Unlearn16: Class is in Session - The One Where I Take The 'Nepo Baby' Out For A Walk

00:00:00.000 class is in session everybody and welcome to unlearn 16 classes in session guys right now

00:00:09.200 it's the tuesday after christmas how's everybody feeling deep breaths it's all over we can pass

00:00:16.280 and on i hope you got all the things you wanted if you celebrated hanukkah i hope that went

00:00:20.800 smoothly if you celebrated anything else i hope you just enjoy the two weeks off and have a good

00:00:24.960 time. But today, I'm not talking about Christmas anymore. Today, we're jumping into a political

00:00:30.300 discussion that has sort of taken over a lot of mainstream news media. It started with the

00:00:36.560 vulture out of New York, and they're talking about nepo babies. I know it sounds very, 1.00

00:00:42.420 very weird. When I heard it, I'm like, what? Why is this all over my Twitter? It's just

00:00:46.680 everywhere. So I had to go look it up. And I looked it up, and here's what it means,

00:00:50.440 folks. Nepo Babies is talking about nepotism. Specifically, it's attacking Hollywood,

00:00:59.280 let's say mainstream Hollywood and acting and the singing industry and everything that's going on

00:01:05.780 there. Everywhere the arts is going on, it's talking about nepotism and how nepotism is sort

00:01:12.300 of feeding the next generation of who gets to be famous and who gets to get their Hollywood star

00:01:17.500 of fame and all of those kinds of things. Now, initially, I started looking it up going, yeah,

00:01:23.740 that's what happens. And I'm thinking, how many babies do I know? And boom, right away,

00:01:28.500 the first one that comes to my mind, which nobody talks about anymore, because it's like once the

00:01:33.460 generation has passed, nobody talks about it. So the first one, obviously, I have Janet Leigh,

00:01:38.580 Jamie Lee Curtis. Why? Well, because she's in movies all the time now. And everybody knows her

00:01:43.140 famous mom and the famous shower scene and all of that. Now, when we look at Hollywood, I think

00:01:49.200 people like to be hypercritical of how people got there. So right now, and it's exhausting,

00:01:56.780 right now, people are like, these individuals don't deserve what they're getting, right? That

00:02:02.560 nepotism, that who your mom or your dad is, has somehow paved this golden path for your future.

00:02:09.260 I have one question for everybody listening and watching.

00:02:13.180 Where isn't that true?

00:02:15.640 It is true everywhere.

00:02:18.420 You guys know it.

00:02:19.280 I know it.

00:02:20.060 I love it how we look at Hollywood and say nepotism reigns supreme in this industry, but not anywhere else.

00:02:26.520 Donald Trump got to be president of the United States based on nepotism and not in the political spectrum, but the wads of cash that he amassed.

00:02:37.220 Where do you think that comes from?

00:02:38.780 Where do you think that comes from? Where do you think kids get to take over the family business? That's not nepotism. Where do you think that people that gain generational wealth, that can change everything, where you go to school, what jobs you get, who you hang out with after school, what country clubs you go to, what day camps you frequent.

00:03:01.300 this is all nepotism in practice yet these individuals love to sit and look at movies

00:03:09.160 and and hollywood and somehow demonize them for what every other person is doing now let's look

00:03:17.860 at hollywood for a second all right so we're gonna say that colin hanks gets a shot because

00:03:23.660 his dad is tom hanks okay listen i don't think anybody's disagreeing that a door might get opened

00:03:30.720 By the way, there's two things that go with a big Hollywood name, and I'm not too sure which one's more important. Your name and your money. Your money is a gateway to so many different things. I'm going to circle back around to that.

