72: I Was Born to Hold A Sword
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Direct from the Broski Nation headquarters in Los Angeles, California, this is the Broski Report with your host, Brittany Broski. Hello, team. Can everyone listening, guys, just, can we take a second? I want you to inhale for four, hold for four, out for four, okay? Just do it with, I don't care if you feel stupid! I don't care if you feel stupid, just do it. Inhale, hold for four, out for four. Feels good, right? I took a yoga class, I learned that.

Okay, guys, I, um, what a week. There's a lot to say. I know that there is probably an expectation for me to come on here and wax poetical, wax philosophic about the state of the country.

and about the election results, and about where it leaves us, you know, as a nation, as a fractured society, where it leaves us as we head into the holidays, where it leaves us as we stand with our friends, our family. And I want you to know that, as we all know, I am only human, and I'm grieving this in a way that is, it's personal, but not personal.

And I just want to share a message that kind of is necessary, and I hope it brings a bit of comfort to you. I just want to say that, you know, in these times, the idea of a chosen family is something that in the gay community is one of the most important concepts. You do get to choose your family. You get to choose the people that you give your time to.

And just because you are blood related to someone does not mean they're deserving of your time and appreciative of your time. And it doesn't mean that they deserve your light. I want to emphasize that right now, all we have is each other. It's a very scary time for a lot of people in a lot of different states. And to add insult to injury, you know, it's this sort of

Not only are you grieving the loss of basic human rights in a lot of areas of the country, you're being made fun of. That is hard in a lot of ways. Where I feel like this negging and this poking is very one-sided. And we live in a reality, unfortunately, that even if the election would have gone a different way,

it still would have been equally as polarizing and equally as vilifying and demonizing. And I'm going into this holiday season and into 2025 and the next four fucking years with this mentality of divisiveness has been the goal and they've succeeded. And whoever they is, it's a lot, it's people on both sides. It's people just in power. Divisiveness is the goal.

Because a unified American people, so much could be accomplished. I just want to emphasize the necessity of unity within your community, the people who love you. And I mean really love you, who voted like they love you. It's now time to be with your people and to do work offline. Do you know what I mean? There are so many things happening.

that I want to say, and at the same time, I don't feel qualified to say. I'm not the one. You know what I mean? Look at me. I know how I look. I know who I am. I know my privilege. I know what you see when you look at me. This is the time, and I'm not talking to Black women, by the way. Y'all have done your work. You have done your work. I am talking to the white women and to any woman or minority who voted in a way that

That is the antithesis of your being. What now? What now? It's not just you, you hurt. You know, it's a whole, it's the whole community of women and minorities in this country. A lot of my issue that I've spoken about a lot on this podcast with Being American is how navel-gazing we are as a people, how individualistic we are, how self-centered, how selfish we

And what a juxtaposed idea with this idea of being a Christian nation, which apparently is so important to so many people that I didn't realize. What a hypocritical thing. I've talked about this a lot, too, that the Jesus that is historically accurate, that the Bible actually describes, the Jesus that is this martyr who is a man of the people who gave himself to

so that you could walk free. Do you think that Jesus would vote the way that you voted? I just, I, it almost brings, I don't want to cry because that's so annoying. I just have such a deep rooted unsettling disturbance. I feel disturbed by these voting election, by, by these election results and

being under the guise of Christianity. I've talked about my walk with Christianity and my choice in leaving the church, but that does not undermine what I know to be true about the Christian faith and the Christian doctrine, which is it is supposed to be, and forgive my choice of term, a bit socialist. Jesus would have been a socialist. Jesus was a brown man from the Middle East.

who hung out with prostitutes and social exiles. And he was one of them. He was one of them. This whitewashed version of Jesus, who a lot of right-wing people hide behind as the reason for a return to the traditional American values, I genuinely, from an academic perspective,

standpoint, if we're talking about the text, if we're talking about the Bible, and we're talking about the Christian faith, it's a faith of sinners. It's a faith of people who are no good, but are choosing to walk the righteous path the way that Jesus would have, where you care about your fellow man, you care about your brother the same way you care about your family, the same way you care about your neighbor more than yourself. Where is that?

I don't recognize these Christians that vote the way they do. I feel, you know, it was this state of, of course, I felt like it was delaying the inevitable. And when I woke up on Wednesday morning and I checked, you know, I kind of knew in my gut, I knew that that was going to be the outcome. And I think all of Wednesday for so many people was just a day to mourn.

It was a day to mourn and to be with the people you love. And just this acceptance of like, I did what I could in that moment, you know, but the work doesn't stop. I think the message is forward. We go forward. We move forward. And, you know, I've already cried about it on my own. And I didn't mean to cry, but it's just so heavy.

