WW3 Expert: This Could Trigger Global Starvation

Professor Jiang predicted Trump would win the election, America would go to war with Iran, and that the United States would lose that war. Now he reveals why he believes this conflict could reshape the entire world order! Professor Jiang is a geopolitical analyst, writer, and host of the YouTube channel 'Predictive History', who uses history, geography, economics, and game theory to explain where global conflicts may be heading next. Through his Substack, he provides geopolitical analysis of current events and helps readers understand the deeper forces shaping war, power, and the future of the American empire. He explains: ◼️Why he believes America had no choice but to go to war with Iran ◼️Why Israel’s real goal may be much bigger than defeating Iran ◼️How the Strait of Hormuz could trigger a global energy and food crisis ◼️Why China, Russia, Iran, Israel, and the US are locked into competing worldviews ◼️Why the US dollar, oil, and global trade routes are at the center of the Iran War ◼️Why he believes World War 3 may have already begun ◼️What happens if Russia enters the war on Iran’s side ◼️Why the next phase of war may be fought through energy, shipping, and food Follow Professor Jiang: Youtube - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/FYWV4L8 Instagram - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/Cm0HlGI X - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/5jRKZdE Substack (geo-political analysis) - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/46bgm4o Sponsors: Pipedrive - https://pipedrive.com/CEO Shopify - https://shopify.com/bartlett

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Steven Bartlett?

  In 2024, you made three predictions that have come perfectly true, like Trump would start a war with Iran. And you've made a series of new predictions.

• 0:09Speaker 00

  Yes, and I'll explain each prediction one by one. Okay, so first, I predict that Trump will get a third term.

• 0:14Steven Bartlett?

  But isn't this constitutionally illegal?

• 0:16Speaker 00

  It's not. The president now has emergency war powers, and so he can actually delay the election. My second prediction is Iran is not a forever war and the United States will institute a national draft. Meaning that if you're between 18 to 24, in America, you're male, you'll be automatically put into the draft system. And they just passed a law that says that starting December, you will be automatically registered.

• 0:35Steven Bartlett?

  Which means you're obliged to go and fight.

• 0:38Speaker 00

  Exactly. Next, the world will move towards an AI surveillance state. So if you do online, it's being recorded to figure out how to control you. And then this is the most controversial prediction. This is pretty bad. And I'll explain why, and also I will tell you why this work can only lead to World War Three. Why there's a very strong possibility that the American empire will collapse. And also, I'll show you what the Russians will do and how the private bankers are controlling you.

• 1:03Steven Bartlett?

  I'm not owned by anybody.

• 1:04Speaker 00

  That's what you think.

• 1:05Steven Bartlett?

  So let's talk about that.

• 1:15Steven Bartlett?

  Guys, I've got a favor to ask before this episode begins. The algorithm, if you follow a show, will deliver you the best episodes from that show very prominently in your feed. So when we have our best episodes on this show, the most shared episodes, the most rated episodes, I would love you to know. And the simple way for you to know that is to hit that follow button. But also, it's the simple, easy, free thing that you can do to help us make this show better. And I would be hugely grateful if you could take a minute on the app you're listening to this on right now and hit that follow button. Thank you so, so, so much.

• 1:53Steven Bartlett?

  Professor Dian, there's so much going on in the world at the moment that it's quite confusing for an ordinary person like me. And you've blown up across the internet because you've been able to demystify all of, all of this craziness. But also because in 2024, you made three predictions that have come perfectly true. Some might say unfortunately.

• 2:17Speaker 00

  Unfortunately, yes.

• 2:18Steven Bartlett?

  What were those three predictions?

• 2:19Speaker 00

  My first prediction was that Trump would win in November 2024. Second prediction is that he would start a war against Iran. And the third prediction is that the United States would lose this war. And in losing this war, this would radically reshape the geopolitical landscape.

• 2:39Steven Bartlett?

  How did you know that Trump would start a war with Iran?

• 2:43Speaker 00

  The simple answer is this, the United States have invaded Iran because it has no choice in the matter. If it were not to invade Iran, it would lose its empire. Its empire is based purely on the US dollar, the petrol dollar, which is a policy scheme. If it did not invade Iran, then people would choose not to trade with it anymore. People would choose to not buy US treasuries.

• 3:12Steven Bartlett?

  Why?

• 3:12Speaker 00

  For the longest time, this system worked fine.

• 3:17Speaker 00

  But then in February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine.

• 3:23Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 3:24Speaker 00

  Okay, that was not the issue. The issue was the American response. The American response was to sanction Russia and remove Russia from the SWIFT global payment system. It also ordered the Europeans to freeze over $200 billion in Russian assets. And this is a problem, this very basis for having the US dollar as the global reserve currency is that it would remain politically neutral. It, it, the Americans guaranteed seamless, politically neutral international exchange.

• 4:06Speaker 00

  So if this trend continues, right, if you don't do anything about Russia, Russia would take over Ukraine. And Russia then would build an alliance with China and Iran. If you look at these three countries on a map, Russia, China, and Iran, this is the entire Asian continent. And then what they can do is this, they can say, okay, the United States is a bully. They force us to play by the rules. They get very angry if we don't play by the rules. So let's not play with the United States anymore. Let's just trade amongst ourselves.

• 4:46Speaker 00

  And then what they can do is they can build a Eurasian railway system connecting Russia, Iran, and China together. And then what this would do is negate American sea power. Because it's American ships that patrol and protect the oceans. And then what happened is the world, Europe, Middle East, Africa, India, East Asia, would look at the trading block and think to themselves, wow, these guys, the Russians, Iranians, and Chinese, they use gold as their medium of exchange.

• 5:30Speaker 00

  Gold is valuable. The Americans, on the other hand, use US dollars as the medium of exchange, which is not valuable. So am I better off with the American system, with this new BRICS system?

• 5:46Steven Bartlett?

  What's BRICS?

• 5:46Speaker 00

  It's an acronym. It stands for Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa, China.

• 5:54Steven Bartlett?

  So am I right in thinking because Iran, Russia, and China were colluding, it threatened US dominance, which is driven by the world using the dollar as the primary currency for trading?

• 6:07Speaker 00

  That's correct.

• 6:07Steven Bartlett?

  Okay, so they felt they needed to invade because then they can control more of the Middle East?

• 6:11Speaker 00

  Right. So by attacking Iran, certain things happen, okay? The first thing that happened is that China is now cut off from Middle East energy. China receives anywhere between 50 to 6% of its energy needs from the Middle East. Not just Iran, but also Qatar and Saudi Arabia. A lot of people say that China today, it's reliant on renewables, solar, wind. And that's true to a certain extent, but remember that China, it is an industrial powerhouse. So it needs energy from everywhere and everyone.

• 6:52Speaker 00

  So the fact that China is losing all this energy from the Middle East presents China with a long-term strategic vulnerability. And that's the first thing that happens. Second thing that happens is that Europe is in a lot of trouble. Because remember, because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian energy was sanctioned. And so Europe relied more on Middle East, on the Middle East for its energy needs, especially Qatar.

• 7:23Speaker 00

  And now Europe has lost all of this oil. So you, and then you have Japan and South Korea. These two powerful East Asian economies are also reliant on the Middle East for its energy. So another question is, if you're not getting your energy from the Middle East, where can you get your energy from? And there's only two answers, either Russia or the United States. Russia is at war, and what's happening is the Ukrainian drones are attacking Russian oil refineries and export hubs.

• 7:58Speaker 00

  So the world in the short term has no choice but to look to America for its energy needs. And what did Trump do recently? He took over Venezuela, which has the world's greatest oil reserves. He's threatening Canada, he's threatening Greenland, Mexico, Colombia. If Trump controls the entire Western Hemisphere, the entire world has to beg Trump for energy and resources. And this saves both the US dollar as well as the American empire.

• 8:39Steven Bartlett?

  So as part of your prediction in, in 2024, I believe it was, you said that the US would lose this war?

• 8:45Speaker 00

  Right.

• 8:46Steven Bartlett?

  Why did you predict that the US will lose this war with Iran?

• 8:51Speaker 00

  Because the American society does not, does not have the political will, does not have the manufacturer, manufacturer capacity, does not have the risk tolerance to fight this war in Iran. Basically, America wants to fight this war as cheaply, as easily, and as quickly as possible, right? So Trump, it, Trump really fought that, you know, if I sent my airplanes to strike Tehran and kill the Atatollah, they would just surrender. That was like literally his plan going into this war. He paid no attention to the culture, he paid no attention to the history of the Iranian people.

• 9:35Speaker 00

  He had absolutely no respect for, for the nation. And when you do that, when you disrespect your opponent, when you underestimate your opponent, when you yourself are not willing to commit to the fight, you're gonna lose.

• 9:48Steven Bartlett?

  So is Iran's game just to draw this out as long as they possibly can? How, how, how they, you know, because he's taken out the leaders. And then do you also think that Trump thought that just if I just bombed the leader, then everything will sort of regenerate itself and we'll be fine? What was the sort of fundamental misunderstanding?

• 10:06Speaker 00

  There's a lot of confusion as to how this war started. Even today, no one actually knows how this war started.

• 10:15Speaker 00

  But I think that Trump, given his personality, he was convinced that if he killed the leadership of Iran, then they would have no choice but to surrender. And his proof of concept was, of course, on January 3rd of this year, federal force went into Venezuela, kidnapped Maduro, and they completely surrendered. So in Trump's mind, he wanted to replay this, the Venezuela scenario.

• 10:46Steven Bartlett?

  And he didn't realize that Iran is fundamentally different from Venezuela?

• 10:52Speaker 00

  The short answer is, he is a reality TV star. He thinks in terms of optics. He doesn't think thick in terms of like geopolitical strategy. The long answer is that the American military has become a corrupt and insular institution that is trying to generate as much commercial funding as possible in order to fund the military industrial complex.

• 11:17Steven Bartlett?

  Did he think that he was gonna bomb Iran, the people would rise up, they would elect a new government, and that would be that, and then he could control Iran?

• 11:27Speaker 00

  That's exactly what he thought. So what I want to do now is go to the map.

• 11:32Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 11:32Speaker 00

  All right, and show you what he got wrong.

• 11:34Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 11:35Speaker 00

  All right, so this is a map of the Middle East. And the first thing to notice about this map is the topography.

• 11:47Steven Bartlett?

  What does that mean?

• 11:48Speaker 00

  How many mountains you have. So this is, what's really interesting is that the topography between Iraq and Iran are completely different. And this is important because in 2003, the Americans invaded Iraq and they won the war in about two weeks. And the reason why they won the war is the Americans practiced something called Stock and All.

• 12:19Speaker 00

  And the idea of Stock and All is that it is a military strategy that believes that if you cut off the head of the snake, the snake will die, the decapitation strike. And so what they did was they went into Baghdad, seized Baghdad, and the regime collapsed and the war was over.

• 12:49Speaker 00

  And they were able to do this because of the topography. If you look at the map of Iraq, it's all flat, it's all desert. Meaning that you can just fly in your planes,

• 13:05Speaker 00

  cut off the head of a snake, and the war is over. There's absolutely no way you can defend against airstrikes because you're entirely a desert. Now, let's go to, let's look at the topography of Iraq, of Iran. And Iran, it's all mountainous. In fact, you can make the argument that Iran is a fortress. Okay?

• 13:35Speaker 00

  And so the first thing is that Iran can choose to fight a war of attrition.

• 13:46Steven Bartlett?

  What's a war of attrition?

• 13:48Speaker 00

  A war of attrition is a game of uncle.

• 13:51Steven Bartlett?

  What's that?

• 13:51Speaker 00

  Right, a game of uncle is where we don't have enough power to destroy each other. So what we're trying to do is we try to create pain points, leverage points, to force you to submit, to cry uncle, right? So because Iran is too large, and that's 92 million people, it's impossible for the Americans and Israelis to destroy Iran. So what you're trying to do instead is bomb enough targets so that they recognize that resistance, resistance is futile and it's surrender. Okay, that's the extent of the strategy.

• 14:32Speaker 00

  But again, the problem with this is that, one, Iran is much too big. Number two is that it is a mountain fortress, which means that you can hide your weapons and your military inside mountains, right? Which allows you to conduct a guerrilla warfare strategy against your opponent. And this is exactly what Iran is doing right now, where their underground missile bases are hidden inside the mountains. And then they're able to strike targets throughout the Middle East. Primarily American bases, but also energy installations that are key to the American petrol dollar system.

• 15:17Speaker 00

  And so it's a game of uncle where the Americans are trying to create as much damage as possible in their Iranian nation. And Iran in response is trying to destroy as much of the global economy as possible to force the world to pressure America to call the war off. So that's a situation we are facing right now. Second thing that Trump got, got wrong is how vulnerable the global economy is. Because the Iranians can call something called the Strait of Hormuz, okay? And as you can see on this map, it's just Strait of Hormuz. It's a very, very narrow piece of land.

• 16:00Speaker 00

  It's only about 33 kilometers across. You can actually swim across the Strait of Hormuz, okay? And what is important is that GCC exports 20% of the world's energy.

