SPEAKER_05 0:00

Welcome to the Hill Cop Glove Podcast. Yeah. This is uh season wrap-up with all of us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:10

We have our um interns um recording today.

SPEAKER_05 0:14

Our our youngest interns are recording today. Yes, they are.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

And taking pictures.

SPEAKER_05 0:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Being the producer.

SPEAKER_04 0:22

We're getting them some uh some billable hours before they start off in real life. As long as it's a family business, it doesn't count.

SPEAKER_03 0:29

That is right.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

That's true. That's true. Yeah. Yeah, especially that's what it is. Yeah, it's a family business. Yes. Shout out Savannah and Io. Shout out, shout out.

SPEAKER_05 0:37

Shout out to Savannah and Io. So for letting us record here for multiple seasons. Yes. This has been our home in Columbia for quite a while. This is a great space. We love great.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

Great space, great space.

SPEAKER_05 0:52

If you would like the space for your podcast, Peer Space?

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Yeah, Peer Space. Find us on Peerspace. Yep. That's it. Or you can find us on then go to focus onMedia.com backslash rentals. Uh-huh. And it'll bring them right up there to the space.

SPEAKER_05 1:09

And with that, you not only get the space, but you get some expertise and assistance with your podcast called Dreams. So we're we're here to help the community and grow uh the local media presence. So we're all about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

That's it. Especially if you don't want to jump directly into the deep end and purchase a bunch of items that you don't know if it will be a long-term thing or not. It's a great way to start. This guy right here, he's horrible for saying this, but he's good for saying this. Just do

Welcome And Studio Shoutouts

SPEAKER_04 1:45

it. Just do it. Just do it.

SPEAKER_05 1:46

Just do it. You don't have to be perfect. Just do it. Start with what you can get access to. And we have access to a lot here.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Yep. Yes, indeed. So, y'all, this is our season recap. This is season six. End of season six. Yeah, end of season six.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Yes, the end of season six. That's it. So basically we've been doing this since 2020. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

It's been that long.

SPEAKER_03 2:09

Yeah, we grassroots, real grassroots. Yeah. This was the COVID project.

SPEAKER_04 2:12

No, wait, wait. What what um I'm gonna have to steal this from uh Mr. Ernie Johnson. Um we have been unsullied by sponsors since 2022.

SPEAKER_05 2:27

We literally we have some great sponsors, but we're unsullied. We are unsullied by those sponsors because they have local people that like to see us produce our media and they support it. But with freedom. You don't see logos around. Nope. All the logos that you see on screen right now are unsolicited and they are not paying us for it at all. Yes. Some of the logos are our our former guests. Look at that.

SPEAKER_04 2:53

Yeah, man. Yeah. Speaking of which, we have um Black Nervia. Just some black nerve mafia items up here. I had I bought this shirt. I don't want to hold that, can I put that? Oh, uh the butterfly effect. The picture is on fall. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, this is uh one of our guests. Because this shirt, I'm just gonna tell y'all the the quality and the the fabric on this shirt is amazing. I just wanted to bring it because when you're picking out your merchandise, yeah, touch it. Yeah, please touch it. Please touch it. But yeah, JB Sampson. Yeah, man, James.

SPEAKER_05 3:31

JB Sampson, you gave us some nice shirts. Them things are so comfortable. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 3:34

I wear mine all the time. And I'm gonna get a darn tape play, a cassette play to listen to that music on the cassette just out of the nostalgia of it.

SPEAKER_05 3:42

Have to do it. You know what I thought about the other day? Because I I I sat there and that cassette sitting on my desk still, and I thought about it, and I was like, you know, if he'd have given me a link to download this thing, I might not have kept it. Good point. But I damn sure kept that cassette, even though I don't have a cassette player. Still sitting there and I'm still like, I'm gonna find a cassette player.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:03

Just to play that.

SPEAKER_04 4:04

Just to play that.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

We have just the thought that they put behind the stuff. Him and um Pet X, they are really good at that. Man, shout out to Pat X. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:12

Making big moves this year. Yeah, lots of things this year. I've been, I don't know about you all. No, I was very horrible with social media. I've been trying to do better this year of reposting and putting stuff out because I'm horrible with it. Dislike the social media.

SPEAKER_05 4:28

Somehow or another, I got on Pat X's uh SMS feed. Shut up. And so he'd be sending me text messages when he got events going on. And granted, I feel really bad because I ain't made it to the last one, but at least you know what's going on. I know, and they're always very personable. Like it's like that, I feel like is like kind of the new way to reach people is if you can get them on a SMS list that they're willing to. If you're willing to be on, and it's not just some trickle, trickle. Yeah, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Yeah, the last event

Merch That Feels Like A Story

SPEAKER_00 5:00

was good. Me and Kevin went um between two planes. Yeah, yeah. Like the artwork, I was just like blown away, literally blown away. He really, his concept, the way his mind works, I'm like, man, you're dope.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Man, there's so many talented people in Columbia. Yeah. There's so many talented people. And I it's like for me, it's you know, everyone always wants to compare us to other places. You know, so you want to compare like Charlotte or Atlanta or Greenville. But it's like Columbia kind of has its own little vibe, its own little culture, and they got some amazing, amazing artists and creatives here. And I just hope just with the platform that we're just doing, you know, that we're helping to highlight them and spotlight them.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

We've talked to a lot of talented people.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

This is true.

