Thanksgiving Inflation, AI Fake Singers, and GOP Russia Rifts

Foreign. Welcome, welcome. This Thanksgiving grocery bill is the highest ever. And once you look at the data, it's clear the inflation story is very different from the political blame game. Then the music industry gets shaken as AI generated performers top the charts. It's not a novelty, it's a sign the entire industry may be closer to collapse than anyone realizes. Republicans are openly attacking President Trump's Ukraine team, with Mitch McConnell warning the plan is appeasing Putin and Marco Rubio stumbling over Russian talking points. We'll also dig deeper into the Trump administration's quiet march toward government ownership of private companies, a creeping form of socialism that breaks every rule conservatives claim to stand for. And finally, what people who live past 100 actually do. 10 simple tips from real centenarians. Centenarians, those who live to 100 that have nothing to do with gyms, supplements or biohacks. All that and more today. Welcome to Filtered with TJ Walker. FOREIGN thanks so much for joining me today. Let's check in on the market as we do every day here. Yesterday, the S P 500 closed at 6,766, up 0.91%. And the Nasdaq Composite closed at 23,026, up 0.67%. Always keep in mind the long term. Over the last 25 years, the S&P 500 has gone up on average a little more than 8%. The NASDAQ Composite has gone up on average the last 25 years, a little more than 9%. So please, please keep that in mind. Special edition of the show today. This is Thanksgiving week here in the United States. I am traveling. I am in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I grew up, have family and friends here. So different backdrop and setting as you can see. I have to tell you it's a somber mood here. Charlotte, North Carolina. The city is under siege. People are in hiding. There is a foreign invader, although foreign meaning soldiers from other states are here invading this city and people are scared. There are protest in the streets. There's no violence, thankfully, unless you consider cracking skulls by ice officials of people who have brown skin to be violence. But it is a tough situation. A lot of restaurants closed. Businesses can't open because they don't have their workers because so many people are fearful, even if they are citizens of the United States fearful of being arrested, skulls knocked and taken away off to jails. So hoping the mood gets better here and the the siege ends at some point. Okay, let's dive right into topic number one. It's and it's a Thanksgiving topic. Thanksgiving sticker Shock and the Inflation Reality Check this year's Thanksgiving isn't just an utterly American feast, it's also an expensive one. According to the Times of London, recreating Julia Child's classic spread now cost about 100. That's roughly 9% more than last year's $98.37. The main culprit? Turkey. After another wave of bird flu, wholesale hen prices are up nearly 70%. And supermarkets are expected to charge about 25% more for that 12 pound bird than they did in 2024. All this lands while President Trump insists, quote, our palace, our prices are coming down very substantially on groceries and are, quote, already at a much lower level than they were with the last administration. In reality, US inflation is running around 3%, up from roughly 2 1/2% a year ago, and food prices are even hotter. By contrast, Joe Biden's last two full years saw inflation falling from 4.1% in 2023 to 2.9% in 2024. Globally, most major economies have also cooled off since the 2022 spike, making today's renewed US squeeze at the supermarket feel even sharper. Okay, so what's the real message here? Inflation is still up. This Thanksgiving is going to be the most expensive Thanksgiving ever for most Americans and President Trump to bring inflation down. Day one has not come true. Let's dig a little deeper here. I want to be fair to Trump and to Biden and to others because after all, I'm here as a sane, sensible centrist. I'm not carrying political water for any one party. And there's an awful lot of nonsense and disinformation and misinformation floating around about inflation. Now, true, nobody likes inflation, but everyone likes to claim inflation is worse than it sometimes is or when compared to other people. When you look at what happened in the last three years with inflation, it is true that three years ago inflation was high. But when you compare the United States rates of inflation over the last three years of the Biden administration compared to not Somalia, not Nigeria, not countries in distress. But when you compare it to wealthy economies, other G8 countries, large, successful capitalistic economies, the United States rate of inflation over those past three years was actually lower than other nations. We compare ourselves to other successful, prosperous nations. And it didn't, certainly didn't help Biden or Kamala Harris to point that out because everyone's comparing their own personal rate of inflation to where it was a year ago or two years ago or five years ago. So it doesn't really help politicians to say, hey, we're better off than the rest of the world, that doesn't work politically. So that was a huge asset for President Trump