• 16:16Steven Bartlett?

  The G, the G what?

• 16:17Speaker 00

  The Gulf Cooperative Council, okay? So the Gulf Corporate Council are certain nations in the Middle East that align politically. So they include Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Iran, Kuwait. They've been exporting energy, but not just energy, but also a lot of byproducts of, of energy production, including fertilizer, to the world, primarily East Asia and India. And we churn, they've been getting, um, food back. So most people don't, don't appreciate this, but the GCC actually imports 89% of its food needs.

• 17:03Speaker 00

  And the reason why is that they've become so rich these past few decades that the populations have, um, blown up. And as a result, they have to feed their population, but they don't have agricultural resources. They also don't have water resources. And so they have two major vulnerabilities, which is food and water. And they have a lot of desalination plants around the area. And so.

• 17:32Steven Bartlett?

  It's a desalination plant.

• 17:33Speaker 00

  Okay, so a desalination plant takes salt water from the seas and then through an electrochemical process, churns it into portable water that people can use for drinking purposes and for agricultural purposes.

• 17:50Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 17:51Speaker 00

  Right, so as you can see, the entire area, it is extremely vulnerable to drone and missile attacks from Iran. So that's the second thing that Iran has done, which Trump did not expect. He didn't expect that the Iranians would close off the Strait of Hormuz. And how the Iranians were able to close off the Strait of Hormuz was just by threatening to attack any ships that wanted to cross it. The reason why is that these ships depend on maritime insurance in order to operate. But if there's a risk, a very high risk of being destroyed, then you will not get to get insurance.

• 18:33Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 18:33Speaker 00

  So it's not that the Iranians have said to these ships, you can't cross. It's just that the insurers refuse to allow these ships to cross because it's too dangerous.

• 18:42Steven Bartlett?

  And Trump didn't, you think they'd consider this before they started bombing Iran? That Iran would have some leverage in shutting down such a critical piece of water for, you know, shipping fertilizer, energy, et cetera? You think that they would have known this?

• 18:59Speaker 00

  Right, so that's what a lot of people say, that Trump's stupid, that Trump is hot-headed, that he was misled by the Israelis. And there's good evidence to support this. But I want to show you something. Okay, it's it's called the National Defense Strategy. All right, and so this is a document that was published by the Department of War. And in it, it explains what the American strategy to maintain global dominance is. And in the introduction, what it says is that for too long, America has been bullied by the world.

• 19:43Speaker 00

  America is a nation that protects the world. Yet Europe, East Asia takes advantage of American generosity. The Europeans don't pay for their defense. And so they put all this money into welfare, into their pension system. The Chinese have been giving America a bad trade deal. The Chinese steal American technology and then use it to make products that they sell back to the Americans. So the Americans have been have been getting a really bad deal for decades. And President Donald Trump, he's going to change that by doing four things.

• 20:28Speaker 00

  Right, the National Defense Strategy calls for a four-point program to put America first. The first thing that America is going to do is going to secure the Western Hemisphere. Why? Because the Western Hemisphere belongs to the United States.

• 20:49Steven Bartlett?

  When you say the Western Hemisphere, what do you mean? What what region is that? Is that Canada as well?

• 20:54Speaker 00

  So if you look at a map, we can divide, we can divide the map into the Eastern Hemisphere. Okay, and the Western Hemisphere.

• 21:01Steven Bartlett?

  Okay, so everything over here.

• 21:03Speaker 00

  Everything, including Greenland, including Canada, including Mexico. Every part of this area belongs to the United States. Therefore, you cannot trade with any of these countries without American permission, without paying a tribute to the Americans. And that this is why that the Americans have parked one-third of their naval assets in the Caribbean today.

• 21:34Speaker 00

  It's to it's to tell the Chinese and the Russians, back off. You want to come here, you either pay a tribute or you'll be attacked.

• 21:45Speaker 00

  Okay, that's the first point of this strategy. The Western Hemisphere belongs to America, something that they call the Monroe Doctrine. Okay, which is Trump's corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. And so that's point one. Point two is that America wants to reimagine its relationship with its allies. Basically, NATO needs to pay for its own defense. NATO needs to go fight Russia in Ukraine. America will provide support, it'll provide weapons and financing. But NATO needs to do more work.

• 22:28Speaker 00

  And in East Asia, South Korea and Japan need to do a better job of keeping China in check. Okay, that's point two. Point three is specific to China. And the idea is the United States does not want to destroy China. The United States does not want to humiliate China, but China needs to be put in its place. China needs to respect the power and the reach of the United States. And how the United States is going to do this is by strangling China economically.

• 23:07Speaker 00

  Right, so if you look at a map of China, most of its trade goes through something called the Strait of Malacca. And the Strait of Malacca is the most important maritime choke point in the world. All America has to do is park naval carriers inside the Strait of Malacca, and China will lose 90% of its energy exports.

• 23:30Steven Bartlett?

  But if they parked them there, China would still go through, no?

• 23:33Speaker 00

  No, because you have to go for the Strait of Malacca. So America has something called the First Island Chain. Okay, and the First Island Chain prevents China from reaching the Pacific Ocean. The First Island Chain includes South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Malaysia. That blocks China from reaching out into into the Pacific. So in order for it to access trade, it has to go through the Strait of Malacca. And through the Strait of Malacca, it can access India, Africa, and the Middle East.

• 24:07Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 24:07Speaker 00

  Right? And so by positioning naval carriers inside the Strait of Malacca, it creates a blockade. And China would have to pay a toll in order to access the Strait of Malacca.

• 24:23Steven Bartlett?

  And the fourth one?

• 24:24Speaker 00

  And the fourth one is to rejuvenate, reinvigorate America's defense manufacturing sector.

• 24:35Steven Bartlett?

  So a supercharge of the US defense industrial base.

• 24:37Speaker 00

  That's exactly correct, yes. All right, so what this means is that the Pentagon, a few weeks ago, went to Detroit and talked to Ford and General Motors and said, you know what? Because of this war in Iran, we might need you to stop making cars and start making more munitions and drones.

• 24:55Steven Bartlett?

  How do you know they said that?

• 24:57Speaker 00

  It's.

• 24:58Steven Bartlett?

  They published it?

• 24:58Speaker 00

  They published it, yes.

• 24:59Steven Bartlett?

  Really?

• 24:59Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 25:00Steven Bartlett?

  So the United States went to Forbes and GM and said, we might need you to start making weapons with your factories?

• 25:05Speaker 00

  Yes, and they're happy doing this because the profit margins are much greater for weapons than for for cars. This is the Pentagon, so you can charge them as you can charge them as much as you want, and they'll pay for it. Whereas you make cars, it's for the consumer market, and they may not buy your cars. Right, so so you're like Ford or General Motors. The best deal in the world is to go make weapons for the Pentagon to fight these wars in the Middle East that can go on for forever. So so we're in a situation where, okay, look, if you read the news, if you talk to a lot of people, Trump's an idiot, and this war in Iran makes no sense at all. But then if you just read the National Defense Strategy that is on the Department of War website,

• 25:50Speaker 00

  and anyone can go there and download it for free and read it themselves, it's a very clear roadmap of what America needs to do in order to maintain imperial hegemony. And so let's let's just summarize the major points. The first major point is to maintain control of the Western Hemisphere and create a Fortress America.

• 26:11Steven Bartlett?

  Which is why he invaded Venezuela, and he says he's going to invade Cuba.

• 26:15Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 26:16Steven Bartlett?

  And also Greenland.

• 26:17Speaker 00

  Look at all the countries that he's named over the past year. Greenland, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras. It's all the Western Hemisphere, right? And they're all together. Second point is to create divided rule all around the world. So imagine a situation where in Europe, NATO fights Russia in Ukraine. In East Asia, China fights South Korea and Japan. In the Middle East, Iran fights the GCC allied with Israel. What does America do?

• 26:58Speaker 00

  America can now sell sell everyone weapons and resources and finance it. This will be back to World War Two.

• 27:06Steven Bartlett?

  But it makes them weaker as well, generally.

• 27:09Speaker 00

  That's the point.

• 27:10Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 27:10Speaker 00

  Right? And then what would happen is that $4200 that America has in debt, it would disappear because it would be absorbed by the world. Right, so you can say, look, Trump's an idiot. But if you actually look at a map and how America wants this map, this world map to play out, it makes perfect sense.

• 27:32Steven Bartlett?

  Hmm, so the war is going well for Trump?

• 27:37Speaker 00

  The war is going very well for Trump.

• 27:38Steven Bartlett?

  Really?

• 27:39Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 27:40Steven Bartlett?

  But you said in your prediction that he would lose the war.

• 27:43Speaker 00

  Right.

• 27:43Steven Bartlett?

  What's your definition of lose the war?

• 27:45Speaker 00

  Losing the war means that America would send ground troops. Iran would survive this ground invasion. And this would be so politically damaging that chaos breaks out in the United States. And the US ground invasion is forced to retreat. And the United States is forced to retreat from the Middle East.

• 28:10Steven Bartlett?

  And you still think that's going to happen?

• 28:11Speaker 00

  I still think that's going to happen.

• 28:12Steven Bartlett?

  So you think the United States is going to put ground troops in, Iran are going to resist, and then chaos is going to break out in the United States?

• 28:18Speaker 00

  Yes. So let me explain to you why ground troops has to be sent.

• 28:23Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 28:23Speaker 00

  All right, okay. So in Phase One of this war, which started February 28th, which lasted for about six weeks, the intention was to decapitate the regime. And you do that by striking Tehran, and you do that by striking the military bases and installations throughout Iran. It's what the Americans call shafan al. And the point is to force Iranians to call uncle. But that's how it happened.

• 28:52Steven Bartlett?

  To give up?

• 28:53Speaker 00

  To give up, basically. Because what the Iranians did was they responded by attacking US bases throughout the GCC. They closed off the Strait of Hormuz, and they rallied their people. Okay, so rather than surrender, the Iranians basically doubled down. Okay, that's Phase Two of the war. Now we've gone to Phase Three of the war, where Trump has basically decided that decapitation does not work. And so what Trump's going to do is he's going to impose a naval blockade on Iran's naval blockade.

• 29:38Speaker 00

  Right? And so the question then is, if Trump understands that decapitation does not work, then using game theory.

• 29:48Steven Bartlett?

  What's game theory?

• 29:49Speaker 00

  Game theory is the belief that all of the world is governed by rules and incentives. And once you understand the rules and incentives, you can predict how people behave. Because people will always behave according to their best interests. So in geopolitics, the nation-states are individual players. And each nation-state is trying to use its resources and its advantages in order to pressure other nation-states to obey it. Okay, so Trump recognizes that the Iranians have closed off the Strait of Hormuz.

• 30:34Speaker 00

  But not only that, but the Iranians could also use the Strait of Hormuz to finance the war. Meaning that now they're forcing ships to pay a toll of $2 million in order to cross it. And so this is a huge advantage for the Iranians. And so Trump has said, no, I'm going to blockade your blockade, negating Iran's advantage over the Strait of Hormuz. So we think about it, again, using game theory. I want to discuss what Americans will do in order to force the Iranians to capitulate. Okay, so I would say there's a three-point strategy. The first strategy is economic strangulation.

• 31:18Speaker 00

  You basically destroy the state's capacity to finance the war. And there are two ways that Iran is financing the war so far. The first is using oil exports, right? 90% of Iran's oil goes to China.

• 31:35Speaker 00

  And this is Karg Island. This this little spot here is Karg Island. And this is where Iran will export 90% of its oil overseas. That's the first mechanism. Second mechanism mechanism is the Strait of Hormuz, where the Iranians now can collect tolls. Right, so what you have to do is you have to eliminate both of these finance mechanisms. You can close off both of the naval blockade, okay? So that's strategy one. Strategy two is you need to create as much chaos within Iran as possible.

• 32:18Speaker 00

  You want to turn this fortress into a prison. And the way you do that is by storing up ethnic tensions in the country. So if you look at a map, an ethnic map of Iran, what you will discover is that the Persian people are primarily in this area, in the middle of the country. But if you go to the borderlands, okay, the border areas, it's primarily ethnic minorities. And there are two ethnic minorities in the country that have always been problematic for the government. The first problematic people are called bullocks here

• 33:00Speaker 00

  in southeast Iran by the Pakistani border. They have a history of insurgency against the government, okay? Second people that have been problematic are the Kurds, who are primarily in the northwest of the country. So if you are the US government, if you are the military, your strategy is to establish forward operating bases in these areas. A forward operating base is a spearhead of the military, where you insert ground troops to hold and area.

• 33:45Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 33:46Speaker 00

  In order to resupply, in order to push further into the territory.

• 33:51Steven Bartlett?

  Okay, so a forward operating base would be the US putting troops into the northwest and the southeast? And then using that as a way to move forward into Iran?

• 34:03Speaker 00

  No, you don't want to move forward into Iran because it's too large. You don't have enough forces to move into Iran. What you want to do is this, you want to establish forward operating bases in these areas in order to arm and train ethnic insurgents.