00:03:46.500 let's assume we're just talking about acting for a minute let's assume we're talking about

00:03:51.060 an actual talent and we're talking about this idea of nepotism number one how it might open

00:04:01.520 the door let's assume it opens the door let's assume it gets you in the door it lets you

00:04:06.480 audition maybe maybe even your name alone which by the way i don't think happens maybe your name

00:04:13.220 alone get you a role guess what you have to do now you have to prove yourself in order to get

00:04:22.820 the next role the bigger role the bigger whatever and how do you prove yourself well it's quite easy

00:04:26.820 people have to pay money to see you so people are going to pay money to see you then they're going

00:04:31.540 to say i'm using colin hanks right now only because you know his name come to came to mind first but

00:04:36.980 people are going to pay to see you and and that is proven time and time again how the hell is that

00:04:42.980 nepotism how is that nepotism because the bottom line of anything and again i'll move outside of

00:04:48.500 hollywood eventually is what a really amazing artistic endeavor well that's what some people

00:04:54.260 might want to put on that's what true artists want to put on but let's be honest what do the

00:04:59.540 studios want well they want to make money and if the project can't make money they're not banking

00:05:05.380 it and if they're not banking it it's not getting made if you have an endless stream of money and

00:05:11.620 and you can do your own production.

00:05:13.780 Cool, have at that, right?

00:05:15.880 Then you can do whatever it is you wanna do.

00:05:18.000 But let's be honest, the driving force

00:05:20.640 is who's gonna pay tickets to sit in this seat.

00:05:23.460 And if Colin Hanks' son is going to drive tickets,

00:05:27.160 cool, then they're all in.

00:05:28.560 But the minute he doesn't,

00:05:30.500 do you think his name means anything?

00:05:32.940 Do we not also think that this notion

00:05:36.020 of artistic nepotism carries with it a weight

00:05:39.800 that most people like myself don't get?

00:05:43.180 Like if your parent is a super famous actress or actor

00:05:47.620 or singer, songwriter, producer,

00:05:50.700 do you not come into that thinking,

00:05:53.960 this is a, I have some burden,

00:05:56.380 I have some pressure here to deliver

00:05:58.340 because if I don't deliver genius or if I don't,

00:06:01.020 if the people don't respond to me

00:06:02.620 the way they responded to my mom, my dad, my cousin,

00:06:05.320 my whatever, am I getting another shot at this?

00:06:08.560 is the expectation even that much higher when it comes to that kind of nepotism that we're assuming

00:06:16.000 to be nepotism also just throwing this out here can we not also assume that a lot of the the

00:06:24.400 artistic talent that a lot of talent in general whether it's intellectual talent driven to science

00:06:31.680 and math a musical talent being able to play the piano or produce music or an acting talent these

00:06:37.680 beautiful artistic talents, do we think they're not genetic at all? And let's assume for a minute,

00:06:44.500 fine, they're not genetic. There's no genetic markers whatsoever. Do we not think that possibly,

00:06:50.260 maybe, potentially, that a kid growing up with an amazing actor or actress in their family

00:06:58.780 doesn't give them insight into that, doesn't give them the practice, doesn't give them

00:07:04.580 the shape of what that might look like. And maybe, maybe that's what's giving them a heads up or a

00:07:13.220 leg up, let's say, not just their incredibly famous name, which by the way, there's a lot

00:07:18.060 of young actors and actresses who refuse to use those famous names because they don't want those

00:07:22.300 doors open because of that. Do we think they just hate nepotism? They're like, I don't want to get

00:07:28.360 the job. No, no, no, no, no. They want to do it on their own because they want the talent

00:07:33.240 and they want what they're doing not to be curtailed or limited or fashioned.

00:07:40.860 A lot of actresses and actors know, and I'm assuming singers,

00:07:45.280 know that who they are and who they've been represented as,

00:07:49.880 what their art has been seen to, can sometimes not be a benefit.

00:07:56.100 Could it also be a hindrance?

00:07:57.440 Could the typecasting of their parent funnel down and actually be typecasting that is now put upon their kid?

00:08:05.920 Could the mistakes, as we all know, in the last 20 years, could the mistakes in public media and the way that people, you know, dictate who they get to be and how they're seen and how they're perceived by the rest of the world, we don't think that somehow that could be a negative impact on this whole idea of nepotism?

00:08:27.440 do we think that maybe possibly young kids that have gone with their parents to set see the way

00:08:35.300 it works do we think maybe possibly they've gotten an inside education and i do use the word

00:08:43.500 education about the set and a movie and method acting and all of that kind of beautiful stuff

00:08:50.000 we think they don't they they wouldn't actually have a leg up they might not have the talent and

00:08:56.260 a growing level of expertise that maybe a lot of other kids don't have? Isn't that possible?