during the campaign last year. He was able to say, look, I know you don't like inflation. I'm going to beat inflation starting day one. Well, now he's been in office not a full year, but we're creeping up on a year. And to his credit, inflation hasn't spiked. And contrary to what many economists predicted, the tariffs have not created yet gigantic spikes in inflation. Right now, inflation is right around 3%. True, that is above the target rate of the fed of around 2%, but it's not dramatically higher. And yet people feel like it's not good in their gut. And the polls are reflecting this, or polls are now showing that how the typical American rates President Trump's handling of the economy is actually lower than how they rated President Biden. So it's one of those issues where anytime there's inflation, people are going to be upset. And it's always good if you're the challenger running against the incumbent. But when you are the incumbent, it's never a good thing. No matter how many excuses you have, no matter how valid they are, it tends not to resonate very well. And it's also relative. I mean, if you have 5% on inflation or inflation rate as an incumbent, that's great. If last year it was 10%. So it's all about the direction of it, not the absolute, the absolute rate at most levels. So what we don't know yet is are we about to see much higher inflation kicking in because of the impact of the highest tariff rates of the last hundred years? Now, I point out faults in both parties. I will point out a huge fault, a huge political tactical blunder on the part of the Democrats. I think they are absolute fools for not using the phrase tariff tax. Trump tariff tax in every single conversation. Because you say tariffs to a lot of people, it still doesn't mean much. It seems abstract. And Trump, to his credit, has painted this message as, oh, it's something other people pay, other countries will pay for it, you won't pay for it. But if you've bought anything from another country in the last few months, as I have, you actually get the bill. The tariff is sent to me directly, or you see it as the 100% markup from the person you're buying it from, the company you're buying it from. So it is a tax. I recently just had to pay a 300 tax on a dining room table I had made and designed in Belgium so that could see the overall inflation rate spiking next year. Again, I'm not here to be a prognosticator or the economy. I'm not calling for a recession. I'm not telling you I know with 100 certitude we're going to see double digit inflation next year. I'm not making that prediction. I'm simply summarizing what mainstream economic theory suggests we should see. Given the highest tariffs in the last hundred years, we should see inflation spiking dramatically. If that happens going into the 2026 elections, you could in fact see the Republicans not only lose the House of Representatives, which would be the norm anytime it's an off year election for the party holding power, you could actually see.

A loss of the Senate.

Now that's still wishful thinking in the eyes of Democrats right now, but with high inflation, you could see an angry, angry mob of voters going to the polls saying I'm just going to vote the bums out. That spells trumbull for the party in power. More in a moment. Stay tuned.

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Welcome back to Filter. Hope you're having a great Thanksgiving week. I'm here on location traveling in Charlotte, North Carolina where I wasn't born here, but I moved here when I was 5 years old, lived here till I was 22 and still have family here. Sisters, brothers in laws, nieces and nephews, all sorts of family and friends I grew up with. So it's great to be here and home for the holidays. If you are celebrating a holiday wherever you live, I hope you have a great time with family and friends. Let's dive right into Issue two today. AI singers are quietly taking over the charts. This is a real head scratcher. When I First started noticing this just a few weeks ago. And the problem, at least if you're a professional musician, is getting worse. Solomon Ray just became the top Christian artist on itunes and he doesn't exist. Every note, lyric and photo is generated by artificial intelligence. He's not alone. Billboard now list AI R&B act Zania Monet on its airplay charts. An AI country singer called Breaking Rust hit number one on the country digital song sales chart with Walk My Walk while another synthetic act, Kane Walker holds no relation to me, obviously because it's not real. Holds multiple spots on the same top 10. Industry reporting shows at least three fully AI songs topping major Billboard or Spotify charts this year. Across country, Christian and R B streaming platforms say roughly a third of all new uploads are now AI made. So no, this is not a quirky sideshow. It is the business model. Major labels are already cutting licensing deals with AI platforms. Human musicians are being quietly turned from the product and into the cost center. Okay, so what's the real message here? If you are a professional musician, a singer, a songwriter, a guitar player, it is now officially time to hit the panic button. The top charts are now seeing domination by so called AI singers and musicians where no actual professional musician was needed or used in the creation of a top 10 hit. It's only a matter of time before AI completely floods the streaming musical market. And at that point, what's going to be left other than people continuing to go to oldies but goodies like the Rolling Stones concerts? Good luck if you're a new young aspiring musician. