Chapter 1: What is the significance of the December vacation for the hosts?
The only way to mitigate not being successful is to not quit. That's it. If you don't quit, you might make it. And if you quit, you definitely will. And honestly, I think after all the years I've seen people make it and not make it, the only common denominator is that. on this episode of the Commercial Break.
Well, you knew it wouldn't take but one second before we would mess something up on this Season 7 of the Commercial Break. And man, did we. I forgot to press record on my actual, like, the board that brings all the microphones in that makes it sound so smooth and sexy. Like you're hearing my voice right now.
So since I forgot to press record on the very first episode that we record for Season 7, we're going to sound a little tinty and shallow-y on this particular episode. I would rather put it out than not put it out, so I'm going to do that. But just bear with the audio quality. It's not terrible, but it just sounds like you're watching us in a tin can. Or we're in a tin can.
Chapter 2: How did the hosts feel about the audio quality at the start of Season 7?
Or you're in a tin can. We're all in fucking tin cans. It's 2026. I don't know what to tell you. It's all going to hell in a handbasket. But we're so excited that season number seven is here. It's upon us. We're bringing new episodes. We're recording live on youtube.com slash the commercial break Tuesdays and Thursdays.
And we've now decided that we will do between two and four episodes a week, depending on which week it is and depending on how we're feeling. We're not limiting ourselves. It's Cap off, kids. All gas, no brakes. You know how we like to do it.
Chapter 3: What new changes are being introduced in Season 7 of TCB?
We promise one thing, we deliver another. Stay tuned. It's going to be a very exciting season of TCB. Okay, here it is. Episode officially number 884, but unofficially number 890. Season number seven starts now.
The next episode of the commercial break starts now.
Welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co-host of this show, Chris and Joy Hoadley. Best to you, Chrissy. Best to you, Brian. Best to you out there in the podcast and streaming universe. Season number seven starts now. Woo! Crazy. I can't believe it. This is insane. Six years, seven seasons. We say that every season. Yeah, we said it season one, too.
And Happy New Year. And Happy New Year to you. We will not be saying that until October. No. I was laughing because Chrissy was like, hey, we've been out of touch for like... Not out of touch, but we haven't talked on the phone for two weeks, three weeks. And so she said, hey, call me. Let's talk before we talk. I said, okay, why not? And I was laughing because...
When I called her, I wanted to say Happy New Year, and I was recalling that in 2023, season number five, for the first 10 months of the year.
Yeah, that was our tagline, Happy New Year. Happy New Year!
We were wondering just how long we could get away with it, and I think we took the joke too far. We did. So we won't be doing that again. But, you know, it's still the sixth. Yeah, we're the early stage. There's a bubble. There's a little shine there for the first week or two of the new year, and you can get away with it. I'm still saying Happy New Year.
I said Happy New Year to the kids at the Starbucks today. I said Happy New Year to everybody here at the house. Yes, well, that's appropriate because you haven't seen them in New York. Yeah, I think the rule is if you haven't seen someone in a new year and it's still January, you can say Happy New Year. If it's February, you just sound like a shithead.
You just sound like you don't know what you're talking about. So, welcome back. Season number seven. Chrissy and I are excited to kick down the door and get back to life here in the studio.
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Chapter 4: How did the hosts celebrate New Year's and Astrid's birthday?
We have taken an immense amount of time off. Yes, we have. Yeah, between sicknesses and travel. I mean, I was laughing to myself, too, thinking about last year. I mean, I think we recorded like every single day in December. We did. Yeah. I think we even recorded on Christmas Eve, if I'm not mistaken. We did. In this year, we did. And this year, we took it all of December off. And it felt good.
It did. We needed a recharge. We recorded very little between Thanksgiving and today, really. I think we recorded like, I don't know, maybe seven days total. And it felt very good. So thanks for hanging with us. Thanks for listening to the TCB Classics and some of the interviews that we had sitting in the can. We did do a lot of interviews. I remember that. We did a ton in that 12 days of TCB.
