrant and colorful and fruity, is dyed with the toxic artificial dyes that are now being banned. I mean, it's like, the difference is insane.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Another example people have been posting are the M&Ms and other types of candies in countries where these dyes are banned. Obviously, they're still colorful. They're just not as vibrant and toxic, which goes hand in hand, as are American candy.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And so now, just a couple of weeks later, she is making waves on social media by saying that she thinks she might actually be non-binary. Take a listen to this video.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And one thing that I want to say here, because I think it is so important, is that you should not wait for the government to come in and ban these ingredients. You should not be waiting until 2026 to start making healthier or better choices. You should not just keep blindly buying the M&Ms knowing that they might change by 2026. No, you need to take accountability for your health now.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
If this is something that you are concerned about, you have autonomy. You can make different choices in terms of the food that you eat and the food that you bring home and stock your fridge with for your family.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And even though we have a couple of years until this is probably going to be in effect, this is still a big win for all of the Maha voters that threw their support behind Trump for this exact reason. And hopefully this can bridge some of the ideological divides that we have been experiencing in our country because this truly is a bipartisan issue.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
This should be a nonpartisan decision unless you are somebody who just has like Trump derangement syndrome or RFK derangement syndrome. I mean, even in California, with all of its issues, back in October of 2023, Newsom signed the California Food Safety Act, which banned red dye number three and other additives from food sold statewide. Obviously, this is not in effect yet.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Takes a couple of years. It will be effective by 2027. But California is on the front lines of this. And for once, this is actually being reflected in the media. For example, when you look at ground news, the coverage is not coming exclusively from the left or the right. It is coming from the middle. And being able to figure this out is why I love Ground News.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Ground News cuts through the noise and provides an unbiased perspective and shows both sides of every story, prioritizing honesty over everything. Their unique technology even allows users to compare how different sides of the corporate media are reporting on a story like you saw here, making sure that we see all sides and truly stay informed.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And from my perspective as a creator, they make sure that I stay on top of the stories I'm covering so that I can bring you the latest and most honest updates.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Now, in addition to that, Ground News' Blind Spot feed is also incredible, and it brings you the stories that might have gotten little to no coverage, making sure that you always stay informed instead of letting big tech or their algorithms decide what you see, which happens more often than you'd think.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
So if you are ready to truly break free from media bias and stay informed with transparent news consumption, now is the time to join Ground News. And when you go to groundnews.com slash brett or scan the QR code on the screen, you can get the same premium plan that I use, but for nearly half the price.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
That is groundnews.com slash brett if you want to get unbiased news and hold the media accountable for only $5 a month. So truly, based on everything that we're seeing in the news and based on what I know, this is genuinely a bipartisan issue. issue. I mean, look at California. With all of its problems, California has actually been on the front lines of this issue for years.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
I mean, back in October of 2023, Gavin Newsom signed the California Food Safety Act, which banned Red Dye 3 and many other additives from foods sold statewide. Obviously, this is not effective yet, but it will be effective in 2027. He later expanded this to be the California School Food Safety Act, which he signed in September of last year, so a year after
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
after that, which banned six synthetic dyes, blue one, blue two, green three, red 40, yellow five, yellow six from public school meals. And this passed with massive bipartisan support. And the reasoning was the major behavioral concern stemming from these ingredients. Everybody on both sides was able to come together because we care about children, because we care about our health.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And that should be what we are focusing on with this new legislation, with what RFK and what the FDA are wanting to do with these ingredients.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
So if you go online and you, God forbid, see people chugging bottles of Red Dye 40 on TikTok or whatever it is, just know these are outliers, these are idiots, and they would rather give themselves cancer or hyperactivity than admit that a Trump appointee is doing something good.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And while I am almost always the first person to say that what Trump is doing is good, there was a proposed policy from last week that I do think misses the mark. And that would be his proposed solution to fixing the declining birth rate. So obviously, as you guys probably know, we are facing a major population decline.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
This is happening globally, but we are facing it here in the United States as well. And since his campaign was started, Trump has said that he would get into office and he would work on turning this around and trying to implement pro-family policies. And since then, his team has been dropping hints about what they're considering and how to actually put this into motion.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And the big one from last week that they ended up putting in the New York Times was a $5,000 baby bonus. So mothers would receive a one-time payment for having a baby. And I genuinely, I just think that this is a ridiculous idea. Like, I get the intention behind it, but you can't evaluate policy based on the intentions.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
You have to think about how it will actually play out in our economy and in our society. And considering the fact that raising a child costs at least $20,000, and that is on the conservative low end, a one-time $5,000 payment is just not going to cut it. Like that is not incentive enough to have people be procreating and starting families. Plus,
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
We literally just saw five years ago how all of those stimulus checks worked out. Like, it drained our economy. It made no lasting impact on the financial situation of Americans that were hurting during COVID. And this idea is basically just welfare, but rebranded as Republican pro-family welfare. And also on top of all of that, it has been tried in other countries.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Time and time again, other people have had the same idea, which is a good idea. Like the intention is there, I understand it, but it just doesn't work. For example, in this one article, they said, other countries have tried direct payments to parents.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
I just exist.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Russia began offering a one-time sum of about $7,000 to families with more than two kids, while Italy and Greece have experimented with per child baby bonuses. In 2019, Hungary introduced a loan of around $30,000, that's a lot better than 5,000, just saying, to newlyweds. If they have three children, then that $30,000 loan is forgiven.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
From loans to speeches about traditional values, government efforts have generally failed to make much of an impact on people's childbearing decisions. They may shift the timing of the childbirth, but they don't ultimately affect the number of kids people have, says a professor from Johns Hopkins University.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And the same goes for the Asian countries that have also tried to reverse their declining birth rates. I mean, they've tried everything from cash payments to subsidies for childcare, to payment for IVF, which is another thing that the Trump admin has proposed. And again, it just hasn't worked. So it's not that I am against what Trump is doing because I don't like him or I'm so angry.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
It's just, I don't think this is logical. And time and time again, when people are reflecting on these policies and why they haven't been effective, people cite that it is the gender inequality and the demands at work that hold them back from having kids, which women say go hand in hand for them, and the lack of marriageable partners.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, what even is this conversation? Like, I love trash TV, but this is even like too far for me. I am, I'm just me. I'm who I am. Everybody is. We don't, you literally don't need a label. You can just be JoJo and like who you like. You don't have to jump around and attach labels and be like, maybe I am this group. Maybe I should be. It's exhausting.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
So it isn't really that they need $5,000 or $7,000 right after they have a baby. Now, obviously, this created major waves on social media, and a lot of people took issue with Trump's idea on the left and the right. I think everybody's just kind of having this big conversation together. But one person who I know personally went particularly viral for his response
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
This is what Matt Walsh had to propose. He said policy should drastically favor families with children. Married couples with kids under the age of 18 should not have to pay any income tax, just for starters. Raise taxes on single moms and couples with no kids to make up the difference. Now, I agree with part of what Matt Walsh is saying.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Like, I am far more intrigued with the idea of tax breaks for families. I mean, that would actually make life easier for people who feel financially strained, strained at work. But raising taxes on single mothers, I just think that would absolutely backfire, especially if you are excluding single fathers from that scenario.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And considering the nuance of that issue and how emotional it is and how people become single parents, I just don't think that that's right or that it would really work long term. And again, all the evaluations have to be how this would actually play out in our economy and in our society. So, then we have to ask, like, is there actually a solution to this?
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Now, interestingly, when you look at all the statistics and the facts surrounding this issue, the birth rate for married couples in America hasn't declined. It has actually remained steady for decades, except for a little blip in the 2020 to 2024 range when the economy was just such a mess.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
So it seems like the problem is less about people not wanting to have kids and more about people not getting married. And I'm not sure if that is a problem that the government can fix. I mean, South Korea has tried throwing money at young couples to go out on dates, to get married, and again, that is also just not working.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And similarly to America, men and women in South Korea are incredibly ideologically split right now. They are not meeting in the middle. They do not want to marry each other. And so while I do believe that there are circumstances where government can influence culture, I'm not sure if stepping in here in this way with a $5,000 bonus will actually help.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And the culture certainly won't change if the messenger looks like this. Now, I do have to apologize for the jump scare because I know that that was shocking and horrifying. And this is not somebody that is pushing pro-family policies in the U.S. or trying to figure out how to make us all have babies. But this man is the new interim chairman of the World Economic Forum.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
So, like it or not, he will be influencing our lives. And I just, I hate it already. And weirdly, there is some crossover with the Kardashians in his story. Now, the way that this all transpired is that Klaus Schwab, who famously has run the World Economic Forum for the last, I don't even know how many decades, he resigned last week to thunderous applause from across the globe.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And he and the World Economic Forum, they initially tried to play off this resignation as if he was just stepping down and retiring and they're so grateful for him. And he's like, oh yes, I'm moving on to new endeavors, all of that stuff. But all of that fluff lasted all of 24 hours because then they promptly launched an investigation into Klaus Schwab on the basis of corruption.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Shock of the century. This article says, The whistleblower letter allegedly sent by current and former staff accuses Schwab of financial misconduct, including misuse of WEF funds and inappropriate treatment of employees. This was reported by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, and they also said that his wife, Hilda Schwab, is also accused of using WEF resources for personal travel.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Schwab has strongly denied all the claims the Wall Street Journal reported. But the thing is, When you just think about Klaus Schwab, when you think about his family, what we know about him, what we know about his goals for the World Economic Forum, and the role that his family has played in infiltrating American politics, none of this would surprise me.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
I don't think that this is a man that lives above board at all, so again, not surprised at all. And this is probably just a good reminder that when you are evaluating the news, you should just know that somebody stepping down or walking away isn't always what it seems, because
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And people were immediately jumping on this quote saying, oh my gosh, she just came out as non-binary, and also equating her to Demi Lovato, because Demi Lovato had a whole moment where she was non-binary, and then basically later on she was like, actually, I don't really know if I'm non-binary, that was just kind of a moment in time.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
People did think that this was a new day, that it was just Klaus Schwab retiring, riding off into the sunset, a kick in the knees for the globalists. But his replacement, as you guys saw, looks even more sinister. Now that man, his name is Peter, he is the former CEO of Nestle, and he believes that access to water should be regulated. Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
There are apparently some misconceptions about my ideas on water. Let me make it clear from the beginning. I have always supported the human right to water. Everyone should have enough clean, safe water to meet their fundamental daily needs. About 50 to 100 liters per day. But not to fill a pool or wash a car. There is a difference.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
So he believes in our free access to water, our right to water, but not really, because there is a limit to how much he wants us to have. We want to have a pool? Nope, we can't have that. If we want to wash our car regularly, if you're somebody like my husband who loves going to the car wash, who basically goes to the car wash as therapy like three times a week, nope, not allowed.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
You have reached your daily limit. So it's enough to drink and maybe take a daily shower, but not enough to do any of those things. Now, unsurprisingly, because this is usually how it works, Peter... He lives in a mansion. He has a couple mansions and they all have huge pools. So once again, it is rules for thee and not for me.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And wef, we know they say that they want us to own nothing and be happy by 2030, which apparently includes access to free water. And all of this reminds me of the Kardashian water scandal from 2022. If you guys remember that story, the Kardashians and other celebrities in their area went over their quote unquote water allowance in the LA suburb of Calabasas.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And so the government came in and installed flow restriction devices, which were able to turn off showers and landscape sprinklers and all different types of things in private residences. I mean, if they can do that to the likes of Kim Kardashian and Kevin Hart and Sylvester Stallone, they can do that to you and me. And it seems like this man is totally fine with that happening.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
No more pools, no more washing your cars. You can just have enough to drink and that is free human rights. That's great. That is full access to water. That is the future that the new interim chair of the World Economic Forum sees for all of us. So with all of that, I think that you guys are effectively caught up on the news of this week and last week.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
So people are saying that that's probably what is going to happen with JoJo. But, even though she's saying that she's not really ready to label herself as non-binary, even though she feels that that might be where she lands... She is ready to say that she is actually not a lesbian.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And just to recap what we all learned today is that sexuality isn't just fluid, it is liquid. Like the water we will not be able to use, Rosie O'Donnell is wanted truly nowhere. And the villain from Austin Powers is alive and well. Let's try this again. Where were you born? Montana. I've got the birth tag if you need it. Raised? Nebraska, grazed on open pasture. Processed?
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
The plant is Texas, a USDA-approved facility. It's a clean cut, literally. You sure about that? Because a lot of so-called American meat is actually born overseas, frozen, then slapped with a red, white, and blue sticker that makes it look legit. I'm not some imported imposter, OK? I'm 100% American, horn to hook. You're not lying to me, are you? No, sir. I steer clear of that.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
All right, we check out. 100% born, raised, and processed in America. Delivered to your door, no imports, no imposters. Good Ranchers, American meat delivered.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
I think that she's a really interesting case study of a child star, woke ideology, grabbing hold of somebody, somebody who for a while seemed like she really understood her audience and was trying to stay kid friendly, but then obviously like changed overnight and suddenly was like grinding on stage and had a very, very weird 180 that she took. Anyway,
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And instead of identifying as lesbian, she is ready, this is so profound, so powerful, she is ready to identify as queer. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
That's what she loves about sexual identity. That on a random Tuesday on Celebrity Big Brother, she can say F the L, I'm a Q and just change it at a drop of a hat. Now, granted, I don't truly understand all the differences. I mean, I sort of do.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
I think the difference that I don't get that I genuinely have tried to understand is the difference between bisexual and then queer because queer is more all encompassing. And when you read articles about it, it's like queer is the politicized version. Like queer means that you're like, You're in the community. You're, like, fighting for progressive sexual identity politics.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Like, that's part of the MO. And a lot of people don't really want to identify as that. And a lot of people do want to identify as that because they're obviously part of a community. I don't really know what's going on with Jojo Siwa, but she had this epiphany about... on Celebrity Big Brother.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And of course, because it's 2025, nothing can happen on social media without offending a different group of people. And right now, the lesbians are not happy. One person said, I was right all along when I said JoJo Siwa wasn't a lesbian. She's now come out as queer and said, F the L, I'm going to the Q. So not only was she a fake lesbian, she is also saying F lesbians. I keep telling y'all.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
these so-called lesbian celebs can't be trusted. So the lesbians, the L's, now feel completely and utterly betrayed by this person who had been propped up as a gay icon. I don't know if you guys remember, JoJo Siwa literally went on Ellen in 2021 in a rainbow jacket and was like, yes, I'm a gay icon. The lesbian icon is lesbian no longer.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Now, the other interesting part about this story is that, yes, this comes on the heel of the Mickey work situation where she's having to like navigate this trauma and this homophobia that she experienced. But what I think is more interesting and what might have driven this whole little transition is that she has been having a bit of a flirtationship with a different cast member.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
A cast member who is a male. And also what you need to know about this is that Jojo Siwa, like she said in one of those clips, has a girlfriend. Her partner. at home who is watching the show live. So she is watching Jojo Siwa have all of these epiphanies about her sexual identity and how she identifies and be literally snuggling in bed with a man. Take a look.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
She's literally slinking into bed with this man, Chris. canoodling. They had this whole like back and forth that people were saying was like triggering because he was like, come to bed with me. And she was like, no, no, I can't. And was like rolling away from him. And then she kept saying, yes, please, please come. She was like, okay, I guess I can.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
She has just had a fascinating career to follow, but what she's doing right now might be her most insane venture yet. She is currently on Celebrity Big Brother, and yes, you heard that correctly, she's peeing in litter boxes, and she also just came out as non-binary and also as not a lesbian.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And people were saying that he was being creepy and weird, but obviously she was feeding into it. That just seems like she's playing hard to get. And obviously she wants it because she's climbing into bed with him. There are multiple videos across multiple nights of them. Literally like here he is stroking. her bare back. And her girlfriend is at home watching all of this.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Her girlfriend who made this whole public display of saying, I'm going to be watching JoJo every single day. I'm going to be live tweeting and posting about it. since she started canoodling in bed, that girlfriend has not posted. She has not posted since April 11th.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
So it could be that she's canoodling with this man and now has decided that she's not a lesbian, or crazy thought, it could be that this girlfriend is so horrified that JoJo is literally on camera peeing in a litter box.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Yeah.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
What the hell is this show?
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Yeah.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
I'm just going to, okay, okay. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, this is so horrifying. Sit.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Oh, oh my God, oh my God. I would break up with somebody over that. Like that probably is why her girlfriend has not posted since April 11th because she's squatting over kitty litter. This is literally insane. She's peeing in cat litter with the guy that she's flirting with after she's just come out as not a lesbian and non-binary.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Okay guys, I am popping in for a selfie video post-filming update because I told you My spidey senses were telling me that this relationship would not last. Like how could this work if she was canoodling with this man on camera? So lo and behold, today the news broke that she and her girlfriend have officially broken up.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Her girlfriend flew all the way out to London for the wrap party of Celebrity Big Brother and they broke up. Take a listen to her video.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
I mean, if I was Jojo Siwa, I would literally be fleeing the country after this, which honestly is a trend that is happening right now, spearheaded by none other than Rosie O'Donnell, which is the next story that we need to talk about. If you guys have followed Trump at all over the last, I don't even know how many years, you know that there is one person that he feuds with.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Before we dive into that story, make sure that you like our podcast page and rate the show if you're enjoying it. And for all of the Spotify viewers, we have moved video over to YouTube. So if you are missing that version, head on over to YouTube. And for Apple Podcasts, I know you haven't been watching the video anyway, but maybe you should go over and check it out on YouTube.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
more than anyone else in the entire world, and that would be Rosie O'Donnell. These two individuals hate each other more than words can really describe. And Rosie O'Donnell, after Trump was elected in November, decided that now was the time that she was going to flee the country. You just need to listen to her announcement because she made the plan to do this with her family therapist, of course.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
This is what she needed for her mental health.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Good for you, Rosie O'Donnell. And she was. She left the country on January 15th. She slipped out just in time before all of her rights were taken away. where all the rights of her non-binary child were stripped away by the big, scary, looming Project 2025. So sorry, Rosie O'Donnell, that you had to endure the thought of Project 2025. I mean, if feeling safe and comfortable was the goal,
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
to do was get her some cozy earth pajamas. Now, you guys know that there is very little that I love more than being horizontal in bed, especially in my cozy earth pajamas, which I am wearing right now. No joke, guys. Their bamboo stretch pajamas are the softest pajamas I have ever worn. I have basically lived in them ever since I got them, and so do my mom and my mother-in-law.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Cozy Earth was kind enough to send them both pajamas for Mother's Day, and they have been a major hit. From cooking Easter breakfast last week, to farm chores in Idaho with my mom, to movie nights, these pajamas fit the bill for basically everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
So, if you want to give your mom or yourself the gift of breathable, soft comfort this spring, just go to CozyEarth.com and use my code BRETT to get 40% off your order. And, to make it even better, to celebrate moms everywhere this weekend only, May 2nd to 4th, Cozy Earth is giving the Cooper Troopers a special promo. Buy one, get one free on these bamboo pajamas.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Just use code BRETTBOGO at checkout to redeem. Again, that's code BRETTBOGO for this weekend only on these pajamas. And if you miss it, do not worry because you can still use code BRETT for 40% off your entire order. Now, back to the story.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
All right, so like I said, JoJo Siwa is currently on Celebrity Big Brother. And there's been a lot of hubbub surrounding JoJo. And it really started with an interaction that she had with a fellow cast member, Mickey Rourke. Mickey was making jokes about JoJo being a lesbian. They were sort of good natured. It seemed like an old guy who was kind of out of touch and definitely politically incorrect.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
The other thing that I have thought is hysterical about the whole Rosie O'Donnell fleeing the country is the fact that she keeps saying that she has been welcomed with open arms, she feels so free, Ireland is so incredible. Well, that might be the case with the people that she has interacted with, but the Irish on social media are not as pleased with Big Rosie. I shouldn't say Big Rosie.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Based on what I have seen on social media, many Irish are not thrilled about this new addition to their country. Just take a watch.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
I mean, it's pretty hysterical. It's pretty friggin' hysterical, especially knowing the long-standing feud between Rosie and Trump. Like, of course she would leave.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And again, I'm kind of glad that she put some action behind her words and she wasn't just saying, I'm gonna leave, I'm gonna leave, and then never actually did because she has no problems and Trump is not really destroying the country and she would not have lost any rights, but the fact that she actually did it. Like, Ellen similarly did that. She kept saying, I'm gonna leave,
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And she actually freaking did it. And people in the UK have similarly not been very excited about this. They've basically been saying, please, we know we gave you James Corden, but we didn't ask for this. Like, let's swap. Let's just end this once and for all. But interestingly, it's not just Rosie O'Donnell and Ellen who have fled the country.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Another one of our favorites is trying to make a permanent move to the UK. And that would be... our good friend Dylan Mulvaney.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Dylan is wanting to leave and wanting to live in the UK permanently because apparently the people are kinder there. Dylan loves the theater scene in the West End, loves the candy shops and all of the food.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And guys, this is just like hilarious, ironic timing because Dylan is saying all of this at the same time, like immediately after the UK just ruled that trans women like Dylan do not fit into the legal definition of what a woman is. And it reminds me of something that Dylan did back in 2023.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And this was when Dylan took an extended vacation to escape the bigotry and the transphobia of the US and ended up going to Peru for about a month. And the entire time that Dylan was there, just could not stop talking about how wonderful Peru was, how safe it was for trans people, how inclusive it was. Meanwhile, Peru does not even have same sex marriage. Take a listen to Dylan's TikTok.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
Left a country where you have more freedoms to go to a country where you technically would have fewer freedoms in order to feel safe. And now two years later, you have decided that you want to move to a country where your identity as a woman is not recognized as womanhood. And I mean, we just have to laugh at all of this because it simply proves that this victimhood is made up.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And he was like, are you really a lesbian? And she was like, yeah, I have a girlfriend. And he was kind of making jokes about that. He was like, I'm going to vote the lesbian out. And then what really set people off is that he made a joke about fags. Fags the cigarettes! Or did he? Or was it about Jojo Siwa?
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
It is in your own head. You have cultivated it. You have created a whole mindset of this idea that people are constantly after you, that you have to run away to feel safe. Meanwhile, you're going to places that like legally are less safe if you want to say that for you. I mean, it's just bananas.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
The other thing that is just so ironic about this story is the podcast that Dylan went on to talk about how amazing Peru was and how awful the United States was, was none other than Rosie O'Donnell's podcast. I mean, it really, like this was just dropped in my lap. It was so freaking perfect.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
I mean, these are two people who are living in delusions when it comes to their safety and their perceived victimhood. But you know what? Hey, listen. Whatever makes them happy. If Dylan wants to move to the UK to do Theatre of Rosie, wants to be in Ireland, like, I'm not crying over this because it's not like we're losing our best and brightest. Like, it's Rosie, it's Dylan.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
It's the congressional staffer that was getting railed in the Senate hearing room. And yes, he has also fled the country. Now if you guys remember this story from last year, there was a young man who made the unfortunate decision to get railed in a Senate hearing room, which is where he was working.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
And this sexual encounter was filmed, and it was posted online, and obviously it went mega viral, he lost his job, chaos ensued, and what do you know, Aiden also fled the country. Aiden left shortly after his little sex scandal and moved to Sydney after he had had a brief stint in a psych ward. And he gave an interview to the Gay Sydney News about all of this. You just have to hear what he said.
The Brett Cooper Show
JoJo Siwa Changes Her Sexuality & Dylan Mulvaney FLEES America | Episode 26
He said, quote, mentally, I spent a little bit in the psych ward after the fact because it was just so overwhelming to realize and to know the tens of millions of people literally despise you. Everyone in DC knew me, and it was kind of gross and horrifying, that's important, because I'm not someone who likes to be in the public spotlight at all.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Brett Cooper Show | Official Trailer
after weeks of speculation brett cooper has left well it looks like the rumors were true brett cooper's departure has caused quite a stir the internet is absolutely melting down brett cooper did in fact announce her exit brett cooper announces she is leaving the daily wire brett cooper is officially leaving the daily wire she is walking away brett cooper has left she is is Gonzo.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Brett Cooper Show | Official Trailer
Brett Cooper says, I'm out of here. Now Brett Cooper has nearly 500,000 subscribers without a single video yet. Shreddy has a channel that is now at half a million subs. If you look at her numbers, Brett Cooper is popping off. She has one of the fastest growing YouTube channels now. But what's the end all be all for Brett Cooper?
The Brett Cooper Show
The Brett Cooper Show | Official Trailer
So the big question on a lot of our minds is what is she going to do next? The world you desire can be one. It exists. It is real. It is possible. It's yours. But to win it requires your total dedication and a total break with the world of your past. Fight for the value of your person. Fight for the virtue of your pride.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Brett Cooper Show | Official Trailer
Fight with the radiant certainty and the absolute gratitude of knowing that yours is the morality of life and that yours is the battle for any achievement, any value, any grandeur, any goodness, any joy that has ever existed on this earth. Are you ready, Brett? I'm ready.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Happy Memorial Day, everyone. I hope that you are settled in and ready because we have a packed show for you today. First of all, we have to revisit the Senate twink because apparently he has no remorse for screwing in the Senate. We also need to talk about some trans rock climbers who are sending a message to Trump, and we are going to discuss Diddy's connection to the mafia.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now, in addition to these friends and Cassie's mom, a man named George Kaplan also testified that is Diddy's former assistant, and this one actually does really give legs to the racketeering charge, because he would set up hotel rooms for Diddy, he would pick up drugs for Diddy, paying for all of them in cash, and he also testified that Diddy constantly threatened his job.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
because he was bored. So the article reads, listening to him recount his days getting paid by Congress to do nothing, quote, I would beg the chief of staff or whoever for work. I had nothing to do. Is cause enough to wonder whether Elon Musk's blathering about government inefficiency is, on its face, well-founded. What is it that they say about idle hands?
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And so what I'm seeing here is we are now moving outside of just Cassie. Obviously, this is where the lawsuit started. This is what really brought attention to everything that Diddy was doing. But again, it is going to get so much bigger than just this relationship. Now, this federal case does stem from Cassie's 2023 lawsuit, which we talked about last week.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
But even though this case is about a very particular set of charges, I do think that we should quickly look at the other civil suits that are up against Diddy. After Cassie's very public lawsuit and less than 24 hour settlement that, again, we talked about last week, 70 other civil lawsuits were filed.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now, to give you guys a timeline, Diddy's house was raided in March of last year, so this was 2024. In September, he was arrested and he was charged. And there were nine lawsuits that were filed before his house was raided. There were five in between his house being raided and him being arrested. And then over 50 different lawsuits have been filed since his arrest.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now, around five of these lawsuits alleged that the victim was a minor at the time of the incident. Most of these accusers are female, but there are quite a few men that have also come forward in these suits.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And what has possibly been an even bigger conversation than anything else we're talking about is that some of these lawsuits are also against other celebrities, which is not the case in this federal lawsuit. They are not involved in Cassie and Diddy. This is just about Diddy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now, the most notable of these lawsuits is the case that was brought against Diddy and Jay-Z for drugging and raping a girl when she was 16 years old. A third female celebrity who has not been named allegedly stood by and watched, but she was not included in that lawsuit. And this lawsuit has now been dropped. That came out in December, at the beginning of December.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Aaron Hall is involved in another lawsuit from a woman who alleges that the two of them, Diddy and Aaron, raped her and Diddy then choked her. In another lawsuit, Diddy's first employee at Bad Boy Records, a music producer, is being accused of gang raping a 17-year-old girl with Diddy and another celebrity that has not been named.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Rodney Jones Jr., aka Lil Rod, has accused Diddy of grooming him and then passing him off to actor Cuba Gooding Jr., who has already pled guilty to forcible touching in a previous case. And then, guys, this is even crazier to me. Two of Diddy's sons are named in separate lawsuits against them and Diddy for sexual abuse. Those are his sons, Justin and Christian Lucian Grange.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
This is Sofia Richie's father-in-law. He is the CEO of Universal Music Group. He was also named as a defendant in a lawsuit for aiding and abetting Diddy's sex trafficking and racketeering, although his involvement was dropped from that specific suit.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
OBJ has been named in one of the most shocking lawsuits when a young woman claims that she was gang raped by Diddy, OBJ, and other men after she accused Diddy of killing Tupac. I mean, there's so much here. And so the public is thinking about all of these cases. We have read articles about all of this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And so even me, like going into this huge eight week long trial, I was like, oh my gosh, it's all coming out. This is everything. But it's not. Like this isn't like Epstein where there was a possibility for everything to come out in that one big case. It is just about Diddy and Cassie.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And this has understandably made this case very confusing because people like myself were mixing the civil suits with what he is being charged with right now, federally. I mean, when Diddy was first arrested, we all saw the pictures of his notorious white parties. They began flooding the airwaves and people were claiming that all the people who were in those photos that attended those parties
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Quote, I would come in nine hours a day, sit there bored out of my effing mind. So yeah, I'm going to entertain myself and eff in a room. Specifically, part 216. So he was bored. Guys, why are we even upset at this young man? It was just government inefficiency and he was bored. So what else was he gonna do?
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
were actually attending freak-offs. The white parties were the freak-offs. Everyone in the photos was implicated in all of these cases. I mean, similarly, everybody immediately started saying that Justin Bieber had been sex trafficked by him. The internet began spiraling, quickly spinning rumors into truth. We had no idea what was going on.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And from what I heard, just because obviously I had been talking to some people close to Bieber, based on what I have heard from that camp and what Bieber has now said in a public statement, he was not sexually abused by Diddy. And so I just want to say that here once and for all. Now, I do want to take a step back because we all saw the videos. We watched Justin grow up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And so I think we can say that, you know, was Justin put in uncomfortable positions as a young man? Yes, absolutely. Was he sexualized by the media and the music industry as a whole? Yes. Was he asked or pushed to engage in spiritually dangerous and immoral activities? Yes.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Those aren't rumors, I've actually heard that from people, but he denies that even though that might have happened, he denies that he was a Diddy victim. Now it's also important to note, kind of in light of talking about everything with Justin and how this industry operates, that Diddy is just the tip of the iceberg. And most people out there, including myself, do not believe that he acted alone.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Not just with his freak-offs, but with the degradation of this industry as a whole. I mean, think about All the names that we just mentioned in those 63 lawsuits. And guys, interestingly, there is one person that just keeps getting brought up time and time again, and he also just keeps getting away with it. And that man would be Clive Davis, the aging, very much aging co-founder of
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
of bad boy records. Now, before we get into how insane this story is and giving you the backstory, I just need to paint a picture for you because when all of this started, this was a very, very different time. So imagine that we are all in the 70s and the government has just begun cracking down on organized crime because the RICO Act was signed into law in 1970. So Why did this act come about?
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Well, the Mafia had infiltrated all of the big industries, and the music industry for the Mafia was a no-brainer, including jukebox plays, record sales, nightclub entry fees, and it gave mob bosses the ability to control and extort labels and artists through these avenues, including distribution through jukeboxes, control of the venues where artists got to perform.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
All of that, they had their hands in hands. everything. And another part of this, something that the mob also had their hands in, was referred to as indies.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now these indies were people, and they were people who were hired by labels to secure airplay for songs, often using cash and gifts, drugs, or other incentives that would get the radio stations to play these certain songs, and this was not something that the record labels were doing overtly. They had to do this through third parties because this was actually illegal.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
It was illegal to pay for airtime without disclosing it, and this was called payola. So now that you have that context, we can introduce you to Clive Davis. Now this is the man that is behind some of the world's most iconic bands and artists throughout the entire music industry, and he is also the man behind Diddy's Rise. I mean, this man has worked with everybody from
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
I mean, this so reminds me of Denise Richards' daughter where she was like, I wanted to move out. It was a candy store, OnlyFans. It was sitting at my desk, scrolling on TikTok or having sex in the Senate hearing room. I mean, guys, I think that there are things you can do in between these two extremes. I don't know if we've lost nuance in the world, but that's just what I'm feeling right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Blood, Sweat, and Tears, Chicago, Santana, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Neil Diamond, my personal favorite, I used to fall asleep to him every single night growing up, Pink Floyd, Whitney Houston, Alan Jackson, Brooks and Dunn, Brad Paisley, Usher, Outkast, and Pink. But in the 70s, he was the music industry.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
If you were somebody who was working with Clive Davis, it was almost a sure bet that you were going to be successful. Now, Clive started his career at Columbia Records and he quickly rose to the top because of his talent and his eye for music. And all thanks to Clive Davis himself, Columbia Records was a powerhouse in the 70s and their revenue was up significantly.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
One article from around that time says that Rock has moved from only 15% of Columbia's volume to more than 50%, and CBS record sales have risen from $170 million to $340 million each year. Davis, Clive Davis, was able to win over top talent by paying well and offering considerable artistic freedom.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas said, quote, he always sent the limousines and the flowers at the right time. So everything for Clive and Columbia Records was looking up. The music industry was changing daily, all thanks to Clive. And then in May in 1973, Clive Davis was abruptly fired after a Columbia Records internal investigation.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now, Columbia has publicly stated that the reason for the termination of his contract early was that he was misappropriating funds. But everyone in the music industry who was clued in that knew Clive knew that it had to be more than that. Take a look at this Time article from 1973. They said,
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Others in the records business, where expense money is thrown around, doubted that the CBS charges against Davis could be the full explanation. To them, the action against Davis seems unduly harsh in an industry that abounds in stories of much worse transgressions, chiefly the providing of drugs to rock groups and disc jockeys.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Quote, "'If we had somebody really important who wanted dope, we would probably give it to him,' says the vice president of one of CBS's biggest competitors. I think Davis is taking the rap for everybody.'"
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now, in addition to all of that and those theories, looking through news articles from around the time, it is very obvious that Columbia was being investigated for payola, as this internal investigation was happening with Clive Davis. In fact, here's a headline from that year that reads, Clive Davis ousted payola cover-up charge.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Columbia Records president is fired from CPS amid allegations of misuse of funds and providing drugs to artists and disc jockeys. Now, the rumor at the time, and sort of still is, is that Columbia used Davis as a cover-up so that the company would not be investigated further. This man was the fall guy. They were basically saying there was nothing to see here.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Yes, our president was funneling money, but that was just for personal reasons. Nothing to see here. He was most definitely not working with the mafia, doing payola, or supplying people with drugs. drugs. And guys, you also need to understand how big being charged with payola with something like this could have been. Like, Columbia Records would not have survived that scandal.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And again, this was not something that was hush-hush. Another article from around the time reads that the government is probing an elaborate scheme in which Columbia and perhaps other record companies may have been bilked of many millions of dollars. Columbia Records alone reportedly lost two million dollars.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Anyway, continuing on with this article, apparently his therapist told him He also talked about how he is not the only one who was engaged in this kind of behavior. And in his anger and frustration with this scandal exploding, he thought about throwing everybody else under the bus who has effed in a Senate room.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Investigators are trying to find out whether the mafia had got a firm foothold in the record industry or whether Columbia Records scandal was an isolated Now here is where the mafia ties really begin. So a month before Clive was fired, one of his employees, one of his close associates, was also fired for misappropriation of funds, and his office was interestingly sealed for investigation.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And this man had been more directly linked to the mob, specifically the Genovese crime family. And it's all written about in another article from 1973. So, This one reads, the first rumors had begun to fly during, quote, a week to remember. David Winshaw, 52, vice president of artist relations at Columbia, had been busted.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
He had been locked out of his 12th floor office a couple of weeks ago, and there was talk about prostitution and drugs. The FBI, the rumors said, had invaded CBS's black skyscraper and seized files from Winshaw's office, and CBS had cordoned off the room and fired the 11-year veteran. Winshaw, it was said, was close to Clive Davis and was variously known around the company and in the business,
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
as Davis's royal procurer, or Clive's pimp, or the all-around Dr. Feelgood. He had, the hearsay went, been moved over to special projects and took care of conventions, providing any necessary entertainment, entertainment, for Columbia executives and favored guests. Now he, David Winshaw, unlike Clive, did serve a year in prison. And his story seemed to kind of die down there.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Until 2021, when Winshaw gave another interview. And in this interview, he said that everyone knew He took the fall for Clive Davis.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Federal investigators who had launched an ultimately fruitless search for evidence of payola would allege that Winshaw had conspired with a member of the Genovese crime family to defraud CBS of $75,000 through sham bills from non-existing companies, a scheme that earned Winshaw a one-year jail sentence.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Nobody has suggested that Davis knew a thing about the involvement of the mob, though skeptics contend that a micromanager like Clive Davis had to know about the invoices that Winshaw drafted. According to Winshaw, there is little doubt on the matter. Now 80 years old and living in Florida, he said in a brief phone interview that, quote, Everyone knows I took the fall for Davis.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
How does a man run a bar mitzvah that he doesn't know about? The circumstances of his exit, Winshaw says, ruined me. Though he still admires Davis's talents. I have no animosity. The guy doesn't want to know me. That's fine.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Looking back, some former colleagues say that CBS got spooked by the payola investigation and jettisoned Davis, hoping to mullify the government and stave off penalties that might jeopardize its broadcasting licenses.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
The writer Brock says, quote, in some sense, I effed in the Senate because I was miserable and wanted a way out. He's trying to hold no grudges and has no desire to suss out his leaker. Quote, I had a half second where I was like, I know so many people who have effed in the Senate. I could throw people under the bus to water out my own scandal. Excuse me?
