The NuBlack Podcast
The NuBlack Podcast
43. Manhood, Masculinity, and Modernity
Is the concept of masculinity undergoing a crisis, or are we simply witnessing its evolution in society? Join us as we question the so-called "young men epidemic" and the perceived threat of men losing purpose in Western society. By examining the intersection of gender and politics, we explore whether government intervention in gender ideology is warranted, given the historical shifts that have broadened inclusion for women and people of color. Drawing from our personal experiences in Virginia and Baltimore, we aim to offer fresh insights and provoke thought on these pressing topics.
Traditional gender roles have long been a source of identity and purpose, but what happens when they're labeled as obsolete? We discuss the notion that these roles still have value, provided they are adapted to be inclusive and meaningful for everyone. Highlighting the challenges faced by young men and women in navigating modern relationships and family dynamics, we stress the importance of emotional intelligence and consistency. Through stories from history and modern research, we unpack the societal expectations of masculinity and how they are being redefined today.
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Follow Taaj: @Taajudeen.yakub
Follow Herb: @herbwakefield_
Greetings everyone. It's Taj Davis here, joined by Herb Wakefield, and we are here to deliver this next episode of the New Black Podcast to you all. It's currently December 1st 2024, and I'm feeling like the topic of this podcast mostly has to do with the state of men, um, in our Western world at this moment in time. Herb, how you doing man? Is there anything else to add on to that of what we're trying to deliver to the people today?
Speaker 3:No man. How's everybody doing? No, I think the topic today is this, essentially this what is called the young men epidemic, where there have been this sense in Western society that young men are losing this sense of purpose in society and we want to try and unpack that a little bit today, showing giving some of our thoughts and some of our anecdotal evidence of working very closely like this next generation of men who are coming up in the virginia and baltimore area. So, yeah, it should be a fun conversation and hopefully insightful for people to listen to and to give our perspective as two young men in this society and dealing with it and it's really interesting to kind of what you just said.
Speaker 1:There is like our audience, um, I think about that quite a bit. It's like who's ask myself who's listening to this podcast, and I think we actually have a fairly diverse spread of listeners.
Speaker 1:I think we have, obviously, folks who are around our age, but then also folks who are older, maybe trying to get a better sense of what's going on with the young folks, and then I think we also have, maybe some folks who are a bit younger than us trying to find some wisdom. So I actually see this more so as like trying to explain more so to folks who are older than us or around our same age than as to like tailoring us towards younger folks. I don't think younger folks are going to listen to this.
Speaker 3:If I'm being real, I mean, you never know.
Speaker 3:I mean we've also talked about on an earlier podcast I believe this is in 2023 about a similar topic regarding Andrew Tate, with a guest I forget his name, but Charles Charles and yeah, I mean that focuses more on the dating side of things, but I believe today we're going to be focusing more so on what it actually means to be a man in this society and how that could be challenging, I think so the first question that I think will let us get into this topic is how does gender show up in politics and should it show up in politics?
Speaker 1:so yeah, I'm pitching that question to you, herb how does gender show up in politics and should it show up in politics?
Speaker 3:I think gender shows up in politics in a way where it has been manipulated as a source of power, in a sense that gender and gender ideology has been this manipulating force in order for people to get votes and retain their power to where. I believe that not a lot of people really believe in some of the things they're saying, but I feel like the past election has brought up a lot of questions of gender that are interesting and honestly need to be reconciled in America. Still Now. Is it going to be answered with this incoming administration? Answered with this incoming administration administration? No, I don't think the ideology of gender is a conversation that is ever going to be written in stone and come solidified as law. You know, I think it's going to be an ongoing conversation and this stuff is going to evolve, but as far as that it pertains to politics, I don't.
Speaker 3:It's hard for me to see why and the way I view this is the question of this should a government be responsible for controlling the ideology of gender that is in its country? My answer to that is no. I think that a government's responsibility is to ensure the safety of all people in its country. Now that will start to pertain into what rights and liberties are afforded to people and genders, but it's not for a government to say oh, the only two genders identities that this country is going to observe is male and female and they're going to be assigned at birth. I don't think it's the role of the government to take that stance.
