Connor and Brittany share their favorite memories and episodes from the past year and discuss why this podcast is so important for families.

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Links:

• The Tuttle Twins and the Leviathan Crisis
• Feardom: How Politicians Exploit Your Emotions and What You Can Do to Stop Them
• The Tuttle Twins and the Golden Rule
• The Tuttle Twins Guide to Inspiring Entrepreneurs

Here’s a transcript of our conversation:

Connor: Hey, Brittany.

Brittany: Hi Connor.

Connor: We have a bit of a different episode for our listeners than we usually do today. For starters, we have officially been doing this show for a year, so I thought we would celebrate our one-year anniversary. Talk about maybe some of the themes that we’ve been trying to teach our listeners and talking about over the years. So maybe to start things off, Britney, happy anniversary.

Brittany: Happy anniversary. Connor, Actually can’t believe it’s been an entire year cuz with all the pandemic and the craziness time kind of flew by even though we’re all stuck in our houses. But, interesting time for us to start a podcast. I think cause a lot of our listeners will, one had a lot of time, just like we did and two. Well, we didn’t, but, and they had a lot of questions they wanted answers to, right? I think the world got even more confusing this year than any other year. So I think we tried at least to do our best to maybe shed some light on what was happening and why it was happening. And yeah.

Connor: It’s funny, you know, I remember when we first started recording, we didn’t mention the pandemic because, you know, as we’ve talked about before, we always try and record in advance. And so when our listeners hear our episodes, we’ve actually often recorded them several weeks prior, sometimes two months prior. And occasionally we’ll do an episode, like this one. So just to, you know, peel back the curtain. So you guys know today when we’re recording this, is actually May 24th, so it’s almost exactly one month before this recording is, dropping, but we’re trying to kind of do it ahead of time so that we remembered like, Hey, we wanna do a one year anniversary. So I guess Brittany, happy 11th-month anniversary tech right? but when our listeners hear it, it will be a one-year anniversary. And, you know, I remember thinking like, we shouldn’t say the pandemic is still happening because it might be over by the time this episode airs, right? Like, you and I were doing some early episodes and we didn’t know, like, okay, how quickly is this gonna pass over? Yeah. Should we keep talking about this issue? Because it’s gonna kind of hopefully.

Brittany: Two weeks to flatten the curve.

Connor: Totally. It’s gonna go away. This is gonna be over. So let’s not talk about the pandemic at first because you know it, we just don’t know how quickly this, we’re gonna kind of get through this. And then of course, you know, a year later things seem like they might finally be returning to not the new normal, right? Like the old normal that we’ve all been longing for, but.

Brittany: The old normal.

Connor: The once-upon-a-time normal. But it, this is still a good transition, I feel like to one of the things that we’ve talked about over the, a lot over the past year that. I hope our listeners have learned a lot about, and that’s how the government uses fear to control people, right? Like, we’ve seen this with the pandemic, we saw it for the older kids and the parents. We’ve seen it with 9-11, in fact, our brand new kid’s book, the Tuttle Twins and the Leviathan Crisis is all about this theme. You know, we were working on this book for basically a year really trying to nail down a good story that would help families kind of wrap their heads around this trend and understand how it happens over and over and over again. So, that we can try and avoid it in the future and not fall trapped to like the same trend happening over and over again. And so, you know, this is a theme that you and I Brittany, on this show have talked a lot about. Yeah. But there’s a reason for that. And that is because this is not just like, a one-time thing that happens, right? It’s not just like, oh, here was this thing and then it’s over and we’ll never talk about it again. Like I wrote a book, Brittany, you know, this, my book Feardom and we’ve talked about this a little bit too, but I wrote that I wanna say like 2014, 2015, something around there. So it’s been like six or seven years. And yet that book is as relevant today as it was then because it talks about, it talks about for adults the same kind of things we talk about in our new Leviathan crisis book for kids, which is this trend of the government using fear to try and get us to be scared and surrender our freedoms because the government’s here to take care of us. And then over and over and over again, this happens. And so this is something you and I have talked about a lot because we’ve seen it play out so vividly in the past year, but also because we want our listeners to understand this is not just a random occurrence. We want kids to realize this happens all the time in the past.

