Jon Ossoff exposes Trump’s purported MISTRESS in public

20:47Everything I can honestly do to get as many eyeballs on that piece of content as possible. If you've got to use emotional titles on YouTube, I think that that's just what we have to do.

20:56Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah. And it's interesting that you bring that up. And a lot of people, I know for my audience that that is the single most annoying thing that they have to contend with. I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure it's the same for every single person in this ecosystem. Whoever is the first to say, I'm going to relinquish these titles and go to just complete straight news titles will be the first person to see their views plummet. Yeah. And that's just how it goes, because so long as everybody else in the ecosystem continues to use emotional titles, you are just choosing to either play the game or unilaterally disarm.

21:27Brian Tyler Cohen:Yes, that's it. Those are the only two options you aren't going to like. I mean, I created a second channel called Brian Tyler Cohen news that just uses straight titles for people that want shareable content, for people that are just fed up with with any sensational titles. And the the number of subscribers is smaller and the views are a fraction, sometimes like one percent of what the other videos will get. Yeah. So, you know, I understand there is a you know, there's there's a gulf between there's a there's a chasm between what people say that they want and really at the same time, what people still respond to when they're served certain content.

22:04That's right. And for people who are hearing this and they're saying, listen, I like you guys. I like what you have to say, but I just can't deal with that. There are options for those folks. The long form audio podcast space is outside of this algorithmic system. You know, you have one episode title for the full hour or whatever it is. I say to people, you can exit that. Put it in your headphones when you're at the gym or commuting or walking or whatever. You're not going to see any wild YouTube titles. You're going to get the content. that is still a space that hasn't been touched. Books are a space also where you can sit down with no capital letters or, you know, extreme thumbnail images.

22:39And you can just see what my thoughts are about these issues or others. I think that there are still opportunities for that for people who are looking for it.

22:46Brian Tyler Cohen:What was the most striking thing to you while you were writing this book? What was something, you know, obviously having spent so much time in this space, I'm sure you set out to write this feeling like, at least, you knew everything that you were going to write about. Was there something, was there some new discovery that you made even after being in this book? Like roughly 20 years, if I'm not mistaken? Yeah, yeah, since I was four years old, if you can believe it or not. So the thing that surprised me is as I was writing this book, I did do some research into specific areas where these algorithms really sort of changed the course of history.

23:20and there's an anecdote in the book about Facebook in Myanmar.

23:25Brian Tyler Cohen:I thought you were going to talk about like Lincoln, early days of like Lincoln. Yeah, exactly. Lincoln on TikTok. It was the whole thing. And, you know, what one of these things, the things that I learned in looking at the history of how these algorithms can really turn history. At this point, these algorithms are so powerful in influencing what people know about and therefore public opinion that you can foment or end a potential revolution just by what is shared algorithmically on these platforms. Some people may or may not remember. I believe it was in 2023, leading into the 24 election, where Mark Zuckerberg said, after everything crazy that happened in 2020, Facebook will not recommend political content in the lead up to the election.

24:11my Facebook traffic dropped 95 % when that happened. And a lot of people wrote to me and they said, this is because of Zuckerberg's personal political views. It may or may not be because of his personal political views, but what it's really about is what is most profitable for these platforms and what will keep people on those platforms. And Zuckerberg decided there's too much heat around a lot of this stuff. I don't want to get sucked into what happened after 2020. Now things have reversed completely. After Zuckerberg and Trump had the meeting of the minds, Zuckerberg said, we might have gone a little too far with the suppression of the political content.

24:48We're basically going to turn it back on. All creators in our space now have seen traffic on Facebook go way, way up. Nothing changed about the value of the content. Nothing changed about the truth of the content or the virality of it. It's just an algorithm that can be turned up or down at a whim.

25:04Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah. You know, there are obviously macro situations like the one that you just discussed. But then when we when we shrink it down into like how it impacts you personally, you know, I was speaking with Jon Favreau on offline about this exact phenomenon. And I asked a question because he interviews a lot of people who are who who occupy this this political media space. And I asked, is anyone better off, healthier from a mental perspective, from an emotional perspective, being in this space? And he says, no, across the board, there is no one that that for whom their their emotional health or mental health gets better the longer that they stay online.