SPEAKER_05 5:47

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

So we are the best podcast.

SPEAKER_05 5:49

And I remember three times I'm gonna vote for us. Three times we are the best podcasts. We are. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. Vote for us. I don't I don't know if this episode is here until it's over.

SPEAKER_04 6:01

Yesterday. Yesterday, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Well, we'll let you guys know.

SPEAKER_05 6:06

But we are the best no matter what.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Oh, yeah, it don't matter. It doesn't even matter. We're gonna still keep going and doing our thing. Absolutely. Now we can say that we're nominated, though. Yes, we can. We need to put up a little cool little sign. I know. I thought about that.

SPEAKER_05 6:18

I'll put something on the website. Did I tell you about the hallucination Glover pulled? Oh. So, y'all we don't talk about this publicly, but Glover is the AI that I um spun up to help us do research and things. And I asked Glover to write us some web copy about our podcast, and Glover was like, oh yeah, the award-winning podcast in Columbia, the best podcast in South Carolina. I was like, ooh, I have to do it.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

What does Glover know? What does Glover know? Is it predicting the future? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:54

And it was like, oh my bad. Ah, that's that's just something we say about people. You don't know, man. Yeah, it's all that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

That would be awesome. If that was if that was the case and we did one, man, I would be so happy for us.

SPEAKER_05 7:07

Well, we can still say we're the best podcast in South Carolina.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Yes, because people do that all the time. Oh, yeah. You can do that. Yeah. Bestseller.

SPEAKER_05 7:13

No, I took classes on it. Well, bestseller is different. Yeah, you can't say that. But you can say best.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Best.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

Best because that's arbitrary. I think we are the best, though. And I'm because I think we just got a good combination. We have an amazing team. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 7:26

Pop-up team.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

And we talk to everybody. We do. Like we don't have like we don't, there's no, there's no politics involved in it, right? We don't care like where people are, whatever stage of life they're at. If we they're doing dope things and we feel like they got a dope story to share, we talk to them. That's true. And I think that's really big because just from just from like, you know, just behind the scenes and stuff, even just like talking to people, we're not even reaching out to people. Like I'll hear conversations about like certain about booking certain guests and certain people. And you know, us, it's like this is just like a grassroots thing. We're not making money off of this. Yes. And that's something I want to talk about today, too. You know, like for me, honestly, I would love for us to make money, but if we break even with everything we like, whatever we put in, where we get out and we can walk, I'm happy with that. But man, some of the stor this some of the stories I hear about even like local people, like booking people, yeah, just to be a guest and having to pay for them and stuff and all kinds of books. Yeah. Oh, yeah, this is a real that's a real deal, Holyfield thing. Yeah, too. And I've had like people refer, like, yeah, there'd be like emails and stuff, and you'll find out for her from people like, oh yeah, you got paid for this and be a host. I'm like, hold up.

SPEAKER_05 8:38

Well you know, that's that's that's interesting though, because I I did like I had a friend probably about a year so ago, and I I asked them, I was like, you know, I was talking about the podcast. I was like, we ought to have you on. And they were like, well, you know, you really you really need to be paying artists of color if they can come on your podcast. And I was like, Well, that's true, but also we don't make any money off of it. We're kind of doing this for the community, right? Trying to build the community. It's not like it's not like we're sitting back making checks.

SPEAKER_04 9:12

No, it's a digit, it's like a digital magazine.

SPEAKER_05 9:14

It's like 60 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

That goes back to remember the episode we talk about monetizing every single thing.

SPEAKER_05 9:20

Uh-huh. Right. Because it becomes it becomes a thing where like if you're not monetizing it, or if you're not, if you're if you're doing something and you're not trying to monetize it, you're not up on it. You know what I'm saying? Like, like I can't I can't ask anybody else to be involved if we're not making bank.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Right.

SPEAKER_05 9:39

Which is not how the grassroots development of art works. Nope. Like I wish it did.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:46