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And guys, the reason why I did this entire history lesson on the music industry in the 70s and Clive Davis and Columbia Records is because it is simply so wild to me that while David served a year in prison for all of this, Clive walked away free and maintained his career. And then many years later in 1994, he fatefully started Bad Boy Records with none other than P. Diddy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now to bring it all back to the case at hand and the freak offs, we don't know how involved Clive was with Diddy's affairs, we can just put it that way. But we do know that Clive was responsible for starting Diddy's career and that they were very close friends.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And so it's fair and it's very valid for all of us to wonder why and how P. Diddy was able to get away with all of these crimes for so long and what led him down such a dark, twisted path. And it's just interesting, whether it's related to Diddy's cover-ups or not, that his mentor,
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
His confidant, his close friend, his business partner, was tied to one of the biggest payola scandals in music industry history and has walked away scot-free from crimes, also including tax evasion, for his entire very long life. And I mean, hey, maybe Diddy just learned from the best.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now, while a lot of this is unverified, a lot of people think that it goes even deeper than that, even darker than that. A lot of people in the music industry have spoken out about this relationship.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
For example, Suge Knight, who is a rapper who was in prison for manslaughter, has claimed multiple times over the years that music executives, including Clive Davis, have used sexual abuse, drugs, and alcohol to control their artists. Take a listen to this clip from a recent interview he did with Chris Cuomo.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And throughout this interview, which was done seven months ago, he offered horrifying examples of what that looked like. For example, Knight claimed that Diddy was, quote, taught by the people before him and he did to the younger people after him. Quote, it is an industry that, according to Knight, has a long history of sexually abusing and assaulting its newest members.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
He said one practice called an egg test went as follows. And just for warning, this is insane. But he says, quote, those guys pull their pants down and bent over. They stick the egg up their ass, their eggs break. They say they're not ready yet. They ain't put enough work in. This is Hollywood.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And then he goes on to say that the only place where you would put in the work so that your egg wouldn't break was at these types of parties. I can't, it's like, guys, it's so... insane. And yet we're hearing this from so many people. Like, at this point, it can't be a conspiracy that this is how Hollywood and these entertainment industries run.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And guys, in every one of these stories, from people other than just Suge Knight, in every story, Clive Davis gets brought up. His influence even made its way to Sean Ryan's podcast. Now, of course, over the years, Clive Davis's team has denied all of these allegations. They say that he knew nothing, that he was never involved.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
You know so many people, like I understand that we live in a deranged, hypersexual society. I understand that there are things that go on in government. I mean, we all watched the Madison Cawthorn scandal unfold where he basically said that there were sex parties happening in DC with members of Congress. Like we all saw that happen. There have been rumors.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And these days, he plays the role of the geriatric old man who just won't answer questions.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
As we've learned from Justin Bieber and others like him, the abuse and the blackmail and the control happening within the music industry and Hollywood runs deep. And this story is still only getting started. So next week we will be back for another Diddy update because the trial is still ongoing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And also, we haven't even gotten into the beef between Diddy, Tupac, Suge Knight, and Biggie that led to the murder of two of those men.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
But now the Senate twink is saying, I literally have names of other people who have done this. That is literally insane. But also, it's 2025, so at this point, nothing should surprise me anymore.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now, in looking at this press tour and this whole interview that he did, and the article is so funny, so you should go read the entire thing, but I can't help but wonder if he's doing this whole press tour and doing the interviews with New York Magazine and New York Post because
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
So, my friends, the Senate twink is just the gift that keeps on giving, and he just did yet another interview, actually with one of my favorite writers over at New York Magazine, and there is just so much to unpack. Now, if you guys don't remember, we actually talked about this young man just a couple of months ago.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
At the time, he threw away his chance to capitalize on this sex scandal because if you guys remember from the previous episode, he cried victim. He said, oh my gosh, all this outrage is homophobia. He checked himself into a mental facility. He moved across the world to Australia to start a new life and then wasn't happy and wasn't making any money. So then a year later,
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
He changed his Instagram name, set it Twink, and tried to start an OnlyFans to kind of capitalize on it, but obviously that wasn't working, so now he's back in our faces trying to kind of rehash things, being very bold and very brazen about it, probably, in my mind, as a marketing strategy for his OnlyFans page. And I am not promoting this in the slightest.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
You guys know how I feel about OnlyFans and sex workers. But I'm just saying, had he taken this approach a year ago, right after the scandal took place, he would probably be one of the biggest OnlyFans creators on the platform. He would be an icon in different parts of the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And yet now he is having to crawl his way back to relevancy thanks to interviews like this, which, you know, are very entertaining to me. So I can't even be mad about it. Now, speaking of twinks, we need to turn our attention to the drag queen and the coalition that is called Trans is Nature, who, guys, they are just truly making a difference in the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And they are doing that by hanging trans flags in national parks. And yes, you heard that correctly. Last Tuesday, this coalition of LGBTQ rock climbers under the name Trans is Nature announced hung a 55-foot trans flag at Yosemite National Park. I mean, guys, so brave. I mean, them hanging that flag is even braver than them summiting El Capitan. This is just incredible. Snaps for them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
They are truly changing the world. And guys, of course they did this. They did this incredibly brave thing to send a message to Donald Trump, the big bad orange man. And according to this USA Today article, they did this because they are, quote, done being polite. And thanks to my friends over at Ground News, I know that while this article is very left-leaning, it is also highly factual.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now, Ground News, as always, cuts through the noise with an unbiased perspective and shows both sides of every story, prioritizing honesty over everything. Their unique technology even allows users to compare how different sides of the corporate media are reporting on a certain story, making sure that you see all sides and truly stay informed.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And from my perspective, they make sure that I stay on top of all the stories that I'm covering so that I can bring you the latest and most honest updates.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now, in addition to that, one thing that I love is that Ground News' Blind Spot feed brings you the stories that have gotten little to no coverage on either side of the aisle, making sure that you always stay informed instead of letting big tech or their algorithms decide what you see.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
So if you are truly ready to break free from media bias and stay informed with transparent news consumption, now is the time to join Ground News. And when you go to groundnews.com slash Brett or scan the QR code on the screen, you can get the same premium plan that I use, but for nearly half the price.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
We did kind of a recap, what has transpired in his life since that fateful day when he decided that he should have sex in the Senate, but he is back to give us even more juicy information. if you are enjoying it. And as a reminder, I am going on tour this spring. We still have tickets available and we added two new shows in Dallas and in Austin because those were sold out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
That is groundnews.com slash Brett if you want to get unbiased news and hold the media accountable for only $5 a month. But guys, I don't want to just tell you about this insane story. Just take a look at the individual who went up there and hung this flag.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Fly higher than hate. Oh, so profound. Thank you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Okay, well the people united might never be defeated, but your flag will be defeated because this is completely and utterly ridiculous. And also my favorite part of the entire video is where the drag queen is like hugging that girl and is going, this is so natural. Meanwhile, he's in an entire full beat of drag queen makeup. That's literally the most unnatural thing I've ever heard of.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
You have this beautiful, rugged, natural landscape, and you're sitting here pretending to be a woman without insane makeup on. Like, I'm sorry, you're just not going to convince us otherwise.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
So kind of backing into this story, that individual that you saw on the screen, the one with the full bead of makeup, that is one of Time Magazine's Next Generation Leaders and National Geographic's Changemakers, and that would be drag queen Patagonia, aka Wynne Wiley.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And guys, if that individual and that name sounds familiar, it is because at this rate, I don't even know how many episodes I have done about him. Like, genuinely, Patagonia seems to pop up every year around springtime in a different national park, in a different huge drag queen outfit, working with a different brand, simply to promote his agenda. And the agenda is always that trans is so natural.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
It is as natural as these national parks, and they deserve a place in the national parks. And it's so hilarious to me because no one is saying you don't have a place in nature. You are literally free to go hang that insane flag in Yosemite National Park. You are free to frolic in dresses and full makeup and film your videos in the middle of national parks for years now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
You work with brands like the North Face. So I'm sorry if I don't believe that you are genuinely, truly oppressed. Like it just doesn't make sense. Now the other ridiculous thing that we need to talk about that you probably heard in this video is that this coalition's mission is to promote the idea that transgenderism is naturally occurring in nature through various species.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
It's not just naturally occurring in humans. But guys, other animals and other plants change their gender literally for the sole purpose of reproduction. It is a scientific transformation. If you change your gender, you cannot reproduce. That is not something that happens naturally, no matter which way you cut it. That was a bad joke, but you get what I'm saying.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
But what I'm trying to say is that it's not like these fish and these plants are going off to surgeons to get a fake, beautifully made vagina. Beautiful is an overstatement, your custom boutique vagina from your plastic surgeon.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
The last thing that I will say is that obviously this caused an uproar on social media and everybody was pointing the finger at the park itself, at Yosemite, saying that they had okayed this, that it was a political statement that Yosemite was making, but that is not the case at all. I am here to defend Yosemite National Park. The park was quick to ask for the flag to be removed.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
I think it was already taken down, thank God, because Yosemite does not need to be embroiled in political debates about gender identity. because national parks truly are for everyone, regardless of your background, your gender, your age, whoever you are, you can go and enjoy it. And that should be the message. Now on a more serious note, I think it is time that we turn our attention back to Diddy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
So if you want to get tickets and come join in on all the fun, you can visit brettcooper.com. So the crux of what we talked about the last time that we covered this young man was the fact that he was asking for privacy, and yet nothing about his life was private at all. In fact, he had created an OnlyFans, and he had changed his Instagram handle to be SenateTwink.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Week two of the trial has ended and we have a lot of updates. So as I said in my last Diddy episode, the defense was obviously going to make it seem like Cassie was a willing participant in all of this and all of the freak-offs, and that is exactly what they did.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
This team of lawyers, as we discussed, is just full of heavy hitters who play dirty, and they did not tone it down at all when they were cross-examining Cassie Ventura, who obviously, if you guys are following the story now, Diddy's longtime ex-girlfriend. And throughout their cross-examination, they were focusing in on one specific thing, and that was the text messages between Diddy and Cassie.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Here is one example. This is from 2012. Combs told Cassie that he wanted to FO one last time tonight using initials for freak off FO. Cassie replied, what? And Combs said, you can't read. And then Cassie replied, I don't want to freak off for the last time. I want it to be the first time for the rest of our lives. Here's another exchange they brought up. This one was from August of 2009.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Combs asked when she wanted the next encounter to be and she replied, I'm always ready to freak off. Two days later, Cassie sent an explicit message and he replied in eager anticipation. she responded, me too, I just want it to be uncontrollable. Combs' lawyers have insisted that all of the sex at the freak-offs was completely consensual.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Later that year, however, she also sent Combs messages that she was frustrated with the state of their relationship and needed something more from him than just sex. So, obviously, We know that their relationship was incredibly sexual, we know that it was volatile, and we do have these texts.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Like, everybody can see these, she talked about them in her cross-examination, and in my personal opinion, I feel like it's gonna be hard for the defense to contradict everything that the prosecution has brought forward that demonstrates that he was blackmailing her and that she was terrified of him.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And so using her text messages that show that she was saying that she likes the freak-offs doesn't necessarily mean that it was all completely consensual if she was truly scared for her life and actually being blackmailed in the way that we have been told that she was blackmailed.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And of course she's not going to push back against him or do anything to make him angry when we have now seen the kind of man that he is and the things that he would threaten to do to her. I mean, if the only evidence was her word versus these text messages, that would be one thing that would make it a lot more complicated, but we know at this point that it's not.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And the prosecution only strengthened their argument about this blackmail, about this power imbalance, when Cassie's mom, Regina Ventura, took the stand. And she testified that Combs, in anger over one of his and Cassie's many breakups, threatened to release one of these freak-off videos of Cassie if they did not give him $20,000. And so her parents were trying to protect her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
They frantically took out a $20,000 loan to send him the money. They never spoke to him. They just wanted to protect her. But those are the types of things that he would do and what he would hold over her. So is that actually consensual? I think that is something that the jury is just going to have to decide.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now, in addition to Cassie's mother, we also saw some other new faces take the stand, including close friends and collaborators of Cassie's. But before we get into their testimony, which is just heartbreaking, I do want to take a break to tell you about my sponsor, Seven Weeks Coffee. Now, 7 Weeks Coffee is Alex's and my go-to coffee that we literally drink every single day.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now, as you guys know, we're very picky about what ingredients we bring into our home and put into our bodies, and 7 Weeks Coffee hits the mark. This coffee is mold-free, it is pesticide-free, it is shade-grown and low-acid, and it is organically farmed. Not to mention, even better, they have an incredible mission that we love to support.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
He was really trying to build upon this scandal, albeit it was a little late. And so I think that is the purpose of this new interview that he did with New York Magazine. And surprise! He never actually wanted the privacy that he claimed he wanted right after the sex scandal took place. And even bigger surprise, he's actually not sorry at all for doing what he did. In fact, he did it,
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Seven Weeks Coffee is America's pro-life coffee company on a mission to help fund the pro-life movement one cup of coffee at a time. They donate 10% of every sale to support pregnancy care centers and pro-life organizations across the country. And at this point, they have raised over $900,000 for these centers and have saved thousands of lives.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And the reason why they're called Seven Weeks Coffee is because at seven weeks, a baby is the size of a coffee. bean. They truly make an incredible product and I love that I can stand behind both the ingredients, the products, and the values of this incredible company.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
So if you are ready to make the switch, go to 7weekscoffee.com slash brett and save 15% off forever when you subscribe, plus get a free gift with your order. And exclusively for my viewers, use code brett at checkout for an extra 10% off your first order. That is a 25% total savings on your first order plus a free gift. Just use code brett at checkout.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now, in addition to my morning cup of coffee, the other staple of my morning routine is my skincare. And I am so excited to be promoting Nimi Skincare again. Now, if you guys have been around for the long haul, you probably remember I worked with them years ago as one of my first ever sponsors. It has been so amazing to watch their mission and their company grow.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And since the last time we worked together, they launched a brand new clean line of high powered products made with ingredients that you can trust and feel great about putting on your body's largest organ, your skin. And just this month, they have introduced the beginnings of their body care collection.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Now I started using Nimmie again at the beginning of this year after getting pregnant because my hormones obviously had been going crazy. I was getting terrible acne. I was struggling to keep my skin under control. And I decided that I should probably start washing my face with something other than just my micellar water. And they totally changed the game for me.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
And they got my skin back on track, literally guys within days. And Nimmie Skincare is more than just skincare. Their company also represents amazing values and their products are proudly made in the USA. So because of that, they're not forced to increase their prices when tariffs and costs rise. So you can always trust that you are getting a great value.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
So if you are ready to make the switch, take Nimi's simple skincare quiz on their website and get a skincare routine curated just for your skin type and concerns. Head on over to nimiskincare.com, that is N-I-M-I skincare.com, and use code COOPER for 15% off your order. Your skin and your wallet will thank you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
So going back to these new testimonies, here is one instance of abuse that her best friend witnessed. And she took the stand and Morgan, her name, testified that the second incident took place in Jamaica in 2013, where they were on a group vacation. She said that while Cassie was using the bathroom, Combs became angry that she was taking too long and set out to find her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Morgan then allegedly heard guttural screams and ran to the hall to find Combs dragging Cassie outside by her hair. Outside, she allegedly managed to get up and Combs then pushed her onto the ground where she hit her head on the bricks. Morgan testified that she believed Cassie was knocked out, but her friend later ran into the woods barefoot.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
Morgan said that when she found Cassie, she hid in a ditch for what felt like hours while Combs searched the property for them. I mean, guys, at every turn, all the stories that we hear are horrifying. Like, I think we know now the kind of relationship that this was. But again, even though we're hearing all of these stories, I do want to clarify that this case isn't about abuse.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy Trial Continues with Mafia Ties and Hollywood Secrets | Episode 34
It is about the racketeering. It is about sex trafficking. And so, Stories like this obviously give us insight into his character, they support everything else, but this isn't what he's being charged for.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Now we often talk about the motivating factors that lure women into sex work. You know, the empowerment, the attention, the millions of dollars that they're promised if they just make an OnlyFans account. But I do think that we are missing part of the story, especially for a certain generation of women.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
It's being my own boss. I'm actually just like an OnlyFans entrepreneur. Everything that Sami said in that first clip. But how long does that allure actually last? Like, how long does the high of attention mask the fact that you are selling your body? That you are selling the most intimate and private parts of yourself, and in some cases physical sex, to people that you do not know?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
That you don't care about? That don't care about you? Like, how long does it take until all of that wears off and you become disgusted by the people who are literally buying you? Like, genuinely. How long does it take until you think, maybe all of this should have been saved for somebody who loves me and is willing to commit to me, who wants more than just a quick orgasm?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Because that's all they want. I mean, in thinking about all of this, my mind obviously went to Lily Phillips. She is the young woman from England who went viral a couple of months ago for sleeping with 100 men in 24 hours. There was a whole documentary that was made about that entire extravaganza and just, like,
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Like, this woman, the picture that I'm trying to paint, my friends, is that this woman was incredibly famous in the 90s, was a bombshell sex icon, but is desperately trying to hold onto her fame. And that is gonna be something that is very important to remember. And the most recent iteration of this is the fact that she has been exploring a new online venture, which would be OnlyFans.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Physically, seeing the line of men outside of that apartment door who were all lining up together, waiting to get laid by the same woman, it was disgusting. And even more gross and disappointing than that was the lack of healthy protection and support around her. Nobody was checking for STDs. I mean, her damn mother is her manager setting all of this up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
And deep down, Lily Phillips, and I think a lot of these women, know that that's not right.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Did someone say that to you?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
It makes you feel bad because you're not hurting them, but you know that you're being used. They saw an ad online and they showed up to sleep with you for five minutes to be part of this game. That disassociating, that numbed feeling is because you are being used as a sex toy. You are putting your body out there to be exploited.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
And obviously, in watching the documentary, you see exactly when the allure wears off for her. Because at the end of The Hundred Men, she is not the same girl she was when she started. But I do wonder if these women, like Lily Phillips, like Denise, like all of these people, if they know why they even feel that glimmer of power from the get-go, like before it all falls apart.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
And sure, like the money and the attention and the clicks helps, but I believe that they feel that power because they know that they have something over men, that they are dominating men. Whether this is something that is intentional or is just in their subconscious, these women must know that their empowerment comes at the expense of the men who view their content.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
And I hope the men who watch porn understand that as well. You are being used. Only fans, porn, sex work. It is people taking advantage of a vice for their own gain. And usually in our modern society with who is consuming porn, it is usually women taking advantage of men. And yes, we can point fingers all day long.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
We will just end up with like the Spider-Man meme of everybody pointing at each other saying, you know, men wouldn't watch porn if women wouldn't make it like Lily Phillips is in the wrong because she had all of these men come to the apartment and sleep with her. You know, women wouldn't have to do this work if men would just not watch porn. I mean, it just goes in circles.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
None of it is productive in the slightest. We will never get anywhere because, I mean, both of those things are sort of true. I don't know which one is more true, but everybody is complicit. At the end of the day, it is up to each individual to take responsibility and have some damn self-awareness when it comes to their actions. And there obviously have been conversations about banning porn.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
I mean, just last week, there was a story that was trending about how Canada could win the tariff war against Donald Trump if they would just ban Pornhub, which is a Canadian company. This is a headline from the New York Post. Canada has nuclear weapon in trade war, ban Pornhub in the U.S. Which, by the way, that really isn't a real thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
But the way this all came about, the way that she ended up on OnlyFans is anything but normal. The fact that I'm saying that is just crazy because in my mind, anybody being on OnlyFans is abnormal, but this one in particular is pretty crazy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Obviously, they could do that, but that was just a rumor started by one person online, and then they created a petition asking Canada to do that to get back at Donald Trump. I wouldn't hate it if it was real, obviously, but just letting you know that that wasn't actually, like, a substantial thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
But I mean, already Pornhub doesn't exist in many states because they refuse to implement age verification laws. But who knows if that would ever happen on a broader scale, on a federal level, like that might not even rectify the situation. And it still doesn't actually address all of us and all of our vices.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
And so in a world where all of your vices are just readily available in front of you, whether that is alcohol, whether that is drugs or gambling or porn, You cannot sit around and go, well, I can just do it because it's in front of me. I'll just wait until daddy government comes and takes it away from me. No, you cannot wait for that in order to get better or stop. It is up to you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
It's up to you to recognize the cycle of exploitation that you are in and remove yourself. It is up to these women to know that they are getting momentary power through the exploitation of their bodies and the physical and mental degradation of men. It is also up to men to know that by consuming this content, you are numbing yourself to pleasure. You are frying your dopamine receptors.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
This is well studied. You are potentially harming a future romantic relationship that could change your life. And you are also financially contributing to an industry that exploits and even traffics women and children. That is the reality of the porn industry.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
And so when you see people like Sami Sheen and like Denise Richards, these glitzy women who are saying, oh, it's all about authenticity and empowerment, that is a lie. That is a lie that they have been told and that they tell themselves to make them feel better about their actions. Deep down, Sami Sheen knows that there was an option in between the candy shop and OnlyFans.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Deep down, Denise Richards knows that she really just wanted attention. Deep down, as a father, Charlie Sheen probably knows that what his daughter is doing is disgraceful and wrong. I mean, there is an incredible amount of self-awareness and restraint that is desperately needed in our society. And parents, have a responsibility to pass that message on to their children.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
I mean, this perfectly embodies the lies, the faux empowerment that OnlyFans and modern sex work promises, and the exploitation of the men who consume this content.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
And obviously, people like Charlie and Denise have not been doing that. And so now, it is up to us to change that, to change course. It is up to us to have the uncomfortable conversations with our peers. It is up to us to engage in even more uncomfortable self-reflection. Because at the end of the day, exploitation is exploitation.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
A vice is still a vice no matter how much you try to lie to yourself. Take it from me. Raising sustainable, healthy meat is hard. You have to keep them alive for over a year, bring them food on heavy, expensive machinery, go out in the dead of winter and crack through frozen troughs and try not to get head-butted and killed in the process. And that's before you get to butchering.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
But GoodRanchers.com makes it easy. American meat raised on local family farms delivered straight to your door, no tractor required. What could be easier?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
And of course, I need to remind you that if you are somebody who does not want to hear my incredible ad transitions, if you want a subscriber-only newsletter and a weekly advice video that is curated by your questions, please check out my subscriber-only platform, Cooper Confidential. The link is right here and also in the description below. Now, I promise to you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
An abnormal story and an abnormal story you guys are going to get. So all of this started with Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen's eldest daughter, Sammy, who decided to make an OnlyFans in 2022 very shortly, like just days after her 18th birthday. And in her words, this was because she wanted to move out and get her own apartment and working at her local candy shop just wasn't paying the bills.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
A certain generation of women that might have lost their allure a long time ago and is trying to get back some of that feeling. And I also think we're missing a conversation on who these types of sex workers are actually exploiting. We talk about how they're exploited, but we need to talk about the other side of that issue.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
I mean, imagine being her parents and listening to your daughter say, oh yeah, you know, selling my bare ass online. I'm so excited that I get to do the things that I've always wanted to do. In what world has a little girl dreamed about doing that? Well, I mean, her mother is Denise Richards, but all of that aside, this should be appalling. And I listened to this clip.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
I saw it, you know, last month and I was like, there wasn't another option. Like she's kind of joking and she's laughing at herself saying, you know, I went to the next best thing, but seriously, there wasn't something else like a normal job doing anything. You are a nepo baby. You could go be an actress. You could go direct films that your parents fund.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
There are so many other things you could do to start a business where you make your own hours that is not selling your body online on OnlyFans. Like, in what world? Is it candy store or OnlyFans? That is insane. But guys, the craziest part of this story isn't that she joined OnlyFans because the candy store wasn't cutting it. It is that 10 days later, that same year in June of 2022, her mother
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
But Denise also joined OnlyFans. Now, allegedly, she did this because Sammy was facing so much backlash for joining OnlyFans, which I really don't think was actually happening because people were paying her a lot of money. But Denise said that this was happening and that she wanted to join to show solidarity and to support her daughter.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Now, take a listen to the rest of this clip that we were just watching.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
And with all of the news about Denise Richards, her daughter, Sammy Sheen, their new reality show, I think we have to discuss this right now because the Richards-Sheen family might just be the most dysfunctional, out-of-touch, OnlyFans family in the world. And yes, I said OnlyFans family.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Why is the conversation about the fact that at 18 years old she's having to face negative comments instead of why at 18 years old is she selling her body online? Like the priorities are just completely out of whack. This is like Hollywood at its finest of these people live in a completely different world than most normal Americans.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Oh, my daughter's posting pictures of her bare ass and everybody's mad at her. Maybe you should take her out of that environment rather than putting yourself in it. I mean, you saw in the interview, she's like, damn, mom, wish you had waited. It was like 10 days after. The entire thing is so weird.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
But even though Sammy was obviously uncomfortable, because what daughter wouldn't be uncomfortable, Denise was undeterred. And in another interview, she said, quote, I'm a grown-ass woman, and I've had a lot of stuff over the years said about me, the good, the bad, you know, publicly. Even now as a grown-up, it hurts still.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
But eventually, her tune changed with the actress joining OnlyFans as well, and she said, So that is why I wanted to join OnlyFans, because I was like, who cares? So we're kind of hearing two different stories here. Like number one, she's already a sex symbol. So who cares? She's just gonna do it anyway.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
But also she didn't think it was fair that her daughter was getting all of this backlash and attention. So she just, she had to join to make sure she was supporting Her newly 18-year-old daughter. I'm sorry, this sounds like jealousy more than anything else. I think that is why Sammy was so uncomfortable, which we saw in that clip. Like, oh, mom, it's kind of weird.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Again, what daughter wouldn't feel that way? This feels like a mother, a very weird Hollywood mom that is just trying to tap into the fame that she used to have at the beginning of her career that her daughter now has. This is a woman that was once known for her sex appeal and her beauty. She is now being overshadowed by her 18-year-old daughter and she just had... to step in.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
This is so creepy on a million different levels. And I know what you guys are probably thinking, like, Brett, where did you even find all this information? Yes, I can even research this story on Ground News. And based on what Ground News showed me, this story deserves a lot more coverage than it has received.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Now, if you don't know, Ground News is a company that cuts through the noise with an unbiased perspective and shows both sides of every story, prioritizing honesty over everything, which is so refreshing in this media landscape.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Their unique technology even allows users to compare how different sides of the corporate media are reporting on a story, making sure that you see all sides and truly stay informed. And from my perspective as a creator, they make sure that I stay on top of the stories that I'm covering so that I can bring you guys the latest and most honest updates like today,
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
The fact that no one is talking about this OnlyFans story. There were only four articles on this story, and obviously there needs to be a lot more.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
And speaking of that, Ground News also has their innovative Blindspot feed, which brings you the stories that have gotten little to no coverage, making sure that you always stay informed instead of letting big tech or their algorithms decide what you see, which happens more than you would expect.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Now, if you are my age and you didn't grow up around Denise Richards, if you don't know who she is, Denise Richards is an actress, and she has a new reality TV show that has been getting a ton of press called Denise Richards and Her Wild Things, and it's on Bravo TV. It has been all over my TikTok For You page for the last... few weeks. Denise Richards was hugely famous in the 90s.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
So if you are ready to truly break free from media bias and stay informed with transparent news consumption, now is the time to join Ground News. And when you go to groundnews.com slash brett, or you can scan the QR code on the screen, you can get the same premium plan that I use, but for nearly half the price.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
That is groundnews.com slash brett if you want to get unbiased news and hold the media accountable for only $5 a month. We will be reading the same content. You will be prepared for every episode of The Brett Cooper Show. Now, Other than the fact that her name is kind of perfect for a porn star, Sammy Sheen, there is no reason that this 20-year-old should be on the site.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
I mean, she claims that it gives her this incredible freedom. I think that she's made $3 million. At this point, it's empowerment. But as I have talked about at length in my career online, that empowerment is a lie. It could not be farther from the truth. OnlyFans still to this day is presented as this feminist form of sex work. It is safe sex work, but it is still exploitation.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
You are still selling your body online. The platform does not actually protect its creators from trafficking and exploitation. We have talked about that at length. And they still own part of your content.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Even if you walk away from this industry, even if you delete everything, try to end your account, they still own these incredibly intimate things, this intimate content that you have created and put on their site. But they dupe Everyone, I mean, they even duped her father, Charlie Sheen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Now, at first, Charlie Sheen was against this very insane move, as any good father would be, and he blamed it on the fact that she was living with her mother. In an interview, he said, I do not condone this, this was back in 2022, but since I am unable to prevent it, I urged her to keep it classy, creative, and not sacrifice her integrity. She is 18 years old now and living with her mother.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
This did not occur under my roof. So he's saying this did not come from me. I do not condone this. I'm not pushing it. This is because I am not involved in her life, which I mean could be fodder for an entire episode about the importance of fathers. But Denise immediately clapped back and she said, Sammy is 18 and this decision was not based on whose house she lives in.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
All I can do as a parent is guide her and trust her judgment with but she makes her own choices. Okay, I'm sorry. Clearly, neither of you parents are guiding her as she thought her only options were working at the local candy shop or selling her ass online. That is not very good parenting.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Now, the other thing that my team pointed out as we've been doing this episode is that in listening to her talk, she, I don't know if there's a lot going on upstairs. So maybe we should be fair. Maybe those were her two only options, but I highly, highly believe that that is not
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
And what is so crazy to me, even though literally every part of the story is crazy, is that Charlie and Denise, they're still trying to play the part of responsible parents. For example, in that same sit-down interview that we had been watching clips from where they were talking about OnlyFans, they talked about something that Denise will not let her daughters do.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
And that involves her movie, The Wild Things, that this new reality TV show is based off of. It is an incredibly sexual movie. It has a super famous sex scene that involves Denise Richards. And that is a movie and a scene that they will not let their daughters watch because it is just too inappropriate. Take a listen to this clip.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
She used to be married to actor Charlie Sheen and they have three daughters together. Denise was not just some regular actress. She was a bombshell sex icon of the 90s. If you've watched all the James Bond films, you've probably seen her. She was a Bond girl. She's very well known for the film Starship Trooper.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
I mean, she's literally sitting there like rolling her eyes like, yeah, as if I would let my children watch something that is so inappropriate. Of course not. Literally, she's an actress. She is playing the role of a responsible, concerned parent. But meanwhile, everything that she is doing as a mother is just completely hypocritical. She's saying, sure, Sammy, you can go sell your body online.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
I could sell my body online as an OnlyFans creator doing sex scenes in the 90s. I can be fully nude on screen. But no, I only want you to watch the PG version because it's just so informative. I'm sorry. You are not convincing anyone that you are some good, balanced, moral parent. I mean, you would be better just sitting down and being silent like my guns thanks to Silencer Shop.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Now, I'm sure that you all know that I am a big advocate for our Second Amendment rights. I love my guns. I believe in being prepared and being responsible when it comes to owning firearms. But let's be honest, shooting can be loud and sometimes uncomfortable, and that is why I want to tell you about my friends over at Silencer Shop.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Yes, before you ask, silencers are totally legal, and Silencer Shop makes getting one easier than ever. They offer the largest selection of top brand suppressors that make your shooting experience quieter, safer, and way more fun. And whether you're hitting the range or out hunting, a suppressor can make a world of difference in your shooting experience. And don't worry about the paperwork.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Silencer Shop has got you covered. They simplify the entire process, making it hassle-free so that you can get your suppressor from the comfort of your own home. Approvals are coming back faster than ever right now, so there is no better time to get started. But here's the best part. Silencer Shop is not just about selling suppressors.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
They are actually out there fighting the good fight for our gun rights. And in these unpredictable times, I believe that it is crucial to support the companies that are standing up for our rights, specifically our Second Amendment right. And that is exactly what Silencer Shop does. They are actively lobbying, battling in courtrooms, and pushing back against anti-gun legislation nationwide.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
And so if you not only want to enhance your shooting experience, but also support a company that is fighting for you and your rights, head on over to Silencer Shop to get started today. And trust me, they give you the easiest and best way to get your suppressor. Upgrade your guns today with Silencer Shop.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
But unfortunately, guys, unlike my guns, Denise Richards is not silent in her hypocrisy, and neither is Charlie Sheen. Because this man, who was once not condoning his daughter's actions, this is so inappropriate, this did not happen under my roof, he changed his tune after learning how much money his daughter was raking in by showing her ass online. Which just, again...
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
is so ridiculous to me, because it was inappropriate, apparently, for her to put that online for free, you were so concerned, but the moment that she told you she had raked in three million dollars, suddenly, it was okay. I mean, like, what good father says that?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
She was in Love Actually and she was in the film Wild Things, which is what her new TV show is named after. And this new Bravo TV show is not her first stint on reality TV. She also did Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. She also did Denise Richards' It's Complicated, which was just an entire two-season reality TV show about her going through her divorce with Charlie Sheen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Like, oh good, men around the world are leering at my daughter and jerking off to her and she's making so much money, now I condone this decision, now this is a great idea. I mean, it's just truly insane. Now I condone this decision, now it's empowerment. And speaking of empowerment, Denise similarly parroted the same talking points that they all do. It's authenticity and it's empowerment.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
In another interview about this insane situation, she said, Once I learned that this platform is actually really empowering for the creators to be their true authentic self, I decided to join it too. That's not what the platform is about. They can lie to you all the time. It is a porn app. It is for sex work. What are you talking? I'm going to be authentic with putting my ass online.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Give me a freaking break. So again, the point that I'm making by giving you all of this backstory, showing you all of these videos, is that I don't think this was really about protecting her daughter from backlash. It was about bolstering her own image.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
She saw that Sammy was making a ton of money, that she was getting a ton of followers, that she was getting a ton of attention, and she wanted that too, which I think is the case for a lot of these older actresses, who later turned to sex work. And yes, this is a well-established trend with actresses who we might call washed up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
These are people who once held our attention, who we once admired and craved, maybe even sexualized, and they have now been pushed to the sidelines. And Denise is only one of them. Other examples are Jamie Lynn Sigler from The Sopranos, Jamie Foxxworth, who was a child actress in the 90s, actor and drummer Jack Nance. This is a male example, you know, he was facing a
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
Failing career, he was an alcoholic and he turned to porn for a quick buck, which changed his career forever. Now, the most recent example of this is Boy Meets World actress Maitlyn Ward. Maitlyn actually just made the news last week saying that she is now treated so much better as a porn actress than she ever was as a TV actress, as just a normal girl in Hollywood.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
This headline reads, Boy Meets World alum Maitlyn Ward feels like people treat me with more respect thanks to her pornography career. This is just so absurd. Like suddenly after years of no work, your career was dried up. You've got no attention. People watch shows about her. They're talking about her. They want her to write a book. Like, I don't know personally, if I would call that respect.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Selling Your a$$ Online Is Not A Good Idea | Episode 16
I think that that is you doing something shocking and people are looking, which again, if we go back to the point is probably what she wanted. That is what they all wanted. And the way that they rationalize this career move, this decision is through the lie of empowerment and authenticity, which is exactly what Denise Richards is peddling. This is bodily autonomy. It's taking control of my career.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
We need to talk about the conservatives on Grindr.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
like college lovers that was a weird way to say that but like they fell in love with in college got married they had a very very public divorce she wrote an entire op-ed about their divorce and like apparently the famous line is that she was like crying or something and she was like i'm your wife i'm not your employee and he said if you were my employee i would fire you and i got a divorce
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
The best thing is like texting you and it'll be, you know, an ungodly hour of the night or like ungodly, you know, hour of the morning. And you're up editing the video that you shot the night before. You literally do everything yourself.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
So that's one part of it. And then Grimes, which like Grimes, they got married. I think they got married or they were engaged or something. There was some more commitment there.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yes. Or at least like going into it seemed so at the get go. But throughout Ashley's pregnancy, Grimes has been tweeting Elon. They've gone through this whole custody battle. She's had to deal with the same thing, has had to publicly tweet at Elon saying, Elon, let me see my son. This is, like, not appropriate. You're not responding to any calls. Her mother got involved.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Grimes' mother was tweeting. Yes, on Twitter. Like, you think Diane is crazy? Grimes' mother was like, I'm in it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Like, two months before Ashley gave birth.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
non and so that's why the response was to ashley's post and i understand that it was very nuanced i'm not gonna like comment on something and be like like this is like you know you're getting into whatever and a child is a blessing regardless and i hope that the child is healthy well nothing but for the best but for that child yes and i hope that everything is resolved for her sake and for the child's sake i hope that everything is great i hope that they get the privacy that the child deserves and that her other coach actually has another child with um i think her ex-husband
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
So for both of those children, all I want is the best. I think that's what most people online want. But it was this weird thing where it was like, some people, it was very clear that they were just saying, hey, I'm glad you're okay. I had no idea that you were going through this. I hope you had a healthy pregnancy. You know, hope you're doing well. Hope the baby's okay. Congratulations.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
But then there were other people who were basically just like crawling up Elon's ass.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Because they didn't want to like, they won't criticize him. And I think that you can... You should be able to pull out somebody's accomplishments and say, obviously, we both drive Teslas. It's like you are an amazing innovator. You have changed the course of mankind seriously. You are now intimately involved in our political system in a great way.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
In my opinion, Doge is like the best thing that Trump is doing. And has, I mean, it's like the libertarian's dream. It's like it's brought everybody together, truly. And that is incredible, but you should be able to separate that and be like, okay, those things are great, but also we can criticize him for being like, this is not traditional. It's not healthy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
It's amazing. It's incredible.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
la fires who's going in there and giving all of la free wi-fi yeah he's a humanitarian on so many levels and is i think in my opinion is using science the way it should be used i'm not a big fan like the neural link stuff freaks me out but in terms of using the things that he has created that are moving humankind and technology forward and that he's the first person there he always beats the government he is incredibly incredibly generous with what he offers
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
for free like that's incredible and so i think it's fine it's good to say that but you also because of that you don't need to like excuse his behavior as a father or say that it's like fine or those like the you know patriarchy bros or whatever you want to call them on x who are like this is what a real man does this like doesn't commit to a woman and so to see i'm like
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
They're like, it's Genghis Khan. Was Genghis Khan a good person?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Is this the new theory? Is Elon gay?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
What is that process been like diving into something that you like? This wasn't a career for you before this. You were working in marketing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
That's a mirror. That's going to be my headline.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
But I also, there's probably more. Considering that, based on the New York Post article, that he wanted his name taken off the birth certificate.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
So I think there are other ones.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah, and money does not equate to a stable family. Money does not replace a father.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
You're not okay.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Did you know that up to 80% of women experience hormone imbalance symptoms at some point in their lives, including reproductive cycle disruptions, metabolism changes, bloating and weight gain, mood swings, acne, and hair damage. Hormone imbalance is one of the most urgent women's health crises of our time.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Millions are affected with conditions like PCOS on the rise, disrupting daily life for many women, especially among Gen Z and millennials. But not all women realize that the gut microbiome plays a foundational role in hormone regulation and its downstream effects.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Taking a high quality clinically supported probiotic is a simple, effective, and affordable option for women seeking to help stabilize hormone imbalance.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah. Completely different. And you've had to teach yourself all of this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And that is why I am so excited to be partnered with Daily Nori because Daily Nori is reshaping the conversation around the gut microbiome and this connection to hormone health with the unveiling of its first of its kind daily hormone balanced probiotic. Each capsule contains a blend of seven probiotic strains to support hormone regulation through improved estrogen metabolism.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
So women, if you are ready to take control of your hormone health, then go to dailynori.com and use code BRETT25 for 25% off your first order. I've been taking their supplements for a few months now. I love them. I especially love their stress supplement in addition to this one. You guys are going to love it. Again, dailynori.com. That is D-A-I-L-Y-N-O-U-R-I.com.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
BRETT25 at checkout for 25% off your first order.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
but no i think that you're absolutely correct and it's unfortunate that all of it is playing out publicly i say speak out of two sides of my mouth and i always do this because it's like this probably should be public but since it is i'm going to fully enjoy it i'm going to enjoy every single second of it every single comment i feel like wendy williams which i also want to talk about wendy williams i feel like was kind of before my time so people who don't know she was this like daytime host
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Was like famous for like pop culture, but also like family drama.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
It was like crazy tea. I was watching like Candace is all over my TikTok.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yes. And her show, she always had the craziest things on it. And she all like her favorite line was like, allegedly, there are things on. Because she would say insane stuff that was like not confirmed at all. You don't want to get sued. I know. There are like 10 minute compilations of her on YouTube. Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
So that's Wendy Williams. She was put under conservatorship and is locked in. In a, it's not a rehab place. It's like a brain.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yes. In New York City. She has not left for over 30 days. Has not seen the sun. She had this business manager, I think. And I don't remember if it was her former one or there was a new person, but somebody was making purchases from her account on her behalf.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yes. And she also, some context that my good friend Candace phoned over to me is that because she knows everything about all of the celebrity gossip.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
somehow was that wendy had gone through a divorce it was apparently like very traumatic and she had kind of her life had evolved into drugs and alcoholism and she was doing a lot of reckless spending so apparently she was spending a lot and then there was some other spending that was not accounted for right and wells fargo with the help of this new business manager that she had been assigned to said this isn't normal and they including wells fargo allegedly put her in this conservatorship because of the way that she was spending her own money
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
But they have the power. They have the power. That's why so many conservatives have been freaked out for so long, rightfully so, like Bank of America, you know, canceling accounts.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Oh my gosh, yes. Remember the truckers in Canada, they like shut down the accounts.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
So that's why it doesn't make sense.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And how do they get put in the conservatorship? The other thing is that allegedly her son, her son is apparently involved in this. Yeah. And she's now called out her son for spending a bunch of money.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And that ticking off part of the Wells Fargo stuff.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah. But that was like proved that was before 30 days ago because she said that she hadn't been outside for 30 days. But then the other thing is that I don't know if it was her PR person or like a family member or whatever, but they leaked the story that she was in like a comatose state. that she was, like, mentally not there and that she, like, Alzheimer's or something, was basically dying.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And all of these, like, very unflattering photos of her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yes. And so everybody was like, oh, my gosh, Wendy, now it makes sense what's going on. But then she popped up last week doing an interview through her bougie prison. She was on the phone with this guy, which, by the way, I would kill to do an interview like this. I just think it would be hysterical. She's standing up at the window, slapping on the window, being like, I'm in here –
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
crying and everything yes and but then the best part of that interview they're like talking about the conservatorship that she wants to get out all of this stuff and then he asks her like random questions about celebrities because she hasn't been able to like comment on celebrities in so long and he asks her about JLo and she just basically for like 30 seconds just goes so hard on JLo for all of her awful marriages
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
I know. It's great. So she's back. I listened to that and I was like, oh, she's all there. She's like crazy as usual.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yes. In so many of those conservatorships, it seems like...
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
they go in one way and exit another britney spears britney had issues beforehand never really came back from the shaved head no but part of the conservatorship there's a difference between um a guardianship and a conservatorship i would know this unfortunately due to my family the fact that i'm involved in a guardianship not mine i am somebody's but with a guardianship you can't
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
You can't force somebody to take meds. You can't force them to do any kind of medical treatment. You are just there to be a support system. You can have access to their medical records. If they are an adult, you're there to basically provide the safe boundaries that they need.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah, if they need things, doctors call you, whatever. You can advise and you can, like, push. And if you need to, like, push the state to make things happen, you can. But you don't have full authority over this individual's life. With a conservatorship, they can make Wendy take drugs.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yes. They're like, you cannot leave this facility. We will medicate you like this. With Britney Spears, that's why there's this huge conspiracy, which feels real to me, that she was medicated to the point of, like, no return. The anti-psychotics, like, they... will ruin your body.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And then there's this whole argument of, like, should she have been, like, there's a lot of people, especially on the right, who are very against Britney getting out of her conservatorship. And they were like, so many things happen after the fact. But it was like, was that because she got out?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
I love it. And I'm so proud of you. I do think, since you brought up the black and gay community, we need to talk. We need to talk about the conservatives on Grindr.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
It's just crazy. I don't think many people know the effects of antipsychotics. I mean, it is like the most intense drugs, and why would they? But it's like the most intense drug that you can take. I've watched my brother. I was tweeting about this recently because a lot of people were talking about SSRIs. You know, RFK Jr. wants to...
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
expose SSRIs once they do exercise on them which I think is very very healthy and antipsychotics are like a step up obviously from that huge leap up it's a very difficult thing to watch when somebody relies on those meds but you know how disastrous they can be like my brother has had like full body paralysis from these meds he has lost the ability to like speak and write and whatever because of the side effects I mean it's like in every single one and not even just that but you add on all those layers of all the side effects and what the drugs can do
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And it's very rare that you only take antipsychotics. Usually it is a cocktail of other things.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
This is an insane thing that Amir tells me about. And I was like, we finally need to sit down and talk about it. So we go to like, you know.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And. There are no lifestyle changes. That was something I was talking with Alex about.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah, and that should be the medical industry's responsibility to encourage that. And I think that's the main point of what RFK is doing in regards to SSRIs is like this should not be step one. There should be other conversations that happen prior to that about your lifestyle, about the things that you're doing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah. I mean, you see videos of women after they give birth in hospitals and, like, the food that they're given, which is disgusting. And I think about the food. You know, my brother – I don't know if I – I think I talked about this recently on Alive. Somebody had asked me about Reed. That's my brother. Mm-hmm.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
and i was talking about him because he had been in the hospital for three years straight and part of it was like on the tail end of covid and he so we couldn't see him and we didn't have access to him but like thinking about the foods that he ate and like there were no lifestyle changes he was in a hospital for three years with these incredibly incredibly high-powered
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Conferences, whatever. Amir's favorite thing to do is to, don't you like a burner Grindr account or something?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
drugs with awful side effects and no lifestyle changes and now that he's out it's like the hospital food does not look nutritious no well it's not it's like i look at it like he spent three years and nothing changed it was like that was prime opportunity in a confined and i hate saying that but a confined controlled environment of like this would be a great opportunity to encourage change almost force it in a way because you're there you might as well
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah. And it's just a missed opportunity for sure. Okay. Talking about insane families though. I need to go back to Elon Musk for a second. Do you know about his dad?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
His mother is very cool. May Musk.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Fantastic. Like very supportive of him. Beautiful. Seems very supportive of all the baby mamas. Like Siobhan, who's the most recent, actually not most recent because of Ashley, but like second to last. Yes. Like she posts pictures of the kids and Mae's like, oh, so sweet, whatever. Like my angels, whatever.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
The dad. So he and Mae get a divorce, marries another woman who has a daughter named Jana. I believe that's how you pronounce it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
he gets in a relationship with his former stepdaughter they have two children together elon musk yes who has children with who elon musk's father has two children with his stepdaughter and he's a south far from the tree he's a south african politician it makes sense when you put it all together like this man was never did they get married and stuff i actually don't know should i look it up like is this like a whole like this sounds nasty
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
It's like Woody Allen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
At these conservative events.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Well, they are leaving each other. They're keeping it in the family.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah, he was 45. And oh, oh, my gosh. Wait, no, this is even crazier. He was 45. He married 25 year old Heidi, raised her daughter, Jana, from the age of four.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
It's dramatic.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Raised it. And then in 2014, reconnected years later.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And sparked a romantic relationship after he helped her, quote, get over a breakup.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah, Errol Musk raised Jana Besidenhout from the age of four.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
It's like, don't, so now my, I mean, I think I already had this opinion. Look, Elon Musk, it's like, if you're getting asked out by him, if he's saying I want to, like, apparently he, like, slides into girls' DMs and is like, want to have a kid? Like, want to help me want to revobulate? You know that you're not getting the king of the nuclear family, not an engaged father.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Scale back even more, the evidence is all there.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
It is about the individual... And the insane choices they make across the board, we should be able to say, this is insane behavior. This is unhealthy. This is inappropriate. Don't do that around kids.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Well, I feel like you also end up in a unique position, and you can talk about this, of like, you know, you are a gay conservative and there are a lot of conservatives who do not, you know, respect you and your lifestyle choices, whatever you're doing. Yeah. Even though you are minding your own business, doing you, doing your husband.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Which is why you're so great because you don't care. And the other thing that's wonderful about you and your content is that regardless of the hate that you get, you always approach things and you've been a great influence on me. And I think you're always somebody who I like go back to and I like tap into that because you are kind of lodged in the middle of all of this stuff.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Is that you approach everything with genuine empathy and looking to understand rather than change minds.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Which just feeds into this whole, you know, hypocritical – I don't know why I said it that way. But the hypocritical nature of so many people in this movement, which I feel like is just on –
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
No, those are coming back. I mean, we, I'm... That's like a whole... There was this couple that went viral, like, two months ago. And it's this gay man and a lesbian woman. And they were like, yeah, we're getting married. And they are, they said they're soulmates. But they're also attracted to each other.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Now, you all know that I am a big advocate for our Second Amendment rights, and I believe in being prepared and being responsible when it comes to firearms. But let's be honest, shooting can be loud. It can be sometimes uncomfortable. And that is why I want to tell you about my friends over at Silencer Shop.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
full display right now yeah and it's like people are free to do whatever they want in their life and more power to you you have the freedom as a consenting adult to do whatever you want with your life but it's ridiculous to espout one thing online and then not only to espout it but to shame people for something and then you're doing it on the down low that's the biggest frustration from i've always said that trans women yeah trans women have more balls than conservative men yeah
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And yes, guys, silencers are totally legal and Silencer Shop makes getting one easier than ever. They offer the largest selection of top brand suppressors that make your shooting experience quieter, safer, and way more enjoyable. Whether you are hitting the range or out hunting, a suppressor can make a world of difference. And don't worry about the paperwork. I know that there's a lot of it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
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The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
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The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
So if you want to enhance your shooting experience and support a company that is fighting for your rights, head on over to Silencer Shop to get started today. And trust me, they are the easiest and best way to get your suppressor. So upgrade your guns today with Silencer Shop. Do you think the victimization and the need for attention especially
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
a club almost people put on these identities like it's a costume yeah literally well they like a lot of literally and it's like you you immediately join you immediately get to be a minority you immediately special yeah it's special i'm part of a club i'm just but i do wonder if that comes from a place of i just did a whole episode about like gen z loneliness and millennials and gen z's are especially gen z
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
are historically isolated, historically lonely. And every generation has been lonely. But it's like with COVID, with the insurgence of technology, and the fact that we were literally raised online, it's just very different. And all of our social norms are completely disrupted by this technological revolution.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Except I have a friend, old friend of mine from LA who went so far as to get top surgery, left bottom, microdose testosterone to physically be. I know, and it's just like heartbreaking.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yes. And with it being the immediate solution rather than going back to the SSRIs of like it's the band-aid solution. But it is a band-aid solution you can't come back from. It's not like.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Because up until just a couple of years ago, this was in the DDSM as a psychological condition, as something that you would work through. Obviously, because if you are – like 20 years ago, if somebody came into a therapist's office and said, I want to cut off my body parts, I want to cut off my ding-a-long and my boobs and whatever, that would be like, oh my gosh, let's handle this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And let's figure out what is the root cause here. And let's help you because that's not healthy nor – Is that, you know, you can't have a fulfilled, good, healthy life if you're walking through hating yourself and wanting to cut off your body parts.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
They might be gay, but they're also kids going through puberty.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
That's why the amount of kids who transition, the majority of them are girls.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Well, I'm sure it's, like, they're bad in different ways. But, again, nobody likes it. But for girls, I think that there is this, like, your body's changing. Some, like, develop sooner than you. Like, I remember being this, like, weird ugly duckling. And I matured faster. But I...
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
was like a green bean and I had this awful like bowl cut with bangs and I looked so ugly and was so weird but I was like tall and suddenly I was like developing and everything was so weird and I was like I just want to cover up and this is so awful and it's so uncomfortable and I was like sort of getting attention from guys but also not and there were girls of my age that were like voluptuous and like engaging their sexuality and everything is confusing especially with the growth of social media and you see these 15 year olds that are made up to the nines look grown
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And not even just like pageant queens of, you know, whatever when you kind of do that as a caricature, literally look grown, are getting boob jobs before they're 18. All of this stuff, it's completely destroyed childhood because at 15 you were still a child. Puberty is supposed to be awkward. It is supposed to be uncomfortable. It is an awful time.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And we have taken these kids who are obviously uncomfortable in their bodies.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And it's like, oh, you're trans.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Rather than holding their hands through it and going, you're going through what every other human being on earth has gone through. You're not special.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And they also want to be part of the community.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
In the club.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah, the celebrities who are like, oh, all my daughter, you know, I have two trans daughters and all their friends are.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Is that Celine? Oh, no. Charlize Theron. Is that one?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
No, actually. Well, that is actually a great example. Okay, so Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, their daughter, Shiloh, dressed up, major tomboy, dressed up as a boy for years. Every transition, everybody always wondered. She reminded me of myself. She had this bowl cut she would wear, big baggy cargo pants, whatever.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Randomly, a year and a half ago maybe, she showed up at a premiere with Angelina in a full dress looking absolutely stunning.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And they let her grow up. They let her grow up. They let her grow through it, dress how you want.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
take that what was happening put that in today's time frame maybe would have been trans yeah or like put on puberty blockers but instead just let the child be like just yeah explore through life and boom the person that i was thinking of i don't remember i know who you are thinking of with like where all of their kids are trans but the one that i was thinking of is the redheaded woman from sex in the city and she has i think like two trans kids and then she was up speaking after trump was elected she was like oh
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
I don't like these threads. You're attacking them. Whatever. Like holding onto this microphone, crying. She was like, they're all like, yes. Dwayne Wade used to be Alex's favorite basketball player. And now he's like burning all of his Dwayne Wade jerseys. There's this family on YouTube. I think that they might be in the UK. And it's this dad.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah. Dad and the little tiny boy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And you've watched it over like four years.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And make yourself the center of it. That's the way. I mean, all of it is weird. Like putting your kids on like whatever. But the dad is like.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yes. And loves the attention. And, you know, all of the like thunderous applause.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
You're such an amazing dad. And you're so, you're like, I wish my father had been like you. And you're so inclusive. Whatever. And it's like you are.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Okay, with all of this stuff going on in the world, and you talk about it on your channel all the time, but what are your hopes for young people right now with all of this freaking insanity?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Amir, thanks for coming on the show.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
How do you get the confidence to block out a lot of that and block out that pressure and the noise from people that want to box you in?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
I also think something that you've done that I think a lot of people can learn from and I hope they learn.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
see in you kind of touches on what you just said but keeping your head down and focusing on the things that are important to you and your goals that inherently allows you to block out a lot of the noise if you're focused on your work and what you care about in the world and making yourself a better person and breaking through stereotypes being the person that breaks the patterns in your family which is always been my number one goal like I always thought about like I'm not going to be you know just another like notch in the belt I'm not going to do what my family's done it makes it very easy not to care
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah, it's the saying one thing and doing another. Did you see the whole Patriarchy Hannah scandal on X? No. Okay, so this is like not the same thing, but sort of is. So there's this woman and she went by Patriarchy Hannah on X and she was a non-account, a non. And she was like super trad, had this husband Tony. It was crazy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Well, that's why your content is so great, because it's not just about politics and about cultural issues. I was actually asked that. I was doing something with the New York Times yesterday, and she was really honing in on, she was like, I just feel like you're political, but you're not political. I was like, because I don't care about the political wins.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
You talk about making people better and inspiring them. I was like, well, that's really what it's about.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
That's why people respond to you. And we're going to keep growing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Oh, yes. It's funny that we're ending it. We should have started with this. So I was alone and sad at UCLA and had no friends because I had just told them I wasn't voting for Bernie or Biden. And in the primaries, I was like, I'm actually going the other direction. And I had gotten in contact with PragerU in Los Angeles.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And my mom had found you on Instagram and was like this. You need to be friends with Amir Odub. This is like the greatest guy. She loved all of your slides.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And you flew out to L.A. for the premiere of Will Witt's environmental documentary, for being you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
and the reason i went was to meet you insane yeah i had a little like orange sun dress i was like i'm gonna go meet amir and we have that picture that is so crazy yes and yeah we became friends ever since i remember like dming you and being like i really like your work and then yeah we stayed in touch and then daily wire moved me out to nashville and i knew that you were living in franklin at the time but i wasn't exactly sure and so i gave you we went to north italia and like
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
That means so much coming from you. And I would say the same to you on an even bigger level because you've literally done it by yourself from day one, which is just so impressive. You're going to keep growing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
But I was going to say, I think that one thing that is a unique value to what we do is that, at least in my perspective, I feel like I make myself better every single time I get behind the camera and talk about a new story.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
crazy so like I was going through her account and I was like how do people believe that this is real first of all because she would always post about how her husband was this contractor and they had bought an abandoned town somewhere in the middle of the country and they named it Tony Town because her husband's name is Tony so they would joke about Tony Town and Tony had this like tiny little Twitter account but this woman Patriarch Hannah was allegedly 37 years old with 14 kids
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Because it's like, I'm not going to sit here and be so hypocritical and tell people, oh, I think this is how you should live your life if I'm not evaluating that on a daily basis. It's like the stories that both of us cover and the research we do, it makes me smarter. It makes me more interested about the world. It's my favorite thing about this. It's so much fun.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
I feel like I'm a much better person than I was three years ago.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
It's very different than my last interview, we were just saying. But that's what I kind of wanted. I wanted to shoot the shit with you. How is your YouTube channel going? You're crushing it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah. I'm just... Because you know if you turn on the camera and you are... not being a hundred percent you, or if you're lying about something, I mean, you feel like, you feel like, I know.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
That's one of the reasons why it was so important to me to, you know, make this big career switch because it was like, if I'm talking to people constantly about swinging for the fences and taking big risks in their lives and fighting for what you believe in, And, you know, betting on yourself. And I'm sitting here and I'm telling young people, like, take that risk. Do the thing that scares you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
It's like I was looking around me. I was like, oh, my God, I have to like it's my turn now. It's cool that the that you guys hold us accountable in an awesome way.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Everybody go follow Amir and subscribe to his channel. Maybe we can get you to 600. Oh my gosh.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
This is great. We can just start a daytime show. We're going to replace Wendy Williams.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
I need to self-promote.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Alex told me I don't promote myself enough.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
I know. BrettCooperShop.com if you want our awesome hats and our awesome hoodie.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
There you go. This is the second Brett Cooper merch promo you've been required to be in.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Well, you can keep it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
How do you guys like the merch?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
That she had adopted. Homeschooled all of them. Being a good submitting.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Just wait. Just wait. Like submitting to her husband Tony. Living in Tony Town. Where they had like moved their whole family. She also said that she had been sex trafficked as a child. Had like survived lupus. I think all of this stuff. So that's why they had adopted these 14 kids. She would post about this all the time. She would be in Twitter spaces at like 3 a.m.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And there were a few people who called out like. This is kind of odd.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Like you have 14 kids and you have time to be on a Twitter space at like 3 a.m. It's a bit odd. Yeah. Somebody has time. But he's not spending time with any of his kids. This lady is, like, pretending like she's being some, like, homeschool mom. So all of this is happening. Meanwhile, she's shaming other women for not being as trad as her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
My favorite story is that you got a cease and desist from Beyonce.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And not just, this was not an account that would just post things like, this is what I believe, you know, traditional marriage is. Because there are those accounts. I follow some of those. And it's like, you know, they're frolicking in the fields in their sundresses, sourdough, whatever. The trad aesthetic. That's fine. This woman would literally be in people's replies and quote tweeting them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
kind of like pearl-esque but on the other side of the aisle of like literally attacking women and shaming them and saying like you're not christian enough you're not biblical enough you're like i'm just your husband must be disgusted with all of this stuff and it created this whole like veil of shame but she had also created this entire community she had a discord
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
women would dm her and they would like become friends and because she had said that she had been sex trafficked all of this stuff they would like they would open up to her all of the stuff she never shared a real photo of herself and she always she would give people her phone number but she would never get on facetime and some people would be like guys again like i was saying like this kind of weird like why like this doesn't add up and everybody else in the trad community would be like
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Oh, you, like, you're, you know, jealous of her because she has it all together. Anyway, finally came crashing down this guy named Ryan Duff, or Duffy, I believe, on X. Did a whole expose on Valentine's Day exposing her. She has no kids. She's not married to Tony.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
She lives with her parents. The photos that she posted of their home was various different pictures from different Zillow listings. The one photo that she did show somebody was from another woman's Facebook page. She lives with her parents and apparently has done...
