This is the best hang podcast featuring Max Gurman Shane Cunningham and I am Mike Bierman Welcome to the best hang podcast. I'm like we got Max. We got Shane and all three of us are in a different location I'm currently working from home Shane working in the office and Maxie boy. It looks like you were in a jail cell What's going on right now?
Are you are you being held at a border somewhere? You know for God like me This is kind of like the equivalent of jail in that I'm in a place with no cool coffee shops with no interesting restaurants Very little Somebody culture to speak of The whisper we know Nevada in a casino You're coming to us from casino. I don't care about gambling. So, you know, it's uh, this place does nothing for me But anyway, so basically I'm in this business center actual role and basically it's clearly never been used because like over here There's like that.
This was where a computer was there's just a computer keyboard behind me There's some kind of office. There is a printer. There's ash in the booth next to me and yeah And this is a nice quiet spot because it's a day off on tour We are driving towards San Francisco, but the bus driver can only do eight hours at a time So yesterday we had a day off as well. We were in Salt Lake City also sucks and then We're gonna be in a real city tomorrow San Francisco where crime rates are sky high I was watching in our tells story You look like everyone was watching the prices right or something But if you max and you had your earbuds in and you were busily working on your computer.
Yeah I got lots of ideas man. I'm working on lots of stuff, you know I'm so curious Things I can't talk about on air, you know, I'm always thinking stuff You know, I can't I can't say to everybody right now because I don't want chicks it Maybe we'll never come true if I say a lot But yeah, I was working on setlist for the Canadian tour which you guys I hope could come to well three shows Well, Peter Robeson catheters Yeah, but before I borambolot about tour how you guys doing what's going on? Oh good. Yeah, I'm on drugs right now I'm on my first day of ritalin.
So this is a big day for real. Yeah, tell us why yeah I'm legally drugged. I don't know I found life It was hard to keep up like I could manage in my 30s when I didn't have children And I just had to like worry about a nine to five job But adding children to the mix and then adding all these side projects and like this family tree and all this stuff It was too hard to do to order cope and manage like all my little tricks and coping mechanisms weren't serving me to be productive So what does ritalin do? I'm always confused about what drugs do is an upper or downer isn't more like cocaine or heroin?
That's the divide right or like meth If you're ADHD it kind of gets you to just probably what I would think a person who's more neurotypical experiences Which is like a healthy level of dopamine. Yeah, are you dopamine low or high? Really? You have ADHD like it's it's hard to I don't know like get any motivation to do anything But you really have to play a little bit of mental chest to trick yourself into doing anything unless you're very interested That's why a lot of people at your creatives Get out of bed for but definitely like I would say I tested it on the bus right over here Like I wonder if I can focus on reading more and I would say I probably if I really focus I could maybe read 20 pages an hour Now I think I could probably read 50 or 60 pages in an hour whoa just like that with one pill Yeah, I can get the pill from limitless because that's like a really big jump No, I think average people probably read 40 to 60 pages an hour I think really like it kind of slower is 30 one.
He's just apparently slow So I like I was going like very very slow reading and my retention rate even at 20 pages an hour would be terrible But now yeah, I've at least doubled it after one day of really really yeah, and you know I'm also susceptible to playing my mind playing tricks on me too So people effect is just as good as the real thing. Can you overdose in ritalin? No You can overdose on even we you know you can like green out and feel very surreal and uncomfortable, but I'm on a low dose This is dr. Prescribe.
Yes, of course. That's what I'm talking about it Every week they double it so next week I will double it and then I'll add a little bit more of the week after that and then I'll be doing four times what I'm doing The week after that what do you predict is gonna happen to your life? How's it gonna change? What do you hope people who have done this just with a different ADHD drug?
