Ayahuasca, Ego Death & Stardust: Chuck Nice On Why You Still Matter
Ayahuasca, ego death and why you’re both tiny and wildly important
I just sat down with Chuck Nice.
Chuck Nice is a stand-up comedian who blends science, politics, faith and psychedelics.
In this episode you’ll learn
A practical way to use ego death and psychedelics without losing real life
How to hold your light and darkness so you stop sabotaging yourself
Why seeing yourself as stardust changes how you work, love and plan
We dive into the details later in the conversation.
We unpack his full ayahuasca story at 8:19 and cosmic perspective at 11:30.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
1:25 Why so many comedians struggle with bipolar, depression and anxiety
3:35 ADHD, meds and learning to ride a “bucking bronco” brain
8:19 Inside his week-long ayahuasca ceremony and the terror of ego death
11:30 “You are stardust”: exploded stars, atoms and a true cosmic perspective
18:34 Religion vs government, and why marrying them is so dangerous
34:14 Why more stuff makes you less happy (and what actually does)
45:57 Billionaires, tax games and the myth of the American dream
57:08 The Tahiti fisherman, retirement as a trap and finding purpose now
1:04:00 How his views on homosexuality completely changed
1:06:03 Leaving strict religion, faith as a “sucker’s game” and what’s left
1:08:13 What happened before the Big Bang and why we might be here
Listen
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Here’s the full transcript:
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (00:00.142)
It’s terrifying. The whole experience is terrifying. I’ve never been more scared in my life. It’s like your ego separates from you and you start having a conversation with yourself that you absolutely abhor. Everything that you think about you is wrong. That’s all I can say. What do you do with all of this information? You realize very quickly, well, if we’re all just assholes to one another, this thing is not gonna work. Who knows why we’re supposed to be here, or what we’re supposed to do while we’re here. shit. Yeah.
Welcome to That One Time with Adam Metwally, the podcast bridging the gap between health, hustle and happiness. I am at podcast for a while in Chelsea and I’m with comedian Chuck Nice. How are you man? Hey Adam, how are you buddy? Very well, thanks for coming on. Health, hustle and happiness. Yes sir. That’s a very cool alliteration of soft vowels.
Even though it’s not a vowel, the ah sound on it makes it, but that’s health, hustle and happiness because that’s a hard thing to balance. That’s the goal. A lot of it has to do with the poor mental health, believe it or not. Do you think that, you know how there’s this idea of comedians have terrible mental health. Is this true? Yeah. First of all, the number of comedians that have
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (01:24.992)
Neurodiverse challenges and don’t know it is off the charts. So the number of people who are bipolar, I’m sure are exceedingly higher than the normal population amongst comedians from what I’ve been able to see. What do think that is? So it’s the mental health deficiencies that draw you to the job. So what mental health deficiencies do you have? I’m on the bipolar spectrum without a doubt. suffered major depressive order.
anxiety disorder. Now I, about a year ago or so I went to Costa Rica for a week. did Ayahuasca for a week and, it, it, it took me off all my medication and I kind of unplugged my brain, plugged it back in. I no longer suffered depression. The bipolarism is pretty much gone. I still suffer ADHD like severely.
which I may go back on medication for that because I believe in medication. I believe in the science. Listen, it’s not an exact science because no two brains are the same. And so I understand it’s not an exact science, but working with a doctor and finding the kind of equilibrium that allows you to find balance through medication and therapy. I am a big advocate for that. And most people want a magic pill. There is no magic pill, but there are pills. There are pills.
And a pill is not the answer all the time, but often it is an assist. Yeah. I found out recently, um, I was talking to my therapist about it and I have, well, she thought that I have ADHD and she suggested I go to a psychiatrist to get medicated. And I thought, you know, I don’t actually want to do that. If it’s working for you, who cares? I found that two things. I found that now that I know that I have this
Just different way of thinking, right? In my mind, it’s become a challenge to take what is a bucking bronco of a brain and harness it, as opposed to it being a problem that needs to be blunted.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (03:34.886)
Like I said, if you’re able to work with it and it’s not compromising your life, then there’s no reason. Maybe I don’t know what the alternative That’s true, but guess what? You don’t need an alternative if what you have works. That’s like saying, I’m married to the most beautiful woman in the world and she loves to cook for me and she loves to give me the greatest sex, but I wonder what else is out there. No, that’s ridiculous. Is that the human experience? Yeah, no.
So no, the idea is if what you’re doing works and it’s part of who you are, then it’s fine. If it compromises you in any way, if you find that, you know, like, I can’t get stuff done. I can’t seem to finish. I can’t whatever. Then yeah, then you need to get help because that’s not good. There’s a guy I follow, can’t remember his name, but he...
He was saying that ADHD was potentially caused by brain trauma. So like getting hit on your head as a kid and it changes the pathways. And there’s a way to actually come back from that through different like, neuroprotective compounds and supplements to bring that down. That sounds like somebody trying to sell some supplements. Cause first of all, what you’d have to be able to do is identify the point of, of injury.
So you were hit in the head as a kid, okay? So first of all, you’d have to identify that incident, number one. Then number two, you would have to be able to somehow go back to that incident, measure the severity and measure the damage that it did. See how your brain rewired itself so that it is now you’re suffering ADHD. And then you would have to say, whatever I’m taking, these supplements, whatever, are now effectively treating that.
And that’s just too much to ask of something to be legit. Yeah, here we go. I found something. So traumatic brain injury can lead to ADHD diagnosis or symptoms. that I believe. But go ahead. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. So basically the idea is that managing combined ADHD and brain damage can be improved through cognitive behavioral therapy, physical therapy, and medication.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (05:54.969)
It was OK. Well, ADHD can be managed the same way, even if it isn’t through traumatic brain injury, TBI. So as an example, what I would say is as a kid or you’re playing sport, you get knocked in the head, you don’t think too much of it. maybe that start, you do that 10, 20 times over the course of six years, and then you develop ADHD diagnosis and you never can tie the two together.
you can improve your brain health through various things. So that’s just an idea I’ve been exploring. I’ve, Well, no, that’s a good idea because it’s true. I mean, you know, however, there is some damage that just can’t be like, know, not on the, I don’t think on the extremes, but in the, in the middle, I think it may be also a positive. And then also the idea also is, so every brain is different. And so what one brain responds to another will may not.
May not. So for instance, there are a lot of the drugs that work along the ion channels of the brain. They have no idea how they work. No, I’m serious. They just know that they work, but they have no idea how. it’s because they have no idea how. That’s why the doctor says, we’re going to start you on this dosage, and we’re either going to take it down or take it up. But here’s the standard dosage. Because they don’t know how it works, therefore they can’t say, well, this is going to do this to your brain.
