The Food Expert: This Diet Slowly Kills You - Avoid These Meals! | Sonny Food Review

Most of the joy in my life comes from food. >> I've been to 60 plus countries at this point. I've eaten a lot of delicious foods, but I've also eaten a lot of questionable foods. >> Is there anything you won't eat? >> The symptoms I should be worried about after eating this is like suddenly my muscles aren't working. I can't move. >> Uh, yes. >> Um, no, I don't think so. [music] >> The mission of our channel is to search out and document the most unique [music] cultures and unique foods from around the world. Tomorrow I'm traveling to Afghanistan. This is a food that you have to risk being kidnapped in order [music] to try. Why? That's a good question. Food is something that binds us all. It's something that we all do. So, as a channel, I just want to push further and show people more that's out there. How do you justify playing with your life on the line? >> Oh, cuz usually I don't think I'm going to >> under Taliban. To [music] be honest, security is quite good. Have you ever eaten anything illegal? >> Um, so Sunny, you run one of the most popular food review channels on YouTube. It's absolutely bingeable content. I love it. Thank you so much for coming on the Ice Coffee Hour. >> Thank you for having me. I also want to say a huge thank you to Joshua Weissman for connecting us. >> Yes. So, I didn't actually care if you said no to me cuz I approached you about being on the podcast, but I at least wanted you to know I was asking and Joshua facilitated that. So, that's >> so cool. That's an honor. No, I've been starting to like binge your content lately. >> Some of it really makes me nauseous. I'm going to be honest. >> It's It's hard to watch. >> Thank you. >> I'm curious. What's the most dangerous food that you've eaten? >> Oh, wow. Right off the bat. Dangerous. Well, dangerous how? Um, oh, I'll tell you something. We just published and this is it fits the danger criteria exactly. Oh, this is a crazy story. So, we were just in Borneo. Borneo is the largest island in all of Asia and I believe the third largest in the world. And there they have a food known as puffer fish. Now, in Japan, they call it fugu. And you've probably everyone's heard of fugu. It started with the Simpsons episode. And you know the lore is that in Japan they have to get a special certificate in order to serve fugu because it's poisonous and if you serve it or prepare it in the wrong way people will and people every year from this even in Japan but I didn't eat it in Japan. I ate it in Malaysian borneo. And so we were with the Baja people. These are a tribe of people an ethnic group knowing for living on the water. If you've ever heard about these YouTube videos, people who can hold their breath for like seven or nine minutes, these are the people. Is that real? Yes. Yes. And so these people, they caught a puffer fish and they prepared the puffer fish for me. Now, why is it more dangerous? Well, there's no certificate. There's just an old lady in the village who promised she had never killed anybody. That's it. The scary part of about all this is I ate the food and then I found out some information afterwards during editing that I didn't know during filming which would have affected whether or not I ate the food in the first place. So she she cooked the food, I ate it, and after about four bites, I felt my mouth going a little bit numb and I was tingling and I felt like this isn't good. By the way, you the way you from this is you get paralyzed. your muscles slowly you you slowly lose the ability to move and then you can no longer breathe. And there's no antidote. The antidote is try your best to stay alive. That's it. And so I ate it. After about four bites, I was feeling something and I was like, I'm good. I'm done. What I found out later during editing is that the most poisonous part of the fish was included in the dish. The thing you're not supposed to eat. So the skin is poisonous. That was thrown away. But the liver, which is huge on a puffer fish, was put completely in like completely intact into the dish and then mushed up with all the other. >> Why did she do that though? Is it is is that the part that will get you? >> Yes. >> Why was that included? >> I have no idea. And so I had a a long emotional talk with my producer like, "Hey, hey, maybe next time if they put the most poisonous part of the fish into a walk and cook it and they feed it to me, maybe just quick heads up. Um otherwise, you're not going to have a job." Not cuz I'm going to fire you, cuz I'll be dead. >> So, do you think that she was lying when she said she's never hurt anybody from the way she prepares this fish? >> No. No, I don't think she was lying cuz I looked her I looked deep in her eyes and actually I did something even more cynical. Uh, an hour before we had our eating scene, I had my camera guys take footage of her eating a couple of bites. So, by the time that we ate >> So, you gave yourself a buffer. You're like, "Okay, I'm going to pay close attention to her after she took these bites and we'll see if I can eat it." By the time I we ate, I said, "How you feeling?" And she said, "Fine. Why?" And then I go, "Okay, boom." That she passed the first test, so at least a couple bites should be fine. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's people eating too much, if they get the wrong concentration. I mean, there's not like a uniform toxicity to these fish. And the toxicity that they acquire comes from the food that they're eating. And so, you could get one that's more or less intense. And some people also like the a little bit of numbing feeling. How do you justify playing with your life on the line like that when you have everything going for you? You have a wife. You have a massive YouTube channel. I'm sure you're making plenty of money. Why do you continue to take those risks? Oh, cuz usually I don't think I'm going to That's it. >> But this was still like like you know there was a clear >> um I don't want to just do basic simple straightforward videos. I don't I do those too, you I did a bunch of state fair videos this summer and we did a a Thai noodle tour that we're posting now and those are great, but I I just as a channel on YouTube, as somebody who's trying to push the limits of the travel food niche, I just want to push further and and show people more that's out there and try to make more scintillating content, captivating content. And but, you know, I I'm not reckless when I do these things. cuz I try to plan ahead and be thoughtful about it. Um, but we try to find that edge. We try to find the line and uh and push it a little bit. >> What recent ideas have you vetoed? >> Not [clears throat] many things. Um, my team, my team is interested in going to Russia. We're all interested in going to Russia in December and they're pushing for me to get my visa, but we haven't done enough research about can we actually go there with cameras. We we've contacted fixers there. So a fixer is like a local guide or producer who say, "Yeah, you can come and film here. No problem." But you always have to be careful for that that bias. I would say if you're going to go to a place like Afghanistan, don't just trust the local fixers who when you leave are still living in Afghanistan. And so you have to be a little bit careful with uh the advice that you're getting and who you're listening to. Um and so with Russia, I said, "Let's pump our brakes. Let's get a few more opinions from local fixers and let's maybe hear from some Americans who have traveled there recently too filming and see what their experience was. >> What about North Korea? >> I'm interested in North Korea, but the Americans aren't allowed to travel there anymore. And if you do, there's like four very specific exceptions in which you're allowed to travel there. But after um Warren Beer tragically was, you know, imprisoned and then later um for stealing a propaganda poster, um they've restricted people from going into North Korea. And I used to live in South Korea and they I visited the demilitarized zone. That's where Trump met Kim Jong-un, but uh I've never actually been in North Korea. It'd be interesting because of any language outside of English, my Korean's pretty decent. And there's a lot of similarities in food, but they have some of their own unique foods, too. In fact, there's a a famous North Korean cold noodle that you can find in South Korea that's uh served with ice. It's it's unique stuff. It's really delicious. >> Is there anything you won't eat? >> So, kind of our rules, our guidelines for the show about whether we should eat it or not is like, are other people doing it? Cuz we don't want to just do something for the show for the sake of doing it just to be sensational. And is the animal in question uh endangered? So maybe people are doing it, but they're eating endangered animals. Maybe it's I don't I don't think it's happened. We try our best to do good research, but um our intention is to not do that. >> How much of our food taste do you think is instinctual versus cultural? >> I see a lot of the foods on there where I think there's no way I could stomach that, but for them it's completely normal. I'm sure there's like potato chips that they would see us eating and they think, why would you eat that? That's disgusting. I >> I think it's almost 90% cultural. And I'll tell you why. I I used to teach kindergarten in Korea. And so these kids were like three, four, five. And you know, we have kids in the USA. We have very big kids in the USA who won't do won't eat anything but like chicken nuggets. But when I was teaching in Korea, these kids are three, four, five. They're eating kimchi. They're eating sardines. Like really like fishy, chewy, dried fish. And they love it. And they don't, it's not offputting to them. They don't have any thoughts about it. And I mean, I was with the Data tribe in Tanzania and a kid spit out Twizzlers, thought it was disgusting, which he had a point. And then he went and tried raw liver and raw heart that had been dipped in gastric acid and raw blood. That's a kid. So that sounds pretty cultural to me. That's a kid that came up with that food. That's like a special delicacy. And he's like, I don't want this uh plasticky Twizzlers. I'm going for the rock cow heart. >> I swear I saw a video one time of this tribe that was like untouched by most of like Western civilization and a member of the tribe was drinking soda and they were like enjoying it though. Someone brought them soda and enjoyed it. What have you seen with like providing you know western foods more like processed things to some of these more untouched communities? Um, so we've done that here and there just as a a fun gimmicky video. It's not really the core of what we do at all, but we've brought candy or or American food to different tribes in Africa or to nomadic people in Mongolia, and the it's mixed. You know, sometimes they love it um and sometimes they hate it. It depends on what it is. But but my favorite part is what they compare it to because even what did I give? I gave maybe a peanut butter cup or some kind of candy to this Hzab tribe. It's like Africa's last hunter gatherer tribe and they're just comparing it to stuff they know. So there's like, oh, this cookie part is kind of like ugali, which is corn flour maze that's been turned into something thick enough to eat by hand. And then they're like, "Oh, and there's something sweet like honey." Well, these guys forge for honey and trees. And so they know these components and they can, you know, that's their local comparison to what they're trying when it comes to American candy. But, you know, if you give them warheads, hot tamales, they don't always love it. Would you ever eat human? I'm open to it. So, I I traveled to Would I do it? I you know I would be more fascinated by documenting it and you know when I was with that same tribe the Hab tribe I filmed them the monkey cook it over fire crack its head open cook the brains and eat the brains in in the movie Indiana Jones there's this iconic scene where all these people eat monkey head they put a monkeykey's head through the table and then they break the skull and they scoop the brains out and I thought oh my this is like I could have this Indiana Jones moment. I could try it for myself, but it wasn't about me. It was about this guy having, you know, enjoying the fruits of his efforts. He hunted this monkey and this is probably one of the best, most rich flavor packed parts of the monkey. So, I I didn't want to get in there and be like, well, give me some. So, I would just be more enthused about the idea of being able to document people eating human and stumbling upon something like that cuz I think it's rare. And to be honest, I don't think it happens anymore. Where it used to happen uh is Papa New Guinea. And we travel to Papa New Guinea with tribes of people who not so long ago their grandparents were doing just that. But the uh missionaries who went there kind of put an end to it. They converted people to Christianity and they convinced them like, "Hey, how about not eating people from other tribes?" Why would they do that though? Was that just because they would it they were like opponents and it they saw it as a why would they eat so well? >> Yeah. Yeah. So it was just a it was a power thing and >> um especially you know they would it's the whole thing is so wild like dogs factor into it and that's even the least weird part of the whole eating uh situation that they described. So you would maybe go to war with this other tribe. It's like it's a mountain side. Isn't there enough mountain? And so they go to war, you somebody you you have their body, you scalp them, um you take them back, and then they would mince human meat with dog meat and then feed it to the kids because they felt it gave the kids power. Pretty intense. And that's not that long ago, maybe let's say 100 years ago, but I don't think that's happening now. >> How do you have a stomach to be able to do that? And just like if it were offered to you that you would say, "All right, I'll have a bite." Like >> I can't say for sure that I would do it. That's a tough one. I mean, it's so hypothetical because I just don't think it exists anymore. And so, yeah, I mean, if I was in that scenario, the more I think about it, Yeah. I mean, that specific scenario, I mean, they're eating. >> Yeah. They're they're already in the middle of eating and they just say, "Here's >> my eating like the remains of someone they through war." I mean, I would be um interested to film and document it. In the end, would I really do it myself? Probably not. But regardless of that, there's a lot of foods that I've seen you eat where I wouldn't be able to put that in my mouth and chew. >> Sure. >> It was just I I couldn't do it. The insects >> there were there little larvae beetles that you ground up and you put those into like a little pizza thing. The live >> Yeah. It's >> like just anything monkey the the bearclaw. There's there's so much that >> I wouldn't be able to eat. >> It's um it's something you get used to. So, the insects are a weird one because before I ate insects, they appeared very disgusting to me, but then after you eat one or two, you're like, "Oh, fried crickets. It's kind of like eating uh peanuts at a bar or something." It it's it's not that big of a deal. It's kind of papery. It's salty. It's crunchy. It's not gooey on the inside. Now, you have a completely different perception when you look at this insect. And it's the same for a lot of different insects and a lot of different foods. As you try more and more, you go, "Oh, that's not that big of a deal, actually." So, that's one thing. The other thing is it's my job. And so there'd be nothing more disappointing or lame, I think, from the audience point of view than someone going all the way to this location, documenting the process and the the customs and the reason behind why these people do what they do and then at the last minute saying, "But for me, it's a little too icky." Super lame. Like you just