But that's not

Grassroots Media Versus Monetizing Everything

SPEAKER_04 9:48

how I operate.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Yeah, and it's like, and I think, like I said, and I think everything can't be about making money all the time. I do think there is a time and a place for you, yeah, you do need to be mindful about your business stuff. You need, okay, if I'm doing this label, this work, yeah, I need to make sure I'm being compensated for it. And if you're making money, you gotta share. Yeah, that's excellent. Yeah, like even for example, like with what we do with the sheriff, like with the peer space, right? Now that's different because that's something that's outside of us, and people come in and they rent the space, right? It's a service-based, yes. Yeah, right. So, yeah, so like for example, because like me and Tamai pretty much run it. And yeah, even though like Tamai's like my ace boom poon and we work together on stuff, I'm not gonna have her come in and be like, oh, set up the space and I'm not gonna pay you for it, because we do Hill Top Love. Right. And we don't do everything, that's a whole other thing. Right, right, right. That's a whole nother team. Yeah. And I think a lot of times people don't really have conversations about that stuff. Like, where do you like it's okay, like there's a difference of like collaborating with people and working with people in collectively as a team, and even people that you're cool and close with, versus pet like where do you like where do you actually compensate people for doing actual work? Yeah, exactly. Right. And I think a lot of people, unfortunately, people get taken advantage of like that too. Cause it's like, oh, well, we're all cool, we'll do that. And then if somebody will get stuck doing everything, and then it's like, well, where am I at and all this and stuff? So it's just it's it's like I said, and I think that's one of the things I know I've learned.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yeah. I have learned that too. So many times, so many people I worked with in Columbia. That's what I like about us. You know, we circulate the money. You know, we always find opportunities for the other person because of our backgrounds. A lot of people don't know what we each do individually. Yeah. Our our skill set.

SPEAKER_04 11:29

I think that's another thing that makes our team different from other teams that I've seen work and do this. And even the way that we came together to do this work is a labor of love almost because I know with you and Kevin, when he bought the idea of doing this and we were talking about it, he was like, yo, I really want to bring to my end it. And he said, We definitely need to talk to Mike about doing this. It would make sense for what we do. The whole idea was working on everybody else's stuff and items and helping to try to make them into um, I guess, a uh brand. A brand, or monetizing them, getting their stuff out, and not see things turn out the right way for whatever reasons it may be. It was like, all right, we got all these this talent, we got all these skills. Why don't we do something that we like to do for ourselves that can help put us out there? But it doesn't have to be um a money-making venture because part of it is if you can make a good brand from that brand, you can find other ways to make money off of it, certain endeavors. So it's like we're creating we're creating a a vessel or a ship from which you can go and venture off and do other things. And and my thing is I like I like this ship that is created because I like to meet and talk to and see people from different spheres, etc., especially in our community. I like the fact that in our community here in Columbia specifically, we have so many cool um individuals and talented individuals that just don't get the limelight for whatever reason it may be. And one thing I found out, especially coming back to Columbia from Charleston, was the money politics behind it and location politics behind it. And I didn't realize it was this serious. I remember Kevin would be talking to me about this. I'm like, man, that makes no sense. That ain't real. And I had to go back to even my experience of growing up here and realize that, yeah, I didn't even go to certain parts of town.

SPEAKER_05 13:18

Right, about about the like there's there's sectors in the city. There's sectors, and you got this one, and I got this one over here, and my venues are not gonna necessarily let you in.

SPEAKER_04 13:32

That's it.

SPEAKER_05 13:33

And we didn't want to do that.

SPEAKER_04 13:34

Talk about it. Yeah, and we didn't want to do that anymore. That was that was one of the things that we saw was an issue because when you go to other places where people say, oh man, these people always put on, they're always making moves. Specifically, if you talk about a place like Atlanta, they have their sectors, et cetera, there's things going on. But one thing that set Atlanta apart in the South from a lot of major city areas is the fact in Atlanta, they realize that they all they got. So in Atlanta, is the only, you gotta imagine it's one of the only urban places in Georgia where you have the access to capital and the ability to build. Because I mean you could go to other places, you got Savannah, you got Gusta and stuff like that, but it's not the same as Atlanta. And if you know anything about the politics of Atlanta and how it's made up, it's very, it's a very rare thing to see those demographics anywhere else in Georgia. And so they kind of have to depend on each other. And if you look at the history of Atlanta with the race riots and everything that went on, they have to depend on each other. And that that ability to depend and trust each other to work and push each other is what makes it different from a lot of areas. And I'm like, why can't Columbia

Columbia’s Creative Scene And City Sectors

SPEAKER_04 14:45

do the same? Why can't we do the same thing? And so I've seen it start to change, especially after the pandemic, with the with the isolation that had going on during that time. People realize, okay, it is actually not cool to be this isolated.

unknown 15:01

Right.

SPEAKER_04 15:02

I need to go to the other side of Telly and shake hands.

SPEAKER_05 15:04

I can be an introvert. Yeah. But I but I hit the introvert level. Yes, yes. There we go.

SPEAKER_04 15:08

That's it. That's it. All right. So let's try something different. And so a lot of people have tried to reach out and do different things. And a lot of our folks, they go outside of the city anyway to other cities. That's right. And they see what the other cities do and how they operate.

SPEAKER_05 15:23

You gotta go to Charlotte or Charleston or Atlanta to hit shows. Yeah. Like that's we're part of that community, whether they certainly recognize it or not.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

I think people are doing more events now and um diversifying like the businesses because the different type of businesses are open up downtown and stuff like that. People are getting more opportunity to start a business and run a business in Colombia. So that's what I like to see.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Yeah, that's true. Especially um, especially like businesses that revolve around people. So I've been noticing that. That's been real that's been really huge um over like the past, especially like the past like two or three years. People businesses are coming back. That's what I like. Like I said, I think I think I think Columbia's going in a good direction. I do. I just wish we just had more time to do stuff. Yeah. Time. It's time. Like that's probably like the most difficult thing about what it is that we do. Because so much of what what we do too, yeah, we talk with people, but it's also about being involved and actually out in the community as well. And just finding the time between doing that and of course doing other things when it comes to life obligations and priorities. That's what makes it real difficult. I just wish things were just more spread out.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

I realize that this year. Yes, you're right.