They said it could be mere coincidence, but they went to just kind of surviving to Surviving and having like a business that was very very successful So that was huge motivation for me Especially because I always considered this person very stable and I'm like jeez like I feel like he's the stable version of ADHD And I'm very unstable and also I want to be more grounded So that's why I took the plunge I saw psychologist also I just had a family meeting with my family doctor and her daughter as ADHD So it was very I don't know relief. Have you told your kids yet? Have you sat them down and told them the daddy's gonna be a different person? My one daughter definitely has traits that don't worry me, but I got an eye on her 50% chance of your children having what you have Do you think she should just get a riddle in like sooner rather than later?
Like why go through the trouble of the next you know 35 years of her life without just just get her on it You have to be six. That's the minimum. I'm a daughter is five. So we'll see happy birthday When you turn six you're gonna give her box of pills So my phone can only see the person who is talking and since you were talking Max I thought maybe like Danica came by with like a piece of cake for Mike or something Well Danica's actually in the office This is I don't even notice but I'm in a much nicer office area because Danica's set up her office Like with a nice window in the background Which is working from home because Danica's now back to work after a long mat leave with our second daughter Roberta But when she's not home, so Thursdays are really like I'm working from home Danica's the office both kids are in school I immediately steal Danica's office because the fucking light is awesome as you guys can see coming in right now I feel bad because Shane's obviously stuck in a dark edipay and Max literally has a cage rolled down behind him in this weird section of the What is it Nevada?
We know we're in the what's this talk about the nugget we're in the Okay, all right, but yes, I mean, you know my life is far more uneventful Shane is obviously trying this new Prescription and it seems to be working so far in the first 24 hours if we go by page count on a book and you know Max You're on the road I want to hear about the road because I've had some issues But I will say we're listeners is gonna be a quicker pod because I have to go to an open house for Winona I'm buying another house for Winona Fine I was for no Max you have their schools have open house We go talk to teachers they show your own class the art area all this shit that they do That's what I was very excited for this moment and I'm gonna do that and you know, then I'm gonna take a restaurant Okay, here's a question. Yeah, you're gonna take her to eat summer's or jackassers. Yeah She chose that's yeah, I'm like it when it's just me It's like they know they're going to rest it's got the point where we don't actually doesn't want to go to restaurants She's like we just make mac and cheese Literally this is no joke I said today she's been to more restaurants at the age should be turning five in a couple weeks She's been a more restaurant age of five than I probably went to before I was 20 years old. No, yeah, yeah I feel that way too because my parents we didn't go like maybe once every couple weeks if we were lucky But I always think about what's every made once a month ago not much though, but compared to what I do now Which is three times a day.
Yeah Red lobster a swish la once a year once a yeah, yeah Yeah, are you feeling like what is the feeling of having the house entirely to yourself all that I can only imagine what you're getting up to today? Like what are you doing? Well today's actually been a busy day. We had to deliver some scripts and stuff So I was like I was working but on a typical let's just say that people want to go for beers If you want to go for beers on a Wednesday Max's making jokes visual jokes Let's just say I don't think that's a bad idea because I'm gonna house all of myself on a Thursday If it's gonna be a bit slow, but yeah, if there was like a camera sort of in my like house showing what I did It's kind of like Tom Cruise in risky business It's like I'll work for 20 minutes and then I'll go on the drum kit for like half hour like a back and back and back and Then I'll go back and do a bit more work then also look at Raptors news Then I'll like walk around the house like yeah, maybe I'll do the dishes It's it's a nice pace I feel very sort of like unsped up at all, you know But you still got in you know I do set out a to-do listen I gotta make sure I do certain things by certain times of the day because if I do not it ends up getting pushed to the next day You know, so I have very sort of like task oriented when I have it loose day like this Like I remember Shane He went to a high school called Westmount and the famous thing about Westmount here in Hamilton is that it was it was like Learn at your own pace You weren't like they had an untraditional sort of structure for learn I went to McNabb where it was just like a typical high school you had to hand in your assignments But the rumor and I shake and speak to what this was true not was like oh, it's like very loose And we don't really hear the conventions of sort of traditional learning like it's like you learn your own pace You sort of do the work if you want to do it and I always thought like oh, I'd be like good with that But I don't know like I wouldn't have been mature enough in high school to do that I needed to become an adult and set like sort of fucking barrier or sorry limitations for myself We're going to construct didn't which I need to work Shane How did you find that working arrangement when you went to high school Westmount?