have to do it. And so you could you do it? 100% you could do it. You just put it in your mouth and chew. >> So, >> you wouldn't want to, but you definitely could. >> What's the last food then? The most recent thing that you ate that you kind of recoiled at the the idea of I mean, recently we ate bat meat in Malaysia. A lot of stuff in Malaysia. Yeah. So, so that's interesting because we were we had just crossed the border from Brunai. Have you guys heard of Brunai? >> I've heard of it. So Brunai is um so this is part of our series that we did on the island of Borneo and Bernay is a small country that takes up only about 1% of the land. It's a country that invited me to go there in 2019 their tourism board but also in 2019 they implemented Sharia law and this was like a big headline all around the world. Brunai, it's a Muslim country. They implement Sharia law. It's a form of Muslim law, religious law. And so certain things, you know, if you steal, they can cut off your hand. If you commit adultery, if you are Muslim and decide to become not Muslim, they can stone you to if you're a homosexual, they can stone you to. And so that sounded pretty bad in 2019. So when they invited me, I said, "Thanks, but no thanks." like uh I don't really want to take the money or the handouts from the country that's doing these sort of things. So recently I decided you know what we're covering Borneo why don't we just go there and kind of see how it is for ourselves and we went to Borneo and it couldn't be more different from what we saw in those headlines. So the number of people to this date that have had their hands removed zero. The number of people who have been stoned zero. So Bernay is this interesting country that has this kind of identity crisis where they want to show that they have this religious purity but in reality they're actually a bit flexible when it comes to um the way they conduct themselves in that country. So they have these laws on the books but do they ever carry them out? No. But they can. That said they can. That said drinking you can have alcohol. you could have and you could bring like two bottles of alcohol into that country, but you can't I don't think you can buy it in the country. And so we found this interesting custom tradition trend that people do when they want to have a good time cuz there's no nightife there cuz there's no bars. And so what people do is they leave Brunai and they go into Malaysia and they come back before immigration closes. So immigration closes at 10 p.m. Maybe they head to Malaysia, you know, from the capital. would take maybe 25, 30 minutes. And then right across the border, uh, 100 yards after you've crossed immigration, tons of popup bars and clubs and hole-in-the-wall diners. And in one of those diners, there was a small Chinese restaurant. And on the menu, they add bat. >> And so that's one of the more unusual foods I've eaten recently. The weirdest part about it, it's not my first time eating bat, it's maybe my third. It was pretty good. Now, >> most of you have probably never heard of this, but our sponsor Public just launched what's called generated assets, which introduces AI into investing in a way that we've never seen before. You type in an idea, like AI powered supply chain companies with positive free cash flow, or autonomous vehicle companies with revenue growth over 25% year-over-year. Publix AI then scans thousands of stocks, evaluates them, and then builds a custom index around your thesis. What's really impressive is how clearly it explains why every stock is included. Plus, before you invest, you could back test your information against the S&P 500 so you could make decisions with context instead of just guessing. And beyond generated assets, Public lets you invest in stocks, bonds, options, crypto, all in one app. And guys, they will even give you an uncapped 1% match when you transfer your investments from another platform. So, if you want to build a portfolio that actually matches your thinking, visit pub.com/istic with the link down below in the description. Opening an account takes less than 5 minutes. All you have to do is go to pub.com/istic. That is publicub.com/istic. There's also a link down below in the description. You can just click it right there. pub.com/istic. Paid for by public investing. Full disclosures in the description. Now, in terms of Brunai, I'm curious about the lack of crime. Do you think that's just because the penalty is so great that people say it's not worth it for me to risk stealing or doing these things because I want to keep my hands? Because I'm trying to relate this back to here in the US that maybe crime is more prevalent because the punishment is so much less. >> Like you could steal basically under $1,000 in California and they're not going to do anything. And so a lot of people steal under $1,000 in California. >> Yeah, that's a it's that's a tough issue. So there's no one that's a multiffactorial issue and one of the factors is punishment. The other factor is culture. So, >> uh, you're going to get a lot of different different results in Los Angeles compared to Tokyo, even if Tokyo has >> less harsh penalties. People in Tokyo do the right thing because they're part of this homogeneous Japanese society that operates a certain way. >> Yeah. >> So, that's a Yeah, that's a tough one. >> Interesting. Why do you think there's this connection through eating food together? >> I mean, food is something that binds us all. It's something that we all do. We all eat food. We all have beliefs around food. We all grow up with a parent or grandparent telling us something is good for you or bad for you or this food heals you or this food is destructive for you. And so I mean that's why food for some people even kind of becomes a religion when you're looking at e carnivore or vegan folks. It's it's something we all do and and so pe some people develop just in really intense um beliefs around it. It seems like it's one of those things though around the world that everyone gets together and eats together for the most part. >> Like that's that one thing that everyone get behind. Like same with music. It's like a universal language similar to eating together. >> Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. It's it's something that brings people together. It's a time for families to come together. I mean across the world that it's a good point and it's just to eat together is human. I've not been to a culture where it's like oh you know like how we go to bathroom separately. We also eat separately. Nothing like that. You know, everywhere you go, food is either the center of a family or a community. >> And it's only, you know, more and more in the US now is it's this thing that we do alone. Like we go through sad drive-thrus and >> shame eat in our cars or have somebody deliver us food, way too much food for way too much money on Uber Eats. >> And um I I do think food is better when it's shared with others. But it's interesting though because I remember I was feeding monkeys in Japan and they're very much like they'll they'll grab something but then they'll run off with it. Like they don't want to eat together. It seems like that's a commonality between a lot of animals like let me hoard this to myself. And maybe if food wasn't so bountiful, we would all be like, "No, that's mine." And just, you know, I'll be in my corner. >> When I was with the Hudabi tribe in Africa, I I asked a similar question. You know, the person who gets to be chief there is the person who is the best hunter. And but the best hunter, he doesn't take more food than the others. And no one takes more food than the others because they're part of a community or part of a a society no matter the size. And and there it might be groups of let's say six to 10 people. And the you're going to be exiled from this group of people if you're taking more than your share. If you're doing that move, if you're grabbing the food and running away with it, you no longer have this band of brothers to hunt with. and they need a group of people like they they depend on others to hunt and be able to bring back a baboon or a and and to have a meal together. So, um you know people are different than animals. But >> yeah, >> that that I mean my thinking is it just is part of the social fabric. If you are greedy, if you take if you're going to take more than what's yours, you're going to be exiled. How often do you feel pressure to act like the food tastes really good when you're eating it in front of the person that just made it? Or if you're in Afghanistan, let's just say, and you're getting some street vendor food and then some guy right next to you is standing with like, you know, a gun. How could you be like, "Oh yeah, this bread is, you know, disgusting." Or, "This is awful. I'm never going to eat this." >> I like I like that in your mind the guys with the guns are like, "Better say the bread's good. Better say the bread's good." Um, how? So, I think that a couple of things. Oddly enough, my show is called Best Ever Food Review Show, but I don't really see myself as a review show or like as a actual critic. My goal is to show different cultures and different food from around the world and just be kind of a vessel through which people can see those things. Um, beyond that, um, I think there's many ways to talk about what you're eating and kind of try to get the point across in a subtle way. Even if you're eating something disgusting, you don't have to say there's more tactful ways to talk about it than just saying, "Oh, yuck, gross, disgusting." Um, and there's I there's you can always try to focus on something positive. And so I I try to, you know, I hope there's some kind of connection between me and the audience when I speak where they understand, oh, okay, he's not so much into this one. But I will say it's certainly more challenging to be open when when the person who made it is right in front of you and maybe they understand the same language as you or speak the same language as you. It is more challenging. >> Got it. So let's talk about some of those disgusting foods. And first of all, I'm curious which food did you eat that caused the most pain and discomfort down the line? Let's say like maybe eating it was okay, but like you paid a long severe punishment after you ate it. Well, I had a short stint where I did some food challenges in the south in the USA. Um, I don't like food challenges and for a long time I wondered, man, what do they do with all that food after they eat? And what I learned is they throw it up. >> Wait, what do you mean now? You guys know >> what the >> Nobody ever talks about this part. >> You're talking about like when you eat like 50 hot dogs? >> Yeah. What do you think they're doing? Going on a treadmill after that? They just throw it up. This is my hot dog. >> Chestnut. This is I'm not accusing anybody in particular, but here's what happened to me. I ate I ate just only like at eight burgers, not even 45. And immediately I was like, I have to get this out of me cuz I feel so bad. So, I think that's kind of the the dirty the dirty secret of competitive eating nobody talks about. >> I always thought there was a minimum time you have to keep it down like there is. >> Oh, yeah. During the competition or something and then they help themselves to the bathroom after that. >> Really? Okay. So, the bigger point you said the food with the most dramatic consequences. I did some kind of a hot wing challenge in uh New Orleans. They used some kind of unnatural chemical heat 1 million Scoville units. Like uh instantly it made my throat swell up where I felt like I was having trouble breathing. My face became red and >> oh it was it was really bad. And uh I I also vomited that because my stomach was just boiling with acid and this nasty man-made chemical goo that I just ate. And even coming back up, it was I want to say just as bad. I think it was worse. It was an awful experience. So I don't do any of those challenges. Uh volume, spice. I'm not into doing food challenges. >> What about the best bite of food you've ever had? I I mean, I could tell you my top three favorite foods are probably Japanese food, Vietnamese food, and kind of American junk food, like Applebee's kind of stuff. Um, but what about foods that you wouldn't think of? If you're like, "Oh, yeah, these roasted ants were just like delicious." >> Ants are pretty good, man. I should have brought you something. Um, >> I'm glad you didn't. >> You You were Did you think I might? >> Yes. >> Yeah. I thought you were going to bring either mad honey or like crickets or something like that. Something you could just like put in your bag that wouldn't raise >> I can tell I can tell you there there are foods that I started eating because of the show and then now I still eat off camera just purely out of enjoyment. And a lot of those would be like uh foods I'll find in Vietnam like beef tendon. Um you know if I go to a market I'll eat some bamboo worms or crickets. What else is good? Chicken feet, blood cubes. My wife is Vietnamese. She doesn't like her blood cubes, so she gives them to me. I love blood cubes. >> What are those? >> I mean, it's just a solidified chicken blood that's been boiled and then it's in a cube form. >> Why? That's a good question. Well, it's about efficiency. It's about it's about utilizing every part of the animal. It's a beautiful thing. So, they take the chicken, that chicken blood is full of nutrition, and they can utilize that. They can eat that. They don't have to waste that. And it tastes good, too. He's looking at me with disbelief, >> trying to Yeah. >> No, I I My wife, she orders a dish called bunay. It has blood cubes. She hands them over to me. I eat them. It's great. >> So, what's the grossest texture you've ever put in your mouth? >> Maybe like a sea cucumber. A sea cucumber is hard and soft at the same time. It's gooey but stiff. It's gelatinous. It has a slimy coat on the outside and a bumpy kind of wartlike texture. It's um that's that's a pretty weird one. Yeah. So, you can find those in Korea. In Korea, there's a bunch of strange seafoods that they eat in Korea. One of them is a sea cucumber. They also have something called the fish, and it looks shockingly like what the name describes. >> And you've eaten that? >> I've eaten that >> several times. >> Yeah. >> You go back for more. >> Um uh it's So, that's kind of a food that's a second helping. >> Are you insinuating something? >> No. That's kind of a food that is fun to bring a friend to because um I mean you have to have soju or beer or both with it and it's not bad. It's just it tastes a little rubbery. It's like chewing on rubber bands and you go, "Huh?" Okay. So, that's a thing people do, >> huh? >> Yeah. >> So, what's something you'd never eat again? >> There's a food in the Philippines known as pog pog. Have you heard of this? >> I thought you were going to say belute. >> No. Oh, belute's good. No, I'll eat belute on purpose off camera. I like it. >> Okay. high in protein. Um, pugp has a much more tragic story. Pugp is essentially um, chicken, pre-eaten chicken that's been taken from the garbage and reffried. And so, this is something people are eating in very poor communities. And it's something I documented there and I tried for myself. Now, people had been kind of cynically asking me for years to try pog pong, especially when I would go to the Philippines. In the comments, they'd say, "Oh, you have to try pog pog next time." And then finally, I did. And so how it works is, you know, folks will go to Jollibee or KFC or McDonald's. You know, all those places are including McDonald's are selling fried chicken in the Philippines. Someone will collect the trash and then somebody will dump the trash in a poor neighborhood where they probably sell it to the folks there. and and these guys go through the trash and they sort out the chicken and the remaining food from everything else from the cups and the plates and forks and everything else that's in there. Then they wash it. I'm not sure how effective it is to wash meat, but they