Every brain is different. you know, this is what makes it so difficult because, you know, when it comes to neurology, there are certain things that are standards. There are certain things that are standard variables. And then there are certain things that just like don’t apply to you. Like they apply to maybe 80 % of other people, but they don’t apply to you. So, you know, that’s what makes it so difficult. Yeah, for sure. I want to...
explore this ayahuasca thing, would you be open to talking about that in a little bit more detail? Because that’s fascinating to me. came off, I spend once a year, I take myself out to the mountains and I’m alone and I do mushrooms as a hard reset. So I just came back from that last week. But I’ve never done ayahuasca and I’m keen to understand what made you think that this might be a useful tool to help you.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (08:19.585)
and what happened? So first of all, it’s been done and used as they call it the medicine. Yeah. And it’s been used as a medicine for thousands of years before recorded time. Indigenous people to the part of the world that where it’s and practice, they’ve been doing it and they do it as a means of.
connection and a means of realignment. Did you see God? I already knew God, so I didn’t need to see God. I had some very profound
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (09:11.817)
experiences that surrounded God in the expansion of the concept. It’s impossible to explain though, isn’t it? You cannot explain it. You become not one because that’s to me, it’s very cliche. Connected. Connected. Connected in a way that you’ve never felt before. of the universe.
where you are in it, but not in a corporeal sense and not in a spiritual sense in this kind of like one dimension of ongoing, never ending astral plane existence. That’s what happens to you. And for me personally, I met some beings that
from our in-between dimensions, I saw like an infinite number of dimensions. Sounds crazy when someone listening to this sober that’s never done it before hears that. So dimensions go out, up and down. So there are dimensions alongside of us, are dimensions above us, there are larger dimensions, there are smaller dimensions and there are
It’s so weird. It’s kind of like a multiverse. That’s the easiest way I can explain it. It’s like you come, like you get to see the multiverse. You get to see it. And I met these beings that lived in between the multiverses. And I was like, Hey, what are you guys doing? And like, they were scary as fuck. like, but they were, they, they laughed and they told me jokes to make me comfortable. And then they explained it. What’s that? on brand. And then they,
told me that their job was to transfer information because dimensions cannot interact with one another. And their job is to transfer information so that we can receive, but we will never be able to touch and be a part of, but we’ll be able to receive and feel things from other dimensions. It was trippy as hell. What do you do with all of this information? Like, how do you reconcile that into your normal life? So the first thing it did,
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (11:30.78)
was it increased my cosmic perspective, which the cosmic perspective is this thing, this way of thinking that allows you to understand your place in the universe as all at once insignificant and extremely important because you are not only in the universe, but the universe is in you. So you are a part of this. Everything here, these atoms, all of this came from an exploded star, all of it.
okay, and it coalesced and created this solar system and we are all part of that as well and the conservation of energy and matter means that when we die we these atoms don’t disappear they go on now consciousness is a completely different thing but the being the existential nature of it that that’s going to be here
Okay. That’s so we’re part of that. And, it expanded that, that cosmic perspective. so it gave me and it, it increased my awareness of connectivity. so I don’t know, I no longer look at people. I look at all people as stupid now, unfortunately. was like, once you think that beforehand, I really
I kind of did, not... my God, now it’s like... I stupid? Everybody I could be stupid. We’re all stupid. How do you become less stupid? You do ayahuasca? No, to become less stupid, you get outside of yourself. Through ayahuasca? Well, no, the more you get outside of... You don’t need ayahuasca to do it. What’s an example of getting outside of yourself that you mean? Okay, so lose your ego.
How do you lose your ego? So the way you lose your ego... That’s one way, but psilocybin is another. mean, those are shortcuts. Meditation is one of the ways you can do it. You can meditate and you can pretty much achieve the same thing. It just takes longer. It’s a lot more work. It’s slower and it takes a lot more work. meditate? I should do it more, but I’m going to go back to it. I was meditating for a while. It’s hard work. I don’t care what anybody says. Okay.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (13:52.538)
It’s hard work. And what I made the mistake of doing was meditating and thinking that I was going to get immediate gratification from it. It’s going to the gym. takes a long time and you got to keep doing it. And so, know, and now that I realized that I’m like, okay, I’m going to start off slow and just keep doing it. Slow, slow, slow, build, build, build, build, build. then, but through meditation, you can reach the same.
Like you can lose your ego. You can experience ego death through meditation. Without ayahuasca, have you experienced ego death? No, no. Well, yes, I have before that through a different spiritual means. But what was that? Yeah, well, you know, I don’t want to get into that. Let’s just say that I had a spiritual life that was quite rich even before I did ayahuasca, a life that I left. And part of it was
very intense prayer, I mean for hours and hours, which is just another form of meditation to the point where I would be transported to places, you know, I know that sounds crazy. And I wasn’t really transported physically, but consciously and I mean, it was very real, but it came from this state that I would achieve through prayer. And yeah. Are you, do you follow any monotheistic religion? Not anymore. mean, I mean,
I want to believe very much that there is a God who is personally involved in all of this and loves me and is caring for me and wants to take care of me. I want to believe that very, very badly. Chances of that happening and being real are very, very slim. But that’s what faith is all about. However, faith is a real sucker’s game too because it’s just like,
Well, if you don’t have faith, then it doesn’t work. But if you do have faith, it may still not work. Right, exactly. But if it doesn’t work and you have faith, then this is God’s plan for you. that’s... It’s big circular reasoning that’s kind of bullshit, right? However, here’s what I do know. When you look at the good of all religions, which most people do not take, what they take from that is our...
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (16:08.377)
They take our monkey mind and marry it to a religion. Here’s my monkey mind, okay? And I don’t like you and you’re different from me and you have to go and if you don’t believe what I believe then you need to die and they take all of that and then they marry it to God loves you and because of that you have to believe what I believe or I’ll kill you. And that’s so ridiculous. It’s so stupid. And this is what I’m saying when I say everybody’s stupid. This is kind of what they say in the Bible. The Old Testament literally says,
stone anyone who tries to take you away from God to death. Exactly. Right. Right. Right. And then people follow that either exactly to the T or loosely to the T. Right. What do you do with that? don’t know. I really don’t what you do with it is this. You understand that these were ignorant people who did not understand human nature. How many people were on earth back then? mean, let’s- How many were That’s what I’m saying.
Let’s be honest, go back 6,000, 7,000 years ago, right? And how many people were on earth 7,000 years ago? And I will tell you, it wasn’t that many. There’s 8 billion of us now, okay? Could there have been a billion people on earth? I don’t even, I don’t know. Were there a billion people on earth? There’s 354 million people in America right now. Do you think there were 500 million people on earth 7,000 years ago?