00:09:03.480 And I'm so tired of people condemning Hollywood as though it's different than real life. You want

00:09:09.780 to know what? I don't think it's different than real life. I really don't. I think the cars they

00:09:13.780 drive are nicer. I think that people in Hollywood, people that make movies, have a lot of the same

00:09:20.580 lives as all of us. We just experienced Christmas, right? All of those people have the one relative

00:09:27.600 who's nothing but a pain in the ass. They all have infighting of family members. They all have 0.99

00:09:32.260 subtle barbs at the table. They all have the person who doesn't bring gifts and everybody

00:09:37.100 else brings gifts for them. They have the person who never brings food or it's never at their

00:09:41.320 Listen, everybody has that shared experience, and everybody has, I think, skeletons in their closet.

00:09:52.140 Everybody has stuff they go through when they're 19, 20 years old, but for the actor or actress or the singer,

00:09:59.600 these famous people, they get to have their lives spray-painted all over, well, it used to just be the tabloids,

00:10:09.600 tabloids. But now guys, it's spray painted over every social media app ever. They can't go

00:10:15.920 anywhere without somebody videotaping them and putting it somewhere that they never wanted it

00:10:21.680 to be in the first place. And now their art doesn't just get to be about their art or their

00:10:27.100 talent doesn't just get to be their talent. It gets to be how they then deal with all of this

00:10:32.060 kind of personal notoriety that they didn't sign on for. I know a lot of people are sitting

00:10:39.560 at home going, Joanna, come on. They're famous. They want to be famous. So that's what they signed

00:10:44.720 up for. Sure. In some capacity, but holy crap, guys. In another capacity, think about it.

00:10:53.200 People, you can't go anywhere public without people filming you constantly. You can't go to

00:10:59.180 a party. You can't have a drink when you're 19. You can't break up with your girlfriend without

00:11:04.800 somebody deciding that that is a story. Think about your childhood. How many of your 18-year-old

00:11:12.300 boyfriend and girlfriend stories would you want publicized all over the daily freaking mail? 1.00

00:11:17.400 It's asinine. And then to come down so hard on this nepotism thing, right? Especially when it's 0.99

00:11:24.140 just not very self-reflective. Nepotism is a real thing in every single workplace you go to,

00:11:34.800 in every single profession. Everywhere. I'm going to use me as an example. Okay. I got a job at a

00:11:42.220 private school. Now, am I related to anybody that private school 20 years ago? No, no, no. I happen

00:11:47.320 to be dating somebody who knew the guy that was handling admissions and sort of was the vice

00:11:53.180 principal at the time. So what do I do? Well, I get an interview. Would my resume have been put

00:11:59.680 to the top of the pile before that no so there's not nepotism because i wasn't related but there

00:12:05.520 was still a favoritism there who you know matters i tell my kids this all the time education matters

00:12:12.800 absolutely it does please go get as many degrees you possibly can but but get to know people

00:12:20.400 right that's why they talk so much about networking getting to know people befriending

00:12:26.640 people and family is the ultimate networking situation how many do you really think that

00:12:34.480 business owners multi-billion dollar business owners don't want to pass that down to their kids

00:12:39.160 have we all just assumed that their kids are the best for the job that's ridiculous is that not 0.51

00:12:46.580 slightly ridiculous but it happens in the business world all the time we've made movie after movie 1.00

00:12:51.920 after movie of the idiot son that should never take over the business and the really smart people 1.00

00:12:56.180 all over there are the ones doing the actual work and the sun gets to take over the business. 1.00

00:13:00.560 Now, do I think that's as much of a play, let's say, as when we talk about Hollywood? Yeah,

00:13:07.920 I do. I think it is. Because I think two things can be true. I think people lacking in talent,

00:13:15.640 people lacking in work ethic, people lacking in drive fall ass over tea kettle into success. 0.95

00:13:24.680 Yeah, they can.

00:13:26.240 But I think the opposite is also true.

00:13:29.320 I think if I grew up with my mom or my dad running a family business and I grew up in

00:13:33.460 that family business, I would have an inside window, a vantage point.

00:13:37.620 I would have been brought up and bred understanding what goes into it, how it goes into it.

