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UNREASONABLE encourages you to live more boldly.
Join us to connect with the coolest builders in the world who make the unreasonable happen. Like quitting a powerful job at a huge company. Or running to be the youngest mayor of a city. Or being a creative human in the age of AI. Or teaching millions online on how to farm. Or writing a book that goes against the common belief that we’re all doomed.
Let’s be unreasonable, unpolished, and unscared together!
Faith Popcorn (00:00)
So my name is Faith Popcorn and well I'm unreasonable because I haven't given up. You know, for five decades we've been telling truth to power. And the fact that it's hard to accept the future, especially if it indicates that you have to make a big change or you're over. You know, it's kind of unreasonable to keep going on like this.
You know, year after year. So I just I just think it's a gene. It must be a gene in me that makes me do I don't call it work, that makes me do this life. And I think it's not only reasonable, but maybe a little crazy. Unfeasible, unseasonable, undefinable, unbelievable. Unbelievable, uncontainable, imperfectible, unscarable, unreasonable.
Felix Zeltner (00:52)
Exchangeable.
Hi and welcome to Unreasonable. I'm Felix Zeltner, your host, and I totally forgot to mention that on the first episode. That's my name. I'm so happy you're listening. And this show features unreasonable people, like creative humans in the age of AI, farming influencers who teach millions, or politicians, way too young to be politicians. And man, I'm so I'm so excited that.
This show exists and it's very exciting-inducing to start a podcast, to say the least. And our very first guest, Andy Pearson, was so kind to write a huge post, kind of a love letter to this show. And we were also blessed with other messages that came in, not just from you know, friends and family or people I forced to give feedback. No, some of you out there listened to this and said, I'm gonna reach out to Felix.
So please keep those messages coming. By the way, my favorite subject line was came in on LinkedIn. An unreasonable message from an unreasonable person, Patrick. Thank you for that. It hit me hard, Patrick writes, in the feels. Because most of my life has basically been an argument against reasonable behavior. Appreciate what you're building, it has teeth. Thank you, Patrick. And
Keep those messages coming, would love to hear from you. And you know, there were also some people who challenged me and said, What is this thing? We we haven't enough unreasonable people in the world. Look what are they doing, you know? Yeah, but back to Andy who inspired this show and its name, you know, being unreasonable is not about doing bad things and being a complete idiot. It's about as Andy said, why some people
Faith Popcorn (02:35)
Sure.
Felix Zeltner (02:52)
Push past the point when it makes total sense to stop and create the most amazing things. So keep challenging me, keep reaching out, give it your review, and I'll read your reviews here. And I'm so excited to introduce you to another unreasonable person. The day after I recorded with Andy at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, I sat down with Faith Popcorn.
Faith was recommended to me by a mutual friend, Robin. Shout out to you. I had never met her, even though she also lives in New York City like I do. But when I saw her for the first time, I was struck. She was in the middle of downtown Austin on a street corner, the sun was shining down on her, and I saw her purple hair kind of glow and it this like silver strings woven into it. So we she was glittering like a unicorn. And when I met her, she immediately invited me to jump into the cab with her.
So we went to her hotel and that's where we recorded the episode. And Faith was the oldest speaker by far at the South by Southwest conference. But she is a legend. She's one of the most experienced futurists and trend researchers in North America. She has done this profession predicting things for over fifty years. And she got many of her predictions right. They became a thing years after she said.
This would happen, such as home delivery, or remote work, or bottled water, or cocooning, a term that even made it into the dictionary. So I wanted to know why she is still a futurist and why she's so obsessed with what's next. And it was very surprising what she said. It's actually connected to her childhood in China. And while I wish I would have spent more time with her to understand her.
Faith Popcorn (04:29)
She
Felix Zeltner (04:45)
personality better and her work and you know all the things she has done in life. At least it's a glimpse and it was already a wild ride. So here's a very unreasonable conversation that obviously starts with the question about her last name. Popcorn?