They switched up the structure of the school because of me Okay, so just explain at Westmount you would have a semester to submit 20 units they called them of work and each subject you'd have 20 minute unit so math let's say one units of math You get a full semester You could do as much or as little math as you wanted in that semester and let's say you'd only did 15 units of math In that semester you didn't fail the course you just carried over so you could actually go into the next semester and play catch up So what I would do is the last week before the semester was up since I didn't want to carry over I would submit 18 units of work in the last week Now would be like really a huge piss off to a lot of teachers But I would do this in every subject English math I would just cram because I didn't know at the time I had this ADHD personality where I leave Intermountable amount of work for the last minute and I would do that insurmountable amount of work Like I could actually be sleepless for days and just you know have the gumption to do it So they changed the rule after I did that the first time that now at Westmount You could only submit two units per week in the last three weeks of a semester Backload it you broke the system. Yes, I did and I also after that they changed the rule I got very far behind I started carrying over every subject and then by the time I was in grade 11 I was essentially still in grade 9 School so I didn't thrive in that program so very least And you did end up in the nap at the high school that a bunch of us went to what kind of had all the bad habits that I had at Westmount And I carried over those bad habits no pun intended to And just failed every single subject like with ends and 20's like those are my marks my transcript was 10 Do you think if you had ritalin back then you would have been a star student I took ritalin one day when I was like 19 and I just fucking killed that day Day where the voices kind of all stopped in my head talking at once and it was just like a little chatter where I could focus And that's why I was telling my when I was getting my prescription She mentioned Adderall as a possibility like I don't know if you be ritalin and then we went with ritalin Yeah, there was a stretch I don't know if the kids still do this but like where people would do ritalin like recreationally to get high essentially You know you'd have whatever maybe I know some people that did it Maybe yours truly dabbled but what would happen is to Shane's point? It's like all these people would get real Jack you know you get kind of like you know whatever energy fuzzy right? But then I think the kids that needed it would actually just calm them or center them They would have the exact opposite effect.
I don't know how you knew Oh, maybe I this is something I actually need in my day today if it's not getting you sort of high in the way that it's getting everybody else Shane do you think Mike or I Could you be on ritalin or should be on ritalin? No, I noticed working with Mike that he definitely has way more folks like way way more focus Like I work very closely I thought maybe he'd be similar to me but working with him and observing him. He doesn't if anyone did the old be you max I could you having it lesser case than me you're more responsible with your brain than me But yeah, I think you have a maybe that other guy we were talking to maybe you have a similar level of hmm Yeah, I do think about in the morning when I'm calm just before I just as I'm drinking my coffee It's the only time I can really read a book and I love that part I go to bed so excited for my first coffee in the morning because it's so peaceful my mind isn't going like my mind's going nice and slow I don't want to do anything But as soon as I get that first coffee buzz then I like throw the book out the window and let's go And then I can't really stop until I like wipe over a nap at like 5 p.m. I go hard And then I fall asleep for 20 minutes and then I'm gonna roll in again Yeah, so mics tell you birthday tell us about your big birthday.