So during the core writing phase of the Old Testament, 900 BC to 200 BC, between 50 and 200 million people. There you go. Less than this country. Okay. So you’re talking about the entire globe. There’s less people than there are in one country, which is America, and they’re all ignorant and they’re all, they have no understanding of science and they’re monkey. Except for the Egyptians. The Egyptians were... Yes, that’s true. They were on point. They were on their game. Well, many cultures in Africa were...
of the cosmos and that, you know, but that’s the cradle of where we all come from. So it makes sense that, you know, that they have more time. But the fact is that when you look at that, here we are, we’re unscientific monkey minded apes, right? And there’s, we’re all cordoned off into little clans and we come up with these rules. We come up with these rules so that we can live together because what we realize is that our greatest strength is community.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (18:34.709)
And so in order for that community to function, we need rules. And then the more you can make the rules apply to a larger group, the larger the group can come together and work. so from that, so first religion, then government, okay? And that’s what we have today. And government is a And then government’s a religion. And that’s what we have today. That’s what we have today, religion and government. do you think? Religion is always worse. You think having religion as the core
or the government as the core. Religion, it’s the reason is because people can always look at government as other people and say that even if you’re saying that the government is run by the divine. I know it’s you. know it’s you. You’re running this, but religion, I don’t have anything to do with this. This is God’s will, man. I’m sorry. You know, this is God’s will. And so there’s no accountability in religion.
There is accountability. Well, there’s internal accountability in religion. Yes, but I’m talking about as an organization, there’s no accountability because the ultimate authority is God. Whereas in government, the ultimate authority is a blob, which you still can’t, you can’t like one, you pull one piece out, another piece of bureaucracy goes in. But you can always say, let’s change the whole thing. And that’s called revolution.
That’s scary. And that is scary. But you know, in religion, you say, let’s change the whole thing. And that’s a new religion. That’s a new religion. See, there you go. So that’s why religion is always, will always trump government. And which is why governments have always sought to hold religious power over the people. And that’s what’s happening in America right now. You have charlatans.
who have bewitched a fundamentalist movement and convinced them that they’re on the side of God, even though they don’t do anything. What do you mean? So right now, the Republican party is a white nationalist Christian party. Has it always been a No, it hasn’t.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (20:54.609)
It hasn’t, no it hasn’t. has always been a conservative party which means that it has always been religious underpinnings, Underpinnings have been religious and it’s been adopted by the religious. But it’s never come out and said, God wants us to run the country. And that is what they’re saying right now. People don’t realize how dangerous that is. What makes it dangerous? What makes it dangerous is you have married
government, which is the ultimate authority on earth, to religion, which is the ultimate spiritual authority, which means you cannot be questioned at all. But you can always be questioned by force at the end of the day, right? Well, I mean, the point is this. Who is really going to question the United States government by force? Like, let’s be honest. mean. You think it’s too past that point? You don’t think that the American populace, like, have? No, authoritarians cannot.
prosper unless the people lay down. And we’ve been through turmoil in this country before, the civil rights movements. You see people were bloodied in the streets and all of that kind of stuff. And we’ve had riots and things like that, but nothing on the lines of like the civil war in America. like, you know, we saw how disgusting and like what a horrific waste of life that was.
and how brutal it was. I don’t know, I’m Australian, so I haven’t done that history lesson. it’s terrible. It’s terrible. you know, that’s what we could be headed to with someone taking control of the government and marrying it to religion. We can be headed to that place here in America again. And people say, well, that’s ridiculous. I’m like, you you say it’s ridiculous now.
But we thought it would be ridiculous that someone would ever say birthright citizenship is not a thing in America. It’s in the Constitution. How could it not be a thing? Yet, there’s an edict put forward by this White House to say that people born in this country are not citizens. You know? So, yeah. I’m gonna not worry about it though because I’m having my skin bleached. I’m gonna be like Michael Jackson.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (23:10.0)
start talking like this and you know, give myself a monkey. I’ll be okay. I’m not black Donald Trump. This segues into another interesting... But anyway, back to the original thing. Ayahuasca, I recommend it for everyone.
I experienced ego death. It allowed me greater connection to everything. When I came home, my family was just like, my God, please go back and do it more. Please, who is this guy? love you so much like this. my God. and, but they tell you when you leave, Rhythmia is the place that I went in Costa Rica. It’s called Rhythmia. Tell them Chuck Knight sent you. I don’t get anything from it.
but the people there still know me. I had an incredibly great time there. It is a more upscale, high-end resort because they want you to be comfortable because ayahuasca doing it is not comfortable at all. It’s terrifying. Yeah. It’s terrifying. The whole experience is terrifying. I’ve never been more scared in my life. me through the experience. Run me through the ayahuasca experience. So you take it, it’s like a thick paste that you have to swallow.
and then you start to feel weird, you vomit and shit, and then you start trippin’. You’re not high though. It’s not like you’re trippin’ and you’re like, my God, this is wonderful. No, it’s like your ego separates from you and you start having a conversation with yourself that you absolutely abhor because it is so frightening to meet yourself for real.
Everything that you think about you is wrong. That’s all I can say. You think you’re this person that everybody sees, you get to see yourself for the thing that you are, the thing that you are, not the person that you are. And it’s horrifying. And you have two choices. You can say, that’s okay. I’m okay with that. In which case you’re going to leave the experience and you’re just going to end up being a miserable, unhappy asshole for the rest of your life. Or you can say, my God. And
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (25:33.139)
you you, you like start to mourn that this is, this is in you. And then you find your humanity and what’s opposite your humanity is all the things that oppose your humanity. And they’re all in you, your selfishness, your narcissism. And I say that the way we all mean it, which is
self-absorbed, self-aggrandizement, you find that and the thing that’s in you that wants to protect you all the time so that, you know, when somebody says something to you and you get insulted, all of that, you see it all and you start to realize, damn, that’s some ugly, ugly stuff. That’s really ugly and I want to shed that. I need to get rid of that. And that’s what starts to happen.
And it’s wonderful. It’s great. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. I did the, when I did my mushroom trip. So the way I approach it generally is about four grams. it’s a pretty significant dose, but I do it once a year by myself in the middle of nowhere, phones off and I just sit. It’s a great way to do it. And one of the things that I was thinking about during this trip,
last week was
of what you were saying, the idea that as humans we have within ourselves this like light and love and then at the exact same person has this deep darkness that they have just like just this destruction that either can come out of the same person and we all have it. It was something that I’ve thought about before but not onto that extreme.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (27:36.806)
But what to do with that, I don’t really know yet. So what you have to do, and I’m not telling you, what I have done is you have to remain cognizant of that darkness. And it’s not a matter of fighting it, and it’s not a matter of keeping it at bay. Sometimes it’s a matter of embracing it, because in the embracing of your darkness, you’re able to allow your light to overcome it.
