The following podcast is a deer media production.

Hello and welcome to the Critical Podcast.

You know, I'm not known for smooth intros, outros, transitions.

It's all a bit of a crash landing and a crash takeoff.

So I just want to be transparent and honest.

I was not going to put an episode out this week because my usual offerings,

amputee jokes, Helen Keller, Real Housewives,

seems really tone deaf and uncomfortable and kind of disgusting to, you know,

discuss on the brink or forefront of such terrible things happening in the world.

And, you know, I'll be totally honest with you.

I totally struggle with the concept of a platform in any way, shape or form

because it feels self indulgent and just performative in nature because quite frankly,

it is performative in nature.

And when things affect me, and I hate to even say that because once again,

it's like, I don't like when people are only affected by things because it's within their real house

or through their personal lens or they know someone or it could be them.

I think that, you know, I try to look at life through every vantage point

and through every perspective because I really don't want to be an asshole

and I don't want things to have to be personal, to be affected by them.

I have worked very hard in recent years on being a more empathetic person universally.

I know it's probably very difficult to tell via this podcast.

But when things do affect me on a personal level, my default is not to go public,

...