00:13:43.340 Why would I not make potentially, potentially a better worker?

00:13:49.640 Maybe I would.

00:13:50.920 and that same thing applies to hollywood actually i feel like it might even apply a little bit more

00:13:58.520 right because this notion that you're just born with this god-given talent nothing else matters

00:14:03.820 well no it's a lot of freaking hard work any of those jobs are but i think the rest of the public

00:14:10.520 likes to get really sort of on their high horse right about movie stars making 30 million dollars

00:14:16.420 a picture, which I, by the way, I think that might be a low number nowadays. Movie stars making like

00:14:21.300 $30 million a picture. And we're just really upset. There's not some definitive way to what

00:14:26.340 gauge actual talent. I'm sorry. Do we think we are gauging talent before nepotism? How many people

00:14:35.680 show of hands, please? You could do it. The comments think that this country, Canada,

00:14:43.660 i'm in canada united states is a true meritocracy because i see this all the time right in politics

00:14:49.660 heaven don't even start me on the nepotism in politics for the love of all that's holy

00:14:55.260 but a meritocracy means the best shall rise to the top are you joking me are you choking me we

00:15:04.300 we're not even close to that and we sure as hell weren't built upon that let's go over it for a

00:15:10.380 second we're a nation canada and i'll say the united states right north america is a culture

00:15:18.380 that was built on what discrimination slavery the the uh persecution and oppression of indigenous

00:15:27.740 people the blatant sexist and controlling and legalized sort of underpinnings of how 0.90

00:15:36.220 Women have been controlled. Do we think in this society, we have a meritocracy? 0.99

00:15:42.860 You had women and African Americans being kept out of school from generations. 1.00

00:15:47.740 Wait, are we joking ourselves? Do we really think there's no discrimination going on in hiring 0.73

00:15:55.340 boards? What do you think affirmative action was all about? It was to diversify the top ranks. So

00:16:00.380 they stopped picking people that look and sounded just like themselves. I realize that's not family,

00:16:05.560 Although they would hire family in a minute, let's be honest.

00:16:08.560 Because if you could hire a family, guess what?

00:16:10.340 So would you.

00:16:11.440 So would I.

00:16:12.920 Well, maybe not all family, but a lot of family, right?

00:16:15.540 We all would. 0.97

00:16:17.000 But this idea of meritocrity is actually ridiculous.

00:16:21.680 Two people come to me with resumes saying they both graduated university and they want

00:16:26.560 to be a teacher and I'm doing the hiring for Metro.

00:16:28.440 And I look at them and then what do I care about?

00:16:31.780 that they got an 82 or an 87 in classroom management? Are you kidding me? So now what

00:16:39.080 do I have to do? And let's assume they've even worked somewhere else. So I got glowing letters

00:16:43.360 of reference from other people that I've never met, nor do I trust their perspective. How do I

00:16:48.080 judge? I'll tell you how I judge. I sit down and I have interviews with both of them.

00:16:53.480 Want to know what the driving force of those interviews are? I'll tell you right now. And

00:16:56.880 this is on me. Do I connect with that person? Do I get that person? Do I understand what that

00:17:03.820 person is? Do I think they're going to fit the culture of the school, which by the way, is code

00:17:08.280 for my stereotypes, my prejudice, my whatever ideas I have in my head that I haven't really

00:17:16.320 put on the table yet. Those ideas are who I'm going to be drawn to and who I'm going to hire.

00:17:21.620 That's why I say all the time, I should never do the hiring. One person should never be in charge

00:17:26.380 for all the hiring, because you're not smart enough to do it. You're not smart enough to think 0.78

00:17:30.260 around all your prejudicial points. When people talk about things like affirmative action, they 0.98

00:17:36.320 constantly do this, like somebody who never even graduated high school versus three degrees,

00:17:40.560 and we're giving it to this person because they happen to be a woman. That's not the way it works.

00:17:44.080 That's not, it's never been the way it worked. But this notion of meritocrity is really,

00:17:49.900 really infuriating, because I don't think it happens. I think we're getting better at it,

00:17:56.380 I don't think people walk into it thinking, how can I just give advantage to a group of people?

00:18:02.200 I don't think that's the case.

