No Mercy / No Malice: A Tsunami Brewing

As read by George Hahn. Follow George on Twitter, @GeorgeHahn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

• 0:01Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Northwest Registered Agent. Your business identity is everything that makes your business legitimate and professional. With Northwest Registered Agent, you don't just form a business, you start a complete foundation built for privacy, credibility, and growth. That includes registered agent service, a business address, operating agreement, domain, website, professional email, phone number, and built-in privacy. In other words, your home address, personal email, and phone number stay private. Don't pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for what you can get from Northwest for free. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/profgfree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com/profgfree.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends, like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an Ultra. Because it's not just a superior-like beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser-Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 1:19Scott Galloway?

  I'm Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice. There is research showing that a small wave or problem can become a tidal wave if not addressed early. We are on the cusp of a tidal wave or tsunami of rights being taken from gay people. A tsunami brewing, as read by George Hahn.

• 1:42George Hahn?

  I'm a little fucked up, i.e. drunk. And drunk, I'm a better version of myself, more in touch with my emotions and unafraid to register those emotions. Forty years ago this week, at seventeen, I joined a fraternity at UCLA. Pledging ZBT was one of the best decisions I ever made. I grew up with no siblings and an absent dad, so I had few male role models. Without the socialization, scrutiny, and camaraderie of my brothers, it's unlikely I would have graduated from college. One friend from that time is more present in my memory tonight. Ron Bayam was smart, handsome, and talented.

• 2:26George Hahn?

  After college, he went to work in entertainment, and by thirty, he was director of programming for Disney Television. Three years after, ill from AIDS, he called several people to make amends before ingesting several dozen Valium mixed into a large glass of vodka. In the late 90s, America's view of AIDS deaths among gay men was roughly, "That's a tragedy, but you kind of had it coming." Only people who contracted the virus from a blood transfusion or heterosexual sex were the legitimate victims. There's an interesting discourse in social media regarding the importance of addressing issues early, before they can become a real shitstorm.

• 3:08George Hahn?

  We Democrats ignored the chipping away of women's rights over the past 20 years, only to have the unthinkable happen. It's likely going to take years, decades even, to get the moral compass of the US back on its axis. The steady erosion of gay rights is accelerating into a second tsunami. One GOP principle that's always resonated for me, though it's barely visible in today's GOP, is personal liberty. Opting for the individual, making your own decisions about how you want to live your life. Paramount, the right to pursue life. Next, liberty.

• 3:49George Hahn?

  It's unfathomable to imagine, in my view, a society dictating whom we can love and who can love us back. New laws in states all over the Union, couched in false flag concerns about school curricula or swim meets, amount to nothing but a gross assault on what it means to be American and a violation of our sacred right to liberty. If advocating for fraternities and gay rights in subsequent paragraphs sounds inconsistent, you can take comfort in knowing that the world is not cable TV news. Society, people, and life are more nuanced and complex. Anyway, I wrote this in 2017, which means 97% of you have not seen it.

• 4:34George Hahn?

  Tom Petty's passing hit me as much as any death of a celebrity since Robin Williams. While we don't know celebrities, they can transport us back to a time in our life we usually feel good about. Death is not airbrushed or shot in a soft light, so we see them as more human, empathize, and register our own mortality. Tom Petty takes me back to freshman year at UCLA. As a fraternity pledge, I was thrust into a four-man, 300-square-foot room in the fraternity with my "brothers", i.e. total strangers. Gary was a big kid from Seattle, who rode in high school and wore expensive polo shirts. He drove a new Accord and was more ambitious than us at an earlier age. Senior year, he essentially stopped going to class

• 5:20George Hahn?

  so he could work full-time at a real estate firm. He traded smoking a shit-ton of pot and watching Planet of the Apes with friends during the day for the chance to get a nine-month professional jump on us. The rest of us opted to spend 60 versus 61 years working and experience a year with Charlton Heston, cannabis, and each other.

• 5:39Speaker 04

  Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!

• 5:48George Hahn?