Brittany: All the time. And I mean, it’s so blatant to see it now, kind of like for you and I, how blatant it was during 9-11. And actually, I say that, but during 9-11, I did not, I was very much a let me give all the power to the government. I was 15, I was terrified. I was watching the news all the time. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized, oh, okay, now we have the NSA, now we have the TSA and they aren’t going away. And you called it, we called, talked about the ratchet effect, right? Where once you give the government that power and they use that fear to get all that power, you don’t get it back like a ratchet. It just keeps going and going and going. So I think, you know, we saw that you and I firsthand, and I think for the kids listening to our show today, that’s what the pandemic is gonna be like for them.

Connor: I think that’s right. You know, the, we were just joking a moment ago about the new normal, but, that’s how the ratchet effect is. Like, kids today don’t remember what airports or never knew what airports were like before 9-11. And, now today, you know, shuffling through these lines like cattle, you know, we’re just used to it. That’s the new normal for traveling, but it was because of 9-11 and then the underwear bomber and all these things and the shoe bomber.

Brittany: Shoe, I was like, can wait for shoe some of the clothing.

Connor: Yeah. And so now you take off your shoes and now they put their, you know, fingers. That’s right. Pants. And.

Brittany: I forgot that the shoes were actually like in 2010, 2011. It wasn’t right after 9-11.

Connor: It was later. Yeah, it was after 9-11. And so, you know, kids don’t understand what it was like, but now that’s just what everyone expects it. We’re acclimated, which means we’re now kind of, accustomed or used to this new behavior and it’s just what we expect. Our minds have just come to be programmed where, oh, I’m flying on a plane. Okay, I need them to search my bag and I need to walk through this machine that’s gonna like show the guys sitting there, you know, what I look like underneath my clothes and like, just all these things that are horrible invasions of privacy for innocent, free people. And yet we’re used to it. So that’s the ratchet effect. It’s like, hey, these things happen. Okay, the government’s gonna do this, and then you’re gonna get used to it and then something else is gonna happen and the government’s gonna, you know, make you do something different and then you’re gonna get used to that again. And so this trend is a big problem. And unless we understand what’s happening, we’ll never be able to kind of push back against it.

Brittany: I think you’re absolutely right. And on a more positive note, cause we’re talking about, you know, themes we’ve learned from this show, or we hope you guys have learned from the show over the year, a more positive one is we’ve talked a lot about entrepreneurs and how they help our economy and how they innovate and make our quality of life better and give us these products we like. But on the downside of that, once again with, you know, government problems, we’ve learned how government intervention stops that from happening. So, that’s another theme or something that I really would like our listeners to take in mind. Not only how entrepreneurs change the world positively, we talked to Magatte Wade, who was one of my favorite people, a close friend of mine who is curing poverty with her entrepreneurship, but things like occupational licensing and regulations, you know, there were standing as a barrier like hurdles for these entrepreneurs who can’t do the things they want to do. We’ve talked about, oh goodness, how many entrepreneurs do you think we’ve talked about on this show, Connor?

Connor: My gosh, dozens at this point,

Brittany: Right? And so I think that’s been a big theme of ours and my, one of my biggest hopes in talking about entrepreneurs is that we might be talking to the next Elon Musk right out there that somebody listening to our show is going to invent something that cures cancer or is going to invent, you know, a car that is really awesome like the Tesla. So that’s what’s exciting to me is thinking about everyone listening to this show and what they might do with what we teach them.

Connor: And we’ve talked a lot about entrepreneurship because at least one of the reasons is because, where a lot of people see problems, entrepreneurs see opportunities, right? like we all face challenges in life. We all have things that we’re struggling with or that we have to do that we don’t wanna do. And entrepreneurs develop this really good skill at looking at those problems and then trying to come up with a solution that they can, you know, turn into a business or that they can, you know, charge people money for. And we’ve talked about how entrepreneurship is service, right? I’ve mentioned many times how when I hired the kid down the road to pull weeds in my yard, I’m paying them. But that’s because I prefer to part with my money more than I prefer to. Yeah.