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. Now some are saying if AI can fake gospel, it can fake anything. It's doing well in the gospel market, country music chart, all sorts of music genre. It can create any type of genre. Now the real problem I think is not to someone like a Taylor Swift. She's so entrenched, she's so popular, she has such a fan base. She will be able to perform live anytime she wants and fill up stadiums in the way an AI can't. Now is it possible that at some point there is an AI singer that is attracting such huge audiences? People love the music that actual live concerts take place and it's a hologram of an AI it's possible. I don't think you can rule out anything at this point. I remember the first concert I took my daughter to when she was about five years old was a so called kids pop concert where it was really just a bunch of dancers and I think it was, you know, Lip sync stuff and dancing. It kind of was a simulation too, even though there were real people up there. So as I mentioned to you, here are the facts. Solomon Ray tops the itunes Christian charts this week and that's a pretty big deal. Breaking rust AI country tracks hit number one. Kane Walker has multiple top spots on country charts and supposedly one third of new music uploads are AI made. Now, if it can go from nothing to one third, how long do you really think it's going to take before record labels or for that matter, smart 14 year olds in their bedroom start mass producing hundreds if not thousands of high quality music songs and uploading them? I mean, we could get to the point where Only less than 1% of songs uploaded to streaming services are made by human beings. And then even if they're really good, they can get lost in the shuffle unless they have a famous brand behind them like a Taylor Swift. And at that point, I don't know what happens if you are an astir, an aspiring musician with a great voice because AI can simply create great voices out of nothing. Now, Geoffrey Hinton, one of the founding fathers of the AI movement, is in the news this week again predicting that we are going to see massive, massive job loss, perhaps tens of millions of people losing their jobs within the next few years. It's no longer 30 years out, 40 years out. And it's no longer just Uber drivers, it's singers. It could be you, it could be me. What's the rational way of preparing for that? I think the only thing you can do, the only thing I try to do, is to learn how to use technology so we can get one step ahead, so we can have added value. Now, those of you who are regulars to this show have seen my own advertisements for my own AI. Now, my AI does not sing, as far as I know. And my AI clone is a video format. It's in an audio format. It uses my own voice, but it, I created it so that when I'm sleeping, my own students. And you can ask it for public speaking tips, communication skills tips, personal development tips, life coaching. I can be asleep at 3am and you can ask my digital clone, my AI clone, to coach you. By the way, you can also ask it to give you a summary of what I talked about on yesterday's show. So there's a lot of uses. Is that ever going to make me money? Well, right now it's costing me money, but I'm trying to be prepared for an AI future where increasingly it's going to be harder for human beings, you, me, no matter how hard working we are or talented we may think we are, it's going to be harder for us to compete with artificial intelligence. Beyond that, and saving money and investing in a diversified way, I don't know what else can be can be done, but that's what I'm trying. I'd love to hear what you're trying as well, so you can Please post your comments if you're watching this live. If you're watching On Demand, post your comments whether you're on TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn or any other social media platform. I do try to read every comment and typically respond to questions as well. More in just a moment.

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And and we are back. So thank you so much. We are on location today. I am coming to you from Charlotte, North Carolina. We'll be spending more time on the road in the coming months and I will be coming to Ho Chi Minh City or partially vacation and partially to do live broadcast like this on December 8th. I believe I leave my trip December 6th. Don't get there till December 8th. Will be in Taipei the week after that and then in January, January, February I will be in. Actually end of December I will be in New York City for one week and then January February will be in Orlando at PodFest conference. I will be in Colorado as well as Utah for combination work, pleasure, vacation, ski trips. So we'll spend a lot of time on the road in the coming months. So hope to see some of you in person and we'll be having some live events there as