Speaker 1:That's a beautiful response to the question and thorough. I think I have a slightly I don't know if I disagree with you, but I'll add something different to that second part of the question. Um, yeah, I think gender showing up in politics in a way that's unprecedented I hate using that word, but I'll tend to look at things through a more historical lens. Of like, in this country, it's not until you know the last lifetime, right like the lifetime of our grandparents, that we've had to consider, um, you know, women and people of color actually voting and actually mattering in the political sense. Uh, like votes, obviously they mattered in politics, but they couldn't vote, um, and so now it's showing up in ways that's like okay, well, we have to actually cater to not just like white men, but men of all colors, um, of all socioeconomic statuses, um, and now women as well, right, so, like, this is, this is new, um, and I think that's women women, like trans, identifying people and non-binary people as well.
Speaker 3:Like, I think the the major thing of like because, as you said, gender has been prevalent in politics ever since the founders said that only white men, landowning men, are allowed to vote.
Speaker 1:But I think the question today is like what is is how we conceptualize gender, the way we're going to move forward, and I think that question is a little bit more difficult to say well, and it's like the weird thing and I don't know what I was listening to, or maybe it's something that you actually shared with me was like, if you go around I know it was something in breaking points, I believe, which is a podcast we both listened to, and so they were just going around to like different men in, like Africa, asia, whatever, asking whether they wanted to see Kamala or Trump, and most people said Trump because, like they, just Trump to them demonstrates like what they idealize as a man, um, and so he has a lot of leverage in determining what people ascribe to being a man in America. Uh, and I also think like there's a really insidious part of it, too, where, regardless of what is being, how that cloud, that leverage, is being directed, people are being utilized for some ulterior motive, like like he, whatever that motive is, it is not the spiritual, physical, emotional growth of these young people, and so in my world, I see gender showing up in politics in a way that's very resentful, uh, in a way in which you know, and I gravitate towards thinking about young men honestly, because they are the ones who are feeling like the world is against them, um, and they're seeing their vote as an outlet to that, as a way to solve whatever it is. They think that, um, the world is trying to stop them from, and I guess from the, the measurables of like okay, um, gender shows up in important ways. Like less the birth rates are lower right, that affects, regardless of your gender, like that's affecting the human race. Boom, boom.
Speaker 1:Home ownership dropping right and traditionally again in America, like there's this like rugged individualism that's like so closely associated with, like colonialism and capitalism, to where, like you got to go out, you got to conquer, you got to conquer the people, you got to conquer the land, you got to provide for your family, right, Like that's what we're talking about here. And so now young men aren't able to like buy houses, they're not able to provide in the financial sense, and so they're feeling stymied, um, and so they're giving a lot of that power to the, to the state, and in this case, the state is Donald Trump. Should it show up.
Speaker 1:Um, it's interesting, like I again I said earlier, like I recently watched the recent adaptation of roots and like one of the things that that really sticks out to me in that is like the right of passage, the rite of passage, like they, they highlight the mandinka rite of passage for that all the young men go through and it really emphasizes okay, what does a culture prioritize really?
Speaker 1:and um, and I think there's a place for that and I don't know exactly what it is for us in the American context, because, I look around, every culture, the history of humans has some kind of rite of passage, whether it was the Romans, the Greeks, you know, the West Africans, the East Africans, the Arabs, like everyone has some kind of rite of passage the Latinos but for us, we don't have that, and so I feel like until we have something like that, there will always be a void. So I think that people need some kind of meaning associated with their gender, and I feel like in America we have taken power away from families, not in a like, oh, we want to take power away from the families way, but capital has reigned supreme. Like we have prioritized capital over time to spend with families, for example, and you know the ability for families to really like live their values.
Speaker 3:So if that's the world we live in, I think maybe the state could or should have some kind of say in how you know gender shows up that's interesting because I would, I would, I would, I would, I would say that it's the state's more so responsibility to regulate capital than it is to regulate families. Yeah, which seems as a very like conservative I think.
Speaker 3:I don't know if that is a conservative viewpoint I don't know it's, it's weird yeah, I think the political landscape has become so discombobulated that, you know, there are things in the on the right that I agree with, there are things on the left that I agree with, but there are things I vehemently disagree on.
Speaker 3:There's more things I vehemently disagree with on the right than there is on the left. But, yeah, this relegation of families and this hyper-individualistic world that we live in, I think that I think, in those like rites of passages that you're talking about, it makes, I think, there is a greater sense of what it means to be a part of your gender, because there is that communal sense and that communal role that you have to fill, where there isn't necessarily these defined roles anymore in um, in modern civilization which is probably why we don't have these rites of passages like they did back then because there are like like yeah, like all right, you're 13, now you're a man, you can do whatever, like I mean, I think you see these rites of passages, however, in like very um, what are can be considered and very like, not archaic, but like um, older.