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
different forms of like porn and so she and she was like collecting like memberships from people and like giving all of this advice and so the entire like trad community on right-wing twitter which just feels so dystopian of me to be like even saying that this niche community on right-wing twitter broke apart like all hell broke loose because they were like how could how could somebody be saying one thing and doing the other that's actually insane yes
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
It's everywhere. It's on the left as well. The left is hypocritical in nature.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And I think in attacking the left and calling out the left, we probably have ignored some of that on our own side.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And so I think there's kind of a reckoning with that, which is the same thing with the Ashley St. Clair thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Elon pregnancy which is a whole can of worms and a lot of different topics but people were very quick to like pull up her old tweets where she was saying I want to just have like a husband and two kids and live on a farm and like talking about single motherhood and all this stuff and shaming people for like you know having babies in broken homes and this that and the third and it's like unfortunate and I feel for her because I think she's probably locked in some like insane deal with him and she's dealing with like postpartum hormones and I'm sure that she felt like stuck so she did what she had to do but it's also like sort of
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Didn't you know what you were – She wanted this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And I love the fact that you, for people who don't know me or story, you blew up on YouTube first, right? Like back in 2020 for your video, like I'm a black gay man. This is why I don't fear the police.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
That she – with Greg Price.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
She tweeted at Greg Price saying, like, I need Elon's info so I can have his baby or something like that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
He's gone from all the students life and so unfortunate and the other thing is like if you read the second New York Post article which first of all everybody was saying like Don't go ahead.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
That's why a lot of people were shaming her at the get-go from that first post. And I was – I didn't feel that way at all. I was like, hey, if, you know, people are hounding her and she wants to get it out there, I'm sure there's a lot of pressure, especially with this guy who's, like, so wealthy and so powerful and is apparently, like, not returning any calls or doing whatever.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Like, what's going on? When it took a turn for me was when her PR person made a statement from his personal account. Did you see that?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Like, in the same, like, Canva –
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
layout made a post from his personal account this is ghetto it's fitting an african-american family this is this is it just like it got so weird and then immediately the new york post thing came out and then there was a second new york post one where she's like she feels jilted for him not responding i'm like i think just make the post and just shut it down and walk away walk away
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
I thought that you made a viral YouTube video too.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
that's the like also with like apologies like don't apologize for anything like put out what you believe say what you want say with your chest and then just like walk away no apologies put out what you want say with your chest or like just don't say anything at all like beyonce shouldn't say she doesn't say anything we need to talk about beyonce how many country beyonce tours your country don't start
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Are you going to wear the like Daisy Duke shorts or are you going to wear pants?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
How many did you go to last year?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Okay for people who don't know you're obsessed Beyonce. Could you give me your brief thesis for why you love Beyonce?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
like it's just been a whole life thing and like she has different songs that just mean so many different things and i can listen to some songs to break down crying like you've seen i just start crying listening to it's incredible i think at some point you should have a full compilation of like baby amir and then like you in the pit at all for concerts like just working doing backflips and then sobbing yeah i do do that too you do it's like a spectrum of there's like lots of tears and breakdowns and dancing
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And that's it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yeah, you have your lemonade tattoo.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
My favorite story is that you got a cease and desist from Beyonce.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
But I feel like when you got that letter, it was like, does she know who I am?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
When did she call you out at the concert last summer?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
I love it. It's like the best part of the Amir lore.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
I know. You haven't brought Jamal out today. I thought you would with the Elon thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
I know. Well, going back to the Elon thing and the fatherlessness, the other thing that stuck out about the Ashley Sinclair was that while she was pregnant, and this makes me feel for her, but also I'm like, if you were, because I think they were actually in a relationship. I don't think this was an IVF.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Based on the, like, one of five New York Post articles that, you know, came out that I read, they, like, met through Babylon Bee the night they met. He, like, slid into her DMs. They were talking. Look at that face.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
He's old. No offense to anybody who's in their 50s, but, like, sliding into a... Exactly. Somebody, yeah, 25-year-old. DM's 24 at the time, I think.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yes. But, I mean, have you seen... What is his name? Is my husband here? Alex? Bill Belichick. Is that his name? Belichick. That is the former coach of the Patriots. Boom. God, I know sports. Sports. That's like the famous like Tom Brady era coach. Have you seen, he's like 70 years old. Have you seen his girlfriend?
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yes. It's like a former, I think like NFL cheerleader or something like that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
I know. So again, it's like, it's weird thinking about, but also people go for it. This is like a tale as old as time.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
So do it. Go after your bag, whatever. Just know what you're getting into. And this is not a man that is going to prioritize a nuclear family. He's never said that is something he prioritized. He wants to sow his seeds, sow the crops.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
I'm pulling up a picture. Don't worry.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
Yes, sir. Man, she bad. I know. She's like, I got that chick done.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
No, he's trying to repopulate Mars.
The Brett Cooper Show
Elon Musk Baby Drama & Fake Trad Wife Accounts Exposed | Episode 8
And you've seen – like, there was a whole – his first divorce, which, by the way, he married a woman, Justine Winter. She still goes by Musk. So Justine Musk. They have five kids together. One, I believe, passed away at, like, two weeks old, which I think really fractured their relationship, which is a really tragic story. But they were –
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
There is truly nothing more unserious than a bunch of female celebrities flying into space in a dong-shaped ship while claiming that they're astronauts saving humanity. But alas, that is 2025.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Like, we don't care about the celebrities even calling it out. We would rather you just stay in your bubble looking hot and being not relatable. That would actually be the best thing you could do for all of us. Now, obviously, because of the social media firestorm and the PR nightmare, as Bethany was talking about, these astronauts could not stay in their bubble for very long.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And sooner or later, they did have to start addressing some of these very valid criticisms. And this is really where Gayle King took center stage. Katy Perry really caused the problem, but Gayle was like, no, no, no, don't worry. I'm going to go out there. I want to fix this situation. And you know what she did? She told all of us that actually all of the criticisms were just misogynistic.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Like they experienced zero gravity and weightlessness for about three minutes. And they did all of this in a spaceship that literally looks like a Wang. Like even their graph here looks like just the tip, which is basically what they did. They just got to the tip of space and then they came back down. Like basically in less scientific terms, this was the flight.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
It was. It literally was. Katy Perry was flying around with Daisy, showing us all her set list. You were talking about girl power. You were in sexy spacesuits. I think that that is about as silly and frivolous as something could be.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
I mean, Gail, something that is actually misogynistic in our world right now is people thinking that I can't grill a steak, which actually I can't, which is why Alex manages all of the good ranchers in our house. Now for anyone out there who is worried about the tariffs affecting them at the grocery store, do not worry anymore because Good Ranchers is completely tariff proof.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
But back to the point, Gayle calling this entire thing misogynistic and now pitting men against women, it is so predictable. Like, not liking anything that somebody does in 2025 immediately means that you are misogynistic, you are transphobic, you are a bigot, you are a racist, a fascist, whatever the word of the day is. But nobody cares anymore. Like, we are over it.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
We're over it because we realize that those words have been diluted down to basically mean nothing. Like, I'm sorry, people being against you doesn't actually mean that they are a bad person. They might just be calling you out for something that was not done in good taste, that maybe you should have thought twice about doing.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
But even though that was ridiculous, that was not even the best part of Gayle's response to these criticisms. To really drive in the knife and illuminate the disparities between the classes, especially in this economic environment, she said this.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
She's literally saying, have you been to space? All of the people that are criticizing her, that are criticizing Katy Perry and Lauren Sanchez, have you been to space? If you haven't, you can't talk about this. So you go ahead. You go ahead and pay a million dollars and go to space, and then we can talk. I mean, Gayle, that is the most tone-deaf thing you could have said.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
You just made this PR crisis a hundred times worse. I think that her response there was really what did it for people. Like, that was just the end of this entire thing, and it also kind of did it for something else, which leads me to what might be the only positive outcome of this journey, this flight. I'm not going to say ride, to not offend Gayle King.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
But that would be the potential death of pop feminism. And this pop feminism, that's the feminism that lacks all real substance. It grew out of women feeling bored 20 years ago and feeling like they needed to have some kind of fight and purpose because their lives were actually better than they had ever been, ever. It was the feminism that was about
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
girl power and things like taking up space and being connected to Mother Earth and having belonging. Like, people are done with that because it means nothing. And it's hilarious watching people on both sides of the issue of the political aisle help destroy this once and for all. For example, one NBC reporter wrote, space tourism is not feminism. It is consumer capitalism at its most inaccessible.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Just the tip, just the tip into space for Gayle King and Katy Perry. Now, I will not knock these women completely. Like going into space is obviously not a walk in the park. Would I ever do it? Abso-freaking-lutely not. I will not even get in a helicopter. So there is no way that I would be throwing myself into space even if it was only for 11 minutes.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Businesses have for decades tried to sell us on this form of what feminist writer Andy Zeisler has called superficial marketplace feminism. Monday's historic mission is nothing less than a show of identity politics thinly cloaking the American capitalist impulse of the more is better mentality.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
The glamour shots of the six women in their suits looking serious but sexy, their partly unzipped suits flashing just a bit of skin, are proof of how this faux feminism mutilates real feminist politics and turns it into an aesthetic posture. So in this writer's mind, this stunt is taking away from the real issues.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
This faux feminism, this pop feminism is taking away from serious things that women should be talking about, which I think is something that everyone can agree on. Now where we would probably disagree is what those real issues are based on the fact that she's talking about real feminist politics. I'm guessing we would not be on the same page on any of that.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
But the undertone of what she is saying rings true. Now, in some other writers' minds, this also signifies the misogyny of Trump's America. And yes, that is also coming from somebody who is against this girl power, is against the Blue Origin flight. This person in The Guardian wrote, It is not misogynistic to say that these women do not have their priorities in order.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Rather, it is misogynistic of them to so forcefully associate womanhood with cosmetics and looks, rather than with any of the more noble and human aspirations to which space travel might equate them. Curiosity, inquiry, discovery, exploration, and a sense of their own mortality, an apprehension of the divine.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
These women, who have placed themselves as representatives for all women with their promotion of the positioning themselves as aspirational models of femininity, have presented a profoundly anti-feminist vision of what womankind's future is. Dependent on men, confined to triviality, and deeply, deeply silly. Is this the future that awaits women in Donald Trump's America?
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
One where the only way to achievement is through sexual desirability? The only way to status as an ornamental attachment on a man who really counts? The only subject on which we are qualified to speak is whether lash extensions will stay in place.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
It's like so comical on so many different levels because this is not a conversation about Donald Trump whatsoever, and yet people will always tie it back to the big bad orange man. Donald Trump had no involvement in this whatsoever. His society, the world that we're living in, like that, it's not about him. It's about ridiculous women trying to make themselves feel important.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
So last Monday, we all watched as Blue Origin took its 31st flight into orbit with an all-female crew, which included Katy Perry and Gayle King, aka Oprah's best friend, because that's the only reason we know Gayle King, and Lauren Sanchez, who is Jeff Bezos' fiancée. And guys, this flight into space was propped up as some sort of
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And again, I'm kind of getting off track because that is where I disagree with this writer, but This writer is very angry, but it's also kind of accurate because these women were completely dependent on men who built this spacecraft. Most of us are. Frankly, we all are because men built civilization. They built the homes that we live in. They built the studio that I am recording in.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
They built the cars that we drive, the spaceships that all of these rich celebrities are flying around in. But the difference is I choose to acknowledge that and celebrate it and be grateful for that and not turn around and say, oh, I can't believe we're being dependent upon these men. Just the truth.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Because if it weren't for men, these women would not be able to go on their silly little bachelorette space trip. And on that note, this tweet killed me. Bezos has carried out the most base metaphor of the century.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
But this 11 minute trip is certainly not what it was made out to be, nor did it really have the impact that they hoped for. Because while they were screeching about girl power and taking up space and inspiring women, we have been making fun of them for over a week.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
A bunch of glammed up chicks with no real world skills get to just kick back in the space pod and enjoy the view while the unseen men do all the work to make sure that it goes right and that they don't die horribly. I mean, it's kind of right. Now, obviously I'm not saying that these women have no skills. They obviously do. Some of them are actually scientists.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Lauren Sanchez is actually a pilot, but the message still rings true. Like they're saying that they're doing all of this for women because women, that women are so important when they literally just went on a sexy joyride. Now, back to that blurb from The Guardian, all the political pandering about Donald Trump aside, she does have a point.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Like, is that how women want to be represented in the world? It's certainly not how I want to be represented. Because for me, this just makes all of us look bad. For me, it just signifies how silly and unnecessary feminism or even feminist politics actually are. Because we live in a world now where you have six rich, educated women flying to space for fun. in sexy spacesuits.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
We have so few problems that they are literally making them up to make themselves feel important while they go on a glorified amusement park ride. Women are already taking up space. We're doing incredibly well. We are dominating the workforce. We are outpacing men in terms of academia and salary. We are making so much money. The space has been taken.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
We literally have dominated the entire space and while this space trip might be the final nail in the coffin of this pop marketplace feminism. It certainly has been dying for a while because of this fact. Everybody is looking around at the world and going, actually, we don't really have anything to fight for. This is all kind of ridiculous. We're pulling things out of our ass.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Like, this is genuinely so absurd. We don't, we don't care anymore. And a lot of this is driven by class disparity in how out of touch these celebrity voices are. I mean, think about AOC from a few years ago wearing her tax the rich dress at the Met Gala. Like I genuinely cannot think of a worse, more out of touch place to share that message.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And she rightfully got reamed because it was so hypocritical and it did nothing to actually share her message. Now, another great example that we have talked about a lot recently is the new feminist Snow White movie that has absolutely tanked at the box office because shocker, nobody cares. Nobody cares anymore. It's shocking that this girl power rallying cry didn't work.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Now, before we dive into this story and we talk about what a joke all of this was, make sure that you are following our podcast page and rate the show if you are enjoying it. That helps us out a ton.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Weird. Weird. I mean, it never gets old because the writing was on the wall. People were simply not interested. They weren't interested three years ago when they saw these clips and they certainly weren't interested once the movie actually came out. I mean, guys, like across all party lines, across all backgrounds and creeds, everyone is searching for something deeper.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
We don't care about this fluff anymore. We're done with the pandering from people who just want to feel relevant and important and are telling us that we have problems that we actually do not have. We're simply done.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And that's why, yes, this joyride was ridiculous, but it was also kind of harmful because while Gail and Katie and Lauren have been sucking up all the attention trying to save women and make space for us, they have actually just directed all the attention away from women who are actually trailblazers. I mean, think about Suni Williams, who was just stuck in space for literally nine months.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
I would much rather hear her story and praise her accomplishments in exploration and science than hear about Gayle King getting over her fear of flying.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Now, to be fair, because most of this episode has been focused on these three celebrity ridiculous women, there were two women on the Blue Origin flight that have gotten very little attention, which kind of speaks to my point here, but they're the ones who I feel like actually deserved to be there in terms of creating inspiration and meaningfulness. For example, Ayesha Bowe was on the flight.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
She is a former rocket scientist. She is an aerospace engineer who owns multiple companies with the goal of educating people and getting them into STEM. She is highly, highly engaged in this industry. She is a leader in this field, and so her being involved with Blue Origin, her being on this trip, makes complete sense. Now, the other woman that I want to talk about is Amanda Wien.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And I just want to remind you guys that I am going on tour in just a couple of weeks, so if you have not bought your tickets yet, click the link in the description to see all of the stops that we're taking. Maybe we're coming to a city near you. I hope you guys buy tickets so that I can meet some of you guys and see all of your beautiful faces.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
She was the other woman on this spacecraft, and she, again, is actually a scientist and she had always dreamed of going to space. She wanted to be an astronaut, but her plans were uprooted when in 2013, she was raped as a college student at Harvard University.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And although she had plans to go to NASA and become an astronaut, she instead dedicated the last decade of her life to fighting for other survivors. And in her words, she said, after my rape, I experienced a broken criminal justice system. I could accept the injustice or rewrite the law. So I rewrote it. So for her, this Blue Origin flight, this, you know, joyride, it was very full circle.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
That was obviously incredibly meaningful for her. For her, this was the realization of a childhood dream, something that she had been actively pursuing for years, that she was actively studying in college, something that was derailed because of a tragedy that had happened in her life, something that she chose to walk away from because she wanted to do some good in the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And so for her, her mission was less about girl power and more about showing other survivors like her that your life does have meaning, that things will get better, even if you have faced something as awful as rape. And it might take time, it might be over a decade later, but you will be able to realize your dreams.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And after she landed, after the Blue Origin flight, she was giving an interview and she said, quote, I just want every survivor and every person who has ever had a dream deferred to know that your dreams are valid. Even if your dreams are as wild as going to space, they matter.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And you might, of course, argue that that is still a wild way to share that message that she didn't need to actually go to space, but I'm more inclined to think that that's incredible. Because again, that is something that she was fighting for, that she was actively working towards.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And that is far, far deeper than sexy spacesuits and taking up space and collective belonging and higher energy, whatever BS Katy Perry was talking about. And I think that that is what people were really missing in this flight, because it was presented to us as some kind of historic, meaningful endeavor, and we got nothing. We literally got the exact opposite.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
We got something that was out of a sitcom. People were on board. They wanted the true depth. They wanted to understand why they should care about this incredibly profound, important, historic space flight. Or on the flip side, I think people would have been just as happy watching a bunch of silly women have a good time in space with their sexy spacesuits.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
It's like watching the Desperate Housewives go to space, which I think, honestly, all of us would completely enjoy. And I guarantee this would not have received the backlash that it did if the women had not spread the feminist rallying cry and tried to make this joyride more important than it actually was.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Now, again, guys, I thought that this was far more serious and intense than it actually was. Like, I thought that these women, I thought that Katy Perry was with NASA training for months and months, that they would be in space for days. And honestly, I think that they had also decided that this was a lot more important than it actually was.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
We might have made fun of Katy Perry kissing the ground when she got home, but it would not have been the silent killer of pop feminism that I think this actually is. I mean, Jeff Bezos and his team have already announced the next crew that is going on the next Blue Origin flight, and I'm already excited.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Like, I've just spent the last 30 minutes making fun of this entire endeavor, and I'm already looking ahead to the next flight. I mean, look at this lineup. It is so absurd. You have Tom Cruise and Kendall Jenner and Jameis Winston, who you guys know I love. You have Drewski and Young Thug, And Angel Reese, you have Angel Reese being catapulted up into space.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Like, I just want them to go up there and create hilarious content for us and memes. Like, I want to see Jameis Winston up in space praising God like he did on the football field when it was snowing. I want to see Tom Cruise doing backflips, like hanging on to the side of the spaceship.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And I swear to God, if they try to turn this into a anti-racist rallying cry because there are four black people going up into space, people might actually riot again. Because they don't want that. They want to see celebrities doing completely unrelatable, ridiculous things and it actually being unrelatable because that is entertainment.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
So I hope that the Blue Origin PR team has learned from their mistakes because people don't want to be lectured at by celebrities who are rich and influential and affluent enough to take multi-million dollar joy rides into space. Not now. People want to be entertained.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
They want authenticity and they also just want to be left alone, which is exactly what Justin Bieber has been fighting for for the last two years. Now, in a crazy turn of events, I have actually spoken to people close to Justin, and the story that I have been told about his fight is worth hearing. We'll be going over this in Thursday's episode. You won't want to miss it.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And when I say they, I am specifically talking about Katy Perry and Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez, who are the real culprits here of this PR fiasco, because they were the ones who really turned this into their feminist rallying cry.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Like, this was their way to make their billionaire celebrity elitist joyride feel important and to garner more attention, and they were willing to do whatever it took to make that happen.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And the message that they landed on that was going to be so important and impact all of us was that them going on this, again, 11-minute joyride where they would experience three minutes of weightlessness in actual space was that they were going to teach women. They were going to teach all of us how to take up space. This was actually something that they were doing for all of us.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Truly, going to space was really for all of our benefit. It was constant. So now that we know that that was the intent, let's go see them actually in space. Let's see them in action, taking up all of that space for our benefit.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
I mean, it's pretty fabulous that we can literally hear them coming down to Earth. And these are not experienced astronauts. They don't know what they're... They're just screeching all the way down. They've been screaming up in space, screaming, oh my God, we're taking up space. And now they're screaming all the way down. Like, it was just complete... and utter female silliness.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Like, these are not serious people. These are not serious women. I mean, serious people would be thanking God that they're on their way home. They would be saying a prayer, possibly with their Halo app.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
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The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
But here's the thing, I don't want to spend this entire episode just making fun of these women because, look, I'm glad that they had a great time. These are rich women, they are celebrities, they can do whatever they want with their money. Jeff Bezos can do whatever he wants with his money.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
historic endeavor because this was Blue Origin's first female crew. It was the first all female crew that had ever gone to space since 1963. And because of that, it turned into a whole girl power movement. And leading up to this trip has just been a lot like I have wanted to talk about this on the show
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
I'm glad that Gayle conquered her fear of flying because apparently she is incredibly anxious and Oprah always talks about how Gayle is so anxious. So, you know, good for her. I'm glad that Katy Perry reached her dream of going to space, which was apparently a dream of hers. But this was not some big leap for women. Like, that is utterly ridiculous to assert.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
I mean, this entire thing was basically a glorified bachelorette trip, as Dana Lash put it in her newsletter from last week. She wrote, the Blue Origin event included Jeff Bezos' fiance, Lauren Sanchez, who, in her defense, can actually pilot a chopper, has a real interest in aviation, and actually owns an aerial film production company.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Gayle King, because when I think of space travel, I think of Oprah's best friend, and Katy Perry, who always speaks like she's reading from a Tampax instruction pamphlet or a lost chapter of Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. It is not a new mission for Blue Origin. They have done these sorts of quick suborbital trips 11 times before. The ladies went into air, but not technically into space.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
They were passengers, not astronauts, no more than were pilots for riding on jets. These things are fine and good, it's just weird to see this 11 minute stratospheric trip presented as some major advancement into space exploration. It's not. It was a girl's trip. They spent more time taking a million photos of themselves through social media than they spent in the air.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
They literally spent more time giving interviews and being on the cover of Elle magazine than they did in that phallic spaceship. Like honestly, the bigger innovation, the bigger leap forward for women was the fact that Lauren Sanchez redesigned the astronaut suits for women. And she made them flattering and comfortable and hugging all the right places.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Like, that genuinely might have had a greater impact on female astronauts than a celebrity feminist joyride. But again, but again, who am I to rain on their parade? Like, they were and they still are very undeterred, you know, making this very meaningful. It was meaningful for them. It's gonna be meaningful for us if they can make it happen.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
But guys, like, watching them exit that spacecraft, like, that might have been even funnier than the actual event itself or anything leading up to it. And I know that I keep saying, I don't want to rain on their parade. And then I just continue making fun of them. But it's so, it's genuinely so ridiculous because we all saw how not impactful the entire event was.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And it like, it felt like they were the only ones who were not in on the joke. Like Katy Perry, she literally kissed the ground as she exited the spaceship after being gone for 11 minutes. Just watch. So she like skips off of the ship. She's holding up a daisy in her arms as if she's holding up her microphone as if she just performed in concert.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
She's kissing the freaking ground again when she was gone for 11 minutes. Like imagine being one of the astronauts who was just stuck up in space for over nine months. And you watch this celebrity pop star twirling daisies and skipping and flipping her hair and kissing the ground because she's so happy to be home after she was literally up in space, space for three minutes because of feminism.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
probably for months at this point, but I had been waiting to watch this actually transpire to see what happened when they went into space before we did an all-encompassing recap. And guys, it was better than I ever expected. I mean, the actual trip, the fallout, the PR crisis, it has been... so juicy and incredible to see. There was so much PR. We had been talking about it for months.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Because it's feminism, because she's changing the world. I mean, it's just so ridiculous. But Katie did not stop with just kissing the ground because after that she gave a very, very strange kind of Kamala Harris inspired monologue about just feeling so connected after this entire experience.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Wow, thank you so much. I mean, truly, Dana Lash said it best. You cannot understand a word that this woman is saying. There was another interview that Katy Perry gave prior to launch where she was asked about why she was so excited about this trip and she was like, I just, I love STEM and like the math of it all and like the science and just like getting in, getting into the STEM.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And that was her actual answer. She was like, I'm so into STEM. No, you're not. You're really not. You are a pop star. And you're saying that you feel connected to love because you went to space for three minutes. Like, it's just ridiculous. And again, guys, she really wanted to hammer in why this mission was so important, again, for women.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
I mean, guys, there's another minute in that clip, and I have no desire to continue watching it or showing it to you because she says nothing of any importance. She belongs. She made space. She felt love. She's inspiring change. She is bringing unity. I mean, that's the only thing she got right. She unified the entire country, the entire world, in laughing at this incredibly stupid flight.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
But, again, I really don't think she cares because she took up space, and that is all that matters.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
I mean, again, it's a bunch of hubbub. It is literally a bunch of nothing. Her higher power to collective energy. She's singing in space for us. Are we all grateful? Do we feel the power of taking up space and belonging because Katy Perry went up into space for three minutes and sang Oh, What a Wonderful World and stared into the camera like she was on Xanax? That's literally what we saw.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And truly, guys, the story just kept growing from there on social media like they could not escape how ridiculous this was. And this was driven primarily by Katy Perry, unfortunately. And I think that she was hoping that this would really push her into new stardom, help the fact that her last album was a huge flop. She's trying to go on tour.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
She needs to sell tickets like she was literally up in space holding up her set list for her new tour. This was all a marketing ploy, but it really just turned people against her because they realized that they were just watching some mixture of The Hunger Games mixed with Veep.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Like, it's elitist celebrities taking joy rides into space in sexy outfits telling us, the peasant women, how this was actually all for us, all for American women, but also was kind of like Veep because the women literally acted like they were in a sitcom. Like, it was the most nauseating display of gravitas and self-importance, and everyone online,
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Everybody was taking it so seriously because it was gonna be this profound and impactful endeavor on society. These six women being thrust into space. I literally thought that they were going to space for a few days. I thought that they were in training for months, that they were gonna go up to the International Space Station. I've never paid attention to the Blue Origin flights.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
No matter how old you were, no matter your background or who you voted for was fed up. And I mean everyone. There was not a quarter of the internet, not even the legacy media journalists that were supposed to prop up these feminists. Not even they could get behind this. And Megyn Kelly put it so well on her show.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
I mean, it's perfect. And Megan made a great point. Like it's early in the hour to be talking about tits. It's so strange how the story is just accidentally sexual. Like the entire thing is just so weird. Like that is just another layer into this literally not being serious in the slightest. And she made a good point. Like, go have fun.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Show off the girls, Lauren Sanchez, if that's really what you want. Have a silly time. But don't pretend like you are empowering women or saving the freaking planet or moving space exploration forward in any way, shape, or form. Because again, this was a joyride.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Now, interestingly, the loudest voices that were critiquing this entire journey were from other rich female celebrities who were basically, in my opinion, just trying to virtue signal on top of the astronauts, the astronauts virtue signaling. And these are people like Olivia Munn and Olivia Wilde and Emily Ratajkowski who all had choice words for these crew members.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Now, Olivia Munn was one of the first to comment. This was way before they even got on the ship. And she said, quote, I know that this is probably obnoxious, but like it's so much money to go into space and there's a lot of people who can't even afford eggs. What's the point? Is it historic that you guys are going on a ride? I think it's a bit gluttonous.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Space exploration was to further our knowledge and to help mankind. What are they going to do up there that has made it better for us down here? Well, Olivia, they're taking up space for us. They're making space for us. That is really helping women all around the world who can't afford eggs, obviously. We should be very grateful. Now, Olivia Wilde also posted this on her story.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
That's Jeff Bezos's company. It's space tourism. I had no idea what was going on, but I literally thought that this was a serious endeavor. But no, the trip was 11 minutes long. Just take a look at this graph. They leave Earth, they pop right up just into orbit so that they can look down and see Earth. And then they immediately come back down.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
She said a billion dollars bought some good memes, I guess. Like, yeah, genuinely, that's the only good thing that has come out of this entire endeavor is that I'm able to do an episode about it. That's really, like it's made me laugh. That is the one positive here. But of all of these criticisms, Emily Ratajkowski's video was my personal favorite.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And you're going to see the glaring hypocrisy here.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
And listen, I obviously get what she's saying, and we agree on a lot of this, but all of these women who are criticizing the Gayle Kings and the Katy Perrys, they are extremely rich. Emily Ratajkowski filmed that video in her Sprinter van. She frequently gets on private jets, just as social media users have been pointing out.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
They are echoing the right points, the sentiment is there, but this really wasn't who the public wanted to hear that from. Like one commenter said, I'm fine with them flying private planes, but their blind hypocrisy and or fake virtue signaling is grating though. Another person said, aka, they would have gone, but they weren't invited.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
Now, Bethany Frankel, who you guys know is probably my favorite and most self-aware rich celebrity, she called all of this out in this TikTok.
The Brett Cooper Show
The Feminist Celebrity Astronauts Who Saved the World | Episode 24
It is. It is literally a nightmare. And there is nothing at this point that they could do to save it because it was already a firestorm on social media. Like, none of this is relatable. The people going up into space are not relatable. The celebrities talking about it in their sprinter vans are not relatable. It is not inspiring, nor is it empowering for any of us back down on Earth.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Blackmail, revenge, sex parties, baby oil, and public lawsuits. Welcome to your average Monday in Hollywood. All right, guys, so last week on Thursday, as I was getting ready to release my episode on Taylor Swift's involvement in the It Ends With Us drama, unfortunately, a new bombshell dropped. But at the time, I had already filmed the episode.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And yes, everyone, he is the lawyer that told the judge in that trial that Thug stood for truly humble under God.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, also during that trial, Brian Steele was sentenced to 20 days in jail for contempt of court during that case, but he never ended up serving that sentence. Although something that is kind of funny is he requested to be put with young Thug while he was serving it, but I think he got out on parole or something else. We never actually ended up going to jail.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And I'm taking a look at all of this, and I'm just thinking, like, this is an insane team. And I don't necessarily mean that in a good way. Like, I don't know if I would want the truly humble undergod lawyer representing me in this case. I mean, they truly are media heavy hitters. They're definitely experienced, but they have history.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
In response to Blake's team fighting all of that, they filed a response claiming that Blake Lively threatened to release personal text messages if Taylor did not make a public statement in defense of Blake Lively. She was saying, you need to be on my side, otherwise texts from our 10-year friendship are going to come out. Now, I do not know if she was saying that as a form of like,
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And I'm not sure if that will hinder or help Diddy in this case. We will certainly see. Now, on the prosecution side, we interestingly have an all-female team, and that is led by a woman named Marie Comey, who is the U.S. attorney who prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, it is reported that this team has a 90 to 98% conviction rate, so that might not look great for Mr. Truly Humble Under God over there on the other side. Now, in the grand scheme of things, we know less about this team than we do other lawyers in this very weird celebrity trial world that we're all living in right now, which is probably a good thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, moving on from that, we also need to talk about the jury, because obviously that was the very first thing that happened in this trial. It was the very first thing that started going viral last week.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
men and four women, which of course social media was immediately up in arms about with women who were crying and saying that the men were all going to be sympathetic to Diddy because they were all so misogynistic. But guys, like, I just want to take a step back because, like, let's just be real.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Like, based on all the stories that we are seeing come out of this trial, everything that we have heard about Diddy, everything that we know about these freak-offs now based on what Cassie has said, like, I think both men and women will be disturbed, so I don't think you really need to worry about Now, in addition to the jury being mostly men, they are also mostly over the age of 40.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Nine out of 12 are over the age of 40 and five are over the age of 50. And when they were picking the jury, they were asked questions about their taste in music, their views on infidelity, that sort of thing, their interest in pop culture. And the majority of them, interestingly, prefer classical music over hip hop.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
So these are not going to be people who are well acquainted with Diddy or his label or his music or any of these stories, which is probably a very good thing. Now, on top of that, seven of these individuals also work in more analytical fields or did work in them in their career because they are like 70 years old. So by now they're obviously retired, happily living.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
listening to their classical music before they were pulled out of their recliners to be on the jury of this case. Now, based on what I have learned as I've been reading articles about all of this, it's not so much about picking the perfect jury for this case as much as it is about removing people who could be biased or already invested in the case and in the story. So these 70 year old male,
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Classical music aficionados seem to fit the mark, in my opinion, so I am not too concerned about that in the slightest. Now, another thing to note, which we did touch on when we were talking about the charges, is that this trial will be heavily revolved around consent versus coercion and domestic violence versus sex trafficking.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Because the prosecution is arguing that Diddy's freak-offs were part of this entire criminal sex trafficking ring, while Diddy's lawyers are arguing that, yes, some of his behavior might have been indefensible and morally wrong, but that it was not sex trafficking, that domestic violence is not sex trafficking, and we do have to acknowledge that he is not on trial for domestic violence.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Again, this isn't just about his relationship with Cassie Ventura.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And I think that this will be hard for a lot of the public and the viewers to swallow because this seems insane to have to separate everything that Cassie went through with this idea of it being a criminal sex trafficking ring because we're watching and we're hearing all of these awful, insane things that he did, but that is legally not what this case is entirely about.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And the prosecution has to prove that all of this was not consensual and that it was a criminal enterprise. That is the key term. Meanwhile, the defense has to prove that although these stories and this evidence might make the jury uncomfortable because it is just so awful, everything that they're hearing, they can't judge him for it because it isn't what he's being tried for.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
So they also have to be able to like emotionally separate that from what is actually happening in the trial. And the defense is also already going after Cassie and saying that it really wasn't all that bad and that she could have just left him. That she was not held there against her will.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
general blackmail and saying like, I am going to intentionally release things, or if she was just saying like, if you don't come out and support me, then this will just come out in court. I really don't know. But regardless, if this is true, it is truly wild. Now, all of this is coming from a tip from an anonymous source that spoke to Justin Baldoni's legal team.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Which, in my opinion, just made her testimony at the start of this trial even more impactful and even more horrifying. Because people were quickly reminded that her just walking out the door and leaving wasn't really that simple. As evidenced by footage that was released in May of last year. Now, if you guys did not see that video when it was circulating, here is a refresher.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, what you guys just saw is a very, very small clip of a 2016 incident where Cassie was trying to leave a freak-off. She was trying to escape the hotel where all of this was happening. So obviously, she couldn't just walk out the door. It was not that simple. And this was the very first thing that the prosecution showed as this trial was kicking off just a couple of days ago.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, soon after this was shown, Cassie took the stand. She took the stand to give her testimony on days one and two, and she detailed what would happen during these freak-offs and how they were planned. And I know I gave a disclaimer as we started this story, but I'm just going to give an additional one here because this is really where
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
It gets graphic because some of the things that she shared were that Diddy and male prostitutes would be on top of her, peeing in her mouth until she was choking. That Diddy would have his security take her phone away as punishment. That he would keep her locked up in these hotel rooms after she had faced this abuse to heal. And again, like I said earlier,
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
that these would go on for days and days at a time. Now, when asked about their first freak-off, she testified that she had just turned 22 years old. This was in 2008. When Combs first asked her to engage in the freak-offs, and she was confused and nervous. I just remember my stomach falling to my butt, she said, when asked how she felt about participating. But she added, I loved him so much.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
She said that she felt like she could not refuse Combs because she didn't know what no could be or what no could turn into. alleging that the repercussions for disobeying combs were sometimes violent, per the Associated Press, which obviously we all just saw in video form. Sean controlled a lot of my life, she said, whether it was her career, the way she dressed, everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, in addition to sharing what happened at these freak-offs, she also shared explicit details about the toll that they took on her body, including UTIs and mouth sores and gastrointestinal issues from all of the sexual activities that she was having to engage in. The UTIs were apparently so bad and so pervasive that antibiotics could not even fight them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, during these two days of testimony, she broke down in tears multiple times. Again, she is eight months pregnant. She has not seen Diddy in years. She's having to take the stand and face him and detail all of this. Now, after talking about the freak-offs, she also went into detail about the rape that allegedly occurred after their 2018 breakup.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
We have no idea who the source is, but obviously this is somebody who was very, very close to Taylor Swift, and it has to be somebody that is credible enough that would spark Justin's team into action to actually file this in a court of law, to send this in a response to a judge.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And this was the only time when her husband did excuse himself from the And it is rumored that her husband, Alex, again, that is the trainer that Diddy had hired, who she ended up marrying, will be called to testify by the defense, and the defense claims that they have text messages of Alex threatening to beat Combs up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
That's a whole other thing, so just know that that might be happening in the future. Now, of course, the defense's entire argument is that all of this, everything that you just heard, was totally consensual.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
In one People article, they wrote, During cross-examination of Philip, a male escort who said that Ventura paid him for sex while Combs watched, the music mogul's lawyer, Xavier Donaldson, attempted to paint the sexual encounter as consensual.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
The indictment against Combs alleges that he forced or coerced women into having sex with male sex workers, a claim the defense has attempted to push back on. Quote, Was Ventura the one who paid you? Donaldson asked. Yes, Philip responded. She wasn't drunk or high, Donaldson asked, which Philip responded by agreeing that she wasn't.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Quote, is it fair to say that she was in complete control of everything she did, Donaldson asked. And then Philip responded with, I cannot say that. So they are actively trying to shift blame away from Diddy in saying that even though this is your star witness and all of these things happened with this woman, she was in full control. She played a role in this. She was not coerced into this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Actually, she hired the people. Maybe she even wanted to be there. But in my opinion, the fact that Diddy was filming all of this, that he was holding the tapes of these freak-offs over her head and over her career... removes all consent because of the power imbalance in this relationship. I mean, based on what we know, the videos of these freak offs were allegedly used for blackmail.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And if she did not participate in the freak offs or pushed back or tried to leave him, he would threaten to release the videos and get violent, as we obviously saw in that 2016 video.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
So while that is the clearest argument that the defense has, I don't think it's going to be super easy for them to convince the jury of that, considering all of the evidence that is against Diddy and supports everything that Cassie is saying now. Obviously, guys, this is just getting started. I think that we are on like day three or four of this trial now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
The trial is supposed to go on for at least eight weeks. There are also over 50 victims and 50 witnesses in the case. But because Diddy is being held without bail, there are legal experts out there who are hoping that that will encourage and empower other people to come forward to join this case. We'll see if that actually happens.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And another thing that I want to note is that there already have been and there will be a ton of celebrities mentioned in this case, but that does not necessarily mean that they are all involved.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And I know that we talk about Hollywood being a crazy, depraved, weird, awful place, and all these people are connected, and while obviously I'm sure that some of them are, I'm sure that some of them attended these parties, not all of them did.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, in addition to all of that, Justin's legal team, based on that information, is now also accusing Blake Lively of witness tampering because she allegedly was asking Taylor to delete text messages between the two of them. So she is simultaneously saying, allegedly, that Taylor was not involved and she should not be subpoenaed.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
For example, Michael B. Jordan was brought up in the jury selection because he went on a date with Cassie at some point in her life, and he could potentially be brought up in her testimony and be involved in the trial,
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
So that's just an important thing to note as you're watching all of this unfold, that yes, you might see familiar names, but that doesn't mean that they were complicit in these activities. Now, the last thing that I want to say is about Diddy's family, because this might be the craziest part of watching all of this unfold.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
I mean, going back to last year when he was initially charged and arrested, his entire family rallied behind him. They released statements, they did collabed Instagram posts saying, we love you, dad, we support you. They have been behind him from the beginning and they are still standing behind him.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And obviously Diddy's team wants to show a united front to the jury, that all of his kids are there supporting him, that his ex-wives are there supporting him, and almost all of his kids, his daughters, literally showed up to the trial and sat through these testimonies.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
They are sitting through all of this, they are hearing everything that their father did, and allegedly the only time they excused themselves was during a particularly graphic breakdown of a sexual encounter between Diddy and Cassie in a male escort. But for the rest of the time, they were there. They watched all the videos. They listened to all the testimonies.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
His young daughters are hearing all of this. Like, that's insane to me. And I know that that's like a legal strategy, but this also feels like a humiliation ritual in a way. And his family, again, has repeatedly said that he is innocent of these charges, but obviously they're watching all of this unfold. They know that he has skeletons in the closet.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And I don't know, like relationship-wise, how you come back from that or why you would even want to Like, what is the motivation to actually be there? So it will be interesting to see if that support actually remains throughout the entire trial. Just from an emotional or even common sense point of view, I can't imagine that it will.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
But if it does, I just have to say that I think Hollywood is even more depraved than I could ever imagine that it is. So with all of that, guys, I hope I am leaving you with a good breakdown of the beginning of this trial.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Hopefully you have a good foundation as you are seeing all of this unfold and you're watching all the TikToks because I know that I was feeling bombarded and overwhelmed with everything happening because this truly is a bombshell trial. But the last thing that I wanna say that I wanna leave you with is that while this case is involving Diddy and is about Diddy, it isn't just about him.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Because he is just one example of the ways that powerful people prey on others and the disgusting, abhorrent behaviors that go unreported, specifically in the music and the entertainment business.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And while I personally believe that Diddy should absolutely be in jail, whether it is for years and years of domestic abuse and rape, or whether it is because of a sex trafficking ring, there are others who are involved in this who have not been charged. What about the people who participated in these freak offs? What about the people who cover it up for him for years?
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And then on the other side of her mouth, behind the scenes, allegedly, is saying you need to delete these text messages so that you cannot be complicit. Now, of course, Blake Lively's team immediately shot back, denied all of these accusations. However, the update as of this morning is that Justin's lawyer signed a sworn affidavit confirming that all of this information is accurate.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
What about the people who blackmail Diddy, who are even above him in this? What about the music executives that might have set him on that path? We're not talking about any of them, and I think we should be. Let's take it from the top. Where were you born? Uh, Kansas. Kansas? Yeah, the pineapple state. Right, pretty sure that's Hawaii. Well, I did spend a summer there. And where were you raised?
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Texas. According to my sources, you were born in Brazil, frozen in Thailand, and trying to cross over the Mexican border when my boys caught you last week. I've got wanderlust? So you're a world traveling cow from Kansas and your only documentation is a sticker that says proudly made in the USA? Smells like bull to me, pal. Don't be fooled by meat that's lying about where it's from.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Good Ranchers delivers real American meat, born and raised in the good old USA. No imports, no imposters. 100% American meat delivered.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, of course, we don't know who the source is. We have not seen their messages. We have no idea. But that seems pretty freaking credible to me. Truly, truly wild. I'm sure more will come out. Taylor Swift, whether she likes it or not, is embroiled in all of this. There are all of these, like, Easter eggs going on with her right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Like, I think that she actually might be releasing a new album or doing her re-recording for Mutation. All of the Taylor Swift stans on X are posting about that. I think that she is trying to focus on that. But her ex-best friend, or maybe still best friend, who knows, Blake Lively,
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
is pulling her into this scandal so hopefully we will have updates for you on that as well but now without further ado we need to turn our attention to a different celebrity lawsuit one that is far more disturbing probably the craziest to ever come out of hollywood and of course that would be the case surrounding sean diddy combs now before we get into this i do just want to give a disclaimer
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
I was also having a particularly nauseous pregnancy day, so I did not feel up to doing a selfie edition, so... I think we should talk about it now because Justin Baldoni's lawyers have come forward with some pretty insane accusations about Blake Lively and Taylor Swift. So as we covered in Thursday's episode, Taylor Swift has officially been subpoenaed by Justin Baldoni's team.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
There are going to be some incredibly disturbing things we're talking about that are very sexual in nature, that are very violent in nature. I'm sure that if you know any of the rumors about Diddy, you probably know what I'm talking about. So if that is not your cup of tea, if you don't want to hear that today, this might not be the episode for you, but I'm just giving you a warning.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, this is going to be a long trial. Who knows how long this is going to go on. I think right now it is set to go for eight weeks, but who knows if they will actually come to any decision, whether there will be a mistrial. Who knows? I'm expecting this to be in the public eye for a very long time. And so I think the best way to start this and start unpacking it for everyone is we're probably
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
you know, all-encountering tweets and TikToks and news stories about all of this, is to go back to the beginning and lay a good foundation. Because there are a lot of stories here, a lot of characters here, a lot of history that I do think we need to understand.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
So the first piece of context that you need to have is that after years and years of rumors and speculations involving his freak-offs and his parties and connections to, you know, Justin Bieber and Usher and all of these different things, Diddy was officially arrested in September of last year. And his trial has just now started again. It is supposed to be around eight weeks long.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And one of the most important people that you need to know about who was involved in this case, this is the prosecution's star witness, that would be Diddy's ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
So to start us all off, I just kind of want to walk through their relationship and timeline because there is so much context here that is important to understand as we all inevitably watch this unfold on social media and in the public eye. So to go back to the start, Cassie Ventura met Diddy in 2005 at the age of 19.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And in 2006, Cassie signed a 10 album record deal with Bad Boy Entertainment, which is Diddy's label.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And guys, after learning everything that we have just learned about Justin Bieber and the contracts that he's under, the way that all of that works, the way that he is still under contract because of the albums that he is supposed to produce, you need to know 10 albums, that is a career long contract.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And that only becomes crazier and obviously very sinister when you start to understand the personal relationship that they had outside of business and outside of that connection with the record label.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
So then fast forward a year in 2007 while Diddy was still in a relationship with Kim Porter, and even though throughout their entire relationship she was under contract with his label, she only released two things. She released one album in 2006 and a mixtape in 2013. So why didn't she release more? What happened with those ten albums? What was happening behind the scenes?