• 34:22Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 34:22Speaker 00

  That you can also finance as well. And you do this because you want to turn them into cannon fodder. You have to force a response from the Iranian military, right? So if they come in with the army in order to quell these rebellions, that's great, because now you can use your air power to decimate the Iranian military. Your problem right now is the Iranian military is hiding inside mountains. And so you want to force them out in the open. And so you want to create as many points of tension in the country as possible to force the Iranian military to respond. Right? Does that make sense? Okay.

• 35:05Speaker 00

  And now your third strategy is to strangle the capital Tehran. Because that's the that's where the political elite are, about 10 million people. And the way you strangle Tehran is you deny them three things. You deny them water, electricity, and food.

• 35:29Speaker 00

  So you attack power plants, you attack reservoirs, you attack railways that bring food into the capital. And when you do that, these 10 million people in Iran will now oppose the government and demand a political settlement because they need food, water, electricity to survive, right?

• 35:54Steven Bartlett?

  Is there a government?

• 35:56Speaker 00

  Right now, there's debate as to the true extent of leadership in Iran.

• 36:03Steven Bartlett?

  Because Trump's recent interviews, he's saying, he's he's claiming that the leadership in Iran are fighting themselves. But then he's also saying in other interviews that there's, they don't even know who they're dealing with.

• 36:14Speaker 00

  Exactly. Iran has a very unusual political system in that it's a theocracy. It's a religious government, it's run by clerics, called a mullahs, in theory. And then there's a parallel system, a state apparatus, that actually takes care of day-to-day bureaucracy. And that's secular. The mullahs control the morality of the country, they also control foreign affairs. So basically, this is important because Iran has two parallel military structures. You have the military, but you also have the IRGC. The IRGC are only loyal to the mullahs.

• 36:57Steven Bartlett?

  Which is the religious part.

• 36:58Speaker 00

  Exactly, all right? So you have this divide in the in the country where the IRGC see this as a religious war, as a crusade to kill the great Satan, and they want to fight to the death.

• 37:11Steven Bartlett?

  And the great Satan is?

• 37:12Speaker 00

  The great Satan is the American empire.

• 37:14Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 37:15Speaker 00

  Which is the source of the misery that Iran has been suffering for the past few decades. And the IRGC, not only do they see America as the great Satan, but they also see this as a global conflict because they have proxies that support their beliefs, including here in Lebanon, Hezbollah, including here in Yemen, the Houthis, and of course in Palestine, Hamas. Okay, and and before, Syria was also part of their axis of resistance. But Syria has been toppled by the Americans and Israelis. So the IRGC see this as a religious crusade that is global in nature. The political leadership in Tehran sees it completely different.

• 38:00Speaker 00

  They see this as a conflict primarily between America and Iran, and they want to reach a political settlement as soon as possible. And so, in other words, these ceasefire negotiations, it's really all for show. Because at the end of the day, even if the Americans gave the Iranians everything they wanted, the IRGC still controls the battlefield. And they would not surrender or or seek peace terms lightly. Another problem in this situation is the IRGC practice something called the Moseyak strategy. Moseyak?

• 38:41Speaker 00

  The idea of the Moesak strategy is, okay, you know the Americans, the most effective military ever in human history. You know that they practice shovin' all, the capitation. So how do you respond to that? You respond to that using decentralization. Thirty-one provinces in the country with their own command and control that is localized.

• 39:03Steven Bartlett?

  So basically, they have thirty-one different armies that have their own leadership.

• 39:07Speaker 00

  That's correct, okay? And when you do this, it's a fight to the finish.

• 39:10Steven Bartlett?

  Why did they do that?

• 39:11Speaker 00

  They did it because the Americans possess the most sophisticated surveillance technology in the world. Meaning they can easily identify the leadership and they can easily track you down and kill you. So the only way around that is to decentralize the leadership and spread it around the country so that the Americans cannot kill everyone.

• 39:35Steven Bartlett?

  How does the central government orchestrate thirty-one different armies in Iran? How does it get a message out to them? I heard Peter Hegseth make a comment in one of the interviews saying that it takes some time for the pigeons to get out to the armies. And what he was saying basically is that when the ceasefire was called and there were still some missiles flying, he was basically saying that's just because it takes a long time to tell the thirty-one different armies to stop.

• 40:00Speaker 00

  The reality is that, given the Moesak strategy, there's actually no way to coordinate these thirty-one different military operations. Because the Moesak strategy was meant to fight to the very end. You do not stop until you completely control the Middle East and the Americans have been forced out of the Middle East and Israel has been humbled.

• 40:27Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 40:28Speaker 00

  So let's go into the specifics of what the Moesak strategy is. The idea is that they have an eschatology.

• 40:37Speaker 00

  Okay, so an eschatology is an understanding of how the world should be and how we move towards this world. And for the Iranians, their eschatology is that Iran, in order to reach its true potential, needs to be master of the Muslim world. It needs to displace Saudi Arabia. Because Saudi Arabia is too aligned with the United States, which is the great Satan. Mecca and Medina are under the influence of the great Satan. Because why are there US military bases in Saudi Arabia? So this war, from their perspective, it's a great opportunity

• 41:22Speaker 00

  to overthrow the corrupt leadership of Saudi Arabia, but not only Saudi Arabia, but the entire GCC, overthrow the corrupt governments of the entire Muslim world and install governments that put God, Allah, first.

• 41:40Steven Bartlett?

  So they're not gonna quit Iran?

• 41:43Speaker 00

  This war, once it starts, can only lead to World War III.

• 41:49Steven Bartlett?

  That's a strong statement to make. As a probability, what probability would you assign to that claim?

• 41:55Speaker 00

  I would put it pretty high, anywhere between eighty to ninety percent probability.

• 41:59Steven Bartlett?

  So that's certainty?

• 42:01Speaker 00

  Basically, certainty, yes.

• 42:03Steven Bartlett?

  Explain to me how that happens.

• 42:04Speaker 00

  Okay, so we need to step back and appreciate

• 42:10Speaker 00

  that there's a global dynamic going on, okay? And we need to appreciate the grand strategy of the different players involved. All right, so what I want to do is this.

• 42:23Speaker 00

  I'm going to explain to you how each nation sees itself in the world. Okay, and to do that, I'm going to use a chess set, okay?

• 42:36Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 42:36Speaker 00

  All right, this is the king. This is the political system of the United States, which is democracy. And there are certain strengths and weaknesses to a democracy. Democracy is vibrant, it's creative, it's flexible. But its ultimate weakness is polarization, where today, there are different political factions refusing to get along and this may break out into civil war, okay? So the way you defeat the United States is not to conquer it. You can never conquer the United States. The way to defeat the United States is to force it into a civil war, which then kills the king.

• 43:15Steven Bartlett?

  To get its people to rise up against the leadership?

• 43:18Speaker 00

  No, you want the Democrats and the Republicans to form different factions and fight a civil war.

• 43:24Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 43:25Speaker 00

  You want to create so much political polarization, the different elite factions take up arms against each other, okay?

• 43:30Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 43:30Speaker 00

  So this is the political system, okay? A democracy. Now, let's look at the queen. What's a queen? The queen is what I refer to as the grand strategy of the United States. How the United States can maintain its control over the entire world. And the grand strategy, it's already outlined in the National Defense Strategy, right? Let's create fortress America and then create chaos throughout the entire world so that we can sell everyone weapons and resources. Okay, that's the grand strategy, right? All right, now, once you have a grand strategy, you need to implement this grand strategy. So you need attack vectors, all right?

• 44:10Speaker 00

  The attack vectors are the rook, the bishop, and the knight, all right? So let's go over the three major attack vectors of the United States. They are, first of all, America's technological supremacy.

• 44:24Steven Bartlett?

  So these are basically the tools that they use to attack others?

• 44:27Speaker 00

  Exactly, in order to achieve the grand strategy. All right, so aerosupremacy, right?

• 44:32Steven Bartlett?

  Which is the planes and the stuff like that?

• 44:34Speaker 00

  Then you have the US dollar, right? Because the US dollar allows you to finance everything and everyone wants the US dollar, okay? So that is the second attack vector. The third attack vector is propaganda. Meaning the United States controls the world's most powerful media, including New York Times, CNN. And as such, they can control the narrative of the world. Okay, so these are the three major attack vectors. Now, they use the pawns. Now, pawns are weapons that they can sacrifice in order to achieve the grand strategy.

• 45:15Speaker 00

  And in the case of the United States, the pawn are the allies. Meaning, I hate to say this, but the UK,

• 45:27Speaker 00

  Europe, South Korea, and Japan, okay? And also the entire Western Hemisphere. This is the Americans, okay? The people who are most opposed to this grand strategy of Americans are the Russians. So let's go over the Russian system. In the Russian system, the king, the political system, is an autocracy. And in autocracy, it's good because it allows for coronation. It allows for decisiveness, it allows for resolve.

• 46:07Steven Bartlett?

  Long-term thinking.

• 46:09Speaker 00

  Exactly, right? That's Putin. What's bad is, hmm, if this guy dies, there's a succession crisis, right? So basically, once you topple the autocrat, then the system itself breaks down. Okay, so that's the Russian system, right? For the Russians, the grand strategy is something called the Third Rome Strategy.

• 46:34Steven Bartlett?

  The Third Rome Strategy?

• 46:35Speaker 00

  Yes, okay? So the people in Russia believe that they are the true successors to the Roman Empire. And previously, there were two Rome's. It was the first Rome, then it moved to Khazanepo, and Moscow is destined to be the Third Rome. And what makes Moscow interesting is that it wants to unite the entire Christian world under its leadership. The main philosopher for the Third Rome Strategy is Alexander Dugin, who in nineteen ninety-seven wrote a book called Foundation of Geopolitics. And what he said was this, what he said that if Russia is to defeat the Americans, it needs to build alliances throughout Eurasia

• 47:19Speaker 00

  in order to negate American sea power and aerosupremacy, all right? So what are the attack vectors for Russia, okay? The first attack vector, the size of the country makes it almost invincible. So think about World War II, Operation Barbarossa. The Germans went into Russia with six, seven million men and it didn't get very far, okay? So the terrain is very important, the geography is very important. Then you have the Orthodox religion,

• 47:51Speaker 00

  which is meant to galvanize believers into supporting Russia. The third attack vector is artillery. So Russia has the best land army in the world and we're seeing that play out in Ukraine, where a combination of Russian artillery and drones, it's devastating Ukrainian military in Ukraine. The pawns for Russia are its soldiers. So Russia is able to sustain many, many casualties in its military. If you actually go and interview Russian soldiers, they are probably the bravest soldiers in the world.

• 48:33Speaker 00

  They are literally not afraid to die for what they believe in. Okay, so this is the Russian Third Rome Strategy. You can see how it conflicts with the Americans, okay? Now, we go to the Israelis. Jerusalem, the capital, it's a mixed system, meaning it's both democracy as well as a theocracy. And it's good in that the Israelis are very creative, but the fundamental weakness is the division within society, where Tel Aviv and Jerusalem don't get along, okay? So that is the political system of Israel. The grand strategy of Israel is called the Greater Israel Project.

• 49:18Speaker 00

  So the Israelis believe that the entire Middle East belongs to them, from the Nile to the Euphrates, because that's what it says in the Bible. This is what God, Yahweh, promised Abraham. So their intention is to conquer the entire Middle East, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, even parts of Turkey, okay? Now, let's look at the attack vectors for the Israelis. The first attack vector is Mossad. Mossad is the most powerful intelligence agency in the world

• 50:01Speaker 00

  in that it is able to infiltrate and undermine different political systems.

• 50:07Steven Bartlett?

  And Mossad, for anyone that doesn't know, is the Secret Service.

• 50:10Speaker 00

  Basically, yes.

• 50:11Steven Bartlett?

  Best spy system.

• 50:12Speaker 00

  Second attack vector for the Israelis is the Jewish diaspora. Because Jews do business everywhere around the world and Jewish businessmen work very closely with Mossad. And as such, they have influence in a lot of places that they shouldn't have. And the third attack vector is the Bible. Why? Because if you're Christian, and there are many Christians who believe this, you believe that the Jews are God's chosen people. So if you look at what's happening in the Middle East, all this conflict between Israel and Palestine,

• 50:54Speaker 00

  a lot of this conflict is being supported politically in the United States by a group of people called Christian Zionists. And these are Christians, they're not Jews, they're Christians, who believe that Israel should achieve the Greater Israel Project because this is part of God's plan. And the pawns for the Israelis are basically everyone else, okay? So a lot of the hardware underpinning the global IT infrastructure is being controlled by the Israelis. So now we go to the fourth player in this great game, and that's Iran. So Iran, it is a theocracy.

• 51:38Speaker 00

  People are not afraid to die for what they believe in in Iran. But the weakness is that it can alienate the majority of the population because only a minority are religious zealots in Iran. Most people just want to live a decent life. So if they feel that these mullahs, the IEDC, are a threat to their peace and prosperity, then they might rise up against the mullahs.