25:50Brian Tyler Cohen:It is solely in one direction, more time online, worse off as far as your mental health is concerned. How do you deal with something like that? I mean, you know, obviously you have an intimate knowledge not only of being in the space, but but then kind of like in a meta perspective, studying the very space that you're in. So you're able to kind of like see through the looking glass here. But but how how do you think about occupying a space that you actively know is there to manipulate how you think and give you give you dopamine hits where there shouldn't be and just kind of feed off of your rage or your sadness or whatever it may be.

26:31You have to be proactive about your consumption of this content. And if you're basically pulling out the phone or laptop or whatever in any quiet moment and then just spending more time on these platforms than you want to be, you've got to figure out a way out of that. And so what I try to do is just be proactive and say, well, I'm going to look at stuff for 10 or 15 minutes and then that's going to be it. You're deciding in advance. A lot of people, this happens with TV a lot, where people just get into the habit of the TV is on at certain times of day. You're not really looking for anything specific.

27:02You're just kind of I'm going to be watching TV during this period of time. And then often that amount of time ends up being more than than you're thinking of doing with the phones. It's even easier because the content is tailor made to you. It's not well. It's 730. So now what's on changes for everybody. It's tailored to you. So you've got to be proactive. I try not to even follow what's happening politically over the weekends. If something huge happens, my team will let me know or something like that. Basically saying I'm recording on weekdays. I'm following this stuff on weekdays. the weekends I'm going to deliberately take time off from it.

27:34And I think you have to be proactive like that. That's the first thing. The other thing I would say is I don't know. I think that as you go up in consumption hours, there are diminishing returns and then negative returns. You actually are worse off. I do think that there is value to the community aspect of if you do find like minded communities, especially for people who don't live in cities and might be isolated politically, especially if you're on the left, the platforms that we're on and the content we put out can give people what is sometimes the only opportunity to engage with like-minded ideas and people.

28:08And to the extent that you're controlling your exposure to it and being deliberate, I think it can be positive until it goes over and then starts to become a negative.

28:16Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah, I find the same thing. You know, the irony of this space is I rely on people being online as much as they can be to consume content like that. That is my whole platform, my financial success. All of that relies on more people being in the space. I absolutely, without a doubt, would recommend that people stay off of these spaces, not consume this content until they are in a state where they feel like they can do it health, like in a healthy way and then log off. Like it is more important to have longevity than just to get people on 24 hours a day to consume this stuff in the short term, get these dopamine hits, get those views, get those shares.

28:56Brian Tyler Cohen:Like I I have seen, look, I've seen firsthand the way that it chips away. I've been doing this for about 10 years now. And I should let people know, like, my entrance into this space was from watching your videos. So, you know, I think you deserve a lot of credit because you just never know when you're out there making content, like who is watching and what kind of impact that's going to have. And so, you know, on behalf of the last 10 years of what I do, thank you for what you do. To that point, though, I do think something that that is kind of important to think about here is that a lot of the way that these platforms become toxic is when they take control of what you're consuming rather than you taking control.

29:43And a lot of people don't realize with most of these platforms, you can go in and say, I want less of this. I want more of that. You can make them work for you rather than blindly, blindly sort of working for them. A lot of people don't realize you can do that.

29:56Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah, no. And I think it's important to do so because even look from from early days when I started in like 2016, 2017, I was really good at compartmentalizing this stuff. I would be able to go to work to I think I was writing on Facebook at the time and just starting to get into videos in 2018 because I realized there was not a lot of video content happening. but even in the early days I was just writing on Facebook back when that was the the principal platform um and uh and I was able to do my thing go to work and kind of like switch my brain off into okay I'm I'm at home now and it slowly kind of leaks into your personal life I mean especially when things get so dire so bleak so grim it's hard to turn that part of your brain off and it just chips away at you you know and I I uh there are always people who very very kindly let me know how shitty I look on a daily basis.

