Hello and welcome.
My name is Christopher Chandler.
And my name is Chris Schauer.
And we are Generally American.
In our podcast, we discuss events, culture, whatever else we want from a
Generally American perspective.
From our differing viewpoints, our goal is that we can offer others and ourselves
nuanced opinions on fascinating topics related to the US.
We invite you to be part of the discussion and we hope that you'll stick around to
see where the conversation takes us.
So let's dive in.
And...
Yes, we are hello hello, that's good to be back back again Yeah, she's back you he
brought out a new song I think a couple weeks ago Houdini whatever You know he was
doing all that.
I don't know that's some That's embarrassing.
I was I was thinking of the diss track things going on and that
The last time he got involved in like a diss track war was several years ago with
Michelle and Kelly.
Yeah, who's...
what was it?
Kendrick Lamar and Drake?
Doing the whole diss track and I think one dropped a couple days ago.
Yeah, I'm not really into the whole like diss track thing.
I mean, Eminem has done a lot of like diss music, but that's...
I don't want to say it's a long time ago, but it's been a minute.
Yeah.
I had some friends force me to listen to some of the stuff that's coming out now.
like BL Drizzy, which is like an old 70s song.
And really, I think it was Kendrick Lamar took that sampled it and then used it for
one of his diss tracks.
It's a cool song.
Cool song.
I didn't know that I am definitely not a hip hop person, only in passing.
I like a couple.
I like the hip hop music that was really popular in like the 2000s, but I haven't
really been up to date on anything.
Yeah, same.
It was just a nice throwback with the whole Houdini song.
Although I didn't listen to the whole thing.
Anyway, before we get into all that, you know, the weather here has been really
nice.
It's supposed to get up into, I think like the 80s next week.
So.
I have to make sure that my daughter is properly dressed so she doesn't like burn
up in like her sweaters and whatnot.
So it's really, yeah, it's really hard because like babies are a lot more
sensitive than just, you know, regular people.
So you really have to pay attention to what you put on them.
and, and they sweat, they sweat pretty bad if you put too much on them.
So yeah, but besides that, the weather has been okay to make sure of like sunshine
and rain.
What about in your neck of the woods?
Well, it's been a weird like week and a half because it was like less than a week
ago.
My goal was so my goal was to get through June without turning on the air
conditioning and like knowing when to open and close windows.
Not been a problem.
I didn't get through June without turning the heater on because there was a day this
last week where I woke up in the morning and it was like 37 degrees outside and it
only got up to like a high of 50 that day.
and I had to turn the heater on because it was getting really cold inside.
And now today it's a high of 98.
my God.
So the weather out here is.
being a little bipolar, but I think it is summer for real.
And I think Montana weather believes it's summer for real now because I'm seeing a
handful of nineties on the forecast now.
So I think we're done with turning the heater on in June.
Yeah.
I mean, the weather's really crazy.
I was reading the news about, forgive me.
I don't know the exact terminology, but when people make like their trip to like
Saudi Arabia, to like Mecca and whatnot, I don't know if you read that.
I think over a thousand people died.
my god.
Because of yeah because of heat waves so it got up into like 130 degrees.
I can't I can't even imagine like how hot that is.
I mean I'm sensitive when it's like 70 but I couldn't imagine it being that hot so
the weather is...
I've worked in that kind of heat and it's like I had to have like ice water soaked
Towels like draped over my shoulders to like not pass out Yeah, I mean that's it's
the weather's definitely been crazy.
But yeah, so that's the that's the the bi -weekly weather report so this is our
second to last episode I guess before I break because I'll be in the US for a
couple months and so Yeah, yeah Yeah, but you don't have to get on a plane
But before so I'm going with my wife and my daughter and before My wife can go she
we have to fill out a form for her and it's funny because they change the form
every couple of years They've gotten like rid of a couple of questions.
So it doesn't actually apply anymore But I remember the first time I filled out the
form for her.
It was What was I can't remember the exact wording but it was something like
Are you or have you ever been a member of the party that was in power in Germany
between 1933 and 1945?