Faith Popcorn (05:03)
got my name because I worked for an art director and you know we I was a copywriter, he was an art director. And he goes, I can't deal with your name. My name is Plotkin. He just didn't like that. Yeah. So he said, popcorn, we're gonna call you popcorn. That's how I got my name.
Felix Zeltner (05:22)
He just made that up in a moment. And you for
Faith Popcorn (05:25)
It's
on everything. Then it was much easier, like on a passport or official document to say and especially women they think you got married to a popcorn maybe, but you know.
Felix Zeltner (05:37)
Well, why did you stick with it?
Faith Popcorn (05:39)
Because I'm a Taurus.
Taurus is a sign, the bull, from May on May 11th. And so then you know you don't know you don't have to answer this. Torians would want to I knew I liked you. Torians would rather walk through a wall than walk around it, right? You could walk around it right there. No. That's why. I just I just couldn't stop. I don't know. And also, I don't think I'm employable particularly in an organization. I know I'm not.
Felix Zeltner (05:48)
May thirteenth.
So let's go back to this because I I'm trying to I'm I will ask you a very unpolite question here. Of course. When were you born?
Faith Popcorn (06:19)
I was born in nineteen forty three.
Felix Zeltner (06:22)
Nineteen forty three. Okay. So you're May eleven. I'll never forget. And you write in your own reports and I got a pin from your team that says troublemaker. You even say follow the trouble as a call call to action when people read your your work. When did you when did you realize that you were a troublemaker?
Faith Popcorn (06:24)
In May. In May.
When I was very, very young, like one, my father was in Shanghai. It was called the CID, Criminal Investigation Division of the US Army, which later was CIA. And he was running it in Shanghai, and my mother and I went over there. So I was the outsider too, right? And the other thing is I'm a hundred percent Jewish and my mother, bless her soul, put me into Sacred Heart.
Because it was security issues there, so the you know, the the convents were more secure.
Felix Zeltner (07:20)
So you were among nuns?
Faith Popcorn (07:22)
Yeah, that's where I went to school. So I became I was Catholic. So when I got home, my grandmother's Orthodox Jewish. What did you do to her? She's speaking this language, Mandarin, and crossing herself in front of every church. So that's when I became like, you know, ecumenical maybe, like or alien. I was always alien. I was a little Jewish girl in a convent. You know, I was a little weirdo in the Hebrew school.
I was because of the convent, when I was in first grade, it was like we were in fifth grade, you know, the convents are much more advanced, much at least then. So I never paid attention. Maybe that's at existential loneliness. When you're ripped from your grandmother's arms when you're little and on the Queen Mary, the first Queen Mary, and go to China to meet up with your father who you'd never met, and in a a Chinese environment
You know, thank God I had my alma and you'll see how I recreated my childhood. You know, nobody outlives their childhood, by the way. Really, really horrible. But I had an alma, which means a nursemaid, you know. She was so fabulous. She was wonderful, and she really like helped me so much. She used to take me down, my mother would have killed her, and we used to eat street food. So I think that's why I got a great immunity system. I mean, thank God I very you said I very rarely get sick.
So and I drank the water, you know, we b they boiled everything. And the help lived on a rooftop. And I had, you know, being like kind of the outsider, so I'd play with the servants' children on the roof. Then I'd go down in the apartment we like had fifty and help five. You'd have somebody that washed the faucets or somebody that's, you know, different for us to keep employment, I guess, in a way. And I had a little doggy. So that was my first his name was Lucky, not so lucky, right? So lucky.
You and my alma used to kick I mean now I remember these things. I mean, I was under six years old. So I think that I bec became the observer very honestly from this experience. It just didn't I just didn't say, wake up in the morning going to start a business on futurism. I was always thinking ahead, what's gonna happen to me. and that's how I developed my s it's not even a sixth sense, it's like this ability to hear
very low like noises or like a radar cultural noises but low. Pick a lot up a very l it's a low vibration. Like a supplement. And not maybe you're very good at this too. Some people are good at this but they shut it down 'cause it's scary. But I g you can pick up like messages from people, you know, just from putting two things together.