SPEAKER_05 16:38

Um the calendar of events, the more kid-related activities, the more crammed.

SPEAKER_04 16:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Yeah. Your whole day like stacked.

SPEAKER_04 16:47

Yeah. Oh man. You all especially with you two, your days are set up.

SPEAKER_05 16:51

We had a baseball game this morning, had uh had a uh birthday party this afternoon. So that's all my.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

And I'm over here asking Mike, did you get a nap in? He's like, No, I gotta shower. I gotta shower.

SPEAKER_05 17:04

I'm clean.

SPEAKER_04 17:05

I showered. I don't smell bad.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

Everything else.

SPEAKER_04 17:10

Everything else, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

We all know about sleeping and shit.

SPEAKER_04 17:13

I showered. That's it. That's it. But nah, that that calendar of events thing is interesting because it seems like, and maybe it's because obviously we aren't that far away from 2020. It's not like we're a whole 10 years out, but once people were able to go back out, obviously the calendar of events was still based on what was going on in the past. So I think that it will start to even and spread itself out, hopefully, to where you can have the ability to hit more events because there's not an emphasis on on certain specific dates. Because we have certain hard line dates that you gotta do things here. Um, like I learned like over Juneteenth weekend, one thing that was I thought was interesting was that man, you gotta pick and choose an event because all the events were like yeah, too many, and they're all happening at the same time. So, like, where do you go spend your time at?

SPEAKER_05 18:04

Well, and then everything the rest of the year in Columbia is around football season. You gotta dodge low, you gotta dodge home games.

SPEAKER_04 18:13

Oh, you're right.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Traffic. Traffic for the home games, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:16

Because we don't have a mate, we don't have a a professional team, but the college athletics. 80,000 persons stadium for uh they think it's not the same, like no, it's the same, it's the same effect.

SPEAKER_05 18:30

You got NFL teams can't put 80,000 people in a stadium, and we do it on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_04 18:34

Yep. So that's a very big draw. So like once fall gets here, you are fighting time to get in and be seen. You really are. And I'll try to man, I tell people, good Lord Jesus. There's only eight home games. I know only eight. And it mat no, and it matters, it it takes off that whole section of the calendar. Yeah, it goes away. Um, and not to mention, too, you gotta think about the basketball team, especially women's basketball here. That takes off

Time Crunch And The Event Calendar

SPEAKER_04 19:02

that other part of the calendar. And so when when you have the end of spring through the beginning of fall, that is like the major time to be able to get out and go and do things. But obviously, like you talked about, family, friend events, um, holidays, etc., life things going on, it's a lot. And so I understand, and I see too part of the the issues that some of my friends um that work in this sphere and that put on events and stuff, like they always talk about it's hard to get people out sometimes. It's not like people don't want to come out, it's just that they are busy. Yeah, they are busy, yeah. So I can't get angry at them about that. I understand, like it's hard.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

So like even with us recording right now, there's an event going on. Yeah. That I want to go to today. See? Like that's how crazy it's like they got music videos being shot. Like, literally, there's a music video being shot outside right now. Like this dude who got the full gear set up, Sony camera set up, like you shoot a full music video and dressed it all white.

SPEAKER_04 19:58

Come on.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

But that's the thing to consider when you're actually planning an event, you know, everybody might not be able to make it and not to take it personally.

SPEAKER_05 20:07

Oh, yeah. That's true. Well, and I I mean, I'm not the person to do this, but I could see where like more collaboration and more cross-talk between event collaboration, maybe trying to make more festival type situations instead of individual events.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

That makes sense. You know, like I agree.

SPEAKER_05 20:31

I could see that being the direction Columbia starts going.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 20:35

Because we really do like that's what happens when you start getting a plethora of events going on, is you gotta kind of merge them together.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

I agree. However, this is what I'll say, and I'm gonna be the play devil's advocate with this. There are a lot of people, and I think we're almost there in Columbia for a lot of that stuff, because like I said, I talked to a lot of different people. Right, right. And about a lot of cool stuff that they're doing, and we talked to some, you know, and some different groups of people, but I'll say this a lot of times, the re well, the reason why that hasn't necessarily taken off here yet is within a lot of groups, you have people that may have, maybe there might have been some run-ins or some negative situations. Commercial beefs from back in the day, kind of. Yeah. And it and those things, you know, because everybody doesn't get over everything. They weren't resolved, right?