If you run from your darkness, then how can you ever use it? Darkness is there for a reason. It’s there to be used. And the way that you use it is by accepting that it’s there.
measuring it and allowing it to inform you so that you can be a better human being, a better, so you can have, you can intensify your humanity. And if you use it that way, then, you know, if we all did that, the world would be a great place. You know, people think of utopia as something that is unattainable and it is, but it is approachable.
And that’s what I wish people understood. like reaching a local maxima that you’ll never actually reach, but you can get as close as possible to it. Exactly. Right. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Like, you know, like pie. My friend can recite pie to 500 digits. That’s insane. In fucking sane. That’s insane. 500 were out for dinner and she has this 3.1415 blah, blah, blah, like to about 10 numbers sitting on my wall.
Why do you have pie? It’s like, can recite. I’m like, bullshit. She just goes. 500 digits. Well, she did 200 and then she She was like, I don’t want to stop now. Yeah, because we’ll be at like, you’ve ruined dinner. OK? They’re closing the joint. OK? Can you stop with the pie? Because guess what? By the way, I had some pie while you were reciting pie. I made a pie. That’s how long you were taking. But yeah. Insane. How have you gone? The important part about doing
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (29:42.862)
spiritual esoteric journeys is the integration back into general society. Because I think people get lost in the source and they, you know, maybe they become extremely religious and they go down that path and then they’re just disjointed from reality. Or they go down this spiritual path, they do a bunch of drugs, a bunch of ayahuasca, a bunch of mushrooms, and they become this fairy that just can’t interact in the world. And it’s kind of useless. Right. So
How have you approached reintegration after this experience? Just quickly though, I love doing this podcast. If it’s positively impacted you in some way and you would like to support us, please subscribe. By subscribing, it allows us to build a much bigger base of listeners, which results in better guests, better production and a better show overall. Alternatively, please take a look at the affiliate links of the products that I use and love.
in the comments below and consider purchasing using those links. They’ll give you a discount and they’ll also provide the podcast a small kickback. These are two very easy ways for you to support us as we continue to grow the podcast that we absolutely love doing. Thank you for your support and now back to the episode. What’s most important for me is that I affect the world positively. And that’s how you.
reintegrate in a way that is beneficial, not only to yourself, but to others because the connectivity is what it’s all about. What you’re talking about is people who don’t get the purpose of why they took that journey.
to begin with, you took the journey to begin with so that you could be better. Why would you want to be better? Well, you want to be better because we live in a world where we have to interact with other people. There’s no reason to be a good person if you live in the middle of the wilderness and you’re a hermit. You don’t have to be a good person. You can have all the evil thoughts you want. You can, you know, go around and, you know, piss on gophers. You know what I mean? Like,
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (31:55.49)
Sometimes they charge you extra for that, but you know, I go to go for strip clubs. I’ll kind of say. Yeah, but anyway, the fact is that you can do whatever you want when you don’t have other people, right? It’s why people who live in rural societies tend to be far less compassionate than people who live in cities. Because when you live in a city, you’re always, there’s always somebody there. There’s something going on. There’s somebody, there’s something, there’s always another person, right?
And so you realize very quickly, well, if we’re all just assholes to one another, this thing is not gonna work. Unless it’s New York. Well, no, New Yorkers are really great people, I gotta say. You know what we like to do? We like to yell at each other. That’s all we like to do. We like to yell at each other, but what we are is pretty polite because there’s eight million of us living in relative peace and harmony, and we realize that the only way that that’s gonna, get on the subway, right? What do you see mostly when you get on the subway?
Well, no, you don’t see crackheads. You see people pretty much standing their mind in their own business going about their business. That’s really what you see. Depends on what part of the city you live in. That’s true. I mean, there’s really not that many crackheads in New York. I mean, there’s enough. Way more than I’m used to coming from Melbourne and coming from a regional city in Australia. Well, there’s more drug addicts in the US than pretty much anywhere in the world. That’s crazy. Yeah, well, we love drugs here. know what I mean? The good ones and the bad ones. Well, they won’t.
They won’t legalize it. So that’s why, if they were to decriminalize and legalize drugs, we would love them less. So we love what we can’t have. Everybody does. You think that’s the core reason It’s not the core. The core reason is that we live in a society that values things more than people. That’s the number one core reason why people love drugs here. It’s a great American dream. Yes, that’s it. Get all the things. It’s a lie. It’s a lie.
And the more things you get, the unhappier you will be if the purpose of you getting things is to get things. So, sorry to tell you, but guess what? The more things you get, the less happy you will be because things don’t make you happy. All right? I’ll tell you what makes you happy when you get something and share it with somebody. That makes you happy. You know what I mean? It’s like, I bought a new car and like, I bought it and...
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (34:14.386)
I immediately thought, like had some buyer’s regret after I bought it. really? Cause I wanted it for a while and it’s a nice car, right? But I already had a nice car, like another luxury car. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? But I wanted this luxury car cause it was like the luxury car I really wanted. But it’s more expensive than I did. But I went and got it. Guess what? It made, I felt regret. different. I felt regret. was worse. Yeah, it was worse. I felt regret because I thought it was going to do something for me.
And then I was like, man, I should Uber drive with this car. I don’t need any money. I should Uber drive and give the money to charity. And I might still do it. I mean, you could probably make more money doing comedy and just give that to charity. No. No. I work. work. No. What’s the difference? It’s the same amount of time. No, because that’s my living. So I do give money to charity from the comedy that I do. And I do a lot of charity work with my comedy.
but that’s not the point of doing comedy. The point of doing comedy is for me to live and survive. That’s the point of me doing comedy. You gotta be realistic. If you’re unrealistic, you should read the story. forget his name, but there was a man, he decided he was gonna give away everything that he ever had and no matter what he did, he was just gonna keep giving it away. And he died, of course, broke and broken and his family hated him. Yeah.
I forget his name, it’s a true story. He just decided he was gonna give away everything. What was the lesson there? The lesson is a balance is very important no matter what the thing, whether it’s charity or you know, no matter what it is, balance is a part of life, you know? Balance is a part of life. And so if you’re trying to get things just to get things, that’s terrible. And if you’re trying to get things just so you can give them away, equally as terrible, you know?
It’s like they’re both like this kind of psychosis, you know? So the idea is find the balance and then find your balance and then find what is it that makes you happy. So what makes me happy, here’s what I really like to do. I love going out with friends and having dinner. Like that’s one of my favorite things in the world. And you know what I really love? When I’m able to pay for it, you know? And I don’t do it very often because I would go broke because I like...
