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Hello everyone and welcome back 
to People Do Want to Know 

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podcast. 
Today I'm testing out something 

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very different from my regularly
scheduled programming and I want

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to know what you think of it. 
I'm sharing with you a 

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completely impromptu, unplanned 
man on the street style 

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interview that I did with Ham, 
an artist who stands on the 

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streets all over the world in 
his underwear. 

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Yes, you heard that right. 
In this fast-paced episode, 

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you'll learn how I came across 
Ham. 

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And really, what I wanted to 
achieve with this segment is 2 

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things. 
One, as a host, I wanted to 

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challenge myself to do a more 
unscripted, spontaneous format 

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with an audience. 
And two, I wanted to see how 

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quickly and deeply I could form 
a connection with someone who I 

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just met off the street. 
Without too many spoilers, a Ham

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and I do not share the same 
viewpoint on Israel. 

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At the same time, Ham is 
standing outside 4 hours at a 

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time with the Star of David on. 
He is an ambassador for the 

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Jewish people and he does put 
himself at risk whether people 

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know his views or not. 
It was interesting however to 

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learn about his anti Zionist 
relative who founded the 

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movement in Israel and how that 
influences views. 

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Usually when you think of ultra 
religious anti Zionist it's like

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the Satmar religious Jews, A lot
of their views are rooted in 

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theological reasons for not 
supporting the state of Israel. 

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However, from what Ham said it 
almost sounded like his relative

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rather than having a strong 
theological reason, it was more 

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of like a political or 
ideological 1. 

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And that's one of the things I'm
going to look into. 

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I'm curious kind of the basis 
for some of these ultra 

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religious groups what they think
of when they think of Zionism 

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and anti Zionism. 
At a high level I understood 

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that all of these kind of 
rationales boiled down to not 

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wanting to have a secular state 
of Israel, but I wonder if 

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there's something more there. 
So excited to see what I come 

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across. 
Curious what you think about 

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this different format. 
Please enjoy this vlog or 

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episode. 
Hello. 

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Hello. 
He's in his underwear. 

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I'm here wondering why I'm up 
here and this is people, do you 

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want to? 
Know thank you for having me. 

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This is Ham. 
Ham has been doing this project 

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for over 2 years. 
He's a people. 

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Do you want to know? 
And I want to ask you. 

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Why? 
Originally it was to establish a

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platform to share art with 
people, and I was happy just 

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standing on a pallet and 
chatting with strangers. 

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But when I was wearing clothes, 
no one would talk to me, and I 

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found that the more clothes I 
took off, the more people would 

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come and ask me what I was 
doing. 

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Here's how I came across HAM. 
I'm walking down the street to 

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my podcast studio, which is a 
couple of blocks away. 

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It is snowing, it is cold and 
the weather is horrible. 

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And here is standing a man in 
his underwear on a platform that

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has a Riddle on it. 
This is an art project that also

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ended up contributing to your 
engagement ring fund with your 

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now fiance. 
Soon to be, soon to be OK. 

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The proposal is happening. 
Yes, it has not happened yet. 

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She sort of knows. 
Like she knows it's going to 

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happen in May, but she doesn't 
know when and where. 

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And I've been scheming with I 
don't know if I can. 

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This is privileged information 
at this point, but I've got I've

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got good plan. 
OK, I'm excited for it. 

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And so the ring has been picked 
out. 

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I assume the. 
Ring has been designed and I met

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a so I designed the ring at the 
beginning of this project and 

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then throughout the course of 
it, I met a bunch of Jewelers 

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that asked to make it for me, 
one of whom seemed most aligned 

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with, you know, like what I'm 
doing in my trajectory. 

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She and I are in similar, 
similar places in our careers, 

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and she was the most 
enthusiastic about working with 

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me. 
And her name's Eliana. 

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Hopefully, she'll be here later 
today. 

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So to show me like, updates of 
the design so she can start 

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carving it. 
And so we're just kind of going 

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back and forth right now. 
Is it a big ring? 

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It's a big one. 
Excellent. 

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This time you're on a new 
platform than the one you were 

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on originally. 
What are you hoping to achieve 

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with the second platform that 
you're standing on? 

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So I'm establishing an ethical 
brand platform because one of 

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the experiences I had last year 
was companies coming up to me 

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asking me to pose for videos 
with their products as a form of

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like marketing exposure for 
them. 

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And so I'm at a point in my life
post engagement ring where I 

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need to interact a little bit 
more with capitalism. 

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And I've been trying to figure 
out how to do that in a way that

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makes me comfortable. 
And so the best I could come up 

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with for now is creating a 
platform that invites companies 

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that can demonstrate that 
they're less than 10% evil. 