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Well, it seems like their relationship was taking up most of the time. In 2012, they finally made their relationship public and they were quickly seen as an it couple. And they were seen as an it couple for years. They attended red carpets together. They posted heartfelt messages about each other on social media. I mean, they were together for years and years and years.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
So what the public was seeing was very different than what Cassie is saying happened behind closed doors. Now, before we get into all of that, I want to take a second to tell you about my sponsor, Nimi Skincare. Now, I am so excited to be promoting Nimi again because I worked with them years ago.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
They were one of my first ever sponsors when I started on YouTube, and it has been so amazing to watch their mission and their company grow. Now, since we last worked together, they have launched a new line of high-powered, clean products made with ingredients that you can trust and feel great about putting on your skin.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And just this month, they have introduced the beginnings of their new body care collection. I started using Nimi again just a few months ago after getting pregnant because my hormones have obviously been going crazy and I was struggling to keep my skin under control. I was having awful acne pop up all over my chin.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And of course, both Taylor and Blake's teams are challenging this, but the new update in the case is that after Blake's team fought the subpoena and filed their response, Justin Baldoni's lawyers then filed yet another response. And guys, every single time I think that this case cannot get even more crazier, they outdo themselves. So let's quickly go over that before we get into Diddy.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
I decided that I should probably start washing my face with something a little more high powered than just water. And their products totally changed the game and got my skin back on track literally within days. It was incredible. And of course, Nimi is more than just skincare. Their company represents amazing values that we can all stand behind, and their products are proudly made in the USA.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And because of that, they are not forced to increase their prices when tariffs and costs rise, so you can always trust that you are getting great value. So if you are ready to make the switch, take Nimi's simple skincare quiz on their website and get a skincare routine curated just for your skin type and your concerns.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
So head on over today to nimyskincare.com, that is N-I-M-I skincare.com and use code COOPER for 15% off your order. Your skin and your wallet will thank you. Okay, so now that you guys have been introduced to Cassie, we can all be introduced to Diddy's freak-off parties. And in 2008, when Cassie was only 22 years old, Diddy first asked her to partake in what is now known as a Diddy freak-off.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And he framed this as this voyeuristic fantasy explaining that he wanted to watch her engage in sexual activities with another male, specifically an escort that he would bring in while he directed the encounters. And these freak-offs happened at various times in different locations around the world. They were elaborate. They were produced sex performances between Cassie and male prostitutes.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
that Diddy arranged, directed, masturbated during, and more often than not, electronically recorded. Now, according to Cassie, these freak-offs would be 36 to 48 to 72 hours, and the longest went on for four days. He was producing this, these sexual activities between her and other people as he sort of engaged and directed all of this for four days straight.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now these freak-offs continued for years and Cassie and Diddy did go on a break in 2011, but they got back together and these freak-offs just kept continuing. And I want you guys to think about this because it is not just about what happened behind closed doors, but how these doors were able to stay shut for over 20 years.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Because based on what we're all learning in this trial from the testimonies or everything coming out, is that these freak-offs often took place in relatively public areas.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Like they took place in hotel rooms, where Diddy's activities would go so far as to destroy an entire massive suite requiring the entire place to be fully renovated, fully gutted, and fully redecorated, and the public didn't hear any of it. He would be caught on security cameras. And that footage would never come out and no one would ever say anything.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
How was this such an open secret for 20 years? And it is just now coming to trial. Now, moving forward a little bit through all of those years, in 2018, Cassie and Diddy officially announced to the public that they had finally officially separated. And Cassie then very quickly after began dating the trainer that Diddy had hired and assigned to her during their relationship.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Take a look at this TMZ article from 2019. Diddy sources say that Cassie betrayed him by sleeping with her trainer she calls BS. Now at the time, Cassie's team denied all of these allegations and they were insisting that they started dating after their breakup, but obviously Diddy felt betrayed and he was angry.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And Cassie has now alleged that after the breakup, he came to her apartment and he raped her. So even though their breakup was final in the public eye, there were still things happening behind closed doors. Now, Another piece of context that you'll probably see throughout this trial is that Cassie ended up marrying this trainer, and his name is Alex, and they now have multiple children together.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
But before we get into that, make sure that you're following our podcast page and rate the show if if you're enjoying it. And as a reminder, I am going on tour this spring. We already had our first couple of stops and it was so much fun and we do have tickets remaining in some of the cities.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And right now, during this trial, while she is testifying, she is eight months pregnant with, I believe, their third child. Now, fast forward to 2023. That is when Cassie finally filed a lawsuit against Diddy, as you can see here. One article reads, Music mogul Sean Diddy Combs faced a lawsuit by singer Cassie Ventura that accused Combs of
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
of using his position of power as a music executive and wealth to abuse Ventura for nearly 10 years. A day after it was filed, the two reached a settlement on November 17th.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, by this time, obviously, Cassie was married, she had two children, and the reason why she filed this lawsuit is because she started having flashbacks because of the trauma that she endured during this relationship and she just could no longer take it. At one point, according to the stories that she is now told,
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
She asked her husband, Alex, if he could do this without her and be a single parent. She said, quote, I couldn't take the pain. She basically said that she wanted to walk right out the front door into oncoming traffic. And the only reason why she didn't do that is because her husband convinced her not to.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And this prompted her to go get help to work through all the trauma that she had endured during this relationship with Diddy. Now, through going to therapy, she started unpacking all of this and she began writing down everything that she had endured until she had an entire book. full of this abuse. And finishing that book is what finally inspired her to take action.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Quote, I wanted Sean to read it, to understand. I don't think he understood. I was begging for sorries. I wanted him to understand the pain that he put me through. And even though she was begging for sorries and she wanted to leave, nothing ever happened. And so years, years later, all she wanted was some kind of apology and acknowledgement of everything that he had put her through.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, at the time, she did send Diddy this book. But he and his team, they did not take her seriously. Then she offered to sell this book to him for $30 million. He said no again. So that is when she made the decision to sue him. She filed the lawsuit, which then settled for $20 million in 24 hours. And that lawsuit is then what sparked the criminal investigation that we are now seeing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
So if you want to check that out, go to brettcooper.com where you can see all of the stops and buy all the tickets. You can also find information there about Cooper Confidential, which is my subscriber only platform. Again, that is at brettcooper.com and also in the description below.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Because it's not Diddy versus Ventura in this case. This is a federal prosecution, which makes the story and makes the allegations and the accusations even bigger than just what happened with Cassie Ventura. Now, before we get into his charges and everything that has happened with the trial thus far, I want to take a second to talk about my sponsor, Preborn.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, when a woman faces an unplanned pregnancy, her whole world is shaken and she wants to make the right choice. But often in this crazy culture and society, everyone around her is insisting that what she has inside of her is just a clump of cells, not a life. And Preborn's mission is to empower that woman with the choice of life.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Their network of clinics provide women with the care and resources they need to choose their baby and to have a successful pregnancy and start to motherhood. And that all begins with an ultrasound because with an unplanned pregnancy, an ultrasound doubles a baby's chance at life. Twice as many women choose life when they see their baby or babies on the first ultrasound.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And last year alone at their clinics, Preborn rescued over 67,000 babies through ultrasound. And they're not stopping anytime soon. And today you can join them on this mission. One ultrasound is just $28 and you can play a part by helping a mother choose life. So save a baby today for just $28. Just visit preborn.com slash Brett to get started.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Again, that is preborn.com slash Brett to help save a life. Now with the soaring costs of groceries, utilities, and childcare, among many other things, so many Americans have had to rely on credit cards. And with interest rates still so high, it can feel daunting and overwhelming to face those charges. And that is where American Financing steps in.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
American Financing can help you pay off high interest debt by using your home's existing equity. They are a family owned mortgage lender that has been around for 25 years and their mortgage consultants are salary based, so there is no incentive for them to put you into a loan that doesn't make sense for you and your family.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And right now, American Financing is helping homeowners just like you save an average of over $800 a month. Some are even seeing these results in as little as 10 days. And if you get started today, you could even skip two mortgage payments and there are no upfront fees. Just go to americanfinancing.net slash Brett or call today at 800-852-2010. Again, that's 800-852-2010 to get started.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Alright, so the insane update is that while Blake Lively's team is fighting the subpoena and saying, do not involve my friend, do not involve Taylor Swift, there is no way that she is involved in this production whatsoever. While all of that was happening, Justin Baldoni's team was talking to a source and preparing something behind the scenes.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
So now we've officially laid the groundwork, and hopefully that gives you guys some good context. We now know the story of Cassie Ventura, at least how it all began. We've heard the rumors of the freak-offs for literally years, the allegations of rape, the ties to Usher and Jay-Z. But what is Diddy actually being charged with?
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Because I think that that is something that a lot of people don't understand. It was something that I really didn't understand until I started doing research for this episode. So... To break all of that down, Diddy is facing five charges, which include racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, the racketeering charge alleges that he ran a criminal enterprise through his business empire, mainly his record label, Bad Boy Entertainment, from 2004 to 2024, engaging in crimes including... sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Now, on top of that, he is facing two counts of sex trafficking where he is accused of forcing women into commercial sex acts, including organizing these freak-offs using drugs and violence and threats to ensure compliance. And the last two counts are involving him transporting women across state and international lines, for the purpose of prostitution.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And I really think this is important to lay all of this out because if you read the headlines and you see all the stories about Diddy and Cassie, you might think that this is some, you know, civil lawsuit between the two of them about their relationship. But this is a criminal investigation on the basis of sex trafficking. That is what they are accusing him of.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
Which takes us into the next thing that I think we need to break down, which is his legal team, because guys, it is stacked. Now, there are at least eight people on his legal team, at least that we know of. The heavy hitters include a man named Mark Agnifilo, hopefully I am saying that correctly. He is most famously known for defending the NXIVM leader, Keith Raniere.
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Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
If you guys have not heard that story, that cult, it is truly, truly insane. There's a whole podcast about it, but that is the man who defended him. Now, next up on his team is a woman named Teni Garagos. Now, interestingly, Teni's father is also an incredibly powerful celebrity attorney, and his past clients have included Hunter Biden, Chris Brown, and Michael Jackson.
The Brett Cooper Show
Diddy On Trial Week 1 Bombshells & What's Next | Episode 32
And her father, Mark, is a friend of Diddy's. and he has repeatedly defended Diddy throughout this entire situation, even as recently as a few days ago on Megyn Kelly's show and in an interview with TMZ, which is just crazy to me. Moving on, we also have Brian Steele, and you also might recognize him from when he represented Young Thug, and the clips from that trial went viral.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Imagine going online to share an announcement about your dream business, a women's only gym in London, and also being brave enough to address the elephant in the room that we all have to address because it is 2025. Going online and stating that this women's only gym will be for biological women and biological women only, while also acknowledging that at one point in time,
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
The trans activist who literally won the lawsuit is appealing because indirect discrimination is not enough. They want it to be direct discrimination against themselves and they want a lot more money from Saul.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
But of course it will never be enough. Well, an indirect discrimination is not enough. $6,000 isn't enough. They need $500,000. Whatever the number is, it will never be enough and it will never stop until we refuse to apologize and refuse to fold, which unfortunately wasn't the case at a San Francisco spa.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Crowdfunding, trying to get investors, building the site, creating the business plan, branding. She literally turned herself into a fitness influencer. so that she could crowdfund and raise the money and make the money so that she could build this dream business of hers.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Now, while all of this was happening with Natalie, while Saul was appealing her decision in Australia, a nude Russian day spa in San Francisco was fighting their own battle. Now earlier this month, at the spa, they hosted their cultural and religious women's night. For biological women only. Obviously because it is a nude spa. And it is a women's night.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Women do not want to see genitals in their nude spa. Well, trans activists, as they do, they caught wind of this and they crashed the event, literally holding an entire stakeout, a whole protest, because they were not invited into the nude spa on that one evening. Just watch.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Oh yeah, it has just as much hate as backwards Alabama because a day spa is not letting you go in the nude in front of a bunch of women. Yeah, that's just so discriminatory. Just what bigotry. Truly. It's hate and prejudice because women don't want to see you walk around with your penis out, Mr. Ma'am. It's really...
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Now this whole situation got so big and so out of control that the spa finally conceded. Which again, you should never do, you should never concede, you should never apologize, but they did.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And they did say that no, men would not be allowed in the women's night, but that they would create an inclusive night where you could go regardless of your sex, regardless of your gender identity, you could go and be nude with a bunch of other nude people regardless of what you have going on here and there. But guess what? That still wasn't good enough.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
I mean, you can literally predict it at this point because they're demanding that all spaces, all the time, bow to them. They don't want just one night. They want all the nights.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And just last month, she announced that finally her gym, The Girl Spot, had secured a location and was closer than ever to opening. On LinkedIn last month, she shared this. She said, The Girl Spot women's only gym has landed in Southwest London. Here is my journey to raising a hundred grand. Every single investor said no or left me out to dry.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
I mean, I don't even think you know what you're saying. You can barely get through a sentence. You're trying to come up with why it's discriminatory in your brain because obviously it does not make sense. We have women's only spaces. We have men's only spaces. We have had them since the dawn of time. We are now giving you your own space and you are still saying that is not enough.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And if after all of that, you still don't bend the knee, then they start to threaten you. I mean, it really makes me want to include you in my private spaces when you're wishing death upon me. You know, it really just, it doesn't make sense.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Now, this all speaks to something that Sal brought up repeatedly in our interview, which is the importance of never apologizing, never bending a knee and never trying to reason with these people. Not even doing what Natalie did, where she says, I'm not transphobic, I'm not trying, don't even do that because it will never work.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And she is absolutely 100% correct. I mean, it's like when you get canceled, you can't bend the knee, you can't apologize to the left-wing mob. You should not apologize for saying something that you genuinely believe in because that only gives them ammunition. That's saying, yes, I did do something wrong. And again, I don't know how many times I can say this, it will never be enough.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Now, the last bit of the story that just makes it even more insane that you need to see is that there was one more protester featured in this news video that I did not show you. Just take a watch.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Oh yeah, DEI is definitely supporting all Americans. That is the goal of affirmative action, is to help all Americans. This person, this Dakota Rose Austin, is apparently very in fear, is very scared of what the world and this spa is doing to them. But think about the women who would be in fear if they were forced to be naked in this spa next to a high-risk registered sex offender.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And yes, that is exactly who Dakota Rose Austin is. Here's the article from Redux, exclusive trans activist demanding access to female only nude sauna is high risk registered sex offender. I mean, like you genuinely, You genuinely cannot make this stuff up. It is beyond parody at this point. And again, these are not isolated fights.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Men are barging into women's spaces, whether they be gyms or apps or spas or sauna spaces, literally built for safety and protection. And then they lash out when they're told no. And the thing that I keep thinking of is that all of these stories clearly show us why Title IX was created in the first place.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
I went to endless networking events, sent daily cold emails, and got countless rejections. Trying to raise money from investors is not for the faint hearted. So I took matters into my own hands and then she lists how she was able to raise over 60,000 pounds.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
This is a law based on the principle that we all, regardless of sex, deserve single sex spaces, that we all deserve protections on the basis of our biological sex, that both men and women will benefit from these single sex spaces and that we need them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And across the country, but really across the globe, this principle that pushed Title IX into existence is being uprooted and destroyed out of fear and emotional manipulation from power hungry activists. I mean, last year, as we all saw, it even reached Biden, who literally tried to rewrite and undo Title IX on the basis that it was out of date and exclusionary.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
That is how big this fight really is. Women having private spaces, that is not a luxury that we are demanding. These are actual shields. I mean, think about that, a high risk registered sex offender in San Francisco. Think about Natalie's assault that she faced in a gym, Saul's abuse history and why she wanted to create her app in the first place.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
These are not abstract fears that we are just coming up with out of nowhere to exclude people from being in our spaces. These are real, tangible issues that we are trying to protect ourselves against. And giving in to these insane emotional demands only means more trauma and less safety for women.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And of course, the entire thing is so hypocritical because these trans activists are always screaming and saying that they need protections, they need to be safe, they're dying, the world is killing them, we need to save them all, but it is always at the expense of others. Their safety always means that we infringe on the right of somebody else, and nine times out of 10, That falls on women.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And then she goes on and says, I then decided to become my own investor and invest 50,000 pounds from my job as a full-time social media influencer. So why am I opening a women's only gym? And this is important. 71% of women are being harassed in the gym on a regular basis.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
So in closing, all of these stories clearly show us that this battle for our privacy, for our safety, is far from over because obviously it is still raging around the world. But I also do have a lot of hope.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
I'm inspired by the women who every day stand up and refuse to be bullied into compliance because of things that they genuinely believe, who face relentless attacks, who face death threats on a daily basis because of their desire to protect the women around them. And I'm even more grateful that these activists and these protesters' motives are being exposed at every turn.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
That it really isn't about safety for them, it really isn't about inclusion, it's about power, it's about attention, and it's about control more than anything else. That's it. And in my opinion, once you actually know what is driving someone, it's a lot easier to fight back. It's a lot easier to not be manipulated and to be able to stand strong in your beliefs.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And on top of all of that, I'm so happy that we have a president, again, who recognizes biology, recognizes biological sex, who understands the importance of single sex spaces is willing to fight for us on every level. I hope at some point in the near future, our country wakes up and puts so much pressure on our Congress that they finally have to make real legislative change.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And at some point, these stories have to become loud enough that they just can't ignore us anymore. And this shouldn't even be a political issue or a left or right issue. This should be a unifying issue. I mean, think about all those women marching in the street on International Women's Day last week, and they had all of these different causes.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
They were screaming about different things, and they completely ignored this one issue that impacts all of us. Regardless of our politics, regardless of our values, of our beliefs, this impacts us directly on a daily basis. So wake up, world. If there's one thing you're going to fight about, it might as well be this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
A recent survey by Run Repeat found that 70% of women have experienced some form of unwanted attention while working out in mixed gender gyms. 79% of women said that they would transfer to an all women's gym to avoid sexual harassment. These are alarming statistics and there's more. So today we are one step closer to tackling the issue that women's face in mixed gyms.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Watch this space, the girl's spot will shift the narrative. So from all angles, this is an incredible story. This is a woman who had a dream and within the last four years has built that into a real business, who found a way to raise the money, who saw a real issue that she had experienced in her life as a woman that she saw plaguing her community and wanted to solve the issue.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
you had been wrong about the trans inclusion issue and that you had changed your mind and that this gym would be tailored to women and women only. And immediately upon posting this video and making this announcement, you are shattered by a flood of death threats and attacks aimed directly at destroying you and destroying your business because you were brave enough to draw a line in the sand.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And obviously we should commend that at every level. It is incredible watching people build the things that they dreamed of. And at this point, after her LinkedIn announcement, everything was great. Her online community of millions and millions of fans was thrilled. People could not be more excited for this gym to open.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
People who lived all around the world were cheering her on because this was so important and so exciting. Until she made that video last week on March 9th that changed everything. And that was a video where she told the world that because this gym was specifically designed to protect women and keep them safe and would be tailored to their needs, men and trans women would not be included.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And of course, for those of us who live in reality, if you're watching this video, it makes complete sense. There will be self-defense classes for women. Classes about women's hormones, about healing from PCOS, training your cycle, things that only pertain, like she said, to biological women. But of course, to a lot of people in the world, that just can't stand, and the world lost its damn mind.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
I'm sorry if women just want a place where they can talk about their endocrine and hormone-disrupting products, but today, actually, I'm going to talk about that with all of you as I talk about Amalo Tallo.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Now, I personally use tallow from Amalo Tallow because it is packed with naturally occurring essential nutrients and mimics my skin's barrier, thanks to the natural fatty acids that occur in beef tallow. This means that tallow not only keeps me moisturized, but actually works to heal my skin while not clogging my pores like other thick, artificially created products do.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
This is literally what our ancestors used on their skin for generations, and it is the perfect non-toxic switch to avoid endocrine-disrupting chemicals in modern skincare. Amalo is a small family-owned business that produces their tallow right here in the States. They use only the highest quality grass-fed, grass-finished tallow and pure organic ingredients in every single one of their products.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
They genuinely care about your skin and the quality of every ingredient because what you put on your body matters. So if you are ready to make the switch and try them out, go to amalo.com slash cooper and use code cooper15 for 15% off your order. Again, that is amalo.com slash cooper. Use code cooper15 at checkout.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Now, while anyone can talk about endocrine disrupting products and talk about beef tallow, there are some things that only biological women can experience and some things that we just want to talk about privately with other women. But apparently, that is not okay in 2025. And so trans activists online exploded when they saw Natalie's video.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Like, guys, I don't know if I have ever seen a response like this before, ever. I mean, maybe we could compare it to JK Rowling. But this was unprecedented. Over 45 million people viewed her video on X. It went viral on TikTok where she has over a million followers. It just became a war zone. I mean, as you can see in these comments, people were calling her vile names.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
That is what happened to Natalie Barnett this week. And unfortunately, her story is one that we are now very well acquainted with. Radical trans activism is still hell-bent on forcing men into women's private spaces, whether that be gyms or social networking apps or spas or even into Title IX.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
They were wishing death upon her, demanding refunds, saying that she had lied about the premise of this gym, even though from the beginning she said that it was women's only gym. And while supporters like JK Rowling were coming out of the woodwork to support her and rally behind her, the brutal attacks quickly drowned them out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
I mean, again, over 45 million people watching this video and tearing into her. And so the next day on March 10th, she made another video. She made a response basically begging people to stop, saying that she was not transphobic like people were claiming, but that she will in fact be standing firm in her decision. Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And I think that last line that you guys just heard is so important. This is not just a gym. This is not just another place where people can go and work out. I mean, there's plenty of gyms in London where people can go and work out. This is specifically for women, designed for us, for our biological needs and our safety needs.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
It's designed to keep women like her, who have experienced harassment and sexual assault, it is designed to keep them safe. Now, similar to what I just said, she also made the point that this is just one gym in the world, in all of London, and it is not some huge gym like LA Fitness where men and women can go and there's locker rooms for both of them. Like, this is one gym.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
tiny, tailored to women, specific gym. If you are angry, you have other options. You can go elsewhere. And I would add that actually, you can go to one of the many queer gyms that London has to offer, which many people on X were quick to point out. Here's one, Bend Movement, accessible queer-led fitness. in London. Another, Knockout LGBTQ Plus Boxing Club for London's LGBTQ community.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Team at WorkoutWithPride.co.uk. Join Workout With Pride for a safe fitness group for the LGBTQIA plus community. Another one, Uplifting Trans Lives at Not A Phase, which is a free fitness and self-defense program in seven UK cities. This gym is not trampling on your rights. You actually have a myriad of options. You are welcome basically everywhere.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Someone that is creating a gym specific for one community is not an assault on your rights. And that is literally proven by the fact that you guys have your own gyms that is just for your community. I mean, it literally makes no sense. So no, this outrage is not actually about access or inclusivity or fairness because you have a myriad of other options literally in the same exact city.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And women from across the world are desperately fighting to protect what is ours, often at an incredibly brutal cost. And today, we actually have one of these women here to share her story. But before we dive into this story, make sure that you are following our podcast page and that you leave a rating if you're enjoying the show.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
What you're actually up in arms about is trying to force yourself into single-sex spaces for the sake of power, point blank, that is obviously all you care about. And while I hate the fact that she even felt the need to make that video and to be sympathetic in the slightest to the people who are wishing death upon her, I am so glad that she did not fold.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
I'm so glad that after four years of creating this gym and building this space, she did not throw it all away because of an angry mob that just wants to abuse and control her. I am so glad that her line in the sand is still drawn. Because as she said, her gym, her decision, it is not about hate. It is about women saying enough to men invading our spaces.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And the reaction to her announcement online proves her point. It proves why a safe gym like this is so necessary. Because no, we do not want your meat in our faces unless it is Good Ranchers meat and then that is a totally different conversation. My friends over at Good Ranchers put American values first, just like you and I do.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Their meat is born, raised, and harvested right here in the USA from local family farms around the country so that you know exactly where your meat is coming from. It is also free from hidden additives, no antibiotics ever, no added hormones, no seed oils in their fried products, just simple, trustworthy ingredients that you can feel good about feeding your family.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And all of these products are delivered straight to your door. With Good Ranchers, everything you need to create healthy, delicious meals for your family is just a click away. And at goodranchers.com slash brett, you can also check out my exclusive curated box. You can try my hand-picked selections, my favorite products that Alex and I eat on a weekly basis, while also supporting American Ranches.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And again, that is goodranchers.com slash Brett. And right now, if you want a great deal, Good Ranchers is running their Spring Into Action promotion so that you and your family can support local ranchers and easily get American quality delivered right to your door.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Just subscribe to any of their boxes, but of course, preferably the Brett Cooper box, and get free bacon, ground beef, seed oil-free chicken nuggets, or salmon in every order for a year. That is free meat of your choice. for a year. Plus, when you use my code BRETT at checkout, you will get $25 off your order.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
So again, that is high quality, clean protein in every order delivered to your door for a year for free with an additional $25 off. Visit GoodRanchers.com today and don't forget to use my code BRETT at checkout to claim your free meat and $25 off.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Now, as most of you know, if you guys have been engaged in this issue for many years at this point, if you've been following along these stories, this is far from the only time that this has happened. Women who create women's only spaces are consistently targeted by trans activists, even when they don't call out trans people specifically.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And that is exactly what happened to Saul Grover in Australia. Now, you guys might have heard her name in conjunction with her app, Giggle. But if you do not know her story, back in 2020, Saul Grover created a social networking app for women that was called Giggle.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And she created this after facing years of sexual harassment in Hollywood and sexual abuse, and she wanted to create a space where women could find community and network and have a good support system, because in her words, had she had a better community of women, she feels like she could have avoided many of the situations that she found herself in while working as a screenwriter in Hollywood.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And if you want ad-free episodes and access to an exclusive newsletter and weekly Dear Brett advice videos, make sure to check out my subscriber-only platform called Cooper Confidential. The link is right here, or you can click the link in the description to check it out. So by now, I'm sure that many of you all have seen Natalie's Now viral video.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And in 2020, after leaving Hollywood and moving back to Australia, she finally created this app. And while it was still in the beta testing phases on the app store, trans activists somehow got wind of this women's social networking app. They blasted it all over Reddit and their discord channels, and they blew up her entire world. And yesterday she told me her story.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And so then, after all of that in 2020, 18 months later now, we're in 2022, Saul was literally served a human rights complaint for creating an app that was just for men. An app that she had not even gone out of her way to say, this is only for biological men. It was literally just because it was a women-only app. It was a single-sex space for women.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
She was served a human rights complaint because she was discriminating against trans people. And since 2022, her life has now been consumed by lawfare from one trans activist with a vendetta.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
I'm sure many of you guys have been following her story, but if you have not, I'm going to kind of set the scene here and give you some context. So back in 2021, Natalie announced that she wanted to create a women's only gym in her hometown of London. And she has spent the last four years working towards that goal.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
And another insane thing to note about the story is that in 2023, the Australian Human Rights Commission even intervened in this lawsuit, of course, on the side of the trans activist and the story blew up even more. Now, just less than a year ago in August of 2024, there was finally a resolution and the federal court ruled in favor of the trans activist because of course, why not?
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
This is our culture. This is our society. Nothing surprises me anymore. And they said that what she was doing, creating a women's networking app, was indirect discrimination against this trans activist and the trans community.
The Brett Cooper Show
Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14
Again, I just want you guys to listen to this because it's so insane. By creating a women's social networking app, she was discriminating against men and that actually sex is changeable in the eyes of the Australian government. So now obviously we are in March of 2025 and Saul is preparing to appeal this decision with the federal court. But ironically, so is the trans activist.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Yeah. That's the craziest part is people would even take the first step to see if, you know, something is possible.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Yeah, that's where he goes for all of his information. What took you from doing your tactical training and your gun videos into interviews?
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And people don't want to make themselves uncomfortable. Like a big thing if we want to talk about like, you know, the housing market in Gen Z and houses is they'll talk about like, well, starter homes, I can't afford a starter home. Everything is $500,000. But it's like you're looking within 15 minutes of the city. If you're willing to drive 25 minutes, if you're willing to have a further commute,
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
willing to live in an area that's not $500,000, $600,000. Especially here in Nashville, you can buy homes that are $250,000, $300,000. It's possible I have friends that have done it, but for those friends, it took a mindset shift of, is this a priority of mine? And if it is, then you have to act like it's a priority. And you have to say, okay, then I'm willing to drive the extra 10 minutes.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I'm willing to buy the house that has not been newly renovated It's not some custom bill that I'm willing to put in the elbow grease because it's priority. And if it's not, that's fine, but don't bitch and moan about it. Like if you don't want to make those sacrifices, then live in the apartment and that's fine and nobody will judge you. But don't say it's not possible.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And our culture rewards it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
So why would they? With any big leap that you take in life or any risk that you're taking, there comes more responsibility. There come sacrifices that you're going to make. And hopefully there's a greater reward, but that discomfort is part of it. And I think that Gen Z just hasn't had to experience that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
It's also part of the helicopter parenting that I think has ruined Gen Z. But think about this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Well, it's the same way people talk about you. I've told you I had the funniest interaction of my show in New York where the New York Times came up to me and they were like, we love Sean Ryan. And I was like, this like lib New York Times reporter was like, oh, my gosh, we heard that you like Sean Ryan. You know, Sean Ryan, we're such big fans. He won't talk to us.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Like, obviously, he's not going to talk to you. But you have their attention. And it's like when you talk to these huge network, it's, you know, you're consistently in the top three. You are making, it's crazy to think about you starting in your attic, starting with, you know, friends of yours, pulling them on the podcast. And you are now having clips of your podcast being played in
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
confirmation hearings you've interviewed jd vance and trump it's incredible what you've done you're not just changing the media landscape but you single-handedly are changing the political landscape you're changing conversations about national security you're doing you know flying all over the world now you change where were you in romania romania yeah causing protests over things you were doing 250 000 people showed up pretty incredible
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
What do you think, you know, talking about following what interests you, I think a lot of Gen Z and just young people in general feel, I have to be in the rat race. I have to do this job and provide for my family. And obviously that's a big part of it. And a lot of people can't, you know, change the situation at the drop of a hat.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
But should a driving force be finding that thing that interests you? Should you prioritize that over something? I'd always say prioritize that over something that's safe. But for people who feel like they can't do it, what would you say? Try.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And I think also with podcasting, I've seen people say, you know, highly produced podcasts. Great aesthetic, that kind of, you know, multi-cam. I think people have attempted that, but they lack the authenticity. They lack it coming from, you know, them. And so they'll rush that off and say, oh, it doesn't work. You got to have the Joe Rogan set up. It's just got to be like you and a folding table.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And that's what matters, right?
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
But it has to be you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
It has to be 100% in the fact that, yeah.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And it's hard to, I don't want to say find authenticity in yourself, but you, I think it takes a lot of work. At least this is what I've experienced has been setting up this show. You have to really figure out what is you and what you want to portray and put online and create. Cause I think it's very easy to go. I'll just do a show. I'll just do this, but you have to get to the core of,
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
why am I doing this? Why do I care? Why am I having this personal? Why am I talking about this issue? And it forces a lot of self-reflection. I feel like I've gotten to know myself better over the last six months of, you know, getting to this point that I, you know, even if this was a absolute failure and never went anywhere and nobody ever watched my stuff again and they were like, screw you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Did you go on one?
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
We don't, you know, like you anymore or whatever it is. That would be fine because I've learned, I've learned so much about this industry. I've learned so much about being my own boss, but I've more importantly, I've learned so much about
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
mean what I want and who I am as a person and as a you know whatever you want to call this personality whatever that that's worth it for me but it takes I think it's harder work than people think
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And it's exciting to be able to have a hand in it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Okay, the two that I want the most are, which we were talking about beforehand, Amanda Bynes. She's a former child actor, came out of Nickelodeon. She is embroiled in a lot of the Dan Schneider controversy. He has an awful reputation in Hollywood. When I was coming up as a child actor, I don't even know the amount of auditions I would get for untitled Dan Schneider projects.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I'm not from an acting family. We're not super, I would say, Hollywood savvy. Even my mom was like, you're not going out for any of those. That guy's a creep. We've heard awful things. She was his protege.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
You didn't know that about me?
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
A bunch of random stuff. We started in theater. My first professional job actually was singing opera at the Atlanta Symphony Opera.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Yeah. Then I did a lot of musical theater and then moved to... Los Angeles when I was 10 because I got too tall to do Broadway and theater, which is a whole other story. They have height requirements if you're under 18. I did commercials. I did TV shows mainly. Like I was on, you know, the movie Heathers with Winona Ryder. Paramount did a TV reboot of that. That was like my big thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And then it ended up being too politically incorrect. So Paramount butchered it and shelved it. I did kids TV, like Gordon McGibbon's Life on Normal Street.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
That's where my dad lives. I had a whole other life in L.A.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Three years ago for Daily Wire. Yeah.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I had to take a massive risk. I was 19 years old, moved across the country. Thankfully, it was, you know, Tennessee. I still had family here. I grew up, you know, two and a half hours away. Spent summers here. My mom would be in Los Angeles. My dad would be there. But I was leaving everything I had known for the past 10 years and taking a massive risk.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I think that was a major piece of growing up that I needed to do. And I had no idea that this would end up being a career or if I even wanted this. I was just, you know, I had nothing else to do. I had decided to stop acting and then had dropped out of law school before I even started. So I was a waitress writing articles for Foundation for Economic Education.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
2A. Nice. I wanted to do constitutional. Nice. And it was because I was a liberal arts major, so I was an English lit major. And I love writing. I love reading. I love arguing. I cared about trying to make things right and make the world better. And I was like, well, I'm a good writer. I'm good at critical thinking. I guess that means I should go be an attorney.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Because if you don't know what you're doing with your life and you were an English major or philosophy major, you go to law school. Kind of a joke. So I took the LSAT and did all that. And then I realized first day of my orientation, I realized I should not be a attorney. I was like, this is an awful idea. What am I doing? I'm an actor. I'm like a communicator. I'm going to hate this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
So yeah, I took the risk and came here. But you learn from it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I've heard about all the agents banging on your door.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Yeah. And I think that that is a learning experience that's priceless. I talk about that in terms of education a lot too because I was homeschooled for the majority of my life. But I went to public school for a year, you know, or actually a couple years I started in public school and then I went to like a performing arts high school for one year.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
You know, my mom homeschooled me and then I went to a private online school. I basically did everything except Catholic school is kind of my joke. And my brothers went to military school. The other ones went to like a boarding Christian school. We basically tried everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
and I'm so glad because I can speak to all of it and I you know I really found out as a young person what worked for me and I'm grateful that my parents gave me the opportunity to like evaluate that and become self-aware and figure out what was actually right for me so I think I've taken that into adulthood too where it's you know I'm glad I've tried everything I'm glad I've been in both situations I'm glad I know what works for me and what didn't work what's it like going to public school as a as a child actress horrible horrible but okay so here's the thing I
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
No, not none at all. I mean, I was like zealous. But the thing is, it's like I have people like hate comments and they're like, oh, you failed child actor. I was like paying for my own apartment at like 14 years old. I emancipated myself at 15. I put myself through college, you know, with acting. And I think a lot of people think about Hollywood and they just think about celebrities.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
But the people who make that industry run are people whose names you never know. who are doing voiceover. One of my most lucrative jobs that I had consistently in Hollywood was doing basically ADR, so voiceover, for network TV shows. So it's like, I still, to this day, get residual checks from Black-ish, which was that show on ABC. Because I went in for three episodes.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
It's huge network television, so they pay a crap ton of money. There were a couple of episodes They would have me come in with a room of like 10 other people. And there were like, there was a big party scene. There was a soccer game. And we had to pretend to be at those things. Like we were just doing voiceover. So we're like, yeah, yeah, Mike, get the goal, whatever. Like that kind of stuff.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
You'd go in for like an hour. And it's called a loop, like looping. So I was in a loop group. And that's like, you have so many actors that you have, you literally will never know who pop in on different TV shows here and there. And they make a normal living. They're not super wealthy. But they skate by in Los Angeles. They're able to pay the bills. They're the ones who the strikes hurt the most.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I was actively working, making good money, emancipated myself at 15 for a myriad of different reasons, but was able to prove to the court at 15 I can pay for myself. I had a part-time job at Trader Joe's to make sure that I'd consistent income.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I know. Oh yeah. Trader Joe's is probably like behind this. Trader Joe's is my second favorite job.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I loved it. So I was actively working. I think the weird thing was not fame, but it was that it, so I was, it was for my ninth grade year. I was 12 going into my ninth grade year, which is already, I don't know why I did that. I made a PowerPoint presentation for my mom and I said, I want you to let me go to public school because I want to know what I'm missing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Like, I want to know if homeschooling works for me. I want to know. I want to have part of it was so like psychological on my end. I was like, I want to know what it's like to be like an American kid in like public school. It's going to be great for my acting career, too, because I'll be able to like play a high schooler. And so I made this presentation.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
This is probably the coolest thing I've ever heard.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
She was like, you know, I can't deny it's great. Let's try it. And she's awesome. And so we literally moved to from L.A. She rented a house in Atlanta, Georgia, randomly, because the best performing arts high school in the country is in Mableton, Georgia. It's the best magnet performing arts high school. And I had a bunch of friends that were going there. I applied, got in, 12 as a freshman.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
So already I was the odd one out. But I think the thing that was the hardest was not that I was like the professional actor or any like fame, whatever, because I didn't have that. But that it was I had already been out in the real world. I had, you know, had jobs. I, you know, had had to deal with my taxes at 12 years old. Like I was 12 years old realizing I'm being taxed with a representation.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Like I can't vote. I had to deal with lawyers and agents and managers. I was in meetings with casting directors representing myself. And, you know, I was dealing with directors and producers. And I was surrounded by people who were, you know, 15 to 18 years old. Who had never even worked a part-time job. And that was in college as well.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
My friend group at UCLA, this is, you know, if we want to get into Gen Z, had never worked a job ever. It was like 20-year-olds who were in college had not, like, they were shocked. Number one, that I was an actor. They thought that was kind of cool. But that I worked at Trader Joe's throughout. They were like, why would you, why?
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
like you can just go to college and not work i was like well some of us our parents aren't paying but also it's like acting isn't consistent you know you might book a job here you might like i'd rather have money all the time plus it's discipline i would wake up at 4 a.m and go work the 5 a.m shift at trader joe's and then go to college classes afterwards wow anyway so the whole thing was weird man i had no idea i know i feel like we just skipped a whole thing i could have told you about on your podcast yeah well we'll go into more detail we'll go into more detail
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
But that's why I really want to interview Amanda Bynes. I mean, was the darling of Hollywood. And they chewed her up and spit her out and she was just left hanging to dry and ended up in a conservatorship. She's now out of one. She's like right now trying to piece together her life. She was trying to get, you know, her certification to be a nail artist. She's now doing painting.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Like she's finally seeming like she's She's not back to her, but in those situations, I don't think, and it's weird to tie that to, you know, the guys in your life, but you don't ever go back to who you were before you were abused, before you experienced PTSD. I mean, I don't think you know this. My brother has schizophrenia.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
He will never, even if he's on meds, even if he heals, he'll never be the person he was 10 years ago before he had his first break. Amanda Bynes will never be who Amanda Bynes was. On Nickelodeon at 15 years old that we all knew and loved. But nobody's talked to her. And people have speculated about her. And it's kind of like, I know you want to interview Britney Spears.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
It's like that kind of thing. You have no idea what goes on in her mind and what she's actually experienced. We've gotten bits and pieces thanks to documentaries and people who know her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I mean, Nickelodeon had them sign NDAs upon NDAs and non-disparagements and all of this stuff. And there are very few people who didn't sign.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And those have been able to speak out. And one did sign but then wrote a book where the characters were named different things. That was the book I'm Glad My Mom Died. It was a girl from iCarly, Jeanette McCurdy. But yeah, they've kept it completely silent.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And to this day, that guy Dan Schneider, if you speak about him, if you don't say allegedly all of this stuff, I mean, his legal team will come at you. It doesn't matter who you are. If you're just a random YouTuber. And they have the power to do that. So it's like, imagine if they're doing that to people who are just talking about the story.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Guys, I am so excited to bring you the first long form conversation of the red Cooper show. Genuinely. I have been looking forward to this since all of this started. I've been promising you guys this for the last month that I've had a bunch of comments and DMs saying, when are the interviews going to start? Well, I was painting trim in this new studio.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Imagine what they did to somebody who people have claimed and speculated was abused. So that's my top person. That and Barron Trump. Two very polar opposites.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
That's actually something... So you were talking about your wife being a partner in all this. Alex, my husband, is very involved. You know, we have a very tiny team and he's... I think the creative genius behind a lot of my best ideas, to be honest. And so he's, and he's a strategist.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
So he's been pushing me on that in terms of, you know, you need to under, and that's kind of what I was talking about of understanding yourself and finding what's authentic is he's kind of been the driving force of, you know, why are you doing this? Why do you care so much? So he's pushed me on a lot of those questions because I have all these people that I want to talk to.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
He was like, what's the real reason why? And I think it's that you have a story that people haven't heard before. So it's like with you, when I was like, oh, I should talk to Sean, it's because there's so much about your, not even your past in, you know, special ops and military, but it's your journey of getting here.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Your life as a husband and a father that I think people don't get to hear about as much.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
How do you make it work?
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Yeah, I mean, family is more important than anything, which is why I only feed my family meat from Good Ranchers. Now guys, did you know that over 85% of the grass-fed beef in stores is actually imported? And that is because the country of origin labeling law was repealed in 2015. So now, meat in our American grocery stores can be packaged here in the US and earn a product of the USA label
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
even if it was born, raised, and harvested overseas. And the other truth is, a lot of the meat in our grocery stores are filled with things that you don't want, like antibiotics and added hormones, and even harmful seed oils. But GoodRanchers.com is changing everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Good Ranchers meat is born, raised, and harvested right here in the USA by American ranchers, so you know exactly where it comes from. It is free from hidden additives, no antibiotics ever, no added hormones, and no seed oils. Just simple, trustworthy ingredients that you can feel good about feeding your family. And they make life even easier by delivering their products straight to your door.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
So no more last-minute grocery store runs, no standing in the long Walmart lines or wondering if you're getting the best quality. With GoodRanchers.com, everything you need to create delicious meals for your family is just a click away. And at GoodRanchers.com, You can also check out my exclusive box.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
You can check out my handpicked selections from the bratwurst to the pork chops to the bacon that Alex and I eat every single day while simultaneously supporting my show and supporting American ranches. So go to goodranchers.com slash Brett to check out my box today. And if that hasn't sold you yet, right now, Good Ranchers is still running their new year new meat promotion.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
so you and your family can easily get the quality that you deserve. If you subscribe to any of their boxes, preferably it's the Brett Cooper box, but any of their boxes, you will get an option of getting free ground beef, chicken breasts, or salmon in every order for an entire year. Plus, you will get $25 off when you use my code BRETT at checkout.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
That is high quality, clean protein in every order delivered to your door for free for an entire year, plus $25 off. It has never been easier to prioritize your family's health and spend more time where it matters, together around the table. Visit GoodRanchers.com today and don't forget to use my code Brett to claim your free meat and $25 off. All right, back to you, Sean.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
That was a good rant. What is the key to your relationship with your wife, do you think?
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
it's humbling to have somebody who knows you better than yourself in a lot of ways and knows what you can be and what you could be and knows you at your happiest and is like, it's not, this is not it right now. And I think at times when I've been so clouded, I'm just in it and I'm completely, you know, bogged down by everything else.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Having somebody who's pulling back the curtain and saying, this is not sustainable in the slightest.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I want to ask one more question that kind of ties in with that, and I'll let you go. I have so many young people who watch the show, and I think one of the biggest issues with my generation is obviously dating. We weren't taught how to date. I always joke that my first dating experience was on Snapchat. I was never asked out in person. People slid into my DMs, or we downloaded Tinder and Hinge.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
That was the first way that we dated. So there's a lot of societal issues in that regard, but I think people are just struggling. I think a lot of people also don't know what to look for or even how to present themselves.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
But specifically for young men, when you're dating with intention and you're looking for the person that you want to marry, I guess what would you advise young men look for in women? Because this can also help the women too.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Why waste the energy?
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Connection first.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I think the theme of you is being 100% yourself, which is a testament to you. I think it's the reason why you've blown up in the way you have. The reason why your marriage is strong. Well, thank you. It's a good thing. Thank you for coming on the show. I appreciate it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Thank you. I'm reaching over the mic. Thank you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I was going to ask if you had noticed something that worked and leaned in or whether it was completely driven by you and your interest, but I guess that answered it there.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
We were hanging shiplap and getting all the wallpaper done. We were building furniture this morning. And now we have our first guest here with me today. The incomparable Sean Ryan host of the Sean Ryan show. And if you guys don't know, Sean is a former Navy SEAL and CIA operative turned podcaster who interviews some of the world's most interesting people.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And you've stayed independent the whole time, basically.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
You've had people come and go, which is very difficult to do. I don't think many have.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Thank you. And you've been so wonderful. And for those who don't know, Sean's here in Nashville and has been a great source of support. So I appreciate it. And that's why I'm so happy that you're the first guest. You brought something up about your therapist. You were talking about men coming on the show and being able to be vulnerable. I think that there is a...
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
prevailing attitude especially on X in this like manosphere world where we kind of have this new caricature of men and obviously I think that it is a response to the softening of men in our society obviously and what people are experiencing but it feels like we've been pushed in the opposite direction where men are now these caricatures of
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
You can't cry, you can't love a woman, you can't get married, you know, being a father's gay. Obviously, you know, you're a husband, you're a father, you have these men who are incredibly, incredibly successful, incredibly brave, probably the most masculine men in our society, and they're coming on and crying. What...
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I guess, can you talk about masculinity in your mind and what an accurate representation of masculinity is based on your experience?
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I made it broader than it probably should have been.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
His show is consistently ranked in the top three podcasts in the world, as it should be. He has also become a wonderful friend and mentor to me, especially in this transition into independence. And so I'm just so honored that he agreed to be my first guest. Sean, thank you so much for being here.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And I think that goes for men and women, especially anyway, it's more of a generational thing too, where I think a lot of my generation is floating through and trying to get by and we self-diagnose very aggressively. That's the thing that Gen Z does. It's like, well, we're all depressed. We're all anxious. We can't change anything. The world is against us.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And that mindset I think has really held us back because now my generation is like, well, then why would we even try? Like we can't change anything. And it's so crippling. Yeah.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
You're guest number one.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And to be able to move forward from it and set an example of somebody who can grow and live a productive life and start a family and be that example. I think that a lot of people see, you know, vulnerability or crying and that in and of itself is, you know, powerful and it's an important thing, you know, it's an important part of processing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I know. I'm very excited. No, I'm honored that you came. I wanted actually to start off by asking you, who was your first guest? Do you remember?
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And it's so hard. I think there's a juxtaposition in our society right now because, again, if we go back to the masculinity conversation, people are definitely overusing therapy, in my opinion, especially young people. People claim PTSD for ridiculous things. They claim they're depressed when they're basically just going through a hard time.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
That's something that Jordan talks a lot about is convoluting depression with just going through a normal challenging part of your life. And I'm sure it's difficult to try to be like, no, I'm not that. And I'm not feeding into those weaknesses and the ridiculousness of what our culture has cultivated. But to understand that you still need help, I'm sure that that's difficult for them to walk.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
That's a great first guest.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And plus, I mean, the support for veterans has been abysmal.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I really feel like I've learned so much from you, almost as much as I learn at Peterson Academy. And Peterson Academy is Jordan Peterson's online university that is open for enrollment right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
If you are somebody who loves lifelong learning, wants to learn from the brightest professors in the world, or if you've ever benefited from Dr. Peterson's lectures or his podcast, his amazing guests, this platform is for you. Every month, Peterson Academy releases four new in-depth eight hour university level courses taught by world renowned experts and produced to keep you fully engaged.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
They cover an amazing range of topics from philosophy and history and psychology and science and business, complete with optional testing to further your understanding. Plus, they are continually rolling out new educational features as they grow. And there is also a built-in social community where you can connect and learn alongside like-minded people from around the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
So if you are ready to challenge your intellect and expand your horizons and take control of your education and learn as much as I'm learning from Sean Ryan right now, it is time to go to petersonacademy.com slash brett. It is $599 per year or $59 a month to access all 31 eight-hour courses with four new courses a month plus the community with a seven-day money-back guarantee.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
I love Fieldcraft. It's great. I think that Fieldcraft has inspired all of my husband's prepping.