It's so heavy and it's disappointing on so many levels. I do believe that there is power in community and taking that community that for a lot of people is only online, moving it offline. I want everyone to just feel okay as you can with the knowledge and the security that

this podcast and what I want to do and I haven't always been successful in it and I'll admit that what I want to do with what I've built is I want to offer a safe space to people who just are not what you know this new this new administration um

if you're not safeguarded by this new administration, I want you to know that you have a safe space here, as safe as I can make it, because I love you and you are loved and you are valid in a country that really, really makes you feel the opposite. And I just want you to know that, you know, for women and minorities in this country, it is so divided and there's a lot of

right-leaning women who like to think that they are men's equals, you will not be a man's equal. You won't. Not the way that you vote. Not the people you put in power. It will never happen for you. And I want there to be a space that is

free to come to, to just forget it all just for an hour a week to come here and to not have to fucking think about it. That's what I want to offer. And so I, I didn't have an eloquent speech prepared. I didn't have encouraging words of hope that, you know, I wanted to spread. I just wanted to speak from the heart and say that I want this to be that safe space because the safe spaces are dwindling. They are dwindling.

So if you find refuge here, if you find refuge in the comments section under these videos or these podcasts, the communities online, I want you to know my heart. And I want you to know that what I don't want to do is come on here and spread harmful rhetoric. You know, there's a lot of videos and opinion pieces on TikTok that are like, you know, Republicans, I hope you get what you wanted. I hope you get exactly what you wanted. And that feels...

very vindictive to me and it feels very petty. And I don't think that should be the focus right now. The focus should be when you're on this side where it's like you're voting not only for yourself, but for the people you love and for people you don't even know. I want that to extend into this idea of

rising above and being the bigger person and hoping for an America that one day will be free and equal and one day will be unified and one day will be an America that I will feel proud to be from. Because the more we regress like this, the more that freedoms are stripped from people in a country that so values liberty and freedom, the more power we give to a

It feels like we get farther and farther away from that goal. And it's just heavy. It's just really heavy. But I will not give up hope that that will be where we end up one day. So I just want everyone to know that if you listen to this podcast and if you are a woman or a minority of any kind, I want you to feel safe here. And even if it's just...

a bit of a relief from normal life. So thank you for listening. Thank you for being here. And I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for what it's worth. And, you know, it's about community and friendship moving forward. And forward, we will move. We will move forward. And we'll continue working. And we'll continue because someone has to. Someone has to care.

for the people that don't have a voice. And it's been heavy. It's been a very, very hard last week. And it's going to be a very tough next four years. So tell the people you love, you love them. Try to do something good for your local community. You know, something small or something big. And look out for each other. Love each other. Care for each other.

Because we're all we have. I'm going to link some resources in the description that are alternatives to reproductive care in red states that, you know, either don't have access or access is about to be heavily restricted. I'm going to list a bunch of resources in the description if you want to save them, if you want to send them to people. You know, those are for y'all.

Okay, stop crying. Let's get serious. I went to the Wicked premiere and well, I went to the Wicked premiere. It was a beautiful event. I think it was a little clusterfucky and that's fine. There were so many moving parts. There were obviously like

Cynthia, Ari, Jonathan Bailey, Boenye, like just an insane, beautiful, this film is so monumental for so many reasons because when you're dealing, first of all, with any film adaptation of any other medium, whether it be a book, whether it be, you know, a TV show turned into a movie, whether it be a musical turned into a movie, a play, there is, it's always an uphill battle.

That piece of media always has a cult following. Wicked, probably number one. It has such a loyal cult following for obvious reasons. If you've never seen Wicked or you're not familiar with it at all, I would say Wicked is a story of...

the underdog and it's about being falsely represented, inaccurately represented. And it's about, it's a very topical story. And I think it is always relevant, but now a little bit more than normal. And the cast did such a good job honoring the story, the original portrayals, while of course bringing a new life to it.

The soundtrack, it was just done with such care. And you can do things in film that you can't do in a Broadway production. And it was so neat seeing Oz, the wicked version of Oz, you know, not so much like the Judy Garland Wizard of Oz.

Being having the school shows university like brought to life and being able to go into it and even like the yellow brick road and all of these things, having them come to life in a way that was modern.

like with the modern technology that, you know, even in the fifties, forties, they couldn't achieve. It was amazing. It stirred a lot of emotions and anxieties and criticisms and all that, you know, whatever. I saw this thing that was like, this movie looks like it's going to be shit. It's so backlit. The whole thing is backlit. There's no bright colors. There's no whatever. It's not what you would want it to be. Like, it just looks like they did this grayscale thing. Hey,

What the fuck are you bitches talking about? This is, I will always say this. The internet is so off the mark. Always. All the time. This movie was beautifully colored. It was brought to life. And it's like judging a book by its cover. It's judging something by a few screen grabs you saw from some BTS footage of like from three years ago. It's like the movie was so well done. The characters were taken care of.