well. Let's dive right into issue three. Mitch McConnell says Trump is letting Putin, quote, play him for a fool. Republican infighting over Ukraine just went nuclear. According to the New York Times, Senator Mitch McConnell is ripping into President Trump's peace plan, accusing them of appeasing the Kremlin. And instead of defending the Ukraine on social media. McConnell warned that Vladimir Putin has spent the entire year trying to play President Trump for a fool. He blasted the emerging peace plan as a giveaway to Moscow, saying, quote, a deal that rewards aggression won't be worth the paper it's written on and insisting, quote, america isn't a neutral arbiter and we shouldn't act like one. McConnell added that if Trump's advisors are, quote, more concerned with appeasing Putin than securing real peace, then the president ought to find new advisors. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio privately told senators the plan was Russia led before backtracking and called it a US Document, effectively admitting Trump's team was working off of Russian talking points. This is not fringe criticism. It's the Republican establishment saying Trump is doing Putin's work. Okay, what's the real message here? You don't have to be a conspiracy theory theorist thinking Putin has pee tapes of Trump and has Trump wrapped around his little finger to notice something has been really odd for the last 10 years when it comes to the Trump administration and Russia. It's one thing to say we don't want to be as interventionist as in the past and not to be a big hawk, okay, legitimate people can see that. But the way every single time Putin seems to have Trump doing exactly what he wants, something bizarre is going on here. And if you had said to almost anyone in The Republican Party 10, 15, 20 years ago, Russia is going to invade countries in Europe and the United States is going to bend over backwards saying, yeah, let's give Russia land. That would have seemed crazy. And today that's the norm coming out of Washington. It's weird. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. So, again, it's, it's one thing if liberals or the radical left attack Trump. You can take that with a grain of salt. It's another thing if CNBC progressive commentators are saying Trump is a tool of Russia. You can take that with a grain of salt or discount that. But Senator Mitch McConnell is saying that Putin is making a fool out of Trump, and it just, it's not a good look when this administration's Secretary of State is telling people, I'm just working off the list that Russia gave us. I mean, remember, it wasn't even that long ago when this international war criminal, Putin was given literally the red carpet treatment by Trump in Alaska on US Soil because of this great big peace agreement that was going to be reached in. Nothing happened. We continue to get nothing burgers out of this administration other than continuing to placate Putin. Meanwhile, Trump treats our ally, someone who is a, a pro West Democrat, someone who's pro U. S. The Ukrainian powers. And it's this constant mockery, you know, you know, calling the, the, the president of Ukraine little. Actually, he's a little boy. It's, it's just bizarre. You know, he can go, he can go with his little self and fight the war himself. Now, again, I'm not telling you I have proof that Putin has some horrible corrupting videotape to humiliate Trump and therefore is blackmailing him to do whatever he wants. But if he did have that, it's hard to imagine what Trump would do differently, what he's been doing, because he seems to always, and I mean always find some way to snuggle up to Putin in some way to be snarky against Zelensky. Oh, look at little. Zelinsky can just take this war on himself. It's really bizarre. And I think historians and investigative journalists are going to be feasting on what really has happened here for years to come. Again, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. Do bad things happen and sometimes not get released to the public as soon as everyone would like? Well, we've certainly seen that with the Epstein files, but there's, there's something that continues to, to really not smell right with the United States and Russia in this current administration. And again, don't take my word for it. Listen to, listen to centrists, listen to Republicans, listen to traditional conservatives who think that it's frankly shameful how this administration continues to carry water for this administration. Thanks so much for joining us live. Our friends on Tick Tock today. And I'll be spending time with my Tick Tock friends later today. Kenneth Wrightson says, nice to meet you, T.J. kenneth, thank you for joining me. Let me know where you're watching today. I see you're from LinkedIn. Let us know what city and country you're in today. Always good to hear from our viewers and listeners. If you are listening to this show on any podcast platform, thanks for doing so. Please make sure to follow or or subscribe to the show. Please make sure to leave a review if you're watching on YouTube, Facebook, any other social media platform. Thanks for doing so and please leave comments, subscribe and sign up for notifications. I'm TJ Walker. Back in just a moment.