30:48Brian Tyler Cohen:Let me know how tired I look. Let me know that I should get more sleep. And granted, I know that they, most of them do it from a well meaning place. And then there's some people that just want to let me know how shitty I look, even if I've gotten a full night of sleep. But, but I do think, I do think it's important. Like we need people to be kind of in tip top form as we head toward midterms, as we head toward the 2020 election, because you're no good to the movement if you're just exhausted and burnt out. And look, that's advice that I'm really bad at taking. How have you contended with this idea that every, like, I don't care what content creator claims that they don't contend with this.

31:25Brian Tyler Cohen:Everybody deals with burnout. And so how do you do that in a job where, you know, look, quick story on that. I wanted to take a weekend off in 2024, in July of 2024. You already know where this is going. Like one weekend, I was like, I'm going to go 48 hours without touching my gear. Was this the butler assassination? This was the butler. And I was like, I was in the car almost like 90 % of the way to Palm Springs from Los Angeles, about two hour drive. And I got 100 texts in the course of two minutes and nearly drove myself off the road, looked at my phone. All I saw was Trump assassinated. Oh, is that right?

32:03Brian Tyler Cohen:Somebody wrote Trump assassinated. And yeah, so that's what happened when I tried to take some time off. But how do you deal with a never ending news cycle in a job where you have to cover this stuff or risk, you know, missing a story, losing some relevance, whatever it may be. And and yet still having to take care of yourself and your family and keep some peace of yourself. Yeah. So that you don't just become what I often feel like I am, which is like this content producing machine. You just have to set some limits. And so for me, it's been like, unless there is a crazy breaking story, I'm not doing content on weekends.

32:38I'm thoughtful about, you know, when I get invites to stuff, I really try to think, is this genuinely worth however many days of travel are required? And just being a little more thoughtful about that. And, you know, it's kind of funny because after writing this book, some people said to me, aren't you worried that the book is going to diminish your audience because you're telling people too much of this stuff is kind of toxic? And I'm not worried about that because there are so many people and relatively so few people actually read books and these platforms are so addicting and so good that it's like you can give people aren't going to take the medicine you know it's at a certain point so i i don't worry about that well and and

33:17Brian Tyler Cohen:what i said before about like we want people in this space to a understand some of how to get a look behind the curtain at how some of this stuff is impacting them and their own health so that they can be in a position where they have some agency, some control over the things that are guiding their viewing habits, their consumption habits, their decisions, so that they can be in this fight longer and not just like watch these algorithms squeeze every bit of rage and fury and joy and whatever it may be out of them in the short term to the point where, you know, I get lots of emails from people that say, I just, you know, I can't handle it anymore.

33:53Brian Tyler Cohen:I just need to step back. I think there's one other important thing to mention in the context of this environment that we're in right now, you just having written your book and me with this one. This media offenders White House thing where we're listed as liberal lunatics under the broader category of there's all these categories, media offenders. I think it's left leftist. Leftist. Oh, what did I say? Liberal. Oh, I thought they said, OK, but leftist. This is having a chilling effect. I've heard from two people who said, I'm really interested in this book. I'm worried if I interview you it's going to pull me into this and I am worried about what it might mean legally if the White House notices that I'm talking to you about this book like this is how self-censorship works this is exactly their goal so we talk about we don't want to cede the digital platforms to these people because then the people with the bad ideas are the only ones left we also don't want to allow the intimidation to take place because even if technically there's no First Amendment issue with us being on this list.

34:52If it chills people's willingness to talk to us or it makes Amazon say, maybe we won't email anybody about the fact that David or Brian's new books are out, that is a very real impact. And that's just where we are right now.

35:05Brian Tyler Cohen:And I would just recommend for people who are watching right now, grabbing these books and sending them onto the New York Times bestseller list and making sure to support progressive content creators offers an incentive structure for other people to say, oh, look how successful these books on the left are being. I'm going to take my shot at making sure that I can write my own book and to perpetuate these ideas. There's a reason that Donald Trump likes to promote every single book about him and Republicans. That's right. Because that gives a huge permission structure for other authors to say, look at what happens when all of these right-wing authors write something.