The CGI was amazing. It was like, even at times, it felt like you were watching the Broadway version. They did. I can't even, I cannot sing its praises enough. I cried from the opening sequence to the ending sequence. And that's just part one. We get a part two, which very, very, very, very, very excited for part two. But yeah, it was amazing. The event was a lot of fun. Watching people just

you know, inherently it is political. It is political to embody the spirit of Elphaba, to be like, you want to make me the motherfucking villain, bitch? Watch. Watch. I'll show you a villain. You know, to just embrace it. Like, I am, I am wicked. Trust and believe. So I really enjoyed it. I think it's so important. The story is very important. I think it's important to

invite people to premieres like that that embody it, you know? Looking around at the people who just dressed up and, you know, bending gender norms and...

people in dresses and glitter and drag. And it was just, it was a beautiful event and it honored the community. It honored the people who wrote and produced the play. I think John Chu did such an incredible job directing and it was, it was amazing. I really, really enjoyed it. I love

also a song. Oh, by the way, get into the glam. My stylist Kat DePaldos did the glam. Get into the look. We wanted to do this like fucked up Vivienne Westwood, Helena Bonham Carter, like Marie Antoinette, like on Coke, rock star sort of thing. Put it up here. I felt so pretty. I'm getting into this like, like, of course I felt glamorous, but it was this interesting take on it because I didn't want to just do like, here's me in a pink dress.

First of all, I'm pink, so pink on me looks bad. But I wanted to, you know, I told her my vision. I was like, I want to do more of like an Emerald City sort of something that's really nice with how pale I am, but is interesting and fashion and a cool take on it. And we did that. And so even with the hair, we did this sort of 30s inspired makeup. It was fun.

Because I think so much, there's so much more to fashion than just looking pretty, right? This isn't, I'm not making a groundbreaking statement by saying that. Fashion is about taking risks and doing things that are interesting and forward thinking. And this was sort of dipping my toe into that of this sort of fucked up,

I don't know, it was fun. It was a lot of fun. This episode is sponsored by Dipsy. Calling all my romance lovers. If you read "Akatar," "Fifty Shades of Grey," "Beach Read," "The Spanish Love Deception," or even "Twilight," I have the perfect app for you.

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So stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash broski report. That's rocketmoney.com slash broski report. rocketmoney.com slash broski report. Speaking of premieres, I saw a screening of Gladiator 2 last night. Oh my god. I got my Paul Meskel cup. I got my Paul Meskel merch. Okay, Paul Meskel. Y'all, what the? I need a fucking cigarette.

I need a cigarette. There are some people ripping on this movie, ripping on it, being really mean. I had a great time. I had a great time. I really enjoyed the story. You know, I think that following up such a cult classic like the original Gladiator, which honestly influenced an entire generation of people, if not specifically young men, the movie is...

I think it pays a great homage to the original film and the original IP while bringing a new young face to the franchise. And also, Pedribo. Hello, Pedro Pascal. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was great. Joseph Quinn, terrifying. Hi. He's fucking terrifying in this movie. Anyway, God, I really enjoyed it. And it just makes me so I love that shit.

And you want to know something too? There are some parts in there where I found myself nerding out and I was like, this is insufferable. I feel insufferable. There are certain parts of the movie where I was fact checking. It's a movie. This isn't a documentary. It's not a National Geographic recreation of Roman times. But we're watching and I'm like, there's one scene where

One of the senators has a newspaper. Printing press wasn't invented yet. Do you know what I mean? Like, why is there paper that looks like the Associated Press? Like, why are you reading the Huffington Post and the freaking Roman Gladiator Times?

That was one where I was like, what the fuck? Another one was in the Coliseum when they're showing some of the crowd, like during the gladiator fights or, you know, when they do the famous like, mercy, no mercy. And then they all cheer, the emperors make the decision, whatever. There are women in the crowd. Hey, that wouldn't have happened. And if it would have, they would have been in the fucking nosebleeds. Women and children sat there.

All the way up top. Usually baking in the sun, unless they had the sun umbrellas overhead.

The way that the Coliseum seating charts were ranked was a very specific thing, you know, and the people who sat behind the emperor's little box were one thing. And then the people, it was honestly like a hundred section, 200, 300, 400 section, like in a stadium. Women and children would not have been allowed in the hundred section, but they were showing it. And then I was like, this isn't me smoking in the theater. Yeah, that's not accurate. No,

No, because they wouldn't let women in there. Trust. They showed some of the wax tablets, which was cool because that's how they used to write notes. It was it was I think because, you know, it gets me thinking it gets the old brain churning around where everyone knows by this point because I haven't shut the fuck up about it. I kind of had an addiction to the Roman Empire for a second because of the book series I'm reading.

where it's all based on Roman society and imperators and praetorians and all of the way that the Roman military was arranged and legionnaires and lancers and all these things where the emperor had, or the sovereign, had people in charge. And it was this idea of power and

is in brute strength. Power is not of the mind or of the words or of the mouth or of how you can inspire a state or an audience. It was about brute strength and violence for a lot of emperors. And that's how the Roman Empire expanded to the point that it did, where it covered all of Europe, parts of North Africa, you know, parts of it went all... It was just...