Speaker 1:So if there's anything that's like combat related, like the military has rites of passages yes you know, because it's still a very like tribal and sense nature of warfare in that sense and I think the rite of passage it shows you in a way, like how to love and like what you value in relationship to love and like and I'm thinking a lot about how, about how bell hooks defines love as like something that like fosters, kind of like I said earlier the spiritual growth of someone else and also something that you're willing to fight and die for. So I think the rite of passage it tells you like these are things that are worth fighting for, like this is like why we're all here, essentially and why we're unified. And until something like that can give young people meaning, and until something like that can give young people meaning, I just think people are going to be wayward, without purpose.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you're going to see a lot of the extremism that I think we're trying to focus on here. Yeah, I think, and I realize the there was a quote that I was referring to before we started recording where there's a notion that this sort of like not I don't want to say the attacks, but like this sort of like, this sort of like interjection of like what it means to be a man in today's day and age, teeters on the outcomes either being dangerous men or useless men. Right, and now people are more so on the now it seems like it's going to um, lean more towards this useless man era, and it is of my opinion that a civilization of useless men is a civilization that is I don't want to say like is a vulnerable, is a vulnerable civilization as a whole you know, very vulnerable and maybe even vulnerable from ourselves yeah um, you know, and and I think a very easy thing- yeah, Like you know, like an easy way to find use is to pick up a weapon and go fight, something like it doesn't take.
Speaker 1:I mean, yes, it takes training to like move in drill and, you know, in unison, but as long as you're able, bodied like, you can do that there's, there's, there's no barrier to entry there, um, and so it's interesting too, like and this is the last thing I'll say about roots, but like last thing I'm saying about roots is crazy he's like pressed, that like they, they tell him like they're going through the mandinka warrior training and they're telling him the most important thing for a mandinka warrior to do is to to start a family of his own and to like to extend the values to a future generation.
Speaker 1:And and when Kunta is brought to America, his mind is so set on like nah, I'm going back to Africa, like I'm not starting a family here in this decrepit state, and so kind of what you're saying of like useless men. Like he saw his future, like his future, like his family's future in america is being useless.
Speaker 1:But then finally he realized, like it's not even about that so much, and so he finally, like you know, got married has a kid, and then he's still thinking wait, um, this is more so about honoring the people who were performing right and like honoring my parents and the stories that they pass on to me, and if I don't pass it down, those things die. So I need to pass it down. And he has a daughter right. And then the daughter's like well, can I be a mandinka warrior?
Speaker 1:and he's like no, but like I'm a trainee nonetheless, like like he, he kind of adapted it to try and train his daughter in a way that like makes her able, right and makes her useful, um, and at a certain point, like she even talks about, like her intellect as something that, like she took on for herself, like that is her ability to be useful, um, because you know she can't go out and be free, like this is an extreme circumstance where people are enslaved, so like that is the epitome of feeling useless. But they're still feeling like okay, if I can read these books, I can be of some use. I don't know how this again relates back to gender showing up in politics, uh, but I feel like it definitely relates to gender so so my point is that regardless of whether you're a man or whether you're a woman.
Speaker 1:Identifying non-binary you need meaning as related to how your gender is seen in society or what your role in society is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, um, I think there is a. I do think there is an antiquated view of gender roles that we have in society, but there is a specific. I think there is a need for set roles in order to define purpose in people's lives. Now, I don't think that set roles are going to be necessarily split below what it means to be of like, having characteristics of more masculine characteristics or feminine characteristics as defined by, um biological sex. Um, it could be roles based on just individual, um abilities, as women will, may women, some women may be better at men and at men than men at some things, rather than and vice versa. Um, but then that begs the question of like. Okay, if that's the case, then what does it still mean? Does it make masculinity go away?
Speaker 1:well, it's interesting because no I think this now we can loop in galloway a little bit, um and, like the, the modern research, right. So they talk about gender roles being antiquated. Well, it's like. Well, one of the things that I think is a huge sell for all male schools is that males and females cognitively develop differently, and so one of the things that rob galloway kind of really highlights, um, is that by the time you know when you're talking about especially the high school age, young women, they are operating at an adult level, whereas, like the 18 year old boy, like he's operating on a child level, and so I think that's one of the places where, yeah, like when it comes to, uh, like in the, in societal, what the societal, what the society needs, okay, well, women are better equipped to be making important decisions at younger ages. So we need to actually elevate them, you know, into these leadership roles and things like that.