• 52:04Steven Bartlett?

  Which is what we've seen over the years, right?

• 52:05Speaker 00

  Exactly, so this is the political system of the Iranians. Their grand strategy is to unite the Muslim world under leadership. They have three attack vectors, okay? The first attack vector are their proxies. Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. Another attack vector is their asymmetrical warfare, meaning using drones and missiles to create as much economic damage as possible. And the third attack vector is their geography or their topography. They are a fortress, so it's almost impossible to invade them, all right?

• 52:47Speaker 00

  So that's their Shia militiamen, these religious zealots who are not afraid to die. Essentially, they're all, many of them could be suicide bombers, okay? And so for them, this is a religious war, okay? So now we're seeing how this entire battlefield unfolds across the world, all right? So I've mapped out the grand strategy of these different nation-states who will be involved in World War III. Let's look at our present situation, okay? So what we have so far is that the Russians are occupied with their army in Ukraine. Okay, this is where their infantry, their artillery is based.

• 53:30Speaker 00

  At the same time, Russia has something called the Shadow Fleet. And these are about a thousand tankers that evade sanctions around the world, okay? And this is essentially their navy.

• 53:45Speaker 00

  America is the most powerful military in the world. They have the most sophisticated aerosupremacy as well as a control over the sea lanes. And it tries not to use infantry because that creates civilian casualties and that pisses everyone off in America, okay? The Israelis are essentially a mercenary army aligned with the American empire, doing the bidding of the American empire. It's fighting against Lebanon as well as Iran. The Iranians, they don't have much of an air force, but they use a lot of drones to threaten. So this is where we are so far.

• 54:27Speaker 00

  According to the grand strategy, we can predict how they will make their moves over the next few months or the next few years. America doesn't really care about this war in Iran because what America wants to do is force the entire world to become dependent on American weapons and resources. And you do that in two ways. The first is you control the strategic choke points of the world and they include the Sheikh Humus. But you also want to control the Sheikh Malacca, over here. These are blocks off East Asia. You also want to control the Panama Canal. You also want to control Greenland.

• 55:10Speaker 00

  You also want to control the Sheikh Gibraltar. You can see the American navy expanding outwards and occupying all these maritime choke points. At the same time, you want to use your technological supremacy, your aerosupremacy, your drones, to destroy the world's critical energy infrastructure. Already, we're seeing all refineries being destroyed throughout the world.

• 55:34Steven Bartlett?

  All refineries.

• 55:35Speaker 00

  All refineries, yes. So you, as America, you're trying to deplete the world's energy inventory so they're forced to beg you to supply energy, right? And once this market is created, then you can build infrastructure for Venezuela. You can take over Canada, you can control Mexico, you can take over Greenland, okay?

• 55:59Speaker 00

  The Russians have no choice but to respond because if the Americans are controlling the strategic choke points, your shadow fleet is rendered redundant, useless.

• 56:15Speaker 00

  So how do you ship your oil around the world? Well, you have two options. I'm just going to build railways to unite the Eurasian continent, okay? And I'll transport my oil using pipelines and railways. The problem with that is now that you're vulnerable to American aerosupremacy, drone attacks. So you have no choice but to arm your shadow fleet. And now, what's going to happen is this conflict in the oceans between Russian shuttle fleet tankers that are trying to transport oil around the world and these American destroyers who are trying to capture or destroy these shuttle tankers.

• 57:00Speaker 00

  Now, the advantage that Russia has is that America doesn't have that much naval assets anymore. It used to, but not anymore. The other thing is that the world really needs energy. So you can imagine China financing the militarization of the Russian shadow fleet.

• 57:19Steven Bartlett?

  Why would sir, why would the US try and stop Russian boats?

• 57:25Speaker 00

  Because in this global outlook, there are two nations that could provide weapons and resources to the rest of the world. They are Russia and they are America. So if America has become dominant, it needs to blockade Russia. And what you do that is by seizing their shadow fleet.

• 57:45Steven Bartlett?

  But if that happened, that would be an act of war.

• 57:48Speaker 00

  But it's already happening.

• 57:49Steven Bartlett?

  What, really?

• 57:50Speaker 00

  Yes, it's already happening.

• 57:51Steven Bartlett?

  Where?

• 57:52Speaker 00

  Iranian tankers have been seized by the Americans and tankers are being seized in the Caribbean as well by the American navy.

• 58:02Steven Bartlett?

  Who's tankers?

• 58:04Speaker 00

  I believe they are Russian tankers.

• 58:06Steven Bartlett?

  Yes, the United States has indeed been seizing tankers linked to Russia. A major escalation occurred earlier this year on January the seventh, twenty twenty-six, when the US military and Coast Guard intercepted two sanctioned shadow fleet oil tankers. While one was seized directly in the Caribbean, the other involved a dramatic chase that started in the Caribbean and ended in the North Atlantic.

• 58:29Steven Bartlett?

  US forces captured this sanctioned tanker during a pre-dawn raid directly in the Caribbean Sea. The US military described it as stateless sanctioned dark fleet vessel, which was engaged in illicit activities. These seizures are part of Operation Southern Spear, a strict enforcement of the US embargo on Venezuelan oil exports. Both vessels were targeted for violating US sanctions by transporting illicit crude oil linked to Venezuela, as well as Iran and Hezbollah.

• 59:00Speaker 00

  And as you point out, this is an act of a war.

• 59:01Steven Bartlett?

  So those were ships that didn't have a country linked to them directly?

• 59:07Speaker 00

  That's why they're called shuttle fleet tankers.

• 59:08Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 59:09Speaker 00

  Yes, but they're essentially Russian.

• 59:11Steven Bartlett?

  But they were essentially shipping oil outside of the United States that the United States wouldn't control. Is that kind of?

• 59:17Speaker 00

  That is correct, yes.

• 59:18Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 59:18Speaker 00

  Yes, so.

• 59:19Steven Bartlett?

  So the US said, listen, this is our oil, get lost.

• 59:22Speaker 00

  That is correct, yes, right? So what the United States is doing is slowly expanding its global reach. And what it's doing that is by setting treaties with nations that are part of these choke points. So the Strait of Malacca, recently the United States has signed a military cooperation agreement with Indonesia. And with the Strait of Gibraltar, the Americans have signed an agreement now with Morocco, right? So they are looking for the legal framework, certification to control the world's choke points, which would bring them directly in conflict with the Russian Shadow Fleet.

• 59:52Steven Bartlett?

  So at some point, you think the way that the war starts is the US Navy attacks a Russian boat?

• 1:00:02Speaker 00

  So I personally believe that this will be a drawn out process that, and there's no real concrete flashpoint. Because not only are Russian shuttle flanker, shuttle fleet tankers being seized, but remember Russian oil refineries are being destroyed by Ukrainian drones. And the Russians believe that it is NATO that is responsible for the sabotage.

• 1:00:24Steven Bartlett?

  So what do you think the catalyst moment is when this all kicks off?

• 1:00:29Speaker 00

  I think we're already in the catalyst moment. I think we're already in World War Three, because this conflict, it's going to expand outwards into a global conflict, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop this, right? Because again, you have these different competing visions of how the world should work, and the Russians and Americans are already at conflict with each other. So the next step will be the Russians come into this war on the side of Iranians.

• 1:00:55Steven Bartlett?

  You think that's going to happen?

• 1:00:56Speaker 00

  I think that can happen, because according to Russian grand strategy, you have no choice but to save Iranians. Because you're trying to promote this view that the world is split between the spiritual and the material. The Americans are the Antichrist. The Americans support individual hedonism, whereas we Russians, we believe in humanity. We believe in goodness, we believe in community, right? So if you believe, if that is your argument, if that's your grand strategy, you have a more obligation, a more imperative to help Iranians in their time of need. And in fact, Prime Minister Arachi of Iran has recently visited Putin in Moscow. Putin personally received him and said to Arachi,

• 1:01:40Speaker 00

  we, the Russian people, admire your determination, your resolve against the Americans. And I think that is a sign that Putin has entered the chat in that the Russians will start to help Iranians as this war progresses. So let's go back to this map, okay?

• 1:02:00Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 1:02:00Speaker 00

  And the Americans have a three-pronged strategy to strangle Iran. The first is to use ground forces to establish support operating basis to incite ethnic violence in the country. The second is to block all the shovels and cut off Iranian financing. The third is to strangle Tehran and cause the people to rise up against the government, okay? If the Russians, so if things stay the same as they are now, America wins easily. But if Russia were to enter the war on behalf of Iranians,

• 1:02:41Speaker 00

  the first thing that Russia would do is provide Tehran with reinforcement from the Caspian Sea, right? Because the Americans want to knock out Tehran's capacity to provide food, water, electricity to its people. But food in Caspian Sea, the Russians can support the Iranians. But not only that, and this is much more important, if the Russians were to come in, they could also bring the Chinese into the war on behalf of the Iranians. And the Chinese could use the Belt and Road Initiative, basically the railway system, to reinforce Tehran from the east. So now you can no longer strangle Tehran, because the Russians and the Chinese are reinforcing Tehran.

• 1:03:24Speaker 00

  Then what the Russians could do is provide financing to Iranians. Basically, the Iranian, the Chinese, sorry, the Chinese and the Russians can say to Iranians, don't worry about financing, we will give you enough financing for you to continue this war for as long as you want. And we'll use our resources as collateral for this financing. Right, and the third thing, and this is actually the most important, is that Russia could put Iran under its nuclear umbrella, and this would negate the use of tactical nuclear weapons. The Israelis and the Americans, if they really felt under pressure,

• 1:04:05Speaker 00

  if they're really put in a corner, they could always choose to use tactical nuclear weapons. If the Russians were involved, that negates that option, right? So if the Russians get involved in this war, they bring in the Chinese, they provide the resources and the financing to continue this war for as long as it takes.

• 1:04:26Speaker 00

  Right? And now the Americans need to expand this war all around the world to try now to topple the government in Russia. Because the Russians are the main backers of the Iranians.

• 1:04:41Steven Bartlett?

  And you're predicting that Russia will get involved here?

• 1:04:45Speaker 00

  According to the grand strategy of Russia, the Russians have no choice but to get involved. Because what will happen is that, if you look at this map, if Iran were to be conquered by the Americans or the Israelis, the entire sovereign flank of the Russians are now exposed to possible attack. And that's something that the Russians would never allow to happen.

• 1:05:10Steven Bartlett?

  The sovereign flank, so this from underneath?

• 1:05:13Speaker 00

  Basically, right, right? But not only that, but the Americans already have close relations with Azerbaijan. And they already have bases in Turkmenistan as well as Uzbekistan, right? So you can see how, once the Americans consolidate this area, they can now attack Russia from the south. But what's most important is the issue of global trade, where like a counter to America's naval blockade is by creating a Eurasian trade bloc that involves Iran, Russia and China. If you look at Russia's north-south corridor, right? If you look at China's, if you look at Russia's north-south corridor, it runs through Iran. If Russia wants to access the Middle East, as well as Africa, it has to go through Iran.

• 1:05:58Speaker 00

  Look at China's Belt and Road Initiative, it goes through Iran as well. So by taking out Iran, you've blockaded both Russia and China.

• 1:06:08Steven Bartlett?

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• 1:06:52Steven Bartlett?

  Not to mention that it grows with you regardless of the stage that your business is at. So if you're ready to fix your checkout process, sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com/Bartlett. That's Shopify.com/Bartlett, and don't tell anybody. I run multiple companies that have multiple sales teams. And one of the things as a founder of a company that's often confusing is you find it hard to figure out where sales are. So about 10 years ago, I started using Pipe Drive in my former company. And it's also the reason why I switched over all of my commercial teams in my current media company called Steven.com to use Pipe Drive as well. Not only do they sponsor the show, but they've been an incredibly effective way of scaling our sales engine over the years. Pipe Drive is an easy-to-use intelligent CRM.

• 1:07:34Steven Bartlett?

  And at its very core, it makes your sales process visible through one dashboard, a visual pipeline showing every deal, what stage it's in, what needs to happen next, and it's all in real time with no delay. It doesn't magically close the deal for you, of course, but it does replace complexity with clarity. If you want to join over 100,000 companies already using Pipe Drive, you can use my link for a 30-day free trial with no credit card payment needed. Head to pipedrive.com/CEO to get started. That's pipedrive.com/CEO. I'll see you over there. So when do you think this was going to happen? If you were to give me a timeline of events you think are going to occur, what timeline do you think you're operating under?

• 1:08:16Steven Bartlett?

  I guess one of the factors here is that Trump only has, what, three years left in power? So, you know, he's presumably going to leave power at some point soon. So if you're around, you might just want to play it out and hope that there's a different leadership in place by, by 20, what would be 2030?

• 1:08:35Speaker 00

  The political leadership in Iran believe that they can wait Trump out. So they're waiting for the midterms, because they believe that in November, the Democrats will win the midterms, and then they will impeach Trump and basically constrain his capacity to fight wars. And worst case scenario, Trump will be gone in 2020, as you point out. There are certain problems with this. The first major problem is the national defense strategy, which we looked at previously. The national defense strategy, it is a long-term strategic framework for how America can control the world.