There is a reason that that was able to happen, and it's because of brute violence. There's a famous Roman saying, which is fevictus, woe to the conquered, right? Like victory to the emperor, and if you get conquered, girl, sorry for you. Sorry, we didn't mean to, but you either submit or you die. And then any town that's been conquested...

is now, you're enslaved to the Roman Empire. Become a slave or die. It's just, it was, I don't know. The Roman Empire is so intriguing, I'm not going to even attempt to sound like a historian because I'm fucking not. And I'm just going to make a fool of myself. But I will say, what is so intriguing to so many people about the Roman Empire is the brutality, the injustice, the inhumane ranking of significance of human life

the privileges afforded to those who just, you know, did nothing to earn it. In the beginning, maybe. The same way that people were like, oh, George Washington, he was the fucking best. You know, and he didn't want to serve. That's what makes him exactly what he should be, the ruler. Even though George Washington was a racist, horrible brute. I think that...

The Roman Empire is so intriguing in that sense of how it just spiraled out of control by the end of the empire. And through all that, you're mourning how exploitative and violent and omniscient and what's the word I'm thinking of? Omnipotent?

Where it's almost this godlike level of nothing happens in private. You have informants everywhere. You have spies. Like there are any attempt at rebellion will be crushed. There is no hope if you attempt to rise against the empire.

All of that's happening, right? Because the gladiator is a story of rebellion and a story of honor and strength in the real sense, not, you know, killing in the name of honor or doing this in the name of honor, like true honor, whatever that means. All of this, these horrifying deeds are happening under the name of the empire. At the same time, incredible progression for humankind between the aqueducts and between the amphitheaters and between

built the construction of things like the Coliseum and the Pantheon and all of these things that are just like, how the fuck did they have the science and the math? And well, we know where they got the manpower to build these things. And they still stand today. And it is a testament to when you put the human mind to work

For the purpose of betterment and improvement, I say that in quotes, of human society, look what you can accomplish. That still stands the test of time today, thousands of years later, 2,000 years later. So it's like both things can be true at once, right? Here is this horrible, exploitative, brutal empire with...

lasting and notable achievements for all of humankind. And both were happening at the same time. And you cannot discuss one without the other. And this movie just, it stirred that in my brain a lot where I was like, God, they're just awful. But look at the construction. Wow, that's a beautiful piece of stone or to marble the way that they, the mosaics they would make out of tiles and the paintings and the statues and the carvings. And it was just,

To have such decadence juxtaposed with such just squalor. Wow. So the movie was great. Paul Meskel. Oh, Paul Meskel. What a man. What a fucking man. Hey, shout out the Irish. One thing about this podcast, stay right there. Olé, olé, olé, olé. Olé, olé.

Olé! Olé! Olé! Olé! Olé! Schlunke. Wait. Sluncher. Sluncher. Sluncher. In my palm-escal cup. I

I am a fucking Ireland lover. I am an ally of the country of Ireland. And I know all the shit I said a few months ago. I know I had said, I'm going to bomb Ireland. I'm going to nuke Ireland. Okay? Because a young Irish gentleman had tried to fuck on me. He tried to play on me. We're not doing that. Okay? And did I consider pressing the red button under the table and nuking all of Ireland? Yes. Did I do it? No. Because am I not merciful?

IS YOUR IMPRAT NOT MERCIFUL?! Me to Ireland. MERCY! Yeah, dude. Almost nuked Ireland. I didn't though. Because why? Hosier. Paul Mescal. Anyway, he just so good in this movie, dude. I believe him. I believe him. He's a great actor. I believe every word that came out of his mouth. There's this scene where he like recites poetry. Damn near had to leave the theater.

Damn near had to leave. Damn near had to escort myself, my person, out of the theater. Go to the bathroom. Shit was crazy. So I saw early screening. I'm going to the premiere. And then I'm going to go see it in theaters again. Fuck you, dude. I've seen it three times. I've seen it un, deux, trois. Un, deux, trois. Movie's so good. Pedro Pascal, hot.

That's my man. Do you know what I mean? I've been a Pedrito lover for so long. And you want to talk about Ally, Pedro Pascal. Ally? Did someone say Ally? Pedro's answering the phone. Okay. Yeah, me and my friend Elizabeth, we went to the premiere dressed as

emperors, of course, because of course. And did I look like Jesus a little bit? Yeah, by accident. Put it up here. I was so excited. They said, come dress silly if you want. Say less. I cracked open my costume drawer. Say less. I'm dressed. I'm already dressed up. I went to bed in this last night, anticipating waking up this morning to go see the screening.