SPEAKER_05 21:27

Especially money is involved. Yeah. If it was an event that went sour, yeah. Chee. You may never live that down.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

Sometimes, you know, it could just be cheap.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Yeah, it could be money involved. It could be all kinds of things, it could be personal or it could be like relationship stuff, yeah, right? It can be like this happened to this friend or that friend and this person, you know. Right. And so, like I said, me, I'm type of like water rolls off ducks back kind of guy. Right, right, right. Everybody who knows me knows.

SPEAKER_05 21:56

To be a Scorpio, you do have a lot of water water rolling off your back.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty well stressed too.

SPEAKER_05 22:02

Best Scorpio I know.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

But it's like I talk to a lot of people, and it's like and you can't fault them for but you'd be like, yo, these people got beef with these people from like. And that's why you can't say nothing. And it might be legitimate beef.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

That's just

Festivals Work And Collaboration Gets Messy

SPEAKER_00 22:15

not my thing. Don't sweat the small stuff. That's a good book.

SPEAKER_04 22:20

Let some good sponsorship come in, though, y'all. Cheap and beef go away. Yeah. Let some good sponsorship.

SPEAKER_05 22:26

Well, but see, that's the thing is when the sponsorship comes in, then you have to trust the people you're dealing with. Yeah. And as soon as you can't trust people you're dealing with, then it's Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:36

You kind of let it go. And here's one of the things, so I think, and you're talking about the the festival aspect. There's some festival, because this is normally, and I like that you said this. The events that I normally can go to that are no problem, no issue, are going to be festival type events. Large gatherings groups where you have crossover and multiple people. That's easy to do. You you have um different things to go look at. You have options. Yeah. And what's good about them is the sponsorship is there. Yeah. So a lot of folks monetarily, it's not an issue for them to do it. Um, you're able to pay people. You aren't worried about not being able to get foot traffic or et cetera, just like the Cottontown Festival and things like that. When you have those types of events, even little art crawls and walks and different things that we have that go on down. That's my point. The reason why they're so good is you got a massive crossover, and then you'll have great sponsorship, not just from local groups of businesses, but even national businesses or brands, and they pour into the community. So we get that reinvestment. And I and I know that investments have been diverted and or canceled based on certain things going on politically. Money foobar right now, folks. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 23:55

I don't know if y'all are aware, but the nonprofit money foobar right now.

SPEAKER_04 23:59

Yeah, but when the money is where it's supposed to be, or especially what gets me is it's already been allocated. Some of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:07

Yeah, and it will be turned away. But all that stuff coming from corporate stuff, like uh it it's like it's like they snatched back so quick it scared a lot of people to snatch them back, also. And well, I don't know. Yeah, say it in a good way. Say it in a right way. I don't I don't I don't I don't want to abide by either party. Yep. I feel like that they both have ideas that we are supposed to come together on and decide which of these are supposed to be here and which these as soon as we go all one way or the other, it's fucked.

SPEAKER_04 24:46

That's it. But that's the that's what we run into. Like I want to I want to make sure that you feel pain or that you get punished because you aren't coming on this side. And that sucks because oh you're punishing just why are you punishing the community for a political price?

SPEAKER_05 25:04

Punishing the community of like like centerism is like the most hated thing right now.

SPEAKER_04 25:09

Oh no.

SPEAKER_05 25:10

Like like purity, purity. If you want a little bit of Republican ideas and a little bit of Democrat ideas, then you're you're hated by everybody.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

Purity. Like I said, it's the algorithm. Yeah, forget that purity stuff. I think a lot of that stuff, man. I think a lot, not that it's all tied to social media, but I do think it plays a big role.

SPEAKER_05 25:28

Yeah, because I think it changed the way we consume media over the past 20 years, and we still have not figured it out. Yeah, it's the thing.

SPEAKER_04 25:34

We still have babies. It's still babies in it.

SPEAKER_05 25:36

There has been no regulation.

Sponsorship Money And Political Whiplash

SPEAKER_05 25:39

There's been no change in any of this. The FCC basically has been neutered because nothing.

SPEAKER_04 25:48

It's dang.

SPEAKER_05 25:49

But you gotta think. You're right. I went to journalism school. You're right. As soon as it switched to going over the internet, that is not a limited frequency. That is an unlimited frequency. So the FCC cannot give you a license that says you're allowed to broadcast for the for the people. So now it's just like all of that mechanism that used to control mass communications is now it's all it's all in limbo.

SPEAKER_04 26:27

There's no precedent for it.

SPEAKER_05 26:28

Well they've been making precedent for 20 years that the precedent is they say stuff that they don't actually like have the constitutional they can't do it. Is it the the enforcement part of it?

SPEAKER_04 26:42

Part of it? Because they could write, we could write, we could change law and legislation. I know something does need to be updated. We could write a law.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

When was the last law?

SPEAKER_04 26:51

I know that's what I'm saying. It needs to be updated. Because what is it? What is it? Our internet, so so the the laws, the laws that govern internet usage, especially when it comes to like corporate and media or or talk about net neutrality? Yeah, what is it, night 1996?

Algorithms Change Speech And Regulation Lags

SPEAKER_05 27:09

Well, net neutrality was dumb to begin with. I know, I know. I mean, I mean, excuse me. We should have total net neutrality. Yeah, yeah. We should we should it should just be like once you connect to the internet, you now have the internet.