00:18:03.500 But I think we all hire our friends and family before we hire anyone else.

00:18:07.100 And anybody that says any difference, flat out lying, just lying.

00:18:11.920 And then we apply that to Hollywood and we think it's supposed to be different there and we judge it differently there.

00:18:20.180 Listen, let's also talk about elephant in the room, right?

00:18:24.580 How do they look?

00:18:26.380 how do they look? Listen, I love Brad Pitt along with the next guy, but if Brad Pitt were

00:18:33.060 not a good looking dude, does he get cast in Thelma and Louise? I say no. He doesn't get

00:18:38.840 cast in Thelma and Louise. He doesn't get cast in Meet Joe Black. He doesn't get cast in The

00:18:44.260 River Runs Through It. I don't even know if I'm doing those chronologically, but you get my point.

00:18:47.660 Now, Brad Pitt has become a great actor. Did he become a great actor? Because people gave him a

00:18:53.760 shot because he's the most beautiful thing in the world to look at or was he born a great actor

00:19:00.240 and if he wasn't this beautiful specimen of a person does he get the shot

00:19:06.800 ever does he ever get on the big screen and we're talking about nepotism i have a problem with that

00:19:15.120 i have a problem with it because it devalues two things it devalues the talent it takes to do

00:19:22.560 many jobs, whether it's singing, acting, teaching, it doesn't matter because I'm grouping this all

00:19:29.020 together, right? It doesn't matter because all these things require talent. But guess who's

00:19:33.960 going to be the final judge of who they are, who that actor is? Well, it's going to be the audience.

00:19:40.180 And the audience and the critics are going to judge, are they good enough for me to pay my 15

00:19:46.440 bucks and by the way do we not think the critics are going to be even bigger harsher and more sort

00:19:53.080 of uh aggressive on those like little nepotism babies that we can't keep loving the word for

00:20:01.160 is that not product it does that not tie together of course it does and when you see that they're

00:20:08.600 kids of so-and-so i even think the audience might be harsher because if you like their parents cool

00:20:15.000 you might get a heads up but if you really like their parents and their kid doesn't live up you're

00:20:18.920 like oh well obviously the waters run the bloods run thin here or if you really don't like their

00:20:25.800 parents are you going to be even a harsher critic on their work when they get on that stage i don't

00:20:31.000 think nepotism is really this grandiose thing that everybody thinks it is because i i think it happens

00:20:38.360 of course it does but i think what really opens up doors and we never talk about this because

00:20:43.000 heaven forbid, this is money. It's money. What schools do you get into? What schools do you get

00:20:51.360 into? Who do you get to hang out with? What are your, you know, all of those actions, all of those

00:20:59.720 things that are connected to how much money is in your bank account, that is going to open up doors

00:21:05.900 for you. And as it opens up doors for you, there's the heart of it, right? What camp

00:21:13.040 you can go to, what theatrical school that you can go to, what singing lessons you can

00:21:20.540 go to. I know there's a vocal coach in Toronto that charges $300 an hour, $300. You want

00:21:30.720 be great you have to like fine some people can be born with beautiful talent but if you're gonna be

00:21:36.560 have talent be and then go get 300 bucks an hour dude there it is meritocrity and we really think

00:21:46.720 that looks and aesthetic and and race and sex and sexuality and all those things don't play when you

00:21:53.520 get hired for any other job in this world are we going to pretend as though that kind of

00:22:01.040 discrimination doesn't happen across the board yet we're just going to focus on nepotism

00:22:10.000 and meritocrity are and this is another problem how the hell do i define that

00:22:16.080 like i often think about it when i when it comes to teaching i think about it when it comes to

00:22:20.720 teaching firefighting police work freaking working in being a pulse what's the merit i can judge

00:22:28.880 somebody on in order to do job a is it their marks in school that doesn't seem useful but

00:22:38.320 that's how we judge a lot of people we judge a lot of people even if they went to school

00:22:42.720 right is it their marks in school again is it the reference letter everybody listening here right now

00:22:49.680 knows for a fact that everybody has one of those bogus reference letters that's just to be nice

00:22:56.640 why am i buying that so job performance okay but job performance in a lot of jobs is what