• 1:09:13Speaker 00

  And so one possibility is that Trump is just creating enough chaos for America to transition. When the Democrats come into power, if they come into power, they will institutionalize the strategy. And we know this as a possibility, because in Trump's first term, he changed America's strategy around the world. And then when Biden came into power, he then institutionalized the strategy via the China, right? So it was Trump who launched this terror war against China, and then Biden comes in power and institutionalizes it, right? So I think World War Three, it's a much more long-term war of attrition.

• 1:09:58Speaker 00

  And I don't think that this war will end anytime soon.

• 1:10:06Steven Bartlett?

  You've made a series of new predictions. You've made eight new predictions.

• 1:10:10Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:10:11Steven Bartlett?

  And I have them in this box here.

• 1:10:14Steven Bartlett?

  I'll let you reveal what those predictions are.

• 1:10:16Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:10:20Speaker 00

  This is one prediction.

• 1:10:27Speaker 00

  Okay, so this is the most controversial prediction, okay? I predict that there will be a civil war and Trump will get a third term.

• 1:10:34Steven Bartlett?

  You think Trump will get a third term? Isn't that constitutionally illegal?

• 1:10:39Speaker 00

  There are things that are unconventional and immoral

• 1:10:45Speaker 00

  and wrong and evil and dangerous. And there are certain things that are illegal. Trump getting a third term is not illegal. So let me explain the loophole. What Trump could do is this, okay? There are two possibilities. The first possibility is in 2028, he has his son, Don Jr., run as a president, and he runs as the vice president. And then when Don Jr. wins, if he wins, then Don Jr. could abdicate, and Trump would be the president. And in the Constitution, if you read the Constitution very carefully, it doesn't actually prohibit people from doing that.

• 1:11:30Speaker 00

  It's not been done in the past. And like, no sane person with any morality would do this. But that doesn't stop Trump from doing this, okay? That's one possibility. Another possibility is that by 2028, America is at war with everyone. There's a national draft, the president now has emergency war powers. And so he can actually suspend the Constitution and delay the election, which is what Zelensky did in Ukraine. So these are two different possibilities.

• 1:12:06Speaker 00

  But I think that, given Trump's track record, given his personality, I think he very much wants a third term. And I think that he will do everything possible to get a third term.

• 1:12:23Steven Bartlett?

  He would turn 83 years old in the same year that he finishes his second term.

• 1:12:30Speaker 00

  This is the man who eats McDonald's hamburgers every day.

• 1:12:39Speaker 00

  He doesn't really work out, yet on the campaign trail, he's able to go to two rallies a day. And in each rally, just 50,000 people, and he will talk on and on and on. Then at night, when he should be sleeping, he's either on Truth Social tweeting about the world, or he's calling up reporters and telling him or her some confidential information that he really shouldn't be discussing with the media. This is a man who is addicted to attention.

• 1:13:18Speaker 00

  This is a man who loves the spotlight. He's lived all his life in the spotlight. For him, death is to be ignored. So given his personality, he would rather die in office than live peacefully somewhere else.

• 1:13:38Steven Bartlett?

  And of those two strategies that you named, where he puts his son in and then becomes president that way, or, you know, there's a war breaks out, so he has, he says he has to stay in office. Of those two strategies, which one do you think he's more likely to deploy?

• 1:13:51Speaker 00

  I actually think that, given his narcissism, he would prefer the first strategy.

• 1:13:56Steven Bartlett?

  His putting his son in?

• 1:13:58Speaker 00

  Because, because that shows himself in the world that America loves him.

• 1:14:03Steven Bartlett?

  Okay, and it could also be JD Vance or someone else, right? It doesn't have to be his son necessarily.

• 1:14:08Speaker 00

  Trump does not trust anyone. Trump has never had a prodigy. In fact, everyone that's really worked for Trump has been kind of screwed over by him.

• 1:14:16Steven Bartlett?

  Do you not think that if his son decided to run and then announced that the vice president was his dad, do you not think that there would be such a huge backlash in the United States that his son wouldn't win?

• 1:14:32Speaker 00

  Well, I think there's a possibility that they figure out how to cheat in 2028.

• 1:14:38Steven Bartlett?

  Oh, as in actually cheat the election?

• 1:14:40Speaker 00

  Right, so.

• 1:14:41Steven Bartlett?

  At the poll?

• 1:14:42Speaker 00

  Right, so let's go into Trump's mind, all right? His psychology. In his mind, he won in 2020. The people voted for him, but the Democrats stole the election with mail-in ballots and by rigging the election machines, okay? In his mind, he literally believes that. So in his mind, he believes that this is actually his third term, and the people and the government, they owe him a second term, which is what he wants now. He wants compensation for having the election stolen from him in 2020.

• 1:15:24Steven Bartlett?

  I find it really, really implausible to think that Trump would run and would run for a third term.

• 1:15:31Speaker 00

  So again, this is a prediction.

• 1:15:33Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:33Speaker 00

  And it is a test of the validity of my theoretical framework.

• 1:15:40Steven Bartlett?

  I was looking at some of the constitutions and the laws, and it says that this 22nd amendment explicitly states, no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice. Some theorists have tried to argue that since the amendment says elected, a person might be able to serve a third term if they were appointed to succeed to the role.

• 1:16:00Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 1:16:00Steven Bartlett?

  If they were appointed or succeeded to the role, e.g. by being vice president first. Legal scholars and the judicial committee almost universally reject this. The 12th amendment requires that anyone serving as vice president must be eligible to be president. Since a two-term president is ineligible to be elected again, they are legally barred from being vice president.

• 1:16:23Speaker 00

  So the point is, there's nothing explicit in the Constitution that bars someone from having a third term. And there's debate in the legal community about the spirit of the 22nd amendment.

• 1:16:39Steven Bartlett?

  It would go to the Supreme Court, right?

• 1:16:41Speaker 00

  And the Supreme Court is controlled right now by the conservatives. Trump appointed three of the nine justices, and there's a possibility he gets a fourth later in the year. So it's entirely up to Supreme Court whether or not he can run. And again, there's something explicit in the Constitution that forbids him from running as a vice president.

• 1:17:01Steven Bartlett?

  Okay. What's your next prediction?

• 1:17:04Speaker 00

  My second prediction is there will be a grand bargain between the United States and China.

• 1:17:09Steven Bartlett?

  What does that mean?

• 1:17:10Speaker 00

  It means that people expect that the United States and China will go to war at some point over Taiwan.

• 1:17:20Speaker 00

  It means, a lot of people expect that China wants to challenge American hegemony and replace America as the global superpower. But China does not want to do that. China's probably happy with America being the world's hegemon, because you have to invest so much of your resources into fighting these wars that back up your nation. China doesn't want to fight these wars. So what China is going to do is try to triangulate between Russia and the United States. This is what happened during the Cold War, when China was not actually on the side of the Soviet Union. China was part of the non-aligned community.

• 1:18:03Speaker 00

  And that's what China is going to strive for in World War Three, where China may help out Iran, may provide financing for Russia, but it's also going to strike deals with the United States as well, okay? So I think that Trump and President Xi are supposed to meet at least three times, possibly four times this year, only this year. The first will be in mid-May in Beijing. And I think that they will start a process in which China and America come to an arrangement that benefits both economically. What does America want? America wants China to continue to buy US treasuries in order to finance the American debt. What does China want?

• 1:18:48Speaker 00

  China wants energy, resources from the Western Hemisphere, and it wants to access the American market. So there's no reason why China and America cannot come to an arrangement that benefits both. And Trump is very much a transactional character.

• 1:19:07Steven Bartlett?

  And what will that mean for the world?

• 1:19:10Speaker 00

  It means that China is not really part of World War Three in a meaningful way.

• 1:19:15Steven Bartlett?

  Okay, so they're going to do a deal, they'll continue to work together as friends?

• 1:19:19Speaker 00

  China will be friends with both Russia and the United States as Russia and the United States like each other.

• 1:19:24Steven Bartlett?

  Okay. What's your next prediction?

• 1:19:28Speaker 00

  Iran is another forever war and the United States will institute a national draft.

• 1:19:33Steven Bartlett?

  Iran is another forever war and the United States will institute a national draft. So you think Iran is gonna, Iran as a war is gonna tumble on for decades and that the US are gonna draft people, which means you're obliged to go and fight.

• 1:19:49Speaker 00

  Exactly. Okay. So the logic is this, America doesn't really care

• 1:19:56Speaker 00

  if Iran is a failure or not. That's not really part of the American grand strategy. Iran right now, it's a perfect pretext for America to expand outward and establish maritime choke points around the world. And to force the world to buy American energy. So this war in Iran benefits America tremendously. So why not have it go on for a long, long time?

• 1:20:23Speaker 00

  In order to make sure this war goes on for a long time, you need ground troops. And you need a lot of ground troops. And that's why you need a national draft.

• 1:20:34Steven Bartlett?

  So what would a national draft look like in the United States? Everyone between the age of eighteen and twenty-five has to sign up to the army?

• 1:20:40Speaker 00

  Right. So most people don't appreciate this, but America has always had a draft. But for the longest time, it didn't really care whether or not you actually sign up for the draft. And starting in December, participation in the draft will be automatic, meaning that if you're between eighteen and twenty-four, in America, and you're male, you'll be automatically put into the draft system.

• 1:21:01Steven Bartlett?

  From when?

• 1:21:02Speaker 00

  I mean, from December.

• 1:21:03Steven Bartlett?

  This year?

• 1:21:04Speaker 00

  Yes, that is correct, yes.

• 1:21:05Steven Bartlett?

  So between the age of eighteen and twenty-five, you think, and what does that, what does that really mean? Well, I've not really experienced that in my lifetime. So it means that if you're between the age of eighteen and twenty-four, either gender?

• 1:21:14Speaker 00

  No, male.

• 1:21:15Steven Bartlett?

  Male, then you have to sign up for the army?

• 1:21:18Speaker 00

  No, you're already put into a draft.

• 1:21:21Steven Bartlett?

  Oh, you're already, okay, but you might be called upon.

• 1:21:23Speaker 00

  That's right. It's a lottery system.

• 1:21:25Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 1:21:25Speaker 00

  Right. And this created a lot of backlash during the Vietnam era. And so they sort of toned it down. But starting in December, they just passed a law that says that starting in December, you will be automatically registered for.

• 1:21:41Steven Bartlett?

  They've passed a law?

• 1:21:42Speaker 00

  Yes, they have. Well, in theory, Congress personally needs to declare war.

• 1:21:47Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 1:21:47Speaker 00

  Right? That's a first step. And Congress has not actually declared war yet.

• 1:21:51Steven Bartlett?

  Okay. So you think there'll be a draft and you think this will, this war in Iran is gonna trickle on for?

• 1:21:57Speaker 00

  A long time.

• 1:21:57Steven Bartlett?

  How long? Ten, twenty years? Like Afghanistan or?

• 1:22:00Speaker 00

  I don't see it stopping.

• 1:22:02Steven Bartlett?

  Okay. What's next? Your prediction box?

• 1:22:06Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:22:08Speaker 00

  Okay, this is pretty bad. The world will move towards an AI surveillance state.

• 1:22:13Steven Bartlett?

  I feel like that's already happening.

• 1:22:15Speaker 00

  I think it's pretty obvious. Yeah.

• 1:22:17Steven Bartlett?

  What does that mean in reality for the average person? Because, you know, we're seeing some of these big companies like OpenAI and Anthropic all sort of signing up to government military surveillance projects. What does that mean for the average person?

• 1:22:30Speaker 00

  Right. So for the average person, it means two things. It means digital ID and digital currency.

• 1:22:35Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 1:22:35Speaker 00

  So what that, what that will allow is for the government to basically monitor everything you do online and control all financial transactions. It could basically program your bank account. So like, you can't buy cigarettes or you can't buy drugs. And this will allow the government to basically categorize everyone and put everyone into a certain database to monitor that person. And once you have, once you're able to categorize everyone, you're allowed, then you are, you are able to use AI to predict their behavior.

• 1:23:09Steven Bartlett?

  Isn't this what goes on in some parts of the world?

• 1:23:11Speaker 00

  This is what goes on in China. And that's how I know about this.

• 1:23:15Steven Bartlett?

  How does it work in China?

• 1:23:17Speaker 00

  Well, in China, we all have digital ID. If you want to access anything in China, you need your digital ID. So if you want to open a bank account, you have to, you have to use a digital ID. If you want to use any e-payments, you have to use digital ID. If you want to use a phone, you have to use digital ID. Okay? So everyone's part of this national database. And then what this allows government to do is basically monitor everything you do. Because basically, depending on how you buy things, I can then extrapolate to figure out your behavior. And then I can figure out your thinking, right? And then I can create incentives in order to guide

• 1:24:03Speaker 00

  and control your behavior.

• 1:24:05Steven Bartlett?