Oh, I'm remarkable. It came in actually It was really nice like listen the truth is as you get old Like I've never really celebrate like we've talked about a million times over the years But like not really like a birthday guy like when you're I got so drunk and I forgot it was actually my birthday weekend And I woke up I like to an email from the NBA calm and they were like happy birthday Michael And I was like oh fuck it's my birthday. I forgot that I was single years They all sort of led together. I'd be lying though if I didn't say it was a fun time But so yeah, it was what's nice about now is it's like I don't know what like this might sound cheesy But it's just nice to have people who like love you and care about you So like in the morning like well my birthday when I woke up it was on a one was over there Monday morning Like I came downstairs And it's like there's like there's like there's Danica and the kids and they got all these balloons up and he's nice There's funny though because there's like raptors blues It was like it was either like my birthday party or a 12 year old raptor super fan party And it's like they got me this cool like this like Scotty Barnes sort of like nice like it's like a toy type thing What's called?
They're not bobble heads, but they're like I don't know they make them for all sorts of stuff They're all shows you hold on a second change should we make conversations so Nathan doesn't have to edit around this Yeah, no in the past I would have had to because I would be a focus but now I'm so chill man I'm comfortable with the silence like what the hell's my gonna show us right now like an action figure? It's like this cool like oh It's basically replica of his like slam magazine cover. Okay, these things But anyway, so it's like this cool thing that will go on like my office desk or like a shelf in the background Whatever, but anyways like stuff like that really cool like gift card So that anyways the idea that you come downstairs and you just like you get that warm feeling in your heart And so that's what it's like but I didn't do anything. I don't know Max when you back from tour What are we doing?
Let's party when I'm back from tour. I'm so excited to celebrate your birthday. We gotta do it Maybe we'll go to a Raptors game. Maybe you say max is my birthday taking me to a Raptors game Maybe we do that the home opener is on the 25th against Minnesota Oh, I'm back around then Because Ash goes shit same like spurt day at this point of the day is like six o'clock or something later than a I don't know so I just googled John Lennon's birthday and I was like it is his birthday today So that's how you got it was yeah Ash Ash at me with the text before you I gotta say max Anyway, so you guys are just in silence as I went and got that toy but my batteries are but tonight So I can't even have to talk about yourselves again, but I'll be back in like two seconds But this is now gonna become the Shane and Max pod for the next you know couple minutes before I get back and proceed Hey Shane, what's what's the most amount of money you've ever lost at casino?
Thank Oh Like a devastating amount for my age. So I think I was 19 and I lost maybe 1500 which was 50 bucks But it was it was a lot for now So it was like I won all this money playing the leg and then I lost it and then on the way home I was in tears on the way almost so really which casino is it it was Niagara because I found when I went to Branford Casino, it's a charity casino close to Hamilton They had certain they had a maximum amount you could bet and I was in Niagara They had no maximum Minimum but the maximum was so high so I was like I just keep winning and doubling and doubling and doubling any of those high maximums But then it went red like 17 times in a row now with any black and it seemed like almost impossible that that would happen Like I thought the table was rigged a little at table, but it turns out this happens all the time You know go 17 red in a row it'll go with 14 black in a row and it overall It will always equal a 50% chance over time Shane I think that you would see yourself as somebody who could get really good at gambling, you know Like poker or cards have you ever cuz I remember watching the movie rounders when I was a kid I was like I'm gonna become a genius at poker and I remember going through a poker phase Probably for about four months with my friend Daniel, but now I realized but then I kind of like grew disinterested in it And I don't even really understand how poker even works now. I kind of don't care about it I know that I'd be the worst gambler so I just don't even bother What do you think you'd be good at? I also I really it was almost like in basketball when you're young you think I'm gonna make the NBA And then you go to a park one day with a kid like your age and he's fucking dunking and shit And you're just like oh never mind like I'm yeah close So when I once I had that gambling moment, I just thought oh I'm just shit at gambling I'm never gonna be good nothing feels as bad as losing this amount of money And I'm just never gonna gamble again And I have did you ever promise yourself as a kid that you'd like make the major leagues because I definitely did and sometimes I Think about that promise I made myself that I'd make the big leagues I said NBA I thought for sure make me a bit I would practice for hours upon hours then and no one could be me at one-on-one like no one We have kids who are unbelievable, but I realize one-on-one is very different than 5.5 But yeah, basically I always thought sucked like minus the 92 Three season with the blue Jays, which was unbelievable to watch playing and watching baseball.
