Summary

In this episode of The Zekely Podcast, host Zeke interviews Alex Pearlman, a Pennsylvania native and comedian, who shares his journey in blending comedy with political activism. They discuss the importance of local identity, navigating political conversations during family gatherings, and the significance of community engagement. Alex reflects on recent elections, the influence of his upbringing on his political values, and the challenges of content creation in today's digital landscape. The conversation also touches on the critical role of libraries, the realities of minimum wage, and the importance of hope and action in the face of adversity.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Alex Pearlman

03:01 The Holidays

06:19 Delco Pride and Identity

08:14 Committee Person

11:39 Lenny Bruce

14:40 Reflections on the November 4th

17:28 Nemesis

21:36 Pet Peeve

25:00 Financial Stability in Content Creation

27:52 Why Are You A Democrat?

29:44 Endorsements

31:48 How I Met Your Mother

33:48 Too Many Tabs

36:12 Libraries

39:47 Hope

42:16 The Future

45:35 Thank You

Alex Pearlman TikTok, IG, BlueSky: @Pearlmania500

Alex Pearlman Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/pearlmania500

Too Many Tabs: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC--1tuk-7bdo5FjjM1BtGs_-Mq8VpVl3&si=yEGtjFx5Kfcy0zhu

Full Video Episode Available On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheZekelyPodcast

Short Clips Can Be Found On TikTok: @drzeketayler/@thezekelypodcast and Instagram: @thezekelypodcast

www.thezekelypodcast.com

Hello, I'm Zeke and welcome to The Zekely Podcast. Let's talk Pennsylvania. The guest I have today is a Pennsylvania native who currently resides in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He's been on the comedy scene for over 20 years. And even though his star power continues to rise, he remains grounded in democratic principles and values. Thank you so much for being here, Alex Pearlman

For years, I’ve knocked thousands of doors all over Pennsylvania and poured my heart and soul into supporting candidates and causes that make a difference—from local school board races to national elections. The personal is political, and I take every election in Pennsylvania personally.

Where the mainstream media has failed you, I will give you truth and independence. You’ll hear from Democratic leaders, candidates, and change-makers who are working to improve the health of the Commonwealth, and it won’t be boring as hell.

No matter where you are, I’ll meet you with hope and a plan to make your community better one day at a time. Welcome to the Zekely Podcast. Let’s talk Pennsylvania.

Hey, thanks for having me buddy!

I'm so excited. You the first time I met you in person was at Josh Shapiro's social media bootcamp. Remember that? Remember that? And I was, I mean, to be honest, I played it cool, but it was pretty awesome meeting you for the first time. And you know, for anybody who doesn't know Alex or meet him in person, is super, you're super nice, super chill, very, very personable, not, not pretentious or anything. So thank you for welcoming me into the social media space.

Mm.

Yes, that's right.

I try to be. I try to be.

And we've had a great relationship ever since.

Well, and I got to say, when I met you after hearing what you were doing at that time with all of the door knocking and everything, uh, you made me feel like a fake, uh, not just in your actions, not, in the way you acted, but just like in your actions of what you were doing and what you've been accomplishing the last like two years, there is, there's so many times where I'll meet people who have gotten to know me from social media and they'll be like, Oh my God, you do all these things. And I'm like, yeah, but there's people who do so much actual things. There's so many like, like going and knocking door to door.

Cause I used to work in campaign politics years and years and years ago. I know that like every 10 doors knocked is a vote and they don't have that number yet for social media. Like there isn't like for every, you know, 10,000 views is one vote or whatever that is. Like we don't have that number. So I don't know what the translation is. So for to me, out of the two of us, you were the one doing the actual campaign work. And I was screaming into my phone and then checking Tik Tok to be like, well, what was the

What was the creator fund payout for that? Like that was like how like the balance kind of feels in this really weird way because like, yeah, I've had a, I've had an interesting mix between comedy and politics. This is a long time coming for me to have the two actually combine in this way. yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I

really appreciate what you do and we're gonna talk all about you, play some games and have some fun. You ready?