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Welcome back to Filtered Trump's quiet march towards State Run Capitalism President Trump loves to reel against socialism, but is it oh, his own administration is quietly buying chunks of private industry. According to the New York Times, the Trump team has already committed more than $10 billion in taxpayer money for ownership stakes or options in at least nine companies, most of which you haven't heard of. It's including intel, which you probably have heard of, MP Materials, Lithium Americas, Trilogy Metals, Vulcan Elements, Westinghouse, and even a golden share in US Steel that gives Washington veto power over key decisions. Former Biden official Aaron Bartnik warns that without a clear strategy, this could just devolve to arbitrary deals that favor friends or disfavor foes. We see that risk when the administration makes the Commerce Department the largest intel shareholder, and then Trump personally buys up millions of dollars of debt for some of these companies. Analyst William Reinsch says Biden's team was slow and meticulous, while Trump seems to invest by whim. That's not free market conservatism. That's creeping state ownership with a side of cronyism. Okay, what's the real message here? For decades, American conservatives have warned us that we are in danger of creeping socialism taking over the U.S. economy. And it turns out they were right. But what they didn't factor in, it was done from the inside. One of their own. This Republican, ostensibly conservative administration is socializing company after company after company. It's not just intel, it's not just U.S. steel. It is a dozen companies now where this administration says, hey, we want a piece of you, you better give it to us. This is socialism and it doesn't end well. Okay, call me too conservative if you like. I happen to believe in free market capitalism where some things are are socialized like roads, like police service, like national defense, like education. In fact, all strong economies do in fact socialize those things. What they don't do is just go taking pieces of all sorts of private sector companies, because they can. And that's essentially what this socialistic administration has done. You know, there's been a lot of talk about the problem of rising socialism in America. Everyone's looking at the wrong place. You have a partisan media that says, oh, here's New York City. Here is a guy running as a democratic socialist. So let's, let's pull out our hair. If you have hair and become hysterical about someone who's using socialism in his name, Zorhan Mandani, let's go crazy about that and talk about how the sky is falling and it's the end of the world, when in fact he has no power to take over private sector companies. Meanwhile, we have someone who purports to be this great private sector businessman, Donald Trump, socializing industry after industry after industry, company after after company. Again, it's not just intel, it's MP Materials, it's Lithium Americas, it's Trilogy Metals, it's Vulcan Elements, It's Westinghouse, it's U.S. steel. Now, does he have a reason? Sure. Guess what? All socialistic countries always have a reason. Fidel Castro always had a reason for socializing companies, private sector companies. Ultimately, it comes down to because I can. Now Trump is saying I have to do this because it's in the national interests, it's national security interest. We need these for weapons, etc. Well, guess what? If you like what Trump is doing and you like him and you voted for him, fine. But I want you to imagine a time when there's somebody of another party in the White House who says it's in the national interest that I, for example, let in every single foreigner who has a bachelor's degree or a PhD in any science field, any mathematics field. Because I think it's in the national interest that we have the top brains so that we can make the top weapons and have the strongest economy. If you're going to have this loosey goosey definition of what's in the national interest and what's for national security, there is in fact nothing stopping some other administration from saying, well, we have to let every single foreigner in the entire world instant citizenship in America. Now, you may say that wouldn't be fair to our own workers, our own college grads. Well, a lot of people don't think it's fair. Now, when certain industries get big government stakes, government money, and others don't. So look, there's no such thing as a 100% absolute purist when it comes to everything has to be in the free market because then you couldn't have stop signs and you couldn't get to work, you wouldn't have roads, so you couldn't build businesses. So let's not kid ourselves. Nobody is a 100% devoted free market for everything all the time. It doesn't exist. Unless you count Libya, where there's a failed state and you can literally buy slaves in the open market. If that's what you want, be my guest. I don't think that's what most Americans or most people in prosperous nations want. So it's always a question of you want most of the economy in the hands of the private sector and then there's certain slivers of it where it just makes sense to have, for example, public schools as opposed to every single person trying to go to a private school. But this is going too far. And what's happening is the Trump administration is getting a pass because you have so called liberal media, establishment media, so busy attacking Trump on other bigger crises. We don't have time for this. We have so many so called conservatives and new media, right wing media, libertarian media, they're like, oh, we would love to attack Biden if he'd done this. But since Trump is our guy, he can go ahead and socialize huge swaths of the American private sector. And we're just going to be quiet, we're going to keep our mouth shut because he's on our team. I'm not playing that game. I'm here for you today and every day as a sane, sensible centrist. And I'm going to call it like I see it. If you disagree, that's okay. But post your comments. If you I got my facts wrong or my arguments wrong, my logic wrong, Post your comments. I would love to hear from you. I'm TJ Walker. This is Filter. I come to you every single day looking at the top five business, technology, culture stories of the day, analyzing them through the filter of communication skills. That's what we're about right here. Back in a moment with our final big story.