I thought so well I'm still gonna keep my promise you're gonna see me in the big leagues one day you think so well now You know I thought I could be an amazing NFL quarterback You've never even played high school football like just like as long as I don't get hit I'll be fine and then we played this touch football league earlier this year and I was a quarterback and we went one and six We didn't we won one game how how How accurate was you talking back by the way hello everybody sir? How accurate was your throwing was as good as you thought it was fine? It was way harder. It was like football I was still getting injured all the time and getting injured I'm such a weak weak person so I was like man imagine gonna hit one time in a football game I'm gonna deal with it.
I was a kid. I thought that I was gonna be a professional singer for one point I thought really I would sing every night just out loud and sometimes my mom would be like what's going on there? I'm like oh nothing, but I know for some reason my voice sounds good to me even to this day in my head But you know it doesn't sound good like if somebody's filming with their iPhones. I'm kind of like that dude I think I have a great one to say Max do you like your voice when you hear back?
Not as much as I like it when I'm singing when I'm singing it in the moment I think it's amazing and I hear back I mean it's fine I don't think it's that great. Yeah, yeah John Lennon had that he didn't like hearing his voice He made them put so much delay on it because he was very strong. I'm a singer of all time I think I love his voice. I love his voice.
Yeah, he's a good one No, I think McCartney's technically a better singer Yeah, he's got more range and he can just he can scream he can go he can be smooth He can do like jazz like McCartney is just a freak. He's a freak. He's a freak. He can do everything He's a yeah musical genius.
So guys I've been on the road for the last two weeks Yeah, and we didn't think we'd be here because a tour bus never showed up And we basically had to like rent minivans and moving trucks and stuff to kind of get us around and by the time we got to Detroit It looked like the tour bus just wasn't gonna show up at all and we were about to literally like cancel all the shows after Chicago And then so we had this big band meeting and like three o'clock the day of the Detroit show I was like if the bus doesn't show up after Chicago, which is the next show that we can't get to Denver We can't keep going at this pace where it's like the crew is driving around a moving van and we're like in minivans Or we're flying to the next city It just like becomes you just can't do it and then so it was very strange I don't have ever been the situation where it's like okay You come to the realization that like your next two weeks isn't gonna be what you thought it was and you start making plans like I guess I'll be home on Monday. It was like my favorite day was but it was made it was Thursday or Friday Oh, yeah, because we had Columbia Chicago. So it was like Detroit Columbia Chicago That would be it I guess I'll be home on Monday and then and by the way Eric or told me I'd have been calling around moving I tore up companies for the previous like 12 days just trying to find one that was serviceable because the one that we had Preserved was still in the shop and then an hour and a half later. He's like guys You're not gonna believe it, but I found us a bus so everybody was like kind of called their significant others Okay, everybody told me home on Monday now.
I'll see you in two and a half weeks and We are in Reno as I mentioned and we're going to San Francisco tomorrow But the funny thing that's gonna happen is because the band is traveling in like close quarters together It feels kind of like the good old days, you know when you're like in a van together and it was so much fun We've had such a great time like the band's like never kind of hung out more Recent than we ever have like recently like in in the van right? Let's go like top five American cities All right top five cities in the world. Okay, if you had to you know live in Europe or Asia What would you do? I mean like we're just like playing those man games and it was kind of sweet It was like a really good time On the bus Mike's been really funny Tony's been in a really good mood Tim.
Everyone's been great. No, no Everybody's been like really funny. I'm Tony Tony who and he'll say this himself It could be kind of like a surly grumpy Italian sometimes he has been so he just wakes up in the morning He's Chad and everyone's face off. He's like so excited to be in Reno because he's like you know Going to gamble the guys also some of them like smoking cigars So they found a couple cigar hangout places along the way That's hilarious.