Felix Zeltner (09:55)
Sonar.
Faith Popcorn (10:11)
We've been ninety five percent correct. I'm not just saying that. I mean, we've been outside audited in everything we predicted. Not that anybody believed it.
Felix Zeltner (10:21)
What was an outlandish prediction that you got right?
Faith Popcorn (10:26)
Well, one cocooning people would be staying at home. One that hasn't really only manif you people go, which ones did you get wrong? I said, The ones I got wrong I haven't manifested yet. Not maybe I'll be wrong five percent. I don't that's fine, but I don't think so. Well
Felix Zeltner (10:43)
I I think as a futurist, if you're more than fifty percent right, you're already pretty good.
Faith Popcorn (10:46)
I'm ninety five percent right. Ninety
Okay. Ninety five percent right. What was it?
Felix Zeltner (10:51)
Another prediction
maybe, you know, also helped you in your in your career because a lot of people said, Wow, look at look at faith, she she got that one right.
Faith Popcorn (11:03)
That I mean everything like like we have one, you know, small indulgences, people turn to like something small. We have one SOS, Save Our Society. With the we look at we're always looking at movements, and I think the next movement, we were talking in the car about people leaving like AI companies because of the ethical issues, not only this whole thing with anthropic, God bless them by the way, and you know, AI, open AI.
But you know, the ill use, I should say, the misuse of water, electricity, everything they're doing. And also, I think SOS Saver Society is about people like not liking the ethics of some large corporations. Twenty thousand laid off here, fifty thousand laid off there, Bezos is laying off people like crazy. I predicted that. I said that. You can read it maybe six years ago that
he's cleverly going to one replace brands with his brand slowly, you see, so he has his own water, own soda, own stuff, that home delivery was gonna be everything, and that robots were gonna work the factories because they don't need they don't complain, best part. Not yet anyway. They don't they don't use electricity, right? They can work in the dark. They don't need vacations. And those suits, you know, the echo skeletons that Amy Webb was talking about today,
We talked about that, you know, I mean, fifteen years ago factory workers were starting to be supported. they're they're frail human bodies with these echo systems. The only thing that's gonna predicting now, it's all gonna be internal. So I'm saying you won't have to learn, you will know. Those we're inserted. Just like, you know, remember?
The calculator, they didn't let kids take them into the classroom. Like it's gonna be like that. Like more and more AI is telling us we can ask at anything, it become we'll talk about AI as God if you want to later, but you know, but it's gonna be internal. So math, language
Felix Zeltner (13:12)
Because you're saying that we're actually going to wear devices in
Faith Popcorn (13:16)
Insider
up under Under the skin. Under the skin. Mm-hmm. what do you call it?
Felix Zeltner (13:21)
In that connect with our brain.
Faith Popcorn (13:23)
Boosts our brain. Mm-hmm. Okay. Maybe boost maybe depresses. I don't didn't think about that. Like you gave me that idea, see? Maybe it'll they depress the working class so that they won't complain or strike. I don't know. But you know, they worry about hacking. People worry about hacking, but what happens when they hack you? So yeah. So
Felix Zeltner (13:43)
Well, we could argue that already is happening to an extent. because we we are on our phones more than than anything. And and it crosses cultures and ages and religions and and and everything. How tricky was it for you, Faith, when you started out in New York City to become a female futurist in a male environment, in a male society, even I would say in a male city. I mean Manhattan
Faith Popcorn (13:49)
Then yeah. Yeah.
Felix Zeltner (14:13)
The creative world, the advertising world is is it's it's mad men. We all we all you know, even the people who were not part of it like me, we could watch it and and and see how that world looked like and it was probably much darker than that. so how did how tricky was that for you to to to become a female futurist?