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Okay, welcome back. It is the holiday week here in the United States. Thanksgiving week. A lot of exciting things going on. And when people are on holiday, it's easy to sort of say, well, I'm on holiday, eating three extra desserts, doesn't matter, giving up my exercise routine. Ah, it's a vacation. Well, maybe. But let's take a moment to get away from the hard news of the day and look at something a little more uplifting. 10 real secrets of people who live to 100 according to VEG out, which is an online publication, writer Lachlan Brown spent five years interviewing centenarians, those people who live to 100, and visiting long life hotspots like Okinawa, Sardinia and Icaria. Their formula for longevity is surprisingly simple and very different from gym culture. And I should point out, yes, there has been some controversy over whether some of the people who claim to live to be a hundred in Sardinia and Okinawa are actually a hundred, or they just are exaggerating to get more attention. Having said that, there's no doubt that there are some cultures in the world where a lot more people seem to be vibrant, healthy and active in their late 80s and 90s than other places like the United States. So let's go into some of the findings from this author. Now, some of these you've heard before, but the reason I want to put a spotlight on them is because I happen to believe you and I are bombarded with other messaging from our culture, primarily from corporations selling you junk that overwhelm the messages that are actually relevant. The first big principle the people who live to be a hundred, or at least in their 90s and very active. They move all day, but they almost never work out. They don't have fancy gym memberships. It's not all about I have to run to the marathon. No, the people who live the longest in culture after culture around the world are just actively moving. They walk to market every day. They enjoy things like hiking. They're moving. They're out Gardening. What they're not doing is sitting back watching tv, watching screens and I hate to bite the hand that feeds me. They're not sitting down watching YouTube all day and TikTok all day. They are actively moving. They're walking, they're playing, they're gardening, they're doing things they enjoy. And it's not about let me get in the car and go to the Pilates class. And I've got nothing against Pilates, but the best longevity item is moving, moving daily. That's why I am a huge fan of counting steps. Thankfully I did about 16,000 steps yesterday even though I was on a plane for a bunch of hours. Walking isn't going to get you six pack abs. It's not going to have people pointing about, you know, how muscular your biceps are. But apparently it does help you live a lot longer. The second item in this five year research study, they eat modestly, mostly whole foods. They are not buying athletic greens, they're not binging on supplements, they're not doing protein shakes. They're simply eating real food. And I realize in some communities it's hard to find that the, these, these so called food deserts in many inner cities where there's nothing but the fast food place and chips. I understand it's difficult. If nothing else, drink water, tap water, even tap water that tastes funny is going to be a lot healthier for you than the processed sugar water you get in Coke and Sprite and Mellow Yellow and Gatorade and all the other garbage. So if nothing else, I realize it doesn't completely count as whole food, but drink real water rather than more processed sugar and artificial sugars. That could be a big start. And rather than apple juice, eat an apple, eat an actual banana. Even fast food restaurants these days have salads. Just don't put the gloppy sugar filled salad dressing and you'll be much better off. So that's the second item again. You know that you've heard it. But today and tomorrow you're going to see thousands of ads to buy processed food. Potato chips, Doritos, corn chips, Popeyes, honey dripped fried chicken. And it's only human nature. You get one mention from me or someone else once a month to eat whole foods and you get 10,000 ads in a week telling you to eat heavily processed foods were nudged in the direction of eating heavily processed foods. The next tip, the people who live the longest, they stay connected, deeply connected to family and community. And it doesn't mean you have to live in your parents house till you're 65 years old. It does mean you spend time with family and friends. You don't spend time, as increasingly most Americans do, isolated in their home in the suburbs, watching a big TV or a little screen. It does mean that Next item. Always have a purpose, even a small one. I don't mean you have to run For President at 80 years of age, although seems like a lot of people like to do that. It doesn't mean you have to be a startup founder and want to make $2 billion. Your purpose could be just keeping your own block clean. And planting a garden for the whole community means something beyond yourself. Doesn't have to be about making money. It could be just knowing you're taking care of your grandchildren every day. What it doesn't mean is getting up, scrolling the news, getting angry and bitter because the things aren't like the olden days. That is a path to frankly dying at a younger age. Number five, the people who live the longest. A little irony here. They accept aging rather than fight it. They're not like Brian Johnson doing every kooky scheme in the world. They're not saying, oh, I can't possibly eat any meal past 11:30 in the morning, which he does. They're not doing extremist things. They're focusing on healthy, happy living and not saying, oh my God, I got to get a facelift. Oh my God, a hair fell out, I'm going to stress out and die. No, they're actually enjoying living at every age. The next item they truly prioritize sleep and natural