Yeah, like this is like it's kind of like one of those like like movies where it's like there's a couple That's been a long-term marriage and they're on the brink of divorce Not that the air cals were bringing up and then it's like there's a bunch of things that are beyond their control these forces that come together And it's like playing strains and automobiles But like for a couple that was like they were on their way to divorce They can't get to their destination so they're forced to spend time together and they realize they still love each other It's like that we've always got along great, but it's definitely been different and the crews have such a good attitude Like there's been no complainers everyone just like oh whatever you're like I feel bad for Eric who's had to you know shoulder a lot of The stress and ash obviously but but everyone's just a fucking gamer. It's great And then like I went to I've seen two movies so far. I saw dumb money. You know that movie.
Yeah the one about the GameStop stuff Yeah, yeah, it's a bit of a sentence in that it's a throw in it's pretty stacked cast. So how is it? I liked it. It's a movie that's like right up my alley in every way like the cast is really good Tonally, it's like something I enjoy like the theme is about a real story about these like reddit Investor normies that end up like putting a bunch of money into GameStop This is back in the pandemic and as a result end up screwing over Wall Street It's kind of like a victory for the little guy kind of straight.
I think during the movie I didn't do the property during the movie. You're like this movie isn't that great and then by the end You're like oh, it's actually pretty good and then you think back on it five days later You're like pretty good movie. I like this movie a lot Shane you what you're saying about the Just in the last part. Maybe I know cuz I just went the last part I don't think you said it but you were talking about how movie ends you were saying the equation of how I should maybe This is a conversation we were having privately, but you know what I'm talking about?
Yeah, I'd be how the ending is so important and you can often like I don't want to say fool the dumb you's cuz Max just said he by the end of it Magic trip to an ending of anything where the journey is almost irrelevant if you have a really strong ending Yeah, I think you were like you're like at the beginnings great you had an equation that was I did mention it on a podcast where a great movie needs three awesome scenes and a great ending or something Mmm that equation usually equals like a forest dump or something. Yeah. Yeah, it's actually kind of true of a concert Sometimes I think yes like you can go to a concert and be bored 60% of it But if they play three songs and they end on a bang you're like love it I think a lot of people think about that in a concert and sometimes if I think something's not going as well as I wanted to I always gotta remind myself just get to the end just get to the end you'll end on a bang and people will leave happy But the other movie I saw The haunting of Venice I was the clue some movies they're the kind of brano like yeah, yeah, Christy stuff you watch it I went one night. I was like I was literally sitting with Dan I was like something I'm not just like I want to see like I want to see the creator like sometimes I live close to a theater If it's like nine at night the kids are down and Dan's like I got worked around going to bed And I'm like I don't really just want to go to the base I'm like fuck I'm like so I just drive over to Silver City grabs You know grab a tight oak and watch a movie so haunting Venice was one of the ones that I was movies I see I To believe like these movies book on many makes fun of me like I live death on the Nile I like they're fine for what they are this one did I we left like a halfway through.
Oh, do you see that? I like it again not to do this I did this with I had to figure out in the first 40 minutes But I enjoyed the journey for sure because I want to say I would unfold if I was right now I like I keep track of what was going on. I think my 80d was kicking into part of so many other things The editing and really and oh yeah, the ending was strong It was good and resolved everything and it kind of ended up with like a You know cuz the whole the whole premise of the movie is essentially close to I was the greatest detective He's retired the Tina Fey characters is American friend. He's like a journalist.
She comes in she's like there's this medium Who is like I can't I can't debunk her like is she actually speaking with the dead? I need you clue so to do bunk how she goes does her shit and then so essentially it goes from there and you kind of like With a movie like that. I don't just spoiler it lives in the real world with logic include so is going to figure out how it's done But then there's always that slight element of like is there a bit of connection with the and I think they do a good Job in the end of sort of leaving it in a way. That's like, you know, it's just the movies made well I actually watched the movie on Netflix.