Faith Popcorn (14:31)
I know that's gonna sound so weird and I'm not just making it up. Maybe I'm extra stupid sometimes. I never felt really once I got out of advertising agencies, madmen days, you know, I never felt really discriminated against. So there I know why, I just thought you made me think of another thing. There were no other futurists when I started. So it wasn't the only it was hard because nobody thought they needed a futurist.
Felix Zeltner (14:54)
Wasn't hard because you were the only one?
Faith Popcorn (14:59)
But I wasn't competing against men. And let me tell you this about men, especially older men, which were chairmen, you know, usually over fifty or forty, fifty, sixty then. They take advice better from a female, their mommy. Mommy is them. So when I tell the guy, you're gonna be out of a job in two minutes, pal, it the testosterone doesn't rise. Tell me more, mommy. How am I gonna get out of this? And that was our business, how to get them out of this.
One of my good friends is Mark Pritchard over there at PNG's absol I love him. I ha even though, you know, I have I'm not gonna go there. He's a wonderful guy and he always goes he's so encouraging. You know, you always say something like really interesting. I always send him stuff, you know, trying to influence their culture. But I think they take it better from a woman. They don't feel like I have to what, spray my testosterone, pee all over her or something.
Felix Zeltner (15:57)
In a way, you're not threatening them.
Faith Popcorn (16:00)
In that way, I'm not taking their job and I'm not McKinsey and Bain. Don't get me going on that. I'm not that. I'm a female in dark times. Like, remember the story of Cassandra? You know the story of Cassandra? I may have it a little wrong, but here's what I think it is. It was Zeus was in love with her and she rejected him. So he said, You're
Gonna predict you're always gonna be right and nobody's gonna believe you. And I'm the Cassandra. I used to sign off Cassandra, of course nobody knows what that is. But you know, even those who did, people said maybe you shouldn't say that, but it's absolutely true. So I think when women advise, you know, it's more palatable.
Felix Zeltner (16:53)
Hm. As long as the executives are all men.
Faith Popcorn (16:57)
Well yeah, I mean Indre New, CEO of Pepsi, I knew her s while she was C F O. That's how long I know her. I w consulted there for a very, very long time.
She wasn't a typical woman though. You know, she was like, man, running that show tough. An Indian. So, you know, her mother used to send her red string bracelets so that the spir you know, spirits wouldn't attack her. And she got a lot of you know, taught a lot of threats and stuff. She she embraced us, but she wasn't a typical girl, you know.
Felix Zeltner (17:35)
And by us you mean you build a team around.
Faith Popcorn (17:37)
Yeah, I built a company, Brain Reserve, Faith Popcorns Brain Reserve, and the mainly probably ninety eight percent female, not on purpose, honestly. I just hired the best people for these jobs, you know. I had one flaw in my business. When I go pitch, you know, for business, you know how most people do it, they go pitch and that person who's usually good, right? They don't work on the business. But when I say
If you give us this business, I will be there. If you don't like it, I'll do it all over again. Of course they have to you know, I never had to do that. But I do work on it. So we only handle six things at a time. If that I do not want to be a large entity. I don't believe I mean, maybe maybe AI will change this. I don't think large forms can really deliver something personal, caring.
excellent. You know, it's like my name's on the door literally. I think I may be the only consultant with my name on the door who's alive.
Felix Zeltner (18:43)
And what helps you continue being a futurist? And I'm asking this and it's it's again not very polite because the people that I meet that are your age, they talk about the past a lot, a lot more than about the future.
Faith Popcorn (19:00)
Forget
I'm an alien. I don't have age. So I live in the future. Sometimes to a fault, because I forget to like cross the street or you know, you know, I'm just living in another place. So and because my past, maybe especially my younger past, my very young past, was so unstable and rocky.