rest. Natural rest. They're not popping the sleeping pills. They're not looking for every single gimmick. They're not trying to biohack their way so they can take lots and lots of monster energy drinks to stay up late. Sleep is a priority, not somehow cheating the clock and burning both ends. That's not what makes People live to 100, item 7 in this survey. They feel stress, but they don't hold on to it. You can't avoid stress in life. If you say to yourself, well, jobs cause stress and family causes stress and driving causes stress. So I'm going to be unemployed, have no family, and just live at home. That's not healthy either. They have stress, but they manage it. And they manage it in part by doing things like exercise rather than more doom scrolling. The next item. They cultivate daily small joys. They enjoy the little things in life. It's not all about, well, I'm going to be miserable until I have that $200,000 car. Then I'll be happy. Or I have friends and people I went to school with. They have 10,000 square foot homes and I only have 4,000 square foot home. I'll be happy once I get the hundred, the 10,000 square foot home. That's not what people do when they live to 100. They can enjoy a simple meal. They can enjoy drinking tea and sitting in a public park. They take the time to to enjoy the simple positive moments in life that relates to the next item. They maintain gratitude and emotional optimism. They are optimistic. There is something. You don't have to be Pollyannish. You don't have to look at everything through rose colored glasses. But if you get up in the morning and say, wow, the world is worse than ever before, this is going to be an awful day. Everyone's going to screw me over. It's going to create a negativity that can literally make you live a shorter life. You've got to figure out something that makes you positive and upbeat to give you an excuse to get out of bed in the day. Because if you're so pessimistic, why bother exercise if it doesn't help? If you're going to die tomorrow, why bother? That's why you need optimism and a sense of gratitude for what you're having. I realize some of this sounds cheesy, but about seven years ago I started a daily practice. I write down one thing every day I'm grateful for. Puts a smile on my face, puts things in perspective. The final element, the 10th element found by this author, Lachlan Brown, was that people that live to be a hundred years old, they live ordinary lives with extraordinary consistency. They consistently have the same friends and stay in touch with friends and family. They consistently eat healthy food. It's not, oh, I'm going to eat clean because the last month I got trashed every night and ate nothing but chicken fingers. No, they consistently eat healthy. They consistently have good sleep habits. They consistently spend time socializing. They consistently don't get all stressed out. That's what makes them live longer. Not necessarily. Have a peloton. If you enjoy your peloton, great. But realize that is relatively insignificant compared to these other things. Now, please Note, of these 10 elements, none of them are about having more money. Yeah, if you're too poor, that can cause a real problem with longevity. And here in the United States, we wealthy people now do live, in some cases almost 15 years longer than poor people, which is a sad thing. But it takes more than just money to live to a hundred. You can Be a hundred. Or you can be wealthy, have a lot of bad practices and die a young age. Hey, I'm TJ Walker. This is Filtered. I appreciate you spending time with me today. Those are our five big issues of the day. I always like to close the show with answering one question from you today. It comes from Lucas. He's a student in my course, the Complete Train the Trainer Boot Camp. And the question is, how can a trainer ensure that key messages are remembered and acted upon by participants? Well, Lucas, the answer is ask them. After you finish the training, ask them what do you remember. If they don't remember your key messages, you failed. It's really that simple. So part of what makes a good trainer a good trainer is they use every single training session, whether it's a half hour training session, a day long session, a week long session, as a mini focus group to make the next training session even better. Always test. Never ask the people you've trained what did you like about today? Or what did you think of today? Or rate today's training session on a 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 scale. Completely meaningless. Ask them what they remembered, anything they remember. You now have evidence it worked, do it again in the future. Typically, what you'll find whether you're training someone for an intensive hour, two hour, three hour, eight hour workshop or longer is they remember things that you've taken the time to give examples for and you've told stories involving real people. And if you use any kind of PowerPoint, you had images rather than text. Now if you've got an upcoming training and you want it to be great and you don't want them to be your focus group, you want to be great for them. You need to find two or three people in advance who are similar to your audience and then practice on them again. Test. It's not hard to figure out what works. You just ask people what they remember. If they don't remember, you have evidence you failed. If they do remember your messages, you have evidence you were in fact effective. Thanks so much for joining me. We're here the the day before Thanksgiving. I'm coming to you live. I'm going to probably have a recorded show for you tomorrow. I will be spending time with my family and friends here in Charlotte, North Carolina. If you are celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope it's a great one for you. Thanks so much. Please like the show, subscribe to it, leave comments and leave reviews. Thanks so much. See you tomorrow.