wash it, they reseason it, they reffry it, and then they serve it. That's pog pog. And so this is not, you know, something you're going to find all over the Philippines by any means, but it's the only place you'll find it. Um, but just in in small, very poor neighborhoods. How does seeing that level of poverty affect your judgment and just general philosophy about like America and other countries? I imagine like seeing that and seeing like still tribes and stuff in Africa like it's it's got to be pretty eye opening. Is there any, you know, I guess epiphies that you've had about living in America or just overall like how certain cultures have accepted some things to be okay and others haven't? Um, you know, if anything after traveling so much, you know, some people I I would I would think the shallow takeaway would be like, wow, we're really lucky here to be in the USA from, you know, these people's disgusting lifestyles. But I don't see it that way. I see, you know, when I go to certain places in Africa or, you know, especially in Vietnam, if you go north in Vietnam to the Hayyang loop [clears throat] where they have all these beautiful mountains, people living in wooden or clay houses a foot thick. What you will find there is people with community, multi-generational families, people eating people moving every day. Nobody's overweight. They're walking. They're not going to a gym, but they're exercising because of their lifestyle. They're eating organic food. I mean, they're eating fruits and vegetables, grains, rice, uh, rice, noodles, and they're happy. They're some of the happiest people you'll meet anywhere around the world. And so, more often than not, I'm not going around traveling thinking, "Wow, I'm so lucky to be an American and away from this." I think these people have something figured out. And it's not, you know, of course there's things that could be better. They could have better medical and they could, you know, have better education in some places or there's some places are overrun with disease. But there's something to take away from seeing people living in this very old-fashioned traditional way where where they have this strong sense of family and community and uh and they're happy. >> What do you think Americans can learn from that? You know, I love the USA, too, and there's so much that's good about this country, but we are a very individualistic culture. And, you know, I think that affects why, you know, there's a loneliness epidemic in our country. I think it's a good thing if you can, you know, be close to your parents, live close to your extended family, if you can have a big family, you know, just it's just all the obvious things that we've done for all of time that we've just slowly stripped away in the last 100 years. >> What's the most expensive meal you've eaten? >> Oo, expensive. Um, I should know this. Maybe $2,000. >> What was it? >> Um, that was a pizza in New York City. So, I did a video about cheap versus expensive pizza. So, of course, you can get like the dollar slice in New York City. And there was a place also selling a $2,000 pizza, which they gave to me half off, only $1,000. Pretty cool. >> And what was on it? >> I mean, you know, the typical stuff like name an expensive ingredient, caviar, gold, >> gold flake, truffle. >> Yes. And fagra. >> Oh. >> And then there was some kind of like a squid ink black pizza crust. >> Oh my god. You know, maybe the cheese was aged or something. >> How'd it taste? >> It was fine. >> Was it better than like a Domino's? >> Um, no. I don't think so. I don't think so. >> So, why do people get it? >> I mean, I think it's They said they maybe sell a couple a month. I mean, I think it's just about the story. >> Yeah. >> And I I think with a lot of these outrageously expensive foods, it's about the story. It's about the flex. It's about somebody trying to do something exclusive that not so many people can do. Um, I mean, and that's why I was doing it for the show. And hopefully by seeing me do it, people go, "Oh, okay." So, that's all that is. >> Now, I shouldn't have to tell you this, but December is extremely busy. And as soon as things slow down, all you want to do is relax. That is why our sponsor is Cozy Earth. Their entire mission is to make your time at home as comfortable and relaxing as possible. If you're looking for a gift that actually lands, I couldn't emphasize enough Cozy Earth is it. their bedding and loungewear feels way less like a product and really like a true experience. It's so funny. I told my mom Cozy Earth was sponsoring us and she couldn't believe it. She's like, "My absolute favorite pajamas are from Cozy Earth. Can you please get me some more?" Now, I'm going off script here, but a few months ago they sent us their bamboo sheets and I have to say they're seriously the most comfortable bed sheets I have ever experienced in my entire life. I'm talking like the best of the best of the best hotels that I've slept in. don't even compare to the bed sheets we have at home from Cozy Earth. You think I'm exaggerating. I am not. They've ruined every other set of bed sheets that we have because these ones are so comfortable. All I want to do is just go to bed early and I don't want to wake up in the morning because the bed sheets are incredible. I can't explain it. You have to try it for yourself. It feels like the softest silk you could imagine in the world. And it's just honestly, it's indescribable because it's just incredible. I'm not even exaggerating. Like you have to try these out yourself and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. And everything comes with a 100 night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty. So gifting it is basically risk-free. So give the gift of luxury this season and go to cozyearth.com and use code ic. And don't forget to order by December 12th so you can get Christmas delivery. After that, the code still gets you 20% off year round. And if you get prompted with a survey, please mention you heard about them here, guys. I could not recommend their product more. So, check out Cozy Earth again down below in the description. They are the gift that lasts way longer than the holidays. Enjoy. What's the best poor man's food or street food that's accessible everywhere in a certain location? Like, what would be a certain country? >> Yeah, I love like cheap pad thai. I'll go crazy for it. >> Well, if I had to say which uh if I had to pick a country that has my favorite street food, that would be Vietnam. Vietnam has street food all over the place. Um, and look, Southeast Asia is amazing for street food. And street food was a new word for me when I moved over there. And it might be a word that a lot of Americans don't know. I mean, the closest American equivalent would be like a food truck. >> Mhm. >> But it's like these vendors who quite literally operate on the street in Vietnam. You'll find these lowslung plastic stools and chairs. um people cooking on the on a grill or in a walk basically in the elements making banani or fa or um banan any of these like amazing Vietnamese dishes that at most cost $2 or $3. And by the way, Vietnamese food, my first time trying Vietnamese food was in Vietnam. And so when I came back to the USA to try Vietnamese food, it was heartbreaking. I mean, there are good places here and there, but it's challenging to make Vietnamese food as good as as it is in Vietnam. And there's a couple reasons why. Some, well, half the reason is because uh people aren't staying true to the recipes. I'm not sure why that happens. For example, in goun like a spring roll, >> people will put here in the US some people, like half these restaurants, I might get hate for this. It has to be said. This is important. Instead of putting proper herbs and like really green leafy lettuce, they put like iceberg lettuce, like white lettuce, and it just and bean sprouts and then they'll ask you, "Do you want shrimp or pork?" It's like, "No, it's supposed to be both." >> But when you go to to a place like Vietnam and you eat thaw or you eat bunme, the reason it's different there is because they have factories making that food every single day. And so they have somebody taking a a rice flour, turning that into a batter, steaming big sheets of that, and cutting those sheets into thin strips. That's your fa noodle. Now, that's a fresh noodle that they're going to put into a hot, delicious bone broth that's been cooking away since 3:00 a.m. Meanwhile, here state side, they have a dried noodle. So, someone's made that same noodle, then dried it, then they had to rehydrate it, and it's just not the same. Where is the local food closest to the American version of that food? >> Like none of them. They're all so different. >> So it's still way different. Like you can get Thai food in America and it's going to be way different than Thai food in Thailand. The same thing goes for Vietnamese food. The same thing goes for Indian food. >> It's just not even close. >> Yeah. >> How is the American version different? I feel like a lot of our food is just like fried. >> Um, so I could run through some examples. So, Chinese, Chinese American food is completely different than Chinese food. And most Americans know that. And same thing with Mexican food is different than Mexican food in the US is usually ends up being Texmex. Now, of course, you can find authentic Mexican food. And honestly, of any food that you're going to find in the USA that's the most authentic, probably you'll have your best bet with Mexico cuz it's right next door >> and folks come over and, you know, have similar ingredients and and maybe a >> a demographic who really wants to eat the actual authentic thing instead of like a chalupa wrapped in cheese wrapped in a you know, stuffed crust pizza. So Mexican Mexican Mexican food is your best bet, but almost every other food, it kind of changes and morphs and becomes something new and different when it comes to the USA. That's not always a bad thing. I love Chinese American food. I love orange chicken and general talis chicken, but you're not going to find that if you go to Beijing. Why do you think American food is so unhealthy? It just seems like compared to anywhere else in the world, our food is just awful. Like the quality is so bad. Everything is processed. the common trope of like, okay, I can eat pasta here in America and feel totally fine and then I go to Italy or sorry, I feel awful and I get bloated and I gain weight or I go on an Italian vacation and I eat tons of food while I'm in Italy and then you somehow lose weight. Oh yeah. I mean, there's just so many there's so many answers to this question. Um, first of all, every developing country is getting more and more overweight every year, even in Japan. So even if you look at Japan and Korea, those countries are still getting more overweight every year. Um, beyond that, I mean, we're so good at having scientists, like some of the top scientists in the world work on making the most palatable food possible, food that just like shouldn't be that tasty and that delicious and pairing, you know, like a delicious Whopper paired with a Coke with some salty French fries. And so, uh, beyond that, when you go to the grocery store, there's just so many preackaged, pre-made foods. The local market I go to in Vietnam, and I'm not talking just like an outdoor market with fish heads. I'm just talking like a like a Vietnamese normal looking grocery store. When if you go into those places, I mean, it's like the size of an American gas station. Um, an American gas station is equivalent to some of these Vietnamese grocery stores because once you just have meat, fruits, vegetables, rice, bread, there's not that much more that you need uh to put on the shelves. And so there's just so much more processed food here. >> How did you get interested in reviewing food like this? Where does the interest come from? >> Uh, I grew up watching Food Network. >> Yeah. And so I always loved uh Emerald and um Gordon Ramsay and especially Andrew Zimmerman and Anthony Bourdain. Those guys were like my two biggest inspirations. Um especially Andrew Zimmerman who I got to meet recently at the Minnesota State Fair. And so um I I always looked up to I always was interested in those shows. When I was around the age of 23, I watched Bizarre Foods a lot and the show was just it blew my mind at that time. And maybe it I'm doing the same thing for someone else now. And that's great if I can do that. But I I just remember one of the first episodes I watched was Andrew Zimmer going to Taiwan to Taipei eating stinky tofu and it was stuffed with fermented cabbage and some kind of a spicy sauce and he's just talking about how how intense the odor is and the the I couldn't smell anything but the visuals and the sounds and how chaotic the streets were. the the different food people were preparing outside. It looked so insane and so different from where I'm from in central Minnesota that I just knew I had to see something more eventually. And so that's what led me to moving to Korea at age 24. But I mean, I was heavily inspired by all those shows on on Food Network. >> When did you realize you could turn that into a business? Oh, [sighs] you know, when I first started YouTube, which was almost 10 years ago, in December, this December, it'll be about 10 years, I didn't even think about making money. I didn't I mean, I didn't I didn't know how I was going to make money. I was so naive in the beginning that I was telling myself, I'm never going to put ads on my videos because I don't want anything to come between the audience experience and, you know, the content I'm putting out. >> Well, that changed a little bit. Um, and I guess it took time to actually figure out how YouTube works, how you can actually make money. It's so weird because back then there weren't like these rich YouTubers or people making money or there wasn't an Alex Harosi or a Cody Sanchez. It was just um BuzzFeed. That's it. And nobody knew about how much money they were making cuz like a couple of people were making money and all the creators weren't making anything. And so, um, really when I started, I I had very pure intentions of just being able to make the best, most interesting food videos that I could. And the money just ended up coming later on. >> What were some of the early videos? Like, how did you come up with those concepts? So, I was really inspired by a channel way back in the day called Jack's Gap, which was a a British kid who made little like fun vlogs, vlogs I should say, and he would travel and make cool travel videos. And um you know a long time ago Ethan Klein from H3H3 was making a bunch of like silly I like that he was making really silly lowquality videos with like his wife zooming in and out and it looks terrible and it sounds terrible but he was very entertaining. And so for me as somebody who's kind of a perfectionist it it made me think like oh this is something I could just do and not do it so perfectly or focus on the quality being perfect. And so that kind of gave me permission in the beginning to get started with it being okay, with it having mistakes or being sloppy or having the exposure being off sometimes. My first videos were just about American fast food in Korea cuz I just wanted to start with something that was interesting to me. And so I covered, you know, things like uh burgers and nachos and pizza. And I I asked myself like who who's going to watch this content? Nobody's watching this. nobody's searching or wanting to share a video about American fast food in Korea. And so after making about eight videos, I pivoted and I I said I made a video about it. I said, I'm I've always been interested in Andrew Zimmer's channel, Bizarre Foods, or his show, Bizarre Foods. And so I'm going to try to make a channel that kind of mimics what he does. I'm going to go see Bizarre Foods. Um the the difference is I wanted to add a comedic twist to everything. And so in the beginning, I was way more maybe over the top or a little bit tryhard about trying to make everything silly and funny and uh irreverent. And over