00:23:03.200 making if i could ration it and say well i can make 37 widgets in under 40 minutes and those

00:23:09.840 widgets are perfect okay cool that's that's tangible but guys think for a minute just for a

00:23:18.160 a minute how many jobs can be so easily measured none of the important ones i don't think oh and

00:23:26.560 by the way on the widgets front um i remember when i was in high school and all the high school kids

00:23:32.080 wanted to work at gm in the summer because you made insane money guess who got all those jobs

00:23:37.200 i'll give you two guesses and the first one doesn't count anybody that was related to anybody

00:23:41.840 already working on the line nepotism eaton's used to be um like a convenience store a department

00:23:50.240 store in canada okay like a macy's or jc penny right but it was like canada's department store

00:23:56.480 parents ran it it was famous parents died the kids took over bankrupt were those kids the best i have

00:24:06.160 taught kids that their parents have built up amazing businesses and those kids are going to

00:24:11.960 take over the business and those parents and I know full well don't do that oh don't do that

00:24:18.420 but it's going to happen it's going to happen because why nepotism where's the meritocrity

00:24:23.360 where's that coming from so I look at this thing and how we we love to come down on Hollywood like

00:24:32.280 it's this horrible, horrible place, when in actuality, I think it's just humanity on TV.

00:24:38.800 Honestly, honest to God. When you think about the stuff that goes on, and we hear about it,

00:24:45.200 and by the way, we're always hearing skewed elements of it. When you think about the stuff

00:24:49.120 that goes on with famous actors and actresses and all of those people in Hollywood, and you think,

00:24:55.240 oh, how messed up are they? They're so messed up because they're rich and famous. And then

00:24:59.320 take a minute, take a minute, and really dissect your family. We all just had Christmas. Go ahead,

00:25:05.960 dissect it. Go ahead. You're not going to like it too much. Because you all know that if elements

00:25:13.240 of your family could be picked apart and secret videos could be taken at that table in the

00:25:20.160 Christmas of 2003 when your uncle lost it, we would all be on the front page of the Inquirer.

00:25:27.180 Does the Inquirer still exist? Who buys tabloids anymore? Don't you just go to Twitter?

00:25:32.460 But there's my point. My point is, I would love to think we live in a meritocrity. We're the best

00:25:39.260 rise to the top. It's just not the case. And here's another thing. When we're talking about

00:25:44.880 things like artistic talent, how are we judging it? Are we judging it by money?

00:25:53.160 well guys then that we have a problem there too right don't we have a problem there are

00:26:00.420 we judging it by who's the most talented actor and actress are we are we judging it by who's the

00:26:06.580 hottest i think we have a problem across the board when we believe as though we can judge

00:26:14.440 somebody's substance substantive quality i don't even know if that's a word please go fact check

00:26:19.360 that for me. Substantive. There it is. That's the word. By one role that they have on screen,

00:26:26.860 by one song that they wrote. Is that how it works? You know, I think about how Justin Bieber

00:26:35.860 was found. Isn't a lot of it luck? I'm not taking... And to diminish that, you take away

00:26:43.400 their talent too, right? When you watch somebody, you know, do movie after movie after movie or

00:26:50.420 hit after hit after hit, I don't know. Do you think that the regular public just wants to bring

00:26:54.920 them down a notch? Wants to say that you don't have, you only have that because of who your

00:26:59.760 parents were? Well, let me, let me be clear. I think a lot of us have what we have because of

00:27:05.340 who our parents were or who we got to know or the money we did or didn't have. I didn't grow up with

00:27:11.260 a lot of money, but guys, I grew up with enough money to go to university. I grew up with enough

00:27:15.580 money to not have debt from that. I grew up with enough money to feel comfortable and confident

00:27:20.780 in my position so I could actively go seek the job that I wanted to. Does that make me the best

00:27:27.200 teacher? Does that make me the most qualified? Does that mean that the best me rose to the top?

00:27:37.720 or does that mean that things had to exist in my life to allow me to teach?

00:27:44.220 Do I think that I'm a good teacher?

00:27:45.420 Yes, I do.