Maybe that's how I became a futurist. I was jumping out of the present. I'll tell you another reason I became a futurist, and this has to do with my childhood too. I hate being yelled at. I mean, I really don't like it. I mean I almost have a traumatic response to being yelled at. Well, when you're a futurist, I mean th people can disagree with you, but they don't really yell at you, you know? So I thought I'll just tell them what's gonna happen. So they, you know, it's
Felix Zeltner (19:54)
It's a Yellow Save profession.
Faith Popcorn (19:57)
It turned out they yell at you anyway, but you know, it's n they don't have as much to stand on because they go prove it, I go, you prove it. Mhm. You know, so yeah, I think that's another reason. And anyway, the present everybody knows about the present. It's not a g I'm a adventurer.
Felix Zeltner (20:16)
You're unreasonable.
Faith Popcorn (20:17)
Very unreason well, I'm a Taurus, I I I have to say. I like that your your what do you call it, your mantra or your thing it's That's the name of the show. Yeah, I know. I like it. Why? Because
Anything like new or worth doing or you know worthwhile listening to will be viewed as unreasonable because nobody else is thinking that. So it's perfect
Welcome. My name is Jade Alexis. I am with you for the next few moments. I will help wake up your mind, activate your focus, and bring you calm. Lengthen your spine. If you can and will, close your eyes. As I guide you through this breath work, allow yourself to expand with each cycle of breath. Take a deep inhale through your nose.
And a long slow exhale out your mouth. Beautiful. This time to help with mental focus, we hold your breath in. Inhale for three, two, one. Hold your breath in. Three, two, one. Open mouth. Exhale. Three. Two. One.
Let your breath resume normal.
Notice the calm you have created.
You can tap into this calm throughout your day. May you maintain this peace as you proceed with the podcast and all that this beautiful day has to offer. Open your eyes.
Felix Zeltner (22:23)
What are some really unreasonable things that you do in your in your day to day, kind of your your daily life?
Faith Popcorn (22:30)
I
Talk to my dogs. I have three dogs. One is a case hunt. So my daughter's support dog. Georgia could support dog. But he loves his grandma. I have two Japanese chins. They're my seventh and eighth. And I have a failed adoption you know, meant adoption. My kid brings home a cat, kitten peril, you know. She goes, just for a week, I'm just, you know, fostering it. Yeah. Six months ago, I talked to my cat.
I love my cat. You know, cats purring brings down your blood pressure. Maybe that's why they lie on your thing and they purr. You can feel it. So that's a little bit unreasonable. Right? They could get it for free.
Felix Zeltner (23:18)
I also learned on the on the way here that you have have children. I I also do and I sometimes I think that's in today's world also be considered unreasonable.
Faith Popcorn (23:27)
Well, here's the story. So I told you about China when I was fifty five.
I was like that T shirt. Oops, I forgot to have a baby. And I adopted my first daughter from China. Yeah. Wow. And then she wanted a sister. I want a sister. You have a sister. I want a sister. I want a sister. Like years. So I got my second one at sixty one. So when people say they're too old to have a baby, I go, That's bullshit. But I wanted a Chinese baby. And that's because I think I felt they my kids think I'm Chinese inside and I also have an alma.
When I got my first one, Georgica, I hired this Chinese woman, Malaysian Chinese, she's fabulous. She's still with me twenty-eight years later. So she helped me raise my first and my second. I think they love her more than me, I have to say. I mean they love her. Her name is Chinny, Yang Sang Chin. I used to till my grandmother said, What is she speaking? So they killed it. But my kids spoke somewhat. They didn't really want to.
Felix Zeltner (24:24)
Do you speak Mandarin?
Faith Popcorn (24:34)
The nanny, I said, don't speak to them in English. She speaks five dialects, my nanny. But I couldn't really get them to absorb it. And they didn't want I said, let's go back and find try. It's almost impossible. Your birth parents. They go, We don't want to go back. I go, come on. It's almost impossible. You know, mothers put their baby's one child policy down on a bench where the ch the police know where it is. I mean, I definitely wanted girls. I checked the twin box. There's a twin box. Would you take twins? I go, yes.