time I realized people were there for the food and for the people and I was kind of getting in the way. So over time I pulled back some of the silliness and I tried to just, you know, I still want to have comedic beats and fun moments, but hopefully that just comes through my natural engagements with the people I'm dealing with, my natural interactions rather than, you know, writing silly jokes or something. >> What point did you decide to do it full-time? So, when I started, I was living in Korea and I was doing video full-time as a job in Korea. And I had saved up some money. Uh I I'd saved up maybe about $15,000. And I got the opportunity to move to Vietnam. And and so I'm very early on, maybe no, the first 3, four, 5 months in Vietnam, I got the opportunity to to get a $1,000 a month salary to get a room and to get a camera guy as long as every week I also made a video for a local tour company. And so I was making videos for myself and for this tour company, but I was making enough money to kind of break even. And so maybe I was doing that for another year or a year and a half before I could not have to work with them or depend on them anymore. I was actually making money and then I could just go full-time on my own. So I would say to go full-time at least a year and a half to two years. >> How much does it cost today to make one of your videos? >> It really varies. So and we try to mix it up for that reason. you know, if we're shooting something in Vietnam, then, you know, it's going to be under $5,000, uh, and it could even be less than that, but we're we're going to be doing a Greenland trip soon, and this is going to be our most expensive country by far. We're just shooting four videos, and it looks like it could cost up to $100,000. So, it depends on it depends on the country. And so, we try to find a balance of countries throughout the year. Some countries are more expensive and some countries are less expensive. >> Where is that money being spent? >> It's tough because I guess I'm not really including like the full-timers salary. So, I' I've 20 about 20 staff in Vietnam, uh full-time staff. And so, when I talk about the price of a video, I'm just talking about the production price. And so that most of that money is visas, airplane tickets, hotels, the local fixer, um potentially paying local guides, paying for food. You know, if we have to buy a cow uh to give to a village for them to slaughter and cook up, we got to pay for that. Um so I would say those are the cost main costs incurred outside of, you know, my full-time staff, which includes, you know, producers, editors, mastering editors, and so on. How do you get access to some of these tribes? Uh, >> you know, each country has people who just specialize in this. And so there's websites, there's ways of reaching out to people who have access. And uh, I mean, that's the goal. That's what a good producer does is we get a country in mind. They start doing research and then my team does research. So we have five producers right now. >> Wow. >> We have an amazing team and they find some of the wildest topics. So sometimes maybe we start with ideas. I have or I have an a country idea and then they bring up topic ideas I never would have thought of. So between my team and the local fixers um we we come up with a plan. >> Curious, would you be able to run your business in the United States? Cuz I'd imagine that it's a lot less expensive to operate in Vietnam. >> Mhm. I mean, could I run it in the US? Yeah, for sure. But I I just that idea doesn't appeal to me. Um, right now, you know, I have a cabin in Minnesota and that's where I'm from. And I go to Minnesota every July and August, but I like living in Vietnam. I mean, there's a lot uh for for so many reasons, it just makes more sense for me to be there. Um, and I, you know, in a way, I kind of lucked out. I didn't plan to move to Vietnam and I'm going to move to a country where where it's going to be more my money's going to go further. That wasn't ever the plan. It just happened to be that that's where I was when the channel started to grow organically and every few months we needed to add another person then add another person until our team grew to what it is now. Could we operate in the US? 100%. But it would be much more expensive. >> What I want to know about is the hygiene when you're going to some of these countries like what is have you seen like many I'm guessing infestations in the restaurants in the kitchens that you've seen? >> Oh yeah. That's how you know it's a good spot. when we were getting we were getting street food in Hong Kong and there's rats going through the alleyways um running over the kitchen. Oh yeah, cockroaches. So, so I've seen like in my Instagram reels like I think it's some some like Indian street vendor or something and I see them a lot of the times like they like run their hands through their not a lot of the times but like I've seen it happen >> where they like run their hands through their hair [laughter] and like their shirt like you know what I mean they like touch and then they touch the food and they they put it together and they hand it to some person >> they that's like well so every country is a little bit different and some countries take hygiene you know Japan would be very intense about hygiene place like India kind of the opposite and it's uh it I mean I guess it's developed that reputation for a reason and it's not like that everywhere but I do remember shooting in India in Vinasi and this guy just suddenly he has this doll or some big masala mix and he's just using his whole arm like up to his elbow to mix what's inside and I was with my Indian friends who help me when I shoot there and they're like, "H, I don't know." They're like, "We also don't think that's awesome, but it's certainly more accepted there than other countries." For me, I think a big spoon would do. Big old spoon. That's what I would put in there. But I saw it. It happened. Did I eat the food? I did. I mean, every culture is different, right? So it's I mean it is interesting though when you see like you know flies and insects and stuff like landing in the bowl of whatever it is and like getting just mixed in. >> Is that an American thing where if a fly lands on your food you're like no I can't eat that anymore. I'm going to send it back. >> I do think Americans when it comes to food can they're kind of and it's weird because we kind of pride ourselves on being so tough all the time with in with >> depending on macho. >> Yeah. being macho and uh MMA and guns and and wrestling and football, but then if someone has a hair in their soup, like they freak out. Like I've had uh I've eaten at American restaurants where there's a hair and I just Okay, I just put it to the side. If there's a fly in my soup, I just get it out and put it to the side. Um I don't know. I think people here it it doesn't match the sentiment that you'll find in America. It's kind of like tough sentiment where people will see a food that's a bit new, a bit different, a bit uncomfortable, and their first thought is, "Oh, I'd never eat that." That doesn't make you tough. That makes you a huge puss. And so, people should be more open. The tough cool guy thing would be like, "I'll give it a shot. Let's see. Let's see if it's good." Like, I I brought my friend Greg to Vietnam for the first time, and we went to a restaurant where they cook. Mhm. >> Not only do they cook cobra, they take the cobra, they slit it down the middle of its body, they grab out it still beating heart, put it into a shot glass, fill that with vodka, and while it's still beating, you need to take the shot. And Greg didn't go, "Oh, not me, man." He goes, "All right, let's give it a shot. Let's go for it." >> Why? Why? Why is that necessary to like get the still beating heart out of a cobra and then take a shot with that? Well, for stamina, Graeme, for stamina. The world of stamina foods in Asia is unending. And your question of why, the answer to many of those questions is male stamina. >> What is stamina? >> Well, you don't have Jack doesn't [laughter] have it. That's that's why. >> For someone named Jack, you should know about stamina. >> I mean, because your name could be used, dude. Your name could be used as a verb. So anyways, [laughter] >> so what's a verb? >> Sexual prowess. >> Oh, that see I I just think of stamina like a cross country runner, right? >> You know, like endurance in endurance sort of thing. >> Very Yes. Very naive. [laughter] >> So there's a lot of foods out there and and some of them are, you know, on fun. They usually involve animals or some weird part of an animal. And then some are tragic like pengalan scales being shipped from Ghana and Africa all the way to China. And when we were in Ghana, we went to some wild animal markets, some uh bush meat markets, and we actually caught or we we bought a penglin. Do you know what pengalins look like? Okay. So, we bought a penglin and we we talked to them who's usually buying this stuff and they said the people from China. And they've even caught these huge shipments, shipments of penglin scales that were going from Africa to China, you know, rhino horn. So that is like kind of the ugly side of stamina foods, but then there's, you know, guys who eat rooster testicles and uh that's fun. >> But does any of that work? I feel like they're all just ways to sell rare animals. >> Yeah, I of course it doesn't work. And also Viagra is available in those countries. So, is it aphrodesiac not a real thing? Um, I don't think it is. So, you you're saying like if you eat an oyster Well, but but that's different. Afro aphrodisiac chocolate covered strawberry. I think it's supposed to like get you in the mood, but stamina is like, you know, the guy's trying to perform well that evening. So, I I just think it comes I always call it dude food. I think it's just food that old guys eat and they like and then the story that they add to the food is, oh, this is good for your stamina. So, it's like, why are you why are you eating rooster testicles? That's weird. >> No, it's a placebo effect. That's what's got to be where if you eat the rooster testicles and you think I'm going to last longer, maybe you're just going to last longer. That's what I heard from like I remember I think I don't want to misquote but I think Liver King came when he came on our podcast he laid out a platter of a bunch of different foods and he's like if you eat pancreas it strengthens your pancreas. If you eat heart it strengthens your heart. I'm pretty sure he said something like that. I guess like intuitively you know if you eat testicles maybe it strengthens those strength strengthens those [laughter] >> increases stand. >> How do you measure that? Okay. Um, so, so I mean, look, that's part of a a Asian lore, Asian belief is that, you know, whatever you eat, it's good for that part. If you eat eyes, it's good for your eyes. If you, if you eat um heart, it's good for your heart. If you eat brain, it's good for your brain. So, I mean, that's not limited to just the king of liver. >> And so, what about eating live animals? What have you eaten that's live? Did you ever feel bad eating something that's live? >> Um, yeah, I've eaten live animals, but it was seafood. But it was a fish. So that's mainly just happened in Japan. In Japan, oh, I forgot the name of it, but it's this art of making sashimi where they fillet the fish so quickly that they actually can present you the fish and the sashimi on the plate at the same time and the fish is still kind of gasping and looking at you wondering what the hell is going on. >> And that's how you know it's fresh. Is that cruel? Because part of me thinks to keep an animal alive for your entertainment while you eat it is not a good thing. But but you look at like in the wild this fish is being eaten by a bigger fish who takes a chomp out of it and this fish you know flutters away a little bit and like in a corner. Yeah. >> Well, like you know over hours. >> I would say it's not necessary. But does it bother me? Look, it would bother me if it was uh maybe a mammal or a different type of animal. It's fish. I'm kind of lenient on fish. I don't When you go to Thailand and you buy a lobster, you know, I've bought lobsters there that were almost 10 pounds. They don't like slice the brain and then carefully drop it in boiling water. They rip it in half. Now it's dead. That's it. It's seafood. I mean, these are these are people with real problems. >> These are real like salt of the earth people. And so, am I somebody who's an advocate of, you know, animal cruelty, or do I not care about any animals at all? No. But I think there's differences between a bug uh because I've eaten, you know, maybe like a live coconut worm. Eating a live coconut worm is not the same as eating a live mammal of some sort. >> Where do we draw the line of like what's okay to eat and what's okay to eat alive? Like I've seen, you know, people eating the dogs or cats or No, no, I'm just saying in general or insects like like a cow is more protected than an insect, but a dog is more protected than a cow. >> Yeah. So, there's a funny PETA billboard that shows all these animals in a line and you know on one side it's like dogs, cats, rabbits, horse, pig, cow >> and it says where do you draw the line and I'm like right after the cat. >> I eat horse and I've eaten rabbit and I've eaten cows and I've eaten pigs. Um, but you know it's up it's it's for each person to decide. I some people eat dog. You know, it still happens in in Korea. It still happens in Vietnam. And I myself have eaten dog. I ate it one time maybe 15 years ago in Korea. I went out with some friends. I tried it. Didn't like it. We wanted just to see what it was like. Um do but it's h we all know that it's hypocritical to say you shouldn't be able to eat dog, right? But we >> It's tough because it's such like they have such a personality, but I'm sure you could say the same thing about a pig. >> Yes. >> Like the fish that I have when you walked in. Like some of those fish have a great personality and I like >> I wouldn't not eat a fish, but I see like what's behind their eyes and just, you know, >> well, and that's what makes us human is we connect with each other and we connect more with certain animals. And so I at the same time I completely understand why people don't eat dogs or many or most people around the world. But when some people still do, I'm not baffled by this. It's like right we eat other animals too. The bigger issue is or another big issue is that in certain countries in Southeast Asia, it's not just that they're eating dogs, it's how they procure those dogs. So there are places where it's the job for people like a black market job to go around on a motorbike and use a a loop to capture dogs that are pets and then those pets get cooked. That's something that actually happens in some countries in Southeast Asia >> today. >> Yes. And so that's awful. That's an awful practice. And of course I would that's something that's indefensible. That's somebody's property. That's somebody's companion. that should not be happening. And so, I mean, that's also one of the reasons that people hate the dog meat trade or dog meat consumption is like the treatment of the animals is also awful. So, I'm a meat eater. I'm always going to be a meat eater. I think we should do what we can to treat animals humanely. At least mammals, fish, eh? Sorry, fish. I don't care that much. >> Could someone pay you $100 to never eat meat for [snorts] the rest of your life? >> Oh, $100. >> 100? Did I say 100? >> Yes. [laughter] >> Oh, you're talking real money here, Jack. All right. Dude, >> dude, I'll give you a 100 bucks just for [laughter] the just for the entertainment value of this. >> Could someone pay you 100 million to never eat meat for the rest of your life? >> Oh, that's tough. >> I don't think so. >> 100 million? >> Well, first of all, first of all, maybe I already have 100 million. Did you think about that? >> 100 million incurrency cuz another guy paid me to not eat vegetables ever again. Look, most of the joy in my life comes from food, then alcohol, then my wife is on that list somewhere, and then somewhere after that, my child. So, am I really going to just for money like take away the thing that brings me the most joy, eating delicious food? And it doesn't I'm not just eating meat, but I love meat. I I couldn't do it. Do you think that's an easy answer? So, you take the 100 million and eat soy milk? >> Yeah. See, but I I I have a weird diet where I to me it's like I I get enjoyment from food, but I don't need like I'd rather eat something that is like the perfect meal to like live then eat something for enjoyment. Like I'm more of like a eat to live versus live to eat type of guy. Like if you gave me a a gelatinous food and you said this is the perfect nutrition, exactly the amount of calories you need for whatever you want to do, right amount of protein, but you just eat this like you slurp this thing once a day. I just I would just do that. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Completely different. Yeah. I mean, I I love it. It brings me so much joy. Well, this summer we went to five different state fairs. And you would think by the fifth one I'd be getting sick of it, but I just love seeing people's creations and people trying to make the most insane over-the-top decadent food possible. I love it. It It's like uh drugs. And so what about just random animals? Like if I were to list off, you know, tortoise, sloth, or I don't know, parrot, you know, like have what animals do you want to try? or maybe they just don't even cook it. >> Well, so I want to back up again and just say, you know, the mission of our channel is to document to search out and document the most unique cultures and unique foods from around the world. And we're doing that in an effort to create more empathy and more understanding and more awareness for people around the world. And so that's our mission. So everything starts from that place. So that that can lead us to many different places. Um, and so that has led me to eating peacock and to eating sea turtle, to eating the Australian version of a manatee. But I didn't do those things because I'm just trying to eat every animal possible. I did them because there was a legitimate story behind why people are doing it. If you go to Australia, they're eating the the Aboriginal people are eating uh they're eating sea turtles and they're eat and they have permission to do so and they have permission to hunt because this is what they were doing for hundreds or thousands of years. And if you go to Sri Lanka, there's a tribe called the Vetta tribe who has hunted peacock in the past and sometimes they still hunt peacock. They eat it and uh it's one of their traditional foods from decades ago. So, there's a story behind the food. It's not just me trying to be as uh salacious or crazy as possible for YouTube views. It's also that No, I'm just kidding. >> Have you ever eaten anything illegal? >> I'm sure I have. Uh, I mean, even in Vietnam, technically coconut worms are illegal because the government there doesn't want people raising coconut worms because coconut worms are destroying coconut trees and they can get out of control and destroy the u the coconut industry there. So, I've eaten those in a restaurant. They're legal. So, technically that's an illegal food. Um, I'm trying to think, do I have a better example than eating worms? I don't think I do. Now, really quick, I just want to say that the big phone carriers at this point are just stuck in the past. Like, imagine spending over $100 a month for a phone service that barely ever changes, especially during a time when people are trying to save up for the holidays. It's insane. >> And that's exactly why our sponsor, Helium Mobile, is flipping the script on wireless. And you can actually get a phone plan for free. Perfect for the season of giving. Their Zero plan gives you reliable coverage for just $0 a month. There's no hidden fees, no credit card required, no contracts, and you could even bring your existing phone and phone number. It's perfect for light users, for travelers, or just people who want to try out a second SIM. And Helium Mobile is the only plan that rewards you back. It's called Cloud Points. You earn them just from using your phone, and you can redeem them for e gift cards to brands like Amazon, Apple, and Sephora right inside the app. Then from there, if you need more, you can upgrade to their air plan for just $15 a month or their Infinity plan for $30 a month, which includes unlimited everything. It's still way cheaper than the big guys. And if you're concerned about coverage, you shouldn't be because you get nationwide 5G. Plus, you get access to the Helium communitybuilt network. It's kind of like the Airbnb of telecom. It's exactly how they keep it reliable, affordable, and yes, even free. So, click the link down below in the description or download Helium Mobile on iOS or Android today. Skip the contracts and try the plan that's reshaping how people connect. Now, starting a brand seems very exciting, but it could also be a bit risky. Like, if you want to sell hoodies, for example, you usually have to order a few hundred of them before you even sell them, and you could be stuck with a lot of inventory. With today's sponsor, Printull, you don't have to worry about that. They're a print ondemand company that lets you sell product on Shopify without the burden of having to hold any inventory. Everything is printed and shipped only after a customer actually buys. Here's how it works. Choose your niche, pick products from the Printful catalog, upload your design, connect to Shopify, and publish. Then all you have to focus on is marketing, while Printull covers the printing, packing, and shipping. They've got a huge product catalog, great margins, and even branding options like custom inserts and white label tracking. Plus, they print locally in the US and in Europe, so shipping is way faster and fees are way lower. Some of the biggest brands in the world, like Coca-Cola, Spotify, and MTV, all use Printull, and you could get the same level of quality with zero upfront cost. So, if you want to build a Shopify brand without taking on any of the risk, Printull makes it possible. All you have to do is go to printful.com/ic. That's p r i n tfu l.com/istic. There's also a link down below in the description. You can just click it right there. Thank you so much to Printull for sponsoring this episode. What do you think about Americans that criticize the food culture in other countries like eating things like dogs or cats when we here have just factory farms that do so much destruction or treat the animals probably more poorly than in the other countries? >> Yeah. And we just consume more food than other countries, too. Uh just the amount of food we consume is insane. Um what do I think about it? Um look, I'm I I think it's fine for people to have their own opinions and points of view. If somebody thinks that that somebody in some small village in China um they hate the idea of them eating dog, that's fine with me. I my thing is I just want to be able to show different cultures perspectives and points of views and their stories and then I want people to decide for themselves. And I'm not necessarily there to say that what the what these people are doing is right or wrong. I mainly want to present the information, present their stories, and then people can decide for themselves. Um and so I would compare it to like when we went to when we went to the Pharaoh Islands. Um in in the Pharaoh Islands, do you know where that is? >> No. It's kind of between the UK and Iceland. It's a small island chained owned by Denmark and they've got about 50,000 people there and they have a long history of hunting whales, pilot whales. >> And so recently these activist groups have been uh protesting and anytime they're having a when they're when they're bringing the whales in, they will try to protest and videotape and make these people look bad and like evil savages. But it's something these people have always done. It's a way of life for them. It's uh well, people say to eat local, it's super local and it's been a part of their diet for years. So, [clears throat] why would you say, you know, don't eat whale? Eat more lamb instead of eating whale. It doesn't it doesn't really make any sense. People like whales. I get it. But we went there. We filmed um we we we weren't able to film the actual harvesting of whales cuz it's something that's unscheduled. That just happens when they hap happen to see the whales. But we sat with a family and they cooked us a meal and you get to see like, oh my god, this is whale meat and they take it out and it's 4 in deep. You see this layer of skin and then a big layer of blubber and then protein after that and they cook it up and you try it and you talk to them and I got their point of view because any documentaries on YouTube about that was just about the hunt itself and showing all the blood and sensationalizing, you know, how bad these people must be. But it it was it was a completely new and different perspective to be able to sit down across from these people and to share a meal of something that they grew up eating. >> How long does that last them? >> The whale I mean sometimes they might get on 12, 13, 15 whales and then they have a special way of dividing it depending on who helped and how much people helped. So, some people might go on boats. Some people are helping to bring them in and uh I mean it could for the most part I I would say most people there have some whale in their freezer. >> And so [clears throat] if if your objective of the channel is to let people come to their own conclusions, what conclusions have you came to personally on where you're drawing the line on the ethics of how a different culture dispatches a an animal or how, you know, the animals are treated when they're alive? Um, yeah. I mean, like I said, I I prefer, especially mammals, to be treated humanely. You know, I've been in villages where someone will kick a dog or throw a rock at a dog. I hate that. I don't like it. It bothers me. Sometimes I'll say something. Um, dispatching. Dispatching is interesting. I have thoughts on it, but but and it's part of what gets us in trouble sometimes with YouTube because it's a desensitive thing. For me, I guess it's it's just interesting to explore why they do what they do. Uh and to go deeper into the why and um and you know, showing dispatching, I think, is just an important part of telling the story of those people. >> Do you think lab grown meat could ever replace the real thing? >> Oh, it's hard to say it never could. On a long enough timeline, anything's possible, but I just don't think it would happen anytime soon. Have you tried any? >> No. >> I I have to be fair, I would eat it. >> I'd give it a shot. I'd be totally good with that. >> Mhm. >> I'd try it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> If lab grown meat was you couldn't tell the difference between that and normal meat, would you be comfortable switching 100% to lab grown? Uh I maybe it just feels like there's always a catch. Um and I just highly doubt that it could be as healthy as just actual animal protein. >> [snorts] >> So, if you're also drawing your own conclusions, you're letting people come to their conclusions, but you also, of course, develop your own opinion on things. Which culture do you think has criminally overrated food? >> You could say underrated and overrated. Like, I'm sure you've just been somewhere where everything you've tried is just like, okay, it's just not my cup of tea. So, this is interesting because I'm going to talk about two countries that are right next to each other. The first is Iran. Iran is really known for its food and they have some really iconic food. While I was there, a good amount of the food I had was felt very bland and and that's because it was very unsalted, which is wild cuz they have salt flats like 2 hours from Tan. I don't know. Uh maybe we just had a a string of bad luck. They did have some very good food that we tried, but there was a lot during that trip at least that I I would eat it and they would have cinnamon and pomegranate and all these flavors, but then just like no salt. So, I'm hoping that I'm wrong and that I just had some bad experiences and I'll go back I'll give it a shot again in the future. That said, a food that really shocked me in the last year was Afghan food. Food in Afghanistan was amazing. And that's right next door to Iran. Some of the best bread I've ever had. Uh, amazing kebabs, meat, seasoned lamb, chicken, really good stuff. >> How do you stay healthy when you travel and you eat so much? You're on the road. Yeah, gym. Um, just uh I always make sure that every hotel I go to has a gym and I try to get enough sleep and I try to not work too much, but I'm I'm not good at that. >> Yeah. But staying healthy can be challenging, especially if I'm eating a lot for the show. I I actually prefer episodes where I don't have to eat a lot. Like if we go to a village and we slaughter a cow and then it's just going to be one big meal at the end and it's all meat, I'm like nice. Then I feel good. Um but if it's like we're going to try four different types of noodles today, it's like h this going to be rough. >> Do the restaurants ever pay to for promotion? Cuz I'd imagine if you show a place in your video, like that's a lot of exposure for them. Uh, no. No. But restaurants might give us free food. >> Yeah. >> But we've never That's never been our business model. And that makes sense for some channels, especially smaller channels, maybe in a niche area. If someone's trying to be like the king of food in Las Vegas, that makes sense. >> But I don't, restaurants don't have a ton of extra money for marketing. >> And we do, we do well on YouTube, and we have a big massive audience. We get about 4550 million views >> per month. And so I would never think to try to negotiate with restaurants to get a certain amount of money. Uh instead I would rather have the freedom to kind of say what I want to say about the food um rather than getting and also it's should be win-win. I love restaurant tours. I think it's a very difficult job. It's a job with slim margins where you have infinite conflicts and challenges and obstacles and it's hard to make money and it's hard to make a restaurant last. And those are our people. without restaurants, I have no channel. And so, it should be a win-win. I want to go in there, help promote these places um to the best of my ability, and then we get something, too. We get the story of them and their food and their dish. >> Yeah. >> And what about on the topic of health, getting sick when you're traveling to some of these countries? Because I imagine I mean, I went to Indonesia. I heard of this thing called Bali Belly before I went there. Went there and I was super cautious. I'm like, "Okay, I'm buying water." When I'm brushing my teeth, I'm going to pour the water on my toothbrush. You know, I'm doing everything right that I possibly can. Guess who's still got Bali belly? >> What is that? What is that? >> This guy. >> Uh, it's when you are just throwing up on the flight back home, basically. >> Really? >> That's what happened to me. Oh, it was >> diarrhea. >> Just throw up. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. Oh, it was horrible though. like my stomach was in knots. And I remember like we were at the point of takeoff and it's like you can't really go up to use the bathroom at that point. And I went up and I I also have fear of of throwing up. And so I went back and I talked to the cabin crew and I'm just kind of like pacing around. I'm like sweating, you know, and they're like, "It's okay. You can do it. You can do it." And then I went to the bathroom and then I couldn't do it. I can't. It was a whole thing. Then I did it and I thought I was done. Wasn't done. It's a pretty uh >> On the plane. >> On the plane. That soundsful. You know what's funny is I've always so I have a small anxiety of flying as well. And so whenever I fly like I always feel like I'm going to and I always have thought that throwing up on a plane would be I couldn't imagine a thing that's that's more torturous than throwing up while you're on a plane in the bathroom or just if you're in the seat and you're using the bag. >> Honestly, bad. >> Wasn't that bad. >> Oh, good. It was it was uncomfortable. You know, absolutely uncomfortable. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. >> Oh, is that a happy ending? I like that. But you must have been on a good like a Indonesian airline or something, right? >> I don't remember which airline it was. I think it was um some Filipino. >> Yeah. All all the airlines in Asia are just so much better than any of them in the US. >> Yeah. And the attendants are super friendly. >> So if you would have said that to like a Delta uh uh what do you what are we supposed to call attendant? >> Flight attendant. >> Um yeah. So, if you would have said that to >> they they called they they went on the thing and they're like, "Do we have a doctor on board because I didn't know what was going on with my body at the time, you know, it was just in nuts. It was hurting and I was getting like dizzy and stuff and I was having a hard time standing." And then they called for the doctor and then some guy came up and he went to the back of the plane. It was so funny. And he was like an American just like me. And I'm like, "Hey man, like are you a doctor?" He's like, "No." He's like, "I'm a firefighter." >> Oh my god. [laughter] Oh my god. I was like I was like, "Yeah, sure." I'm like, "What's going on with me?" He's like, "I think you need to drink some water." And I like couldn't get it down. But anyways, I ended up throwing up on that flight and then I had a layover and then I threw up on the I literally had a layover for 2 hours and I was in a lounge the entire time. Tried to throw up in there, couldn't do it. Got in the next flight immediately. Had to go to the bathroom and finish the job. >> Oh wow. >> Yeah, that's awful. But anyways, I was still trying this entire trip to take every precautionary measure that I could and you know, drink only bottled water, even avoid smoothies at times cuz I know the ice sometimes can be contaminated with something and make you sick. >> That's right. >> And so, so what what things have you learned along the way traveling to these countries to avoid to getting to avoid getting sick? >> Water is the big one. I don't know who started the using like you can't use sink water on a toothbrush. I'm not sure who started that. And for me, I've given up on that. I'm like, I'm using sink water no matter where I am in the world. I'm putting out my toothbrush and if I get sick, I deserve it. That's how I feel. Beyond that, water is the biggest concern. And so, you want to check if you want to just drink bottled water only. You want to check that it's actually sealed. Cuz one time I went to a hotel in India and they gave me three bottles of water and I turned it. >> No crack. and uh I brought it back and I had some words for the gentleman behind the counter. So, you need to make sure you're drinking fresh water. Also, you want to be careful for ice. So, you're doing the right thing there. Uh juicy kind of drinks, slushy drinks, I would avoid that. But, you know, fried food, fried food is good. Oil everything. I would say most I mean, I eat most street food. I I think it's the liquids that get people in trouble. And were you drinking enough alcohol? >> I was drinking more than enough. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So that also could I guess >> usually that helps >> played the part in it. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Does that actually help drinking alcohol? >> I don't know. People say it doesn't. >> I think I think a part a big part of it is like staying very hydrated and so they have like the oral rehydration salts and stuff that you need to drink with water and alcohol is a diuretic so it does dehydrate you. So I think you Yeah, it's >> true. >> You ever get burnout? >> Yeah. And what do you do? I used to just have my main channel, but during the pandemic, I left Vietnam and um because stuff so for the first year of the pandemic in Vietnam, stuff was pretty good. We didn't have to wear masks. We could travel all over and we shot over a 100 videos in a row just in Vietnam, which is pretty remarkable for a travel channel that we were able to do that and and we were growing like crazy at that same time. And so eventually the virus got to Vietnam like it got to everywhere else. we had to leave the country and we didn't know when we would be able to come back. So I left with my wife but I'm not Vietnamese so the border was closed to me and so we ended up traveling for 10 months in a row. So during that 10 months we would be in places like the Bahamas or Mexico with all the this extra time after the main channel shoot. We're like why don't we shoot with a GoPro or a phone or something and then we could put it on the second channel. And so that's how the second channel was born. Oddly enough, my second channel gets the same or better views than my main channel, but it cost 10 times less to produce because it's usually, at least the way it started out was my wife holding a phone and then me with a a lav mic hitting record on a $200 lavark mic and and that's it. So suddenly we feel this pressure of having two videos on the main channel every week plus doing a video on the second channel. And I it was maybe um 2022 where I just completely hit my limit and I was just out of my mind working so much. I think we probably put out 150 videos that year. When I hear some YouTubers, now this is not a disc at all, but for example, Nick Deiovani, nice guy, hardworking guy, but when I just hear like he was recently on a podcast and he said, "Oh, oh, we're doing uh videos." They go, "Every two weeks?" He goes, "Ah, it's every 3 weeks now." I go, "Oh my god, that sounds amazing." Now, I'm sure he's a busy guy and a lot goes into a video. I'm not judging, but we did 150 videos in a year. It was wild. And so, I really had to take a step back and reduce my output. And it's hard because I grew up really poor. And my dad didn't my mom didn't go to college. My dad didn't finish high school. Um, I failed out of college three times and it took me forever to find any path in life. I always felt like such a loser compared to my brothers and sister who got degrees and got actual jobs and they're they're going down kind of an unexpected path and I was me meandering down a path which seemed like it was leading to nowhere. And now I finally have this opportunity where I know I can make money and a lot of money. The only thing that's stopping me from making even more money is just doing even more of that same thing. And so I think a lot of YouTubers struggle with this at some point where where you just hit your wall. You kind of you find your absolute limit and you go, "Okay, that's where it is." Now, what I didn't do was make a video about it saying, "Hey guys, I'm sad. I need to let you all know." That's kind of the move, right? >> You're supposed to do that. >> You're supposed to do the video with a big sigh in the beginning. >> But I'm always like, "Look, this is my problem. Who cares? I got I need to figure it out. It's not for my eyes. >> People love hearing about it though. >> They do. >> I made a video similar to that cuz I did three videos a week on my main channel, three videos a week on my second channel, and one podcast a week. So, seven videos a week. And I did that for six or seven years. >> That's a lot. >> Without missing an upload. Like the only day I'd miss an upload is on Christmas Day, sometimes New Year's if it fell on a weekend or a major holiday where views would be down that day. >> Mhm. That's it. And that was very purposeful. >> Wow. >> That was it. But I made a video because I stopped posting. I got rid of the second channel. We kept the podcast and I went from three videos a week on my main channel down to like one a week. >> And I made a video talking about my reasoning behind it. People loved it. And people even today, and it was over a year ago, reference that video. They're like, "That made me feel better about, you know, pulling back on my own because I feel the exact same way as you do." >> Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah. you. So, one one could look at it as kind of an admission of weakness or um you know, having the strength to tell people what you're going through, which is kind of how you're framing it or what your experience was. For me, I'm just like, h, who cares? Let's just get to work. And that's how I'm about most things. Um, you know, I have a a friend who's in this space who does travel videos and I feel like every six months he's making a video explaining to people about how how hard his job is and saying things like, "Well, you think you would want to be a travel YouTuber, but you don't know how hard it really is. Let me explain everything that's very hard about what I do." And when I talk to that guy, I go, "Hey, stop doing that. What we make is wander lust. We essentially we're selling this dream because it's not to say that what I make is artificial, but it an edit is certainly different from what is actually happening on the ground. What's happening on the ground is okay, you have your eating scene and then you're like, okay, get a shot of me walking through the street. Okay, run down there. Yeah. Is it in focus? Yeah. Okay, let me walk. How'd that look? That looks like the composition's bad. Let's do it again. That guy stepped in front of me. Do it again. Okay, drone. Bring the drone up. Let's get some drone shots. And then you cut it all together with amazing music and it's like, "Oh my god, India, Bangladesh, Japan, Vietnam. I wish I could be there." But it's like a this fabrication. Do you get my point? >> I do. >> And so I think there's no reason to turn people away from the dream. And the dream is to escape, to watch a video, and to get outside yourself and to be fully immersed in a different culture. Burnout. So, how did I deal with burnout? I just reduce my output. It's but it's easy to say just it wasn't an easy thing to do. And anytime I've reduced my output, it's given me anxiety. But I've tried to be smart about the way I do it. So, let me break down what I've done. And cuz it sounds like you've done something similar. >> So I went to one video a week on my main channel and one video a week on my second channel, >> but we also do compilations. And now a lot of food channels are are doing the same thing. So how does it work? On my main channel, we'll tell a five story, sorry, a five video story that we can later turn into a compilation. So, for example, we'll go to Japan. We'll do a seafood series. We'll go to five different cities within the country. And then all of those five can combine into a cohesive compilation or a full documentary, if you want to call it that. But it's just repurposed content that gets us an extra posting day and um alleviates some of the pressure to shoot even more videos. On my second channel, we do the same thing, but every four videos becomes a compilation. M. So now we've we've saved ourselves a few shooting days throughout the the year. Now last year what I started doing was not posting in January. As you know, January is the lowest revenue uh month out of the whole year. But even that wasn't quite enough. So I [clears throat] subtracted three more posting days, which would be the first weekend of each new quarter. Because I've noticed over the years that the revenue goes up January, February, March, April. It's the end of the quarterly budget. April, May, June, July. >> Yeah. >> And so if you're going to not post videos, you might as well be strategic and intentional about it. And so it makes sense to not post it during a time. I don't want a viral video during a time where the revenue is tanking. >> Yeah. And so that's my approach for us to shoot, you know, roughly 40 videos for each channel. Uh, and then some days where we're not posting and then some compilations, but it's still 80 videos. It's still a lot. >> Yeah. Now, you're here for Alex Ramos's boot camp, his workshop. >> Yeah, his scaling workshop. >> Why did you sign up for that? What were you expecting to gain from that? Um, so I've listened to a bunch of Alex Armosi stuff about scaling. I like it. It's interesting. And for me, I mean, I I don't have a um MBA. I don't have any special certification. I'm I read books and do what feels right and I have intuition, but I have a team of 20 people and I need to keep people engaged. I want to keep retention. I want to um maybe take some pressure off myself. So I have a little bit more time freed up for myself in the coming years. And so I'm always looking at what we can do, what we and what I can do to run the company better and more efficiently. And so I'm hoping to see, you know, when you're running a company, the dayto-day is always like putting out fires and dealing with small tasks. >> And few people take the time to get the big view, the global view of the company and what could be changed and what could be adjusted. And so that's my my goal. >> Walk us through your current revenue. Where is most of your revenue coming from? What are the different uh I would say slices of the pie look like? I love this. All right. Revenue sources. Most of our revenue comes from YouTube. Like the the biggest chunk I would say over 70% comes from YouTube. Um then we have after that sponsors, >> Facebook. Are you comfortable saying the amounts or do you just want to say percentages? >> I'll just say percentages for now. >> Uh, you know, maybe give me a few years. Maybe I'll come back and uh I'll tell you amounts. Cool. >> But let's just stick with percentages for now. >> Um, Facebook, then Snapchat, and then we have some YouTube channels that are in other languages, and that does okay. You know, maybe 1%. >> Have you thought about creating your own product or some sort of food that you could sell? Yeah, you know, I'm very much [gasps] I'm interested I'm always interested in increasing revenue, right? >> Yeah. >> And everybody always has some idea for how you should increase revenue and you should sell a thing. Why don't you make Facebook channels in Vietnamese and every other language? Well, the answer is because it all takes some of my bandwidth. And so I try to be very 8020 about just being doing the most the few things that are going to get the biggest result. Um you know recently a year or two ago I had the idea to go from two channels to five channels. I don't know why I thought this was a good idea. I already have best ever food review show. Then I have more best ever food review show. And then I had best ever food India. We started shooting best ever food trucks in the USA. >> I like that. And I was going to do best ever hotel reviews. >> Oh, I like that, too. >> I love all these concepts, but it's just way too much for me to do. And so, the India one, we actually had it going. It was making a profit. We had a whole uh workflow and assembly line. We had producers. We had a shooter in India who we trained up, who we trusted. We had editors. We had we had everything. But it just took too much of my time. So, it was profitable, but it wasn't enough profit. It was like if we just got two more sponsors in a year, that would crush everything that we're doing for this channel. And so I try to be really careful about adding new stuff to my plate these days. And I've those three channels since then because I want to just focus on the few things that we can do that are going to get the biggest out uh outcome, outsized outcome. And one of those would be, you know, increasing our sponsorship deals or having more sponsorship deals. >> Yeah, that's something I've been focusing on a lot recently is uh they call it return on hassle. >> Something that no one ever looks at. How much hassle is this going to take in your life? And it's got to be a high enough return to be worth the hassle. And a lot of things that I've done over the last few