Was Because they can't just say it yeah, it was like are you a Nazi is basically
what they're asking so Obviously, my wife isn't from the 30s But it was it was still
kind of funny and just like a couple other questions like they asked
Like, do you have any diseases or are you a terrorist?
Have you ever tried to, I don't know, like overthrow like the American government and
stuff like that?
So it was just, I don't know, it was kind of funny.
But now the questions are like, are you bringing in like any food or have you ever
been denied entry into the country?
But the questions before were actually pretty wild.
And the worst thing is that people don't think it's like anything serious.
Like it's just like, it's a really easy form.
You can fill it out in 10 minutes and it costs like $20.
And people like, like, you know, it's just a stupid form.
Who cares?
And if you, if you don't pay attention to the form and you're just like playing
around and you check the wrong boxes, they'll blacklist you from traveling to
the U S like they won't let you in.
so the form isn't very intimidating.
but it's a very serious form.
So I'm always very nervous when I'm filling it out.
And then we get the answer in like two hours saying, congratulations, you're
allowed to travel to the U .S.
But it's not a visa, by the way.
It's not a visa.
It just lets you get onto American soil.
But it doesn't mean that you can stay there.
And if so, if TSA, you know, the border patrol, whatever they're called, if they
don't like you, they'll force you back into the plane.
And they're not very friendly.
My wife doesn't really like them that much because they're always kind of grumpy.
But I can understand why.
But you have something that you wanted to share that we started last week but didn't
finish.
my gosh.
I can't.
It's been two weeks.
I can't.
I can't exactly remember.
well, it's, you know, jury.
So like your duty like.
yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I know we were going to keep everyone updated on that.
So it is definitely going to be a post return from break thing.
So I looked at the sheet.
My window is September 1st, 2024 to August 31st, 2025.
So full year of being in the pool.
So at some point in that span, I will.
Probably get some into jury duty.
Although I remember talking about this last week the pool For people in my county
seems massive this year because they've had so many people Just refuse to do it
even though you legally can't do it You I mean, it's not like you can physically
force somebody into a juror chair So, you can't I thought you actually I thought you
could I mean, I think there's pretty harsh penalties if you just refuse to do it But
it's not like you know, they're gonna
arrest you and lead you on up to the jury stand in handcuffs.
I'm not going to lie.
I seriously thought that they would do that because you know, jury duty is pretty
serious.
I've never been called for jury duty.
I hope I hope my streak continues.
But if it happens, we'll we'll keep everyone up to date.
It'll be a it'll be a fun little civics lesson.
Yeah, I'm always worried about being like selected for jury duty.
So like I.
I live in the US and technically I live in both countries.
And so I'm always worried about like my family receiving a letter, my name saying
I have to go to jury duty.
It's never happened, but you know, I always think like, what if, I'm sure it's
happened to someone living abroad, but anywho, onto the topic of today, which is
basically like the quintessence of this podcast, which is
Soft power.
And calling it that is not weird.
It's not untrue that this is basically what this whole podcast about.
Well, I mean, but it's also a little cynical, but not untrue.
Yeah, I mean, yeah.
I mean, it's not like we're doing all this to influence people, but indirectly, I
mean, that's basically what it is.
And I guess maybe you can define what soft power is.
Yeah.
So soft power, at least.
Maybe Chris can correct me if he disagrees with any of these points.
When I was in high school, we talked about soft power a lot, but it has been 12
years.
So if I miss anything, that's why Chris is here.
My understanding of soft power is it is at least from the US perspective, it's how we
have the ability to influence things in other parts of the world without needing
to be explicit about it.
Like, we have a strong standing military, but we don't need to directly threaten
someone with it.
They just know we have it.
So they're going to act a certain way when we say things.
It's not just limited to that.
We have economic influence.
We have cultural influence.
All of these contribute to soft power.
It's just kind of a way of exerting our influence on the world, which is why I
said this whole thing is very cynical.
Like it's, it's peaceful in nature, but it's also, I don't know, describing it
gives me a little bit of an ick.
Yeah.