The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
And the best part is, for that price, you don't have to take out a $60,000 loan to further your education. Again, that is petersonacademy.com slash brett to join Peterson Academy today. As you were saying, Sean.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
So in a shocking turn of events, apparently no one wanted to see angry Lord Farquaad Snow White, but everyone wanted to see Jack Black scream about Chicken Jockey and Minecraft. And that, plus the success of Mike White's White Lotus, tells us everything we need to know about the state of modern Hollywood. So it has been a big few weeks in Hollywood. I feel like we are finally ramped up into 2025.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
You are an actor. You have played a doctor on television for the majority of your career. That does not make you a doctor. Your job is not to talk about, quote unquote, objective medical fact or what you believe it to be. It is to tell stories. It is to make people feel things. And most importantly, to entertain them. not to preach at them.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Like now, I'm sorry, I literally don't even want to watch the show. You ruined it for me. Now, continuing on this TV tirade, somebody who is actually doing this very, very well is Mike White, who is the creator of White Lotus. Like he has certainly seemed to figure this all out due to the success of White Lotus.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And while White Lotus is far from being the same genre as a Minecraft movie, it also has a broad appeal and this massive fandom from all different backgrounds inside the political aisle because it doesn't preach. Because it focuses on universal truths and entertainment.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
It entertains and based on the thousands of theories and analyses that you can see online from X to TikTok to critic articles, you can take from it what you want. Like your experience with White Lotus will be different than somebody else's because it is not overtly preaching and that is a good thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Like there is this entire scene like halfway through season three where there's this like group of three women, they're really good friends, and one of the women comes out to her friends as a Trump supporter and as a Christian. And it is this like incredibly uncomfortable scene, it's so quiet, it's a really long scene in like the most beautiful way.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And everyone who watched the scene felt like the scene was for them. Like, conservatives were tweeting to high heaven about how, oh my gosh, I feel so seen, this is exactly how it feels like, it's so uncomfortable, everybody's staring at you, it's so vulnerable, and liberals were posting on TikTok being like, ha ha ha ha ha, yes, this is exactly what it's like, you feel so betrayed.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Like, the fact that everyone had an emotional reaction to it that felt very genuine, that is incredible, that is a feat. to achieve in modern Hollywood. And in my opinion, that is why the show is so good. Now, comedian and podcaster Tim Dillon, who is one of my favorite people in the media landscape, also his new special comes out tomorrow. It's called I'm Your Mother. Please go watch it.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
It'll be on Netflix. He has been an avid viewer and fan of White Lotus throughout all of the seasons. And he called into the show to talk to me about why it works, even though season three did seem to drag on. And to him, it's because White Lotus is more about class solidarity than anything else. It's not about some political divisiveness.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And this is something that basically everyone can relate to or has experience with. Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
We have very, very weird costumes, kind of mediocre lighting. You have Minecraft things flying all over the entire world. and people are obsessed. Like literally this might be the greatest movie of 2025. Like little did we know that a Minecraft movie was going to absolutely turn the film industry upside down.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And this one point is what he was hammering in throughout our entire interview, and he is absolutely spot on. I mean, the messages and the lessons of White Lotus are all about the general human condition, the perils of power, the dangers of being aimless and lacking purpose. Plus, we all get to sit back and enjoy super rich people at insane, beautiful resorts.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
So it's kind of a win there, too, because it's so aesthetically pleasing and also they're ridiculous and it's just humorous and funny. And it isn't that White Lotus is some completely apolitical show, it just didn't preach, it explored. And I think that that is a very, very important distinction to make.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
It explored autogynephilia and men obsessed with being women, which is a huge hot button issue, especially as it kind of crosses over with transgenderism. It explored friendships that cross party lines and the modern complications that come with that in 2025. It explored people being driven by status and how they become corrupted in that journey.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And like Tim said, it really leaned into people devoid of a grounding purpose.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And I love that in that response, Tim also touched on the importance of satire because that is why people like him are so integral to society. Comedians and artists who can find humor and joy in anything, who can push and probe people's buttons and shed light on important issues in a way that very few others can.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And while this season of White Lotus was definitely slower, it was not my favorite, I think that 1 and 2 were far superior, especially when it comes to satire, it still served that purpose as a good piece of art should.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
It opened at number one, but not only that, it brought in over $300 million worldwide in its first weekend and it basically broke every single box office record that it could as this Deadline article reported, and I just want you to stick with me here because I need you to see the magnitude of the impact of this film.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And just like any of the characters on the show could have voted for whoever candidate and had whatever kind of background, viewers could have voted for anyone and still enjoyed it and still had meaningful takeaways. I mean, just look at the way that the internet exploded after the finale.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
People were so divided on what it meant and how people were supposed to respond to it and whether it was good or not and what Mike White ended up editing out of it, because apparently the finale was originally two and a half hours long and he had to cut an hour out of it. Like, people were so passionate about it.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Everyone from conservatives on X to the mainstream critics at New York Magazine, everybody was fired up about this because they were so invested in the show. That is the mark of a good piece of art, and it's because everyone was able to take something from it. Everyone, in some way, was able to relate or understand to the truths that it was espousing.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Which, hello, to bring it all together, the point of this episode is exactly what people have also said about a Minecraft movie. Now, one of my best friends, Rose, was texting me about the movie. You all have probably seen her on my social media. She is an incredibly talented writer and actress. She's just beautiful. But what you probably don't know about her is that she is also a huge gamer.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
So she obviously went and saw the movie because she loves Minecraft. And this is what she texted me. She said, I loved it, all capital letters. It was absurd and definitely a meme movie, but as somebody who loves Minecraft and loves playing it, it checked all the boxes for me. The message is wonderful. She's talking about the message of a Minecraft movie.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
The message is basically, yes, it is amazing to create in a world where creating is the whole point, but it's even more special and important to reenter the real world. It actually encouraged people to get off of video games. Again, a universal truth, a universal healthy message. Anyone can learn from that, especially people of all ages. You can take your kids and they can hear that message.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
You as an adult, that is a good message for you to hear. So Hollywood, what I hope that you take from the last couple of weeks is that if you want your industry to survive, if you want people to show up to the movie theaters, if you want people to watch your TV shows, you have to think about your audiences standing around the water cooler and talking about the art that you're creating.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
You need this to be an experience that they want to be a part of. You need to create a cultural conversation and something that people want to be a part of, something that they can't escape online. And I'm sorry, but the way that you do that is by making art that is universal.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Making art that everyone can be invested in, that everyone can take something from, so that everyone can then have their say. It's focusing on your audiences, focusing on your consumer, which, hello, is like the longest standing business principle.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Okay, the biggest opening year to date, record opening for a movie based on a video game, Warner Brothers' biggest Saturday of all time at $60 million, Warner Brothers' biggest Sunday of all time at $46 million, previously Barbie, so they beat Barbie there, the only film in box office history to open to over 50 million and see no drop on Saturday. Instead, it rose by 4%.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Record opening for a Warner Brothers Legendary co-production. Largest Friday, Saturday, Sunday opening since Deadpool and Wolverine. Jack Black's biggest domestic opening. Jason Momoa's biggest domestic opening. Warner Brothers biggest opening of all time. Third biggest opening in April, fourth biggest opening ever for a PG movie. And guys, that is just for domestic records.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Like we're not even touching the international records that they are breaking. It is insane. I am out of breath after telling you all of that. That a Minecraft movie did that. So obviously they did something right. Kind of like signing up for Peterson Academy, which all of you guys should be doing.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And right now, Peterson Academy is offering a 20% off discount for anyone under the age of 25, for students, teachers, and all active and veteran military members. So if you are somebody who loves lifelong learning and wants to learn from the brightest professors in the world, or if you have ever benefited from Dr. Peterson's lectures and his incredible guests, this platform is for you.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Every month at Peterson Academy, they release four new in-depth eight-hour university-level courses taught by world-renowned experts, and they are literally produced to keep you fully engaged. This university covers an amazing range of topics from philosophy and history to psychology, science, business complete, with optional testing to further your understanding of all the subjects.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Everything is coming out. The movies are hitting the theaters. We had the much anticipated or feared, I don't even know the right word to use for that, but Snow White came out. We had been talking about it for years at this point. People didn't really want it, but they wanted to know what would happen with it.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Plus, they are continually rolling out new educational features as they grow. My personal favorite is their built-in social community where you can connect and learn alongside like-minded peers from around the world. So if you are ready to challenge your intellect and expand your horizons and take control of your education, it is time to go to petersonacademy.com slash brett.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
It is $599 per year or $59 a month to access all of their eight-hour courses, with four new courses being added a month, plus the community with a seven-day money-back guarantee, and I doubt that you will need it. And again, that is petersonacademy.com slash brett to join Peterson Academy today, and don't forget about that 20% off discount.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
So the point being, the point of me reading all of those insane statistics to you, is that, you know, this is a PG, family-friendly, so-bad-it's-amazing movie, and it's literally blowing everyone out of the water. I mean, I can't get over the fact that it is Warner Brothers' biggest Saturday of all time, biggest Sunday. That is crazy.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
I mean, guys, it even surpassed Barbie's record-breaking opening by a million, and they are not slowing down anytime soon, and I kind of feel bad for saying this, but also, because it's timely and because we just talked about it last week, I kind of have to, but guys... We have to say the obvious. It also blew past Snow White. Like, it was not even a competition.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Like, with Barbie, they were neck and neck, a million and a million, but no. Minecraft's opening weekend, again, brought in $313 million worldwide, and Snow White did $87 million worldwide. I feel bad. I genuinely feel bad saying that. And also the other point that just makes this even worse is that Minecraft's budget was $100 million less than Snow White.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
So let's just say that Warner Brothers is rolling in the cash right now, rolling in the dough, and Disney is staring down the barrel of all of their mistakes. So the question we obviously have to ask is why did this work? Like why and how is it surpassing everyone? Like movies from even a couple of years ago? I personally think that there are a couple reasons for this.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Warner Brothers released their new Minecraft movie and we all watched the season three finale of White Lotus. And basically, the point that I'm trying to make is that my entire world, I feel like our worlds, have just revolved around film and TV for the last couple of weeks, and honestly, it's revolved around Hollywood more than it has in years.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And one of those, which we will talk about in a few minutes, ties us right back in to White Lotus and Tim Dillon's thoughts on that, so stay tuned. But the first thing that I wanna say is that, yes, we have to state the obvious. A Minecraft movie, it's not a remake.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
It's not some overdone live-action remake, but it also isn't that Hollywood just decided to do something completely unique and original because it is based on an IP. It's based on an incredibly popular IP.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
It is something familiar with familiar popular actors that people want to show up for because they kind of know what to expect, but it's original enough so they want to go see it because it is something new, which this tweet hit on. Gnomebloom said, The lesson of the Minecraft movie is not to make more movies like the Minecraft movie.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
It is to make movies that play into the fan base in a way that satisfies it. That is a blueprint that can work with any property, either dumb and mean heavy or cerebral and complex. Yes, it really is that simple. Make movies for your audiences. That is what we have been screaming from the rooftops for the last couple of years.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And let's just say that with a Minecraft movie, this fan base has been incredibly satisfied to unparalleled levels. Just take a look at what teenage boys are doing in movie theaters around the country. Like it's become a crowd experience.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
This kid literally brought an entire chicken into the movie theater just so when Jack Black and Jason Momoa go chicken jockey, they can stand up with a freaking live chicken while everybody throws popcorn. Like the best parallel to this is a Rocky Horror Picture Show where everybody is like spraying water, throwing things where it's like audience participation. And that was not...
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
intended in the production. This is just something that organically happened because the fan base is so huge and they are so excited, like genuinely excited about this film. Which now leads us to my next point, and that is that most importantly, this movie is fun. And the viewing experience is fun and it's family friendly, which shockingly, people want.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
People want to be able to go see a movie with the entire family and not worry about their kids seeing something inappropriate or having to get a babysitter so that they can go and see some new Oscar winning, dark, weird social justice warrior film. They just want to go and enjoy themselves and escape the reality of our world for two hours.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
They want to be able to laugh and cry and scream and not be preached at and not have to do a ton of intellectual legwork to understand some sociopolitical meaning. They just want to have a silly good time. That's just a part of the human experience. We all just want to have a good time. And obviously people love it. The reviews on X have all been five stars.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Like this person said, poetic how the Minecraft movie, which goes against everything the film community loves, is what finally gets young people to go to the movie theater. Well, maybe you should start focusing on your audiences and the people that want to go to the theaters instead of what your community loves. You should make films for a wide audience if you want them to show up.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
If you don't want them to show up, if you don't want people to buy tickets, if you don't want them to bring live chickens to the local AMC, Then go ahead, make your art films, make your social justice preachy things, but then do not point the fingers at us and say you're not showing up for cinema anymore. I'm sorry. All you needed to do was make a Minecraft movie.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And we are clearly seeing what works in modern Hollywood and what is doomed to fail. And one of my favorite comedians, Tim Dillon, even calls into the show today to give you his take. And basically, what you and what Hollywood needs to know is that the equation for success in 2025 is actually Very simple.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Somebody else said, went and watched it yesterday and it was without a doubt the best experience I've ever had in a movie theater. It was just a great movie. Hilarious. Didn't take itself seriously. No woke stuff. Just wholesome chungus, 10 out of 10. And that is what normal people are saying.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
They are showing up in droves, they are writing amazing reviews, they're saying how fun it is, and it has been hilarious to watch Hollywood critics scramble to understand all of this and rationalize it and break down how and why this became such a success. Like, for example, Variety published this five reasons a Minecraft movie became a record-breaking box office success.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And again, shockingly, the equation was very simple. There was anticipation around it. Good anticipation, not Snow White anticipation. There was a dedicated fan base already ready to buy tickets. It was kid friendly and there was a social media movement behind it. But also those five factors, that is just what got people to buy tickets. That is what got the initial wave of people to the theaters.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
What made them come back or tell their friends and rave on social media was not because they all just like Minecraft. It was because of the experience. It was because of the storytelling. And in one article, the co-chair and CEO of Warner Brothers said exactly that. He said, you can't underestimate the value of earnest, entertaining, joyous cinema. Cinema. The Minecraft movie.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Martin Scorsese is rolling over right now. He's not dead. I don't know why I said that. He is just rolling over in bed.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Okay, but moving on from that, going back to what the Warner Brothers CEO said, the quote continues and he says, people really want an escape, especially when it involves the whole family. Imagine that. That feels like common sense, but I'm glad at least one person in Hollywood has cracked the code and it really does seem like Warner Brothers has been on the right path.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Like while Disney has been doing their weird politically fueled remakes and just blowing up their entire business, Warner Brothers has been producing things Like Minecraft, and like Barbie, and all of these huge entertaining films that people show up for.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Like, I'm sorry, but the majority of just normal Americans do not care about the experimental indie art project films or your social justice messages. They just want something that is entertaining, that is an escape. And Minecraft delivered, just like Good Ranchers delivers fresh meat to your door every single month.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Now for anyone out there who is worried about tariffs affecting them at the grocery store, worry no more because Good Ranchers is completely tariff proof. And that is because their meat is actually 100% American raised, which you can't really say for a lot of the meat in your grocery stores.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
But before we jump into that story, make sure that you are following our podcast page, and please rate the show if you are enjoying it. And of course, check out the description below if you want to buy tickets for my upcoming tour this spring. I'm so excited to hit the road and see all of your beautiful faces.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Good Ranchers is American born, raised, processed, packaged, and shipped out right here in the United States. And right now, not only will you not have to worry about your prices going up, but Good Ranchers is also giving you your pick of free meat for life when you subscribe today.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
That is free ground beef, one of my favorites, wild caught salmon, seed oil-free chicken nuggets, or bacon in every box for the life of your subscription. And not only are their cuts of beef, chicken, pork, and seafood delicious, but the service and the value that they deliver is unmatched.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
This is an amazing company run by great people, and I am so proud to work with them, and I am so glad that you love them as much as me. So now is the time to change the way that you buy meat and economy-proof your meals with Good Ranchers. Because in a world that is constantly changing, you should know that at least one thing is staying stable. So visit GoodRanchers.com slash Brett today.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
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The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Now, as I have been scrolling on social media as all of this has been unfolding, the other hilarious thing that happened this weekend, in addition to the very sad, embarrassing comparisons to Snow White, were the other projects that people in Hollywood were desperately trying to prop up amidst this whole Minecraft revolution. Like, take a look at this article. This is also from Deadline.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Mid-century modern star Nathan Lane, a gay sitcom, quote, "...more important than ever, while all of our rights are under threat." Certain nobody cares. Nobody cares about your very important gay sitcom. That's 2025 for you. We do not care anymore. We are done. But guys, the headline was not even the best part. I just want you to hear this quote.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
This is the same guy, lead actor of this new gay sitcom. And he says, quote, But it gets better. Then he goes on and says, Bomber, for his part, said that mid-century modern has, quote, hopefully brought a little joy, a little queer joy to the world in 2025. Graham added, quote, I cannot tell you how liberating it is to play a character without shame, calling the series a weapon of joy.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
You are saying how liberating it is to play a gay character without shame? Get over yourself. Like, genuinely, you are not the first gay actor to ever grace the earth. And you are certainly not on the front lines as the first gay character on TV. Please, it is 2025. This is not even the first sitcom that has heavily featured a gay character. Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
So apparently guys, I have been living under a rock because I had no idea that the most anticipated movie of 2025 was coming out last week, and that was not Snow White. Even though Snow White was anticipated for all the wrong reasons, a Minecraft movie. was the most anticipated film for all of the right reasons.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Modern Family, Grace and Frankie, I mean like this sitcom that we're talking about, mid-century modern whatever, it is literally made by the creators of the sitcom Will and Grace. The people said did the most to change the public's perception of the gay community in the 90s. Almost 30 years ago that happened and the same people are creating
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
your show and you're going on this press tour talking about how liberating and important this is that you're finally playing a gay character without shame sir all you are doing is parading your sexuality and your victim status around to try to convince people to watch your show because of politics that is all it is and it probably won't work and not because of the big bad orange man trump not because of homophobia or people not supporting the lgbtq community
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
but because they don't want to be preached at because we've been preached at for the last decade and we are tired.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Like, the reason that all of those other shows worked, the Brooklyn Nine-Nines, the Modern Families, which I am obsessed with, I love Modern Family, the reason why I have watched every single episode of Will & Grace plus the terrible reboot is because all of those projects were genuine and actually being character-driven and funny and full of heart.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
They were not about the politics of being gay or the politics of anything else. They were just funny. with good people and they were entertaining. That is why they are beloved and why you are being laughed at. People want entertainment that is designed to entertain. It is really that simple. Like for example, there is this new medical TV show. It is called The Pit. It is supposed to be fantastic.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
I've been seeing it all over my social media. I just have not taken the time to actually watch it. watch it, but they just had the season finale. It kind of coincided with the White Lotus finale, and everyone has been talking about it. There's tons of press about it, and I was fully intending to sit down and watch the series until I saw this Variety article piece on the star. Here's the headline.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Noah Wiley, who is from ER as well, was nearing a nervous breakdown. Then came the pit. Quote, it is infuriating that we can't come to a consensus on masks and vaccines. You've got to be kidding me. This is a variety article about the star of this TV show. And the entire point is about masks and vaccines in the year 2025. But guys, the full quote in the article was even better.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
He goes on and he says, these people sacrifice so much in the service of others that I find it absolutely infuriating that their expertise is being called into question. He says, leavening his irritation with a chuckle, his voice never growing louder than his usual calming timber. Quote, I find it infuriating that we still can't come to a consensus that masks cut down on transmission of disease.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
I find it infuriating that we still won't acknowledge that vaccines are an important way of eradicating disease. I find it all infuriating that we are where we are right now. So I wanted to make a show that brings back into sharp focus what an objective medical fact is. What? That's the reason why you created the show? Like, now I've read this article, I don't even want to watch your show.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
And as the name suggests, this film is about the game Minecraft, and it follows four misfits as they accidentally get pulled into the Minecraft world, and then they have to go through a series of challenges and hurdles, learn how to adapt to the Minecraft world if they want to get home. I mean, like, what are we watching? This is insane. This is Jack Black. We have Jason Momoa.
The Brett Cooper Show
What Hollywood Can Learn From the Minecraft Movie | Episode 22
Like, can't the show just be a great medical show? Like, can't the intention be to just remove the weird soap opera drama and romantic relationships from medical TV? Can't it just give viewers a glimpse into a real hospital with interesting characters that we care about? Like, I don't want to hear about your version of objective medical fact that, I'm sorry, isn't actually objective.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Guys, in case you missed it, Bernie Sanders will not be flying commercial with us peasants, Prince Harry thinks that he might be killed without security, and also, I'm pregnant. So I have to give a shout out to the whole YouTube community because you guys sniffed out my announcement way before anyone else. I was watching the comments and laughing hysterically.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
They accused them of doing all these things that they did to Princess Diana and they left And they came to bug all of us in America. If you guys watch their documentary, Prince Harry was literally filming videos of himself on a private jet being like, this is all freedom flight from the UK to America. It was so freaking dramatic.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
He wrote an entire book about how much he hated being part of the Royal family. And yet he has literally been suing his family for the last four years to regain Royal status so that he can have taxpayer funded full-time security. And guess what? As of last week, he has officially lost because
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
karma is real because his family and the judge decided that after all of these accusations, after all the hijinks, that they didn't really want to pay for Harry and Meghan to have full-time security. And you all should know that Harry is absolutely devastated by this and has no idea why they wouldn't have ruled in his favor.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
But the best part of this entire interview was the fact that after four years of completely pooping on his family and alleging all of that stuff, he said that now, now that he's been fully ostracized, he would love to reconcile with them. Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Okay, Harry, so now life is precious. Now that you have lost There's no point in fighting anymore. There's no point in fighting because the judge said that your case was ridiculous. They did their whole freedom flight to America. They tried to build a multimedia empire. They wrote books, they've done podcasts. They have done Netflix series. None of it has worked. Everybody is unhappy with them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
just for you guys, make sure to check out Cooper Confidential. You can find a link for that in the description below. It is also linked on my website, brettcooper.com. So, back to the story. I don't think this is a surprise to anyone here today, but Bernie Sanders is an elitist. He was found contradicting himself once again
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Everybody has seen through their facade. And now that they can't get their taxpayer funded security from the UK and their family has finally put their foot down and said, no, we want no part of this. Now, oh, reconciliation sounds so delightful, I would love, that life is short and it's precious. No, why weren't you saying that four years ago? Literally, it is so laughable.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Now also, according to this interview and what he said, his dad, the King of England, will not talk to him. He's like, why won't he talk to me? I'm sorry, I don't know much about the world, but I do know that when you are suing somebody, you probably won't get a phone call from that person.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Like if I am being sued, the last thing that I will think of is, let me call that person and have a nice little like Saturday chit chat. So no, I am not surprised that the king has not picked up the phone to try to reconcile with his son, who is actively shaming their entire family and suing them. So I think what we can all understand from this is that Harry and Meghan have lost.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
They have tried everything and they have failed and nobody likes them and people have seen through their inauthenticity and the lies that they have spewed about the royal family. I mean, guys, remember the Oprah video where Meghan talked about how racist the royal family was and then Harry wrote his memoir Spare and none of that was in there.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And then in an interview when he was promoting the book, somebody brought that up and said, why didn't you write about this crazy racism that made you leave the royal family? And he literally said that was a media invention. I mean, it's baloney. It is so ridiculous. Everybody sees through it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
So now they're trying to run back home to the UK with their tail between their legs and their family is not having it because the royal family still has a semblance of self-respect, which I in turn also respect. But it doesn't matter because Harry and Meghan, they are going to keep on trying.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
There is no low that they will not stoop to, including insinuating that the same thing that happened to his mother, Princess Diana, might happen to him and his wife. Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
in the entire world, they need this special royal status so that they don't have to pay for their own security because somebody out there wants to do to Meghan Markle what they did to Princess Diana. And guys, this is even more hypocritical when you get down to it because Prince Harry, you do know who did it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
I mean, you are literally interviewing with the same company that you, just a few years ago, blamed for your parents' divorce and your mother's death. Just read this headline. Prince William and Harry say the BBC interview led to Princess Diana's divorce and death because in 2021, an investigation found that the reporter
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
So he is doing this Fight the Oligarchy tour with AOC, they're touring around, they're like selling out arenas, and I've been watching all of this happening. And I've also been watching the right basically make fun of AOC and making fun of Bernie Sanders and saying they never have a chance. Okay, well, you should see the crowds they're pulling. People are very, very interested.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
who interviewed Diana in 1995 falsified documents that led her to be paranoid about the royal family spying on her. And yet, here you sit, 30 years later, doing an interview with this same publication saying, oh no, they're going to do this, we must need it. What are you doing? I mean, again, everyone can see that it is a facade. You should have spent less time
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
trying to convince the media and a judge that you deserve security and you deserve feedback in the public's good graces, and you should have spent more time trying to convince your wife to shut up and be normal. To maybe just, like, take a step back. Like, maybe if people didn't hate you so much, you wouldn't need the security. Or think that you need the security.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Like, that's just a crazy idea on my part. Now, guys, I know that I've had a lot to say on this, but the story does not end there, because as I was writing this episode and compiling all of this stuff from over the weekend, photos of Prince Harry... wandering around the UK alone, knocking on random front doors, started popping up all over Twitter. Just take a look at this. This is from The Sun.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
They are the ones who broke this story. Look at him. This is from a Ring Doorbell. He's wandering around, ding dong, looking for a friend by himself in the UK. I just have to say, I obviously have feelings about Prince Harry, but the man, the poor man, he looks tired. Maybe some new skincare could do him good. Maybe he and Meghan should invest in Nimmy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And guys, I am so excited to be partnering with NIMMY Skincare again. If you have been watching me since the beginning, you know that I promoted them a long time ago. They were one of my first ever sponsors and it has been amazing to watch their mission and their company grow.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Now, since we worked together last, they have launched a brand new clean line of high powered products made with ingredients that you can trust and feel great about. This is a huge transition for them. And also just last month, they started to introduce the beginnings of their body care collection.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
I started using Nimi again after getting pregnant this year because my hormones obviously have been going crazy. I was really struggling to keep my skin under control. I had things popping up out of the wazoo and I decided that I should start washing my face with something more than just water because things were getting harder again.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And they totally changed the game for me and they got my skin back on track literally within days. It has been amazing. And as you know, Nimi Skincare is more than just skincare. Their company represents amazing values we can all stand behind, and their products are proudly made in the USA.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And because of that, they are not forced to increase their prices when tariffs and costs rise, so you can always trust that you are getting great value. So if you're ready to make the switch, take Nimi's simple skincare quiz on their website, and you can get a skincare routine curated just for your skin type and all of your concerns and needs.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
So head over today to nimiskincare.com, that is Nimi, N-I-M-I, skincare.com, and use code COOPER for 15% off your order, your skin and your wallet will thank you. And to have your wallet thank you even more, I would urge you to check out American Financing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Because with everything happening with the economy right now, it does feel like we're kind of stuck on shaky ground as Trump is making his deals and trying to get things more affordable. But right now, during this transition period, it is no wonder that many are relying on credit cards to cover the gaps.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
But the thing that I'm interested in is what is going on behind the scenes. And it was sniffed out that Bernie Sanders was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on private jets. And yes, you heard that correctly.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And credit card debt is skyrocketing in our country, and it is leaving a lot of people stressed out and concerned about their finances. But if you're a homeowner, you don't have to face this uncertainty alone. My friends over at American Financing can help you take control of your finances once again.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
They can help you access the equity that you have in your home to help you pay down that high interest credit card debt, which will give you peace of mind and real life savings. On average, people who work with American Financing just like you are saving $800 a month. and they can help you start saving in as little as 10 days. So do not let the chaos of the economy get the best of you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Call American Financing today. It truly costs you nothing to get started, and you may delay two mortgage payments, giving you a cushion in this uncertain time. Go to americanfinancing.net slash brett, or you can call 800-852-2010. Again, that is 800-852-2010 to get started. But back to the story and back to Prince Harry's sad, pitiful self.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
He apparently, according to The Sun, knocked on at least two doors trying to find a friend of his. I mean, like, again, guys, it's so perfect. Like, what are you doing? You just finished suing your family saying that you could not go to the UK safely. He literally said in that BBC interview, he was like, I will never be able to take my wife and children to the UK. They might be killed.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
We cannot go back to the UK. He's literally walking around the UK by himself in a neighborhood, knocking on random doors. Now we have no idea what Prince Harry was actually doing, and it's hilarious that this doorbell footage actually got out there. People online are speculating that maybe it was a special type of friend that he was meeting, maybe a drug dealer, maybe some kind of affair.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Obviously that is not confirmed. People are like, why is this man just like wandering aimlessly around a neighborhood in England? But also, That's not the only kind of weird thing that he's been doing lately.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
In addition to knocking on random doors, he's also been ordering takeout to a friend's house, which I'm sorry, I'm no expert, but if you are somebody who is very scared about your security, if you are literally going through an entire lawsuit to get police protection everywhere you go, I feel like you're probably not ordering food and takeout to a house with your name on it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
This is the man that champions the Green New Deal, who says that we are all ruining the climate, that we need to stop having children because the earth is burning, and he is flying around the United States to fight the oligarchy in private jets. And obviously he was called out on social media, but he recently did an interview with Bret Baier from Fox News, and Bret brought that up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
That just seems a little counterintuitive. It seems like that's a security risk that he would be avoiding if he actually felt like his life was at risk. I mean, guys, it is just PR hit after PR hit for these people. And it's just so crazy because we all used to love Prince Harry.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
When he was an eligible bachelor in the military and he was so cute and handsome and twinkly and sparkly and he was the happy prince having a great time. Like, let's go back to this, Harry. Like, Why don't you guys just stop talking for like two years? Just actually focus on reconciliation outside of the press. Stop the interviews. Stop the podcast.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Stop the Netflix show and the sprinkling of flower sprinkles on Megan's scrambled eggs. And then maybe, just maybe, you'll get back into everyone's good graces and maybe then your father would finally answer one of your phone calls.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
But at the very least, Harry, just have some consistency because what you are saying online, what you are alleging in lawsuits does not match what you're actually doing in your real life. So obviously no one is taking you seriously. You are about as morally consistent as Disney is because we have an insane story involving Disney today.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Guys, just a few days ago, Disney announced that they are officially opening a theme park in Abu Dhabi, in the UAE. This is their first resort in the Middle East. You might be wondering like, okay, Disney does things all the time. Like, why is this making headlines?
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Well, it's making headlines and everybody is laughing about it because the UAE is in the top 20 most dangerous countries for LGBTQ people. according to UC Berkeley. Homosexuality is literally illegal in the UAE. Now, according to the federal law, quote, sodomy with the male shall be punishable by death. And Disney is saying, who cares? We're turning a blind eye to this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
We are going to open our first theme park in the Middle East, even though this is the same company that shoves their progressive values and their not so secret gay agenda down our throats on a daily basis and then points the finger at us and says that we are the backwards bigots when we disagree with it. This is the same Disney that literally removed
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
gendered language from their theme parks because they wanted to be more inclusive to non-binary people. It's the same Disney that was literally up in arms over the phony Florida don't say gay bill. That same company is now in bed with one of the least gay friendly countries in the entire world. And why? Well, obviously, it's because of money. Because money rules everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Like, literally, that is what they said in their press release. They said, Now, in that same press release, Bob Iger, who is the CEO of Disney, said, quote, Ah, that's just so amazing, Bob Iger, that that is what you are prioritizing. Now, this is the same Bob Iger who had this to say about Florida's Don't Say Gay Bill. He tweeted this a couple of years ago. I'm with the president on this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
If passed, this bill will put vulnerable young LGBTQ people in jeopardy. Now, if you guys remember this bill, it literally did not have the word gay in it at all.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
They were saying that this meant that nobody could talk about gayness, that nobody could even say the word gay in Florida schools anymore, when in all actuality, the bill was just saying, I think it was for kindergarteners to third graders, that you could not talk about sexual orientation and sexual identity and could not teach that to them. Like kindergarten through third grade.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
You need to listen to this exchange because it is just so perfect. It is rules for thee, not for me once again.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
I think that was all it was. That was the entire point of the bill. And the entire woke mob decided that this was eliminating gay people throughout the entire country. Disney got on board with that. They literally went to war with DeSantis in Florida over a bill that only banned instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for elementary schools.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And they even went so far as vowing to help repeal the law. They said, quote, Florida's HB 1557 bill, also known as the Don't Say Gay bill, should have never passed and should have never been signed into law.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that. Again, this is the company that is opening a resort in Abu Dhabi.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ plus members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ plus community in Florida and across the country. Just not! in the UAE. No, it just ends with our American border. Now, at the time, Bob Iger also said, quote, Oh! That's wonderful, Bob. Are you going to be losing that in the UAE?
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Like, are you changing anything when you open this new resort? But here's the thing, guys. If you've been paying attention to Disney over the last five years, none of this should be a surprise. Like, we know that they play these games. We already know that Disney censors and edits their projects in more restrictive countries. Just take a look at these headlines. This is from...
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Disney censors same-sex affection in Pixar films, according to a letter from employees. They were not censoring it in America. They were censoring it everywhere else. Lucky for us, here's another headline. Disney is branded hypocritical for opposing Florida's Don't Say Gay bill as it emerges that the movie giant cut LGBTQ plus content from its movies to please homophobic censors in Russia.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And in the Middle East. I mean, guys, this has been happening for years now. They are completely driven by money. That's always been what it's about. And it's ridiculously hypocritical. But unfortunately, it's to be expected at this point. And this is what we've been trying to tell the left for ages. Like, they are playing you. They are preying on your emotions because you make them money.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
With all of your outrage and your protests and your pride festivals and the crying online, you're not actually fighting the man. they're playing you. You fall for it every single time. And so if it took Disney opening a theme park in the UAE for you to finally realize that they actually didn't care about social issues but that they really just care about money, so I guess then there you have it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Also, by the way, 75% of his campaign's total went to private jets, which is just insane.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
So guys, I think I need to take a deep breath today because I've been very animated because I cared a lot about all of these stories and they're all kind of hot button issues. But I feel like we learned a lot today. We learned that Bernie Sanders is not actually destroying the oligarchy. He is becoming it. Prince Harry desperately wants attention and actually doesn't need security at all.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And Disney does not care about the gays. I'll see you guys Thursday. You guys should know that the special guest is on our list.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
I don't even remember when they started. It was like February and they were like, something's up. Something's off. We think that she's pregnant. Nobody else seemed to get it. Like I would read the comments on X. I would see things on Instagram. I would lurk in my Reddit as you guys know that I do.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
The audacity, the gall that we might see Bernie Sanders standing in a line waiting for a United flight. Okay guys, I have to have like a moment of honesty with you guys because I first listened to this clip and I didn't completely understand what he said. I thought that he said that he was trying to do three to five events in a day.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And I listened to that and I was like, okay, I mean, yeah, that's pretty accurate. I don't know how you're going to do that if you're on a commercial flight. And then Alex watched the video and he was like, Brett, you completely missed it. Maybe it's pregnancy brain because my brain is literally shrinking. But he was like, you missed the entire point.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
He's saying he's trying to get to three to five events in a week. I'm sorry, you can do that on a commercial flight. I just did two shows. I was in three different cities over the last, I don't know, 72 hours. I was in group nine. on American Airlines in Basic Economy, and I made it to every single show and every single stop.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
So Bernie Sanders, I think that we would love to see you in a commercial flight. I think we would love to see you standing in line with the people of America that you allegedly are wanting to represent. You're helping us fight the oligarchy, so you should actually stand in line with us as we do. I mean, it's just so... But guys, this is also nothing new for him.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
As Bret Baier said in this interview, he was like, you have historically flown on a lot of private jets, which is really true. He spent $2 million on private jets in his 2020 presidential campaign, which is ironic because in 2019, he literally launched that presidential campaign by talking about climate change.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
He said that was one of his number one things he was gonna be addressing, that fossil fuels and climate change were the biggest threat to our world. And then he finished that little speech and he hopped onto his private jet to go to his next thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And guys, this got so bad and he was so torched by the media for this blatant hypocrisy that he was even called out by ex-Clinton staffers who revealed that when he was campaigning for Hillary in 2016, he had requested private charters, which they weren't paying for for other people, but he and his team had demanded
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
that if he was going to campaign for Hillary, that he would be flown around on private jets. And this quote is just amazing. This is from Politico. Quote, campaign. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars flying him around per his request, only for her to lose. Guys, we really should have some empathy here because he's an older man. He has a hard schedule.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
nobody said anything but all the youtube commenters you guys were astute so yes i am pregnant i announced it at my first tour stop in phoenix just a couple of days ago which by the way guys i had so much fun starting this tour we did a show in phoenix we did a show in irvine it was so amazing to meet all of you guys i had so much fun being on stage and laughing about the insanity of our world and talking through some of my favorite stories of the week and obviously it just made it even more special that i was able to share this announcement with so many people in person
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
According to his team at the time, this was because he had to be in 13 states in three months. Literally. That is what they said. He had to go to 13 states in three months. And because of that, the grueling schedule, which if you do the math, you have like six days in between all of those stops, just on an average. Obviously, He could not be flying commercial for that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
I mean, how grueling must it be to be Bernie Sanders? Probably almost as grueling as it is to be white. Because apparently racial identity politics are back in vogue in 2025 and we all need to be apologizing for being white. Now I'm saying that racial identity politics are back in vogue because I feel like we had a little break from everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Like, I don't know how you guys felt, but in November of last year, after the election, it felt like the entire country just, like, took a big sigh of relief. Like, everybody was coming together. It felt really unified. The Maha groups had come together with MAGA. Everybody was happy. People had, like, dipped their toe over to, like, vote for Trump. Everything was great. We were so excited.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And I think everybody was just too happy. And so now, six months later, they're just trying to sow division yet again. And on that note, we need to talk about Paige Becker. So if you guys follow women's basketball at all, you probably know who she is. She was the 2025 women's basketball champion.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
She is incredibly talented, very well known, and she just signed a new deal with the WNBA team, the Dallas Wings. And the moral of the story is, she is an extraordinary athlete. She is incredible. She does not need to stand on anybody else to have her own success. Like she is incredible. She deserves all of the press, the endorsements and the fame that comes with all of that talent.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And yet last week, when she sat down with Time Magazine to discuss this new deal with the Dallas Wings, she felt that she needed to make her success about someone else. Just take a listen to this quote. She said, quote, there is white privilege every single day that I see. I feel like I've worked extremely hard, blessed by God, but I do think there's more opportunities for me.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
So she has to offer this caveat. If she celebrates herself and she says, yes, I'm really proud of myself, there always has to be this caveat of, Oh yes, but somebody else deserves it more. She goes on and she says, Guys, it feels like, we're back in 2020 again. What is this?
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
You can just say, I'm so grateful for what I have and I'm proud of my accomplishments and I love working with these brands and I love playing with all of these incredible women. You could have just said that and that would have been totally fine and acceptable.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
You do not need to bend a knee and bend over backwards to appease this mysterious mob that has suddenly popped back up in light of her new contract and this interview. Her acceptance speech from 2021 when she won the best female college athlete has also been going viral. And this is what she said in that speech.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
2021.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
I mean, guys, at this point, it feels like this is a requirement or a rite of passage in the WNBA. I mean, we just went through this with Caitlin Clark, where She was doing this amazing interview. She's an incredible, incredible talent. We don't have to think about race. We can all just celebrate her because she genuinely is amazing and seems like an amazing person.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And she did this interview and she was like, oh yeah, well, we have to celebrate the black women because, you know, they don't get as many accolades. Okay, what? Genuinely, what are you saying? You can just celebrate yourself and be proud of yourself. It doesn't need to be about race every single day. But anyway, back to Paige.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
I do give her a lot more grace for the pandering in 2021 because the world was an insane place at that point and nobody really knew what was going on and that was just the thing that you said. but it's 2025 now. We've like moved on. They're trying to bring this back into vogue. We've realized how ridiculous this is. Like you are incredibly accomplished.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
You don't need to diminish your success to make anyone else feel good. I mean, come on, basketball is a majority black sport. The WNBA is made up of 70% black women. You are actually the minority. She ironically made this comment in this time interview as the whole Met Gala was happening and the theme was centered around black style.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
So I'm so grateful for those of you guys who were there and for those of you who will be at the shows in the future. If you've not bought tickets yet, by the way, you can do that at brettcooper.com. But Alex and I are so excited and we're so grateful for all of you guys and all of your congratulations and your excitement.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Like the biggest fashion event of the entire year was all about racial identities. And while that's totally fine and black style should be celebrated because they have made incredible contributions to the world of art and fashion and creativity, the entire event just became about politics. Because of course it would in our political climate.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Meanwhile, we also have 12-foot statues of black women being erected in the middle of Times Square. Just take a look at this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
No coverage, guys.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
No representation.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
So we're encouraging empathy by putting a 12-foot statue of an overweight black woman in the middle of Times Square. Guys, that is the pinnacle of art. And yet we are still saying that there is a lack of coverage, there is no representation, they are not listened to, they are not heard. I mean, it's like, it's so ridiculous.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Like, we are genuinely creating more problems in our society by amplifying these ideas. Genuinely. And guys, the difference in media coverage over this ridiculous statue has just been hilarious.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Like, as you can see with Ground News, left-leaning coverage foregrounds the statue as a powerful symbol of black male empowerment and systemic bias, using emotive language like Big Mad and highlighting internet hate to underscore social justice themes. And that is apparently what they're highlighting through this statue, which thanks to Ground News, we are all aware of.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And Ground News always cuts through the noise with an unbiased perspective and shows both sides of every story, prioritizing honesty over everything. Their unique technology even allows users to compare how different sides of the corporate media are reporting on a story, making sure that you see all sides and truly stay informed, even on issues like this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And from my perspective, they make sure that I stay on top of the stories that I'm covering for you guys so that I can bring you the latest and most honest updates.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And in addition to that, Ground News' Blind Spot feed brings you the stories that have gotten little to no coverage, making sure that you always stay informed instead of letting big tech or their algorithms decide what you see, which happens more than you would expect.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
So if you are ready to truly break free from media bias and stay informed with transparent news consumption on every issue, now is the time to join Ground News. And when you go to groundnews.com slash Brett or scan the QR code on the screen, you can get the same premium plan that I use every single day, but for nearly half the price.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Again, guys, that is groundnews.com slash Brett if you want to get unbiased news and hold the media accountable for only $5 a month. But guys, the story of this statue doesn't just stop there, because according to the Times Square website, this statue that we all just saw is actually a nod to Michelangelo's
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
This has been a super fun, big change in our life and I'm grateful that we were able to keep it private for many months up until now and have that special time with our family and our friends. But now I'm excited to share it with all of you, especially because there was really no way I could hide it anymore because I officially popped.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
They say that the statue is a fictionalized character constructed from images, observations, and open calls spanning between Los Angeles and London. The young woman depicted and grounded in the stars carries familiar qualities from her stance and countenance to her everyday clothing. In her depiction, one recognizes a shared humanity.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Yet the contrapposto pose of her body and the ease of her stance is a subtle nod to Michelangelo's David. We're like, what? This is absurd. I mean, this is so ridiculous. And that is such an insane comparison because the David was supposed to be something that is aspirational. I mean, you look at that statue and it is this man who is elegant. He is ripped. He is athletic.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And then you have this statue, which they're saying is a representation of the average black woman. It's like, is it supposed to be aspirational? Is that what we should be aspiring to? Just a question. that I have.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And one person on Twitter put it well when he said, And of course you can take this tweet to mean a million different things, but just look at the comparison between the two statues and what we are supposed to idolize and aspire to. One obviously looks healthy. It actually looks aspirational.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And the other represents our mediocre society where everybody is fat and sick and victimhood reigns supreme. And the only reason this statue exists is because an entire population is screaming and crying about the fact that they aren't represented enough, Obviously they are, because hello, look at all of these other statues.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
There are literally statues just like this in Florence and in Rotterdam, many other cities around the world. So I'm sorry if people are tired of hearing that Black Americans are not represented or not covered or heard. And I'm sorry if we don't believe freaking Michelle Obama when she lies and says that Black women aren't given permission to talk about or articulate their pain.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And yes, that is literally something that she recently said on her podcast.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Did we live through the same 2020? Did we live through the same 2021, the riots, the protests in the streets? Are we not seeing the same statues? I think people care. I think they cared a lot, and now people are very, very tired, so maybe now they don't care as much because they're fed up. Like, this is just ridiculous.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And I think that basically everyone articulated, and we all heard, we all listened, and the entire world bent the knee. Like, I happen to remember a time when a jury awarded a black woman $11 million because she alleged that she was fired for being black. When in all actuality, she was actually fired because she was late to work 47 times in the span of a year.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Anyway, but moving on from that, the other thing that we cannot hide anymore is Bernie Sanders' elitism. But before we get into that story, make sure that you follow our podcast page and rate the show if you're enjoying it. And if you want ad-free episodes and a Dearbred video where I answer your questions and your concerns and a subscriber-only newsletter,
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And yet in 2023, she was awarded $11 million. So I'm sorry, you are awarded millions. You have statues built in your honor. Paige, your league is made up of mostly black women, which does not take away from your individual talent and success. And you should not think that it has to. And the majority of Americans are just tired and they're fed up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
And it's not because they're racist, it's just because they don't wanna have to think about race 24 seven. It's because they don't want to feel this division that you are very obviously sowing so that you can feel better about yourself, so that you can get the attention that you crave and you deserve.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
Speaking of black women who do a great job of articulating their pain, we also need to talk about Meghan Markle, but more specifically, we need to talk about Prince Harry. Now I have spent a lot of time talking about Meghan Markle, giving her the coverage that she probably wants as a black woman,
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
But I think now we need to focus on Prince Harry because now it is him that is in the news in his own PR firestorm. So last week, Prince Harry went on BBC to do his first long-form sit-down interview in, I think, probably over a year at this point. And he did this interview with the BBC.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bernie Fights Oligarchy From His Private Jet & Prince Harry’s Biggest L Yet | Episode 30
because he just lost a four year long lawsuit battle that he was fighting against his own family and the UK government. And guys, I am like hitting myself because I had no idea that this lawsuit was actually happening and it is rich. So obviously we all remember they left the royal family. They accused the royal family of racism, of not supporting Meghan Markle and her mental health journey.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
So if you guys have watched the show for a while now, then you probably know that I like patterns. When I look for things on social media to cover on the show, I like seeing repetition, I like seeing things bubbling up in a grassroots way.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And we also need to talk about fame in general and how fame drives people to act this way and what we all, as normal individuals, can learn from it. And to help tell this story and round out this idea, I called up one of the most prolific tabloid reporters and celebrity biographers from the last couple of decades who, guys, I think you will just adore because he is hysterical.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
I actually really appreciate Ian saying all of that about the Kardashians because obviously I have my qualms with that whole family, I think a lot of people in society do, I think they've kind of lost their hold on culture in recent years, and obviously I believe that they contributed a lot of harmful messages and ideas about young women to young women, so I have those feelings about them, but he's not wrong.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
They're really not too talented, but they worked their asses off to make us all think that they were very important and they were not ashamed to say, we want to be famous. We're going to have an entire reality TV show about us. We're going to have cameras in our faces for over a decade. We're going to let all of you into our lives.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
We're not going to beg for privacy, except, you know, Kylie Jenner wanting to hide her pregnancy, which was totally fine. They have welcomed us all into their homes. They've been unabashed about all of it. And I think you can kind of respect that and you can respect the hustle.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
But with Megan, like basically all of the pieces that you would need to achieve success in this weird industry, in this field, she lacks. From genuine talent to drive to the strategy and people can tell. Again, we're sniffing out literally everything that should be the theme of this entire episode. And to be fair, because I don't want this just to be a pile on Megan episode,
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
She is far from the only public figure who has played this little mind game. And again, not to beat a dead horse, because I feel like we've talked about this a lot recently, but this is kind of similar to what we saw with Elon Musk's most recent baby mama, Ashley St. Clair. But basically with that story, she publicly came out, she publicly demanded privacy, and then literally
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Within hours of making that first post, she had the New York Post at her home doing an entire story on her, an exclusive, doing a whole photoshoot of her in her very ritzy apartment in, like, sexy attire, and then from there has had multiple articles, has given quotes to basically every single tabloid about the situation, trying to reach Elon, trying to get attention from us and from Elon.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
It's just a mess. Another example. that I think you guys would all enjoy is Dylan Mulvaney, my old friend. I have not talked about Dylan in so long, it feels like. And you know, I haven't even really followed Dylan recently. Like Dylan seems to be out in California, just doing Dylan, having a time. I have literally no idea what's going on in Dylan's life.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And that actually kind of seems to be the problem that we haven't been paying attention because suddenly Dylan has burst back on the scene with a new memoir that's coming out and an attempt at a standup comedy career. However, The stand-up comedy career really did not last long. I think that Dylan did literally one show and it did not go well.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
I think the book is coming out soon, so maybe there will be a tour that is in conjunction with that. But actually, guys, even though Dylan is releasing a memoir that all of us are apparently supposed to buy and that Dylan is doing stand-up comedy that we all should buy tickets to, actually, Dylan just wants privacy. Ugh, Dylan just wants a private life for once.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Literally, guys, that is what was printed in the New York Times. Dylan Mulvaney dreams of privacy. Really? But also, he has an entire profile in the New York Times about me and a photoshoot inside my house.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And yes, again, please buy my memoir and learn all about my life and my transition from the last couple of years that you guys have also seen on social media because I literally documented my life every single day for multiple years. Like, come on. Like, the charades. Like, just be honest and consistent. It is 2025. People wanting to be famous is not shocking.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And I think I've talked about my, like, chat that I have with myself before where I just send myself stories and posts from X and TikToks and all of these things that I know are somehow kind of connected but I'm waiting for the stories to come together. And today we have yet another pattern that I have been noticing on social media and more specifically in celebrity culture.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
People blowing up and becoming viral on social media and becoming influencers is not shocking. That happens every single day. You can just say that you want to be famous. And honestly, I think more people would be on board and kind of respect that. But apparently these people think that you can't say that because just a couple of weeks after that Dylan Mulvaney profile, Casey Anthony.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
But before we get into this story, if you want ad-free episodes and a weekly advice video for me called Dear Brett. And guys, I wanna let you know that this is the last week that you can order my exclusive launch merch. This is the merch that we just created for the launch of the Brett Cooper Show. It was always gonna be limited, so we are closing out the sale.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And yes, it is the same Casey Anthony who was tried and later acquitted in her daughter's murder, which to this day is an incredibly controversial case where most people don't actually believe that this mother is innocent. But you know, all that aside, this is not a true crime podcast. I'm not trying to get into that. That's just what the internet is saying.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Well, after doing God knows what for the last decade since that trial, Casey Anthony was so inspired, maybe I should say enraged by Trump's presidency and everything that he has done this first month in office, that she decided to make a TikTok to create a new public profile and create a sub stack so that she could become, just wait,
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
an LGBTQ and women's rights activist and hopefully make some change in the world since she has been in the legal field for the last decade. Yeah, that's because you were accused of murder. That is why you are in the legal field. She also said that this was how she was going to reintroduce herself to the public. and hopefully build a career. So again, she is literally becoming public.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
She is saying she is going to build this into a career. This is gonna be great for her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
But even though she's doing all of that, even though she made this very huge TikTok that literally got over a hundred million views across all of these different platforms, even though she's creating a sub stack and wants everybody to subscribe to it, she's gonna make all of these videos, she still wants her privacy. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
You really didn't have a platform until you made this video? Like, you had kind of gone off into oblivion? You are thrusting it upon yourself.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And so that is why I am going to become a public facing brand. That is why I'm going to build a career as an LGBTQ and women's rights activist. I mean, guys, it quite possibly is the most nauseating and self-important video I have ever seen. And not just because I think that her social justice causes are ridiculous as somebody on the right who obviously feels that way.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
It is because her entire premise is is just ridiculous. And clearly everyone agreed because the right laughed at her. Obviously they were like, ha, look at you Democrats. This is what you got. You got Casey Anthony. We get RFK Jr. and you get Casey Anthony. And to their credit, the people on the left immediately rejected her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
They were like, oh no, no, this is not going to help us when we do not want you crazy lady. We do not want you on your side. You are not helping us. And within 48 hours, She deleted her video off of TikTok.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
So if you have not gotten shirts like this or the hats that are behind me on my beautiful set right now, this is your last opportunity. It is linked below in the description and on that sweet little carousel. So obviously, because I promised you this on social media, if you don't follow me on Instagram, I was posting this on my story. We need to start with Megan.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
So actually, Casey Anthony, you are going to get the privacy that you so desperately wanted, even though, again, you were making a whole public profile and reintroducing yourself, doing the whole thing. Now, I want to go back to what I just said about that self-aggrandizing self-importance.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And I think that that term is really important as we go through all of these stories and we talk about this broader issue, because it's relevant in every single case that we have just discussed from Meghan to Casey Anthony, because it is this prevailing idea that these individuals have that we need them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
But we are desperate to hear from them that they are so important that we can't live without these people that we are hanging on to every word, when really, in all honesty, we don't care. Like, the world keeps spinning, as Ian summarized here.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And guys, this cycle, this self-importance, like that screws with people's head. When you walk through the world thinking that you are the most important person, that everything revolves around you, that is not healthy. And this is why fame in general, just as a fact, as an idea, as a, you know, way of living and being, that is why it is such a dangerous game.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Like, it destroys people who become famous too young, it ruins those who chase it just for the sake of fame itself and for money and power, and these days, with all of our access through social media and reality TV and
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
you know, citizen journalist, whatever it may be, it can, as a celebrity or an influencer, completely destroy your relationship with the audience that pays your bills, that watches your videos or your content on a daily basis. And that really, in my opinion, is the reckoning that we are seeing now. It is people utterly rejecting Casey Anthony within 48 hours of her posting that ridiculous video.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
It is people going on X and saying, Dylan Mulvaney, you literally showed us your daily life for over an entire year. We don't believe that you want privacy, and this is just ridiculous.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
They're saying, Meghan Markle, you have been lying to us about what you actually want in order to garner our sympathy, to turn that into views and purchases and supporting your businesses so that you don't have to be part of the world. People are just seeing through all of it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And I really wanted to hear Ian's take on this, especially as somebody who has been following and investigating and studying celebrities and artists for years. And when I asked this question, he brought up two examples and two case studies that I think you guys will really love. The first was Michael Jackson, who he wrote a best-selling biography on and he later directed an entire film on.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And on Michael Jackson, he said this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
She just released a new show on Netflix. I think it's called With Love, Megan, like the ending of a letter. And it is truly, truly terrible. Genuinely. And I like fluff shows like that. I like lifestyle shows. I like kind of cooking and hosting shows. I love reality TV. You guys know that. That's why I like politics because it reminds me of reality TV. But this, guys, it was so boring.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And so really the point that he's making with this anecdote about Michael Jackson is that it isn't just about your quest for fame and your motivations and your drive, but also the drive of the people that you choose to surround yourself with. And while none of us are Michael Jackson level of famous, we will never be Michael Jackson level of famous. I don't know if anyone will ever get there again.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
I think Taylor Swift is getting close, but I mean, he is just unmatched. Even though we are not him, I think that is a really important lesson for all of us as human beings to hear and understand. You always have to be considering who are the people in your circle. Do they actually have your best interests at heart? Do they make you a better person?