35:40Brian Tyler Cohen:They always make it onto the New York Times bestseller list. They always get their ideas in the zeitgeist. They always get a lot of attention. And they know that if a random person goes, I might get a book. let's see what's on the list. And they go right wing book, right wing book, right wing. That is a massive, massive impact on what people buy. Totally. It incentivizes people to do that. So if you can, right now, I'm going to put a link right here on the screen and also in the post description. If you're listening in the podcast, I'm going to put it on the show notes. Please help David. Thank you.

36:07Brian Tyler Cohen:Reach the New York Times bestseller list. Give a permission structure, some incentivization for other authors who see this to say that progressive media can still overcome right wing media. Highly recommend the book. It was an excellent read. And again, a great way to show some support for David as he contends with, you know, some pretty heavy handed tactics at the hands of this White House. So with that said, David, I appreciate the time. Thank you. My pleasure. No Lie is brought to you by Factor. So there is a direct link between how crazy the news cycle gets and how much I stick to my routine.

36:41Brian Tyler Cohen:And of course, because the last few months have been insane, to say the least, my ability to eat healthy took a major hit, which is exactly why Factor has been so important. Factor makes chef-crafted, dietician-assigned, ready-to-eat meals so you don't have to choose between real food and convenience. With over 175 banned ingredients, every Factor meal is designed around what supports a healthier lifestyle and nothing that doesn't. Factor meals are ready in two minutes and require no prep and no cleanup. So even on the days that your schedule is completely out of control, eating well is still achievable.

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37:47Brian Tyler Cohen:So let's eat real. Head to factormeals.com slash BTC50 off and use code BTC50 off to get 50 % off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last until 10-31-2026. That's code BTC50 off at factormeals.com BTC50 off at factormeals.com. See website for more details. We have some major news out of a deep red Republican district in Ohio. That's Ohio 7th Congressional District, where Max Miller, because of all the scandals that he's engaged in right now, is trailing in the polls 39 to 44. I'm joined right now by Brian Poindexter, who is the Democratic nominee for Ohio 7th Congressional District.

38:30Brian Tyler Cohen:So, Brian, thank you for joining me. I have to ask first and foremost, what was your reaction to Max Miller refusing to drop out by the dropout deadline and basically defiantly staying in this race despite the pretty egregious scandal that he's facing right now? Well, I didn't really get in this race because, you know, Max Miller is terrible in his personal life. I got into this race because the policies that he supported and the administration has brought forward has made it hard on working families. Whether he stayed in the race, whether they replaced him, we were ready to go with our mission of fighting for working families.

39:13You know, that message has really rallied support across the political spectrum from the far reaches of the Democratic Party, even into the Republican Party and everybody in between, because we're we're fighting for what I've lived my whole life, working for a living. It's harder to make a living now if you work. And we need to correct that. And I'm hoping to get the Congress to be a voice for working people.

39:37Brian Tyler Cohen:In terms of Max Miller's character, have you spoken to voters who have voted for Max Miller in the past who have decided that that what he is accused of doing, which is to say, you know, there was there was there was a report that he had thrown boiling water at his now ex-wife that he was being accused of breaking the collarbone or injuring the collarbone of his own daughter. Has that resonated with with folks in your district? Well, I've talked to people all across the district, Democrats, Republicans and independents. And yeah, everybody is shocked and shaken by by these allegations. And I've said it over and over again.

40:21If they prove to be true, he should absolutely be in jail. And, you know, I think what voters are waking up to, especially in this district, is that, you know, there's a two tier justice system where if you're wealthy and well connected, you know, you can be you can be alleged to have committed severe atrocities and it's business as usual. I mean, we see it in the Epstein files. If those were ironworkers and plumbers and teachers, they would already have been brought to justice. But here we are years and years and years later, and there's no accountability. And it's not so much a Republican and Democrat issue.

41:00It's more of a wealthy and well-connected issue and then everybody else. and I think it's under a microscope now in this race and it's under a microscope nationally with the Epstein files.

41:14Brian Tyler Cohen:Quick side note here, as you know, I've been making videos like this for a decade now. I have never paywalled any of my content, I never will, but this is the one time that I'll ask for some support. I'd like to try and hit the New York Times bestseller list this week for my new book, The Day After. If you haven't yet grabbed a copy, please click the link on this screen in the post description in the comments or go to briantylercohen.com slash book. I really appreciate it. So talk to me about your district in particular, because I'm especially interested in how in how the electorate is responding, given the fact that, look, this is an electorate in Ohio 7th congressional district that has voted for Republicans virtually, I mean, certainly for my entire career in politics.