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And then if they can do that, 
they can use this project for 

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their exposure. 
What companies are doing that 

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today? 
Currently, Organic Basics and 

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this hat is called Earth Age. 
It's made by a woman in South 

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Africa who runs her own business
and hand knits all of her 

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products. 
And then Axel Arigato has some 

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shoes that I'm in. 
Like, I wouldn't say they're 

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officially doing it. 
We're in conversation at this 

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point. 
They use really high quality 

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products. 
They know everybody in their 

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factories. 
And yeah, it just seems like a 

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positive, like they're trying to
do something positive for the 

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world in addition to making good
shoes. 

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Tell me about some of the 
highlights in standing on this 

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corner for two years, some 
experiences you have with 

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others. 
Yeah, I think the best 

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highlights are when someone 
actually stops and has a 

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conversation about the creative 
aspects of what I'm doing. 

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And it helps me better 
articulate this project to 

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people so I can hone my answers 
when I'm asked questions. 

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And it develops new ideas for 
how to grow the project. 

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Specifically, there is a like a 
mom and pop bagel shop around 

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the corner called Pops Bagels, 
and they came up to me yesterday

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while I was doing the like the 
first, my first take with a new 

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form of expression where I've 
been journaling for a long time,

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but I've only ever done that in 
private. 

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And while it's warm, people 
aren't as impressed by this 

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project. 
So I'm trying to figure out ways

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to be creative and still be 
standing on the platform. 

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And so I started writing on the 
journal, but as if it were like 

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a children's book, facing out 
towards the audience and writing

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upside down and backwards 
because that was something I 

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taught myself to do. 
And so I could write such that 

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the camera could read it. 
And then it kind of like hooked 

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someone in. 
They just like came up to me, 

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listen to what I were like, 
asked me what I was writing, 

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watch me writing it. 
We started having a 

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conversation. 
And the result was they're going

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to start bringing me lunch with 
bagels and like, shooting videos

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of me eating it as a way to 
like, give like, marketing 

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exposure for them and food to 
me. 

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And there's nothing I love more 
than free food. 

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You're also a nice Jewish boy 
and I'm curious if you can tell 

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me a little bit about your 
Jewish upbringing. 

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So my Jewish upbringing was not 
immediate. 

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My dad was bar mitzvahed, but we
weren't raised in a Jewish 

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family. 
But I went to a school that was 

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formed in Baltimore so that 
Jewish kids could go to private 

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school but not go to a religious
school. 

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So pretty much all of my friends
were in kind of like modern 

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Jewish American families, and I 
was raised by a lot of their 

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parents, spent a lot of time at 
their houses. 

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And then 7th grade was the peak 
of my social life. 

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So I like to joke that I was bar
mitzvahed through osmosis. 

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So I went to about 50 of them in
one year. 

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OK, interesting. 
Do you have any message to the 

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Jewish people? 
Yeah, but this was going to get 

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a little heavy. 
OK Oh God, what is it? 

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How much more can we bear, 
folks? 

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I think it's important to not 
fall victim to the patterns of 

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society, recognizing that the 
Jewish people are have been very

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persecuted throughout the years.
I think it's very important to 

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be careful not to become the 
perpetrators of persecution and 

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to separate themselves from 
organizations of people that 

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have become corrupted and are 
hiding behind the like Jewish 

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plight to justify hurting other 
people. 

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You got to be a light upon the 
nation, folks, what can I say? 

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Just about my Jewish identity in
the context for the nuanced 

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opinion that I have, my great, 
great great grandfather was the 

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chief rabbi of a Jewish Orthodox
community that he founded in 

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Jerusalem. 
And to this day, they're one of 

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the few communities that rejects
the Israeli government because 

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they're anti Zionists and they 
don't receive any funding from 

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them. 
And I've had that conversation 

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with people in New York before, 
and they've told me that they 

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studied him in Hebrew school and
they couldn't have a 

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conversation with me anymore 
because he was a villain and 

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they could no longer talk to me.
And I think it's interesting 

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because the reason he opposed 
the formation of Israel is 

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because he anticipated all of 
the conflicts that it would 

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create and saw it as a political
tool for the West and not as 

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actually something that was the 
best case for the Jewish people 

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in Jerusalem because they'd 
existed there peacefully for a 

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lot longer than they have now. 
And so I think it's important 

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that people separate the 
religious ideologies that have 

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existed for thousands of years 
from the corrupted, personally 

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incentivized organizations that 
are just exerting force for 

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their own gain. 
OK, interesting. 

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What are you excited about? 
What's next for you? 

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Canada. 
You're going to Canada? 

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Yes, ma'am. 
OK, well I have an ethical brand

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to share with you. 
It's the best one, if I may say 

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so myself, but I am a little bit
biased people. 

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Do you want to know? 
Thank you very much. 

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Can you hold that sticker 
towards the camera? 

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Thank you for tuning to this 
impromptu episode of People. 

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Do you want to Know with Ham the
Underwear Man? 

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Thank you for joining me on my 
corner. 

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Yay. 
We did it. 

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We did it. 
If you've enjoyed this podcast, 

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please go ahead and rate US 5. 
Stars, be the first to hear our.

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