00:27:46.000 I feel confident, but I'm also not ridiculously naive to think that there's not better

00:27:53.760 and there's not better that we're kept out,

00:27:56.760 which is why I fight so incredibly hard about this diversity and equity issue.

00:28:01.120 You want to talk about Hollywood, talk about that.

00:28:04.620 Because just like Hollywood is a microcosm of life, think about who's been kept out.

00:28:10.480 Think about who's been turned down for the role.

00:28:13.160 Think about who's never even had the potential to be included in the possibility of choice

00:28:19.160 because of their race, because of their sex, because of their sexuality.

00:28:24.240 Think about that.

00:28:25.960 Think about all of the different ways that people have been kept out, because that's

00:28:30.140 true of everything.

00:28:31.620 now does nepotism factor into that sure it absolutely does do i think that the rest of

00:28:38.660 the world doesn't have nepotism please please but growing up in a family i grew up i grew up

00:28:48.040 watching my mom in being a nurse in a hospital do i think i could have been a good nurse yeah

00:28:53.140 i do i think i could have been well i faint with blood but put that aside right why because i think

00:29:00.520 I was able to witness. I grew up seeing what a great nurse looked like. So if you grew up with

00:29:06.600 a great actor in your family, if you grew up with a great business person in your family,

00:29:11.140 and you have a modicum of talent, you don't think that I could possibly, maybe, potentially,

00:29:17.880 be something big? And I realize I'm going back and forth here, right guys?

00:29:21.900 I realize I'm really sitting on the fence. It's good I'm wearing red. It's a very liberal thing

00:29:27.300 to do today. I'm very much sitting on the fence, but here's why. Because just the insane notion

00:29:33.980 that we live in a meritocrity is absolute garbage. But the insane notion that kids 0.99

00:29:42.680 of parents who do these amazing things that we love and that we admire and that brings something

00:29:51.260 to this world, that those kids might not potentially have an edge in that particular 0.99

00:29:56.040 business, that particular world is ridiculous, is ridiculous. And once your foot's in the door, 0.98

00:30:03.740 guess what's going to happen? You're going to make it or break it. You're going to become a great

00:30:08.760 nurse, a great actress, a great producer, a great whatever, or not, or not. Because if you don't

00:30:18.400 have that talent, and probably more importantly, because I do believe that a big portion of who

00:30:24.300 we are is the talent we have for it. And then it is work ethic. How hard are you willing to work?

00:30:30.620 How, how much are you willing to grind? How much are you willing to learn from other people and

00:30:35.300 open your perspective and understand that you can learn from here and here and here and here

00:30:39.520 that has power, but what have we done in our world? Right. And it's funny when I read about

00:30:49.240 like this kind of stuff in the vulture or coming from different newspapers or media sources,

00:30:53.280 because we all know what the casting looks like on that media front, right? 1.00

00:30:59.600 Up in Canada, we just had this amazing Lisa Lafemme 0.98

00:31:05.380 who got apparently too old to be an anchor, 0.98

00:31:09.960 yet she was this superstar of an anchor.

00:31:13.680 Now, the guy that fired her got fired, but guess what?

00:31:15.660 I mean, it still is what it is.

00:31:18.540 Is that a meritocrity or is that about money?

00:31:21.380 And is it okay if it's about money, if it's not your son or daughter? All of that gets convoluted, right? You want to really start looking at, are we a meritocrity? Are the best rising to the top? Are the best getting chances?

00:31:38.080 you need to do two things i'm going to sound very canadian when i say this you need to fully fund

00:31:43.540 and make education absolutely free so that every genius has the the best possible options

00:31:53.580 to utilizing that to get ahead right absolutely and you have to diversify everybody doing the

00:32:01.640 casting, the hiring, right? You can keep hiring the same people you've always hired, but you're

00:32:09.060 not in any way going to diversify that. If you're not going to diversify that, and if we're not

00:32:13.140 going to force that diversification, you, as would I, always be drawn to the people that speak

00:32:19.400 in your language. And I don't mean that literally. I mean that culturally, socioeconomically.

00:32:26.400 I mean that in how I was raised, how I speak, how somebody speaks back to me, if I can connect

00:32:34.160 with them, I'm going to be more inclined to hire them that doesn't make them the best possible

00:32:38.460 person for the job. And that is not a meritocrity. That is not hiring on the basis of merit.