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (36:38.341)
very expensive restaurants, but occasionally I do it and I feel really great. I love tipping people who work in the industry. I love it because I used to work in the industry. used to wait tables and bartend and guess what? It makes me feel great that I’m able to throw an extra 10 or 20 % on top of a tip to somebody who does a great job because I know that they’re not being appreciated, you know? But that’s a balance. That’s balance.
What do you think of tipping culture in America right now? Because this is a whole new experience to me. Tipping culture in America exists because we didn’t want to pay people what they’re worth. But the customer ends up paying for it either way. Yes. Yeah. But what you end up supposedly doing is incentivizing the server to do right and do a good job for you because their tip is contingent upon their service. I don’t mind that because I was very good at what I did.
And I made money, I made good tips because people were like, wow, this guy is good. He like knows his stuff and he’s fast and he’s organized in one point. And so I feel like, but I also feel like if everybody knew what to do, know, 20 % I think is a good tip. 18 is the minimum.
And if you give somebody 20%, I tip 20 % on the total bill, which you’re not supposed to do. You’re to tip 20 % on the bill. I give them the 20 % on the tax and everything, which you’re not supposed to do, but I do it. And sometimes I give them 25 % on the tax and everything. Why? Because I know you’re paying your rent with this. I know how it is. I know how it is. I know that you don’t work, you don’t eat. I know how that is.
Like those are things that most people don’t understand in America. Most people go to work and they get to call out sick and they get to take vacation. You don’t get to do that when you work in a restaurant. It’s tough. so, yeah, tipping culture sucks because you’re not paying people what they’re worth. But now the prices are expensive anyway, because it’s very strange to me, because in Australia we have a wage that everyone’s paid at a minimum based on like, similar to here. bartending.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (38:58.168)
If you’re above 21, I think bartending, you make minimum of like $25, $28 an hour and then it goes up later at night and then it goes up after 12 hours and it doubles on public holidays. And also the cost of living is also... It’s called a living wage. It’s amortized into the food price. Right, it’s called a living wage. No one tips, nobody tips in the show. no. Most places they don’t. I mean, that’s why we have...
Europeans, they come here and you’re you work in a restaurant and you see a bunch of Europeans or Australians you’re like, god help me because they’re not it’s not that they’re cheap is that they their culture does not allow them to do this Yeah, but here those that person guess what they’re making an hour $13 no Less seven really even now. Yep. That’s ridiculous. Yeah and and some of them
And some states, don’t even allow you to do that. Some states is still like five something an hour. And restaurants still go out of business here. Yeah. It makes no sense. Because the margins are so small. But the margins are small in Australia and the labor cost is way higher. Yeah, you’re right. And they put it in the price. And here, I don’t know why, but I mean. Something’s off. Also too, no. Also too, don’t have restaurant groups in Australia like you do here, like these large.
conglomerate. We do have some, but usually they’re shit. Yeah, but they’re not good operation. Here, you see all these restaurants in New York City, like 13 or 14 of them are owned by the same and they’re all different restaurants independently run. And there’s in a restaurant group of 13 different owned by one. Yeah. So, you know, um, and they’re making money. That person is a millionaire. It’s all about a trans, a transfer of wealth to the top of America. Just know that everything you do is about transferring wealth up.
the scale, not down. That’s America in a nutshell. Rich get richer. So you have one restaurant, you’re going to struggle. It’s going to be very difficult. You have 15 restaurants, you’re a millionaire. It’s called scale. Everything in America is about scale. That’s it. And it’s funny being an Australian experiencing the U.S. and coming here with just no expectation going, this is interesting. That is true.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (41:15.73)
scale is the game, but then also there’s this underlying feeling that everybody can hit that goal. Well, that’s the big lie that everybody wants to tell you. You I was on stage last week and I, you know, I just, I don’t know what came over me. I just deviated from my set and started talking about how stupid we are in this country. And I was just like, I got news for you guys. You’re not rich.
I know you live here in New York City and you make like $6 million a year, okay? You’re not rich, okay? Like, you’re what we call in America, a high earner, all right? That’s how the government looks at you. You still pay taxes. Rich people don’t pay taxes, bitch! They don’t pay taxes! They borrow money from themselves against their assets and then they pay themselves back.
and then they deduct the interest. They don’t pay taxes. You have to get an asset they don’t have income. Yeah, you have to earn an asset base to begin with. Exactly. And so the idea, it’s a lie. You’re never going to be that rich. You know, I said, here’s my joke. So I just got my tax cut, yo. I just got my tax cut. I mean, so all I have to do to really get it is make $500 an hour.
24 hours a day, seven days a week for 114 years. And then I’m give my tax cut, because that’s how long it takes to make a billion dollars at $500 an hour. I mean, they’re playing different games. Yes. It’s a very different game. It’s a different game. And guess what? Until people wake up and realize that there’s a very, very few people at the top, even in the 1%. I think I fall just outside of the 1%. Yeah, yeah, of course. You know? And it’s...
Because there’s so many poor people in America! You dumbasses! I don’t make that much money! You’re a dumbass! I’m just outside of the 1 % and I don’t even make that much money because you’re fucking poor and you’re too stupid to know it! You fucking dumbass! Goddamn! So the real deal is... Tell me how you really feel. So the deal is if we all woke up and realized...
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (43:41.256)
that these few people at the very, very top that are migrating wealth to them, okay, constantly. And we said, nope, we’re taking it. Well, that’s a transfer of wealth. Yes, it is. But how would you even take it? It’s called progressive taxing. Okay. But then don’t they just leave to another country? No, they don’t. Okay. That’s what happened in France. They did a...
They did a wealth tax and a bunch I’m not talking about a wealth tax. That’s not a good tax. Wealth tax is not a good tax. Okay. Then you leave. Okay. I’m talking about progressive tax age. And then you get paid, you tax more based on your earnings. Yes. Well, that’s what we do in Australia. Right. But you already, we already had that, but it’s on income. No, no. We have too many loopholes. It doesn’t work. What you have to do is say, like, here’s what we used to do back in the day when we were the most successful nation on earth. There was no tax. No, that’s not true. It was 1 % tax. No, was 90 % was the highest tax bracket.
When was that in the eighties? No, that was in the under Truman. When was that? Nineties. Truman, Truman, Eisenhower. No, that’s back in the forties and fifties. Truman and Eisenhower. 90 % was the highest tax rate. It meant that once you got up over like $50 million or something like that, adjusted for inflation, I don’t know what the number is, but let’s just say, all right, let’s just say in America, we say, okay, once you make over a hundred million dollars, we’re taking
80 % of that. But does that not de-incentivize people? No it doesn’t. Let me tell you why. Are you sure? Of course it doesn’t. What makes you say that? Alright, so here’s the deal. You already got $100 million. What more can you do? You can’t do anything else. These people that are at this stage, most of them do it for the game. That’s my point. It’s a game. point. So guess what? If you de-incentivize that game, so what? I still gotta be rich.