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Do they make you reflect on your choices and be self-aware in the way that you're walking through the world? Do they protect you? And if the answer to any of those questions is no, then you have to take responsibility for yourself and leave and find better people. And in hearing this story, I wish that that had happened for Michael Jackson. I wish that that had happened for a lot of people who
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
have clearly fallen prey to this idea that the people that you surround yourself with doesn't matter. Now this next example that Ian brought up, we're kind of continuing with an obviously important theme of humility, Ian brought up an unnamed blockbuster friend of his who seems to have cracked the code to success and fame. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
So guys, at the end of the day, what we can take from all of these stories, from this idea of fame, from Megan's ridiculous new show, is that it really is about your intentions and what drives you through the world. Is it fame or money or attention or power? Or is it your craft and doing something in service of the world?
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Of making the people around you better, of leaving the world a better place than you found it. And I'll just say personally, I have been around a few of those famous people who fall in that former bucket, who do it all for money and power, and some are arguably able to hide it well. They convince even the most astute audiences that they are in it for virtue and goodness,
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
But that facade, guys, it will always break and crack and be exposed. But, you know, some people can't even hide it from the jump. They don't even have a facade to begin with. And I think that is what we have watched unfold with Meghan and Harry. They have never had the facade and they have never been able to build one back up because we all knew this was a sham from the beginning.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
It was never about privacy. It was about garnering sympathy to then further attention and fame. With Love Megan was never about teaching Netflix audiences and her friends how to host and make rainbow fruit trays. It was a vanity show that was objectively poorly done and she should fire all of the producers and advisors and marketers who allowed this to air because it was so objectively bad.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
But you know what? I'm kind of glad that it did air. I'm glad we're all able to see it and laugh at it and comment on it and analyze it because this was just another nail in the coffin.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
It is another wake-up opportunity for audiences who are becoming more and more astute in sniffing out bullshit in this search for genuine goodness and authenticity in their content and in the people that they follow. And I am so glad that that is happening, that that is what we are all searching for because our world could use a lot more of that right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And it is being received terribly. Here are just a couple of the headlines. This is from Time Magazine. This is not even a tabloid that hates Meghan Markle. This is Time Magazine. And they said, Netflix's With Love Meghan is a royal primer on entertaining that couldn't be more boring.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
This next one is from The Telegraph, and they said that the Duchess of Sussex's new Netflix series is an exercise in narcissism filled with extravagant brunches, celebrity pals, and business plugs. And this last one is from Fox News, and they wrote, Meghan Markle's Netflix show, Inauthentic, depicts Duchess as a cringey Stepford wife.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And as you can see, the critiques are coming from everywhere, from all sides of the political aisle, from Telegraph to Fox News to Time Magazine, and number one, they are addressing the utter lack of entertainment, the fact that the show is just undeniably boring, and we're just kind of asking why is this even a thing in the first place,
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And the second thing that they're calling out is the utter lack of authenticity. And then from the audience's perspective, we're all sitting here confused because this is never something that we wanted. This is not something that we asked for. We don't need another show like this. We certainly don't need it from Meghan Markle.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
This wasn't coming from Netflix knowing that they need to fill this niche, that they have a hole and that they need a new lifestyle, right? It wasn't coming from audiences going like, we need, a new Martha Stewart, we need Meghan Markle. No, it is coming from Meghan herself.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
It is coming from Meghan and her innate desire to further her brand, to further her fame, and people, these audiences, me, all of us, could smell that from a mile away. And so this is the point when I want to bring in my friend Ian Halperin, who is a well-known Canadian investigative journalist, tabloid reporter, and biographer. And guys, he had some choice words that I think you all will love.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Just listen to his take.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And that pattern would be celebrities and influencers demanding privacy and then berating us for not respecting their boundaries and privacy and then doing the exact opposite and never, ever, ever getting out of our faces. And I am sure because you all are very smart individuals, you know the person that has inspired this episode right now, today.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And so basically, the point that Ian is making, that I am making, that I think we all are making and understand is that because of the world's perception and experience with Meghan and Harry and their shenanigans over the last four years, this show was basically doomed from the start and it was always just a medium to keep Meghan in the spotlight. Nothing else.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Like, again, when you watch this show, guys, there is no reason for it. And I mean, guys, the public jury is out on this issue. They have made up their minds about Meghan Markle, like not even a prayer will save her, but a prayer might save you this Lent season with Hallow. Hallow is the number one prayer app in the world. And right now you can join their Lent Prayer Challenge.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
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The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And the way includes sacrifice, which leads to peace, joy, healing, and love. Mark Wahlberg and my favorite Chris Pratt will lead some challenges to help you surrender to God. Jonathan Rumi and Sister Miriam James will lead you through powerful stories and prayer. and Father Mike Schmidt, another one of my favorites, will deliver his amazing Sunday sermons.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
These are the ones that I listen to every single week. And on top of all of that, you will get to hear some incredible true stories of faith. It is already shaping up to be their biggest Lent ever, with thousands of people praying together all over the world. When you sign up at hallow.com slash cooper, you can get three months free, which will get you through the entire Lent challenge.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And when you join, make sure that you check out the thousands of guided prayers, meditations, music, and so much more, all designed to help you grow closer to God and find peace in your faith. So download the Halo app and jump into the Lent Pray 40 challenge today. Again, that is halo.com slash cooper to get three months free. You can also find them in the app store.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Now, obviously, while talking about and laughing about Meghan Markle's ridiculous show is obviously entertaining, I objectively think that it is more entertaining than the show itself. In the first episode, she organizes a platter of vegetables and her friend that she's allegedly known for 10 years comes in and is like, oh my God, Megan, you can cut vegetables like this?
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
She literally just sliced them. And then the other thing that is just so weird, again, with the inauthenticity, is that she has all of her friends come on the show, like this first guy, which in my opinion is just her token gay friend. There is not a single, conversation of substance in the entire first episode or the second episode with her best friend Mindy Kaling.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
They literally talk like they do not know each other. Even like her friend in the first episode even makes a joke when they're sitting down to eat their cake and talk about their lovely day at her ranch, which isn't her ranch, it's He goes, oh, this is so beautiful. Is it fake? I feel like that was him like winking at the audience being like literally guys, none of this is real.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
I'm not even her friend. Like it was just so, so weird. She's making foods that she obviously doesn't really know how to make. And she's keeping bees that obviously she doesn't even keep because she has to have a beekeeper there to show her how to do it. It's this weird dichotomy. Really? Okay. This is my thesis on the entire show.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
There is no point for Megan to be doing the show because she is not an expert on any of this. And yet she is painted as the expert. She has all of her friends come in and she's teaching them how to hoe. She's teaching Mindy Kaling how to assemble a platter of fruit into a rainbow to make kids at a birthday party happy when you could easily find that on Pinterest.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Like she's not doing anything revolutionary, but they're painting her as an expert. But simultaneously, the entire premise is that she's like, I'm just learning as I'm going and I'm just a human. and I'm doing all these things and, oh, these bees, they kind of scare me and I still need the beekeeper to do it. I've never made these bees walk hands before.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Obviously, that would be my good old friend, Meghan Markle.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Then why are you teaching people how to do it? Literally, it makes no sense. They're talking out of both sides of their mouth. And so the entire time that you're watching it, you're just like, why? That's the main question here. Why? Why was this produced? Why are we watching it? And what is the point?
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Like I was about to kind of say the only thing that she's an expert on is Megan, but I don't even think she's an expert on Megan either. Because to host a reality show or a show that is about you and your life and your interests, you kind of have to know yourself and know what you're good at and know who your actual friends are and what your strengths are.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Even though Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, or Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, as she's wanting us all to call her now, even though she left the royal family, even though they have led the charge on their privacy world tour, they are far from the only public figure who has done this charade, has done this dance of the privacy, and the no, I don't want privacy, and pay attention to me, and you're not paying attention to me, even though I want privacy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And I feel like after years of playing characters, of being an actress and of playing this role as a royal, like I don't know if Meghan has ever figured out who Meghan actually is. I think she's very concerned with how the public perceives her and who she wants to be and that's all she's focusing on. And again, we can sniff that out from a mile away.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
So again, the question is why was this even created in the first place? And so And because of all of these problems, everything that I've said in this entire rant because I did the very generous thing and watched the show for you guys, because of all of this, Ian and I both really see no future for the show beyond this first season.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
This conversation doesn't necessarily feel too productive, and enough people have been piling on and giving their own opinions. You can go on TikTok and you will probably see two million videos of people giving their takes and breaking down why the show is so ridiculous. You've heard my take. We don't need to talk about this anymore. And really, I think that the conversation should be broader.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
This conversation is actually about an unrelenting need for fame, where that comes from, and what it actually does to people. And And Ian, with all of his experience with celebrities, did not mince words as he broke this down.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
I mean, where was the lie? We see this every day with celebrities, especially with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. I mean, they continuously show up in front of our faces and we're dealing with the same issue every single time.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And this is especially relevant and hilarious with Harry and Meghan because when they left the royal family, as we all know by now, they repeatedly said that their boundaries had been crossed, that they wanted a life of privacy. They wanted a quiet life. with their family, you know, behind closed doors in Montecito, that they would have a private personal life.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And guys, even though this is something that we all watched unfold in 2020 and 2021, this is now something that the media has desperately tried to bury and cover up to protect Meghan Markle and Prince Harry from critique. Just read a couple of these. headlines. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle respond to claims that they wanted privacy amid release of Netflix docuseries. That was in 2022.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
It's from BBC. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle say they didn't step back over privacy concerns. This one's from BuzzFeed. Harry and Meghan have never wanted privacy. They wanted control. Well, then you should have said that! In 2021, you should not have said that you wanted privacy. But unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us, the internet does in fact live forever.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
They've fallen into this hypocritical trap of begging for one thing and then doing another, and basically... The public is done. We're saying we're tired. We're seeing through it. We don't care anymore. And that is what we're witnessing with the response of Megan's new show on Netflix.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
So just so we are all on the same page, in 2021, in their bombshell, very private interview with Oprah, they also talked about wanting privacy and wanting a private life for the sake of their mental health. As they were leaving the royal family, they were making all of their statements.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
They talked about how even royals should have privacy and should be able to have boundaries, which, you know, I agree. And then in his memoir, Spare, that literally broke the internet for a myriad of terrible reasons, which I'm sure you guys remember, Harry even wrote about a desire for privacy in that. And the thing is, their desire for privacy, that is totally fine and respectable.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
I can completely understand that. I can empathize with that. I think the world would understand somebody actually taking a step back and saying, this is not the life that we want for our kids. This is not the life that we want for each other. We're going to step away. And if they actually did it, we would be fine with it. But where they went wrong was being anything but private.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Because it's not just that the press has continued to hound them and cover them, but they themselves have been in front of our faces with docu-series and bombshell interviews with Oprah and Meghan's podcast and her lifestyle brands and memoirs and speaking tours and all of the different things. So I'm sorry, but no wonder... normal audiences are gonna be done.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
No wonder they are going to scoff at your plight. Your, oh, I'm such a victim, I have no privacy, but please watch my doggies. Your people are done. Like, we genuinely have just had enough with the constant victimhood while simultaneously contributing to your own problem and your own plight as you parade around in front of us and the media, especially with something
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
that is so fake and contrived and inauthentic as this new Netflix show. Like, did she actually believe genuinely that this charade would work? Like, how does she not get it after all these years? Is she sick? Merrick Health could help her figure that out. And Merrick Health could do the same for you. If you want to stop guessing and start optimizing your health, you need Merrick Health.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Merrick Health is the premier health optimization platform, empowering you to maximize your health thanks to personalized expert guidance in your back pocket. Merrick Health offers cutting edge diagnostic labs, guys, I'm talking like 40, 50 pages all about your body, personalized coaching, expert clinical oversight.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
They support clients in achieving their health and fitness goals by leveraging data-driven lifestyle and nutrition recommendations, along with supplement and prescription treatment options. And As you might know, I started my journey with Merrick Health long before they ever sponsored any of my work.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And like we talked about last month with celebrities and celebrity culture, we are simply unwilling as a society and culture to play their mind games anymore. We are tapped out, we've seen through the facade, we've, you know, the veil has been pulled back, and we're just done. We're seeing hypocrisy for what it is.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
After we had had a few health scares in our circle and in our family, I made the commitment with my brother. I told him that I was going to be doing yearly blood tests and truly start staying on top of my health outside of the traditional medical model, because obviously that was not working. That was not giving me the support that I needed. And Merrick Health truly exceeded my expectations.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
They completely changed the way that I view and care for my body. They taught me so much that I literally had no idea. Like guys, I think I've told this story before, but Merrick Health helped me figure out that I was severely anemic, that I basically should have been in the hospital. They called me and they were like, um, are you okay? And I was like, I don't know.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
I would have had no idea if I had not done their blood work. They completely changed my life. And I know they can do the same for you. This is an investment worth making for you and your family. And today, you can get 10% off your order with them. Just head to MerrickHealth.com and use my code COOPER at checkout to start the process today.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
Again, that is Merrick, M-A-R-R-E-K, health.com with code COOPER for 10% off today. Stop guessing and start optimizing your health today with Merrick Health. Now, another thing I want to bring up is that I do believe that there is a distinction between Meghan and other influencers and celebrities. Not all celebrities are created equal. Not all celebrities are Meghan Markle.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And I often see critiques online from commenters and Meghan Markle stans that, you know, we don't shame people like the Kardashians or other influencers for creating self-serving businesses or TV shows or podcasts and being focusing on themselves. The difference in my eyes, what I would say to all of those Meghan stans is that the difference is that those influencers, they're not being hypocritical
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
in how they presented themselves. Like they're very upfront with the fact that they're like, yeah, this is all about me. I'm creating this. This is great. I want to be famous. I want to be an influencer. They're not lying about any of that. And we're like, great. Glad you're being honest. We will support you because this is a cool brand. We like your thing. We like your shtick. With Megan,
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
There's all of these weird lies and the victimhood and the hypocrisy. And again, because of the culture of celebrity and everything we've learned, we're just done. The other difference in my eyes is with work ethic and strategy, which Ian also pointed out specifically in regards to the Kardashians, who he has also covered extensively. He even wrote a book about them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Here's Why The Internet Hates Meghan Markle's New Show | Episode 12
And this is what he had to say.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
But the thing is, even though this executive order would be historic, it would be hugely impactful, Trump can't just abolish the Department of Education with a signature. The Department of Education was created through an act of Congress, so it must be abolished by a vote in Congress. However, Welcome back to another episode of The Brett Cooper Show. We have some updates for you all.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And she recently did an interview where she was screeching about Trump's plans for the Department of Education and how this would take money away from students and instead line the pockets of billionaires.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
See, this is why this issue is so emotional, because they say things like this. We're taking money away from your kids. Your kids are going to go hungry. They're lining the pockets of billionaires. None of that is happening. Literally not in the slightest. Also, I love at the beginning, she goes, where's the money going?
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
The money wouldn't exist in the first place because we would stop taxing people. People, American citizens, the parents of these students would be able to keep more of their money. That is where it would go. It just wouldn't go to you, Randy, which I think is what you were most concerned about. Because again, None of what you just screeched about and basically burst into tears over is happening.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
None of it. Yes, you might make less money. Your $500,000 a year salary might decrease. You might have less power, but children will still be able to go to public school. Children will still have access to school lunches, if that is what you're concerned about. Teachers will still be paid as their salaries are set by the state. They're not even set by the federal department of education.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And I just wanna be on record saying that I am in favor of anything that decreases the political power of these teachers unions, that decreases the power of people like Randi Weingarten, who used her position to further her own political ideologies and to make more money for herself.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
I mean, from that to directing our government to unseal the JFK records, so much has happened. And next up in the slate of executive orders is apparently the future of the Department of Education and TLDR Trump wants to abolish it. But as are many things in our political landscape right now, education is a very heated issue.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
So yes, Randi, that is a long way of saying that money will be allocated differently, that will change, but it will be sent to the states.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
Which, interestingly, you seem to support, Randy.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
I'm so glad we can all agree, Randy, that the state should run education, that the federal government, with your $238 billion budget, should not be running the American educational system. So maybe that faux emotional outrage that we just saw is really not about the students, but it's about you and your pals losing political power.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
So hopefully, guys, those insights from Ryan, that brief history about the Department of Education, Trump's plans, how that would actually work, hopefully that clears this up for you, explains why this is happening and what you can expect. So yes, things hopefully are going to change.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
But hopefully, if this works the way that we want, fingers crossed, this means that students will be getting a better education. This means that parents and states and school boards, the people who actually understand their local students and understand what they need,
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
we'll be given power again and hopefully this means that our education system will stop being run into the ground by a small sect of self-serving bureaucrats. So in my opinion, this is something that everyone, regardless of whether you are on the left or the right, should be excited about.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And if you are worried about this department being abolished in its entirety and that causing something that we've not planned for, according to Ryan, Republicans don't even have the votes to do that as it stands now to abolish the department, so maybe it's something we don't even need to worry about.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
So again, support for your students is not going away. Protections over students are not going away. Aid for school lunches is not going away. The Pell Grants aren't going away. They will hopefully just be run by people who are actually involved in those specific issues. Hopefully the person that is now overseeing school lunches will be RFK Jr.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And hopefully this reallocation means that students' education will not just be increasing, but also their health will be increasing. And I also think that this could help spark fresh involvement from parents and students on the local level, because I want you guys to know that you actually have way more power than you think.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
Like, we really, honestly, do not have to wait for any of this to happen on the federal level. We do not need to wait for this executive order or for any of this to take effect to make a change. And the school system in Miami-Dade County in Florida is a testament to this. Just listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
I mean, all of that is incredible. They are getting a classical education in elementary school thanks to what the school board is doing and what they are willing to try and implement.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And a lot of people don't understand how this would work if Trump would even be able to abolish it. They don't understand why people even want to get rid of the Department of Education. And they're very concerned with what happens after the Department of Education has been abolished.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
Another great example that Ryan talked about were the states of Mississippi and Louisiana who had the best student rebound in the country, in the entire nation post COVID because of the steps that the local school boards and local legislators took. In fact, in Mississippi,
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
Fourth graders had achieved the number one spot in the nation for gains on the NAEP in reading and in math, with fourth graders scoring higher than the nation's public school average in math and tying the nation in reading. In addition to that, eighth graders had outpaced the nation for growth in math and held steady in reading. Nationally, scores for most NAEP subjects dropped or remained flat.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And in Louisiana, the results were similar. And the superintendent there credits this to getting back to the basics and credits it to states' rights. And he said this in a recent interview from just a couple of days ago. He said, I operate from what I call the brave plan. Going back to basics, redesigning systems, accelerating parental rights, valuing teachers, and expanding educational freedom.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
It's so funny how things get better and move more efficiently and faster when you remove the influence of government. He goes on and he says, this department is organized to accomplish those things. That is the way that we push out resources and it's what drives our conversation with community members, policymakers, and educators.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
It is a comprehensive set of reforms we put in place and it's really encouraging to see movement. Right now, we also have a ton of alignment between our governor's office, our legislature, our state board, and our agency. And that united front helps with implementation in schools. I also think that we execute really well.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
I've had conversations with individuals in other states that have attempted similar reforms, but the execution wasn't what it needed to be. We are really intentional about both the initial launch of policies, but also support afterwards. And then continuing on, he said, many schools and systems and educators across the country have chased shiny things.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
and sometimes even ideologies that aren't necessarily relevant to simply teaching kids to read and do math. At a time when funding is becoming less plentiful, which is odd because again, $238 billion budget, that really shouldn't be the case, states need to look at academic returns on investment. It's a really good time to focus on schooling, particularly in elementary schools.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
I mean, seriously, it is comical that this is something that a superintendent has to say, that really it's a good time to focus on schooling, Shouldn't that have been the focus of the federal government of the Department of Education for the last 40 odd years? No, no. Because they focused on ideologies.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
So we're gonna try to break all of that down for you guys, answer some questions, but before we do, if you want ad-free episodes, a weekly advice video from me, and an exclusive newsletter for subscribers only, make sure to check out my subscriber platform, Cooper Confidential. We have the link right here. We will also have it in the description below, along with my exclusive launch merch.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
They focused on giving power to administrators and these teacher unions instead of actually helping the kids. And what makes me even more excited about states like Louisiana and Mississippi, Alabama was not far behind them, is that these are the states that get mocked and shamed.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
These are the low-income, backwards, conservative states that the left and the teachers unions love to mock and demonize. They're the ones who are the laughingstock of America, but obviously they're doing something right.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
All the coastal cities that boast about their education system, sorry, you can't keep up with Louisiana and Mississippi because, as the superintendent said, they're focusing on schooling.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And back to that point about local school boards and parents being able to make change as you were seeing in Louisiana and Mississippi, I have always said that the only way I would run for public office, because truly that seems like the worst thing on earth, I would rather drag myself across hot coals than do that, the only way I would do that was if it was for a school board.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
Because real change happens there. Again, even without the federal government. And you do not need to be a parent or an educator to be on the board. I mean some of the most effective change makers recently have been young people. Some as young as 18 years old who are hungry and motivated and have just recently left the school system. So they intimately know the problems.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
They intimately know solutions that can help students that can get this system back on track. So to sum all of this up, Hopefully Trump is able to make this happen. I hope that he is able to dismantle and restructure American education, maybe even abolishing the Department of Education in its entirety. I would love for that to happen.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
I would love to see the glee on Thomas Massey's face if he is finally able to pass this one sentence back. bill. And this certainly will make things better and easier coming from the federal level. It will eliminate a lot of financial bloat. It will eliminate a lot of corruption, which is obviously a good thing and we should all be advocating for whether you are on the left or the right.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
But per usual, what I want you to remember is the change always starts with you at home. So if there's something that you do not like about your school system, if there's something that you do not like about your child's education, the power is in your hands. And if you are a student, there is so much that you can do. And I urge you to look into Ryan's work with the 1776 Project Pack.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And with all of this combined, after 40 plus years, we will finally, hopefully, be focusing on improving American education. Because truly, that is the end goal.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
But without further ado, let's of course get back into the topic. Abolishing the Department of Education has been something that has been talked about for years at this point, but in the grand political sense, it has kind of been a fringe issue. Many conservatives and Republicans in Congress are very much against this.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
They support the Department of Education, and so this issue has really been propped up by libertarians like Justin Amash and limited government conservatives like my favorite Thomas Massey and Rand Paul. And Thomas Massey has actually tried to abolish the Department of Education multiple times at this point.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
It feels like he is constantly reintroducing a bill to abolish it completely, and yet it never happens. And as recently as last month, he reintroduced it yet again. On January 31st, he said, I just reintroduced H.R. 899, a one sentence bill to terminate. the Federal Department of Education return power back to teachers and parents. This is it, the entire bill.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
I'm so honored. I'm so excited to inform you all that I've gotten a pop filter. So the days of me blasting in your ears and you hearing literally every single piece of my enunciation, Hopefully those days are over. Also guys, I read your comments. I removed the headphones. You know, I got these really cool headphones that you saw in the previous episode.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And the bill reads, be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, section one, terminate the Department of Education, and that's it. Literally one line, it is pretty epic.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
But of course, that would never pass in our modern government because, as we know, bills have to be like 700 pages long and chock full of ridiculous, random things that our government wants to spend money on. So, of course, this has not passed.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
But with Trump's comeback with his focus on slimming down government with Elon Musk's influence and the influence of Doge, eliminating this incredibly bloated, incredibly corrupt government department, seems more possible than ever. And this time around, with this reintroduction, Massey actually has 30, 30 Republican co-sponsors for this bill. So times are obviously changing.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
But 30 co-sponsors is still not enough. One article reads, if a bill were to move forward in the House, the GOP would still have to pull support from lawmakers outside of their 53-member Senate majority to reach the 60-vote threshold they need for the legislation to pass. So at this point, we gotta keep educating people and we gotta pray, which you can do with Halo.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
Guys, I am so excited to share that this episode is sponsored by my friends over at Halo. I've talked about Halo before, you know that I use them. It is an incredible prayer app that I have implemented into my daily routine. Halo's daily devotionals and meditations are so simple and make sure that a daily prayer routine is not out of reach for anyone.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And as we are getting very close to the start of Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter, Hallow has an incredible prayer challenge launching to help us draw deeper into the core principles of Lent, prayer and fasting and almsgiving. And as we often talk about in our society, we can be weak. We can lack personal responsibility. We can push our values aside.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
We can make excuses for why we don't have time to spend time with God. But trust me, you have plenty of time. You're just not using it well, and that is where Hallow comes in. Lent reminds us of what is important in our lives.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
Hallow's Lent Prayer Challenge will take you through some of the most powerful stories you will get to pray alongside incredible people, and you will have a guided prayer every day. Last year, over a million people around the world prayed every day on Hallow during Lent, and this year's Lent is going to be even bigger.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And thanks to Hallow sponsoring this episode, you guys can get three months free when you sign up at hallow.com slash cooper which means that your free trial will last all of Lent. And when you join, make sure to check out the over 10,000 guided prayers and meditations that will all help you grow closer to God.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
So again, go to hallow.com slash Cooper or download the app and join the Lent Pray 40 wait list today. And maybe we can all work together to pray for the state of education because Lord knows our country needs it. Even though Massey has 30 Republican co-sponsors, even though Trump is talking about it, people are still against this.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And it makes sense because getting rid of anything, education, dealing with education will always be difficult as it is a very emotional and personal issue for people involving their children. And in my opinion, this is because they often conflate the existence of the Department of Education with the existence of public education in the United States, which is just simply not the case.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
I think that this comes down to most people not even knowing the history of the Department of Education and the fact that it was never really supposed to have the power or the budget that it does today. I mean, like most government agencies, it has obviously overstepped its bounds. I mean, most people don't even know that it is a relatively new government department.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And also you'll see them in an episode that I pre-recorded for next week. But I got these really cool headphones. They're from the 70s. We got them fixed up so that I could use them. I put it on and it just didn't feel right. And oddly, I just felt so weird wearing them when I saw comments being like, Brett, you don't need the headphones anymore. So I have officially ditched them.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
In fact, Jimmy Carter, who just passed away, he was the one who created the Department of Education. He signed it into law in 1979. And somehow, just to give you an example, somehow over the last 40 odd years, their budget has ballooned from $14 billion to over $238 billion. That is insane.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
But what is even more insane is that over these 40 years, over that insane increase in spending and in budget, there has been no improvement. in American education. Just look at this graph from the Cato Institute. This is the trends in American public schooling since 1970. So the blue line right here is the total cost, the amount that we as taxpayers are spending on American education.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
That obviously has skyrocketed. Oh, employees have skyrocketed. We're paying more people. We see where our money is going. And then let's look at Reading scores, math scores, science scores, oh, they've stayed exactly the same. There has been no improvement in the slightest.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
Now, to give you guys a bit more backstory and context on this department and on this issue as a whole, I called my friend Ryan Gerduski, who is the founder of the 1776 Project PAC, which is reforming school boards across the country, is trying to reform education. He is a genius on all things American education, and he broke down the history of the Department of Education like this.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And like I said at the beginning, and many of you know this, like I said, education is near and dear to my heart. This is probably the political issue that I care about the most. I feel like I have a stake in this as a young person that recently came out of the education system. I feel like I tried every different form of homeschooling and public schooling. I went to community college.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
We're back to the original setting. Happy to be here. But guys, today we need to talk about something that is near and dear to my heart. We need to talk about the state of education.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
I went to a formal university. I basically tried everything except Catholic school at this rate. And I know that there are problems. But the one thing that really stood out to me that I learned from Ryan when I interviewed him
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
was that all of the intended functions of the Department of Education already existed in our federal government prior to 1979, prior to the department actually being created. They were just broken up into different departments based on what those departments' specialties were. They were not under one huge umbrella.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And creating the Department of Education consolidated all of it and gave this department and the unions that lobbied for the creation of this department major power and control, as Ryan also covered. Listen here.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And guys, to this day, the people who have the most control over the Department of Education, who are the major lobbyists, the major motivators behind everything they do, and that would be the teachers unions, quickly followed by the guidance counselor union.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And if you don't know about the power of teachers unions, maybe we'll have to do an entire episode just dedicated to that because it is truly insane. And based on the graph that we just looked at from the Cato Institute, it seems like these unions, these major lobbyists, the motivators behind the Department of Education have cared
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
If you guys have been watching my content for the last three years, even before the last three years, because this is something I would write about constantly and talk about in my social media videos, we need to talk about education and more specifically what the future holds for education under President Trump, because Trump has been signing
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
a lot more, about lining their pockets, about hiring more administrators, obviously, because the staff is growing, and pushing political ideologies instead of improving American education. In fact, in a recent op-ed for The Hill, Representative Harriet Hegman spoke on this perfectly. She wrote, "'That money,' in other words, the $238 billion, hasn't been effectively used to educate our young.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
It has disappeared into the maw of the Department of Education with no accountability for failure.'" The departments not related to education activities are also well known. Federal bureaucrats, for example, spent three years seeking to replace the word sex in federal education amendments to the Civil Rights Act with sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
They have interfered with teachers' ability to remove disruptive and dangerous students from their classrooms, and they have promoted a seemingly endless stream of woke policies at the expense of our cohesiveness and to undermine pride in being American. The result? They are turning out generations of children who can't read or do math and believe that America is evil.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
Hence why so many lawmakers and so many conservatives like myself want to see this department dismantled. It is beyond time to silence that disruption like I do with my silencer from Silencer Shop. And you all know that I am a big advocate for our Second Amendment rights, and I believe in being prepared and being responsible when it comes to firearms.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
But let's be honest, shooting can be loud and sometimes even uncomfortable. And that's why I want to tell you about my friends over at Silencer Shop. They offer the largest selection of top brand suppressors that make your shooting experience quieter, safer, and way more enjoyable. So whether you are hitting the range or out hunting, a suppressor can make a world of difference.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And do not worry about the paperwork because I know there is always paperwork involved. They have got you covered. Silencer Shop simplifies the entire process, making it hassle-free,
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
so that you can get your suppressor from the comfort of your own home plus approvals are coming back faster than ever so there is no better time to get started but here's the best part silencer shop isn't just about selling suppressors they are fighting the good fight for our gun rights every single day which is why i love supporting them because in these unpredictable times it is crucial to support companies that stand up for the second amendment and that is what silencer shop does they are actively lobbying they are battling in courtrooms and they are pushing back against anti-gun legislation nationwide so
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
If you want to enhance your shooting experience and support a company that is fighting for your rights, head over to Silencer Shop to get started today. Trust me, Silencer Shop is the easiest and best way to get your suppressor. Upgrade your guns today. But obviously, right now, this noise and this disruption to our education system has not been silenced. It is in full force.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And it is not positively impacting the quality of our children's education in the slightest. In fact, by taking power away from the states and the parents, many argue that it has only made education worse, not just stagnant.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
executive orders left and right, and I know it is pissing off the left because they think that he is abusing his power, but honestly, he is doing exactly what he promised us. I mean, the theme of Trump's presidency thus far is promises made, promises kept, and listen, we are getting exactly what we voted for, and we are very happy.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And so, as part of his 2024 campaign, one of the ideas that Trump ran on, one of the promises that he ran on, was abolishing this department in its entirety and sending power back to the states. Just take a listen from one of his rallies.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
Which is all true, which should be incredibly embarrassing to every American. It should be a top priority for Americans to figure out how to fix this so that we can serve our children and our students better. And yet on the left and with many Republicans, the only solution they seem to come up with is more money. But we are already spending an insane amount of money.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And again, going back to that graph, you can see where the money goes. It goes to the unions. It goes to the administrators. It does not even go to the teachers, which we're going to talk about later. later. But going back to Trump and going back to his promises, you know, promises made, promises kept.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
Just this week, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Trump is actively taking steps to ready an executive order that would, quote, dismantle the Department of Education. So apparently that is next in the pipeline. They wrote, Trump advisors weigh plan to dismantle education department. Administration officials are discussing executive order that could shut down key functions of the agency.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
And that was published on February 3rd. This has got people very excited. It was trending for like 24 hours on X. But the thing is, even though this executive order would be historic, it would be hugely impactful, Trump can't just abolish the Department of Education with a signature. The Department of Education was created through an act of Congress, so it must be abolished by a vote in Congress.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
However, with an executive order, Trump can break it apart. And that is what people are speculating that he'll be doing. Here is how Ryan broke it down.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
I mean, from keeping men out of women's sports just a couple of days ago, which was just incredibly historic if you guys have not seen that photo, of Trump signing the executive order surrounded by young female athletes. It was, I mean, truly brought tears to my eyes. So many years of hard work came to that moment. It was just incredible.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
So TLDR, how this would work, is that many of the original core functions of the department, pre-Department of Education, pre-Jimmy Carter era, they would still exist. Title I would be protected. It would be just moved under a different jurisdiction. Title IX, everything that we fought for, for women, for protecting women, that would be protected. It would just be moved.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
It would all be reallocated and shifted around to break up this power monopoly that this department has over our education system and over the states. And you just gotta know, and I love this, that the teachers unions are losing their minds. Because remember, they were the ones who wanted this in the first place. They are the ones who benefit the most.
The Brett Cooper Show
It’s Time to Abolish the Department of Education — Here’s Why | Episode 4
They are the ones who have the most power over everything this department does. So I want you to take a listen to my good friend, Randy Weingarten. Randy Weingarten, if you didn't know, is one of the people that I despise most on the face of the earth. She's the president of the country's largest and most powerful teachers union.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
So this might be crazy to think about in 2025, considering everything that we have heard about New York City and the subway system. But when I was a kid and I was in New York visiting my family who has lived there for 30 years, when I was auditioning, doing acting classes and dance classes, I would very frequently ride the subway alone.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Now another thing that has stood out to me as I've been watching all of this unfold is that it is not just all parents up against law enforcement and the government, it's parents up against parents.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Now I mentioned this in the introduction, but my good friend Alex Clark, who hosts the Culture Apothecary podcast, she has been talking about this issue all week on her social media, and she has gotten reamed. online by parents in her own community who listen to her podcast, who follow her on social media for pushing this idea that they believe is so dangerous and unsafe and out of touch.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And this story alone broke open a whole debate about childhood independence and autonomy and the changing trends between generations because, for a lot of people, they saw this as completely normal and permissible based on their own childhoods. For example, my friend Hannah Cox, who was actually my boss when I was writing at the Foundation for Economic Education,
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
But she has held strong all week long. I mean, it's probably 10 days at this point because she knows that this is a root cause of so many of the issues that our society and our children are facing today. And I commend her for sticking through that because, I mean, the comments that she's been getting have been insane.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And so now, over a week later, after some of these parents have taken the time to go you know, kind of reflect, do some of the research, watch the videos that Alex has been posting on her social media, they've actually come around. And now they're DMing her and commenting and saying, really sorry for my emotional reaction. You're actually right. I should, you know, try doing this for my kids.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
I mean, it's kind of like the parents who come around to Good Ranchers after years of eating mediocre grocery store meat. They know the better option, and that better option is Good Ranchers.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Good Ranchers puts American values first, just like we all do, and their meat is born, raised, and harvested right here in the United States from local family farms so that you know exactly where your meat is coming from and the quality that you can expect.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
It is free from hidden additives, so no antibiotics ever, no added hormones, no seed oils in their chicken nuggets, which I was literally eating before I came on screen. Just simple, trustworthy ingredients that you can feel good about feeding your family. And to make it even better, these products are delivered straight to your door.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
With GoodRanchers.com, everything you need to create delicious meals is just a click away. And at GoodRanchers.com, you can also check out my exclusive box that Alex and I curated with all of our favorite things that we eat throughout the week.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And I love this box because you get to try a little bit of everything, including their amazing pork chops, which might be my favorite thing that Good Ranchers has ever sent me. And at goodranchers.com slash Brett, you can also check out my exclusive box that Alex and I curated based on the things that we eat in our house every single week.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Their pork chops are in there, which that is just the best thing that Good Ranchers has ever sent me. You get to try that with the brats, with the steaks, it's incredible. So go to goodranchers.com slash Brett to shop my box today.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And if you want a deal on top of that, right now Good Ranchers is running their spring into action deal, which means that if you subscribe to any of their boxes, but preferably the Brett Cooper box, You will get free bacon, free ground beef, seed oil-free chicken nuggets, or salmon in every single order for a year. You get to pick which one you want.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
That is free meat for an entire year, plus you will get $40 off when you use my code BRETT at checkout. That is high quality, clean protein in every order delivered to your door for free for an entire year. Again, visit goodranchers.com slash brett to check out my box, and don't forget to use my code BRETT at checkout to claim your free meat and $40 off.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Now, speaking of researching and finding better options for your families, as I was researching all of this, I started to think about other cultures because obviously, you know, I'm in America, I think through an American lens, but I wanted to think outside of that box. And I was really interested, like, are people as terrified as Americans are?
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Are they so concerned with basically keeping their children in bubble wrap for 18 years straight? And I learned that no, No, that is not the case. This is not how things work in a majority of the world. Like take Japan, for instance. This was the most interesting thing I learned. This culture values independence from a young, young age. It is a core tenant of their entire society.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
She tweeted and said, Another person said, This man did nothing wrong. Safetyism is destroying society. And guys, based on this, I completely agree. Like, I think back to my childhood, which really wasn't that long ago. And at 10 years old, I had just gotten my Red Cross babysitter certification. I knew CPR. I was actively working as a babysitter and a mother's helper. I was doing pet sitting.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And my favorite thing that I stumbled upon that I just cannot wait for you guys to go and watch is the fact that all of this is highlighted in a long running, I mean, like 25 year long reality show called Old Enough. And it is based in Japan. It's a Japanese show, but you can watch it on Netflix now. And it depicts young Japanese children running errands for the first time. And it is so adorable.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
It is hilarious. Please watch this clip. It's humor. It's funny. It's entertainment. But again, this speaks to a much deeper issue of what is actually going on in Japan's culture and what they value. Take a watch. I mean, it's just that every single episode. It's tiny little humans and they're being secretly recorded by these camera crews as they go back and forth to the store.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Oh no, I forgot the curry. I need to order this pho. Oh my god, I forgot the cabbage. And they just go back and forth. You see them crossing the street. I mean, it is just pure comedy, but it is also such a far cry from what we're seeing in the U.S. where parents... are literally getting arrested for their kids being out of their sight for an hour.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And yes, because I had this question, I'm sure that you guys will too. This is not just fodder for a reality show. According to Japanese people on Reddit, this actually happens. This is what they said as they were discussing the show. One person said, we sent each of our kids on their first errand a month or so before elementary school started.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
It was part of getting them used to their neighborhood and surroundings and so on. Another person said, it's definitely not unusual to see scores of elementary school age kids going to and from school as well as just running around the neighborhood being kids. Another person said, I remember my mom sent me to buy bread and the guy asked me salt or sugar bread.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
I started crying and went back home running. This show is awesome, by the way.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Now, all of that being said, even though I'm incredibly happy that this actually does happen, it's important to note that in Japan, it's not just about being without your parents and walking to school alone and running errands alone, but this independence and this responsibility is fostered on every single level, not just in the home, not just with these errands, but also in school and in extracurriculars.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
One Bloomberg article was writing about this and they said, this assumption is reinforced at school, where children take turns cleaning and serving lunch instead of relying on staff to perform such duties. This, quote, distributes labor across various shoulders and rotates expectations, while also teaching everyone what it takes to clean a toilet, for instance.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Taking responsibility for shared spaces means that children have a pride of ownership and understand in a concrete way the consequences of making a mess since they will have to clean it up themselves. This ethic extends to the public space more broadly, one of the reasons why Japanese streets are generally so clean. A child out in public knows that he can rely on the group to help in an emergency.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
So they foster from a young age this responsibility, not just for themselves and their own person, but for the world around them, for the people around them, for the things that they do in life that they will then have to face the consequences for, even if it is as small as spilling a drink that you then have to clean up yourself because the staff member isn't going to come and do it for you.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And so knowing that and actually seeing it in action where it works means that this conversation is so much bigger than just having your kids doing things alone in public or doing dangerous things safely, as Jordan Peterson often says. It is about instilling responsibility at every level and encouraging maturity, even at a young age. Maturity is often looked at as such a bad thing in our culture.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Like, oh, you had to grow up so quickly. You're so mature. I think that that is a good thing for young people. Obviously it needs to be age appropriate, but we should be encouraging that. I mean, whether that is
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
helping around the house or at school caring for your younger siblings when your parents are busy or even getting a job as a teenager which is so crazy that that feels controversial or revolutionary but it has become that American teens working just like normal jobs after school part-time jobs that was on a decline for decades it is only in the last couple of years I think due to economic insecurity that that has changed and I just think about that
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
an entire generation was pumped into the workforce after college with no legitimate work experience, not having to show up somewhere or punch a clock or be responsible for their work or respond to an authority that was not their parent or their teacher. And while I think that
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
a lot of parents thought that they were doing the right thing and that this was a gift they were giving their kids, that it was a privilege that they didn't have to work, that they were, you know, protecting them, allowing them to be kids, that only hurt their kids and it hurt society as a whole.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
I mean, this had a detrimental effect on our culture and it has now driven even more protective parenting styles. and a massive overcorrection and outrage anytime these people see a young person working or doing something independently. Like there are so many stories of young teens who have been blasted on social media for working part-time jobs.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Like people go into Burger Kings or Dairy Queens or McDonald's and they take pictures of kids working or they find parents posting about kids working on social media and they basically go, oh my God, this is a travesty. This is so appalling. How could Donald Trump have done this that the economy is so bad that now the children have to work? This is so abusive. This is so awful.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And it's a 14 year old working the cash register at McDonald's. And they literally think that this is some kind of child labor controversy when 20 years ago this was completely normal.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And so I think the major takeaway here in looking at how our society responds and supports and how that differs from other cultures like Japan is that these cultural norms, they help parents shape their children's independence and it is far from being supported here in the US. And the reason for that, the reason that is almost always cited is crime.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
People always point back to crime like Jonathan Haidt said in that clip that we watched at the beginning of this episode. They say the world is different than we were kids. It's far more dangerous. Kids can't play outside because of everything that we've seen on social media and in the news. It's so dangerous, we just can't do it.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
But we have to ask, is this really as big of an issue as we have been told or as we have just been conditioned to think? Because violent crime against children has actually been on a decline since the 90s. And yes, there was a crime surge in the 70s that made everybody feel paranoid, but in the 90s, it dropped. And it has been on a steady decline since then.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
In fact, between 1993 and 2019, violent crime against children decreased by 67%. But even since then, the numbers have continued to decrease. The Bureau of Justice Statistics wrote, the rate of non-fatal violent victimization of persons ages 12 to 17 declined 85% in the 30 years from 1993 to 2022, based on the BJS's National Crime Victimization Survey.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
I was doing little like gardening tasks for people. I was working as an actor. Like, I was very independent already at 10 years old. It was totally normal for me to go over to somebody's house and and take care of their two, three, four, five year old kids. I would go into stores alone. I would shop alone.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Now, I do want to acknowledge that there was a slight increase amidst the crime surge of COVID in 2020, But the broader trend over the last 30 years does show a significant decline. But of course, we also have to ask, if we're being honest about this, we're having integrity in trying to examine this, you know, is that because our society is getting better?