SPEAKER_04 27:26

Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 27:27

And your ISP should not be like gatekeeping your internet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

Slowing speeds down.

SPEAKER_05 27:32

And and but we we haven't got to the point where they're like blocking stuff people care about.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

That's true.

SPEAKER_05 27:39

When they start blocking CNN because it's too liberal, or they start blocking Fox because it's too conservative. Then we'll read it. Right. Do you know what this kind of reminds me of? When my alien websites get blocked because they're too crazy. That doesn't matter. Alien websites. Alien's right. That's right. Alien conspiracy websites get blocked and they block the hell out of them and nobody says anything about it. Why are you blocking it if they're in an alien conspiracy? Just preach, preach.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

Yeah, because some people's videos get taken down when they say certain things.

SPEAKER_05 28:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Like where does the line draw? Where do you draw the line?

SPEAKER_05 28:12

I mean, if you watch people try to like report on YouTube about Epstein, because they get they get demonetized if they say pedophilia or anything like that. Well, I probably can't say it. You gotta bleep it out.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

Yeah, I'm yours marker at it, so I'll figure it out. Fortunately, you don't make money on this podcast. So it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 28:34

That's why we do it. See, this is what y'all are. See, when you aren't tired of behold corporate dollars, sullied. Sullied, but you're not sullied.

SPEAKER_05 28:41

But you're not gonna be able to do it. But you have literally you have people report reporting on Epstein and they have to like bleep out the stuff they're recording. Which is sad.

SPEAKER_04 28:49

Like we're grown, like we're adults, like we don't know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_05 28:52

Well, but we're not bleeping something that is profane. Right. I know that's bleeping facts, algorithm keywords. I know. That's the problem.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

Yeah, and it's so weird. Like you'll watch stuff on YouTube, and it's like there's a whole new language that has been developed.

SPEAKER_05 29:08

To talk about things that you ain't allowed to talk about.

SPEAKER_04 29:10

Yeah, and we and this is supposed to be freedom. Uh you I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna step us back. We were talking about the the laws governing the internet. And I'll have to say this it kind of reminds me of automobile usage in the mid-night in the mid-1900s, like 1950s, 1960s, and seatbelt laws. Oh yeah. So there was I people don't you can think about it, you understand this, right? So seat belts, there's a company called Volvo, nice cars, real safe cars, good cars. Volvo, right? That one of the engineers there came up with the seatbelt. And instead of patenting the seatbelt to be used only in a Volvo, they realized that, hey, you know what? You gotta have it open to everybody, yeah, because this is something that could save lives, right? And this is from studies that were done. Yeah, man, Volvo is a Swedish company. It's not like they're over here just like, oh, I want to make money, make money. They're a defense contractor. I know they make jets. So watch this, watch this, watch this how crazy this is. They did not decide to make it a for-profit thing, they released it to everybody to be able to use seatbelts, right? Now, there were certain car companies and certain politicians that didn't want seat belts because they were angry at regulation. So they started to release ads on TV with people talking about how their rights were being prohibited by needing to put a seatbelt on to ride around town.

SPEAKER_05 30:34

I mean, I will say. I will. I'll say it. Say it pulling people over because they're not wearing a seatbelt is a gateway to allowing racist policing.

SPEAKER_04 30:50

Oh, we know that.

SPEAKER_05 30:51

And seatbelt laws are not about protecting people from injury, they are about giving police a right to pull you over.

Seatbelts As Safety And Social Control

SPEAKER_04 31:01

Now I have a question. Do you think that that was the reason for it back in the 1950s and 60s?

SPEAKER_05 31:10

I have a book. It's this awesome little like book from the 40s or 50s, and it has like all these little woodworking projects in it. And one of them is this cool little cradle that you could make for the bench seat in your automobile, and it would it would it would like clamp on right here, and you could have a baby sitting like right here. In this little cradle. Yeah, it's a woodworking diagram for how you can make this wooden cradle to clamp onto the bench seat because that's what you needed. Because you're driving around in the 40s, you got a bench seat. You need the baby right here to be able to get to the baby. Yeah, because you could have reached back. And it was the first car seat. Yeah, but there ain't no strapping trapping.

SPEAKER_04 31:59

Now I'm saying it's a distress. This is something that at this point that we're talking about this because all right, so I alright, I used to be in a relationship with somebody and they dad, he was an EMS worker, and he's always talking about like safety and driving. And I'm like, why are you always talking about safety and driving? He's like, yo, I picked up a head off the ground. Oh put your seatbelt on. Put your seatbelt on. Yeah. He said he said, you don't realize, he said, he said, physics, force and mass, speed. Yeah. He said, your body shoots right through it. He said, that that windshield, yeah, it's strong, but your body will shoot right through it. And so he said, put the seatbelt on.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

Put the seatbelt on. After her, I said, you know what? No, I'm putting a seatbelt on.

SPEAKER_04 32:50

We're riding around with a safe belt.