Okay.

Alex, the holidays are coming up, Thanksgiving just passed, but there are going to be more family gatherings occurring. So I wanted you to help me and hopefully the listeners and viewers on how to address some potentially awkward conversations at the holiday dinner table, okay? So let's just say grandma opens up with Marjorie Tayler Greene looks like she's a RINO now.

Mm-hmm.

How are gonna respond to that?

⁓ That is

Uh, Hey grandma, uh, just so you know, uh, cousin, cousin, Jimmy's gay. He just hasn't told you. I would just completely deflect. I would just completely deflect and just hit her with a thing like that. Or, I mean, the thing I got now, what I got now is I have, I have the grand kid, but we finally had a kid. So I got a cute toddler. So for me, I had the luckiness now where if somebody brings, this is literally actually happened.

You

Okay, yes, yeah. ⁓

somebody brought up politics and I looked at him and said, if you ever want to talk, if you ever want to see this kid, you shut the fuck up. And they went, Oh, and I was like, no, we're not doing this. We're not doing this. I can't, I'm not going to sit here and tell you how to vote. I'm not going to say a rag on you, but if you want to, I use them, I use them as a weapon. I was like, I, you want to look how cute he is. Yeah. Look how cute he is. You want to pinch these cheeks? Cause I can't convince them. Listen, they'll lie to me and they'll tell me that they voted a different way. And I know you can, you know.

Yeah. yeah.

Yeah. Collateral. Yeah. Political. Gotta use that political collateral.

Yeah.

You know. You know.

You know, but

like if she, if, if I had a grandma be like, well, first thing, so the other thing I would do if she's like Marjorie Tayler greens, a RINO I would be like, you have dementia. She's a human being. All right. She is not, she doesn't have a horn. I would, I would, I would get her. I would get her up there. Yeah. I would, would have her go in for the full. Yep.

She's not an animal. Come on, grandma. You would get her. I like that. with the animal confusion

and then seize her with the gay grandchild.

Yeah, gay cousin.

Here's the next one. Pappy throws out the Epstein files are just another hoax.

Okay. so is Pappy. Sorry. No, no, no. I know this guy. This guy is this guy. No, I know this exact guy. ⁓ so that one was fun because I was, I immediately just turned on, but you didn't think there were hoax two years ago. You didn't think there was last year. You didn't think there were hoax three months ago.

Yeah. I mean, I can give backstories to all these people. You know, Pappy?

Yeah. Yeah.

I might even hit him with a, of course you'd say that you're still a Joe Pa fan. Like there's things like that. I might just come in and just haymaker, um, you know, and be like, Hey, this isn't, this is the president we're talking about. Not a Catholic Bishop.

You

I wouldn't say Donald Trump. I would just say Epstein's friends. Do you not agree that Epstein's friends should be held accountable? And then they get them to say yes to that. I'm like, awesome. The president is one of Epstein's best friends. He said it repeatedly.

accountable. Yeah.

Awesome.

Yeah, yeah, I love it. We're gonna throw down with Pappy. All here's the last one. ⁓ Pop Pop enters the chat with, only criminals are being arrested by ICE.

That's how.

Got it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Cool. Got it. And that's why, that's why they're pulling up to daycares. That's why they're, that's why they're, that's why they're doing pickup lines.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it's unfortunate. But at least I'm glad you gave some pointers on how to shut down these mammies and pop-ups at the dinner table these holidays because...

Yeah, the other thing

you can do, and this is not legal advice, you can just take their pills. Okay. As a doctor's Zeke not approved. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you can shake him and go how much these cost now? ⁓ After the Medicare stuff.

Not approved, but still hilarious to talk about.

Exactly.

Alex, I understand you grew up in Delco, correct? So I have to say there is a real sense of pride from people who are from Delco. I live in Montco and I love living here, but I don't have that Delco chest when you say it. Do you carry that pride with you?