I mean, that's a good way to actually describe it, I think, is basically having
cultural influence over other countries.
So I mean, describing, I guess it's a very interesting, a very, very, I guess
introspection, if you will.
of like looking at what we're doing is like self -reflection is by doing the
podcast, we are effectively exercising soft power.
However, I think with soft power, you also have to something, you have to have
something to back it up.
And usually it's like, as you said, it's like, like military might or like economic
incentives.
So if you don't really have anything to back up your soft power, which I don't
actually think it's called hard power, but we'll just call it that.
If you don't have that, then you don't really have soft power, so to speak.
I think it's soft power is best characterized by, and you know this
phrase.
I think most Americans know the phrase which is like speak softly and carry a big
stick.
Yep.
And I had forgotten this.
So I looked up the quote cause I just wanted to make sure we got it right.
That's not the end of the quote.
okay.
What's the end of the quote?
It speaks softly and carry a big stick.
You will go far.
And wow, that, those last four words were correct.
Very correct.
Yeah, I mean, so that's it's not like a super old quote.
It's from the, you know, the early 1900s.
And I guess the way I understand it is, you know, is basically it's just that is
be like, I guess, be humble, be like non -threatening.
But if need be, you can back that up with your power.
And yeah, and that's it's I would say it's a balancing act.
more or less.
And I don't know if we mentioned his name, but that quote was from President Theodore
Roosevelt.
You know, he said Theodore.
I just say Teddy.
well, the quote's right.
It says Theodore right in front of me.
I'm just going to get the quote.
But yeah, everyone calls him Teddy.
He's why we have the Teddy Bear.
I was going to say that.
I think that's one of the reasons why we call it Teddy Bear in English.
I can't remember the whole story, though, why exactly it's called Teddy Bear,
though.
I don't either.
Although now that I think about it,
If that was at the time he was a relevant political figure, was that one of the most
effective forms of propaganda ever?
If it was popularized while he was in power?
Yeah, I mean, OK, OK, OK.
So I double checked really quickly because I actually wanted to know.
And apparently he was he loved hunting, especially bears, which is why people.
yeah.
He was also he was basically the first like serious American conservationist.
He's the reason why we have national parks.
OK.
I didn't know that.
So, you know, learning more every day.
Yeah, he like went to Yellowstone National Park and was like, before it was
Yellowstone National Park, he's like, okay, this is a pretty special place.
Like we should probably have a system for protecting places like this.
And boom, we have it now.
okay, okay, okay.
That's good to know.
But I guess the reason why we're going, so this is like the early 1900s.
And so there's a reason why we're going back so far because I've
Because if you look at it in like relative terms, the US as like a formal country had
not actually really been around that long.
And yet we had been involved in a lot of wars.
So, you know, this was before World War I.
And still we managed to amass a lot of like cultural influence over other
countries.
And I guess for better or for worse, the US kind of wanted to have territories, you
know, in the Americas.
And so
we were more or less involved in that.
And that kind of carried over into our soft power, into our cultural power, our
military power.
And so I guess this is the reason why a lot of people associate Teddy Rosa with
that whole concept, you will go far.
And he was right.
I mean, a large, I mean, I don't think it's.
It's crazy to say that that's not the only reason the US became what it was or what
it is.
I mean, obviously a lot of that was a lot of the world got significantly damaged
during World War II and we didn't.
I mean that's like an interesting point that you bring up.
I mean World War I also, but definitely World War II is that...
Go on.
yeah, I was gonna say that's that's a good point.
I mean, we a solid percentage of the world got devastated twice in a three decade
span.
And we again, we didn't.
Yeah.
And I think it's a fact that a lot of people actually forget is the US has
fought.
I mean, a lot we've had a lot of wars over the past, you know, two and a half
centuries for better or for worse.
But with the exception of like, I guess like at the very beginning, none of the
major wars have ever really been fought on American soil.
I mean, you have the Civil War and you have like some skirmishes with like some
of the colonial powers.
But like on the scale of like World War I or World War II, nothing of that sort has
ever happened in the US.