Anyway, such a good movie. I love movies like that. I think it really stirred something in me the same way that House of the Dragons stirs something in me. It's an obsession with glory and honor. Fae victus. Woe to the conquered. It was just so... What is that? What do you think that is? What do you think's wrong with me? Is that like, is that mine? Is that what's wrong with me? Is it maybe sometimes I think that I'm like a Roman man? Yeah.

Sometimes I think I'm a gladiator. Maybe in a past life I was like a dragon rider, gladiator, maybe something. I have to write a book. I have to put all of these thoughts of honor and sacrificing yourself for a worthy foe, all that swirling around in my head, dude. I was born to hold a sword. Hold on. Doesn't this look right? Doesn't this look right when you see this?

not entertained! Halt! Stop right there! Those who stand before me, prepare to die. Right? This feels so natural in my hand. And there's like a lion on the end of it. Is that a lion? What would my house sigil be? My sigil? Do y'all remember Brother Bear? Remember the movie Brother Bear? Hold on. Let me sheathe my sword. Sheathe.

The movie Brother Bear, the DVD had this little quiz you could take. Do you remember this? Little quiz you could take where you could find your spirit animal. It was like a BuzzFeed quiz that you would take it and it was like on the menu. You could do it and you would select all these, you know, like what's your favorite element? Like water, earth, wind, sun, whatever. And I did all that, whatever. At the very end, salmon, salmon. I wanted to be a wolf.

I wanted to be an eagle. The fuck do you mean I'm a salmon? I was pissed off. A salmon? Also, I was 10. I couldn't pronounce salmon. Salmon? I don't want to be a salmon. I want to be your favorite. And a dumbass quiz on a Disney movie. Salmon. I'm not a salmon. Stop. I'm not. I'm not a salmon. I hit the wrong button. I wasn't.

Had a meltdown over it. Hated that. Now that I am a voting adult, I am of legal drinking age, I pick my house sigil. And my house sigil is a dragon. It's a sick ass Welsh dragon. Actually, maybe it's not a dragon. Actually, let me take a quiz. What is my house sigil animal?

What is your coat of arms animal? Hell yeah. If this says salmon, I'm literally going to have a crash out. Someone has broken into your house. What do you do? Beat them up, call the cops, set a trap. Okay, are we lying or are we being, is this who I think I want to be or who I really am? I'm calling the cops.

Call the cops. You're playing paintball. You're the last one on your team. What do you do? I'm getting shot. I'm dying. I'm getting shot. Surrender and try to negotiate a treaty. Run out and shoot them all. Perform stealth attacks.

I'm surrendering. I'm trying to negotiate a treaty. Because here's the thing. I know I'm not strong. I know what I lack in my physical makeup, I can try to make up for with my mind and my mouth. Because the greatest weapon that God hath given us is our ability to negotiate and to reason with our fellow man. The best weapon we hath been armed with is logic and reason.

You're playing a game with some friends, but there's a new kid. What do you do? You make friends with them. Make fun of them and leave them out. Invite them to play with you. Do nothing and wait to see if they do anything. Invite them to play with you. Yeah. You catch someone cheating off you on a test. What do you do? I would tell the teacher afterward. Do nothing and let them. Make a big deal about it and tell the teacher. Use it to blackmail them later.

This might be sinister, but I'm using it to blackmail them later. Right? Because I'm keeping tabs because guess what? I'm smart because I know you did this. And do I have proof? No. But here's the proof. Pull up his test and then pull up mine. Uh-huh. The ones I got wrong on purpose, he'll get wrong on purpose too because I sabotaged him because I was going to blackmail him because I knew he was cheating.

bitch. Someone cheats in PE. What do you do? Cheat back, argue with them, let it be, have fun. Who, what are you cheating in PE for? Let it be, have fun. I don't care. I'm lying. I'm cheating back. In PE? Yeah, I don't care. You see a homeless person on the street. What do you do? Donate to them, leave them alone, confront them and tell them to get up and get a job. I'll donate to them. I'll donate to them. I'm a stag. That actually goes crazy.

Your animal is a stag. You don't fight unless provoked. You prefer peace and harmony. Fuck yeah, I do, dude. Stag goes crazy. A stag goes crazy. A stag goes crazy. I am a stag. Oh, I like that. I like that. At least I wasn't a fish. I like a stag. I'm going to take one more. I'm going to take one more because that felt good. Hell yeah, I'm a stag. Which divine sigil will be bestowed upon you? Hell yeah, Brittany.

Divine sigils are special marks that are imprinted on the body parts of a select group of people as a reward for their merit by the gods themselves. Not only are they badges of excellence, but they grant the lucky user the ability to cast the purest form of elemental magic, which derives directly from the god who granted it. They also serve as a means of greatly enhancing one's magical abilities, even strengthening certain properties of it depending on the sigil.