Mm-hmm. Yup.

Mm-hmm.

I'm so I I'm a weird hybrid. I'm a weird, weird hybrid when it comes to it. So I grew up in the part of Delco that actually went to Westchester area school district. So I'm this weird little carve out. So my line is I stick up my pinky as I say water. My accent

You

only comes out when I'm like angry drunk. like if I'm watching the Eagles, I'm just, what the fuck, you know, I just like it comes like the hoagie comes, but like, it's not always quite there. It, what I notice it is when I'm not in this region, cause instantly I'm like, I need to get home. is like,

I'll be,

even when I go to New York, I went to New York pretty recently and like people there were like, you're too aggressive. And I was like, I'll kill you. Yeah. They were like, they were like, you're too much. And I was like, I'll murder you right now.

in New York?

I don't want to deal with this. But then also when I went to the West Coast, people in the West Coast, they at first they thought it was cute because they thought I was doing a character. And then I was like, No, you guys have no especially last year. Last year when I was there, it was before the election. And I kept telling people for the presidential election 2024. I kept telling people they're like, Oh, what are your plans for like 2025? I'm like, I don't have any. Because it

Thank you.

Yeah,

the world doesn't start until after the election.

Yeah, I literally

was and they're like, why? What's gonna happen? And I was like, because of the election, they're like, ⁓ well, we're safe here in California. And I was like, Are you and I lived legit, legit. I spent the first six months of this year, just like every couple months just taxes, I might be like, still feel safe. Motherfucker. I told you I sat in that bar and I told you, you need to do something. And now do I want to listen to me?

Yeah, well, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, and us all. Yeah.

Well, you had the right rage in the right place at the right time.

Alex, you worked as a committee person for your local Democratic committee, correct? Do you still do that or you don't do it anymore?

Yes.

I'm on I'm backing away. Yeah, I'm backing away. It's it's been difficult in general. The committee is the Democratic Committee is one of the most important blocks and building blocks of political organizing, especially for the party. But also as I joined is right when everything took off for me on social media.

You're backing away.

So I have to make a choice sometimes of is it worth it? Is it more worth it for me to be making content or trying to talk to people at a polling place? And so that difference right now has been, I've just been kind of a situation where I've just been like, I don't know if this really is for me or should I be putting this seat up for somebody who might knock more doors and might be able to make a better difference, know, who's also grew up here. you know, cause I moved, I moved to where we live about

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

of four years ago. So I'm coming up to the end of my term anyway. So it's just one of those ones I've considered. gotta look there. I'm like, can just appoint somebody.

Okay.

Yeah, well what inspired you to get involved in that space? Because not many people know how to like just even get into being a committee

So when we bought this house, felt very much, I felt strongly that I want to affect change here. And there was a few things I wanted to do, one of which was get a stop sign. Another thing, which was to open a dog park. Neither have happened, but there, I still started making

I love it. Well, first of all, I'm grateful that you at least went into that

because there are lots of people who don't even know where to start. Like they don't even know how to like start.

Well,

and I'll tell you, working the poll for me was the number one. Just standing in front of my polling place, handing out literature, having conversations. This last election was the most important I did standing out front, more so than anything else, because I got to make sure that people understood the judge's retention on the back of the ballot and really go over it with them. We did a lot of messaging through our videos and things like that on social media, but again,

Yeah.

Yes.

Yep.

those don't trickle down to every audience. Not everybody's gonna get, doesn't reach every algorithm, it doesn't reach all these different things.

Right, right.

And you know, having those experiences with my neighbors and with, you know, regular voters, regular people,

Yeah.

actually helps me be able to communicate better in my videos.

it comes down to the actual people that truly matter in a democracy, which are the human beings who are going to go in there and grab a pen and check something or flip a switch or push a button, those people.

Yeah.