And so, as I said, because of that, the US has never actually been like damaged in
terms of its infrastructure.
Obviously used to have like economic problems because I mean World War one
costs like, you know, that was during the Great Depression.
Well, not World War one as the end war.
Sorry, World War two.
I'm sorry.
Thank you.
And so because after World War two, we started, you know, helping rebuild
countries, you know, like Japan, you know, then you had like the Korean War and then
like obviously Germany.
And so that is also a way that the soft power is exerted because these countries
are very friendly to the US, which I'm glad.
It's one of the reasons why I enjoy, I would say like a good life in Germany
because of the cultural influence that the US has had, you know, on Germany, on
Europe.
And that was planted early.
I mean, if I remember correctly, both Germany and Japan's constitutions are
heavily modeled.
after the US Constitution.
Yeah, I mean I can't really speak on the Japanese one.
I have very limited knowledge but you are correct.
It was modeled and created by the Americans.
I don't know how the Japanese feel about that but that's just the way it is.
But yeah, I mean it sounds kind of cynical to put it like this.
We created them in our own image so to speak so that they're friendly to us.
I think it was a good idea.
This was like the whole, the time where we were doing like nation building.
I don't know if you've heard of that term.
Yes.
Yeah.
And so, I think up until the Korean war, we were very successful in that.
And then after, it didn't really work out very well.
like you had like Vietnam, then you had like, the middle East.
I would say we had limited success there, if any.
And I don't know how these regions exactly feel about the US.
I've never really had that much contact with people.
Although for the Middle East, actually I've had a lot of contact with people from
the Middle East, but like from like Vietnam and whatnot, not so much.
I don't think I have either.
But yeah, so it's like the soft power is incredibly important.
Yeah, and that's probably, that application is probably the most direct
version of soft power.
In fact, that's like borderline not soft power with how direct it was.
Yeah, I mean.
But there are other forms.
I think we should talk about the forms too, because we've been defining it.
So for example, in my neck of the woods,
here in Europe.
Taylor Swift is on tour.
And that's all they talk about.
I mean, it's like every day I read the news and it's something about Taylor
Swift.
Like, my gosh, she's in France.
my god, she's in Germany.
my god, she's in London.
And like people will pay hundreds and hundreds and thousands of dollars to see
her.
They'll travel like 10 hours and they'll sit in the rain for an American singer.
who is basically promoting directly or indirectly American culture.
I think someone compared it to like Beatlemania, which is kind of old.
yeah.
I mean, that's a good equivalency.
Yeah.
I mean, every country, so it's not just the U .S.
that has soft power.
Every country that has some sort of might has soft power.
Now it's restricted to the region, you know, like you have regional powers.
I would consider the US a global power.
Whether or not the US is still as strong as it used to be is up for debate.
But it's still definitely global power.
yeah, and a big part of the reason why that's staying the case is because...
Again, the biggest is it is the soft power and it's the soft power we can exercise on
basically any front that you could define, like the cultural of just having, I mean,
obviously Taylor Swift is going all over the place, but TV shows, movies, music in
general, all of these things, while they're not directly meant, I would say 99
% of them are not meant
to influence opinion of foreigners.
I mean, you get exposed to enough of a foreign nation or foreign cultures media
and it's gonna color your perspective one on them and two, just on how you operate.
Like if you...
only watch TV shows from the US and the way they like their social culture is
different from yours, like just interpersonal relationships, it might
change a little bit how you deal with people on an interpersonal basis.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, definitely.
It makes it definitely makes your life as an American easier because you feel like
even though you've never interacted with a certain person, they automatically have
like a general idea of
who you are, how you act, and this and that.
Also, even with language learning, there are so many English words in other
languages.
And it's kind of like a gift and a curse because it allows you to speak a foreign
language by using a lot of English words.
But on the same hand, you're not really actually speaking the language, you're
just using loan words.
This is like for example for German there are so many so many so many English words
in the German language like direct Words we've taken from you know, English like
internet for example is the same Then a lot of like the names of the companies all
of that And it makes life a lot easier Yes It is always kind of funny listening to
people speak a language you don't
And then you pick up like one or two like loanwords and you're like, I think I know
what we're talking about.