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Is that because crime has actually decreased? Or is it because parents aren't letting their kids outside, so they're not putting them in harm's way to begin with? Now, we don't have a firm answer there. I don't know if that can even be studied. But what we do know, just on a whole, is that reducing independence out of fear is not a net positive.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And there is a way to keep your children safe and out of harm's way while still encouraging their autonomy. Because what we're doing now, this is only hurting younger generations. It is setting them up for decades of failure and anxieties in adulthood, which is what Jonathan Haidt wrote about in his entire book. And of course, the alternatives to all of this are no better.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
The alternatives are that parents just drop their kids in front of screens 24-7, and that is not any less dangerous, in my opinion, because instead of playing outside or walking to the park or doing whatever kids have normally done in history, they are handed iPhones and iPads and laptops and video games, and they are encouraged to stay sheltered.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
They are encouraged to stay inside in this little digital bubble. And not a single study that has ever been done on this subject points to children having heavily online and digital lives helping their development in any way. It doesn't even say stagnant. It always harms. It impacts language skills. It impacts interpersonal relationship skills and focus and confidence and mental health.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And that alone is before you even start exploring the risks of cyberbullying and exposure to pornography at a young age, which is a huge issue on Instagram and, of course, online trafficking. That is the biggest risk for children in 2025. I mean, in 2018, it was found that 90% of trafficking victims met their abusers online. That is the direct pipeline.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And I'm not trying to scare everybody and say, oh, my God, it's dangerous outside, it's dangerous inside. But you do have to acknowledge the reality of the world that we live in and that this is where the majority of crime against children is happening. And yet parents are thinking that this is the safer alternative. But we don't really know if it is.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And so if you are intentionally keeping your children in bubble wrap, as I like to say, or hindering their independence out of fear, out of risks, the monitoring that you should also be doing or maybe focusing even more on in 2025 should start with your child's online life, not following them around the playground out of fear.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
By age 10 or 11, I probably had already flown as an unaccompanied minor on an airplane by that age. Apparently, a lot of people online had had very similar experiences. So again, this became a broader conversation about not just parenting, but also how our society and how law enforcement encourages and supports or does not support that kind of independence.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And this is not the only thing that I did independently as a kid. My mom was 100% committed to raising independent, resilient kids. And that started with doing things alone confidently. But apparently that is very controversial.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And so the lesson that I hope to leave you all with is that pushing yourself and your kids, that is a good thing. And of course, you have to do those risky things safely, as Jordan says, but Humans need responsibility. We need autonomy. We need to learn all of those things. In order to flourish, we need to be independent and resilient. And that starts in childhood. It is nearly impossible.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
It's not easy to learn that as an adult. You have to start that at a very young age. And so everyone, I encourage you to go pick up Jonathan Haidt's book because it is just incredible. I think it speaks to so many of the issues that are going on in our world. world right now.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Read the Free Range Kids blog, take part in the independent challenge if you have young kids, and find ways in your day-to-day lives to assist your kids in developing this confidence and this competency that is just so vital. I also don't want this episode just to be for parents.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
I'm not even a parent, so maybe I shouldn't even be speaking to you about this, but I also think this is something that I need to hear sometimes, that young adults need to hear. Like, what can I, Brett, at 23 years old be doing to encourage buoyancy in my life? How can I continue to develop that resilience in my day-to-day life? Like this is the way that we all learn to weather life storms.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
This is how we become flexible and grounded. And again, that doesn't come easily. You learn all of this through very calculated and intentional and safe growth and discomfort. Discomfort is just part of life. It is a necessary part of childhood.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And with the story that we saw unfold on X last week, even though the facts are a bit murky, maybe not that great, but the fact that people responded with a huge outrage about safetyism and wanting children to have more autonomy, that gives me so much hope that our society is finally waking up to this once again. And I promise you, we will all be better for it.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And so people immediately rallied behind this father, saying this is completely out of line, this is ridiculous. Antonio Brown, the former NFL player, he even created a huge GoFundMe for him, which is now amassed for $70,000. It had been donated, you can see it here. $76,000 as of this morning, and to me, looking at all of this, this seemed like, it was just amazing.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Like this seemed like a rousing, unifying cry across our society. Like people, regardless of their political affiliation and their background or their age, they were standing up for this man. And more importantly, we're standing up against a culture of safetyism. And I still think the root of this story is. However, there has been a major plot twist.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
It was very Shakespearean in nature, which you would know if you had taken one of my favorite Peterson Academy courses. And guys, if you love Shakespeare like I do, then I promise you, you will love The Shakespearean Tragedies, which is just such an amazing course at Peterson Academy.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And of course, Peterson Academy is Jordan Peterson's online university that is open for enrollment for all of you right now. And so if you are somebody who loves lifelong learning, who wants to learn from the brightest professors in the world, if you're a homeschooler that wants to expand your curriculum, or if you're just somebody who has ever benefited from Dr. Peterson's lectures or his podcast,
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
this is the platform for you. Every month, Peterson Academy releases four new in-depth eight hour university level courses taught by world renowned experts and these are produced to keep you fully engaged. These are not your normal university classes. They cover an amazing range of topics from Shakespeare and philosophy and history and psychology to business and science.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
They're also complete with optional testing to further your understanding of all the subjects. Plus they are continually rolling out new educational features as they grow the entire platform. And my personal favorite is their built-in social community where you can connect and grow alongside like-minded people from around the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
So if you are ready to challenge your intellect and expand your horizons and take control of your education, it is time to go to petersonacademy.com slash brett. It is $599 per year or just $59 a month to access all of the eight hour courses with four new courses coming out a month, plus the community with a seven day money back guarantee. But I highly doubt you will need it.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And the best part, in my opinion, is that for that price, you don't have to take out some insane $60,000 loan to further your education. Again, guys, that is petersonacademy.com slash brett to join, and right now, they are offering a 20% off discount for anyone under the age of 25, students, I know there's a bunch of you out there, teachers, military, active, and veterans. You get 20% off.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
So a recent story about a father being arrested for leaving his three children at a local McDonald's has blown the entire helicopter parenting debate into the limelight in a major way on social media, which also perfectly coincides with a movement that author and psychologist Jonathan Haidt has been pushing in a debate that my friend Alex Clark has literally been having on her own social media this week.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
This is not a deal you want to miss. But back to this very Shakespearean twist, Clay Travis and his group over at Outkick, they were able to actually talk to the Augusta police, and they acquired the police report from this arrest, And now it seems like the story isn't exactly what we were presented with.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
So Outkick reported in their article, according to the report from Louis C. Blanchard of the Sheriff's Department, Chris Lewis, who is the father, quote, was not engaged in a job interview or application process during the time that the children were left unattended. Furthermore, by his own admission, he was walking between McDonald's and the Hendricks apartments on foot during that period.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
The distance between these two locations is approximately 0.4 miles.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And so now, based on all of these new facts and what is being presented to us in this police report, a lot of people are suspicious that, you know, no, this was not some kind of, you know, job application, going and interview, trying to make a better life for your kids, but that actually it might've been some kind of drug deal because the kids themselves told the cops that their dad had to go deliver a backpack.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
to somebody. They don't know what was in the backpack, but he was in pursuit of delivering this random bag. But more importantly than even that and what the dad was doing, according to the children, they were often left alone. This was a very frequent thing. This was not a one-time thing. This is something that happened normally in their family. Now, all of this information is actively coming out.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
I am filming this episode on a Thursday. It's going to be edited. We're going to be releasing it on a Monday. I am sure that we will have updates even then. Maybe I'll even do one of my selfie updates if there's something crazy that comes out. But again, the facts are still rolling out. And so Antonio Brown has decided that he is going to keep the GoFundMe up until all of these facts come out.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
He has also said that he has spoken with the family and the mother of these children. They have apparently been homeless since last year. He's working through what is true, what is not, if he still wants to give the money to the family, because obviously people are wanting to support them. which I completely respect. I think that that is the right thing to do.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Now back to the main point here, because this episode really isn't about this father specifically. Even though this story isn't exactly what many people believed it to be, the conversation that arose from it is still vitally important, in my opinion. And as I said earlier, it lined up with a broader discourse that was already happening online.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And the reason why all of that was happening this week is because last week was the one year anniversary of Jonathan Haidt's incredibly important book, Anxious Generation, which actually I have on the shelf. Where is it? Oh, right there, it's under my hat.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Basically, this book dissects all the reasons why the younger generations are so stunted, which shock of the century is partially due to this helicopter parenting and the lack of independence that we are talking about today. The fact that these children were so sheltered and that independence and autonomy was never fostered in the home.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And because he has been celebrating the anniversary of the release and trying to bring this conversation back into the limelight, he actually posted about that point just a couple of days ago. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Jonathan Haidt is making an incredibly important point here, and he actually directs people to chapters two and three of his book, which completely focus on this focus on childhood independence and the importance of risky play, as he calls it.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And so the questions that we need to dive into today are how much freedom do young children actually need? How much is too dangerous? And why are modern parents so damn afraid of childhood independence? But before we dive into that story, make sure that you are following our podcast page and please rate the show if you are enjoying it.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Now, even though he has been promoting the book on his own social media and talking about this over the last couple of weeks, what has really taken off online is something that his organization called Let Grow created. And that would be the independence challenge, where basically he encourages parents to put their kids in situations where they have to do something alone.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And he has been sharing all the parents who are doing this on his social media, and they have been going incredibly viral. Here's an example.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And my favorite part of this entire video is the mother's confidence. Like, she has become so accustomed to doing this with her son. Her daughter is completely comfortable because the mom is saying, you've got this. You have all the tools you need. You're going to be great. Go on in. The girl just marches right in there. That is incredible.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And you think about the types of kids that are in schools these days. You know, you watch the videos of teachers who were saying, oh my God, Gen Alpha is just so awful. They can't communicate. They can't express their emotions. They can't do anything independently. Like, please parents help us. This is one of the things that you need to do.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
You need to make them feel comfortable being away from you, being adept. It's so, so incredible. Now in this video, they also referenced a Chick-fil-A video. That was the first one that really went viral last week. So let's watch that one as well. He's so little.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And if you want to come join me on tour this spring, we will link all of the stops and the links to buy tickets in the description below. I hope that I get to see all of your beautiful faces in person and meet a bunch of you.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
He just gave it to me, yeah. They just served you? Yeah. And then, yeah. You got your Happy Meal. It's so awesome. He gave me some money. And you can literally see the kids when they come back, they're so excited. Like this hasn't been a terrifying experience. They feel confident, they feel secure. They're so proud to come back and show their parents what they were able to accomplish.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
That's something the parents should be striving for. That's an incredible gift. to give your children. I mean, this is like the exact type of thing that my mom would do with me. I distinctively remember because I was so shy, as I've talked about before, I would literally like hide in the cupboard. If you guys watched my Sean Ryan interview, I would literally hide in cupboards, close the door.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
I was so, so quiet. I didn't want to speak to anybody. Like if I was with my family, that would be a totally different thing. I was very, very reserved when I was like five or six years old. And my mom was like, this is a problem. This is not going to work out in adulthood. So she would, you know, take me to 7-Eleven, to Goodwill, wherever we were.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And she would give me like five to ten dollars and say, okay, I want you to go in there and you're going to get my Diet Coke. She loved Diet Coke and you can get a snack for yourself. But you need to find the item that you want. You need to go and check out. You need to bring back. And I remember like sobbing at the idea of doing that. And then
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
you know the challenges we didn't really call them challenges it was just things that she did like they progressed like I you know then started an acting career and I remember there was one time where I was in an acting class and it really didn't fit like I was having a really hard time I wasn't really responding to the people I had had some kind of conflict with the teacher where I was made to feel uncomfortable and I basically came home and I was like I don't want to go again I don't want to go again and my mom was like okay well then you need to tell her
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
All right, so you guys might have seen this story already because it went mega viral last week on X, but basically this huge story broke on X last week after a father in Augusta, Georgia was arrested for allegedly leaving his three children alone at a McDonald's while he attended a job interview nearby.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
You need to express yourself and, you know, go without me because you are, you know, a young adult. You're a tween. You need to go tell her. And I literally, I sat in the car, sobbed. Don't make me do it. Don't make me do it. I was a very dramatic child is how I ended up being an actor.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
But like literally full on tantrum with the idea of having to go in and do something by myself, confront somebody, stand up for myself. And my mom was like, sorry. You got to be independent. You got to learn how to deal with these things yourself. This is a very safe environment. This is somebody who cares about you. They're not going to hurt you, but you do have to go do this by yourself.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
That was an incredible gift that my mom gave me throughout my childhood, and I would not be the same person had she not taken those steps, had she not felt uncomfortable as a mother. I'm sure watching her child cry and be so scared, but she stuck with it and I am better for it. And I guarantee that all of these children whose parents are doing the independent challenge will be better for it.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And this whole idea, really, it goes back so much further than just Jonathan Haidt. I mean, of course, my mom was doing this 10 years ago, other parents were doing this, you know, 10, 15 years ago, it was very normal, but he has such a prolific voice right now, so I think a lot of people look to him. But we also need to talk about his co-founder of his organization, Let Grow.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Her name is Lenore Skenazy, and she is the founder of the Free Range Kids Movement, which works very closely with Jonathan Haidt and his work. And you might remember her, if you were paying attention to the news at this time, as the mom who came to fame 15 years ago for letting her nine-year-old child ride the subway by himself.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
This is a headline from a 2015 op-ed that she wrote about it, and she said, I let my nine-year-old ride the subway alone, and I was labeled as America's worst mom. We are having a hysterical moment in our society, she writes. We believe that children are in danger every single second that they are unsupervised. And I just want you to listen to this first line.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Two Maryland parents stand accused of doing the unthinkable. They trusted their kids, 10 and 6, to walk home from the park. The children got about halfway there when somebody saw them and called the cops. For this, the parents, Danielle and Alexander, had been visited by the police and Child Predictive Services.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Their kids were interviewed at school without their consent, and CPS even threatened to take their children away because they walked home from the park unsupervised. That is their crime. I mean, that is an insane and major overcorrection that we are seeing in our society. And this is a story that Lauren knows well.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
She then goes into her own story saying, this is all because we are having this hysterical moment in our society. We believe that children are in danger every single second that they are unsupervised. I learned this firsthand six years ago when I let my nine-year-old ride the subway alone. We live in New York. And I wrote a column about it.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Two days later, I found myself decreed as quote, America's worst mom on the Today Show, MSNBC, Fox News, and NPR. That might be the one time that MSNBC and Fox News agreed on something and that was 15 years ago. That weekend, I started my free range kids blog to explain my philosophy. Obviously, I love safety.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
One headline from Everything Georgia reads, a 24-year-old Augusta man was arrested for leaving his children, ages one, six, and 10, alone at a McDonald's while he attended a nearby job interview.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
My kid wears a helmet, got strapped into car seats, always wears his seatbelt, but I don't believe that kids need a security detail every time they leave the house. When society thinks they do and turns that fear into law, loving, rational parents get arrested. And that is not hyperbolic, that is reality.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
And the stories that she has shared over the years on her blog are genuinely nothing short of shocking and eye-opening like these. She wrote, over the summer, a South Carolina mom who sent her nine-year-old to play in a popular park was arrested for not supervising her child. She was held overnight in jail, the mother was, and her daughter spent 17 days as a ward of the state.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
Another example she cited was that in the fall, an Austin, Texas mom who let her six-year-old play outside within view of the house was also visited by the cops and then child protective services. CPS interviewed the kids individually and even asked her eight-year-old daughter if she had ever seen movies with people's private parts, the mom told me.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
So my daughter, who didn't know things like that existed, does now. Thank you, CPS. I mean, again, an insane overcorrection. This mom could watch, she was watching her children play. She was within eyesight and that still happened. And this was 10 years ago and we are still hearing stories like this.
The Brett Cooper Show
How This Sparked A MASSIVE Parenting Debate Online | Episode 20
I mean, Lauren and all of these parents were up against the exact same paranoia that good parents are facing today. And I'm clarifying good because allegedly leaving your three kids at a McDonald's to go do a drug deal is different than, you know, intentionally encouraging parent-assisted confidence and independence. I think we all can acknowledge that nuance there.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
What's up, guys? I hope you had a fantastic weekend because I am about to absolutely ruin your Monday with some of the stories we're talking about today.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Number one, which obviously has been talked about repeatedly amidst the whole Kaepernick scandal, is that the NFL is mostly made up of black men. It is a majority black sport. The first three draft picks this year were black. 65% of the young men drafted in 2025 are African-American. So obviously, Shador being drafted was not about his race.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And so from there, once they were hit with the common sense, with the statistics of this not actually being racism, people switched and they said, okay, okay, it's not just about racism. It's about the fact that Shador is a confident black man, and so that's why they didn't pick him, because he's not some rags-to-riches, humble black man that white people can feel like they're saving.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
So as a result, that's why they're not picking him, and that is even more racist. Like, that is literally what they were arguing. And to everyone's credit, it is kind of confusing on the surface why Shadur was not drafted, because It's not like he's some terrible player, like he's actually pretty good.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
So I would argue that it is not just about talent, it's not just about racism, but that actually him not being drafted until the fifth round was because of his ego and maybe because of his father, Dion. For example... It could be, crazy thought, that unlike every other player, he did not participate in the Combine because he thought he was just too good for that. He didn't have to do it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Maybe it was because he was doing pre-draft interviews saying, if you ain't trying to change the franchise or the culture, don't get me. Maybe it's because coaches saw that while he was playing and practicing with the first round picks, He was focusing most of his time on vlogging and livestreaming the entire event, while people like Cam Ward were saying, no, I'm here to play football.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
I actually don't care about your vlog. I'm gonna focus on the game that I'm here to play. Shadur Sanders was off like trying to be viral. Maybe it's because his father, Deion Sanders, was doing interviews talking about who he would not allow his son to play for. He literally said that. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Well, we're interested in this because it's a group of college kids putting this on. So obviously this was not some sterile, serious sperm race. There was trash talk. There was an entire audience. Just watch this clip because obviously all of that made it go viral on TikTok.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Okay, and the most insane thing to me is that everyone in the audience is like, oh yeah, absolutely, that is totally in your right as a father to tell your kid who he's not allowed to play for in the NFL. I mean, it's ridiculous. And the best part of that is that him saying that came on the heels of another comment that he made in that interview saying, I'm not a helicopter parent.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Yeah, we don't do that in our household. He's a man. He can go do whatever he wants. And then 30 seconds later, he's like, no, he's not allowed to play for certain teams.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
So that certainly could have contributed to it. Maybe it was also how Dion was saying that wherever Shadur got drafted, he was going to fly into town. He was going to take meetings with the owners and the coaches to tell them his expectations of how things were going to be run with his son. But hey, you know, maybe this is just too much common sense. I'm not even a sports fan.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Maybe it's that Shadur just eats too many foods with seed oils in them. Couldn't be me, which is why I love masa chips. I don't think this is news to anyone watching this video, but America has gotten sicker, and one of the big reasons is very simple. We stopped eating real food.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Seed oils like canola and soybean oil, which barely existed 50 years ago, now make up around 20% of the average American's calories, and many believe that they are making us sicker than ever. And that is why masa chips are made differently. They're made the way food should be, with just three ingredients.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Organic nixtamalized corn, sea salt, and 100% grass-fed beef tallow, which of course you guys know is my favorite. And they don't just avoid all the bad stuff, but they taste incredible too. These seriously are our favorite chips. We keep them in stock all the time in our house. I use them in my ground beef bowls that you guys see on my Instagram. They're amazing. I love them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And I know that you guys will too. Because masa chips have the perfect crunch, a rich, satisfying flavor, and they taste the way a tortilla chip was meant to taste. So if you're ready to make the switch, go to MasaChips.com slash Brett and use code Brett for 25% off your first order. Again, that is MasaChips.com slash Brett. Use code Brett for that discount. This is the best place to buy them.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Again, that's MasaChips.com slash Brett. Code Brett at checkout. And of course, our health is not the only thing that is on shaky ground. Even though Donald Trump is working on it, prices are stuck at a really high level and it seems like nothing is affordable anymore. And it's no wonder that many are relying on credit cards to cover the gaps.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Credit card debt is skyrocketing and it's leaving a lot of people stressed out. And this is where American financing comes into play. If you are a homeowner, I want you to know that you do not have to face this uncertainty alone.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
my friends over at american financing can help you take control they can help you access the equity in your home to help you pay down that high interest credit card debt giving you peace of mind and real savings and on average their customers are saving 800 a month plus they may close your loan in as little as 10 days so don't let the chaos of the economy get the best of you call
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Call American Financing now. It costs you literally nothing to get started, and you may delay two mortgage payments, giving you a cushion in this uncertain time. Just go to AmericanFinancing.net slash Brett, or you can call 800-852-2010. Again, that is 800-852-2010. 2010 or americanfinancing.net slash Brett.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
But back to the story, the point is that the deal that Dion and Shador were offering seems like obviously it was going to come with a ton of baggage and headache for whoever drafted him. So I don't think anybody was like chopping at the bit to give this guy an amazing deal. But again, he's not a bad player. Like this young man was not going to go undrafted.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
I just think maybe people thought, okay, we kind of need to like knock him down a peg and teach him a lesson. And so finally in the fifth round, 144th pick, After he learned his lesson, he got drafted by the Cleveland Browns who, to their credit, made it very clear that he needed to work hard and actually earn his place on their team. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And so while maybe this entire thing wasn't organic, maybe a bunch of teams came together and said, okay, we're not going to draft and we need to teach them a lesson. It obviously was not racism. That is a ridiculous argument. And also it seems like a good lesson, a lesson that multiple
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
while other young players in modern sports and their fathers are learning right now, which takes us into a story that I actually covered on the scroll just a couple of weeks ago. And that would be the story of the Tennessee quarterback and his father who blew up his $2.5 million deal. And that young man is named Niko Iyama-Leava, which hopefully I am not butchering.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
I have listened to pronunciations of his name like five times in preparation.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
But this is a story that Alex has been talking about for weeks in our household, because obviously he's a Vol, he went to Tennessee. Niko had an incredible deal at Tennessee. He was getting paid $2.4 million a year to be their quarterback. And on the tail end of this past season, he and his father decided that actually he could be doing better.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
So he did something that has never been done in the NCAA before. He decided to do an NFL style holdout, which basically is a strategy where a player will say, I'm not going to show up to practices. I'm not going to show up until you give me more money. But that was a game that Tennessee did not want to play. And they were not happy with this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Three, two, one. Like, guys, they're in literal, like, suits. There's animations. There's music. We're watching them race here. One has a major head start. Tristan is just blowing Asher out of the water. Asher's kind of clumping up back there. Really got a slow start. But guys, it's insane.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
They also found out through other coaches around the country that Nico and his family were talking to other teams, trying to see if they could get more money so that he could leave Tennessee. And so in hearing that, Tennessee and their head coach said, okay, fine, you're done. Go find more money.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Go see if you can do better because no one is bigger than the Power T, which basically everyone at Tennessee was so happy about. They were like, yes, let's drop him. This is like so ridiculous. And so at that point, Nico had been kicked off of Tennessee. He was basically a college free agent.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
He had to enter into the transfer portal to see if any of these other teams that he had been talking to would pick him up. And basically everyone said, oh, actually, you seem kind of like a mess. Like you and your dad, you're asking for all this money. I don't really know if we want to touch that. And so everybody shut the door. They said, nope, we don't want to pay you to come here until Friday.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
finally, like weeks later, UCLA offered him a $1 million deal, which is still crazy. That is still an insane amount of money for a college student to be making, but that was the only deal he got. And so Nico literally went from $2.4 million a year to $1 million a year when he was trying to get $4 million a year.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And all of this was motivated by his dad, who apparently runs most of his career decisions, runs most of his business. And so like I said in my newsletter, this should be a huge wake up call for Nico to like really think critically about the influence of your parents. And obviously you love your parents.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
You don't want to push back against them, but maybe your dad is clouded by emotions, clouded by what he wants for you. And he's not actually giving you the best advice, but still who your dad is doesn't impact how you play in the public's perception of you. Like truly to the parents in these situations, I think maybe you need to like sit down and shut up for a little bit.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
I would give the same advice to Meghan Markle because she also seems like she just cannot stop talking no matter what people tell her. Now, Meghan, just last week, this was probably my favorite story of the week. She did her first long form sit down podcast interview. And what do you know, guys? It backfired.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Like, I almost feel bad covering this because it's like, oh my God, like how many media firestorms can this woman find herself in? But she does it to herself. And I mean, guys, it backfired so badly. Just like her Netflix show, just like her first podcast with Spotify, just like her most recent podcast utterly backfired. Here's a headline about that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
We haven't talked about this on the show, but she started a new podcast called Confessions of a Female Founder, which is basically her interviewing her founder friends as she's on her founder journey for her new lifestyle brand. Everybody hates it. New York Post wrote,
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Meghan Markle's new podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, hit with scathing reviews from critics, quote, it is stomach turning.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And basically, there is nothing in that podcast that she's hosting that has anything of substance, and there was nothing in this sit-down interview that she did with her friend that had anything of substance, and yet she was crying, she was talking about full-body chills the entire time, it was just a whole emotional thing, and people cannot stop making fun of her for it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Now, my personal favorite moments from that interview were where she was talking about her relationship with Harry and they call each other H and M and it's all like this cute thing. And she was like, oh, H, that man, he just loves me so much. She gave this entire like tirade about how much Harry loves her and how amazing their family is.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
She did not make one comment about how much she loves her husband or what she does for him or what she contributes to their family. It was just like, he is so obsessed with me. It is so amazing. It was very, very odd, and everybody caught on to that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
She also talks about parenting their two children and basically insinuates that she is the first woman to ever have to balance having a career and making it to school drop off. It's like this whole dramatic thing. It's like, I'm sorry, you're not going to Mars. You're dropping your kids off to daycare and first grade. It's really not that big of a deal.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And then, of course, the real crux of the interview was about her new brand, As Ever, which is driven by her love of hosting and hospitality, which also took up a big portion of the interview.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And in that conversation, now we're getting to my favorite part of this entire story, in that conversation about As Ever, she showed a basket that she had sent to the host of the podcast as a thank you for allowing her to come on, which sparked a whole other media firestorm. Now, I want you to look at this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
She sent a little basket, and here you can kind of zoom in here, and it says, with the compliments... of her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Sussex. Guys, this is not just something that I found online. This is not something that was AI'd or Photoshopped. This screenshot is from the podcast interview that was uploaded on YouTube.
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Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And I also have to just put in there that this was a competition that went between USC and UCLA, and Tristan went to UCLA, so obviously this is a point of pride for me. My alma mater is winning sperm races right and left, which is incredibly exciting.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And of course you might be looking at this photo and saying, Brett, why is this even relevant? It is a gift basket with a card. Who cares? I care, the internet cares, because she was caught red-handed using Her Royal Highness.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
That is a title that was stripped from her when she and Harry made their whole racism debacle and left the UK, left their royal duties, and moved to the US to bug all of us for the last couple of years. This is something that she is not allowed to use.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And this also comes on the heels of her and Harry facing a ton of scrutiny over the fact that they just used Duke and Duchess of Sussex, when really they're not even supposed to be doing that, but they use it in all of their promotion and the creation of As Ever and their production company. And so now to top it all off, She is literally using HRH in private, which is just even weirder.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
A source close to Meghan says that Harry and Meghan retain their HRH titles, however, by agreement with the royal family, they do not use them for commercial purposes. While they do not publicly use HRH, this was a personal gift and their titles remain. Guys, I just want you to think about how weird this is.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
So they are not allowed to use Her Royal Highness, His Royal Highness in public due to their agreement with the royal family. You can see this is from a screenshot from the royal family's website. The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the royal family.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
However, according to this source and according to this photo that we saw that is not photoshopped, that is literally from the podcast interview, She's using it in private with her friends. That's even weirder than if they were still trying to milk the titles in public. She is sending her friend, her close friend, a gift basket, signing it, Her Royal Highness.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Like, okay, that is just like all the confirmation that I need that this woman is just obsessed with being a royal, that that is all this was all about. That she's angry that she screwed the pooch by claiming racism and basically getting kicked out of the family because no one was willing to put up with their bullshit and bend a knee to her insane, insane whips.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And so now as Meghan is trying to salvage what is remaining of her brand with this TV show, with the podcast, with the lifestyle brand, she just can't give up the HRH titles that quickly. Like this is literally what she has always wanted. And I mean that quite literally because according to Meghan Kelly, Meghan used to literally have a photo of Prince Harry on her vision board. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
With all that self-help talk, he was no match for her. I mean, guys, this episode felt so random to me. I had all of these insane stories. But I feel like, actually, there are some breakthrough lines. There are women that are gold diggers. And they know exactly what they want. They're going to go out and get it. Jordan Hudson is going to go out and get Bill Belichick no matter what happens to her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Now, speaking of declining male fertility, we also need to talk about 74 year old Bill Belichick and his 24 year old girlfriend, Jordan Hudson, because I don't think she is dating him for his raging testosterone or peak sperm performance. Now, before we dive into that story, my tour is officially launching this week. We're starting in Phoenix, Arizona with a special guest.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Meghan Markle is going to get Prince Harry. And we have racism from Meghan Markle, from Deion Sanders. That is basically how all of this is tying together. And it's actually kind of worked out perfectly. And then of course we have the other through line of people thinking that they are far more important than they actually are.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And speaking of that, we simply cannot conclude this episode without talking about the Congressman who is making a name for himself purely by virtue signaling an impeachment of Trump. Now guys, I want you to meet a man named Sri Fenadar.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Hopefully I am saying his name correctly, but this is the Michigan Congressman who you've probably been seeing all over your social media, and no, you are not seeing screenshots from a Borat skit or an SNL skit. This is somebody who literally was elected by the American people to represent us. And he is spending all of his time focusing on trying to impeach Donald Trump.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And this is how he announced that he is filing those articles of impeachment. Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Guys. I have no words. Like, I genuinely, there's so much I would like to say and yet so much that I think can go unsaid based on the memes that we have seen on the internet. This is an American congressman. And this entire story is so crazy to me because Congress was actually just on a huge break.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
I think they had a couple of weeks off and they came back from their break to really hit all of the issues that are so important to us, the Americans. Number one, we have real life Borat trying to impeach Trump. I mean, like how many times has he been impeached at this, right? I think this is like the seventh time they've tried to impeach him.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
We also have other members of Congress that are debating bills to encourage musical tourism in the United States. We also have other members of Congress arguing over whether they should award congressional gold medals to the 1980 US Olympic hockey team. 1980, people! And this is what our current Congress is arguing, like what? are we doing? This is why I say politics is reality TV.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Like, it's not serious. Nothing about this is serious. It is so ridiculous. But guys, back to Mr. Sri. This story is actually a lot bigger than just ridiculous foreign-born representatives wasting our tax dollars with virtue-signaling impeachment, because as Congressman Sri was trying to make a name for himself politically using this impeachment,
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
people quickly dug into his past and found his history that he was probably hoping that people would forget, or maybe that would be covered up by everything he was now doing politically, and that would all be surrounding the fact that he made his name and he made his money in Big Pharma.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
But in 2010, the company that he founded that he owned went bankrupt, and over 100 test animals were left in the facility to die. But guys, I just want you to think about how absurd this is. This is the man who got elected to help run our country and his company went bankrupt and he left over a hundred animals to die.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Like staff literally had to break into the facility after it had closed just to feed the animals to keep them alive. Here's a headline about that. I'm not just making this up. Over a hundred dogs and monkeys were rescued from Michigan Democrats shuttered company.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
So if you've not bought tickets yet, go to brettcooper.com to get all the information and also brettcooper.com You can check out Cooper Confidential, which is our subscriber-only platform with a subscriber-exclusive newsletter, ad-free episodes, and a Dear Brett video where I take your questions and concerns and we try to make sense of them together.
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Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
About 170 dogs and monkeys were rescued in 2010 from an abandoned pharmaceutical testing lab owned by Sri Thanedor, a Michigan Democrat and gubernatorial candidate currently leading in the polls. He had to shutter the New Jersey testing facility after its parent company, which he owned, went bankrupt in 2010. And according to the New York Post,
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
All of this came out after local animal rights activists were alerted to the situation and went in to rescue the 118 beagles and 55 long-tailed macaque monkeys that were left behind by this man, who Americans later elected to represent them. I think that this story illuminates a couple things.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Number one, how bad he is at business, so why would I trust him to manage my tax dollars or anything in our country? And number two, and most importantly, what kind of person he is. And he has the gall to sit in front of a camera and say, we're going to impeach Donald Trump because he's so awful. Sir, you left 170 animals to die.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
I really don't care about your virtue signaling and wanting to impeach Trump. Thank you very much. So guys, after all of that chaos, I hope you can take a big deep breath and decompress because that was all crazy. But what I hope you take away from this episode is that number one, not everything is racist. Also, gold diggers are getting their bags one way or another.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
They're also getting their royal titles. And most importantly, humility and morality and self-awareness are key. In every single situation, in every industry, a lack of humility will follow you, it will tank you, so do not be like any of the people that we talked about in this story.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Now, one final note that I want to leave you with, since we are now all caught up on the Nepo babies and the gold diggers and her royal pain in my ass, I want to leave you with one final story before our next Justin Bieber episode comes out on Thursday, and that would be the newfound connection between Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco, and good old Scooter Braun.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Now I want you to just take a look at this clip that somebody posted from Stagecoach last weekend. So what you're looking at is Benny Blanco, that is Selena Gomez's fiance, and that right there who just turned around is Scooter Braun. And then in this clip right here, the guy right in front of us is also Scooter Braun, hanging out with Benny Blanco, canoodling with Selena Gomez.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And so these videos quickly went viral on X, and everybody is now trying to piece together this insane situation, and there's a lot kind of going on here. People are wondering, and I have no context or information about this, but they're wondering, are Selena and Benny somehow involved in this PR firestorm against Justin? Like, is Scooter somehow involved with her music?
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Did they time it with everything going on with Justin? Again, I have no confirmation, but that is now what the internet is speculating. And they're also now looking at Selena Gomez and saying, what kind of friend are you?
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Because remember, Scooter Braun is the man that allegedly ruined Taylor Swift's life, who sold her music out from under her, making it so that she had to re-record all of her albums just so that she could own all of her own records. And Selena Gomez is Taylor Swift's best friend. her ride or die best friend of 15 plus years.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And now this weekend, she is randomly hanging out with the man who hurt Taylor Swift. So there are a lot of questions people have, a lot of rumors that are running around online, a lot of connections that are being made. It's kind of conspiratorial at this point, but I just want you to have that in your mind as we prep for Thursday's episode.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Alright, so I have been so excited to talk about this story because it is, just to put it simply, it is so insane. There are so many layers, but basically... Bill Belichick is an incredibly famous NFL football coach. He is famous for taking the Patriots, I think, to six Super Bowls. He was with the Patriots for years and years and years.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Thanks, you too. Uh-oh, that was awkward. Normally, this sort of thing would haunt me for three to five business days, maybe even for life. But I've never been more comfortable because I'm wearing my Cozy Earth pajamas. No matter how uncomfortable a situation may seem, nothing competes with the comfort of pajamas from Cozy Earth. Go to CozyEarth.com and use code Brett for 40% off your order today.
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Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
He retired then from the Patriots and is now coaching at UNC. And he is dating a 24-year-old woman named Jordan Hudson. They allegedly met. in 2021 when she was 20 years old and he was 70 years old. However, they weren't seen together until January of 2023 when they were spotted holding hands and walking around in New Orleans. And then in June of 2024, so over a year later,
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
they finally went public with their relationship after multiple sightings of her pulling up her new Porsche to UNC to watch him at football practice. Now, this whole relationship has just caused shockwaves online and in the football community, again, because it is so weird, because it is a 50-year age gap, and it just seemingly came out of nowhere.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And to really paint a picture of how large this age gap is, you need to know that Bill Belichick was married for almost four decades. He was married to a woman for 40 years. He has three children with her. And then after they divorced, he went on and had a 16-year relationship with another woman. He never married her. They were just girlfriend and boyfriend. They broke up in September.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
of 2023, and then he started dating 24-year-old Jordan. And yes, you heard those dates right. They were spotted together for the first time January of 2023. Then he broke up with his girlfriend September of 2023. Kind of fishy, not gonna infer too much into that. There's not a lot of details, but I think that that is just relevant information.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
We have been racing sperm in the United States. Now, obviously, declining fertility, declining birth rates have been a huge topic in the media right now, in the health space, and it is genuinely just being hit from all angles. Like, obviously, Big Pharma is stepping out, trying to fix this issue. The political right is issuing rallying cries.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Since then, since June of 2024, Jordan and Bill have been inseparable. And Jordan seems to have gotten more and more involved in Bill's work, which brought us to the viral breaking point that I think we all saw on social media last week. And if you missed it, Bill Belichick has a new book coming out about his football career. And he's doing promotions and interviews to sell the book.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And when he was asked in a CBS Mornings interview about how he and Jordan met, Jordan stepped in from off-screen, cut off the interviewer, and said, no, we're not talking about this. Meanwhile, Bill is sitting there like a dud in this interview. He's sitting there just like a fish, just... Stop it. Like not saying anything.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Meanwhile, Jordan is stomping over from off camera saying, you need to stop asking about this. And she literally stops the interviewer. And the best part of it is CBS Sunday mornings left the entire thing in the interview. Just watch.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Not talking about this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
This clip, it sparked this huge debate because a lot of people were saying, this is so strange. Like, Megyn Kelly came out and was like, this looks like elder abuse. This is like Jill Biden controlling what Biden could say when he was president. A lot of people were just saying, this is so bizarre. It's his 24-year-old girlfriend. Like, how does she have this power?
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And to put it mildly, from my perspective, Jordan and Bill weren't really handling it well. I mean, their whole response from the jump has been that Bill only wanted to answer questions about his book. His book is only about football, only about his work, he doesn't want to answer questions about his personal life, and allegedly, he and his team, aka Jordan, had made that very clear.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Hence why Jordan jumped in in the middle of that interview and said, no, we're not answering this, stop it, cut it off, we're not doing that. And to make matters worse, or in their minds, make things better, Jordan posted a very cryptic email on her Instagram about all of this, and the email that she posted is from Bill to his team,
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
basically saying that he only wants the interviews to be about his book. He's only talking about football in the book. He doesn't want to talk about his personal life. So that is what she posted. And then Bill made a statement using the UNC letterhead. It was like an official Bill Belichick statement, basically saying the exact same thing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
But then things got even messier because CBS Mornings shot back and said, actually, I don't know where they're getting all that information, but from our end, all of this is false. And their spokesperson said, quote, when we agreed to speak to Mr. Belichick, it was for a wide ranging interview. Now, obviously, them making that statement did not help at all and it just made the media go crazier.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Meanwhile, articles are also coming out the wazoo about Jordan, about
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
how her net worth and her real estate portfolio skyrocketed within a year of starting to date Bill, they're talking about her involvement in his business, and the whole thing is just crazy because she's obviously his girlfriend, but apparently she is also now the head of operations over at Belichick Productions and Media, and allegedly, allegedly, according to insiders, she has been causing problems with his career because of this involvement, both on the field as coach at UNC and also in media.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Elon Musk is just trying to repopulate the earth himself. RFK is probably about to start studying what's going on. But there is a chance that nothing will be as impactful as a group of college kids racing sperm, and that is exactly what happened last week.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
For example, again, allegedly, allegedly she is behind HBO pulling out of doing a UNC Hard Knock series. This headline reads, Jordan Hudson's power play led HBO to back out of UNC Hard Knock series Bill Belichick wanted. Hudson reportedly told HBO and NFL Films to quote, treat her with respect. And apparently they saw that and went, okay, we don't want to deal with this, so we are out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And the deal inevitably broke down because Hudson was reportedly demanding that she be an executive producer on the show. I mean, like, basically from everything we're seeing, we can infer that she has taken over or is somehow heavily involved in every single aspect of this geriatric man's life. I mean, look at her even adjusting his pants while he is trying to coach at practice.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
For the game, she's going over, she's talking with assistant coaches, she's talking with players, she's adjusting Bill's pants, and everybody in the entire football community is watching this going, what the heck happened to this man? Like, how did this happen? And seriously, she is 24 years old. Does she not have anything better to be doing? Peterson Academy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And Peterson Academy is Jordan Peterson's online university that is open for enrollment right now. So if you are somebody who loves lifelong learning, if you're a homeschooler wanting to up your curriculum, if you're somebody who just wants to learn from the brightest professors in the world, or if you've ever benefited from Dr. Peterson's lectures, then this program is for you.
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Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Every month, Peterson Academy releases four new, in-depth, eight-hour university-level courses taught by world-renowned experts and produced to keep you fully engaged. They cover an amazing range of topics from philosophy, history, psychology, business, science, mathematics, complete with optional testing to further your understanding of each and every subject.
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Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Plus, they are continually rolling out new educational features as they grow, and there is also a built-in social community where you can connect with like-minded peers from around the world. So if you're ready to challenge your intellect, expand your horizons, and take control of your education, it is time to go to petersonacademy.com slash brett.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
So a group of students put on the first ever sperm race in California to bring awareness about declining male fertility, and they raised over $1 million to the event. One article, this is from The Guardian, reads, this live version of the sperm race elevates the concept.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Again, that's petersonacademy.com slash brett to join Peterson Academy today. Now, because Jordan decided to focus not on her education, but instead on pursuing Bill, again, the media firestorm has not stopped. And in addition to diving into this relationship and their business dealings, which obviously are a bit strange, Jordan's family and her dating history have been on full blast as well.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And apparently she was dating a much younger man before she started dating Bill, a man of the ripe age of 64. So when she was a cheerleader at 20 years old, she was dating apparently a 64 year old man. And it is now being reported that she comes from a very open-minded family who was fully in support of her unique dating trajectory, per the New York Post.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Their article reads, Bill Belichick's much younger girlfriend, Jordan Hudson, 24, has an open-minded parent who manages a sex shop in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Lee Hudson, this guy's so crazy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Lee Hudson, 60, is the business manager at Toys of Eros, a store which sells lingerie, sex toys, erotic books, and even boasts its own sex museum, which her mother is apparently the manager of and the curator of. Lee is said to be very close to her daughter and supports her relationship with the 72-year-old former New England Patriots head coach, despite the 48-year age gap.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Yeah, I'm sure she does. She's open-minded, and her daughter now has a real estate portfolio of over $9 million, so she's cheering on the sidelines. The source added that Lee keeps an open mind when it comes to people's relationships, and pointed to her role as business manager of the LGBTQ-friendly sex shop.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
A note on the Toys of Eros website says, quote, "...from serious discussions about sexual politics to consulting with our educators to downright hilarity and crazy fun, our customers make Toys of Eros all that it is. Our store is not just a shopping experience, it is a sexual education!"
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
The purpose of our sex museum is to preserve and present the history, evolution, cultural significance of human sexuality, which obviously Jordan Hudson is exploring in her own unique way, in her own unique age group. Now, obviously all of this is just insane and it is a very, very weird arrangement. Everyone can see that. That's why people have been talking about it.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
But this story and this media firestorm, it did seem to explode all at once. And I was reading these articles and I was laughing and I was cringing. I was like, oh my God, she owns a sex shop. Everybody is saying maybe she is a high-end escort and that's how she got in with Bill. And it was hitting them from all angles.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And after everything that I have seen this year and watched happen, everything that we're talking about with Justin Bieber, I had to stop and ask myself like, okay, regardless of my feelings about how weird this is, Is this genuine? Is this some grassroots organic scandal? Or is this being planted? Like, is this some kind of smear campaign targeted at Jordan and at Bill?
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Two individual sperm cells, just each 0.05 millimeters, will complete on a 20 centimeter long track engineered to replicate the biological conditions of the female reproductive system. This is getting, like it's funny, but also I just want you to think like this could become our future.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And there are two options for this. After I considered it, I talked to my own PR guy. I was like, how would this happen? It could be UNC because she is messing with their team and their coach. Or... and this seems more plausible to me, it could be coming from Bill's adult children.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And while we do not have confirmation from either of these, and I'm not saying that we do, we have started to kind of see a trickling of what Bill's family thinks of this unique situation.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Now, in one video that was going viral online where a man was defending Jordan and saying that she was within her rights as Bill's publicist because even though they're dating, they do work together, Bill's daughter-in-law, Jen, stepped in and said, quote, publicists act in a professional manner and don't storm off set delaying an interview.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
There has been chaos happening in the news cycle per usual, and I'm so excited to tell you about my favorite stories that I encountered over the last week because today we are dealing with the nepo babies and the gold diggers that are infiltrating professional sports, we are racing sperm, and Meghan Markle just can't seem to help herself. So yes, you did hear me correctly in that introduction.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
So again, I'm not confirming that this is any kind of smear campaign, I don't have that information, but it does allude to the fact that there is trouble in Belichick Paradise. And maybe this is just a perfect storm, maybe the media has been following them long enough and now all of these stories are breaking and sources are coming forward and it is organic,
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
But again, we all just have to acknowledge that the timing is weird and the situation is just so, so strange. And of course, I think it is the least surprising thing of the century that Bill Belichick's 30 plus year old children would be uncomfortable with their father dating a woman who is 10 to 15 years younger than them. But you know, hey, Jordan Hudson, she found her sugar daddy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
She played the game. She is making the most of it. She's putting in the work as his business manager, whatever it is. And to be honest, she is far from the only person writing coattails in sports right now. Which brings us to our next story, and that would be Shador Sanders and the 2025 NFL draft.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Now, for a little bit of context, Shador Sanders is the son of Deion Sanders, and Deion Sanders played in the NFL for 14 seasons. Guys, you're getting sports prep right now. I need to have, like, a hat. This is all the information that I have consumed from being married to Alex and listening to him talk about this for the last month or so. But again, Deion Sanders is super famous.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
He is a two-time Super Bowl champion, eight-time Pro Bowler, and he was the 1994 NFL defensive player of the year. year. And randomly, he also played nine seasons in the MLB. And so now, since he has retired from actively playing, he is the head coach at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where his son, Shadur, played college football.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And this year's NFL draft started on April 24th, and Shadur, because of his talent, because of his connection to his father, he was expected to get drafted in the first couple of rounds. I mean, they were thinking he might be first couple of picks even just because of his track record. But guys, this young man, he was not picked until the fifth round.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
He was the 144th pick on April 26th, two days after the draft started. And this was made even worse, obviously due to the hype that was surrounding him and surrounding his family. Like he even had an entire custom draft room made for him with all of these, like, hype pictures of him, like, Go Shadur, you're the man, you're the king. He was dripping in diamonds. It was all of this hubbub.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Like this is the future of now we're gonna have like robots having babies and it all starts with this sperm race, anyway. The track simulates chemical signals, fluid dynamics, and synchronized launches, mirroring nature as closely as possible. Now you might be hearing this and thinking, Brett, this sounds very dystopian, very scientific. This is so weird. Why are we interested in this?
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And so him not getting drafted until the fifth round was, of course, painfully ironic. Like, it was just painful for everyone on social media. Like, they were making fun of him, they were laughing, but everybody was like, oh my God, like, how is this kid not getting drafted? Like, at this point, it's really getting uncomfortable.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
Because with all the hype, like, they had cameras around him 24-7, he was livestreaming the draft day in and day out, and he just kept getting passed over. But, of course, guys, because it is 2025, it can't just be painfully ironic, it has to be something else. And people immediately started saying that him not being drafted until the fifth round was actually incredibly, incredibly racist.
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
And they started comparing him... to Colin Kaepernick. Take a look at this tweet from Stephen A. Smith. He said, Someone just texted me this message and they are absolutely correct. Quote, This is a bad look for the NFL not drafting Shador. This feels like Kaepernick level collusion. All the hard work the NFL league office puts in to eradicate these types of perceptions
The Brett Cooper Show
Bill Belichick’s BIZARRE Relationship and Meghan Markle’s Podcast Disaster | Episode 28
perceptions of racism, only to turn around and watch as the owners look like they're colluding, messing up everything. What has been done to Shadur will outshine everything else in this draft. We will never believe that this is just about talent evaluation ever again because it is so deeply racist. Now guys, this is laughable.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
So I think that there is a reckoning with modern women right now, especially on the right. I think that there's a lot of people in general, if you just go on social media, that don't like women. I'm sure that you see those takes a lot. They genuinely just don't seem to appreciate or even enjoy women in the slightest.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Admitting her own lack of first-hand knowledge on the subject, she quotes several of her time-starved mother friends as authorities and sounds mildly flummoxed that anyone would willingly undertake such an endeavor. Here we go. This is where it all came from, ladies and gentlemen. This is the beginning of the end of, you know, girlbossing. That's where it all started.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Quote, Isn't that a hard sell if you ever heard one? So it's so funny to me because this whole ideology, this whole girl boss push, the things that my mom dealt with in the 80s that she had to push back against. When so many of her friends and her siblings were gawking at her for being a stay-at-home mom, for saying, yeah, I don't really know if I want this career, I just want to be a mother.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
This, this ideology is what she was pushing back against. And it's so ironic because we know it to kind of include motherhood and be about balancing motherhood, but it actually excluded motherhood from the get-go, and we sort of just assumed that it would fit in, which only set up women for decades of problems, in my opinion.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
inconsistent to me because I thought we were supposed to celebrate women like Jessica Krause, who stayed at home with their kids, who chose to sacrifice parts of their career to be there for their children. And now, years later, as her children are grown, they are older, they're able to be involved in her work. She has stepped into this fascinating role as this blogger and this journalist.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Because from there came the belief that women needed to have it all, and that actually it was our government and men that were holding us back. Like, we, we can't have it all because of the patriarchy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
because men have all of these expectations of us and we can't have it all because the government won't allow every single woman, no matter your age, no matter how far along you are, to get an abortion. We just created all of these issues that we're keeping women back from having it all. Which, spoiler alert, you're gonna see, none of that is actually real.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
So now, decades later, we are in 2025, long after this book was published, long after this phrase was coined, and this entire idea of women having it all has fallen apart. We know now that it was a sham. This is one of the reasons why so many women have turned their back on feminism. I mean, the feminists are no longer marching.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
I literally, when I was putting this episode together, I had to look up and even see if there was a women's march that happened over Trump's inauguration because there has been no outrage whatsoever. I mean, they are defeated. Women are tired. They have lost their gusto. They are not interested in this girl boss rallying cry anymore. You know, lean in feminism has been expended. It's done.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
That is why these trad aesthetics and creators like Ballerina Farm are going viral because women want something different. It is a response to what began in 1982 and women are done. They're exhausted. They're looking for something else. They want something different because they know that this having it all idea isn't real and it doesn't work.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And all this has done has breed a generation and a type of woman who is anxious and angry and resentful and entitled and not fulfilled in the slightest.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Which was expertly summed up in this piece by Christine Hassler, who is a motivational speaker and an author, because after years of trying to do it all and believing this lie and feeling less than for not being able to, she said that she learned that by trying to do it all at once, she was not doing anything at the level of 100% effort or enjoyment.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
She said, there was simply too much to do and accomplish to feel 100% about anything other than my stress level. So in my thirties, when each item on my checklist that I accomplished did not create a sense of fulfillment or relief, but rather more longing, I could not deny that having it all was perhaps not all it was cracked up to be.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
I looked at women who seemingly had it all and I noticed that so many of them were so tired and overburdened that they didn't seem to be enjoying anything. And when I looked at women who nurtured their natural preferences and their abilities and made choices to support those rather than chasing all of the shoulds in life, they seemed peaceful and actually quite happy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And these women seemed far more feminine to me. I mean, mic drop moment. That is the mic drop moment of this entire episode. It's almost like nature has been telling us these things all along, just like it's been telling us that American grass-fed beef is obviously best, and you would know that if you bought from good ranchers. Now, since 2017, over 140,000 family farms in the U.S.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
have shut down, and Why, you would ask? Well, it's because a lot of the meat in grocery stores isn't coming from American farms anymore. It is imported from overseas where mass production and low costs take priority over true quality. And this spring, we need to change that. And you can do that with Good Ranchers.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
It is time to spring into action and put American farms first because nothing beats American quality. And that is why I love goodranchers.com.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
She's at the White House all the time. I thought that that was something that we could celebrate, but I guess not because she's being belittled and called just a housewife. As another example of this chaos, you have some people
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Good Ranchers puts family values first, just like you do, just like I do, and their meat is born, raised, and harvested right here in the USA from local family farms, so you know exactly where your meat is coming from, and I promise it's coming from Happy Cows.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
It is free from hidden additives, no antibiotics ever, no added hormones, no seed oils, just simple, trustworthy ingredients that you can feel good about feeding your family. and they really make life easier by making sure that these products are delivered straight to your door. No last-minute grocery runs, no long lines, or wondering if you're getting the best quality.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
With GoodRanchers.com, everything you need to create delicious meals for you and your family are just a click away. And at GoodRanchers.com, you can also check out my exclusive Fred Cooper box. You'll be able to try my hand-picked selections that Alex and I eat throughout the week, our favorite Good Ranchers products, while also supporting my show and directly supporting American Ranchers.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
So if you wanna check that out, just go to goodranchers.com slash brett to shop my box today.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And if all of that doesn't convince you, right now, Good Ranchers is running their Spring Into Action promotion, where if you subscribe to any of their boxes, but preferably, obviously, the Brett Cooper box, you will get free bacon, ground beef, seed oil-free chicken nuggets, or salmon in every single order for a year. That is free meat for a year. You'll get to pick which one you want.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Plus, you will get $40 off when you use my code BRETT at checkout. That is high quality, clean protein in every order delivered to your door for free for an entire year. To spring into action and help American Family Farms with every purchase, visit goodranchers.com today and don't forget to use my code BRETT to claim your free meat and $40 off.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
All right, so now you guys might be wondering how all of this, this whole history lesson on leaning in and having it all in feminism, how all of this relates back to what we talked about at the top of this episode, to Megyn Kelly and her tweet about Ashley St. Clair, or about conservative traditional women in general.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
celebrating the fact that Trump has surrounded himself with women like Caroline Levitt and Pam Bondi and Tulsi Gabbard and more, and then you have other people on the right who are saying that that is disgraceful and that that means that he is a weak man.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And again, to jog your memory, this outdated idea of having it all, this feminist left-wing idea, is what people on the right were accusing Megyn Kelly of parroting because they now have their own ideas of what is right for women, about what women should be doing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And many of them not only believe that women shouldn't try to have it all and that they're not entitled to that and that it doesn't work, but that they should only focus on being in the home, being in the kitchen, being a wife and mother, because that is what is morally and biblically right.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
These are the types of people who look at creators like me and Megyn Kelly and even Allie Beth Stuckey and say that we are the lingering results of feminism, that we are still a net negative on society because we are women who work. And I obviously brought that up to Allie Beth because she deals with that a lot, especially on X, and this is how she examines that and responds to this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And as Allie Beth brought up just a couple seconds later, it is actually a very new idea that women should solely focus on being in the home or being in the kitchen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
It literally feels like we can't win, and the right is just screaming at each other 24-7 about women and about who we should be, and it feels like everyone just has something to say about women right now in this cultural moment where, you know, feminism TM has lost its hold. And in my opinion, as a young woman, I think that a lot of this lacks nuance.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
If you guys have been watching me for a while, then you probably know that I was not raised in the most religious home. I was not raised in the most Christian home, but you know, Allie Beth's point makes a lot of sense. And so, you know, after talking with her, I made my way on over to my Bible to take a look and it's ironic,
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
That so many of these people online, these critics of women, these critics of me and Allie Beth and Megyn Kelly and all the other women that you see and that you might listen to, that these critics use Proverbs 31 to instruct women on their place in the home and out of the public sphere because it seems as though they missed the part where the Bible says that the woman, the wife,
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
There's a lot of people who can't figure out how women should fit into modern society. You know, are we working? Are we being stay-at-home moms? Should concessions be made for women who are in public office and are in government, do we all want to go frolic in fields and make sourdough and have homesteads, or is that what we should be doing?