SPEAKER_05 32:52

I'm putting my safe belt like Mike was saying. But there were generations of people that were like, oh, I'll put it on if I'm gonna get in an accident. Like I remember going. I remember the gets cut out of her car because it beeped at her when the seatbelts went out and she cut them out.

SPEAKER_04 33:10

Yeah, remember the one that takes around. Some people don't even remember that. Yeah, I remember cut it out.

SPEAKER_03 33:19

That one was cool. It just comes out, you just get in the cards there.

SPEAKER_04 33:24

Except for the movies, they used to use that as a way for like Jason and stuff to get to people because like I would catch them in there and they were ah.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Oh no, I can't get out of my school. Yeah, but the other thing we got me about, we used to get me about Jason, though. Jason used to catch everybody moving at like a three mile.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

Wait, so slow. The dramatics of the media.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

Everybody run to Jason.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

It's the music, it's the music.

SPEAKER_04 33:46

He had consistent speed. I always tell people that Jason andor Michael Myers, they had to be physics. They had like have PhD in physics. Like their understanding of parabolas and how to cut off people at and what speed they needed to be going at, and the angle is amazing. It's immaculate. Do a great job. And the heads would roll. Back to heads rolling.

SPEAKER_05 34:08

Heads rolling. If you don't put on a seatbelt, your head gonna roll.

SPEAKER_04 34:10

Yep. So wear your safe belt. Wear your safe belt. It's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

So one of the things I want to talk to you guys about, man, was um what did y'all because of course we're going into next season. Yep. And I want to know what direction did you guys want to go in. As far as like the type guests we talk about, like we talk to, like the types of themes. Because one of the things um that I I know is we always of course we stick with arts. And uh that's always gonna be our heart and stuff. But I know there's other things that are important to us as well.

SPEAKER_04 34:44

Somebody's alarm is going off.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

Yeah, I don't know whose alarm that is. Some of them broke it.

SPEAKER_04 34:48

I hope y'all can't hear it on the mic, but we can definitely hear it.

SPEAKER_05 34:50

There's a crime. No, no more.

SPEAKER_04 34:54

Okay, producer. Yeah, our our interns listen, they can't hear it. So we we good and that dang, it went off and came back on. Maybe that's on purpose. Maybe it's for the music video.

SPEAKER_02 35:01

I'm gonna continue. But the whole point is, um, because I know we've been having conversations off and on through text about maybe do, you know, like bringing on some folks, like maybe talking like some political stuff, like people involved and like running for office and stuff. Oh, that was cool. But outside of that, um, what else were y'all thinking about as far as like expanding into next season?

SPEAKER_05 35:24

I mean I mean, I'm gonna be honest, last time we sat down and really had this conversation seriously, I said I wanted to talk to Cedric Amoja, Aja Monet, and uh Dokun. And we had all three of them on. That's true. Do we think it's Centricon, right? Yeah, okay. I was looking at tonight.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

We was on like an early episode of the city. Yeah, it seems like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:55

Yeah, we had all three of them on. Oh, yeah, that is right.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:59

I mean, it's been, I mean, you know. The only people I would the

Next Season Goals And Guest Ideas

SPEAKER_04 36:04

only thing I would say I I would want to do is if we could get some more nationally known figures from the area. Oh, really? That would be awesome. Like folks who either have roots in South Carolina um are known to work in or around South Carolina. The so North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, those three states, because that's basically our region. That's where we pull our people from. I think that would be good because uh it would to tie those people to the cachet of individuals we already have, it would help elevate them as well. Yeah, sure. It would help elevate them. Obviously, for a platform, it'll be good, but it'll help elevate them. So as people would see the peop other people that we bring on that may be local or may not have uh as large of a um uh of a viewership or audience, it'll give them some gusto. Make people say, you know what, that person, they're they're on the same podcast as such and such was on. And it's not like we gotta be doing drink champs um or anything like that, because obviously we have a very specific niche that we're hitting, and I like how we hit our niche, and I like our professionalism. I mean, I'm down for that. But I don't know. We don't care about famous people. Here's my thing though. I'm not, I don't, I don't want to prostrate ourselves for it. This is what I mean by it. I got you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I ain't pimping ourselves, we won't pimp ourselves out for it.

SPEAKER_05 37:30

But if you're from South Carolina and you notice what we're doing here.

SPEAKER_04 37:34

Yeah, we ain't we ain't turning ourselves out for the star status. But what I'm saying is if you're one of those individuals and you want to actually come on to a professionally done podcast, we preach Stephen Colbert preach. We don't do yellow journalism, we give you a chance to actually speak your mom. We won't enter. We actually we have a very level and flat, it kind of reminds me like we're the better version of NPR. We are the better version of NPR. Again, not sullied by the well, we're not also paid for public dollars.