OK, OK.
I pick up one more and seal the deal.
Yeah.
And so it's just not limited to language and music, also like all the other arts.
So we've talked, I think a couple of times about like TV shows, which is definitely
like a cultural export.
But it's interesting because.
Other people don't experience our culture the same way, so the American culture.
So I grew up watching like a lot of TV shows, like from the 90s, a lot of
sitcoms.
And I remember them, obviously watching them in English.
My wife watched them in German.
And so she was watching a translated version of our culture.
And so it's weird because it's a mixture of...
It's automatically a mixture of German -American, so they'll try and translate
the concepts into German, but if they don't translate, they just leave them in
English.
One of the biggest things is, for example, high school.
So a lot of my students, because I teach German, they ask, how do you say high
school in German?
And there's no word for high school in German, because high school as a concept
here doesn't exist.
There are equivalents to high school, but
they don't actually have a word for high school here.
And Americans love high school series, you know, like high school musical, like a lot
of the TV shows take place in high school.
Yeah.
We like having a mid to upper twenties actors pretend they're teenagers.
And so that's just like not a concept that translates here, like cheerleaders, like
football teams, like none of that exists here as it does in the US.
And so they just kind of leave it there.
like in the series, because you can't translate that culturally.
And so it just creates like this weird like Frankenstein monster of like German
American.
And they do this like in every culture.
Yeah, well, I mean, translating in general, when you get to stuff like that,
I mean, you you would know much more than I, but you get to a point where you have
to make a decision whether or not.
a literal translation is best or not.
And then like, obviously in some cases it's just not possible, but you have to,
you have to, you have to put something.
Yeah.
I mean, definitely.
I mean, you have to put something there and sometimes it doesn't translate.
What's, what's interesting.
I guess I'll refer to this as back translation is when you have like, I'll
just use German because it's the culture I'm most familiar with when you have like
German references in American TV shows.
And then it gets imported into Germany and they have to figure out a way to translate
that.
And it's always really funny because you'll have like, for example, Big Bang
Theory is the one my wife thinks the funniest is there's this one episode where
Sheldon is trying to speak German.
And it's for like an American audience, it's super funny.
But for a German audience, it's not really that funny because the whole show is in
German.
So like there's no joke.
And this is used a lot in like American shows and so generally what they'll do is
is they'll use like a southern dialect So they'll make the character speak German in
a southern dialect.
So that's a lot funnier And so then you kind of get that feeling it's basically if
like if a character in the US was speaking like like southern twang It's kind of like
what they do Okay.
Yeah, so it's a solution.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's it's even funnier because in
in like the English versions, their German isn't very good.
So you have to find some way to make that translate.
But I don't want to go on that path for too long.
But I think it would also be interesting to talk about like the cultural influences
that have also influenced the US in terms of soft power.
So before the show, we were talking about like Japan.
So I feel like that has been like a healthy relationship where we've done a
lot of cultural exchange with Japan.
Yeah.
You know what, when we were talking about it earlier, you know what the one that
came into my mind that I think is funny?
what?
The term umami.
Because I mean, that's like a culinary term for like savory.
But I think umami is slightly more descriptive and like, like culturally that
term is replacing savory.
At least like I watch a lot of like cooking videos on YouTube and stuff like
that.
I don't hear people say savor anymore.
It's always, yeah, you should, these tomatoes are going to give this dish like
a big punch of umami.
And I'm like, it just like in a few years span, everyone just decided umami's in,
savor is out.
I think we've picked up quite a lot of words from Japanese.
I think umami is one of them, samurai, ninja, sushi, just like a lot of the, a
lot of the car companies.
Japan has a very good reputation in terms of car in the US, so a lot of them are
very reliable.
Or, I mean, they have that reputation.
I don't know if they actually are.
I have a Japanese car.
I mean, it's been reliable.
I've only had it for two years, so ask me in like 10.
But at the moment, it's very reliable.