But I didn't get twins, so I'm sorry I didn't get four more. You know? So yeah. Everybody should have children. And it's really I mean, you have biologicals, right? But people should start adopting more. You know, it's you're too many children, too many dogs and too many cats.
Felix Zeltner (25:23)
And you of course, you coined the term cocooning, which now I feel like to the pandemic even more. It's it's almost like a way of life. It's not even like a small thing.
Faith Popcorn (25:35)
It's really I coined it thinking I called Martha Stewart the queen of cocooning. She didn't mind. You don't want to do it, you just want to watch somebody do it. That's Martha. You know, we're watching it. We don't want to do it. It's like homemaker voyeurism. So it was a warm and cozy trend thing, movement. And then it got really dark.
And people staying home more, talking to their, you know, bots more, their computers more, not to each other more. You see couples even now with their phones out at a table, not talking to each other. My kids text each other, I go, You have got to stop that. They're next to each other. No. No. It's not allowed.
Felix Zeltner (26:19)
'Cause I was about to ask you that if cocooning was maybe the eighties and nineties thing that that n now has become of course mainstream and is is has has took a lot of our lives over, what do you think might be a defining social instinct or movement in the let's say twenty thirties, the next decade?
Faith Popcorn (26:43)
I think we're gonna see a human I don't think it's gonna be successful, by the way. But maybe it will. I don't know. That I really don't know. But I think there'll be a rebellion against these companies like these like you know, open AI that are using our resources. That's America though. I don't think it's a global I think that's a global trend.
So I think we're gonna have like I was raised in the sixties, right? We had a lot of marches and stuff. And we
Felix Zeltner (27:17)
So a a US centric backlash against big tech. Yeah. As a a defining moment or movement for the next decade. Yeah.
Faith Popcorn (27:28)
Like you know, Lysestrata, old is a Greek tale, Lysistrata, you know, that they didn't want their men to go to war. This is BC. And so they stopped having sex with them. Hmm. Interesting. So I think we're gonna maybe throw away our phones. I don't but it have to be everybody because but maybe we're not anyway, we're not gonna have phones because we're gonna have trips. But I I I think I don't know, maybe
Like SOS was a early hopeful trend. I'm not usually like optim terribly optimistic, but this thing save our society and maybe we're seeing a retour of that sixties thing again about save and you know you'd probably know this. Birth rate is down US, birth rate is down in China, birth rate is down in the UK. So I think that that we're predicting my marriage going down, but also birthrate going down. You know, we're below replacement.
So maybe we see a future that we don't want to bring young people into. What do you
Felix Zeltner (28:28)
think, you know, when we talk about this next generation, what do you think people will miss from today, let's say in like twenty years?
Faith Popcorn (28:38)
Being not perfect. Being like it's like every time I go through security, I go, Thank you, Al Qaeda. Because I remember where you just walk through. Every time I go through all those lines, you know
Felix Zeltner (28:57)
You think nine eleven?
Faith Popcorn (28:59)
In a bad way. I mean, I think thanks a lot.
Felix Zeltner (29:03)
Because you're you're you're I'm just trying to understand, you're saying they they tried to make the system perfect.
Faith Popcorn (29:08)
No, I'm saying that because it was a much sweeter life. Yeah. And we're gonna look at this part that we think is so, you know, difficult and dreadful as much sweeter than when we're so integrated. You see, evolution used to take a long time, right? Could take thousands of years. But this evolution is taking single digits. Yeah. So we're watching our own selves become outdated, extinct, and useless.
It's not so we're gonna look back at saying like, gee, remember when like things weren't perfect and remember when people made mistakes, remember when, you know, there were even typos or you had to go to the library to find something else or something? Like we're it's gonna be nostalgic that way. What
Felix Zeltner (29:55)
Is
something you could maybe teach me right now that would help me and the people listening to live a bolder and more unreasonable life? Is there a certain skill you could help me acquire?