I still gotta do all the stuff that makes me rich. All I’m doing now is hoarding money. That doesn’t help anybody. Hoarding money does not help anybody. So if I stop you from hoarding money, who cares? Who cares? So what are you saying? Okay, so the stock market might fall and correct back to where it belongs because people aren’t artificially bloating the stock market because they’re hoarding money? Who cares? Does that really affect me?
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (45:57.579)
No, but what does affect me is healthcare. What does affect me is education. What does affect my future is having people be able to get resources so that the country can continue to prosper because we’re cultivating people as they come up. We’re investing in people. We’re not hoarding the assets that that discentify, disincentivize investment. When you allow people to hoard money,
you disincentivize investment in people. So maybe the solution then is, let’s just say you’ve got- I’m running for president by the way. Yeah, I mean, go for it. You could see that. You’re a spring chicken. So true. So maybe what I’m hearing is the hoarding of cash is the problem, but the investment, a lot of these companies can do things that no one else can do because they have so much-
resource to back them. And by the way, they’re all... Banks right now are sitting on a trillion dollars of cash. That may be the cash sitting in a bank account that is not being used productive is the thing that should be getting taxed and nothing more. Well, no, what you need to do is... Here’s what I have to tax. When you make a hundred million dollars in one year in the stock market, but you don’t realize any of those gains and then you report zero income...
But the gains are only during the point of sale. you can’t do anything with it unless you here’s the thing. When you take out money against that asset, I need to tax that loan because that is income. See, for you, that’s income. So I need to find a way to tax that loan so that when you take your money out without taking your money out- But you’re also assuming that the-
the stock market’s always going up, which it isn’t. at some point, that stock market goes Then they get margin called, then they’re fucked. No, what do they get? When the stock market goes down, what do they get to do? Tell me, tell me. They get to write it off. Well, yeah. Yeah. But they don’t have the money. They never actually have the money. So what? If it’s all paper anyway, then... But it becomes, once it’s taxed, you go to jail if you don’t pay your tax. So it’s no longer paper. It’s real. So guess what? The moment you take a loan out on it, it’s real too.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (48:21.586)
Yeah. But no, that doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t understand. But guess what? The moment you took that loan on that money, you got money for the money. But that money is sitting against an asset that has not been sold yet. And at some point, you have to pay that back. Right. By selling the asset. Right. Or using the money and the productive means to get more money to pay down the All right. so my point that’s the American dream.
and capitalism. so my point is this, why should I subsidize that? So by the way, my tax dollars, subsidize your ability to do that. My tax dollars. I mean, there’s lots of people that get subsidized by the government. No, but my tax dollars are subsidizing you’re not paying taxes. That’s not cool. Because see, I pay something called a payroll tax no matter what. See, I’m a business, right? I’m a corporation. And guess what?
Let’s say this year I only make.
$50,000, right? Guess what? The IRS is going to say to me, you need to give me 15 % of that no matter what. unless you don’t pay yourself a wage. No, it doesn’t make a difference. I’ve got to pay it no matter what because I’m self-employed. understand? that’s what companies pay on the top. Companies pay tax on the company level, though.
Yes, they do. And on a personal level, I pay both. Yeah. Because I’m a corporation and a person. That’s my point. So here’s the deal. No matter what, I’m going to pay taxes. So no matter what, they should pay taxes. The difference is they’ve set up a shelter where they’re able to dodge this. Now the other thing is that, but not the companies. All the companies pay tax. The companies pay payroll tax. The companies pay staff who then pay tax. Yeah, but guess what? The companies aren’t paying payroll tax.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (50:15.818)
Don’t you have to pay like the companies pay 8 % in New York, right? Who pays it? When you look at your tech, what’s the say on it? Oh, no, no, no, says payroll tax. The payroll tax, there’s two payroll taxes. Because I was looking into this. There’s a payroll tax on if you own the company and you want to employ someone, the government takes 8%. There you go. So that’s my point. Everybody’s paying it. Everybody’s paying Right. But that’s the point. The point you’re saying is I understand the point, but also the challenge is that
There are all these big companies are getting paid tax and all the people that are like billionaires pretty much own equity of these big companies, which they don’t sell because if they sell, let’s just say they sell a big block of this stuff, then they lose equity value. It’s all I’m saying is that I know what you’re saying, but here’s the thing. You’re touting the talking points of rich people.
of the truly I’m an aspiring rich. Yeah. You’re talking about the talking points of billionaires. make them all true My point is I don’t care about you. I don’t care. Okay. The fact I care about you. No, but not you. I’m talking about billionaires. Here’s the deal. So if I was a billionaire, you wouldn’t care about me? No, fuck no.
No. What if I took you out for dinner? I still would not give a fuck about So instantly you’re a billionaire and I hate you. I don’t hate you. I don’t care about you. don’t need to care about you. You understand? You have so much money that I don’t need to care I don’t need to care about you. I don’t need to care about you. And what needs to happen globally is the corporations, the countries that still are free need to come together and say, no matter who you are,
No matter what billionaire you are, and no matter what company you are, if you flee one company and come here, you still got to pay a minimum tax of this. And we all sit and then guess what? And then Dubai goes, fuck y’all and everyone moves to Dubai. And guess what? If you want to be the dumb ass that moves all your business to Dubai, that’s fine. Because guess what? All your assets will be owned by one family. And guess what? If you want to take that choice, you want to move to China, move your company to China?
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (52:23.622)
Go right ahead. Want to go to Russia? Jack Ma, see you Yeah, want to go to Russia? Go right ahead. Look at what Xi does. He tells corporations, guess what? You don’t get to do that now, because this company ultimately belongs to us. See the Jack Ma thing? just got, he started talking out against the CCP, and the next thing you know, he just vanishes for a few years. That’s my point. Crazy. Yeah. So this is the thing. Freedom cost. And so all these free countries should come together and say, look.
We have a minimum tax and we’re all going to abide by it because across the world what’s happening right now are two things. One, there’s a migration of wealth to the top. That’s number one. Two, authoritarianism is taking over. And the reason that authoritarianism is taking over is because there’s a migration of wealth to the top. And the way we stop- it’s a reaction. And it’s reaction. And so the way we stop that is stop the migration of wealth to the top. The funniest part, I will wrap this up.
for time soon. But the last thing I want to say on this point is didn’t mean to spend this much time on this. I love it. I find it fascinating. Really? I feel like I’m boring the fuck out of people. He’s a socialist, which I’m by the way. I’m a straight up capitalist. I’m somewhere in the middle. believe with capitalism with guardrails is what I Capitalism with guardrails. And what the guardrails are just depends on the situation. Exactly. And I don’t know. I don’t have a solution. I’m just saying it used to be there was a 90 % tax bracket and it worked just fine.