I think we did seven interviews or something like that. And then like the seven hours of TCB or whatever. It was all a lot. And that's okay. We were excited to do it. And we're excited now just to...
be refreshed be refreshed recharge refocus get our shit together feel good about coming into the studio a couple times a week and hopefully you feel the same and we're excited season number seven so no more talk about that tuesdays and thursdays chrissy and i will be here live on youtube.com slash the commercial break or restream.io slash the commercial break you can go watch us somewhere sometime between 1 and 3 p.m we'll go live i don't want to say exactly when we'll
We'll just mess it up. Yeah, I'm not going to pin anything on there. And then we will be putting out two or three new episodes every single week on the RSS feed. So stay tuned. And maybe we'll run some. I thought about this. There's a lot of people who texted in. They have their thoughts and their opinions about the new schedule. Most of them very supportive, extremely positive.
I don't think I had one like super negative comment about all of which indicates to me that we're probably doing the right thing. Like if we were slimming down and people were like, no, don't do that. I'd love four fucking hours of the commercial break every single week that I think we would hear it, but we didn't hear it. A couple people, but most people were by and large supportive.
But there were a lot of people who said, I just jumped in season five, I jumped in, you know, season six, whatever. So what I might do, what I might do is on Fridays, I might rerun TCB classic episodes, I'll pick ones that I think are notable for some reason. Maybe interviews that we liked or whatever, we'll rerun them on Friday. You can choose whether or not you want to listen to it.
And then, you know, maybe we'll still have four episodes a week, just in a different way. So we'll figure it all out. Stay tuned. Everything is flexible. We're bending to the will of the podcast gods right now. Yeah, I mean, this industry is still the Wild West. Very much. It's growing and changing. It's growing. And we're having to change with it. Yeah, we're changing with it.
And one of the things that we have always wanted to do is be more interactive with the listenership, be engaged with them. So by doing these live on YouTube.com slash The Commercial Break, you can chime in via chat or... soon we'll have the ability to, I mean, we have it now, but we're not doing it today. We can have the ability to bring people in on video.
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Chapter 5: What are the current events affecting Venezuela discussed in the episode?
We've done it quite a few years since we've been together. And this time, we had all of the brothers and their families came, too. So it was a big reunion.
Wow.
It was so much fun. We did big dinners and all went to the beach and did the pool. I mean, it's just so nice when that's the biggest decision you make every day is, are we going to the pool or the beach? Yeah. Or both, but in what order? Yeah. And, you know, I went on nice walks. It was beautiful. Fuck you. Fuck you. Can you be happy for me? You know, I can't.
No, no, I'm not going to be happy for you. That's asking too much. That's asking too much. Now, of course, it's I'm happy for somebody. No, I know. And I know you love Naples. I got it. I love the beach. That's what I love. I love the beach. And we also had a chance to go to the beach and the experiences. Yeah. cold temperatures. Yeah, there was a weird cold front that came through.
It just blew on through the five days we were at the beach for Astrid's birthday. But, you know, hey, listen, I'm going to say this. I said it before. I'll say it again. I would take a cold, rainy day at the beach over a warm, sunny day at work every day of the week. I mean, it's just something magical about the beach. There really is.
And I know that people that live there, I've talked to them and they're like, hey, yeah, there's a beach there. And it's like, how can you get used to the beach? I understand if I lived there, I would probably get used to the beach. A little bit used to the beach, but there's a reason they live there. That's right. They like the beach. They didn't move there.
Unless you're born there, you didn't move there for shits and giggles. You moved there because you wanted to be close to the beach in the warm weather. That's the way that it is. Florida is a paradise in that sense in most places. Most of those beaches are just beautiful. They really are. Especially in the Gulf and down in Naples. Just beautiful, beautiful. Florida itself, eh, you know.