  So in China, can they see everything that you do?

• 1:24:08Speaker 00

  Yes, they can.

• 1:24:09Steven Bartlett?

  Messages you send?

• 1:24:10Speaker 00

  Everything.

• 1:24:11Steven Bartlett?

  Payments you make?

• 1:24:11Speaker 00

  Everything. Everything. Everything you do online is being recorded and it's being inputted into the database to figure out who you are, what you want, and how to control you.

• 1:24:29Speaker 00

  And they think this is progress, by the way. This is progress. Because I'm making you a better person, right? I'm helping you achieve your dream. I'm helping you lose weight. I'm helping you avoid drugs. I'm helping you work harder.

• 1:24:44Steven Bartlett?

  Won't you be in trouble if you talk against this system?

• 1:24:49Speaker 00

  Well, me personally. Okay. So I operate in a great area where I do not interact with the Chinese internet. So everything I do is in English. It's meant for consumption in the Western world. And I don't talk to Chinese reporters. I don't talk to Chinese social media. I have no Chinese media presence. And I am not at all influential in China. And I prefer that way because if I ever became famous in China, then they would obviously want to control me in order to better influence other people.

• 1:25:26Steven Bartlett?

  What's your next prediction?

• 1:25:30Speaker 00

  Israel will achieve the Greater Israel Project.

• 1:25:32Steven Bartlett?

  So you think Israel are gonna conquer the Middle East?

• 1:25:37Speaker 00

  Israel has essentially already conquered the Middle East. The only force in their way right now is America. So once America leaves the Middle East, which I expect to happen, then Israel will absorb Sanacom, which is the Central Command, the American military bases in the Middle East. And they will achieve the Greater Israel Project. There's no other power in the Middle East that can withstand the might and power of Israel.

• 1:26:05Steven Bartlett?

  And do you have a timeline for this?

• 1:26:08Speaker 00

  The moment America quits this war against Iran, the moment that America leaves the Middle East, Israel will achieve the Greater Israel Project. And what's really interesting right now is that Israel is trying to drag this war out for as long as possible. Basically, see this war as a way to destroy all its major enemies in the Middle East. You know, the Israelis have already said this, after Iran, Turkey is next.

• 1:26:36Steven Bartlett?

  Turkey.

• 1:26:37Speaker 00

  Turkey is next. This war is already destroying Saudi Arabia and the GCC, right? So the last opponent is Turkey. Once Turkey is brought into this war, then Israel will achieve the Greater Israel Project.

• 1:26:54Steven Bartlett?

  And the Greater Israel Project covers all of this region here from Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, Oman?

• 1:26:59Speaker 00

  So the Greater Israel Project is like this, okay? So it goes from the Nile in Egypt to the Euphrates in Iraq. And it covers part of Turkey, of Syria, of Lebanon, of Jordan, and parts of Saudi Arabia, which also includes Mecca Medina.

• 1:27:18Steven Bartlett?

  What is your next prediction?

• 1:27:21Speaker 00

  NATO and Russia will fight for Odessa.

• 1:27:23Steven Bartlett?

  Odessa? What's Odessa?

• 1:27:25Speaker 00

  Okay. So if you look at the Ukraine front lines, right now, Russia is preoccupied in trying to control the Donbass, which is basically eastern Ukraine. Why Russia is doing this is that eastern Ukraine has historically been part of Russia. Therefore, most people there speak Russian or are ethnically Russian.

• 1:27:49Speaker 00

  The Donbass is also the agricultural and industrial heartland of Ukraine. So if Russia were to control eastern Ukraine, it doesn't really need western Ukraine. And then western Ukraine would basically become a rump state. It'd be useless, right? So the last piece to this puzzle would be Odessa, which sits on the Black Sea. The reason why you want Odessa is that it's the major port. And once you control Odessa, you basically block off Ukraine from the Black Sea. You have complete control over the Black Sea.

• 1:28:24Steven Bartlett?

  The Black Sea, is that the Black Sea?

• 1:28:25Speaker 00

  This is the Black Sea and this is Odessa right here. Yes.

• 1:28:27Steven Bartlett?

  Okay. So you're saying that Russia will take, take Odessa?

• 1:28:31Speaker 00

  That's correct.

• 1:28:33Steven Bartlett?

  Okay. So they'll control the Black Sea?

• 1:28:34Speaker 00

  That's right. But NATO recognizes that if Odessa falls to the Russians, the war is over. And Russia will have achieved all its major strategic objectives.

• 1:28:44Steven Bartlett?

  Why is the war over?

• 1:28:46Speaker 00

  Because Russia doesn't want to continue on after Odessa. It doesn't need the rest of Ukraine.

• 1:28:53Steven Bartlett?

  What does it get from taking Odessa?

• 1:28:55Speaker 00

  Once it takes Odessa, control of one-third of the world's carbohydrates. If Russia wielded, Africa would starve to death.

• 1:29:08Speaker 00

  The Middle East would starve.

• 1:29:10Steven Bartlett?

  Why?

• 1:29:11Speaker 00

  Because Russia and Ukraine export a lot of grain to these places. These places are not food independent. They rely on fertilizer. They rely on food imports.

• 1:29:22Steven Bartlett?

  Okay. And Russia's using the Black Sea here to export?

• 1:29:26Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 1:29:27Steven Bartlett?

  Okay. What is your next prediction?

• 1:29:29Speaker 00

  This is the last one.

• 1:29:33Speaker 00

  Please be good. Okay. I was hoping for an optimistic one, but East Asia breaks out into conflict.

• 1:29:40Steven Bartlett?

  Okay. What do you mean by that?

• 1:29:41Speaker 00

  Okay. So we've talked a lot about the Middle East and we've talked briefly about Europe. Okay? So now let's go into East Asia. And I think there are three major sources of friction and conflict in East Asia. And these could be potentially major flashpoints. The first flashpoint is of course over Taiwan. Because China believes that Taiwan is part of its territory. And so it wants to take over Taiwan. The problem with this is, the problem with this is that recently, Prime Minister Takeuchi of Japan has said

• 1:30:26Speaker 00

  that Taiwan is core to Japanese strategic interests. And what she means by this is that Japan has no resources. It's a manufacturing power that depends on resources from overseas.

• 1:30:42Speaker 00

  If China were to take over Taiwan, it can now block Japan from accessing the Strait of Malacca. And that's a possibility Japan cannot permit. So Japan would fight to ensure that Taiwan and China were never to unify.

• 1:31:02Steven Bartlett?

  Would they actually? Because China is so strong, right? Couldn't they just knock Japan straight out?

• 1:31:08Speaker 00

  Japan has no choice but to fight. Because again, if China and Taiwan were to unify peacefully, Japan would be cut off from the entirety of Southeast Asia. And Japan relies on Southeast Asia historically for resources.

• 1:31:28Steven Bartlett?

  Why would it be cut off from Southeast Asia? Couldn't it just go, go down here to the Philippines?

• 1:31:34Speaker 00

  There's a lot of resources around the South China Sea.

• 1:31:37Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 1:31:38Speaker 00

  Right? Oil, minerals, all that. Yeah.

• 1:31:42Speaker 00

  So if China and Taiwan were to unify, basically, Japan would feel a bit threatened.

• 1:31:53Steven Bartlett?

  And your prediction is that there will be some kind of conflict in this region?

• 1:31:57Speaker 00

  Yeah. So, so that's the first flashpoint, okay? Taiwan. There's another flashpoint, which is the Strait of Malacca, right? Because again, America wants to control the Strait of Malacca, but China recognizes that the Strait of Malacca is key to its economic survival. And so there's a lot of conflict over the Strait of Malacca. Okay? That's flashpoint number two. The third flashpoint, which I think will be the most surprising, but actually will be the most pressing, is North Korea. Okay. So let's just use game theory. We are the leader, supreme leader of North Korea. It is a dictatorship. Everyone worships me. It's a cult personality. But we're poor.

• 1:32:39Speaker 00

  And the rest of the world is in conflict, right? Europe is fighting with Russia. The Middle East is in flames. America is distracted trying to control the world to the best of its ability. Japan and China are fighting over the South China Sea. If you're North Korea, now is the best opportunity to create as much havoc in the world as possible. There's absolutely nothing anyone can do to stop you.

• 1:33:09Speaker 00

  You are the riddler in high school that no one pays attention to, because all the big boys are fighting each other. You can come in and dominate the school now.

• 1:33:19Steven Bartlett?

  Who would they be dominating?

• 1:33:20Speaker 00

  They could dominate South Korea. Because if you just look at a population map of South Korea, most of the South Korean population is located in Seoul. And Seoul is about, about twenty minutes artillery from North Korea. So in twenty minutes, our, North Korea could rain artillery onto Seoul and like basically they flattened the entire city.

• 1:33:45Speaker 00

  Why wouldn't you extort the South Koreans?

• 1:33:47Steven Bartlett?

  Because the South Koreans are gonna shoot back?

• 1:33:49Speaker 00

  With what?

• 1:33:50Steven Bartlett?

  Do they not have military?

• 1:33:52Speaker 00

  They're being protected by the Americans right now. And the Americans are busy transporting artillery and weapon systems, including the THAAD system, over to the Middle East. It's called THAAD. T-H-A-A-D. It used to be in South Korea to protect against North Korea, and now it's over in the Middle East.

• 1:34:12Speaker 00

  So Americans are cannibalizing both South Korea and Japan in order to maintain this war in the Middle East. Now's the time. Why not? It's free money. It's like taking candy from a baby.

• 1:34:26Steven Bartlett?

  But South Korea have their own military, you know?

• 1:34:29Speaker 00

  How do you defend against artillery strikes?

• 1:34:33Steven Bartlett?

  Uh, I don't know.

• 1:34:34Speaker 00

  You don't?

• 1:34:35Steven Bartlett?

  But they, they, they would fire back, right? They'd get themselves into a pretty ugly war. South Korea have a, have a big military.

• 1:34:41Speaker 00

  Well, my people are poor. They're not afraid to die. In fact, I've sent thousands of them to go to Ukraine to fight for the Russians. And they fight to the death. Because they're poor and they don't fight to the death. If they're allowed to be taken prisoner, I'll kill their families back at home.

• 1:35:00Speaker 00

  South Koreans are rich.

• 1:35:03Speaker 00

  They are used to democracy. They're used to individual rights. So if I threaten to blow your city up, you're telling me you won't bribe me not to do so? Isn't, isn't the fastest, quickest way is to bribe me not to cause trouble for you?

• 1:35:18Steven Bartlett?

  Okay. So you think they're gonna bribe them?

• 1:35:20Speaker 00

  Extortion. This is extortion. I don't need to destroy South Korea. All I need to do is, is basically threaten the South Koreans. And they'll just like bribe me not to do anything.

• 1:35:32Steven Bartlett?

  So what does all of this stuff mean for the average person? You know, people listening right now, they're just normal people. A lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them are just normal people getting on with their lives and they care about their families, their, their jobs, their futures. What does, what, what message have you got for them?

• 1:35:47Speaker 00

  In this new world, we will need leaders. We will need average people who are able to bring hope to people around them. Who are able to tell their neighbors, their friends, we have to come together as a community and become a family if we are to survive.

• 1:36:13Speaker 00

  That's what the world needs in the future. It will need entrepreneurial leaders. It will need visionaries. It will need prophets. Those who will most thrive are those who make an effort to reach out, knock on the door of your neighbors and say, listen, there's a blackout. And there's probably no water. But don't fear. Because if we come together as a community, if we go and knock on everyone's doors, then everyone in this apartment building, and there might be a hundred of us, if we just sit down and have a meeting and just discuss

• 1:36:55Speaker 00

  what's happening, one of us will come up with a solution. And one of us will help everyone else figure out how to find water or how to build a better society. And we know this because historically, this has always been true. When empires collapse, infrastructure collapses.

• 1:37:14Steven Bartlett?

  Which empire do you think is collapsing? The United States empire?

• 1:37:18Speaker 00

  The United States empire is collapsing, yes.

• 1:37:21Steven Bartlett?

  And who is taking its place?

• 1:37:24Speaker 00

  No one can take the place of the American empire. So we live in a unipolar moment. And the closest historical analogy to today is something called the Bronze Age collapse.

• 1:37:34Steven Bartlett?

  The Bron, Bronze Age?

• 1:37:35Speaker 00

  The Bronze Age collapse. And this happened about over three thousand years ago. And what happened during the Bronze Age collapse is that you have these established kingdoms throughout the Middle East and Europe. You have my city in Greece. You had the High Tide Empire in Anatolia, which is present day Turkey. You had the Mesopotamian Empire, you had the Egyptians. And one by one, they collapsed. The reason why was that a perfect storm of calamities came at the same time. There were earthquakes. There were famines. There was a climate crisis. There were wars. There were civil wars. There were revolutions.