Okay, I’m not saying that we go back to that, but there’s a way to let people pay taxes and let society benefit. That’s all I’m saying. So the high rates, just while we’re on this point, high rates, 1994, sorry, 1944 to 1963, initially came to, pay down the wartime debt and economic policies. But it worked. It did work. Yeah, it did work. I don’t know too much details on what happened next. What happened next was Republicans came and said that,
something called trickle down economics is what will stimulate the economy. we’ve look at us now and we’ve got to zero interest rates. Repeat, reach the peak. And now it’s all downhill from this point. There you go. But the little thing I look at point I want to make before we go into the final part of the podcast is you said it’s a lie that the American dream exists, but I still feel it as somebody
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (54:45.621)
From Australia, I have made the conscious choice to pack my shit up and move to the other side of the world for a feeling of something that I have never felt before in my life. this place, it’s more than a chance, honestly. I feel like I can have and do and achieve everything I could ever dream in America. Yeah, well, you know. More than Australia. And I lived a good life in Australia.
And guess what? It’s possible that you can. I’m saying- Very likely. And give me 10 years here. I’ll come back and it’ll be, I told you. And guess what? I believe that. But here’s the thing. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pay your share, your fair share along the way. Sure. And it doesn’t mean that, so let’s just say that you came here for that. Would that change if they raised the top tax bracket by 10%, the very top tax bracket? Would that change for you?
10 % and 80 % are two very different things. No, I’m not saying let’s go back to 80%. All I’m saying is we need to go back to something more reasonable. We’ve been lowering taxes since the 70s for people and it’s not working. That’s my point. No, it wouldn’t. But I would do exactly what they do and do everything I possibly can to minimize my taxes. Everybody does that. And if I can do it legally, great. Yeah, everybody does that. And that’s the point.
So you have to change the tax code so that it’s progressive and that it helps all. Also, you have to understand that the reason why you feel that is because the infrastructure of America is affording you the opportunity to live your dreams. Well, that cost. That costs money. You don’t see it costing money. mean, at this state, that’s a whole other thing. mean, it seems like the bloat of buildings, the building times that
you have in America now, everything takes forever, everything’s stuck with regulations, slow, arduous, the whole, all of the infrastructure in the country seems to be falling apart. I’ve driven between LA and New York. And we have to change that. but that’s called red tape. That is bureaucracy. That can be changed. And it’s not changed by slashing government, believe it or not. It’s changed by reforming bureaucracy. you know, listen.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (57:08.571)
You know, it’s a whole lot. That’s two hour conversation. Long, long conversation. love it. Look, at the core of it, I love this place and I’ve become deeply curious about the way the country runs and the things that pull the strings. Because in Australia, no one gives a fuck. We’re just going to the beach and living our lives and the... Well, guess what? That’s not a bad life either. It’s not a bad life. But also now that I’m here,
I’m learning, I’m learning so much. True, but you know, so there’s an old story about the fisherman in Tahiti and the business, you know that one, the businessman who sees him on the beach and he says, what are you doing? I’m a fisherman. I go out in the morning, I catch fish, I come back and then I sit on the beach and then I drink wine with my friends and we eat the fish. And he goes, well, what you should do is you should,
invest in more nets. It’s like, why? So you can catch more fish and then, you know, why? Well, you sell more fish than you can buy more boats. Well, why? Well, because when you have more boats, you get even more nets and then you can hire fishermen. Well, why? Because then you can catch even more fish and sell them. And then what? Well, then at some point, what you can be able to do is sit on the beach and drink wine with your friends. You know what I mean? Like long story short. And it’s like, sometimes you just want to cut to the chase. know, Americans work like
dogs all their life so that when they’re 65, they can retire and die at 70. Retirement is a trap. That is a scam. I believe that is one thing that is a lie. The concept of working to your 65 and retiring at 70, oh sorry, retiring at 65, complete lie. Yeah, it is a lie. And also too, what you should be doing is something that allows you to have purpose and feel good about getting up every day. yeah, and when you do that, that...
You don’t want to retire. You know? Well, that analogy is true if you hate what you’re doing, right? Right. I wake up and I’m the fisherman. I’m just going, instead of going to Tahiti, I’m in the North Pacific and I’m fishing some other shit. That’s cool, man. And that’s way it should be. That’s what we should all be doing. Yeah. You know? And I think the more people who do that, the happier this place will be. Yeah. Yeah. So wrapping up, I wanted to ask you a...
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (59:23.546)
couple of general questions about philosophy of life and then we’ll call it a day. What views do you have that would make most people either scratch their head or get angry? I think we just talked about many of them. These are all things that I’ve heard many times before. know, but a lot of people in America right now, we are very rich-centric. We love rich people. we think that some... Look at our government. Our whole government is run by rich people.
And we think that somehow they have the answers. that’s, you know, I don’t like that. I don’t like it. I think most answers come from the bottom up, not from the top down. So what do you think about the idea of when government initially began in America, it was the idea that someone would be successful in America as an American, and then they would spend their time partially.
in government to contribute back to the government as opposed to career politicians announced in 60 years. The reason why they did that is because there wasn’t too many people, number two. What made you an American? What made you an American was you were a white guy from Britain and your own land. That’s what made you American back then. Interesting. If you weren’t a white guy from Britain that owned land, you were not considered an American. Honestly? Yeah. So that’s why you had to contribute to government.
Now that’s expanded now because we have a constitution that has expanded. That’s why we have them. They’re called amendments and you know, and I think everybody should contribute. Here’s how you contribute. You’re an American. You are the government. We the people is the founding principle of this country. We the people.
You already are the government. If you’re not engaged, then you are failing the country. You are failing in your duties. And your duty as an American is to be engaged so that we can elect representatives that will do the right thing for and by us. Because it is a government of, for, and by the people.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (01:01:42.754)
not in that by the way, I can’t vote. Well you get a pass. Well that’s another interesting comparison to Australia. is legally required every single person in Australia has to vote and if you don’t vote you get a fine. See? And I think that... Don’t ever do that here. But the fact that you don’t do it here blows my mind. Well because there’s certain parties that don’t want participation in government because
They know that their policies would fail all the time. Great. Yeah. They deserve to fail though. They do. But guess what? That’s why they won’t push for... You have politicians who have gone on record and said, the less people who vote, the better for us. Yeah. So that’s America. Crazy place this one. But we love it. We fucking love it. What’s one of the biggest things over the last two years you’ve changed your mind on? The biggest thing I changed my mind on, period.