Brittany: To do the thing.

Connor: Totally, And so he’s serving me. I, feel benefited Jeff is serving me, you know, when Amazon is delivering things the next day after I order, so I don’t have to go to the store and I can use my time to, you know, play with my kids or do something else. And so.

Brittany: Not even the next day, I have a package. Right now I have a cat cam for my cat that’s coming overnight. I’m gonna wake up and it’s gonna be on my doorstep.

Connor: That’s amazing.

Brittany: It’s amazing.

Connor: Truly amazing. Next stop drones, you know, but we’ve talked about this because especially for the kids, it’s so important to develop this mindset, to not see problems as these insurmountable obstacles. Woe is me, victim culture. Other people are, you know, creating these systemic, you know, inequalities and I can’t do anything, right? Like there’s such a victim mindset like that in our culture. And entrepreneurs and successful people reject that thinking and they say, you know what? I am going to solve problems. I am going to fix things for myself. I’m gonna fix things for other people. I’m gonna, you know, serve other people, grow a business and create more wealth. And especially in times like a pandemic. Yeah, there are many opportunities. Like when everyone around you is experiencing problems, those are sometimes the best opportunities to become an entrepreneur, to start a business, to you know, be part of the solution. And so hopefully this year, you guys of families as families, I mean, have been able to talk about some of these things, not just as problems we’re experiencing, but, you know, what can we do about it? And the answer isn’t always to start a business by any means, but even if it’s just activism, we’ve talked about civil disobedience and we’ve talked about how government works and how to get involved and be influential. And there’s been a lot of political problems. So the answer isn’t always, you know, Hey, the government is doing this horrible thing, let’s go start a business. I mean, sometimes it is right? The government is having these crazy taxi laws. Let’s go start Uber and just like fight the taxis. So sometimes the answer is the business. Sometimes it’s more just getting involved. It’s writing, it’s starting an organization, starting a Facebook group, a town hall, a book club, you know, getting involved, being as we’ve said on the show, being the change you want to see in the world. And so our listeners, I think are the exact type of people that are more likely to get involved to start a business, to see these problems as opportunities where we can make a difference.

Brittany: I think you’re absolutely right. there’s another theme I wanna hit on too before we run outta time. And that is the golden rule. Cause we’ve talked about the Golden Rule a lot and there’s a whole Tuttle twin’s book about it. But I think there is something to be said. Well, I know there is about treating other people the way you wanna be treated, especially when it comes to foreign policy. You know, we’ve talked a lot about the government starting wars with people and it destroying those people and those people getting mad and then striking back against us. And it’s this perpetual just very vicious, you know, recurring cycle. So I think one thing that we’ve talked about a lot that I hope our listeners will really remember is to just treat people like you wanna be treated. It sounds so simple, but it gets kind of hard if somebody makes you mad. I think we’ve all been in a situation where it sounds nice and then someone’s mean to us at school, or maybe a sibling is mean to us and you wanna push ’em back or do something. But we have to be like you said, the change we see in the world. And so I think the Golden Rule if I had to pick one of the main takeaways, I want our listeners to remember throughout the year that would be the one for me.

Connor: That one’s so critical because it’s so foundational to so many other things that we talk about, you know, whether politics or even business. and just, I mean, we’ve even talked about for youth, just like how to be, you know, a good kid, how to be, you know, part of a family, how to be a responsible person, you know, how to work hard. And these things are so important that the Golden Rule is really just an aspect too. Let me ask you an interesting question, Brittany. We’re coming out of, as we said, this whole like COVID nightmare and things are sort of returning to an old normal, especially if you don’t live in like, you know, a Communist state like California. I say that as a former Californian and or New York or these, you know, Democrat-led states. Okay, so we’re coming out of this and now we’re looking forward to the future. we’re just riffing here cuz you haven’t prepared for this question, but I’m gonna throw it at you anyways. Looking forward to the next year of, you know, the way the world works doing this podcast. What are some of your goals, or even just thinking beyond the podcast as we’re doing the Tuttle twins, as we’re trying to, you know, in our different spheres and jobs trying to teach people and trying to change the world for the better, what are your hopes for the next year ahead?