00:32:45.280 That is hiring on the basis of how I feel. Diversify that hiring commission,

00:32:51.460 that hiring board that whatever we'll get closer to it we'll get closer to it but let's stop

00:33:00.260 right now pointing to hollywood as though all of that stuff all of that hiring all that giving a

00:33:09.280 chance all of that promotion doesn't happen in every single industry i would say in a unionized

00:33:15.380 profession it probably happens it obviously happens the least but you still got to get

00:33:19.480 hired. You still got to get in in the first place. I think talking about what a real meritocrity is

00:33:28.360 is an incredibly important aspect of building a healthy, amazing society. Absolutely. But make no

00:33:37.620 mistake, deciding on and coming up with a list of what merit actually is, is difficult, is

00:33:47.460 excruciatingly painful and within the world of the artistic community how don't you want a visionary

00:33:56.180 don't you want somebody who does it different don't you want somebody who's inspiring don't

00:33:59.940 you want somebody who's going to push you to the next level how can i if i'm not at the next level

00:34:06.180 guess it who's going to be there do you see the problem art isn't like anything else

00:34:11.780 the same reason that most artists and we're talking about visual artists aren't really

00:34:15.620 appreciate it till they're not even here anymore because they were thinking 10 20 years in the

00:34:20.760 future that's just where their brain was the same is true for a lot of actors and actresses and

00:34:25.700 musicians they're ahead of the game they're ahead of the culture they are making culture

00:34:30.760 so guess what those shows that got canceled in one or two seasons we look back and go wow that

00:34:35.880 was genius it was genius ahead of its time how do we judge that merit how do we judge their

00:34:43.200 potential. And how dare we either give or diminish who somebody is and what they're going to bring

00:34:51.440 to this world on the basis of their last name? How dare we? And on that note, I want you guys

00:34:59.380 to think about merit equity. I want you to throw all the comments in the comment section you

00:35:03.880 possibly can because I want to have more parts to this particular podcast. I think discussing

00:35:10.800 discussing what merit truly looks like how we're supposed to build that what how we can possibly

00:35:17.760 because be selfish about it you want the best and the best to rise to the top why because they're

00:35:22.560 the ones that are going to change the world so let's get out of their way let's stop pre-packaging

00:35:27.580 people and limiting them or giving them boosts on the basis of something that's not actually

00:35:33.240 tangible because if we get out of their way the world gets better tomorrow but if we stand in

00:35:38.460 the way. Guess what? We're going to limit who we are, how we grow, and the potentiality of what we

00:35:45.460 can see in the world to come. So put your comments below, all of your questions, any condemnation you

00:35:52.960 have of what I've just said, and I want it to be a series because I honestly believe people sit at

00:36:00.400 home, watch a movie, and judge on the basis of a kid's last name when in actuality we should be

00:36:06.940 talking about a bigger picture of society and understanding the multi-level, multi-faceted

00:36:12.840 things that go into what makes somebody great at what they do. Don't diminish and don't grant

00:36:19.640 on the basis of a name or how much is in your wallet or what suit you wore to that interview.

00:36:26.440 It's a very dangerous place to be. And let's not deny that our culture has been built on that.

00:36:34.240 Have we built a great society? Yes, I love living in Canada. How better do you think it could have been had we not gotten in people's way? How great could we have been? How amazing, how much further could we have progressed? Right? So if you want to talk about something important, talk about that.

00:36:56.540 but don't diminish people's accomplishments because of their last name that's just embarrassing

00:37:01.840 when you really should be turning it inward and trying to figure out how do we make the entire

00:37:07.800 system better and how do we stop demonizing hollywood and and let's be honest it's jealousy

00:37:17.880 for what they've attained and the way that that sort of nepotism and who you know works in that

00:37:24.520 community and deny that that's the way we built our entire society for the past 300 years.

00:37:31.220 Food for thought. Thank you guys for hanging out with me today. I will see you next Tuesday.

00:37:38.060 Same bat time, same bat station. Have a good week, guys. Dismissed.

Unlearn16: Class is in Session - December 27, 2022

The One Where I Take The 'Nepo Baby' Out For A Walk

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