Speaker 1:But the thing is at the end of the day, kind of talking about, like physical skills and things like that, um, a man is going to be more adept to protecting. I think, like you can ask a lot of women out there like, yeah, whatever decision she makes at work, great, but at the end of the day, she wants to feel protected, and so I think that is something that I would like to see young men prioritize more. Yeah, in all walks of life. Like, regardless of what kind of money you can make, are you at least emotionally intelligent enough to know that you need to be consistent? Like you need to be consistent and showing up in a way that another human being can be like, oh yeah, that's my guy. Like I trust him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think I think we should break down what protectiveness means in that sense, cause we're not saying that, oh, women cannot protect themselves. Do I believe that if we had the option?
Speaker 1:I think I hate to get because this is going to sound sexist, but like it's gonna, that's the problem but like this is real, this is real, like so, so, and I think one of the one of the if I get in a fight, I'm not, I'm gonna call my brother rather than my sister is like right the thing, but that's like a very tribalistic view of protectionism, I think but even, even I think even protection on, like a family level, for example, like, um, when you think about like cycles right, like men are, we have a cycle.
Speaker 1:We don't't talk about it. Our cycle is daily, though, like the start of the day, our testosterone is the highest. Why is that? Why is that? Well, it's like we're supposed to be getting up and doing something. We got to go do something. You know what I mean. There has to be that that like and galloway talks about like men being maybe inherently better at like initiating um, and that being kind of like just important for any kind of success, uh, whereas like, a woman's cycle is obviously monthly.
Speaker 1:So, when we're thinking about hormonal cycles is what you're describing yeah, like a hormonal cycle, and so I think, like a sign of a wise man is understanding a woman's cycle, and I think a sign of a wise woman is also understanding her own cycle in a way of, and I don't think there's anything sexist about that like. That's very humanist, I feel like, but it's it's.
Speaker 3:It's strange that we can't or feel sexist when we talk about it yeah, and I I think that is because and I think that's one of the tropes that we fall into um, and one of the pitfalls that we fall into is that a lot of this talk about how we are able to support men in society has been manipulated into this very misogynistic rhetoric, and I'm really attempting not to fall into that same category of saying, oh, women do this, they can only do this, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 3:I think there is.
Speaker 3:The fact is that, for some reason, being a man in today's society is undergoing this transformation from what is deemed to be traditional values of masculinity as far as aggression or protectiveness, or being a provider, and these instances that are that a lot of young men are wrestling with.
Speaker 3:I think, because we are still going, young men are going through this in that time between like 16 and 25 years old, this very pubescent time frame where it's like you're being pent up with all this testosterone, you don't really know what to do with it and you don't have any purpose if you don't have any directive to or purpose to drive that into. Like it's difficult and to say, like the natural, the historical roles where those types of things could be impressed are now sort of being stripped back in a way, causes this confusion within our masculinity in itself, where it's like okay, what do I do with these things, these things that are been I want to say given you know, and that's not to say that and I think that the greatest, I think that the greatest thing that we can do as men today is be able to adapt now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think the greatest thing that we can do right now is adapt to what it now means to be protective, what it now means to be a provider, what it now means I think there's a, I think more so what it means to be a man now is being able to trust, being able to be reliable, you know I think like there's something kind of again like building off of what I was saying with cycles, right, you know, we have some friends who just found out they're pregnant.
Speaker 1:That's great again like this is. This is such a human experience and what happens with that human experience? It leaves a woman very vulnerable, and so who is there to protect that vulnerability?
Speaker 1:it needs to be a man, or at least, or at least someone who is not pregnant right someone who's not experiencing postpartum depression, so like, I think that is like the, the ideal situation in which, like you know, young men are able to kind of put their testosterone to use all right, like, like to find kind of meaning in that, and that that's what I see is protection, um, and and whether that's physical, I don't, I don't know but it could also just mean, like advocating for more with benefits, right, advocating for more in the workplace, like, hey, I need more paid leave right like that is a.