years are they're never worth the hassle. And when I go through it, I regret doing it because I think the same way I could have just posted one other video. And that would outpace all of this hassle I'm doing over here. Even though this is a good ROI, it's not worth it, >> right? >> And so I'm I'm dealing with exactly that right now is dealing with all of my past decisions that were not worth the hassle because I just saw it as a good ROI. >> We we tried selling Vietnamese coffee, which is something I was passionate about. I love in Viet I live in Vietnam. I love Vietnamese coffee, but we it just didn't work. And you know, I've listened to some of Alex Armzy's books and I just think about, oh, we could have done this and that, and I'm like, that would be a brand new skill set. I've already developed this kind of worldclass skill set about how to make food videos that people actually watch. Why am I going to take a big percentage of my time to figure out how to sell coffee and what kind of marketing materials are going to work and what kind of offers are going to get people to refer other people to get coffee? I'm just going to make more cool food videos. >> Yeah, that's it. >> So, in what areas do you think you could improve >> the company in general? >> Yeah. Um, I think we could, well, so recently I've hired a a COO uh to help with operations and so I think we could have better standards throughout the company. Um, so you know, any good company should have standard operating procedures or manuals. Um, there's a great book called The E-Myth Revisited. Do you guys know that book? >> Really? >> This is a great book. This guy basically talks about how to manualize any business. And his whole point is you should be able to try to take yourself more and more out of your business by writing by like >> um creating standards and protocols for every task that has to be done within the business and then creating a manual for it and then taking yourself out of it. So I think we could do a better job at that. I want to improve that. Uh and that's going to help me. It's also going to help my team to have much more clear expectations. Um, beyond that, other things we could improve. Um, maybe if I just had somebody to take a little bit more off my shoulders. Like I said, we have a team of 20 in Vietnam and I talked to maybe 15 of them directly. It's too much. So, I'm giving very detailed feedback on every thumbnail, on every edit, watching every edit maybe three times. I'm looking at color. Uh and then that's like uh not including producing all the research that goes into the country that we're going to next. We're going to New York City in a week and then Greenland after that. And so we're going through the stories and the foods and this food is too boring or not related enough. Um so I'm going through all that too. So maybe if I could um oh and then you know voice over and then shooting the actual videos. So if I could have somebody take some of that off of my plate that would be beneficial. >> How do you feel about outsourcing yourself to some degree? because the channel is really about you and your experience. And for myself, I I'm always I'm really bad at that. I say Jack is better at delegating, but I want to be like my hands involved in everything and like overseeing everything. >> Mhm. >> How do you get over that? >> Um, it's tough. It's tough. So, I mean, the lifeblood of the channel are the videos. And so, I don't feel that comfortable just letting letting somebody else say that they're good to go. Um, look, I have an amazing team, a world-class team, and they have very high standards and but but I am the final standard. I'm the final boss of standards. And so um I'm also, you know, it's me who's responsible for all their for their um job security. And so if we start going in a bad direction or losing viewership or something happens to the company, that's on me. And so part of the responsibility is to the audience but also to my team to ensure that this machine keeps running for as long as possible. >> I'm curious on the topic of being a digital nomad cuz that's kind of what you are. You're basically an American living in a different country with a lower cost of living. Uh which countries would you say are like the most viable options? Because this is something I've considered. Obviously, it's not possible due to the nature of of the business, but it would be so cool to be able to go and live in Indonesia for a year, live in Vietnam. Which countries do you think are are the most viable for Americans looking to keep an American wage, live elsewhere, be able to live a very like affluent life? >> Yeah. So, yeah, you're talking about Yeah. the arbitrage of having an American job or wages and then living somewhere cheaper where your money can go a lot. I think a lot of people consider doing it, but it just I think a lot of people are going to retire in other countries. >> I mean, you see all of these videos like going viral on Instagram reals are like, check out my $300 a month apartment in Bangkok. I'm like, oh my gosh, but you know, I would say >> uh Southeast Asia almost anywhere. U some people love Malaysia. Um, so Southeast Asia, the main countries that people where you'll find digital nomads would be, you know, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, probably those countries. And and so and so, yes, it's true. Your dollar goes a lot further. If you're spending $1,000 on an apartment in Vietnam, it's going to be a lot better than what you're going to find in Austin, Texas, or, you know, in LA here in the USA. So, um, beyond that, I'm trying to think, there's also a people who like South America. I I'm in love with Asia. I love Asian food. I love traveling around Asia. But there's folks who live in Colombia and Brazil, and they do the same kind of arbitrage there. But if I had to pick one country in Asia, well, it's probably the one that I'm in right now. >> Vietnam. >> Yeah. I think we're gonna have a huge retirement crisis in the United States because people just aren't saving enough money to be able to retire long-term in the US and we're running out of social security. So, I think it's a matter of time until they push the retirement age back. >> Millennials have 500 grand saved up. They're 60 years old now. They can't retire. They have to work another 30 years. What do they do? Right? >> I think they're going to go to Vietnam. I think they're going to go to the Philippines. you're going to go to other countries where all of a sudden 500 grand you spend 150 you buy a house you live off the rest you live like a king >> why live in the US if you if you want to retire with 500 grand you don't want to work for the rest that's your option and and it's I think a better quality of life in the US for what you have >> I think you'll see that but you I think you'll see more people in Mexico and Central America and South America I think Americans in general are afraid to travel abroad And then when they travel abroad, they seem afraid about going to places like Indonesia, Vietnam, uh, China. And so I just can't imagine a significant population or percentage of the of the population moving to Asia. It'll happen some, but there's going to be more Europeans going to Asia than Americans, that's for sure, I think. Okay. >> But I think you'll see some Americans maybe going to some of the Latin countries. >> What's the cheapest country you've ever been to? Um, some people say Hanoi is one of the cheapest cities in the world. It's tough because, you know, Afghanistan very, very cheap, more cheap than Vietnam, but then, you know, there's you're not going to find like a modern gym or uh certain conveniences that you would want. You got to kind of balance the quality of life with the cheapness thing. You know what I'm saying? >> Yeah. So what would you say is like the optimal then if you're balancing quality of life and cheapness and then what about just overall objective cheapness? >> So this the whole digital nomad thing it's not really my expertise and all my experience is in Southeast Asia. So I have a bias towards Southeast Asia. So probably I'll just keep repeating Southeast Asia. >> How were you able to live in Korea illegally for 8 years? So I went there, I tutored people, but I was on a a tourist visa. And so every 90 days I had to leave Korea. And so every 90 days I would go to Japan and I would come back. And the trip, it was a rough trip cuz the plane ticket was expensive and I was so broke back then. So I would have to go from Seoul to Busousan on a three-hour train and then I would take the slow ferry from Busousan to Fukuoka in Japan. So that ferry took 13 hours one way and 6 hours back. It's confusing. Yeah, 13 hours cuz it was parked half the night and then it left in the morning. >> In the beginning, it didn't feel like that big of a deal. But over time, I'm mounting this growing number of pass of stamps in my passport and I'm getting more and more questions every time I go back and forth from Japan to Korea because they know there are people who are there teaching English illegally. And eventually it is true that I got a job working for a school for a kindergarten and I also taught science. >> I I taught at um different Englishmies and all of it was under the table. So how it worked back then is I I didn't have a degree. I didn't have a teaching visa. So I would say can you pay cash? And half the schools wouldn't do it and the other half were like no [snorts] problemmo. And so I would I would go I would teach English. I would get paid in cash. And that's how I made a living for a long time in Korea. Now, while I was in Korea, I didn't look I didn't like this lifestyle. It was tough. Like when I moved to Korea, I moved there with $2,000 in my pocket. I I didn't have a plan for how long I was going to be there. And I certainly didn't have anything to come back to. Not even like, you know, a nice parents house or something. My dad lived in a beat up trailer house. is definitely not the type of place you want to go back to. And so I'm trying to figure out how to make things work while I'm there. And that's why while I was in Korea, I got into video and I started training myself. I started workshops and I I started getting more and more experience with video. Excuse me. Um, that said, it was terrifying and it was anxietyprovoking every time going to Japan, coming back, rehearsing answers to questions in my mind that they might ask. How long are you going to be in Korea? What are you doing here? Are you a teacher? You're you're a teacher, aren't you? Why are you Why do you keep going back and forth? Oh, well, um, uh, I'm going to apply. I'm a student. I want to be a student. I want to apply to Soul University. um I I love Korea. I love the language here. I want to learn more about the language and so on. And so really when I had the opportunity to leave Korea and go to Vietnam, it was so it was such a load off my shoulders because like clockwork that 90 days would go by so fast and I go, "Oh my god, I have to do another visa run." I mean this is when people live in these countries they know this terminology visa run it means you your date is coming up and you better get out and come back even if you leave for 3 hours >> it still counts you you left you came back and so like clockwork every 90 days those days would go by and I would have to leave and come back again and hope that I made it back in cuz I didn't know if I was going to get deported if I was going to get kicked out if I was going to have some kind of consequences. is anything could have happened. So when I when I moved to Vietnam, it was a huge relief. >> Do you do it on the 90th day or do you do it like day 85 or like close to the 90th? >> One day I did it on the 91st day on accident. I lost track. They took me into a side room and they're like, "Never do this again." I'm like, "Oh my god, I'll never do it again. I'm so sorry. My mistake." And they let it go. Oh wow. Yeah. What was your experience like with Mad Honey? >> Mad Honey, um, so I never took a huge amount of it. Um, Mad Honey, for people who don't know, it comes from well, it comes from a few different countries, but I I got it from Nepal. And so the there are these insane essentially these villagers who climb mountains. The it's just like a sheer cliff wall. They'll climb it with simple ropes and then they'll cut off the honey. They'll cut the honeycomb from the mountain and they'll collect the honey and they'll squeeze it and some in the right season it'll be mad honey. And so bees get this certain nectar from a certain flower that has a toxin in it that gives these hallucinatory effects to the people who eat the honey. And so I got that. I tried it a little bit while I was there and I felt a little bit light, a little bit numb, a little bit warm and kind of flush in my face, but I was worried about taking too much because we still had an hour hike out of that place. >> But I brought that honey back and my brother tried it and he he had an awful experience. My brother took maybe six spoonfuls of the honey >> and he at first felt great. He felt warm. He felt tingly. He felt happy. And then he felt sick to his stomach. And he was vomiting. And he felt like achy. And the whole next day he he just he couldn't go anywhere. He couldn't do anything. He just felt like he had the worst hangover of his life. And for some people, what I've heard is uh it can lower your blood pressure. And so it's harder to move. It makes you feel nauseous. It makes you feel sick, but it can also lower your blood pressure, too. It's very dangerous. people in the mountain. You think you're like, "Oh, I'm in the mountains. I'm in the village of Nepal. These guys do it all the time." They all have one story of one idiot who did it too much and no one else does it. >> But you can't from it. >> Uh, it's a good question for Chat TBT. I bet you might be able to. >> Huh. >> The worst part about Mad Honey is that I brought Joe Rogan Mad Honey. >> Yeah. and I talked about it and then somebody from customs in the USA watched that episode and the next four times I entered the USA, they went through every single thing in my suitcase. It was completely miserable and so anxietyprovoking. Now I think I've finally been taken off that list. But I've been put on a different list because when I came back this time, it's my fifth time coming back since doing the Joe Rogan podcast. They had me go talk to somebody because I had been to Afghanistan. So, I had somebody from Homeland Security talking to me about why'd you go there? Who'd you go there with? What was your purpose? Like all these questions cuz it's an unusual thing to do. And it's amazing that they just from the moment they scan me in at immigration, they go, "Oh, >> someone's going to have to talk to you." They just know immediately that I've been there. They're not looking through the passport. They just know. >> Yeah. What have you got on your list here? Kind of curious. >> My list is just in case you asked about worst foods or unique foods cuz I always like uh it's all a blur. So, I wrote a a list to refer to. I wrote like sea turtle, zebra, placenta, buffalo placenta, stuffed horse stomach. I'm happy to talk about any of those if you want me to. Stuffed horse stomach. What did they stuff it with? more horse. It's what? So, when I was in Kazakhstan, um Kazakhstan is the second biggest consumer of horse in the world, right after China. And a lot of the horse that China's eating comes from Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan's this massive sprawling country and is they used to be this nomadic culture. They they raised horses. They moved around with horses and they ate horses, too. So while I was there, we got to see the process of dispatching and cooking a horse. And one of the unique foods that they make in Kazakhstan is a stuffed horse stomach. Now, a horse stomach, a horse and a cow, both big animals, inside completely different. A cow is a ruminant animal. It has a four-chambered stomach. A horse just has one big stomach. And that one big stomach is great for stuffing