SPEAKER_05 38:05

It's coming from us. Give us some NPR dollars and see what we could do. Hey, for me, it will probably be.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

Of course, I like the artists, but you know, after a while it gets hard trying to find new new artists or like people who are serious about their craft or comfortable enough to come on a podcast and talk because some people are shy or you know, who knows what they're going through. But um we could put them behind. I would say more, like you said, government people, because with us working for the state, we got to see how you combine arts with the government and get, you know, money that way. A lot of people don't know how to do that. A lot of our people don't know how to do that. So I think that would be a good idea.

SPEAKER_05 38:45

Oh, like working people, not read not politicians, but politicians.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

I don't really care about politics.

SPEAKER_04 38:50

They could be shoot, like government officials or people in certain legislation parts. It's people that can get you the resources to get information.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Information, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

Yeah. No, that makes a lot of sense. I think for me, um, the biggest thing is I want us to do more stuff where it's just us talking. True. Because um, you remember we had this conversation um back in March when we met with Shakespeare. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:12

Sharad said we should um do more of ourselves.

SPEAKER_02 39:16

Yeah, because a lot of people don't really like, you know, there's people who know us, of course, that we know personally outside of the podcast, but a lot of people like who might be listening to us, they don't really know our personalities like that. And they don't really know that we actually get along with each other because everything is really just based on us until they come here and then they're like, wow, y'all are so cool.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

Y'all actually like each other. We have leverages. Y'all ain't fighting nobody? Nah. No.

SPEAKER_04 39:40

Yeah, we don't have any of those weird um like my dad would say, because from old school, he would say, any of those weird hangups.

SPEAKER_05 39:46

Oh, like like like like like in Hollywood when they cut off on uh on the on the news show and everybody's like, ah or thriller.

SPEAKER_04 39:56

Yeah, or you got like weird relationships in the group. Like we don't have any of that. We don't have any of that. We don't do that stuff. And I think that's based on how we came together to do this, and us having an understanding and mindset of what it is that we were coming here to do. We didn't come in here with a with a false understanding of the idea that, hey, we're gonna become superstars off of this, and I'm gonna have a um a dressing room, and I'm gonna be driving a Lamborghini and I'm gonna be flying over here to France. Like, that's not what we did.

SPEAKER_05 40:23

We did this specifically for what it is. Yep. We wanted to sit down and talk to people and um share those conversations back to the community and do this Columbia thing. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

And it's like I think we put our egos to the side to get the job done. Yeah, we get our we get the job done.

SPEAKER_02 40:41

Yeah, and we don't really are like that's one thing people don't get. Like, we don't really argue with each other. Now we be mad at each other. Like we know when we be mad at each other, we pissed off at each other, but we don't act it out. We just work through it and we just accept it. Because I know a lot of times now I be mad at me. Look, can't say that?

SPEAKER_03 40:57

I know, I know. You ready? You ready? But it's like it's like a good, it's like a good sports team.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

It's like a love-hate relationship.

SPEAKER_04 41:04

It's like a good sports team where I'm like, yo, pick the darn block up, bro. I'm getting my head knocked off. Right. It's like that. It's not it's not off on some weird ego. Right. You know what I'm saying? It's not any ego stuff. So it's like, okay, you know what? That is right. I should pass the ball more. Yeah. Or uh, yeah, let me get over here and make sure I think about it. Like somebody told me, I don't want to bring your change of clothes. Yes, ma'am. Even my wife be like, oh, you got your change of clothes. Yeah, I got my change of clothes. I'll make sure. They don't even bother telling me to bring a change of clothes.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

Mike always just did what he did. I showed up. I'm here. I showed up, I took a shower.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

I'm good. Little rolls.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

Little rolls. But yeah, I think I think that's the thing. I do want to like not necessarily um scale back like the group interviews, but really just like I said, people need to like we're some pretty cool people, man. People need to know our learn more about our personality stuff. We got our guests coming in.

SPEAKER_04 41:58

Yeah, we got guests coming in. Yeah, come on in, take a seat. Take a seat. We're just doing our season recap. Y'all are good.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

Yes. Yep. And so with that said, I guess we can wrap up.

SPEAKER_04 42:09

We got our interns right here, y'all.

SPEAKER_02 42:12

Yep. Oh, we told us to wrap up. We got the wrap-up sign coming from the turns.

SPEAKER_04 42:16

All right. So um obviously. Season six, thank you. Yeah, and the support. Yes, thank you, thank you. Especially in the community.

SPEAKER_05 42:25

Keep listening, keep watching, keep sending stuff, keep sending people.

SPEAKER_04 42:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 42:30

Um, let us know what's going on out in the community because we we really do want to see this grow. We want to see everybody enjoy uh what we provide. That's really what we do it for.

SPEAKER_04 42:43

Yep. We do it for the we do it for the people. For the people. That's it. Yep. But for the Hilltop Glove, we got Mike Tamaia, DJ and what? And we have our interns in the back. That's you. That's you. Say your name. All right, and Savannah.

SPEAKER_03 43:04

Say your name. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Savannah loud. There we go, there we go. There we go.

SPEAKER_04 43:19

We're signing out. Make sure by make sure you tell somebody next to you that you love 'em and you appreciate them. You don't know what will happen in the next five to ten minutes or tomorrow. Peace.