I don't know. Listen, I was fortunate enough for a period of time to have a vacation place there, a condo there. But, you know, I sold it because I got taxed to death. Come on. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, they may not have income tax, but they find a way to get that out of you. That's for sure. And it usually happens through real estate, which is why all those, that beach property is expensive.
But we did, actually, we went down to Alabama's where we went. Yes, Orange Beach. I love that area too. We went again down to Orange Beach. Second time there, we went first time. You know, you growing up as a Georgian, as a person in Atlanta.
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Chapter 6: How do the hosts view the impact of U.S. politics on Venezuela?
He loved it.
The girls were dancing with everybody. You know, there's 20 people. We're all having a great time. And then January 1st on New Year's Day, everybody stays up late, hanging out, having fun, talking, playing games. And then January 2nd, my wife's birthday, everyone stays up late, talking, having fun. The kids, we managed to put them to bed before midnight on January 2nd.
But I went to bed about 1 o'clock. local time. So that's 2 a.m. East Coast time, Miami time. Yeah, you were up late. I was up late. And I went to bed because one of the kids got up. So I went and I laid them with them in the bed. And then 30, 40 minutes later, the door popped right open and Astrid came running in and she said the following words. They are bombing Caracas. Gosh.
And I popped right out of bed. I knew exactly what she meant. Anybody who's paying attention knows exactly what was going on. They're waiting for this moment to happen. Waiting for kind of hell to break loose because Trump and the administration have been threatening for a long time action down in Venezuela. They've been blowing up boats, which I do not agree with. I want to be clear about that.
I don't believe in blowing people off the face of the earth because you think something might be going on. But... But... Venezuela is a complicated situation. And I know a lot of Venezuelans, so I understand their point of view.
And I have come around to their point of view, where I might have been very much a pacifist and, you know, I'm not wanting any kind of war, bombing, you know, any of this stuff. I have come to see the light on this one. And yeah, I want to share that with everybody. But let's do this. Let's take a break. We got to take a break. We always have to take a break. Always have to take a break.
Got to pay some bills. What do you think? We do this for fun? We do this just for money. That's not true. No. But now I forgot where I put all the things on my board. On the big, ugly board that Astrid wants to get rid of. Here it is. That's the mini board, too. Yeah, that's the mini board. That's not even the big, ugly board. That's just the mini board. But, you know, Astrid, she gets like that.
Okay, let's do this. Let's take a short break. And when we get back, I will talk all about Venezuela. Yes, I want to hear. questions that you have dialed in.
You know that I am married to a Venezuelan, and so you've been very kind and thoughtful, most of you, and you have questions, and I would love to answer them to the best of my ability, just being someone who's observed Venezuela and Venezuelans. But I think I probably know a little bit about the situation, not claiming know everything, but I think I know enough to be dangerous.
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Chapter 7: What personal anecdotes do the hosts share about their experiences with Venezuelan culture?
especially ones who disagree with the Trump administration on almost every single topic. And as someone who also disagrees with the Trump administration on almost every single topic, it's a hard pill to swallow that what Donald Trump has done and his administration have done are in fact a step in the right direction for Venezuela and Venezuelans.
So we can argue the how, and we can argue the what, and we can argue the who, but the why and if, they're done. Nicolas Maduro has been torturing the people of Venezuela for his entire reign. He was way worse than Chavez, way worse than Chavez. He took it to 11. Chavez took it to 5. He took it to 11. Chavez, at least you could still eat and do business and have dollars and all that stuff.
Maduro painted Venezuela in a very difficult corner, and then he got into bed with some of the worst and the worst around the world. There is a geopolitical larger picture here, which I won't get into too much here, but just to say that China, Cuba, and Russia have been puppeting Maduro for a long time, and that is no bueno for the United States of America.
So there is a larger picture, but the smaller picture is, and the one that really matters, is that Venezuelans, native Venezuelans, people who lived under the Maduro regime or have family that did, or friends, They know that this is one bad hombre. He is a bad dude, and he is a criminal, and he has a criminal regime.