  So worth it. Pat was from a farm in Vesalia. He was also the most creative and likable person any of us had ever met. He was hilarious and outrageous, writing songs and scripts and then having us sing and read them, usually very high. Pat and I bonded as, unlike most of our brothers, our families were not affluent. We were always broke. Always.

• 6:14George Hahn?

  Craig was from the valley and had a nice innocence about him. He was artistic and constantly doodling, and soon, he was designing all the shirts and swag for social events. Claiming it was his psych homework, Pat would put on the theme from Jaws, pin Craig to the ground, and tickle him until he passed out from oxygen deprivation. Then, in the middle of the night, he'd put on the theme from Jaws so he could watch Craig wake to the music and reflexively scream, "No!"

• 6:43George Hahn?

  This still stands as the hardest I've ever laughed. Ron was a handsome black guy with a movie star voice. He dressed as if he'd walked out of the preppy handbook. He ended up at a Jewish fraternity when he was unable to secure a bid from the Lambda Kai fraternity next door. Ron seemed older than his years and was universally loved. Today, there is an endowed scholarship in his memory at UCLA. The soundtrack to all of this in 1983 was Tom Petty's "Damn the Torpedoes" and Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" albums, which we literally wore out.

• 7:23George Hahn?

  Hearing of Tom Petty's death took me back to freshman year, and a bunch of us started a group text around the shock of his passing. I was reminded of Ron's death by his absence.

• 7:35George Hahn?

  The last time I saw Ron was at a friend's wedding, severely ill and wasting away. He seemed embarrassed to speak to me. I tried to be as nonchalant as possible, acting as if nothing was wrong, talking about anything else. A man was dying, and another, a friend, was too immature to find the behaviors or words to bring some grace to the situation.

• 8:02George Hahn?

  By that time, the early 90s, American society was slowly becoming more accepting of gay people. But at UCLA in the 80s, there was no acceptance whatsoever of gay people or their lifestyle.

• 8:18George Hahn?

  I couldn't have named a single gay person at UCLA, though several of my good friends, unbeknownst to me, were gay. My closest friend, the godfather to my youngest son, and the CEO of my first firm, all of them friends from college and grad school, all gay.

• 8:37George Hahn?

  So much about who we are and the lives we get to live is a function of where and when we are born. Out of our control. I have no choice over my sexuality. Being born a straight man in California in the 60s was the luckiest thing that could have happened to me. Being born a gay man in the 60s proved fatal for Ron. Born 20 years earlier, he could have had a full adult life. Born 10 years later, science would have caught up and made living with HIV manageable.

• 9:15George Hahn?

  Most of us have had the chance to do the things we dreamt of in college. Many of those things, achieving material items, having exotic experiences, finding relevance, have been meaningful. But as you get older, the relationships you have with people you love and who love you overwhelm everything else in your life.

• 9:37George Hahn?

  It's not something easily explained to a young person, and unlike most things, we get better at love as we get older.

• 9:45George Hahn?

  At a minimum, we appreciate it more.

• 9:48George Hahn?

  Ron was more talented and likable than any of us, but he was robbed of the time to achieve much more. I heard about Tom Petty and was sad and nostalgic.

• 10:01George Hahn?

  I remember Ron, and I'm just sad.

• 10:06George Hahn?

  Very sad.

• 10:14Scott Galloway?

  Life is so rich.

• 10:36Speaker 05

  We just moved into our new house and I didn't realize just how close we were to the neighbors. That's when my friend told me about Blinds.com.

• 10:44Speaker 06

  Blinds.com isn't a medication, but it can improve how you feel about your home. Customers who shop at Blinds.com experience excellent customer service, from consultation to installation. Side effects include increased privacy and better sleep. Talk to your partner today and see if Blinds.com is right for you. Visit Blinds.com to order your free samples.

• 11:06Speaker 07

  Now at Kroger, your points add up to more ways to save every trip. Use them your way to take dollars off groceries at checkout or save at the pump. You can even save up to $35 on your next fill-up. Same points, more choices. And with low prices on fresh, quality food, plus digital and personalized offers tailored to how you shop, your dollar goes further. Redeem your points online or in the app. Kroger, fresh for everyone. Restrictions apply. See site or store for details.