I will say is homosexuality. What do mean? I like it now. I’ve tried it and it’s amazing. What do you mean? It’s so good. me more. No, I was raised to... What a cliffhanger. No, no, no. I was raised to... Not raised. I spent time in a church setting where it was unacceptable to be gay.
even though they were gay people. Doesn’t it say anything in the Bible about being gay? It does, but you can kind of interpret the Bible any way you want to say whatever you want. You know what I mean? But that notwithstanding, I don’t believe the Bible is against homosexuality because I don’t believe God is against people that he created. I used to think that people chose being gay.
And then I realized, I can’t choose to be gay. And if I could, I probably would because it’d be so much better for me. Like, first of all, a lot more men think I am hot than women. All right? So I would be like, ruling, okay? I would...
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (01:04:00.436)
I mean, they love to fuck, that’s for sure. Well, guess what? So do I. Except for those three years where you were celibate. Yes, exactly. no, I still love to fuck. just didn’t do it. But yeah, I mean, so it dawned on me after some deep thinking, like, I can’t choose to be gay. Yeah. And it would work out well for me. Being gay would work out well for me, man. And I can’t choose it. As much as I would like to, I can’t choose being gay.
And guess what? That let me see that if I can’t choose being gay, what makes me think that somebody else can choose being straight? It’s such an idiotic way to think. It’s so stupid. I can’t believe I ever felt this way. you know, so that’s like the biggest.
like mind changing thing I’ve ever had in my life. The other thing is I used to be a Republican and I’m no longer. I’m a very much interesting. At what point did you switch? God, years and years ago, I was years ago. man. I was probably in college when I switched from being a Republican to a progressive. I’m not necessarily a Democrat because Democrats are idiots. mean, they really are fucking dumb asses. mean, like I’m talking about the leaders, not Democrat voters, Democratic voters.
depends on how blue the hair is. Yeah. But they’re idiots. They don’t know how to play this game that we’re in right now. know? They’ll figure it out. I mean, they’re smart. I hope so. I hope No, they’re very smart people. They’re very smart people. They’re just dumb in terms of like connecting and messaging. Well, the thing is though, the game that they were using that was working for the last 20 years is no longer working. So they just have to switch it up.
Yeah, when are you going to do that? When we don’t have a country anymore because we have an authoritarian ruler who’s like, yeah, guess what? Voting is done. But it’s never going to happen. Come on. I don’t know about that. Come on. Listen, we’ve got it on record. We’ll come back. Here’s the plan. And I mean this. Read Project 2025. If you don’t think that we’re headed towards that, they put it in writing for us. They actually wrote it down.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (01:06:03.818)
They wrote it down. Listen. Assuming it’s true. don’t know if it’s true. Project 2025, I felt just like you. What a ridiculous thing to say. And now that I’m watching Project 2025 come to life, I’m like, uh-oh. Maybe we’re just manifesting it. All this energy is manifesting. Nah, Nah, this ain’t no crystal shit. this ain’t no crystal shit. Okay? This is for real.
But yeah, I used to be a Republican, so that’s a big change. What else is there? I no longer believe in like the singularity of religion. I used to think like some religions may be closer to the truth than others. And now I realize they’re all really saying the same thing differently. And the purpose that they serve is for us to be able to
find our humanity and treat each other with love and respect. That’s really what the kid... Now, everything else, if there is a God, and I’ll say if, like, barring what I actually believe or don’t, if there is a God, I can’t serve a God that needs me to fight its battles. Like, I can’t serve that God. Interesting. I gotta go out and fight God’s battles? What kind of God are you? You’re sending me out there to fight the battle? No. Maybe that’s God’s plan that teaches you a way to...
Be best in the world. Yeah, well, that’s a dumb ass plan, God. Okay. So yeah, I don’t need to fight God’s battles and I don’t need to judge people on God’s behalf. Okay. So, you know, yeah, what I can do on behalf of God is love people. That I can do. Well, that was Jesus’s whole thing, right? Yeah, it was. That was it in a nutshell. You know, love God with all your heart, soul and might and love your neighbor as yourself. There you go. I like it. It’s a nice way to wrap up.
But last question for you is, if you could know the absolute truth to one thing, what would it be? what happened before the Big Bang? Yeah, I was thinking that when you talk about the star exploding. That’s what I would like to know. That’s where God comes in, maybe. What happened before the Big Bang? All your boys from the in-between. Yeah.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (01:08:13.038)
I would love to talk to them about that. I didn’t even ask them anything. I was so terrified. was just like sitting there listening to what they had to I’m going to, I have a heart condition now, so don’t know. I have to really consult with a doctor to see whether or not I could deal with.
you know, ayahuasca again, which if I can, I’m gonna do it again. It’s a very uncomfortable and unpleasant experience, but it’s so worth it. But yeah, I would love to know what happened before the Big Bang. If I could be there and witness it and just see and know, because all the mysteries of the universe are unlocked when you know what happened before the Big Bang. Like that’s everything. That’s everything in a nutshell. Yeah, and we cannot know because we cannot, we can only go back to
just after we can’t go back to the Big Bang or before. Even the light that we see from the Big Bang, is the cosmic microwave background radiation, even that is the light from the Big Bang. The temperature of the universe itself is a indication that there was a Big Bang. Like,
All these things that let us know for a fact that there was a Big Bang, we have all the evidence, but what we can’t see is the Big Bang itself and what we can’t know is what happened right before it. And that would be the one thing I would want to know. Brian, same to be honest. Yeah, be amazing. That and what’s inside a black hole.
Woo, that’d be awesome. I’m sure we’ll figure that one out eventually. Eventually we probably... I think we’ve got that one... We probably will at some point. At some point we will, you know what I mean? That’d be very cool. But yeah, I’d love to...
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (01:09:56.846)
go inside a black hole and come back out and be like, oh my God, guess what? Elvis is in there. Is there anything you’re excited about at the moment before we wrap up that you’d to let the listeners in on? My comedy special will hopefully finally come out. And it’s Chuck Nice, Just Smart Enough. And it’s a science comedy special. It’s the collision of science and comedy. And yeah, it’s not like me telling science jokes. It’s about our relationship.
with and to science and that’s what it’s about. And why do think we’re here on earth? No one knows. No one knows. Not for sure. And no one can tell you. No one can. Now the Bible says be fruitful and multiply. Well, we already did that. now what? Well, now we’re going the other direction. Yeah, exactly. Some of us. Yeah, no one knows. And I’ll tell you this much. While we here, I know what we’re supposed to do.
and not just take care of one another, period. End of, and full stop.
knows why we’re supposed to be here, but what we’re supposed to do while we’re here is take care of one another, period. if we were to do that, like I said, there’s no such thing as utopia, but you can approach it. Nice. And if you enjoyed this episode, please go to YouTube, search that one time with Adam Atwelly, click like, subscribe, and we’ll see you next week.