Faith Popcorn (30:09)
see.
Don't trust the systems. And I'm not one of those conspiracy people, although I do think that we that we will make contact, or we have made contact, or you know the guy I I has a name somewhere that had one of the highest clearances in the government who studied the UFOs and all that? Do you know a couple of weeks ago he disappeared? Yes. That's on the New York Times. You can read it. Yeah.
Felix Zeltner (30:32)
No. that's a good
Faith Popcorn (30:38)
So where was I going with this? I said, don't trust systems. Suppose our systems are cut off. Suppose a drone flows flies over your bank and cuts your connection to your bank and you can't get money. And that happened to us during 911 November. Everybody was well, maybe you don't everybody was running to the bank and that you couldn't get your cash. So being Jewish, we always you know, I hope I'm not gonna get mugged now, but you know, we
Felix Zeltner (31:05)
You carry cash.
Faith Popcorn (31:07)
I have cash that I can access without going to a bank. Yeah. I mean cash I I pay taxes on it, but you know, and then I think gold bars now and now they're saying silver, minerals and you know, things. Gold silver, did you see what silver jumps?
Felix Zeltner (31:11)
the same.
Huh? It's a good skill to have to think about
Faith Popcorn (31:30)
And collecting. Okay. Like silver just went up 300% or something. Why? Because they need it in manufacturing. That's why. And gold, I mean, being Jewish, we always had like diamonds in our hems. That's how we got away from the Nazis, you know. how we bought our way out. Can you buy your way out? Do you have enough cash that you can put your hand on? I'm not saying being rich. You do not have to be rich. That you don't have to go to a bank to yet. I don't know. I don't trust the systems.
I mean that
Felix Zeltner (32:02)
We saw them fail.
My generation
may be less so than than yours.
Faith Popcorn (32:07)
Do you know that when we left China, they were shooting up the revolution. We left just before nineteen, like we took the nun my father got the nuns out and we left. They were shooting it up in our courtyard. We lived in an apartment building. You know? That system, my my they shipped their furniture down the Yangtze River and a lot of others. We never saw that again, right? And
The only money that my family had left, because my mother was a nice Jewish girl, and she really actually was not that nice, but she sent cash home to her mother. Cash in an envelope. Postal service. And that's the only money they had left. They had nothing. They had to run. And how many people had to run out of Germany or you know? Look at all the people running out of the Ukraine and I d don't trust the system entirely. I mean, do you have I like
Felix Zeltner (32:55)
So don't trust the system.
Faith Popcorn (33:01)
You know, they call me the queen of backup. People that my friends and all. I have backup. Like that's why I love Costco. It's my other addiction, Costco. Costco's a nice company. They're nice to their people, I think. I love Costco. And have I mean, my Coke or my Pepsi or my whatever, sometimes I pass the due date I buy so much. You know, or sometimes just donate it. But don't don't trust the systems entirely. Yeah.
Because people don't trust the systems and they want but actually it's a big misnomer because I think that the government can track this money where it came from. Interesting. Look what the Swiss banks did. They went against the all the Jews had and other people later had money in Swiss banks and you thought it was so secure and then they gave up the names. Yeah. Don't trust Trust yourself.
Felix Zeltner (33:55)
Is there any idea that is moving around in your head right now that's just a little too unreasonable, but that you that you maybe want to give a glimpse into?
Faith Popcorn (34:10)
Maybe the emotional economy.
Felix Zeltner (34:14)
What is that?