But there's been like a lot of cultural exchange.
And I think on both sides, it's very surprising.
So when I, cause I learned Japanese, when I talked to my Japanese teacher about, you
know, like the cultural influences that Japan has had in the U S she's always
surprised.
because I think each side views it as like a one way street where like influence only
goes in one direction.
but you never really experience how the other cultures experience your culture.
If that kind of makes sense, like you don't understand like what the impact that
has on them because you never go there.
Most Americans don't go to Japan, for example.
They go to Hawaii.
Still though, if you ask, depending on who you ask in Japan, there's still too many
people going there.
I mean, yeah, it's definitely a double -edged sword, like over tourism.
There was a term after Corona, I can't remember what it was called.
I think it was like revenge tourism or something, where the people were so mad
that they couldn't go to Japan.
I think Japan was blocked off for like two years.
Yeah.
where people just like aggressively went to Japan and stayed really long and spent
a lot of money.
But tourism, that's actually an interesting point.
I didn't actually think about that.
But yeah, that's also a money driver.
You know, an interesting cultural export that, and I think we've talked about this
a few times, and I think it's exerted soft power in a different kind of sense is
we've talked about how American football, the NFL has been slowly growing in
popularity throughout the world.
So one of the people on YouTube I watch that covers sports, Tom Grossi,
Last year, he did a charity fundraiser for St.
Jude where he traveled to all 30 NFL stadiums in 30 days.
wow.
Just to kind of experience the city, say hi to fans, see the stadium.
He ended up raising, I think, like over $500 ,000.
It was a lot.
So this year, he kind of went on a different version of that.
He went to all seven international stadiums that are going to host an NFL
game this year.
and went to the stadiums, did local things and met with local fans.
And listening to European fans talk about it, it's like, yeah, you know, depending
on when what time the game is, you know, it starts at like 2am here.
And then I, you know, I have to watch it and go to work the next day at 8am or, you
know, whatever it is.
And
know, if you're going to be a fan and actually watch the games live out there,
you kind of have to be a hardcore fan.
And if that isn't like a power over someone, I don't know what is like we have
can we as a culture have convinced people to enjoy a sport that almost nobody around
them probably cares about enough that they're gonna, you know, tune in at like
two, three in the morning, depending on what time slot that game gets.
And then they're still going to go to work the next day.
That is that that's a very good point.
And I wholeheartedly agree with you.
It's a very nice thing here to like American football.
I've only ever met a handful of people who actually like it.
I'm not saying that it's rare.
I'm just saying it's really hard to find those people.
And mostly they're like you said, they're mostly concentrated around like where the
stadiums are.
But yeah, I mean, if you want to watch football, like American football, you have
to get up at like two in the morning.
You know, I think it might be more than you think at the risk of German explaining
to you whatever I'm doing.
The crowd he drew when he came was was pretty big.
I'm not going to deny that.
Obviously, I'm not like everyone knows that you're the biggest football pen among
us.
I can barely follow a game, but it's definitely a lot bigger than
I know of.
But what I'm saying is like, it's still not like the dominant sport here.
So it kind of gets lost like under like, like soccer or like basketball, but still
like a lot of sports have been exported to Germany, like hockey, basketball, not
necessarily baseball, but also like football.
So they're definitely super, super popular here.
Hmm.
Sorry for that, Gap.
I'm trying to strategically mute my mic to not blow my nose into the podcast.
Dipping back to the weather here.
I was at a baseball game yesterday and it looked like it was snowing with the amount
of cotton from cotton trees in the air.
So it's finally hit my allergies.
But that, I mean, that's also actually something we can also talk about is like
speaking of cotton.
So like clothing.
I also feel like a lot of apparel and a lot of clothing from the US has also been
exported.
yeah, everyone wears jeans now or lots of countries wear jeans.
Yeah, a lot of the clothing that is popular in the US eventually is popular in
other parts of the world.
I think there was some someone and it's this is sounds very negative, but it's
cynical.