• 1:38:15Speaker 00

  And so you have this massive surge of refugees called the sea peoples, flowing from North and West Europe and sweeping the entire, sweeping food to the entire, entire Middle East. And the reason why is they were hungry. They didn't have any food to eat. So they organized into, you know, these large pirate armies and they overwhelmed entire civilizations. And so we're, we will see a very similar dynamic play out in the world where in the future, our concern won't be wars. Our concern will be these millions of refugees who want to flood into our societies because they're hungry.

• 1:39:03Speaker 00

  And they're gonna come from Africa. They're gonna come from the Middle East. They'll probably come from South America as well.

• 1:39:12Speaker 00

  So I saw your show with Steve King, by the way, Steve Keen?

• 1:39:15Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:16Speaker 00

  It was a great show, right? And he talked about this, where, look, the world depends on fertilizer. And there's eight billion people in the world. Without fertilizers, the world can only sustain at most two billion people. Well, what, what are the six billion people gonna do? Just starve to death? No, they're gonna migrate. And they're going to want food. And this is gonna create a huge global crisis throughout the world.

• 1:39:43Steven Bartlett?

  I mean, one might argue that with the rise of things like AI and robotics, the cost of production is gonna drop and there's gonna be more, you know, Elon talks about the age of abundance and all these kinds of things.

• 1:39:53Speaker 00

  But you have to grow food out of the ground. And you are using fertilizer to maximize the land's capacity to grow food. So you don't have fertilizer. You have as many robots as you want. They don't have to eat food. We have to eat food.

• 1:40:08Steven Bartlett?

  So what is your, you talked about hopefulness?

• 1:40:12Speaker 00

  Right.

• 1:40:12Steven Bartlett?

  Are you hopeful?

• 1:40:13Speaker 00

  I'm very hopeful.

• 1:40:14Steven Bartlett?

  What are you hopeful for?

• 1:40:18Speaker 00

  I believe that humans are first and foremost creative and resilient.

• 1:40:24Speaker 00

  And our abilities have become dormant because we've become too complacent. Western lifestyle have made us extremely lazy and fat. And but the moment we're presented with a crisis, the moment that we find our families in danger, we're able to come together as a people and come up with all this tremendous imagination in order to make a better society.

• 1:40:53Steven Bartlett?

  Make sure you keep what I'm about to say to yourself. I'm inviting 10,000 of you to come even deeper into the diary of a CEO. Welcome to my inner circle. This is a brand new private community that I'm launching to the world. We have so many incredible things that happen that you are never shown. We have the briefs that are on my iPad when I'm recording the conversation. We have clips we've never released. We have behind the scenes conversations with the guests and also the episodes that we've never ever released. And so much more. In the circle, you'll have direct access to me. You can tell us what you want this show to be, who you want us to interview, and the types of conversations you would love us to have. But remember, for now, we're only inviting the first 10,000 people that join before it closes.

• 1:41:36Steven Bartlett?

  So if you want to join our private closed community, head to the link in the description below or go to D O A C circle dot com. I will speak to you there.

• 1:41:46Steven Bartlett?

  Professor, so what's the most important thing we haven't talked about that we should have talked about?

• 1:41:52Speaker 00

  So let's talk about the nature of reality. To explain the nature of reality, I'm going to explain Plato's allegory of the cave, which he talked about in his book, The Republic, right? Exactly.

• 1:42:04Steven Bartlett?

  This book?

• 1:42:05Speaker 00

  Yes, The Republic, okay? One of the masterpieces of Greek civilization as well as Western civilization. Alright, so this is how Plato explains the nature of reality. And so he uses a metaphor called the cave. So I want you to imagine a dark cavern that is huge. And in this cavern, there are hundreds of people lined up together. And they're all sitting in a row, and this goes on for, you know, miles and miles, just thousands of people. And they are chained to the ground, and their necks are shackled, so they can't actually move.

• 1:42:50Speaker 00

  And all they can do is stare in front of them at a giant wall that's empty.

• 1:42:57Speaker 00

  Now, behind these people, and again, they can't see behind them, right? It's a great fire.

• 1:43:07Speaker 00

  Along the alongside this fire are people, okay? We don't know who they are. They'll never explain who these people are. They take puppets and they project these puppets off the fire onto the wall.

• 1:43:24Speaker 00

  And

• 1:43:27Speaker 00

  when people see the shadows, they think that this is reality.

• 1:43:34Speaker 00

  And as such, they begin to create narratives to explain this reality. They create language, they give shadows names, they explain where these shadows come from, they create religion. Then these people decide to specialize. So some people who are priests, who explain this new religion, and some people are poets that talk about the beauty of the shadows. And then you have teachers who teach about the shadows to children.

• 1:44:06Speaker 00

  And then over time, what happens is that these people fall in love with this reality, so that they are addicted to it. So if anyone comes on and says, hey, guys, why don't you look behind you and see it's all just a farce? These people will be so angry that they kill this person.

• 1:44:32Speaker 00

  Alright, so I'm not sure if you've ever watched a Korean drama. Have you watched a Korean TV drama?

• 1:44:37Steven Bartlett?

  Not really, no.

• 1:44:38Speaker 00

  Right, so unfortunately, I have. And these things go on for like thousands of hours. And for the first 10 hours, you're disgusted by the plot. And because it makes no sense, but by sometime by the 20th hour, you can't stop watching it. Alright, the same situation here where it's a silly television drama, it's all fake. But once people watch too much of it, they want it to be true.

• 1:45:09Speaker 00

  And that's the nature of reality that we live in, alright? So certain things to remember is that what creates this reality are not

• 1:45:20Speaker 00

  the people in charge, what creates this reality is our imagination. Okay, so the first thing to appreciate is that everything is a hallucination. And this is something that North scientists have confirmed. So what we're going to do is we're going to take Plato's allegory of the cave, the framework, and then apply it to our reality to understand how it's created. Okay, so

• 1:45:46Speaker 00

  in the first layer, you need a power, a force to put people in change, right? And this is what we call the military industrial complex of America as well as the empire. So going back to this example, it's the layer that puts the people into change. But now, the second step is you need people to create the reality, to direct people's attention, to create the game. And this, these people are the financial elite, the bank of international settlements, based in Basel. So what do they do? These people are the ones who set the exchange currency rates.

• 1:46:26Speaker 00

  And they also allow for seamless financial transactions, the SWIFT system, basically. Then Wall Street and the City of London were the financiers.

• 1:46:40Speaker 00

  And then you have the Federal Reserve, the Federal Reserve system. Because the Federal Reserve are the people who print money. Okay. Now, once you create the rules of the game, you need to create the game itself, which is the global economy. Right? Global economy. And obviously, this is a pretty vast system that encompasses everything, okay?

• 1:47:06Speaker 00

  Now, you have to explain to people how the global economy works. You cannot tell people, oh, really, there are these secret people working on the scenes that are projecting shadows onto a wall. So what you do is you create multilateral organizations that pretend to control the global economy. And they are the World Bank, the United Nations, WTO. You make people believe that this is all being controlled impartially for our benefit.

• 1:47:37Speaker 00

  Now, you have to convince people that this system is legitimate, that when you're actually seeing the shadows on the wall, they're real. And that's why you need the media. That's why you need culture, such as Hollywood movies, basically. And you need education, school system, okay? These are the people who are all prisoners, who have become leaders of the prisoners and who are helping them understand the shadows on the wall.

• 1:48:08Steven Bartlett?

  So am I in the media?

• 1:48:10Speaker 00

  Yes, you are.

• 1:48:10Steven Bartlett?

  Am I?

• 1:48:11Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:48:11Steven Bartlett?

  So am I, what am I doing? Am I one of the people in the fire controlling the narrative? Is that what?

• 1:48:16Speaker 00

  Yes, yes.

• 1:48:17Steven Bartlett?

  But I'm not owned by anybody.

• 1:48:20Speaker 00

  That's what you think.

• 1:48:21Steven Bartlett?

  Oh, really?

• 1:48:21Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:48:22Steven Bartlett?

  Who am I owned by?

• 1:48:24Speaker 00

  Ultimately, it's the people who control the fire that are in charge, right? So ultimately, it's these people, the second layer, the game masters, the financial elite that control everything.

• 1:48:34Steven Bartlett?

  And the financial elite again are like the World Bank, you said?

• 1:48:37Speaker 00

  No, no, the financial elite are these private bankers.

• 1:48:41Steven Bartlett?

  Okay, so are the private bankers controlling me? Because you said I was in the media.

• 1:48:46Speaker 00

  Do you want to make money?

• 1:48:47Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 1:48:47Speaker 00

  Then they're controlling you.

• 1:48:49Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 1:48:49Speaker 00

  Right?

• 1:48:50Steven Bartlett?

  How are they controlling me?

• 1:48:51Speaker 00

  Because they control the creation of money. And so now that you have the media, the schools and the cultural systems helping people understand the shadows on the wall, these shadows now become internalized. And they dictate the values and norms of people, what they believe to be good and bad. They dictate habits and customs, how you live your life. And they dictate the legal system, who's punished for what, okay? And this becomes a top edifice. And what's amazing about the system is that in our minds, okay?

• 1:49:33Speaker 00

  In our minds, we believe that the system is first of all, the complete opposite. Where the foundation is actually the laws, the habits and the values. When in fact, in reality, these are just figments of our imagination. Okay, that's point one. Point two is that this is a very, very delicate structure. So if anyone doesn't cooperate, okay? Then this is this edifice collapses. It's because it's a very, very delicate system, okay? And the third thing, and this is the most important to understand the world that we live in, as this system becomes much more wobbly, meaning that young people don't really believe in the shadows anymore.

• 1:50:15Speaker 00

  Young people grow up and says, hmm, are these shadows really real? They don't feel real to me. The system needs to become much more authoritarian.

• 1:50:25Speaker 00

  It needs to force people to believe what they refuse to believe. Because everyone in the system is incentivized to ensure this edifice is stable.

• 1:50:36Steven Bartlett?

  Do you think this is somewhat linked to what's going on with independent media?

• 1:50:40Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 1:50:41Steven Bartlett?

  Because independent media are asking a lot of questions about the way society functions.

• 1:50:45Speaker 00

  Exactly, and that's why we're seeing governments becoming very worried about independent media. Because if you have people in the population saying, these shadows are fake, this creates a ripple effect. It causes people to start questioning the shadows on the wall. You can't have that. So that's why it's important to have censorship. That's why it's important to deplatform people. That's why you have woke politics, D E I, because it's an enforcement mechanism.

• 1:51:14Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah, I mean, it is pretty hard, you know, it's pretty, it's not easy being an independent podcaster if you have a big platform because you're not always the most loved by the mainstream media.

• 1:51:23Speaker 00

  And they'll figure out how to eventually.

• 1:51:26Steven Bartlett?

  But I think that's, I think that's very human, actually. I think, I think incentives are quite understandable from a human perspective.

• 1:51:33Speaker 00

  Look, if you look at the system, no one's really in charge and no one's a villain.

• 1:51:39Speaker 00

  They just grow up in the system.

• 1:51:40Steven Bartlett?

  And everyone's protecting their incentives.

• 1:51:42Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 1:51:43Steven Bartlett?

  That's kind of what I mean. I'm like, yeah, human nature is to protect one's incentives. And, you know, the media didn't like Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook because 80% of, 70, 80% of ad revenue went to Google and Facebook. So they had a bit of a war. So I kind of get it. People are trying to protect what's theirs and disruption causes people to, I guess, panic a little bit, but makes sense.

• 1:52:03Speaker 00

  But the problem is that over time, more and more young people are going to grow up and say, I don't see shadows. I'm pretty sure we're being lied to. In which case, this presents an opportunity to overfruit the system and create a new system. And this is why AI is important.

• 1:52:28Steven Bartlett?

  But we currently believe this one, we currently believe in this structure. It's almost, it's really difficult, I think, for the average person listening now to accept the fact that they have believed a bunch of fundamental ideas and stories that everything they care about is sat upon. But I mean, you only, if you've read the book Sapiens and understood that humans got here because we had a remarkable ability to believe in stories that maybe the orangutan could not believe. It couldn't believe in money and governments and religions and all these kinds of things. It makes perfect sense that, yeah, there's really foundational stories we are accepting. And that's what's brought us here today. That's what keeps me from running out on the street without my clothes on or doing other illicit activities is I'm held in place by a set of stories that I've accepted.

• 1:53:11Steven Bartlett?

  And they are stacked one upon the other to make me believe that everything I'm seeing and accepting is valid. But, you know, I guess the question becomes, am I okay with this reality?

• 1:53:23Speaker 00

  And what's stopping us from creating our own reality that benefits everyone?

• 1:53:27Steven Bartlett?

  Is that possible?

• 1:53:28Speaker 00

  Well, in theory, it's possible, but as you point out, there's certain people who are happy with the system and want to maintain the system. And that's why we're going to wars around the world. Because it's not just a war between different nation states. It's also a war for the fundamental nature of reality. You have the bankers versus the tech roles, right? That's what we're seeing in the world right now. Where for the longest time, Wall Street has controlled America. But now with the Trump revolution, you have Palantir. You have people like Larry Ellison, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, who want to create Operation Stargate,

• 1:54:12Speaker 00

  which gives them complete control over people's imagination.