Speaker 3:I see that as protection yeah, and that's what, uh, that's what professor galloway said. Because if you take the trans issue for a second, this new um, I want to say new because it's been, there's been evidence of it in ancient society as well but like the growing ideology of like what it means to be a man and really attacks our sense of manhood in a way but it also doesn't leave that attack is not is also creating space for trans people and non-binary people that are also being persecuted by the more traditional ideas of gender identity, to where now there are physical persecutions, there are mental persecutions that they're trying to, that they also have to deal with, and we're not being attacked in those same set of ways. So as a man, our protective instinct should be to also protect them as well by championing from other men, yeah from other men yeah
Speaker 3:and like that's at one point that professor galloway said that I would think. Well, I think was enlightening in the fact that, but I feel like it also gets into this point of being like, of the seven persons, a person being like, okay, I don't need you to protect me, you know, like trans people, like I don't need you to protect me, you know I don't need a single mom who is pregnant, you know I don't need you to protect me. And it's like, okay, if you don't need me here.
Speaker 1:I think that's so like it's, but it's just so like I think that is so it's such a symptom of like the rugged individualism thing, such a symptom of like the rugged individualism thing of like we have been so deeply conditioned to think like yeah, like it's it's very human to just do everything on our own.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, it's not. Like, like that's. What sets us as humans, apart from, you know, like other living creatures is that, like, we can communicate, right, we have these like forms of interdependency that are so complex and intricate, and that's like it can break us apart, but it can also allow us to do incredible things and like go beyond our, you know, our microbiome, not our microbiomes, our biomes, right, um, and actually like leave the earth, for example. Um, so, and that's just a result of like community working together um interdependency. So when I hear people being like I don't need you to protect me, it's not coming from a bad place, but it's just coming from it's a defense mechanism. You've been brought up in a society where to depend on someone else is to be weak, and I just don't see that as weakness is what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 3:Very much so. It's not weakness at all, and I don't. I just don't see that as weakness is what I'm trying to say. Very much so, it's not weakness at all, and I think the reality is that you may not need me to protect you. However, we all need each other for us to move forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also it's and this is Bell Hooks, she talks about this a lot. There's been more research on this as of recently as to, like, why service is important, and I think, like service is one of those things that is really almost inseparable from love. Women tend to get love a little bit better than men do, because women serve in ways that men aren't like asked to do. Like when it comes to delivering a baby, like that is an act of service, you know, like that's like not just to the child, but to humanity. Yeah, um, to raise a child, like that is an everyday act of service.
Speaker 1:Um, and so now we're seeing that, okay, more people like, yes, there's like a rational, logical piece of like, oh, if I help this person, um, they'll be better off or whatever. But like, oftentimes the service helps the person doing the service more than the person being served. Um, and so, yeah, I think like to to what we're talking about in this like situation where like, oh, I don't need your help. Well, it's like, well, I need to help you, like I need to help someone. Like there's so much humanity to be found in the act of extending yourself to another person.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that's really apt and I think that gets into this next question of like. So we've broken down like sort of like how masculinity and being a man has been historically useful, how it's been sort of manipulated by politics, how it's now being morphed with not morphed, but how it's changing with new ideas about gender identity and but now it's like I think the question is like what have we seen as educators, as coaches, with this up and coming generation? Where there, where we say now that there is this concern for young men growing up? Now? Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think it's so like. The question we came up with earlier was like is this generation of young men soft? And I thought that was such a beautiful question because I I want to lean in and just say yes and not for the like, the typical reasons of like, oh, like, they don't know hard work and no, they know hard work, but they don't know service, service, right.
Speaker 1:Like the process of actually setting aside, like what is beastly of you, like my lowly desires, putting those to the side and then prioritizing someone else who's in a vulnerable state, like that is what's lacking.
Speaker 1:Think, um, like I saw this, uh, this clip the other day it was I don't know what it was on, but it was some guy talking about, like him being six, four and like making six figures, and he's like, yeah, like I'm this kind of top end man, like he's. He's like, yeah, like I'm this kind of top end man, like he's, he's measuring himself in a way, um, that I think is inherently flawed. I'm just saying, like I'm taller than most guys, I make more money, so I deserve like the baddest chick, like I you know what I mean like I deserve the best of the best. Well, it's like, okay, well, what is it beyond those measurables? That like someone actually wants in a partner? Again, like we're separate from gender, whatever, they need to be able to trust you and need to be able to trust you in a way that says I'm actually able to again put my own desires aside for the benefit of you yeah, I think I think there is.
Speaker 3:To the question of is this generation of men softer? And I will say that answer is more yes than it is no, because there is a inflated sense of ego in this up-and-coming generation where it breeds into this sense of entitlement to some things. It breathes into this lack of accountability for your actions or like your emotions even Like I think I've found in myself and in my relationships where I really have to work at being accountable for my emotions in certain instances and being accountable to my, to the impact that I impose on to others. Now I've seen countless in times examples that people do not understand, or young men don't understand, that there are consequences to actions yeah.