You need to understand where they're coming from. And a lot of them, when they're there, they're trying to think of how am going to get lunch tonight? I how many at dinner tonight on front of my family? you know, how I got to go back to work in the morning. It's this line going to take too long. All these little things like that before they even get to that

Well, I'm just grateful that you did this for whatever period of time you did it. And then hopefully someday when things slow down, you get back in there and you help the next generation of ⁓ poll workers.

Yeah, no, mean, it's an interesting, and I highly recommend it to anyone, especially to people who wanna meet their neighbors.

So through being a committee person, I got to meet people, ⁓ in our, our township council and stuff like that. And through that, the emails, you know, trading emails and those different types of things that Facebook and stuff like I've learned about events. I never would have looked up, on it. And it has maybe more connected to the community and those different

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Right, yeah.

Well, I really hope that you can keep working with your local commissioners and get that stop sign you've always wanted. Yeah,

Yeah, I'm hoping so too. I'm hoping so too.

Alex, one of your favorite comedians is Lenny Bruce, correct? In every house you've lived in there's a picture of Lenny Bruce above a door somewhere, is that true?

Yes, yes.

Yeah, did

I tell you that or do you know how did you find this out?

⁓

I don't, I'm not giving my secrets, man. I do deep, deep dives on my guests. Yeah. So, so yeah. How does it, why did, why did Lenny Bruce speak to you?

That's crazy. Okay. yes, he's my,

he is my Muzza. ⁓ so I always have him by the door because Lenny Bruce is the last comedian in the United States to be arrested, for obscenity. He was the very last comedian that ever happened

He was shocking, but he was shocking in his reality. know, the things Lenny Bruce got arrested for was speaking about gay rights. Like he was, they were getting upset at him because they're saying what he was saying was obscene. He was talking about two women loving each other. And like that was a thing that was interesting to me. He also spoke from places that people didn't expect comedy to be happening. So he was speaking at strip clubs and jazz bars and all these different places.

And he was a working comic. so I always found it very interesting. There's not, there's not a ton of footage of him performing. Dustin Hoffman made a movie about him. That was very good. but it, he was just one of those guys where I listened to his stuff and I realized I had to go find a history book to understand what the joke he just made was and then go look into it a little bit deeper. And I was like, okay. He's very much very similar to me at current events guy in that way.

Yeah.

But also someone who was, you know, he the things he believed in he was very very adamant about including the First Amendment which he right up until the day died Of a heroin overdose. He was he was still sitting there. He was typing his defense and then George Carlin picked that up with the seven words you can't say on television and things like that and so I was always just drawn to those the the more rebellious comics in general

Yeah,

that makes sense. you ever watch... Okay, did you ever watch the show The Marvelous Miss Maisel?

wouldn't have done a Saudi show. He wouldn't have done a Saudi show. That's the one thing I know.

I have not, my parents did. They told me it's amazing. I heard that Lenny, there's Lenny Bruce character in it. And the reason why is, ⁓ it's for me, we haven't watched the bear either. So my wife worked in restaurants for years. I worked in restaurants. There's a certain level of like, when it's a thing that you do, it's not fun. And so I didn't, even if it's, I've heard it's really good. I've had a lot of people tell me it's really, really good. I know. So I've heard, but I I'm afraid that I'll be the one guy in the back. like, that's not how you open up.

Yes, there is.

Okay.

Okay.

It's very good.

Why would you open that

⁓

I think you would enjoy the Marvelous Miss Maisel and the person who played Lenny Bruce, won, I think, an Oscar or something. He won something for his portrayal of Lenny Bruce. something, yeah, I'm probably saying it wrong.

Okay, probably maybe a Golden Globe. I know Tony Shalhoub

won a bunch of or an Emmy. Tony Shalhoub won a bunch of I love monk. So

Yeah, or something. Yeah,

he was every, it's a phenomenal show. Take a chance. But I think you would appreciate it because, you know, Lenny's in it or portrayed in it.