This was a Sean Dawson recommendation I was so you guys been flipping through the old Netflix we called reptile on there with Justin Timberlake and Benisa del Taro and Alicia Silverstone. I'm Lisa Silverstone and Benisa del Taro reunited from I can't really move it In years ago. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Good. Nice pull anyway. It's like a cop drama It's like a murder mystery.
It's kind of like a little bit like gongirl style fincher a little bit whatever But I flip by and I was like I don't wanna watch this the trailer kind of like compelling and then I went on Rotten made it was like shit rating and I was like I'm not wasting the time then DOS puts in this little chat We got he's like great tight little crime thriller. I'm like really I'm like, all right I'll give you chicken wing test I'll watch the first 20 minutes tight crime drama Not bad. It's like a you know cop the miss murder mystery and fold Timberlake's actually a decent actor in it Why is it called a chicken wing test? Well, cuz it's like I'll if I finish my chicken wings and wash my hands If I'm not into it, I'll flip on to something else If you're eating chicken wings This came from the podcast the chicken wing test we just invented this that's not like a phrase that's ever happened before but that's That's wholly a best-hang invention the chicken wing test you got 20 minutes where I can't change the clicker because they're they got the sauce on them But if when I'm done my chicken wings and I've wiped my hands if you haven't got me I'm moving on I like that Here's a question for you guys.
The other issue with the movie last night Oh, yes, yes, is that ash and I were the only people in the movie theater Yeah, and then I was like okay This is an issue because you go to the movie theater so you can't look at your phone That's really why you're paying $15 is so you you're not allowed to look at your phone So then I look at I'm like are we are like not supervised right now? We could talk we could fucking look at our phones We could be distracted and I think I succumb to that a little bit where I was just like I know give a shit Like if you're around other people you feel maybe guilty about leaving in the middle of the thing You don't want this random stranger to look at you and go you're leaving in the middle of this movie But because no one was there I was like a fucking who gives a shit Yeah, they say for ADHD people it's very important if you're trying to get worked on to have kind of a witness or So you're more liable to get something done if you have somebody watching it I think that's why I like working in coffee shops, you know I mean I think it's very easy to fuck around if you're by yourself Yeah, and you can't just look over to porn hub as you tend to do But yeah, what else I'm I just finished the mike alluis book on sand making freed I know I've got you because he's out doing the press to your boy Michael was former podcast And it's you can maybe speak to this but it seems like he's defending or or having empathy for this was it Sam Bankman I can't make it for you. Yeah, and Bob Olgares her all Bob is very famous sort of Twitter personality. He's not having it He's kind of going at your guy Michael Lewis.
I actually said Bob is really going in I'm like a Lewis. What's up? And you said I know but you didn't know right now. Well, it's interesting and obviously talking to the club Mattie about this and Some context because of anyone's like me So there's a big crypto scandal that happened last year basically this guy Sam Bankman free started this crypto exchange called FTX And he was quickly within like two years like worth 30 billion dollars because he owned the entire company and then within about three days The company was worth zero dollars and people were like where did the money go?
Yeah, it's a point scheme. Yeah, it's a movie you want to go see isn't it with a game stop like an extreme value and then it taken away, right? Yes, but I think the circumstances are a little bit different where it was basically like the issue with Sam Bankman free Is that he was gambling other people's money and then the money would sort of like disappear He's also really unorganized about it But he is he probably is Asperger's just sort of what's implied in the book and he doesn't have any really close relationships with anybody Michael Lewis went to Interview him. This is before everything fell apart So this is like the fact that Lewis was with him as his world was crumbling was just kind of like good fortune for a writer to be there While this is all happening and he asked he asked Sam's like do you have any like childhood friends?