This quiz was based off some lore that I wrote for a personal project. Hell yeah. By Spectral Usurper. Let's freaking do it. Okay, I'm going to take this and we'll come back. Ooh, the sigil of ice. The divine sigil. Sorry.

The divine sigil of ice is one of the many obtainable sigils. The god of ice takes note of those who show a high amount of sharp intuition. Scholars, alchemists, and soldiers often earn these ice sigils through their persistence and quick thinking when the situation needs it. Signature characteristics of ice sigil bearers are perseverance, fortitude, intelligence. Hell yeah. Shing!

And then suddenly on the hilt of my sword on this side is an ice sigil and on this side a stag head. Fuck yeah, bitch. Bitch! That's actually crazy. I am a stag. I'm getting way too into it. Yeah, I am a stag. That's right!

Anyway, that quiz was honestly very validating for me. I think I needed to be told that I'm a creature of peace unless provoked because I find that to be very true. I also think that I am a creature of the nighttime. I'm not a creature of the daylight. I also find myself to be drawn a bit more to autumn and winter. I'm not really a big spring/summer girl. I have allergies and I get sunburned, okay? Is Taurus, Taurus is Earth. Taurus is an Earth sign.

What does that mean? What is an earth sign? What is an earth sign? Characterized by being grounded, practical, and focused on the tangible aspects of life, embodying stability and a connection to the material world. Essentially, they are considered the builders of the zodiac. With these hands, they are often hardworking and dedicated to achieving their goals. Fuck yeah. Um, Salvador Dali was a Taurus? Crazy. Artistic and innovative capabilities. You know what?

I talk a lot of shit on astrology sometimes. Actually, not that much. I think astrology is very interesting and it honestly gags me a little bit how accurate it is sometimes because I'll read for Taurus and I'm like, okay, relax. Damn. Okay, relax. Like it's really accurate. And sometimes I think that I'll read a horoscope or I'll read a descriptor of what a Taurus, the characteristics can or should be, you know, default. And I often think,

Is this a version of myself I have not come to know yet? Is this something that maybe in the future I'll tap into someday where as I mature a little bit, as I level out, maybe in my 30s and my 40s and my 50s, different people.

personality traits will take over. Whereas maybe I was a bit more bullheaded in my youth, you know, I'll get a bit more open and whimsical and curious in my older age. Because I think that's the thing, more than anything, if I was reading my own personality chart, right? If I didn't know me and I was reading myself,

I think that there's an innate desire to be seen as deeply intellectual and to be respected as such as someone who is smart. But there's a little monster, a little tiny monster in my brain that is like, you'll never be that. And you are not that. And that's wishful thinking.

But I think also part of it is being humble enough to realize that there are always going to be people way smarter than me and that there is always something to learn. That is the gift of life, I think, is you will always be a student.

We're all students of life and you never stop learning. And to think the greatest mistake you can make as an academic or a scholar or an intellectual of any sort is to think that you know it all or to think that you've learned all there is to learn or that you've seen enough and you've developed your opinions and that's just it and they'll never change. If only we were so concrete. If only...

the human psyche was so, you know, we crave certainty and we crave stability. And the true testament is letting go of that idea that you've learned, you know all there is to know or you understand how things work. The world is always changing. Things are always happening. I'm always in situations.

You know, I think that's it, is you can never be too confident in your worldview and in

how you understand the world as it is. So I don't know. I don't even know what the fuck I'm talking about. That's something that I think about a lot is I always want to stay open and curious. And when I start to feel like if I have a hard opinion on something that's serious, you know, not whimsical or some pop culture thing, but sometimes the pop culture stuff lends itself to, is this really how I feel about

people or why am I passing such harsh judgments on someone I've never met, on someone who is presenting one way online, who people post online for a multitude of reasons. We know that rage baiters exist. We know that people involve themselves in controversy to stay relevant. We know that people behave. They act out. They behave in outlandish ways.

To be in the zeitgeist. To be in the cultural sphere where people are talking about them. And for some people, you have to do that. For other people, it's just not your inclination. It's not my inclination. And...

I don't know. I know people behave in a lot of different ways for a lot of different reasons. And to act like I know why or that I understand it or that I can group all these people into one thing or group, you know, people in my family or my friends or strangers I don't know or someone I see on the street, I can pass a judgment on them, which I find myself doing every single day against, you know, my better nature.

I want to change that about myself. And I think that being back to this idea of being an intellectual is acknowledging that there are things that are not for you to understand, but it's important to ask questions. Does that make sense? Maybe that's the maybe that's this thing of like being rooted and grounded, accepting that you don't know everything and you won't know everything, but staying open and curious to learning.