Speaker 3:And, and there are also rewards to actions as well. Yeah, but you should never be. I think there has been this inflated thing, or this increasing thing of rewarding Everything, or like everything.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean everything, you know you kind of spoke to it of just like the, the disease of me, right, like um, there's a malcolm x quote. It says, um, even illness, when, when we replace his eye, illness becomes wellness. Like that's bars bro, like, but it's, and there's so much truth in it. And like we're living in a world where, like, I think we were on the, the tail end of this where we got a bit of it, but not quite what it is now. And it's where we're like, if you're 13, you get iPhone, pad, mac, I, I, I. It's all about the I. It's not about you, it's not the you phone, it's not the you, you know what I mean. It's not about you, it's not the you phone, it's not you, you know what I mean. And so the world of the algorithm, it's like all tailored to the individual.
Speaker 1:And then, like, I think back to that question of like are young men softer? Yes, and like I think porn is is one of the worst things that's happening. And I don't blame, I don't blame young men for that. That's the thing. Because it's like, are we? And I'm starting to kind of like, think about it from the perspective of like a mentor, right, like an older generation? So it's all we're doing. We're saying to to these young men yeah, the world out there is evil. There's a lot of porn, there's a lot of drugs out there, but just be strong Like go out Bro. That's crazy. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:So, like we, as the older generation, we can't just like vilify and like wag our fingers. We have to like create spaces where young men, young people, just feel comfortable, um talking about like the desire I think, just the inherent desire to want to belong to something, um to be part of something yeah, I think that's a sort of good way to start wrapping it up, where it's like there is this need for generational guidance in society period, there is this need for leadership from older people.
Speaker 3:Now, that is not to say that all older people have the blueprint to success in life, to purpose, and I think it's to say that we as younger people and them as older people can both learn from each other this is a symbiotic relationship where, again, it takes all of us to move forward. So it takes us, as the burgeoning older generation, for us to continue to reach back to these younger generations and pull them up like that see happening and this is and it comes with.
Speaker 1:so, like I'm so mixed about it, like more and more young people are just what they call divorcing their parents, like, um, not like some kind of formal divorce, but just like not talking to their parents anymore, which I understand right, like a lot of us have like traumas and things like that, and and and again, like from a psychological perspective. I think this it goes to what you're saying about like learning has to go both ways, where I think older generations have a lot of learning to do when it comes about like emotions, but then they have the wisdom when it comes to like the society right and like what it takes to keep this thing moving ahead.
Speaker 3:Anyways, I think we should start wrapping it up here so we can, uh, stick to our goals of trying to keep these episodes a little bit more concise, and we've already. We've y'all don't know this, but Tash and I have already had a long diatribe about nature and things like that, so I know that this we're in a mood where this can go on for another two and a half hours and I think we would just be citing circles back and forth again. So Taz at the end of the day yes, yes, men are softer.
Speaker 1:Should, should gender show up in politics? We don't know, but it does. We don't know if it should, but it is there and there's. There's something that needs to change with politics. Uh, to make better men. That's what we know very true.
Speaker 3:Well, with that synopsis, I hope you guys have a wonderful holiday leading us into the new year. Who knows if we'll put another episode out before the new year, but if this is the last episode of 2024, it has been a great year. Um, we are still working on ourselves, working on this podcast and making it sure that it will be the best listening experience for you guys in order for us to grow, you know? Um, a couple pieces of advice. Share the podcast. If you are looking for an unbiased news source, breaking points does a great job. Well, no, I shouldn't say that they are biased. But if you are looking for a balanced and honest news source, breaking Points is a great source for you.
Speaker 1:And I would also say, guys, as easy as it can be to really hyper-focus on what's happening to us in America. What's happening to us in America, what is happening for us as Americans, has just as much to do with what's happening outside of America as it has to do with what's happening inside of America. I think it can be really easy to get caught up on this.
Speaker 1:You know these kind of cultural issues. But again, like, what is undeniable is that money moves, and, uh, money moves in a lot of different ways, and so try to stay abreast of what's happening abroad. Um, it can be easy to kind of put your head in the sand and try to just be like, oh, that's, that doesn't concern me, but the fact of the matter is it does. So start out, try to stay, stay woke, if you will.
Speaker 3:All right, well, guys, that has been another episode of the new black podcast. Stay blessed, stay back. We'll see you the next time, thank you.