I could talk to but what you're like as a kid he's like no, and then it's like what about your brother and he talked to his brother He said yeah, Sam was more like my roommate. I didn't really think of him as a kid Wow, he thought childhood was kind of stupid and then he also didn't like adults either because he thought anyone over the age of 30 was stupid or 35 Basically like adults would just had dumb rules and his whole thing was was like calculating risk and assessing like, you know What are the chances of something good happening for something bad? Everything was a probability basically and I heard somebody else say that in a podcast if you could flip a coin Where it was a 51% chance that the world would be double as good as it is today for everybody living because he was an effective Ultra is because he wanted to like get the maximum pleasure for as many people as possible Or 49% chance that the world would blow up would you flip the coin and Sam bang for goes every time Wow because what the world blows up is like yeah, what if it's twice as good so he kind of thought in these ways and he's definitely Really smart, but also really cocky and really unorganized There's amazing scenes where he's on the phone with Anna Wintour because she wanted FTX to sponsor the Met and he doesn't even know What the Met is or who Anna Wintour is and he's playing a video game the entire time he's talking He'd go on national TV regularly and be playing video games off-screen. He only had one change of clothes Basically, he changed the socks a lot, but otherwise he just wearing cargo shorts and wrinkly shirts and hair look crazy So I was arguing with book club Matty.
I was like Matt like you know, he just seems unorganized He doesn't seem as like vicious or as I was sort of looking for when somebody is like scheming to yeah Like he didn't have the English Yeah, I got to get to it. Yeah, and then Matt had a good point. Let me see if I can pull up the text Yeah, he was like what made him any different than anybody else who's a rich guy. He had a 30 million dollar penthouse He regularly flew private jets.
He tried to influence politics as much as possible. He hung celebs who were only interested in with his money He sounds like every other billionaire. I guess he hadn't bought a yacht yet. He was also under 30 And he did and I was like, okay, that's a fair point But I guess where Lewis is being criticized is that like two other reporters and especially based on the testimony of his former colleagues at FDX Everyone was like no this guy like knew he was acting irresponsibly and didn't care and didn't really care where the money went Whereas Michael Lewis goes now He was just a kind of unorganized and there was a world where he actually could have made a huge difference in the lives of other People and he was gonna give away his money because that was that was a original reason why he wanted to make as much money as possible Is to give it away and make the world a better place But yeah, really good book and as you know, I'm on team Michael Lewis and actually I have a very memorable story buying his book I was in Brooklyn.
Oh, thanks before you guys story, which I think is great I'm now task is going back to the Shane and Max pod and what he's gonna have to do sign off because I gotta go to an open house But tell you sorry love you guys love you guys. Yeah Yeah, I have to see who does the putt that sign off which one he's gonna take it surprise me. Bye y'all. Bye Yeah, I should I'm gonna wrap this story up basic.
I was in this book certain Brooklyn. It's so weird with me You know, right? It's looking at each other And I was buying this other book and then the guy the rumply guy behind the counter was like Hey, we got the new Michael Lewis book in I didn't mention anything about knowing Michael Lewis or being a Michael Lewis fan I'm like you do he's like yeah, just came in right there. He points at it It's like on the shelf behind him.
I'm like can I buy it? He's like no man doesn't come up for another few days I'm like come on he goes that'd be illegal. You can't do that. I'm like, but I know Michael Lewis.
I'm sure he wouldn't mind He's like nope. It's illegal. I'm like come on. He's like, okay.
I just want me the book Why would he mention like I don't know you didn't ask me new no, I just anything about Michael Lewis Maybe I just look like a Michael Lewis bro, but anyway, that's what fucking happened and I got to read his book and I email Michael Lewis about it And he said and he emailed me back in nine minutes and he just responded I love this the New York Times tried to send people out to find the book ahead of time and no one had any luck Wow, except for me. It's not cool. Sorry. Well, hey guys, you know, we do a lot of podcasts, but this was a really good one That's not how it goes.
It's a guy. I think it's like hey guys. That's it. That's all That was a great hang maybe the best