That's very important to me, and it's something that I find myself straying from. And it doesn't feel good when you stray from that, when I find myself being really judgmental or really critical, which I can be. I always want to reroute and come back onto this straight and narrow of everyone has their own journey, and everyone is struggling with things, and who am I? Who am I to really think me better than them, to think myself better than them, or

think myself, you know, I've got it all figured out. Why can't they? It's not that hard. And then I lay in bed at night and I'm like, but I don't have it figured out. I don't want to be a salmon because I'm not a fucking fish in the water. I really didn't think the wrong answer, bro. I'm a stag. I'm a stag. You know? Anyway, I want to share with you guys some of my November favorites. This episode is sponsored by Factor.

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My number one November favorite is noticing the way that on a tube of lipstick, when someone applies lipstick, the way that the makeup looks after. You know, like the shape of different lipstick heads, the way that different women apply it. Some women apply it like...

top down where it's just a rounded stub. Some people try to keep that slanted cut of the product and then it forms to their lip. Pull up this thing I'm talking about. Put it up right here. The way that women apply their lipstick differently or not just women, anyone applies their lipstick differently. I think it is such it's one of those things of a little quirk.

of how humans are and how beautifully different we are and what it means. You know, all those psychological analyses of what this is, of how we do our handwriting, of how we tie our tennis shoes, how we...

how we hold our forks, how we hold our pencils. It's just all these things that we were taught, quote unquote, in a uniform way, how to do this in school, you know, how to hold a pencil, how to whatever, but things just develop. Our personalities come out and they are shown in all of these unique ways. And you'll find other people who do it the same way as you. It's just, it's one of those things. I just, I've been addicted to that recently. I follow this girl,

on Instagram who does like get ready with me's and she wears the same lipstick every day. I love that. A creature of habit. I'm addicted to that. And she'll always be like, I'm wearing this color today. And when she pulls up the, when she, you know, twists it up, it's got that divot in it because it's the way that she applies her lipstick and I'm addicted to it. Okay. Anyway, number two, kitchen knives. Okay. I'm really into still in my Anthony Bourdain kick.

Kitchen knives taking care of them. I've got some I've got a set of cook knives and it's a classic chef's knife it is a What's the word what's the word it starts with a P and it's it's how you peel shit different chef knives Peeve

What are the eight types of knives? Pairing knife, a pairing knife. It's what you use to like de-skin a lemon. Why is my brain not working today? It's what you use to peel the lemon or fruits or carrots or whatever. And you do it. It's a pairing knife. Boning knife, carving knife. Yeah, bread knife. All of these. I have all these. And then I have just normal steak knives. I bought a knife sharpener.

Oh my god, I didn't realize how easy cooking could be if you just sharpen your fucking knives! You know those videos where Josh, what's his name, Josh Weisserman, Weisserman, the chef from Austin, where he'll be like, "This is how sharp your knife should be." And he'll hold a piece of paper and cut it and it slices it, or he'll hold a tomato and he'll barely do the- and he's not even really putting pressure on the knife, it's just that sharp.

My shit, if you tried to cut a tomato with my knives before I sharpened them, it squishes it completely down, ruins the fruit, vegetable. I truly was like, there has to be a better way. It makes me not want to cook. I sharpened them, amazing, changed my life. That's number two. Number three, barre method. I'm still doing barre method, that workout class. I don't mind it. I don't mind it. It makes me feel good when I'm done with it. I can never finish a full one, like all the different reps, I can never finish them, but it makes me feel good at the end of the class. Number four,

Diptyque has a perfume called Dosun. I'm addicted to that. They have a perfume called Vetiver. Vetiver is the, it's like the main note and I'll layer the Vetiver one with different perfumes because it's just so intensely Vetiver and it kind of smells a little grandma-y. So you got to mix with other stuff. They have one called Orpheon. I love that one. I love Diptyque. And then Prada has a perfume called Virtual Flower.

And it's good. It reminds me of like, it's just a very girly fragrance. And so I'll do that with like a really masculine one. And I'll just, I'm into that. I'm experimenting lately. Also, Dies Endurga has this fragrance that I am so intrigued by. I've never smelled anything like it. And it settles really nice. Like the base notes are good on my skin. And it's called Chateau Gâteau. It's like Red Cat. Dies Endurga.

Gato in the Gato Gato Blackout that's the name of the perfume this is it right here yeah it's it's crazy I really like it they sent it to me love you Diaz and Durga they sent it to me and I love it so um that's number four moving right along

As we all know, I love Leah Katab from Love Island. She does DIY off the shoulder, like she'll cut the neckline out of a sweatshirt or a t-shirt and just wear that. And it's like, because I sweat a lot. It's really nice. I've started doing that. I've done it's like four of my shirts. I'm addicted. I wear them all the time. Next is carrots and sweet potato salad. Not together. I like a baby carrot.