41:54Brian Tyler Cohen:And so for a lot of people, and I often say this to folks who are running in otherwise red districts or historically red districts, for a lot of people, their political affiliation is intertwined with their identity. And so it's not just as easy as saying, yeah, sure, I may have voted for Republicans in the past. Now I'll vote for Democrats. Like for a lot of people, they are a Republican in the same way that they are Christian, in the same way that they're white or black or Hispanic, whatever it may be. And so how has that kind of manifested itself or presented itself while you've been talking to folks on the campaign trail?

42:27Well, I mean, Ohio traditionally has been a bellwether state and it's gone red at times and blue at times. You know, the recent past, it's been more red. Yeah. And, you know, especially like since 2016, when Donald Trump came on scene, you know, he he came in on a message of bringing back a golden age for workers. You know, but what what people are seeing is, you know, we didn't get that golden age. We got the golden shower instead. And it's harder for people to make a living here under his policies. And I think you're going to see a trend more back towards those we know who are going to fight for workers.

43:05Like we have Sherrod Brown on the ballot. Yeah, Trump won this district by 11 points, but Sherrod Brown would have won this district in 2018, you know, and because he's always had that message of fighting for workers. And that's, you know, this is a very gerrymandered district. They drew it to protect Max Miller in his seat, but they accidentally drew a perfect district for me because I'm right from the heart of the district. I have the blue collar bona fides being a 19 year member of the iron workers, local 17 being a family man. You know, I'm a girl dad through and through. And, you know. I am I am representative of this district.

43:42And what a concept to be representative of the district you're running to represent. You know, my opponent, Max Miller, he he just dumped a million dollars into his campaign to try to buy his way out of his troubles. And that's so out of touch with people here in this district. You know, me, I don't have a million dollars laying around. Most people in this district don't have a million dollars laying around. And it just goes to show that he doesn't know what we're going through. He can afford his votes in Congress. We can't. And that's why I'm going to win in this race.

44:17Brian Tyler Cohen:What is your pitch to folks in that district? I mean, you know, you mentioned that you were a member of the Ironworkers. And so like for working class Americans, for blue collar workers, for union members, what is what is your priority? What do you want to bring to your district and to the country more broadly? You summed it up right there. It is I want to bring the voice of working people to the halls of Congress. We you know, we are one of the most underrepresented demographics, people who work for a living in Washington. I mean, we have plenty of lawyers there. We have plenty of, you know, elites in Washington.

44:55We need more people from the working class who knows what people are going through to stand up and be a voice. Anything that comes across my desk in Congress, I'm going to be looking at it from the perspective of a worker. And, you know, I didn't read about the issues of workers in a book. I learned about it by having to juggle the bills. I learned about it by trying to get one kid to practice and one from swimming lessons. I learned about it by wearing the different hats, the iron worker by day, the father in the evening, and the nurturer when they're going to bed. That's where I learned my policy platform from, from the everyday life and the everyday lived experience.

45:43that the average person in this district lives under.

45:46Brian Tyler Cohen:Talk to me about a conversation that you've had with a voter, maybe a Democratic voter, maybe an Independent or even a Republican that stuck with you. To pick one out of the thousand is kind of hard. You know, one that sticks out in particular, down in Ashland County. Ashland County is very rural. It's formerly Jim Jordan's district. It's newly drawn to this district. And so I won, you know, early on in the race, even before the primary, I wanted to, you know, introduce myself to the folks in Ashland County. And so I go to I go to a meeting down there. It was at the Machinist Union Hall right in Ashland.

46:30And I didn't think I was going to know anybody there. I'm being, you know, just going to be myself, introduce myself. And I get there before the meeting. I had that blue collar work ethic. like I show up everywhere early and I'm waiting for people to come in, greet them as they come in. And this, this old timer comes up to me, got his walking cane. He's like, Brian, you remember me? And I'm like, I remember the face. I can't remember the name. It was a guy, Dave, that I worked with on a construction site about 10 years earlier. He's like, he's like, brother, I'm so happy that you're here. You know, we need people like you in Washington.