• 1:54:18Steven Bartlett?

  You can knock it over now.

• 1:54:19Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:54:22Speaker 00

  And everything will come down eventually because that is just the fundamental fact of human history. Everything, no matter how stable it seems in the beginning, it all comes crashing down eventually.

• 1:54:37Steven Bartlett?

  Eventually.

• 1:54:38Speaker 00

  Eventually.

• 1:54:38Steven Bartlett?

  Cyclically, cyclically.

• 1:54:40Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:54:42Steven Bartlett?

  Ray Dalio talks about the cycles through history and how sort of predictable they are and how frequent they are. Is there a frequency to the rise and fall of these, I guess, perceived realities or empires, as he calls it?

• 1:54:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, so they say empires last around 20 years. And so we are now in the twilight of the American empire. And what we know is that when empires decline, it's always for the same reasons. And it's always because of too much debt, too much corruption, too much inequality. And we're seeing that in America today. And the other thing that we know is you can't actually stop the decline of empires. So Oswald Spengler, who is a German theoretician, he argues that we are human beings and we have natural life cycles because we're organisms.

• 1:55:36Speaker 00

  Well, societies are the same way, where empires, they will be born, they'll rise, they'll die. And it's, and it's a good thing because that's what allows for constant human innovation.

• 1:55:49Steven Bartlett?

  Do you think that will happen in my lifetime? I'm 30 years old, 33 years old.

• 1:55:53Speaker 00

  It may happen in everyone's lifetime. It may happen in the next five to 10 years. We are, we are seeing.

• 1:55:59Steven Bartlett?

  Do you think that's going to happen in the next five or 10 years?

• 1:56:01Speaker 00

  I think there's a very strong possibility that the American empire will collapse in the next five to 10 years because it is overstretched, it's in too much debt, and it is really angling the entire world. It's basically unifying the entire world against it right now.

• 1:56:15Steven Bartlett?

  And if that is to be the case, what would you give me as advice as a 33 year old? What actions should I be thinking about taking now, based on what you know about history, to make sure that, you know, it's not too bad for myself? I guess I'm asking this question in light of you predicting that there might be a collapse of the sort of Western or the American empire. And in such a scenario, I was wondering what it would look like to be an American? And is there a solution or a course of behavior one should take in such a scenario? But what, I guess that's the key question, which is if the US empire does collapse, how does American life change or Western life change?

• 1:56:53Speaker 00

  Okay, so one theory that's very important to understand is something called Hermetic Philosophy. And Hermetic Philosophy is what underpins Plato's allegory of the cave.

• 1:57:06Speaker 00

  And Hermetic Philosophy comes from Egypt. And it has certain principles, but its main principle is that reality is energy, it's vibrations. Okay, so we think of it as material, but material is a consequence of energy, right? So what this means is that reality is consciousness itself. So our thoughts are what's real. Our bodies are just vehicles to experience the world around us, but they're not real. When we die, our souls return to the source and we come back again. And we're here permanently in order to experience things we cannot experience in the spiritual world

• 1:57:50Speaker 00

  because in the spiritual world, it's not material. So what's really important is to appreciate that every one of us is part of the source. And so if we think about the totality of things, we can only become despondent. We can only give up hope. But if we think about how individually we can become a better person and how we can impact the people around us, then that becomes reflected onto the reality itself because we're just part of God itself, right? So the idea is as above, so below, as below, so above.

• 1:58:33Speaker 00

  Meaning that we are each and everyone else fractals of God. So if we choose to be a good person, this makes the world a better place. If we choose to be a bad person, it also makes the world a worse place. So it's not really about how can I stop these wars from happening? Because you cannot. It's not really about where can I put my money to make, generate more income because that's not going to happen. It's really about how do I live my life to the fullest? How do I become a much more creative individual that brings goodness to the people around me? If you do that, you're changing the world every day for the better.

• 1:59:18Steven Bartlett?

  That's a nice message.

• 1:59:21Steven Bartlett?

  That's a very nice message. And I agree. And it's really interesting. I've spoken to a couple of physicists now who say similar things regarding about consciousness. And it really has stuck with me. A lot of things people say, you know, sometimes because I learned so much doing this that I forget them. But this idea that we're all part of the same consciousness. And that I think someone said to me, a physicist said to me that it's almost like consciousness divided into lots of little pieces.

• 1:59:46Speaker 00

  That's right, fractals.

• 1:59:47Steven Bartlett?

  Fractals, so that it could experience the world or view the world.

• 1:59:50Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 1:59:51Steven Bartlett?

  And I found that to be a really compelling idea. Weirdly, I was thinking about this the other day. I was in a European country and I was, I was driving in a taxi and I looked out the window and you had all of these like tourists just stood at the edge of the water, all just like looking up and looking around. And I just for a second thought of it, thought of them as like little pieces of consciousness exploring the world. Cause they were like looking up and looking around and looking at mountains and looking at the ocean and looking at the floor. And it dawned on me for a second that that might just be consciousness is manifestation for sort of, I guess, exploration. It's which is really interesting idea. I don't necessarily know what it means, but it does create a little lot of empathy.

• 2:00:26Speaker 00

  So, so one, one area that you might want to explore is the Kabbalah.

• 2:00:30Steven Bartlett?

  So what, how's this, what's this Kabbalah thing?

• 2:00:33Speaker 00

  Right, it's what they call the tree of life. And in the tree of life, it's, it's what I'm trying to say is it's a dynamic in the world that governs all human affairs. This dynamic is thesis, antithesis, synthesis. So God is the will to bestow, creates Adam, Kenmon, who is the will to receive. And then Kenmon has to abandon God, thus destroying the world. But eventually, because the world is destroyed and then Kenmon and his descendants, us, recognize the folly of our ways and beg God for forgiveness. And this will redeem the world, repair the world. And if you think about it, okay, this is what underpins a lot of actions

• 2:01:16Speaker 00

  that is happening in the Middle East, where the Israelis are doing what they're doing. They're just trying to force the hand of God. Meaning that, okay, if Israel is committing all these atrocities in the Middle East, it's creating all these wars. Eventually, the world will have to punish the Israelis. Right, there'll be war between the world and Israel. And Israel will be humbled. But once Israel is humbled, everyone in Israel will recognize the folly of his or her arrogance. Hubris. And then will beg God for forgiveness.

• 2:01:57Speaker 00

  And once that happens, when all people in Israel, at the same time, beg God for deliverance and for forgiveness, the world will end. And will return to paradise. That's literally what they believe.

• 2:02:18Steven Bartlett?

  We're gonna have to stop there, Professor.

• 2:02:20Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 2:02:20Steven Bartlett?

  We have a closing tradition where the last guest leaves a question for the next guest, not knowing who they're leaving it for. And the question left for you is, who will you miss the most and why?

• 2:02:30Speaker 00

  Well, I will miss my wife the most. Because I met my wife about 10 years ago. And this was a time in my life when I had, and when I had hit rock bottom.

• 2:02:44Speaker 00

  I went to Yale and so I have a very elevated sense of myself and my abilities. And so I went into the world thinking that I would conquer it. And after decades of failure, I basically became very depressed.

• 2:03:02Steven Bartlett?

  Failure?

• 2:03:03Speaker 00

  Yes, I, meaning I didn't have a job, meaning I didn't have much income, meaning I didn't have much hope in my life. And so I was working as a teacher and then for mutual acquaintance, I met my wife. And I think that it was because I became so depressed that my heart, I begged for relief. I begged God, even though I don't believe in God, for salvation and redemption. And my wife came as an angel. And what she did that no one else did before was she loved me unconditionally. She was kind to me.

• 2:03:45Speaker 00

  She told me to believe in myself. And she proved it by making the ultimate sacrifice and having a child with me. Right, it's one thing to, for someone to say, I believe in you, I love you. It's another thing to have a child with that person. And so that changed me totally. And I, I said to myself, I can't despair anymore. I have to work hard, I have to provide for my family. And at this time, I was thinking that maybe I could help certain students go to Yale.

• 2:04:24Speaker 00

  Like, you know, in China, consulting is a huge business where if you help package your kid and you get to Yale, you get about a million dollars. That's a lot of money, right? And she told me, you can't do that. You have to be true to yourself and you have to be true to our son. Set a good example for him. And so what happened was that I got a job as a high school teacher. And then I started to make these YouTube videos. And then it blew up online. And this was not something that we expected, something that we planned for. It just happened organically. So it was my wife, just, just by saying, I love you to me. And I knew it to be true because we had a child together, we started a family together.

• 2:05:08Speaker 00

  By loving me unconditionally, by being kind to me, it changed me forever. And that's what empowered me to want to share myself with other people as well. And so I don't know how I will ever thank my wife. I'm, I'm forever grateful for her. And I don't, I don't, before I didn't really mind leaving this world. But I don't want to leave this world anymore because I don't want to separate from her.

• 2:05:31Steven Bartlett?

  Could you have expected that you'd have the success you've had online? You've got almost two and a half million subscribers on YouTube alone. Getting millions and millions and millions of views on your videos. I mean, some of your videos have almost 10 million views on various channels that you've been on. You've only made 146 of these videos and your, your channel has grown immensely. Could, could you have imagined?

• 2:05:57Speaker 00

  I did.

• 2:05:58Steven Bartlett?

  You did imagine?

• 2:05:59Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 2:05:59Steven Bartlett?

  You thought it would go like this?

• 2:06:01Speaker 00

  Not this big, but I imagine, you know, I, I would find people who believe in what I was doing. And would be inspired by what I was doing. And I knew this because when I met my wife and I fell in love for the first time, we loved each other unconditionally. My imagination started to open up. I could see and feel things that were not available to me before. And it was as though I became much more connected to the source. I'd be much more connected to the universe. And the universe was giving me insights as to how to proceed. And so I had one day an inspiration.

• 2:06:46Speaker 00

  Let me start our YouTube channel and let me make stupid predictions and see where it goes. Because if I'm right, then, then I'll be pretty famous. If I'm wrong, then I'm an idiot. But what gave me the courage to imagine all this was again, the love of my wife. So that's why I say kindness and love.

• 2:07:11Speaker 00

  So I did imagine this, but not to the extent that, you know, my YouTube channel has blown up.

• 2:07:19Steven Bartlett?

  You've only been doing it about a year. I don't think I've ever seen someone get two, two and a half million subscribers in a year. Especially making geopolitics and it's mainly geopolitics, isn't it? And history videos in a year, that's crazy.

• 2:07:34Speaker 00

  But I will tell you this, it has not changed me. Because being with my wife, having a family, I know my mission is to share myself with others. So I could easily create a media education company like Jordan Peterson and start my own university. I don't want to do that. I want to share myself with others. I want to constantly learn. I want to constantly ask questions. I want to be open minded. I want to be brave for my wife and my family. And so, yes, I did succeed. And I think, I thank the universe for letting me succeed.

• 2:08:19Speaker 00

  And I thank most of all, the fact that I succeeded at an age and at a time when I can focus on a mission and ignore the fame, the wealth, the status.

• 2:08:33Steven Bartlett?

  Are you happy?

• 2:08:34Speaker 00

  I'm very happy with my family because it's my wife and my children who bring me tremendous happiness in the world. The YouTube channel, if they close it down tomorrow, and they might, I wouldn't be at all unhappy. Because I could just go and create more videos. What matters is a source of my creativity, which is my, the love I have for my family.

• 2:09:01Steven Bartlett?

  That is beautiful. Really beautiful. I mean, it's, it's really self-evident, the value you're giving to people. Because the amount of people that showed up in my comment section and demanded that you come here was staggering. In fact, that's actually how I learned about you was I just saw your name so much in the comment section. So I was like, who's this guy? And I went on YouTube and looked around and then I found these videos and then I got served them because I clicked on them. And then I got, went down the road, that whole like everything.

• 2:09:26Speaker 00

  Just to warn you, I am a polarizing figure. So some people really love me, but some people also really, really hate me.

• 2:09:34Steven Bartlett?

  Listen, I have, I sit here with people really regardless of, of, of that stuff. And I think that's important and quite rare. So I'll, you know, I've sat with Kamal Harris or Ivanka Trump or Gavin Newsom or Michelle Obama, you know? And for me, it's really about the pursuit of truth rather than being captured too much by, you know, all the blocks that we have on the table. So thank you for doing what you do because you're demystifying and you're, you're giving a perspective to the world. And I think one of the things you, you do that really has compelled people is you, you're able to break things down in visual ways that allow people like me who aren't the best when it comes to books and textbooks and weren't necessarily very good in school, to understand concepts in a simpler way.

• 2:10:19Steven Bartlett?

  And really to bring them to life in ways that make them actionable and relevant to our lives. And so long may you carry on doing that.

• 2:10:25Speaker 00

  And that's a central message that I hope people understand, like everyone has capacity to learn the truth for himself or herself. It's only a question of desire and will.

• 2:10:36Steven Bartlett?

  Thank you.

• 2:10:37Speaker 00

  Thank you.