with different stuff. So, what they what do they stuff it with? It's like a sausage. >> It Well, oddly enough, they're stuffing it with horse sausage. They put meat. They put horse sausage inside. Maybe there's some potatoes in there. And they they sew it up and they cook the whole thing. They boil it in a giant walk. And the craziest thing is it was pretty good. I kind of liked it. What other things did you go into highly skeptical but were like surprisingly delicious? Oh, there's so many things like that. Um, and that's the story most of the time. And that's what's fun about doing the show. And that's, you know, it's fun if you have this arc in a show of having doubt going into a food and then being kind of pleasantly surprised. Even something like eating buffalo placenta in northern Thailand. Uh, I was slightly skeptical. I thought that's kind of that's insane. I mean, a buffalo is born, the placenta comes out, they take it away, and they eat it. So, they stir fry it. I mean, it felt like mushy, wet portabella mushrooms. Yeah, >> but it kind of didn't taste that bad. >> What opportunities came from the Joe Rogan podcast? >> Well, so I just did the Joe Rogan podcast because it was like a bucket list item. He wanted me on. Of course, I did it. It it was a fun great experience. And um and we had a great clip. So back then he would just like clip a 10-minute section of the video and put that on YouTube. So the 10-minute section he clipped was of him trying the Mad Honey. Uh and then that went on to get, you know, about 10 million views or so. And so, you know, there was some crossover effect. Some people went to my channel from that. But if I'm honest, anytime I've ever done a podcast, it's because it's just an experience I want to have or I want to meet the people who are on the podcast. >> Um, it it doesn't really move the needle views wise for me. I'm not selling a book or anything. Like today, I'm just here cuz I want to meet you guys and uh I thought it'd be fun. >> Cool. I was curious. Jack came up with this. What would be your throw meal? >> Oh, that's Yeah, that's a good question. It probably have a lot of different stuff. So, I'll just name off some of my favorites like um sashimi. >> What kind of sashimi? >> Uh toro >> salmon. Yeah, maybe a lot of different tuna cuts, especially fatty cuts. But it's good to have a variety so you have contrast. And then salmon. Um salmon nigiri that's been roasted with that like mayonnaisey stuff on top. I love that. >> Cool. Um, a stuffed crust Pizza Hut pizza, pepperoni, extra cheese. [laughter] That's my fat guy food. Okay. That's how I got to be 300 lb back in the day. Lots of pizza. So, something with cheese, couple of oysters >> for the stamina. >> Yeah, for the stamina. >> No steak. >> No. Uh, steak. No. No. Steak is too rich. cuz then then my mind goes, "Oh, maybe Wagyu, but it's just going to be too rich and too heavy." Um, maybe something like >> cheeseburger >> burger would be good me. >> I love Vietnamese foods, but they're not like on my necessarily like they're more like a good lunch food. Not really on my crave list. >> Um, I'd be good with that. Pizza and some Japanese sushi. Do you have a lot of YouTubers come on the show? >> Good amount. Yeah, I'd say maybe a third at least. >> Do you find that they run their companies like very differently? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Um, so that's always what's interesting to me when I watch, you know, even when I watched Joshua Weissman on this podcast, I thought, "Oh, that's interesting." >> Um, that and that's different from what I do. So, >> what I do, um, we have a, uh, we have 20 people in Vietnam. >> Can I do you mind if I go through the workflow of a video and if you cut it out later? I don't know. Who gives a [ __ ] So, um, here's how we approach a video. First, we figure out what country we're going to go to, and we have to figure out, um, is it a good time of year because of weather, because of holidays, is there Ramadan during that time, that type of thing. From there, we have um a main producer and a support producer who work together on looking up topics and doing research for that country. At the same time, we're looking for a fixer. So, we get that fixer or local producer who has the local knowledge and hopefully a network or connection, especially when it comes to food. Um, from there, we build out a schedule. So, people might think we go to countries and kind of hang out. We're like, let's shoot here. But, especially for our main channel, everything is figured out hour by hour, uh, weeks before we get there. Like, each day is completely scheduled to the minute. Um, and so we get there, we do the production. I have two camera guys, guys I've worked with for years. Um, now you were talking about the quality later or earlier you were talking about the quality of the show. Um, and for me it's very important that we try to have the highest quality standard possible and to continuously improve it as we move forward. Um, these guys are incredible and they they keep getting better. They keep improving. But for me, my background before I got in front of the camera was directing and doing videography. So I like to get involved with giving feedback on the edit or the shots or composition and so on. So we do the shoot on the ground um food making interviews, tasting and all that footage then goes to an assembly editor. So the assembly editor will take all that uh random footage and they'll put it on a timeline so it all makes sense for the editor. The intros in the beginning, everything is uh all the B-roll is >> in order um is in story order. So, from there, the editors get to it. Now, the editors do a brief with me where I tell them my thoughts on the video, what I thought was important. Maybe there's some notes I took while I was on the ground because in one eating scene, we might uh talk about 10 different topics, but really just two matter to me. Then they'll also get a production document from the producer that goes through all of the the food we uh made and the recipes and ingredients for each food because we we talk a lot about the process. You know, I'm a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain, but he didn't often get deep into the actual making of every single dish. He would kind of, you know, poetically describe it with a couple flourishes flourishes and then it would just be on the table. But we like to get a little bit deeper into the actual making of the food. I find that people seeing a process really engages them. That's why I mean there's so many cooking videos where no one even talks and people are just seeing this transformation before before their eyes. So now the editor is equipped with all of that. Um from here the editors are the ones who write the voice over. So, they write the voiceover draft and they send me the voice over and then I can rewrite it or adjust it as needed. I voice it. I send it back to them and they have between, let's say, two and a half to 3 weeks to get uh an edit complete, an edit that's usually 20 to 25 minutes long. From there, we have a mastering editor and he would take the full video uh and master the color and audio. And then that takes about a week. And we have somebody who's also doing titles and animations and stuff too. And so all those elements come together at the end and then render and it's ready to post. So that whole process from shooting to actually getting onto the internet is, you know, two to three months. That's crazy to me. That seems so like intimidating for me because I like for the podcast, we'll just film this, upload it to Mikey. I'll do he'll he'll do a review, clip it down a bit. I'll do my review. Sometimes Jack will do a review. I put little notes of like put B-roll here, cut this out, move the segment earlier, and we boast it. And sometimes it turn around to like 3 to 5 days. >> Wow. >> Or on my main channel, I just script film and then I edit within like 3 hours and sometimes just post same day. >> Well, it's interesting because we have our own, you know, control and variable. We have the main channel, but we have a second channel, too. when the second channel is just the phone and so we don't have two cameras at the same time. We don't have all this extra footage and coverage and so the edits for those videos take more like 8 days. Usually there's no voice over >> and it's a much more vloggy kind of fast-paced fun video. Yeah. >> Not but not as deep and not as thoughtful. So I just like that we can do both. I like that we can do a fun silly state fair video. It's not going deep into the culture of anything, >> but then we can also take on very serious topics, too. >> Would you ever just live stream it? >> Would I ever? >> Yeah. It seems like that's a way to double dip on the content you're already doing and live stream everything. >> Yeah. >> Without adding more work. >> I think I'm I'm much better when I'm edited. >> Okay. And uh I don't know like everybody I would say has their own insecurities around themselves as a host or entertainer. >> Sure. >> And for me my big weapon when I started this whole game was I know editing. I know production. So whatever weakness I thought I had as a host I just like doubled down on overproducing it. >> Yeah. >> And then I've certainly gotten way better as a host. But I'm like why not both? Why not? Hopefully I I can carry these scenes well as a host, but why not have the production value there, too? >> Yeah. I would love to see you host like a Fear Factor where people have to eat Sure. >> like really gnarly food. >> It would be interesting if you brought YouTubers along on certain journeys and took them through like local cuisines that might be intimidating to eat. >> Sure. Who do you think would be a good candidate for that? >> It would be >> Well, sure. Yeah. I mean, like, but I also think if you were just to grab the other food YouTubers, I think that would be kind of fun. more just other YouTubers in general. I'm sure you have a like a c cat catalog of YouTubers that watch your channel and you don't even have to like advertise them in the thumbnail, but you could just kind of like bring them along for the journey. So, not only you have you as an expert with trying out a bunch of crazy different foods and unique things, but you have someone that might be a lot more uncomfortable with it, [clears throat] >> stepping out of their comfort zone and trying something more reflecting the the perspective of your viewers maybe because I think at this point you're probably so adventurous that nothing really is, you know, scary to you. Whereas a lot of your viewers are like, "Wow, this guy's eating maggots here." Or like whatever, you know, like something that reflects their their perspective a little bit more. >> That's funny. Yeah, cuz as time goes by, I become harder to relate to. And I caught myself the other day eating something and I was like, "Oh, the texture is kind of like between a cow spleen and a cow lung." And I'm like, "This is not relatable." >> You know what's funny? The video that I watched yesterday that I really liked, um, it was one of your most viewed videos, but they were saying your tour guide was more of a um, what do you call it? Like a visitor than you were. like your tour guide of there was really like grossed out of of the rats that they were like that's in Vietnam, right? >> Vietnam. >> Yeah. His name was >> Yeah. I related more to him in that video because I saw his reaction and like he was looking away and he was like, "Oh, I don't want to eat that. I'm going to try it." And he like to me that seemed more relatable >> than you like just look, you know, it desensitized to it. >> Yeah. I I think that's a super fun element when we are able to do something like that. when we have the local person >> who doesn't necessarily like the local food. I think that's super interesting. >> And you know, he was still willing to try it out and to do his best, but it was very clear that he was completely uncomfortable doing that. >> It would be cool if you got like an Indian-American, took them to India to try local Indian food, or the same thing goes for like a, you know, Vietnamese American, you took them to Vietnam and then tried like, you know, street food. >> So, we did something like that. There's a a gentleman named Yang who is part of the Mung community in Minnesota. And the Mung community comes from Southeast Asia across especially across Laos and Vietnam. >> And after the Vietnam War, a huge population of them moved from um from camps in Thailand to refugee camps from Thailand to Minnesota. And so he was born in a refugee camp but at a young age moved to Minnesota and his parents grew up in Laos. And I said, "Hey, I want to do this Laos series, but I would love to have you with me and you can kind of like he grew up with all their cooking and all these stories, but you can go and see this place for yourself." And we did it and it was it was amazing. >> Mhm. >> So I would love to do more stuff like that. >> Yeah. I would also like to see you bringing American food to places like this and have them eat like a Big Mac and just get their reaction where they're probably looking. >> It could be the culture bridge. Sure. You know, I just think the cool thing is like the difference in like, you know, Mexican food here in America versus Mexican food in Mexico. Like I think that's that to me is really interesting. >> Mhm. People get mad when I give like indigenous people American food or American candy. I get a little bit of backlash for that. >> Why is that? >> Cuz they're like, "Oh, how dare you?" you know, now they're going to get cavities and it's so unhealthy and how dare you share our unhealthy diet with them. It's like it's a bit of candy. It's a treat. >> They're treating them like children and it's just like another, you know, adult human. >> I agree. But, um, I'm I other people have done that concept. They've gone to, you know, Mongolian tribes deep in the middle of nowhere, deep in the step, and they'll bring them a Big Mac or a burger and they'll pick up just the top bun and eat that first. And uh I mean that that kind of >> that kind of content is out there. You know, I'll tell you, we did it one time. There's this tribe in northern Thailand called the Karan people >> and they have >> um you've seen them before. They have the >> brass rings around their neck. So this woman, we shot with her for a couple of days um in her village um experiencing her food, but she wasn't that far from the city of Chiang Mai in Thailand, maybe 30 minutes. So I said, "If you're interested, tomorrow, how about I bring you to try a bunch of American food." And she's like, "Okay, let's do it." So somebody helped us translate, but this very, you know, exotic looking woman with these brass rings permanently fixed to her neck was eating McDonald's and pizza and tacos for the first time. And she great gave great reviews. So it was very it was very intriguing. >> Be funny if you have them rate YouTuber foods. >> Sure. Like you have Sour Strips, you have Ryan Trey's candy, you have Mr. Be have them pick like who is the best candy. >> That's good. I like that. >> That's good. >> Thank you so much for coming on the call. >> I stepped on your audio. Do you want to do it again? >> No, no, no. It's totally fine. We're keeping this raw, guys. Thank you for watching. George, George Maverackis, Coralfish 12G. He was listening to this entire podcast. So, shout out to him. >> Go ahead, George. Say something. >> Thank you so much. Also, by the way, I know you don't like this, Jack, but we ended up cutting out a lot of this podcast. So, if you want to see the entire thing that's uncensored, we're going to put that for the members. So, uh, feel free to sign up for that as well. And, uh, there's probably 30 plus minutes that are just a bit too gruesome to post on YouTube. >> Of course, his channel link down below. Also, is there anything else you want to shout out? >> No, I've never made it this far into an episode. [laughter] >> There we go. Just kidding. >> Thank you guys. Until next time. >> See you.