47:04We need somebody who knows how to do work and knows how to bring people together and knows what we're fighting for. And, you know, that right there set the tone for my whole campaign. That told me that I was on the right track. I was doing the right thing. And people are very excited that I'm in the race.

47:21Brian Tyler Cohen:What did people of Ohio expect when they not only voted for Trump, but voted for full Republican control? I mean, they sent Republicans to the Senate. They sent Republicans to the House. They sent Republicans to the White House. And so what did they expect? And then what are conditions actually like on the ground in your district? Yeah, people expected a boom. You know, we expected manufacturing to come flooding back to America, you know, especially this area. You know, I remember growing up in the 80s, we were a beacon of manufacturing. We are the manufacturing center of the world, so to speak.

47:59In the 80s, you know, you could go from one job to the next in the same day. and uh you know they were we were told that we were going to flourish and you know we were going to be making more money than ever and you know people's lives were going to be significantly easier and um no that none of that happened you know uh manufacturing is down right now um wages i have stagnated costs are up and now we're in a reckless war and you know tariffs have driven things up and, and, you know, people in my entire life, me included, I worked paycheck to paycheck almost my whole life. You know, maybe, maybe I have a little extra to save, but now people aren't even making it to the next paycheck.

48:43And, and it's really hard, you know, when, you know, gas goes up to$4, I just filled up yesterday was 4.23 a gallon. You know, that, that, that hits the wallet pretty hard when, when you're still not making, when you're already not making it to the next paycheck, you know, and like ground beef, a pound of ground beef was$8 and 50 cents a pound. I mean, I know people who are working in, you know, in grocery stores and in retail that are making eight 50 an hour, they got to work a whole hour for one pound of ground beef. Yeah. You know, and it's just unrealistic. And then, and then you hear things like, oh, they want to raise social security age to 70 years old.

49:23Like I'm an iron worker. How could I be up on the high steel at 70 years old welding and walking around. It's just unrealistic. Anybody who suggests that is so out of touch and they don't belong in the halls of Congress.

49:36Brian Tyler Cohen:What would your message be to voters who had voted for Max Miller the previous time, who are now up for grabs? What would be your message to them? My message would be the message that we've been running on since day one. I'm not in this for partisan politics. I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican. I want to fight for working families. If you work for a living, if you're not the boss, I'm going to fight for you. I mean, the bosses, they have the power and ability to fight for themselves. They have the wealth. They can fight for themselves. We need somebody who's going to be a champion for workers, and that's what I want to be.

50:15And I tell people when I go to a Democratic club and stuff, We are the welcoming party, right? Democrats, we welcome people in. We need to make sure that we are not shaming people for who they voted for. We're more than who we voted for. You might have seen things a little bit differently two years ago or four years ago, but we always have the ability to learn from what we do and always be willing to welcome people in when they want to jump on board. And that's what we're doing in this race.

50:45Brian Tyler Cohen:Brian, for those who are looking to support your campaign, where can they go? They can check out our website at poindexterforcongress.com. You can read about my backstory. You can watch our videos. I got to admit, though, most of our cool clips are on social media. So if you look up Brian Poindexter for Congress on any social media platform, you'll find us. And yeah, help us out in any way you can. Great. I'm going to put a link to your website right here on the screen and also in the post description. For those who are listening on the podcast, I'm going to put it in the show notes. Thank you for taking the time today.

51:16Brian Tyler Cohen:Best of luck in the campaign trail. Brian, thanks for having me. I've been a big fan of yours for a long time and keep up your good work, buddy. Thanks again to David Pakman and Brian Pointexter. That's it for this episode. Talk to you on Wednesday. You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen, produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellesley, and interviews edited for YouTube by Nicholas Nicotera. If you want to support the show, please subscribe on your preferred podcast app and leave a five star rating and a review. And as always, you can find me at Brian Tyler Cohen on all of my other channels or you can go to Brian Tyler Cohen dot com to learn more.