Faith Popcorn (34:16)
While you're still human, there's something to the fact that when people have emotions, people to people, let's say, there's a r there's a real trust there in an economy. Someone's really crying or somebody's really upset or really happy. How about ecstatic? We want that, like ketamine. I know a lot of my friends have gone and done ketamine, they feel that they had visions. It's a horse tranquilizer, by the way, you know. Ketamine
Like they say Elon takes a lot of cannon. I don't know. Why are people taking these drugs? Cannabis being the most d sp harmless in a white one. But, you know, fentanyl they want to feel something. I think they realize that they're kind of blunted at the edges. So they want to feel something. So the emotional economy is like supports like feeling something.
Felix Zeltner (35:13)
You know what the first podcast guest on Unreasonable, Andy Pearson said? He said, I don't take drugs because being unreasonable is my drug. It's contagious. And the more I do it, the more I I want to experience it. And he does like in his work he's a creative director, but he has also does ultra marathons.
Faith Popcorn (35:33)
that's his drug, but that's a drug. That's a drug because it releases that Yeah.
Felix Zeltner (35:35)
is a piece of set, yeah.
And that that's why he doesn't need the the emotional comic, 'cause he c can create the struct for himself.
Faith Popcorn (35:44)
But he's addicted.
Felix Zeltner (35:46)
Maybe.
Faith Popcorn (35:47)
he is. He said he was. And he is. I like martinis. It's my drug of choice. This is what I like. Not an expensive I mean, I like expensive things too, but I I used kettle one, which is not expensive, right? Up, no vermouth. I don't like vermouth. Mm-hmm. And then olives and then dirty and then ice on the side. But those who don't know dirty, it's a little olive juice in there. Very cold, very I like that.
It's my drug.
Felix Zeltner (36:19)
yeah, I would I would love to buy you one.
Faith Popcorn (36:21)
Anytime. Okay. I mean any t any listen, I'm a martini hooker.
Felix Zeltner (36:28)
Now I have a last question for you. How can the people listening, this community and that we're building, how can they help you?
Faith Popcorn (36:39)
Aww, trying to make me cry?
Felix Zeltner (36:41)
No. It's always it will always
Faith Popcorn (36:44)
Really?
You know, I would love to hear from people. either like on our website, faithpopcorn.com, is that okay? Or faith at faithpopcorn.com or anywhere you want to reach me or beam me up, I used to say, but tell me what you're seeing. I'd love to hear what you're seeing. What are you seeing? And I'm really interested.
And what what is making you happy and what is actually what moves society is things that make people unhappy, but I also want to know what's making you happy. What are you seeing? Huh. I have a talent bank, you know, of people like thousands that tell me, but I I love your Like these. Yeah, tell me what you see. I'll tell you what I'm seeing. Wow.
Felix Zeltner (37:43)
Well, Faith, we went from your name, that people might think you're married to a popcorn. I d I will never forget that, I think.
Faith Popcorn (37:50)
And grandfather Papa Corney.
Felix Zeltner (37:53)
to silver, to martinis, to cocooning, to chipped bodies, to emotional economies, and to you being unreasonable because you found yourself being an alien as a child and you've developed a radar for seeing the future to protect yourself. I learned so much from you. Thank you, Frank.
Faith Popcorn (38:16)
Thank you, Felix. You're lovely. I told you I liked you. A Taurus, my God. Unfeasible, unseasonable, undefinable, unbelievable. Dona Rainable, unexpected, unbelievable, uncontainable, imperfectible, unscarable, unreasonable.
Felix Zeltner (38:38)
Thank you so much for listening to Unreasonable. Unreasonable is a remote daily production. Talent booking coordination by Liz Hap, marketing by Aveli Pitzip, editing and mastering by the master himself, Philip Feit of German Vansen, music by Leonard Dupinski and Dario Akostatach. Please rate and review the show wherever fine podcasts are downloaded, or follow our Substack for more looks behind the scenes. Unreasonable podcast.com. I'm Felix. See you soon. Stay unreasonable.
Faith Popcorn (39:12)
Yeah, but he would a dang, ding it a dang, dang it a dang, dang it a dang Unreasonable, unreasonable.