But I think it's kind of funny is like when
Like when America sneezes the rest of the world gets a cold so it catches on so
yeah, so like it's infectious So what's ever popular in the US eventually seeps
into other countries at least in the West Sooner or later And so sometimes it feels
like you're living when you live outside the US you live like on a like a time
delay
because you're like, that's so cool.
And you're like, yeah, but that was popular than US three years ago.
But now it's just starting to be popular here.
So that's actually kind of the way I view things, especially with clothing.
It's funny that it would take that long with the internet.
I mean, not everything, but I mean, before the internet, it was a lot worse.
It's a lot slower.
But I mean, for things to be established here.
It does take like a while.
I guess.
Yeah, that's a good point.
I know some maybe I'm just speaking for myself and not you, but I think sometimes
we forget not everybody is on the Internet that much.
definitely not.
I think people kind of forget how many problems are with the Internet.
And in Germany isn't known for its good Internet.
I mean, it's not terrible here.
I think Germans complain too much about the Internet quality here because it's not
like
better than like Estonia, for example.
Yeah, that's a common comparison you hear is like Estonia has the best internet in
Europe, like the best internet speed.
I don't know if that's true.
I've never been to Estonia, but there's a good claim to fame, though.
I mean, yeah, definitely is.
But there are parts of the country where you have absolutely no Internet.
But that's true for the U .S.
too.
I mean, you can drive down the highway for like hours and not have like any
connection.
And you'll just be in a weird spot and not get much connection at all.
Yeah, I mean, that's true.
I mean, I've been where you don't see anyone for miles or you just read
billboards for like 30 minutes before you have internet.
So if anyone wants to look up and see what I'm talking about, look up dealer D.
H.
L.
E.
R.
Park in Billings, Montana.
It's our local baseball field for our.
Pioneer League team.
I was at a game there yesterday and it's.
It's it's on like the outside of downtown, but it's backed up against the rims, which
is like a rock cliff here on the edge of town.
And because of just where that's situated, that particular area has horrible signal.
And there's just, you know, random places like that.
It was actually with the risk of going on more of a tangent.
They finally finished a new road here in town that connects.
to parts of town that are just hard to get to because of it's on the other side of
that cliff.
And it's like going through rolling hills.
And I was on the phone with my stepmom and the call dropped.
It's like, I can't remember the last time I had a call drop because there were hills
around me.
Like it was weird.
Like it felt like I was like 15 years in the past.
Yeah, I mean, that's the problem is that not everyone has like all the modern
things.
But I guess like if we if we kind of focus more like internally in the US, like what
states do you feel like have like the most influence over other states?
Texas, California.
New York.
You think they have like the most pool, like the most cultural influence like
internally?
I would agree with you.
I think I definitely think they do.
I feel like I'm forgetting a major one though.
Florida?
I mean, kind of to an extent, I think Massachusetts, I think was up there once
upon a time, but not anymore.
I definitely think California is definitely think that's the one that has
the highest amount of influence because anyone who wants to be a star and I think
if America is good at anything it's producing celebrities.
If you want to be a celebrity, if you want to make it, you go to California, you go
to Los Angeles.
Yeah.
you know who else I would include?
Who?
I would include Washington and especially Colorado.
Colorado because it's been a long time, but I'm pretty sure they were the first
state to like legalize marijuana.
I was going to say that.
So they kind of got the ball rolling because that happens a lot with local
state laws.
That's true.
One state takes a risk and like, the state didn't burn down.
So maybe we can try it and then it spreads.
Yeah, I mean, I think for like the longest time, if you if you talked about Colorado,
the first thing that would come to people's minds is, you know, weed.
I think there was even a South Park episode about that a long time ago.
About like the whole dispensaries and getting weed, whatnot.
Yeah.
And I remember, I think I was out there in like 2016, 2017, 2018, somewhere in there.
And it was, it was before we got it here in Montana.
So it was weird.
They're everywhere.
They were everywhere.
And we were there on 420, if I remember right.
I didn't know that.
I mean, I haven't been to Colorado since the 90s.
It's been a while.
Yeah.
And I just went to Denver, so I don't want to paint the whole state with one brush.