Brittany: Yeah. not to take social outings for granted, I think, or anything for granted for that matter. I think one of the biggest hopes for the future is one, getting, getting to be around people again. I think this year we realized how much we need human connection and how powerful human connection is. And I think it was pretty criminal actually. The government robbed us from, you know, they took that away from us. We couldn’t go anywhere, we couldn’t do anything, even if we were doing it safely, even if we were social distancing or wearing masks, they took that away from us. And so my hope is that we get that back as a society, that we get our communities back and yeah, that we stop taking things for granted. Cause there’s a lot of things I did before the pandemic that now I’m getting to do. And even just not wearing a mask in Trader Joe’s cuz they’re not making you wear a mask anymore. There was this weird freedom about it and I’m like, how silly is it that this is what I’m getting so excited about but I took that for granted, you know, So I think making sure you’re grateful and just, yeah, that human connection. Don’t forget that. So just being thankful and not taking your life for granted.

Connor: I like that answer a lot. for me, and I’m just kind of shooting from the hip, uh, for my own question cause I just thought of it, but one of the answers I feel like I could offer is one of my goals. One of the things I want to think about is how to help people remember. And what I mean by that is, you know, we had 9-11, we’ve talked about that earlier in the episode, and 9-11 happened, and people have kind of forgotten about that in the sense of like, remembering what the government has done in the wake of 9-11. Yeah. Remembering, you know, certainly all the wars and things like that, but just the restriction on our civil liberties and, we’ve talked about the fourth amendment, the government’s spying on us and like all these things and people have kind of fallen asleep and they don’t really remember that anymore. Now I feel like with COVID, a lot of people were shaken awake, right? Like, wake up to what the government is doing with your freedoms, right? A lot more people are alert. But my fear, and I think this fear is supported by history because this has happened before, is that a lot of people are just gonna go back to sleep, right? They’re gonna write this off as like a one-time thing, or, oh, things are fine now. That was, you know, back in 2020. We’ll just kind of write that off as an exception, you know, like, oh, that’ll never happen again, right? People are gonna get back into their routines, their businesses, their families, church community, all these things. And that’s all well and good. Like, I don’t mean to diminish that at all, but I feel like there has to be some way to help people remember, some way to keep people a little bit agitated and motivated and on guard, right? Because we all know the quote, those who don’t learn from the past or repeat it. And I wanna try and figure out ways to help people learn from what we’ve all been through and, apply that learning in a way that’s gonna get people to remember in the future. So next time the government tries to tell us to stay home or make us wear a face diaper, you know or make businesses shut down or all these things, we’re gonna remember, and honestly, next time something happens, it’s gonna be totally different, right? It’s probably not gonna be a pandemic where it’s like, oh, here’s the exact same thing. It’s gonna look different, it’s gonna be a different issue, but we have to apply the ideas. We have to apply the principles to whatever that new issue is. And that’s what I wanna figure out how we can do. Cause I fear that otherwise people are just gonna forget. And then we’re gonna just gonna, you know, those learn from the past or condemn repeat it, we’re just gonna repeat it. So, guys, you’ll be with us on that journey. We’re gonna talk about these types of issues in the episodes ahead that Brittany and I are thinking about that we’re looking forward to a better future about that. We’re trying to make a difference. We want you to be there with us. We want to inspire you guys to make a change, to be part of the change, and to all these ideas that we talk about on this show are central to having a better world. These are the things, the way the world works. These are the good principles and the issues and the systems and the processes and things that will create a better world. And so we want you to be a part of that. We’re thankful that you’re listening. Brittany has been great. Happy anniversary once again. Yes. Even though we’re sneaking this a month ahead, we’re being, Happy anniversary nonetheless. We got a lot more coming to you guys. We’re excited you’re a part of it. So thank you again. Happy one year of your all of you for joining us and Brittany, until next time, we’ll talk to you later.

Brittany: Talk to you later.