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
considers a field and buys it. Out of her earnings, she plants a vineyard. She sits about her work vigorously. Her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable and that her lamp does not go out at night. At another point it reads, her husband is respected at the city gate where he takes a seat among the elders of the land.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
She makes linen garments and sells them and supplies the merchants with sashes and that she speaks with wisdom and grace and that she is respected by the community. She is not just contributing to her home and her family, but she's contributing to the community at large. And that is what Allie Beth is arguing that a lot of these people are missing.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And so basically the argument that I am now making in this episode with you guys is that basically it seems like everyone seems to have these ideas and the opinions on what the perfect life is for women in 2025. I mean, the left has parroted one idea for years at this point, we are all well accustomed to it, and it didn't work.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Women were not fulfilled by trying to juggle it all while primarily focusing on their careers, and this idea was pushed and started by women who actually didn't want to have families in the first place.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
So obviously it wasn't going to work, they weren't juggling it in the first place, and now we're dealing with the political right that has this new idea for women that really isn't rooted in historical truth, and we should get into that in another episode,
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
could be interesting, but it's also an idea and a structure that is not attainable for many women, especially in this economy and in this dating landscape. And also in Allie Beth's mind, she says that this is pushing a standard that Jesus himself did not set. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And so now all of this, this idea has grown to a magnitude where women online are shamed and mocked if they don't fit into these standards. And it kind of reminds me of how the left would mock women who made the choice to stay at home. Like my mom was mocked. 30 years ago, the way that I was mocked when I was 15 years old and told my best friend that I desperately wanted to have kids one day.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And I think that all of it came to a head last week in a really crazy and beautiful way when Megyn Kelly made a now very viral tweet, a tweet that possibly dipped its toe into the idea that women could have it all, and the entire world on X freaked out.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And she gawked because she said that I was ruining any shot I had at ever having a career, finding any kind of fulfillment outside of the home. I mean, it is like a never ending cycle and it is so exhausting. And in my mind, we are completely focusing on the wrong things. And we actually should go back to what Megan said and maybe take a closer listen to what she was trying to communicate.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Because in my eyes, what I want to be focusing on, but I think that everyone should be focusing on, man or woman, regardless of your age or your situation, is living a life that is in accordance with your values, whatever they may be. And that is up to you to decide. I obviously have the ones that I live my life by that I think are more correct and healthy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
But again, at the end of the day, that's up to you. And it's important to focus on that and then also focus on not compromising those values for immediate gratification or material success. Because at the end of the day, when we all fall asleep at night, It's only us that we have to contend with.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
At the end of our lives, when we look back, we have to know that we had integrity with ourselves and that we lived a life of principles rather than cheapening ourselves or trying to fit in boxes set by other people who don't know our individual situations, literally do not know us at all.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Because that personal integrity, being honest with yourself and living in accordance with your values, that is fulfillment. Sleeping your way to success, that's not fulfillment.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Trying to juggle having it all and prioritizing a career when really that's not what you want, but you're just trying to do it because women told you that that is what you should want and that you should be doing that, that will not provide fulfillment.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
As Christine Hassler explained, chasing an aesthetic of traditional womanhood that you see on X because people are telling you that that is what you should want also will not bring fulfillment because it's not coming from you. And also, finally, I'm kind of running out of breath here, but this is probably the most important point in the entire video.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
is that no one, no one on this earth is going to be able to have it all. That is simply not realistic and it's not just a female issue. That goes for men as well. Life is made up of dreams and reality and sacrifices and priorities and you do not get everything you want in the exact way that you want at the time that you want. There might be things that you want and you'll get them later in life.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
I think about my mother-in-law who I just adore, who sacrificed so much of her career to raise my husband and his siblings, put her career on hold. You know, she works part-time, she did other things, but she sacrificed success that other people were getting at a younger age. And now,
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
in her 60s now that her kids are grown that they're in their 30s she has a career that she absolutely adores that she loves in this like third act of her life she is so so happy and is so successful but she didn't get it when everybody else was or when they told her that she should be getting it and that's okay because your timeline does not need to be everyone else's you just need to be living in accordance with your values and what you believe to be good and correct and that will inevitably
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
But I actually think that people have deeply misunderstood what she was trying to communicate with that tweet, and that it actually begs for a much deeper analysis, which, of course, rarely happens on X, rarely happens on social media in general because it's just a lot of screaming and black and white takes. So today, I want to talk about that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
require sacrifices and it will require prioritizing what you believe to be important for example if you want that nine to five job if you want to climb the corporate ladder and that's what you want to focus on i'm sorry but you probably will not be able to have eight kids and be as engaged as other mothers who don't work or have more flexible jobs or work part-time things or work from home or whatever it may be just as if you want to have eight children there are things in your life and career
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
that you will have to sacrifice and say no to, and that if you want to be that very engaged mother to all eight of your children and spend those years of your life having children and raising them, you probably won't be able to have the nine to five. And of course, that does not mean that your life is going to be bad by any means. I'm not saying that at all, but it might not be... Perfect.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
It might not be having it all or exactly how you envisioned in your perfect dream world, and that's normal. That is just part of real life. And Allie Beth actually wrote an entire book based on this idea that, you know, you're not enough and that's okay. And in our interview, she said this.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And in addition to that, she continuously emphasized, I think that this is so important, that the values and the principles of your life must always be the driver.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
I want to talk about the ideas that both the left and the right have been pushing on women and what we should actually be seeking instead of just trying to have it all, which, spoiler alert, Megyn Kelly was sort of trying to explain.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
So the point of all of this, the point of this entire episode that I've been talking about for the last 30 plus minutes, all of this was to say that number one, Megyn Kelly was not attacking you. She was not attacking women or men for that matter. And I see, personally, I see her tweet as a form of empowerment.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
She wasn't telling you that you can and should have it all and that you must go do it all and you must go get that apartment and you must do everything the way that she has done it. But she's saying that if there are things
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
that you dream of and that you hope for, that you see happening in your life, you do not have to compromise the things that you say are your core principles to get there, which is at the time what we were seeing unfold on social media.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And then secondly, what I wanted to talk about, and this is for women more specifically, there are a lot of people right now telling us who to be and who we are and what we should do and how we should be defined and what is right for us. And at the end of the day, that is up to you and your family and your principles to decide.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Because like with every single human being on planet Earth, you will have to prioritize and sacrifice and say no and then take risks. But that doesn't mean that you won't have a full life, no matter what people online say. So focus on you, focus on your values, and I promise things will turn out all right.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
But before we dive into that, if you want ad-free episodes, if you want a weekly advice video called Dear Brett that I've just started recording, you can go to Cooper Confidential, which is my subscriber-only platform. And if you guys are interested in merch, you can find all of that below in the description.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Alright, so before we dive into my analysis and why I think all of this is just so crazy, we obviously have to read Megan's tweet. Now, this tweet now has over 4.1 million views, but...
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
She said on February 17th, Ladies, it is possible to make your own money, have your own career, pay for your own swanky New York City apartment, etc., and find a man who loves you and wants to have and raise kids with you and wants to be with you and only you. The only thing stopping you is your decision to settle for less. That's kind of a harsh ending. And people lost their damn minds.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And as you can see, it racked up millions and millions of views, millions of comments and quote tweets. She was getting ripped to shreds on X. And people were saying that this was a feminist rallying cry, that she was a fake conservative, that she had no grounds to stand on, that this was terrible advice that she was giving women.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And women themselves were slamming her and accusing her of parroting something that was unrealistic. New York Post wrote about this the next day. Megyn Kelly stirs controversy with her take on balancing kids and a career, which In my opinion, that really wasn't what the tweet was about, but again, we're gonna get into that at a later time.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
But let me tell you, the response that the New York Post covered in their article was emotional. These were some of the things the woman had said. This woman said, I am a month out from giving birth and I have a toddler. I can assure you I'm not in boss babe mode. I'm surviving even with house help.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Another person said, I remember Megan admitting that she doesn't cook during a Thanksgiving show episode. So what do they eat? Does her husband cook? This puts very unrealistic pressures on most mothers." Another person said, "...I don't consider foregoing a career and choosing to be a stay-at-home mom and mother to be less."
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Which again, Megyn Kelly did not say, but we're gonna get into that, I promise. Another person said, "...Ladies, it is also possible that you'll win the lottery. Adjust your expectations and enthusiasm and drive accordingly. Realistic expectations are better here than engagement-farming feminist talking points." One person said, who the F relates to this shit? A swanky New York City apartment?
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
There is just a lot of online discourse and debate about all of our lives. And I think that a lot of this was broken open over the past couple of weeks, especially with the Ashley St. Clair and the Patriarchy Hannah drama that unfolded last week. And if you guys missed that, my best friend Amir and I talked about that when he came on the show last week.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Please stop, we already did this whole thing in the late 2000s and it didn't work out. Another person said, not wanting to be a boss babe is not settling for less. My kids were raised by me, not a nanny or a daycare. It is okay to find a man who wants to provide for his family. But here's my question. When did she say that that was not okay? That was not the point of the tweet.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
This was not a personal attack on any of you or your life choices. In fact, the tweet was, in my mind, about choices and about making choices that are good for you and your values and your family. Choices that are good for only you because it is your life and your decision. You have the freedom to raise your family, to be the kind of mother that you want to be.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And that is what Megyn Kelly was talking about. And now I understand the women are testy right now. I am testy right now. There are a lot of people that are trying to define what women should be or what we should do, who women even are. That's been a debate that we've literally had to have for the last four years. Obviously women are gonna be riled up.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And of course, what a woman is should not even be a question that we're debating, but you know what? It's 2025, that is where we've gotten. Thankfully though, none of the professors at Peterson Academy have to ask that question. And that's because these professors are the best of the best and they are actually rooted in reality.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And if you don't know, Peterson Academy is Jordan Peterson's online university that is open for enrollment right now. If you are someone who loves lifelong learning and wants to learn from the brightest professors in the world, or if you are somebody who has ever benefited from Dr. Peterson's lectures or his incredible guests on his podcast, then this platform is for you.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Every month, Peterson Academy releases four new in-depth eight hour university level courses taught by world renowned experts. And they're specifically produced to keep you fully engaged. They cover an amazing range of topics from philosophy and history to mathematics and psychology and science and business complete with optional testing to further your understanding of all of these subjects.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Plus they're continually rolling out new educational features as they grow. And there is also a built-in social community where you can connect and learn alongside like-minded people from around the world. So if you are ready to challenge your intellect and expand your horizons and take control of your education, it is time to go to petersonacademy.com slash brett.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
It is $599 per year or $59 a month to access all 31 eight-hour courses with four new courses a month plus the community with a seven-day money-back guarantee. And the best part is, in my opinion, that for that price, guys, you do not have to take out a $60,000 student loan to further your education. You can do that just through Peterson Academy.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
But basically, people are wondering if either of these women were genuine in their desire for a more traditional life, because Ashley St. Clair posted one thing online, she said one thing online, and then obviously did another.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Again, guys, that is PetersonAcademy.com slash Brett to join today. But back to the point, I do just want to offer a disclaimer, and I think that it would be dishonest of me not to, you know, give this caveat, but we have to acknowledge that... Women can be catty and emotional and often pick fights against other women, which I think is what we're seeing online.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
But I just want you to read Megyn Kelly's tweet again. Remove emotion. Remove this idea that she is attacking you. Let's just read the words that she wrote and think about the context of what was going on on social media when she posted this. Again, ladies, it is possible to make your own money, to have your own career, pay for your own swanky New York City apartment, et cetera.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
She's not saying that is what you need to have. And also find a man who loves you, wants to have and raise kids with you, and wants to be with you and only you. The only thing stopping you is your decision to settle for less. Megan.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
was not calling out normal women just trying to get by in America, women who are totally fine and happy living in their suburban lives, who do not want the swanky New York City apartment, women who are stay-at-home moms that are very happy with that, that that was their dream. This tweet, my friends, this X post, whatever we're calling it now, this was a direct response to Ashley St.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Clair and the whole Elon Musk, baby daddy, baby mama drama that was going on. And it was more of a conversation on not sacrificing your values than anything else, whatever those values might be. And that makes this tweet applicable to anyone. And she explained this context later that day on her show. Just take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
She said that she wanted a traditional life, that she just wanted a husband and a couple of kids and a homestead, and then ended up having a child with the richest man in the world and is now A single mother times two, trying to figure that out and literally tweeting at him to get his attention because he's not responding to her lawyers or her.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
I mean, listen, some people don't like Meghan. Meghan did not miss here at all. This was completely factual. I say it all the time. Your life is your fault and that doesn't have to be a negative thing. And right now, Ashley St. Clair is dealing with the consequences of her own actions.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Now she has a beautiful new child and she's trying to protect this child, but there are consequences to her actions. And what Meghan was trying to say is it didn't need to be this way. She had a career. She was very well connected. I'm sure she was around a lot of men.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
She could have found somebody who wanted to marry her and raise a family with her like she tweeted about for years on end, but that's not how it worked out. And instead, she now has a child with a man who historically, very publicly, has never committed to anyone. Like it's very, very public. You probably knew that going into this situation.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And so this tweet that everyone got so riled up about is specifically calling out the fact that she allegedly got this expensive swanky apartment paid for, that she's being seen and photographed
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
in all of these fancy clothes, you know, like head to toe Balenciaga is what I've heard, that she acquired that by having a child with this billionaire who won't commit to her or anyone else for that matter. And obviously not being able to contact the father of your child is awful and messy, especially for this innocent child.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
But this man's history with dating and relationships and parenthood is well on display. And as Megan says, I'm sorry, but this was a choice. And she is also saying, in addition to kind of, you know, that subtweet, that dig at Ashley, she is also saying, women and Ashley, this is not the only option. You have other choices.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And Allie Beth Stuckey, who is a good friend of mine, and she is one of the biggest Christian conservative female podcasters and mother, is living proof of that. And so I asked her for her take. Take a listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
You have patriarchy Hannah, who literally built a brand off of being this Christian conservative stay-at-home mom of 14 children with her husband Tony, literally shaming women on a daily basis for not being as virtuous or traditional as she was, and then it all ended up being fake. It was all a sham. She had no children whatsoever. She was not married to a man named Tony.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
women like if you want money and you want the ritzy apartment this is not the way to do it and it could be possible that you get all of those things one day now another great example of this type of woman that you guys might know is brittany martinez hugo boom who is the founder of evie magazine she also runs 28 wellness which is the hormone tracking and period tracking app and she is married to this man that she is deeply in love with that she has been with since they were young and she had this idea for a more traditional women's magazine she wanted this health app because there wasn't anything like that on the market
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
And she found a way to pursue something that she loved and that she was passionate about and build it with the person that she loved while also being a mother and being very engaged in their life and also finding massive, massive success. And she didn't have to compromise her values in order to do that. And she's not the only example of that.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
I have so many examples in my personal life on all different scales of success and different lifestyles and different things that they're pursuing. But the common denominator is that they are living in accordance to their values and they're not compromising that at any turn. And finding success obviously does not mean having the lavish swanky New York City apartment.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
It can be anything and that's different for everyone. That is up to you to decide. But that again is what Megan is saying. You can find that success that you want and not compromise your values when it comes to the things that mean the most to you like marriage and family. You can get the expensive apartment or the nicer house or the great job and not do it through child support.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
You can get social clout and higher social standing or more opportunities without sleeping your way there, which is what people are alleging that Ashley St. Clair did. So again, not trying to beat a dead horse here, but you can achieve your dreams and build the life that you want and simultaneously not compromise your values without compromising your belief
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
in traditional family, traditional marriage. And in my mind, this point, this point that Meghan is making, is a very clear and objectively good statement for anyone to hear. But as you guys obviously saw from that New York Post article, many did not see it that way, and many thought that she was parroting this idea, this very left-wing feminist idea
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
that women can and should have it all but where did that even come from and what does that mean i think we need to understand that before we can circle out to this argument now that term you know women having it all can you have it all was popularized in 1982 by the longtime cosmopolitan editor
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Helen Gurley Brown, and she wrote a book entitled Having It All, Love, Success, Sex, and Money, which was basically instructing women at the time how to succeed in the workforce and still balance it all, how to have great romance and a sex life and make all the money and, you know, climb the corporate ladder and do all the things because she was the cosmopolitan editor.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
So that is kind of where this term came from, but she also was not the first one to use that term, as a New York Times article from 2015 acknowledges. The term having it all, at least as it applies to women and work, has a relatively limited pedigree. Ruth Rosen, a scholar who has written extensively on the history of
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
feminism, told me that you can't find much archival evidence of the phrase before the tail end of the 1970s, and even then, it wasn't so much a feminist mantra as a marketing pitch directed towards the well-heeled, liberated consumer. By 1980, two years before Brown's book, Joyce Gabriel and Betty Baldwin published Having It All, a practical guide to managing a home and a career.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
She had no grounds to stand on whatsoever. And then this past weekend, just a couple of days ago, we had Laura Loomer on X attacking housewife Jessica Krause for getting involved in politics, which is just so...
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
True to its promise, Gabriel and Baldwin's book offers straightforward tips on how a working mother might make the most of her scarce time. strive to do two things at once, the author's advice, like letting your nail polish set while you blow dry your hair, which, I'm sorry, is the worst advice I have ever heard.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
Your nail polish will be all in your hair, or maybe these authors do not have as much hair as I do, because that would be a recipe for disaster. Anyway, that was just an aside.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
But they go on and they say, women's magazines and Madison Avenue might have been selling the concept, but it was after Brown's book landed on the bestseller list, Rosen said, that the phrase gathered real cultural momentum, becoming a shorthand for having kids and a career.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
So as you heard from there, the phrase took off and as they wrote, being shorthand for children and a career and doing everything perfectly and having all the things and having all the success that you want with no compromises whatsoever because you're a woman and you deserve to have it all.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
But the thing that is so ironic about this entire story is that Helen didn't even want having it all to be the title and she famously did not have children. She was not a mother. She did not even believe that children would fit into her framework of what success looks like for women. and the instruction that she was giving to these young women.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can Women Have it All? | Episode 10
New York Times goes on and they say, there is then no small absurdity in the fact that Brown's vision omitted children. Only six of the 462 pages of Having It All mention them. And Brown has a hard time disguising her suspicion that children aren't so seamlessly integrated into her program.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
It has become nearly impossible for one narrative to reign supreme through mainstream and legacy media alone. Corporations no longer own our voices. They no longer own truth or our information or our evidence. Welcome back to episode two of The Red Cooper Show. I am so excited. about this episode, like seriously, for the last six weeks, I've been watching this unfold.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
as the star and then kind of took over production on the film. At least that is what we saw back at the end of this summer as everything was starting. So the reason why we kind of understood that things were not as they seemed, that there was trouble in paradise, is that Blake Lively and the cast of It Ends With Us
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Remember, Blake Lively? Wear your florals, everyone, because her character is a florist who works at this floral shop. All of the signs are there. So suddenly people are connecting the dots and they're going, oh my God. So they were literally making fun of him on screen. They were trying to push him out of his own production. They hated him. They're literally bullying him on screen.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And that just shows the power of social media because they brought up all of these points. And then Justin and his team added that into a second lawsuit. Well, now actually we're on the third lawsuit of this entire scandal, but the second lawsuit from Justin's team. And guys, what was happening on social media was seriously a machine that could not be stopped. Like it was faster moving.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
It was more ferocious than what we saw this summer when Blake's reputation was first destroyed. And all of that is super interesting to me because this kind of social media momentum, this, you know, internet sleuthing that is happening throughout the scandal, is actually relatively new in the world of PR and entertainment strategy and marketing.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
So I wanted to hear somebody else's opinion about this. So I called a friend of mine, Jared Sopransky, who is a PR expert who works in entertainment, and I wanted to hear his take. So listen to what he said about social media drastically changing the scope of his work.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And as I'm sure you can imagine, this kind of social media pressure can obviously help make somebody's job in PR a lot easier because the social media users are doing the legwork for you and they're moving the story forward and they're keeping you in the right direction. But for Blake's case, I mean, it's not helping her at all.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And so now her PR team is having to fight against literally millions and millions of people who are picking up on everything. I mean, you guys are literally incredible. Like people on social media, you do not miss a single thing. It's like you have millions of collective minds that remember everything, that have clipped everything, that are scouring photos and videos.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And even the world's most powerful and largest PR team can't actually fight that. And that is what we're seeing.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
all mass unfollowed Justin Baldoni as the film was about to premiere, and it was very suspect because Justin Baldoni was the one who first got the option for this book. He had been driving the production literally for years before they even started filming. He was very, very close to the project, and he was nowhere to be found on the press tour.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And so while all of that was happening on social media, Justin Baldoni's team was able to kind of sit back and relax because people were on their side, while not actually relaxing, because they were pulling all of their facts together, for this third lawsuit. And so they came out just last week with yet another bombshell suit, this time $400 million directly against Blake and her team.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
This is not against the New York Times. This is a totally different lawsuit. This one is directly against Blake Lively. And guys, this lawyer is incredible. Like it is worth going and reading this lawsuit because The story that he paints, the way that he writes, it is gripping. He knew that the public was going to see this and he wrote it for us, which I very much appreciated.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
So basically, TLDR, the Internet was right, as the Internet often is. It's crazy how that works, that all the clues people saw, all the things that were caught on camera. I don't think Blake considered the fact that a majority of this movie was shot in New York City, like on the streets of New York City. So they had people literally from like two and a half to three years ago watching them film.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
They have random people filming interactions between Blake and Justin. All of that is online and it refutes so many of her different claims. So all of that is in this lawsuit. The lawsuit covers the tensions over the creative direction of the film, how Blake Lively strong-armed her way in and basically elbowed her way into a producer role that Justin literally had to go to the union and say-
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
hey, yeah, Blake really wants a producer credit. She's basically taking over the film, so we need to give her one. They reiterated yet again that no, Justin Baldoni did not fat shame Blake Lively, but that yes, he had the back injury that we have been talking about for basically six months at this point and wanted to make sure he could lift her.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And in the lawsuit, they added that after he asked that question,
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
very harmless question we can all agree that that is a very harmless question that he got invited over to Blake and Ryan's home and got berated by Ryan Reynolds for having the gall to ask that question of his wife that that was so offensive and so hurtful to her but also we know that it wasn't hurtful because also in the lawsuit they included text messages between Justin and Blake where they were literally talking about body image issues just listen to this so Justin this is in 2023 he texts Blake and says I want you to know that you will look amazing
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Anything you are insecure about, we will talk through and get creative together and make sure that you are comfortable. I just don't want you to stress about your body. It is the last thing you need. As soon as I have a rough schedule that is even remotely accurate, I'll share it and I'll make sure that the team keeps this in mind as well. And then he puts a heart emoji.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
He was the male lead, was the love interest of Blake Lively, and was in no interviews, was not walking the red carpet, and people got super confused, but They thought that maybe there was a reason for it because this film is about domestic violence.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And the reason why she was allegedly so sensitive about her body was because she had just had her fourth baby. She was breastfeeding. She felt like she hadn't bounced back yet. And so Justin is being sensitive about this in this text message. And Blake Lively responds and is grateful. She says, this is my job here and I meet my responsibilities with extreme work ethic.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Also one thing that you'll see if you read this lawsuit is that Blake Lively has way too much time on her hands because her text messages are literally insane. She also at one point compares herself to Khaleesi from Game of Thrones and says,
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
I have dragons who will fight for me, basically talking about Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Swift and insinuating that Justin Baldoni should not fight her because she has more powerful people that will go against him, obviously, now that we're seeing that she is suing him. Anyway, the texts were just insane and very egotistical, but to finish what I'm talking about here,
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
She responds relatively kindly, and she's saying, So having your understanding and support to help me pull this off is critical and very, very appreciated. She appreciates all of his support. Not just in my experience now, but also healing from experiences past. So thank you.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
So actually, Justin Maldoni is being so kind and so wonderful that not only is he helping Blake Lively through this hard experience and her body image issues, but he's actually helping her heal. which is definitely not what we heard in her first complaint.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Now, moving on from that little part of the story, I just wanted you guys to get finality of that since we've been talking about that literally since like August, I think. In the lawsuit, they also talk about how Blake made Justin and made his team hire additional producers that she would supervise to monitor the production because she didn't trust him.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
So she had to have personal approved producers to supervise him. The director of the film, again, the producer of the film, who optioned the film six years ago.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
They also revealed in the lawsuit that it was her that refused the intimacy coordinator, not him, and that she actually took control and was the one instructing him on how to be sexual and how to be romantic in all of these intimate scenes, which, again, because people were watching the filming of this movie on the streets of New York, was caught on camera.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And so they thought, okay, well maybe they're trying to separate these characters and they want us to already get into the mindset of this being an abusive relationship, of them being at odds. So people thought, okay, maybe that's the reason why. But then it just kept going and nobody acknowledged it and it got weirder because they noticed that she had unfollowed him
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
We literally have her going up to him and saying, this is how you need to grab me, this is how you need to kiss me, and it was even brought up in press interviews. Here we go.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
No, you didn't. She's literally nervously laughing going, haha, you should definitely have one. Blake, you were the one who refused it. Okay, we'll let her continue.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
I actually just saw it too. It was on Instagram yesterday. Now the person speaking who is off screen is Colleen Hoover, the author of the book. And Blake Lively is trying to cover all of this up and go, oh no, where did that happen? No, I definitely didn't do that. And she's going, no Blake, I saw that video on Instagram. That was so funny.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
You were being the intimacy coordinator and you can watch Blake's face going, oh shit, oh my God, people are going to know. And guess what? We have even more evidence than those two videos. There are texts covering this.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
In one exchange, Justin is talking to a production member on set and he texts them a screenshot of a conversation that he had with Blake, where he says, Hey Blake, just hired an intimacy coordinator who I love. I will set up a time for you to meet or FaceTime them for next week. And she says, I feel good. I can meet with them when we start. Thank you, though.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And then he sends this exchange to the production member and said, just FYI, wanted to tell you about this. She seems like she doesn't want to meet the intimacy coordinator until we start, which may mess up the workflow, but I can still meet with her, of course. And then the female producer responds and says, that's fine if she doesn't want to meet her now.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
You'll just have to walk her through what you and blank, the intimacy coordinator, are are thinking, but she never actually met or wanted to use the intimacy coordinator. She just kept pushing it off. Also, she never actually signed her employment agreement.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
She also kept pushing that off, probably because she wanted to strong arm her way in and not just be an actress, but end up being the producer.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Now, another thing that was included in this lawsuit that corroborates what people were saying on social media a few months ago was Ryan Reynolds' involvement and the fact that during the writer's strike, when nobody was writing, Ryan actually stepped in without just knowing, without anybody knowing, and rewrote scenes and added scenes that they would later film.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And Justin did not know until he saw a cut of the film. Also, at the end of production, Blake did not like Justin Baldoni's cut of the film, and his cut was far more serious, darker, focused a lot more on domestic violence. She didn't like that. Florals, fun, silly, girly, chick flick, promoting her hair Caroline, best friends with Taylor Swift, all of those vibes, she wanted that.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
So she hired her own post-production team. And she had them do their own edit of the film, and then they showed these two versions to different audiences. People far more preferred Justin Baldoni's version, but they ended up going with Blake's.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And what is even crazier to me is that they would not even let Justin and his team, the original team, see the new version of the film, even if it was just to see what had been cut out or what had been changed. They were not allowed to look at the film that they had poured blood, sweat, and tears in for years because she and Ryan Reynolds literally took over. Here's a text conversation about that.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And then we started to see a stark contrast with how Justin was promoting the film independently, because he wasn't included in anything else, with how Blake Lively and the rest of the cast was promoting the movie. And Blake Lively was doing all of these big, colorful, floral events. She was also simultaneously promoting her new hair, Caroline.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Justin Baldoni says to his editors, just curious if you guys have peeked at her cut and if anything has changed. And the editor says, I have just been told that we are not permitted to look. And he says, ha ha, wow, when did that happen? Editor one says as per Sony. So now Sony is involved, they're complicit because they are on the side of Blake and Ryan.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
So editor one says as per Sony, editor two said this evening through redacted. Justin says, wow, okay then. The editors and the director aren't even allowed to look at an actress's cut. Got it. Well, here we go. We will just keep taking the high road.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Now, the other thing that we have confirmed in Justin's lawsuit is that actually he did not burst into her trailer while she was breastfeeding repeatedly, but that actually she was inviting him into her trailer while she was breastfeeding. Here is a text conversation about that from June 3rd, 2023. She said, I'm just pumping in my trailer if you want to work out our lines.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And Justin Baldoni said, copy. Eating with crew and we'll head that way. She said, take your time. He said, I'm here. I'll meet you in hair and makeup. So Justin, he has all the evidence. He is refuting anything. every single one of these claims. And more importantly, he and his team, as you can see, are being totally transparent.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
I mean, these are just five or six examples of things that they've brought up and clear text message exchanges that refute everything that she put out to the press. They dropped everything. totally uncensored, totally unedited.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And last week they actually announced that they're even creating an entire website where they will publish every single email and text exchange to prove that he is innocent, that none of this happened. I mean, that's literally unprecedented. And that is because they know the power of social media. They know the power of the public courtroom because this is what is driving
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
people in Justin Baldoni's favor because they actually have truth they actually have the evidence and this is where I see the stark differences between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni and how they are handling all of this because Blake is being so tactful and so specific you know she's dropping edited texts and specific stories that might be a little bit true but do lack all context like yes he came into my trailer while I was breastfeeding but actually
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
I invited him in because I wanted to work on lines and we didn't have an intimacy coordinator, but actually it was because I never wanted to meet with one. She's also cozying up to journalists to get the story out that she wants. She is leaking these stories to people. She's getting them to ask these tailored questions, to omit things from text messages.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And she believed that that would be enough to run Justin Baldoni into the ground. And unfortunately, that is a very widely used tactic, especially in these smear campaigns. But with this new age of social media and internet sleuths, that just does not work like it used to. And you see Justin, on the other hand, is literally leaving it all out on the field. He is showing all of his cards.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
She was making this like a chick flick, rom-com, cutesy movie. She was telling everybody like, wear your florals to go see the movie because her character owns a flower shop. Meanwhile, Justin Baldoni took every single interview to talk about domestic violence and to talk about protecting women and the importance of telling these types of stories with, you know, very, you know, sincere care.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
His team is going straight to the public. He is going on podcasts. He is talking to the media. They are literally publishing all of these exchanges online so the people can see the truth. He's literally saying, I have nothing to hide, just like Good Ranchers has nothing to hide with their meat. Because guys, did you know
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
that 85% of meat in our grocery stores is not actually raised in the United States. And that's because the country of origin labeling law was repealed in 2015. So that means that if a piece of meat is packaged in the US, it can even get a product of the US label, even if it was not born, raised, or processed in the United States.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
But with good ranchers, when they say their meat is 100% American raised, you can trust them. Because their meat is born, raised, and processed right here in the States by American ranchers. And it's completely free from hidden additives. No antibiotics, no added hormones, no seed oils, just simple good ingredients that you can feel good about feeding to your family.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
They truly make everything more simple, even down to the fact that their products are delivered right to your door. No more store runs, no more long lines, no more questioning the quality of the meat at your grocery store. Because with goodranchers.com, everything that you need to create a delicious meal is just a click away.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And at goodranchers.com slash Brett, you can also check out an exclusive box that I curated just for you guys. These are all of my favorite Good Ranchers products that are staples in our home. These are the things that Alex and I eat every single day of the week, and I know that you will love them.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And if all of that is not enough to convince you, right now, Good Ranchers is still running their New Year New Meat deal, where if you subscribe to any of their boxes, but preferably the Fred Cooper box, you will get free ground beef or chicken or salmon in every order for an entire year, plus If you use my code BRETT at checkout, you will get an additional $25 off that first order.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
So visit goodranchers.com today and use code BRETT at checkout to claim your free meat and $25 off. It has never been easier to prioritize your family's health, make things more convenient, and support a company that you can truly trust. Unlike all of these journalists and celebrities that are obviously lying about this story.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Now, I wanted to hear my friend Jared's take on this and what it means for each of these sides and what it means for their careers going forward. And I thought he had a really interesting take. Just listen.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Now, I also think that it's a fascinating strategy that over the last six months, until that Christmas Eve lawsuit, that Justin basically took the high road. He stayed silent while he was being pushed around, literally being pushed out of his own production and into the basement with his family and friends.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And so then people started to wonder, okay, well, what if they got into a big argument about how the film was going to be released and Justin did not want to be part of this floral, happy, fun, girly chick flick and Blake Lively, you know, got everybody to turn against him. So we all thought, okay, maybe it's just in post-production. Oh no, guys, it goes so much deeper.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
He literally held off his PR team, even though Blake Lively doesn't want you to believe that and just let it happen. Trusting. that at some point the truth would come out and that that would prevail. He probably believed, you know, rightfully so, considering what we know about Blake Lively now, that she would not be able to be silent.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
That she and her ego would hate so much that her reputation had been destroyed, that her actions had been exposed, that she would want to fight, that she would not be able to stand the fact that she had been run into the ground, and she would come back with some kind of fight, and then he would be ready to drop the hammer.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
He basically sat silently for the last, you know, five or six months, honestly for the last couple of years while he was working with her, let her wind herself up and then shoot herself in the foot because of her own ego.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
way that they've gone about this there's a lot of arrogance involved now to wrap all of this up at this point we really don't know where this case is going obviously we have all of these lawsuits they're muddling through it you know justin is pushing for a public trial that would literally be televised in front of a jury a la amber heard johnny depp that would be in california but interestingly blake lively specifically filed
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
I have been tearing out my hair, wanting to talk about the story. I have had you people DMing me, messaging me, tagging me and things being like, Brett, just like go live and talk about this. But I know that it is a big enough story. So I wanted to do it in a proper format and make this one of the first episodes.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
So then a couple of weeks after all of that, I really am giving you the full recap. A couple of weeks after that, we started to see some leaks and it seemed like Blake Lively's camp had dropped some allegations that Blake Lively had not been very kind to her on the set of It Ends With Us and that he had fat shamed her because he asked about her weight.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
,, , , , , , , , , ,,學. M. M. B. B. B. B. B. B. B. B. B.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, se X XZQ XZ XZ XZ XZ XZ XZ XZ X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. and Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
But the thing is, Justin Baldoni has a very severe back injury and there was a scene where he had to lift her up. So he had asked her how much she weighed so that he could then go to his trainer and make sure that he could safely and properly lift her since he could barely do anything with his back. So we learned that that was a bunch of hocus pocus and was just ridiculous.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And then people started seeing Blake Lively's attitude in interviews. And not only was she being flippant about the story, and talking about florals and silly things and promoting her haircare and being like, oh my God, look at my hair, it's so amazing, whatever, look at what I'm wearing. But they started just to see that she was not kind to interviewers.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Like she was very cold, she was very sarcastic. One of the interviewers asked her if a audience member, if a viewer is very impacted by the story, has a personal experience, like should they come up to you and talk to you? Like how should they approach that? Because this is a very, you know, personal story that's gonna impact a lot of people.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And Blake Lively took that question and we can roll the clip, but she basically was like, um, don't talk to me. Like, what do you want me to do? Give you my number? Like, whatever. Asking for like my address or my phone number or like my location share. I could just location share you and then we could.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And just blew off this very serious and understandable question considering the subject matter of the film. And then it just kept going. People kept bringing up old interviews of her, like from Gossip Girl days when she would speak over Leighton Meester and make fun of her.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
They brought up another interview, which went mega viral, where a interviewer brought up that Blake Lively had recently announced that she was pregnant. She was like, oh my goodness, your cute little bump. And Blake Lively immediately snapped and went, oh, look at your little bump. And the woman was not pregnant.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
She had actually, I believe, had just suffered a miscarriage or had just realized that she could not have children in the future. That just blew up. So basically, we knew that there was tension. Things did not seem right.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
This premiere did not go how people expected, and as it snowballed, people just turned against Blake Lively, and their impression of her and impression of her relationship with Ryan Reynolds was completely shattered.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
She went from being this sparkly, happy personality who is best friends with Taylor Swift and has this perfect, ideal relationship with Hollywood hunk Ryan Reynolds, and they have the cutest kids, to actually, she might be a diva and an egomaniac, and somehow, it has just been hidden from us for years. The movie came out and by all metrics, it was a success.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
They made lots of money, so she should have been happy, but she could not get over the fact that her reputation had been destroyed. Now, in my opinion, I think people would have moved on because listen, people have the attention span of a pea. They move on to a new controversy within 24 hours. I think that she could have come back maybe after a year
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
But obviously we must talk about part two and now part three, four, five, six, and seven. of the Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni scandal. And if you are interested in ad-free episodes and exclusive content, check out the link in the description below for my new subscriber-only platform, Cooper Confidential. Go check that out. There's lots of information in the description and on the website.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
made some amends, tried to be better at interviews, just tried to move forward and not address it, and she probably would have been fine, especially because she is married to Ryan Reynolds, who literally everybody adores, but she did not do that. She could not stand that people did not like her and that they had uncovered the alleged truth about her personality, so she spent the last four months
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
curating a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni to take him down. And that is what was dropped on Christmas Eve while I was sitting here with no show and I was like, please let me talk about this if that is what we're doing today. So in this first lawsuit, in this complaint that she released on Christmas Eve, she wanted to clear her name.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
So she filed this lawsuit against Justin Baldoni and against his PR team.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And she alleges that there was a hostile work environment, that he had sexually harassed her, and that when she had asked him to stop and brought these complaints to the public, meaning on set, he had retaliated by organizing a PR war against her to destroy her image during the premiere and all of the promotion of It Ends With Us. Now, she took this directly to the New York Times.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
She had a journalist release text messages and lay out this entire thing. The article was called we can bury anyone inside a Hollywood smear machine. Private messages detail an alleged campaign to tarnish Blake Lively after she accused Justin Baldotti of misconduct on the set of It Ends With Us.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And in this lawsuit, she claims that he fat shamed her, which we had heard about, you know, six months ago. that he busted into her trailer repeatedly while she was breastfeeding when she did not want that. She alleges that he was constantly sexual and made her and other women listen to him talking about his former porn addiction.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
She says that he tried to force sex scenes into the project that she was not comfortable with, allegedly made women on set watch videos of his naked wife giving birth, which was pornographic. as Blake and her team put it. She alleged that he did not want to hire an intimacy coordinator and so it was very uncomfortable on set.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
She also alleges that there was a whole team meeting to address all of these concerns and that they actually laid them all out in a document, which they did put in a New York Times article saying, hey, here are all of our concerns. This is what you're doing, busting into my trailer.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
said that they talked to Justin about all of that, that he agreed to change the work environment, but that it just continued, and that that is why he retaliated with this coordinated PR smear campaign, a.k.a. what happened after the premiere of It Ends With Us. Now, these allegations were certainly damning.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Like, I read them and I was like, ooh, that is obviously not a good look, but also, it's not out of the ordinary for Hollywood. Like, Anyone who has worked in media or entertainment or Hollywood has probably had experiences kind of like that, has probably had their boundaries crossed, has probably been talked to inappropriately by someone and made uncomfortable.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
But what stood out to me the most about this and really kind of made my head tilt is that in the chance that all of this was right, that she was true about all these allegations with Justin, it seemed extra sinister. if you have followed Justin's career at all, because this man is an ally. He is a feminist.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
He has a super famous TED Talk that talks about like dismantling masculinity and trying to be a better man. He literally has an entire podcast that talks about gender roles and feminism. He has a man bun. That is his entire brand is being this non-toxically masculine feminist ally. Like just listen to the description of his podcast. The podcast is called Man Enough.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And it explores what it means to be a man today and how rigid gender roles have affected all people. The show creates a safe environment for a range of perspectives to meet and stay at the table, exploring how the messages of masculinity show up in relationships, body image, privilege, fatherhood, sex, success, mental health, and so much more.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Instead of polarizing and demonizing men and masculinity, it invites all humans to participate and thrive in the world. So you guys kind of get the tone. This is the kind of person that we're dealing with.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Hope you guys enjoy. All right, let's get into it. So to start off, I just wanna do a recap in case you are not caught up on this drama or we need to have our memories jogged. Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni did a movie together and it is called, It Ends With Us. It is based off of a book by Colleen Hoover which is a kind of a controversial author.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And why I'm bringing this up is because, unfortunately, so many people, specifically men, who present themselves as these, you know, feminist allies and being so pro-woman and having this, you know, holier-than-thou attitude about the world are actually just creeps. And they are using those attitudes to cover up their bad behaviors.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And Blake's team in the New York Times positioned Justin Baldoni just like that. And I'll admit, It got me. I was like, oh, that is not good if these are correct. Again, because of how he has presented his entire brand for the last, you know, 10 plus years.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And for a moment over those couple of days on Christmas, I'm sure that Blake felt like everything was right in the world because people were on her side. They were like, oh, this does not look great. Apparently we screwed with the wrong person. We fell for this coordinated PR campaign. I am sure she felt like she was on top of the world.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
But that was because they had only seen her side of the story. It was like they were checking the news without checking Ground News first. Guys, my partners over at Ground News understand the problem with legacy media and the fact that they are often bought and paid for, that they only share one side of the story, and that they often prioritize cheap wins over journalistic integrity.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And that is why Ground News was born. They cut through the noise with an unbiased perspective and show every side of the story and how it's being covered, prioritizing transparency over everything.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Their technology allows users to compare how different sides of the corporate media are reporting on a story all the way down to how independent creators like me are reporting on a story, making sure that you truly see every side of the news. And from my perspective, they make sure that I stay on top of the stories that I'm covering so that I can bring you the latest and most honest updates.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Like with this story. they were able to quickly show me who was covering Blake Lively's lawsuit, where people were leaning, and they were able to break through the noise to quickly break down what was in Blake's filing and what was in that New York Times article. But it doesn't stop there.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Their Blindspot feed brings you the stories that have gotten little to no coverage on one side of the political aisle. making sure that you always stay informed instead of letting big tech or their algorithms decide what they want you to see. So if you are ready to truly break free from media bias and stay informed with transparent news consumption, now is the time to join Ground News.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And when you go to groundnews.com slash Brett or scan this QR code that's on the screen right now, you can subscribe to the same premium platform that I use every single day, but for nearly half the price. Again, that is groundnews.com slash Brett to break free from media bias and hold the media accountable for only $5 a month. And yes, I know what you are all thinking. I agree.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Ground News is probably Blake Lively's biggest nightmare. Those feelings of ecstasy, I'm sure, only lasted a few days because just a week later, I believe, it was December 31st, the day before New Year's, Justin filed a lawsuit against her team and also filed a suit against the New York Times for defaming him and deceivingly editing the text that they included in their original article.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
The text between him and his PR team saying that they were trying to bury or destroy her. And guys, that lawsuit, broke the entire thing open. And from there, it just snowballed. And more and more was coming out. Like Justin Baldoni's lawyer immediately hopped on a press tour. He went on Megyn Kelly's show and basically said, we have all the evidence.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
We are going to destroy you, Blake Lively, because all of this is false. Just listen to what he said. Are you going to sue Blake Lively too?
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Some people say that it's a stretch to even call her an author if you have read some of her books, but whatever, you can have your own opinions on that, but the book is called It Ends With Us. And Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively play the leads, but Justin Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, produced the film, he directed it, he started it, and then Blake Lively came in
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And just so you know, spoiler alert, they were all sued. It all came out. It was literally insane. And I love the fact that in that video keeps going, it will be based on evidence. It will be based on truth because what they are alleging is that Blake Lively's team in the New York Times tampered with evidence to paint the story in a certain light in Blake Lively's benefit.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And so over the next couple of days through this lawsuit against the New York Times, They released even more text messages, the unedited version of the text messages. They released audio recordings of Justin Baldoni talking to his family, talking to his team, saying that on the night of the It Ends With Us premiere, he was put in the basement. And again,
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
This is the movie that he optioned that he had been working on. I think it was for six plus years that he had poured his heart and soul into the director and the producer of this film. They did not even want him to attend the premiere, but said, OK, sure, I guess you can. We have to wait in the basement.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And we have photos of that of his friends and his family all in the basement sitting on cases of water. While Blake Lively goes up gallivanting around in her sequin floral dress talking about her Blake Lively Target exclusive hair care line. That is what was happening while he was in the basement. And very quickly, the internet started to turn around as crazy.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
Quickly, as they got on Blake's side, they left the Blake train. And then this was one of my favorite parts. People on TikTok started coming out with firsthand accounts. These are PAs from the set. These are extras who watched all of this go down, who saw the tension, who saw Blake Lively and Justin screaming at each other, who saw Blake take over in the middle of scenes and direct.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
They saw her ignore the extras. Meanwhile, Justin Baldoni was coming up and talking to the extras saying, hey, I'm so sorry that you had to see that. I know that this scene is tough. Asking them about their experiences. Drastically different.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And then, guys, where it really started to get juicy for me and I really got excited and this just went even deeper is when people started to connect the dots about NicePool. Because another thing that social media users noticed during the whole press tour and premiere of It Ends With Us was the fact that Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
were randomly in all of these interviews and on all of the press stops. And obviously, Blake Lively is married to Ryan Reynolds, so it would make sense that her husband is there. But why is Hugh Jackman there? Well, because around the same time that It Ends With Us is coming out, Deadpool and Wolverine is coming out, which obviously is Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. And I think...
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
that maybe Blake was trying to orchestrate some kind of Oppenheimer Barbie weekend where these movies convulge, but obviously that did not work in the slightest. People were very, very confused, but it seemed like Ryan and Hugh were kind of helping ice out Justin Baldoni.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And then people went back and watched Deadpool and Wolverine, and they noticed a character who seems very, very similar to Justin Baldoni, and that would be So in the film, there's this character, he has a man bun. He is this ultra feminist ally, soft-spoken, talking about his faith and how much he loves women.
The Brett Cooper Show
How Blake Lively Ended Her Own Career | Episode 2
And people are saying that Ryan Reynolds put that in the film to mock Justin Baldoni because they were filming around the same time that It Ends With Us was filming. And as the cherry on top, Nicepool gets killed. and he gets killed by Ladypool, who is played by Blake Lively. You can literally see her blonde ponytail, and better yet, he gets killed in front of a flower shop.