But there was a lot in Denver.
I think that's actually that's an accurate assessment of how to classify the states
is generally some state takes a risk and kind of others follow suit.
But I think there are a lot of states that have like staying power.
New York is definitely one of them.
I mean, it's one of the most popular states in the US.
It's the basis of so many TV shows, so many movies, so many songs.
I don't even know if you can count them all.
So I don't know.
This is kind of my perception.
You can tell me if you feel this way.
Los Angeles and Southern California, that's where the bulk of our celebrity and
pop culture and stuff like that come from.
Yeah, but New York, I feel like the stuff we get out there, like that's generally
like more highbrow.
Like Saturday Night Live is a comedy show, but it's like such a legendary, long
running comedy show.
Like it's considered like a huge honor to be able to host it or be on it.
And there's Broadway.
That's true.
Late night TV, which I know most people don't care about anymore.
But like late night TV is like a super established.
a traditional thing here.
Yeah, I mean, we have so many late night talk shows.
I take forever to list them all.
But yeah, I would definitely agree with you that like Los Angeles, like Southern
California, like that's where a lot of the actors and celebrities are from.
And I mean, it's been that way for like a long time.
Like Hollywood Hills was, you know, pretty much empty until, you know, like the whole
movie scene came about.
You know, before we run out of time, there is one aspect of soft power I think we've
kind of glossed over.
I think it's very important.
And that's economic influence in a bit more of a heavy handed way.
There have definitely been like, for example, the US doesn't trade with North
Korea.
Right.
And we're not friend and we're generally not friendly to people who do.
Same thing with I can't remember exactly.
what we do with Cuba, but we're pretty aggressively make life difficult for Cuba
to trade.
And just a handful of things like that.
Like if we're not a fan of a country or we want them to do something different, like
we have the power of the purse to like make life difficult for them.
Yeah, like a lot of embargoes.
That's true.
And to extend upon that, a lot of countries use our currency either legally
or illegally.
So they...
Or what they do is they peg their currency to our currency.
So there are a lot of countries in Africa and South America that use the American
dollar because either it's just more popular or it's more stable than their
local currency.
So, I mean, that's I don't know why we didn't touch about that.
Well, soft power, it's a broad topic.
You can go a lot of ways with it.
It is, it's definitely a broad topic, but you know, to sum it up before we go, it's
basically getting what you want without having to physically force someone.
You know, it's like, could you please do it?
Like, because you like me so much kind of thing.
Yeah.
And definitely as citizens abroad as a closing point, we definitely benefit from
that.
So a lot of people, I mean, this is at least in my personal experiences have been
very kind to me.
because I'm American.
And they've also been very confused.
When I say, for example, I live in Germany, usually the first question is
why?
Because the US is so great.
And that's not me embellishing or like boasting.
I've had that actually happen to me a lot because they're like, the US is like so
wonderful and like the music, the movies and the books and the actors and whatnot.
So it's interesting because their view of the US is completely different than like
my lived experiences.
Usually it's better.
Like their view is usually better than what I've actually experienced.
But I'll take that.
Well, I think that's the case for like a lot of first world countries.
Like, man, I want to go to Germany.
Like I just want to, you know, have good beer all the time, like nonstop or, you
know, I want to go to Japan.
It's so great.
everything's so easy and convenient and then I think a lot of that is also like
either perspective of a tourist or someone who wants to be a tourist there and then
there's a big difference between being a tourist somewhere and actually living
there.
That's so true and that's something that so many people forget all the time and no
people don't drink beer here 24 -7.
Was it just like 18 -7?
Yeah something like that.
I mean, Germans do drink their fair share of beer, you know.
I'll give them that, but it's definitely not like non -stop.
But anywho, so that's it.
That's my final point.
I don't know if you want to throw anything in there before we get out of here.
No, I think we covered it about as well as we can.
Alright, thanks so much everyone for listening.
Tune in in two weeks, hopefully, if we don't get sick or something, for the final
episode of this season.
Alright.
Take care everyone.
All right.
Bye.
Bye
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