And they have been doing bad things to the Venezuelan population for a long time, up until and including murder. And so taking him out was absolutely the right move. And they did it with him alive and facing justice. So there you go. any Venezuelan that you talk to will agree with me. 99% of them. He needed to go. There are, of course, people that support Nicolas Maduro down in Venezuela.
They support Nicolas Maduro mainly because, number one, they are part of the regime, or number two, they are benefiting directly from the regime. And this includes people who are very desperate, and they take food or small amounts of money to do the bidding of the regime. That is a complicated situation, and it makes the situation down there right now very complicated.
So people, I'm just going to tackle some of the questions, right? What gives us the right to go into a sovereign nation and take out the president of another nation? Sovereignty only exists... If there is a legitimate government in place. And what I mean by that is that no country, no democratic country in the world recognizes the Maduro regime as the legitimate leadership of Venezuela.
As a matter of fact, in 2024, there was an election. Someone else was voted in office by some say 90% of the vote. This vote was watched by international cadre of people who do this type of thing. And they called it a free and fair election and overwhelming support for the opposition. Overwhelming support. But Nicolas Maduro called it a fake election and he did not release the grip of power.
He has been playing games for a long time on the world stage and... Because how long has he been in power? Is it 13 years? 13 years. Okay. Yeah, 13, 14 years. Chavez died and he handpicked Maduro to take his place. So... Yes, we should not be going into sovereign nations and taking out the leadership. But this is not a legitimate leadership. This is a criminal organization.
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Chapter 8: What are the hosts' thoughts on the future of TCB and its content?
Yeah.
So, yeah, I've been a little familiar with it. It sounds like things have just gotten awful there. Yeah, it's terrible. And the larger diaspora, 8 million, 9 million people have fled that country. Spain, Colombia, and the United States of America are holding the majority of those people. And things have just gotten terrible, terrible for the everyday Venezuelan. And, you know, They wanted this.
They wanted this. They begged for this. They screamed into the void for years and years and years. And the world would pay attention for a minute and then they'd move on. And then they'd pay attention for another minute and then they'd move on. And nothing ever came of it. No real support in any meaningful way to affect change.
Yeah, best case scenario to me is that now the whole administration is able to put pressure on people. You know, even though even though it's the same regime, they're able to at least put enough pressure on them to make changes. It's going to be a process and it is going to happen overnight. No, but yeah.
And they're going to play games and they're going to say things that sound anti-Trump and anti-American and Nicolas Maduro and all this. They're going to play games. But they have to right now. They have to keep things in line. They want to keep the trains running on time, so to speak, because they know that they're smart. They know that total civil breakdown is not not what's needed right now.
Right. So at first, when Trump came out and said, you know, we're we're supporting the president or we're talking to the vice president who's now the president. I thought to myself, holy shit, what is he doing? But given 24 hours of really thinking it through. And I think we're going to learn more too over the next week. Yeah, I think we're going to learn a lot more.
I think that the next couple of weeks, things are going to move fast and furious. And we're just going to have to You know, see how it plays out. I can't tell the future. I don't know. All I know is one thing happened that was really good for the everyday Venezuelan. And that's that Nicolas Maduro is far away from the ability to do anything else to the Venezuelan people.
Now, there's a lot of people there that could still do stuff to the Venezuelan people and probably will. But maybe over time, as Chrissy mentioned, maybe over time, the pressure campaign can mount. Listen, now they know that if you screw around. Yeah, we're going to come in there. Someone's going to come in and jerk a knot in your tail or worse.
I think Nicolas Maduro was lucky to get out alive, if I'm being honest. Yeah. I was watching a video where Nicholas Maduro is being walked into a DA office in New York. You know, they did this whole perp walk with him. They flew him up to New York, took him out of the plane. They walked him around. They took pictures with him, you know, like he was some doll or something.
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