And then I found the sweet potato salad recipe that Alyssa, my girl, Alyssa's Magic, made. And it's so good. I made it. She made it with cilantro. I don't like cilantro. And so I made it this way where it's a Japanese sweet potato that you boil and then you mash. So it's mashed. You do Kewpie mayo mixed with a bit of normal mayo, green onion, a bit of seasoned rice vinegar.

And then salt and pepper. And the juxtaposition of like the onion and the vinegar with the sweetness of a Japanese sweet potato. Oh my God, it's delicious. And you just mix it all up. You mash it. It's so good. I'll do that with like a protein, like a meat, like a chicken. I like to do rotisserie chicken because I don't have to cook it with Japanese barbecue sauce. So good! Oh!

So good. Love that. And my last one, one of my November favorites, is I'm working up the courage to book a piano lesson. I have not taken a piano class since I was 11, younger than that. I was in fifth grade, fourth and fifth grade. I took piano lessons. I did it in high school. I took a class like through the school in high school and

where I would just basically read the sheet music and teach it to myself. The instructor didn't do bullshit. He didn't help me at all because we'd have to go up and perform in front of the class. He wouldn't correct my timing. He wouldn't correct anything. He was just like, fucking good, 95, next. I want to take a piano class as an adult because there are some songs I know how to play by muscle memory. And there are some songs that if you gave me

three hours, I could get through one page of sheet music. It wouldn't be to the right timing. It wouldn't be a correct play of it at all, but I could figure out the notes and I could try to memorize, you know, a few bars, maybe a few lines. I really want to get back into it. I also think it'll help my brain think better. I think I did too many edibles this year. My memory loss is bad. I don't know what I did.

My memory loss is bad and it makes me feel stupid and it makes me feel slow and like I can't keep up and communicate the way that I used to be able to. And I fucking hate it. I hate it. I'm going to stop doing edibles. And I want to start taking piano lessons again. I want to – I'm sticking with my Spanish. I still do my Spanish lessons. And I'm reading more and it feels good. And –

You know, it's about the little things. I don't even get into the 4B movement. Fucking, yeah, I'm doing that. Hey, yeah, I'm part of it. Especially after this fucking election. So it's things like that where...

Okay, we made it. We have completely de-centered men, other than Paul Meskel. We have completely de-centered men in a way that my decision-making, my life, my career, my body, the way that I spend my time, what I look at, none of it is centered around men anymore. And it is so liberating. Like, we finally made it.

And in all this time I have now, look at all the things I can do. Look at all the things I want to do. Where in the past I've been like, ah, I don't really, but there are more important things. Now I'm like, no, actually for me, what's really important is taking a piano lesson and sticking with it. So I want to start doing that because I, I, that's what little me would have wanted. And that's, it makes me feel smart and it's fun. It's fun to play an instrument and be like,

I went from not knowing how to, these are just like black blobs on a piece of paper with lines on it to I see and hear the beautiful music that is on this page. Do you know how, like, that's going to make me cry. You see the world in a different way. Like when you see the music and you hear the music and you make the music, wow, that's really beautiful. That's what I want to do. That's what this new year is about.

I want to make the music. Okay, those are my November favorites. So my homework for you guys is to make your own November favorites. I don't mean products. Some of them can be products, fine. Okay, the perfume and the fucking whatever, those are products, fine. I mean, what are your favorites? What are your things, your concepts, the things that are bringing you joy that you never paid attention to before, that it's a new thing you've discovered you like?

Pay attention. Be mindful in your life. Find out the things that you like and the things that you don't like and avoid the things you don't like. I'll leave you guys with, of course, all the links in my description and a song of the week, which feels also incredibly relevant. It's Empire Now by Hosier. I'm addicted to the song. I have been since he released this little post-post-album EP. This song is about the future and how it's dystopian and how, you know,

I wouldn't save the world. Like things are going so bad, I wouldn't save the world. Let it burn sort of thing. You know, it feels, it's very like to sing. I don't know if I echo the sentiment. I think it's a very poetic cinematic take on the way that we're, like climate change and everything, how we're burning this world to ash. And it's very easy to take this

unresolved removed dismissive petty approach of like I don't give a fuck burn me down with it like I'm not saving this world of course that's one side of the way I feel right that's it's easy to lean into that when you feel so overwhelmed by does no one else see that the world is on fire that we're on fire with it that's one side of it the other side of course is unbridled and undying hope that that we will make it out together

Two sides of the same coin. Okay, love you guys. Subscribe to this YouTube channel, please. If you want Broski Report merch, you can go to broski.shop. If you want a Moo Moo, you can go to broski.shop. The Moo Moos are very comfortable. It's wintertime, okay? Christmas is coming up. You want to get your boyfriend a little... You want to get your man friend a little Moo Moo so he can freeball in it. And a bright pink polka dot Moo Moo. Okay, I think that'll do it for me, team. Loving you.

And we'll see you next week. Bye. Bye.