Okay.

I like that you like Lenny Bruce. I think he was edgy and it totally matches your

There you go.

Yeah, and you can carry that legacy on, Alex. Yeah.

I appreciate that. Thank you.

talked about this a little bit already, but what's your reaction to the most recent elections in Pennsylvania on November 4th? Because I'm geeking out about it. I mean, I mean, yeah. Yeah.

It's elation. It's elation. It's total elation.

Yeah.

I still think back to it a lot about how poorly the electorate was informed due to a lot of consequences, not all solely Democrats, many of it having to do with big tech. So the fact that people didn't expect all the things that have happened that you and I knew were gonna happen.

Yeah. Yeah.

We knew, we knew mass deportation was coming. We knew

they were going to destroy the economy. knew all these different things. So, so going into 25, I knew we were kind of better shot. didn't think sweep buddy, buddy sweep was crazy. And the thing is in reality in Pennsylvania, we really only needed to retain one, ⁓ judge, but retaining all of them felt really, really good.

Yeah, I didn't know. didn't either. That was nuts.

Yeah.

The other thing that really reminded me of which is the truth, which is democracy is local. All democracy and all politics is local.

Yeah, all politics.

It me some, it took me, it took me some time to really just process it.

Yeah, I agree. mean, I just, God, when that, I mean, you saw the video I made just like the pouring out of emotions. I mean, I was so proud of how Pennsylvania did across the board. mean, Bucks County, Bucks County went blue. know Danny Ceisler the sheriff who I interviewed on here, he won. Joe Khan who ran for DA, he won in Bucks County. So to me, this was like a bellwether event and I needed it.

for all the work that I put in last year and put in this year. I look, I grew a beard, Alex. Look at this. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. I have got, no, I understand. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'd say the most comments I've gotten have been from men about my beard. And so I think I'm gonna keep it going. ⁓

Mm-hmm.

It looks great. I know and it's a great looking beard. I want to say you look a lot better with the beard. I'm not saying you looked bad before, but I'm saying like now you got it. You got it good. Alright, I'm just saying you got a good beard.

Yeah.

Yeah, how's the how's the

how's the missus like it? She like it?

She

likes it, she's kind of indifferent to it, she doesn't hate it. Which I was kind of surprised

Okay. Can

but you know, I'm walking into 2026 with my shoulders back and my beard out, because here we come,

I'm excited. I'm excited for governor Shapiro's reelection. I'm excited for quite a few congressional seats here in Pennsylvania because of the way, ⁓ our lines are drawn. And I think we're going to see more activations. And I think a few of the people who snuck through this last time, like there's that guy up in Scranton and a few others, I think they're cooked because they, they stepped in and they did so much grifting and insider trading and stuff like that, that really speaks to people during a really tough time that we're having right now, economically.

Yep. Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I

Alex, we all have a nemesis, okay? And I believe yours is Jill Stein, right? Is she your nemesis? That both-siding saboteur. I mean, where is she? Where's Jill Stein, Alex? Where is she these days?

Hmm.

She's up there, she's on the list of ops. I have a list.

So

I do get tagged ⁓ in literally everything she does. Anytime she shows up anywhere, I will open up any of my apps and they'll be tagged. I mean, for the most

she's doing what she's, what she always kind of does, which is stand around with people, uh, and tell them that there's really no hope of actually working inside of anything or with anything and trying to again, drive that wedge.

Right.

Yeah.

but no, she is a, I want her to know, cause she is Dr. Jill Stein that she has caused more harm than good in this world. ⁓ every time a woman bleeds out in a parking lot across the South and through many States in this country, Jill, that you did that.

Yeah, right.

Right.

because of actions she took and the backing that she took. And then she tried to, she got a bunch of money because she's claimed that she was going to do a recount in Pennsylvania or some shit. She raised all this money and then went, Oh wait, nevermind. And then fucking ran off with

and

And the thing that really got me was being more heavy on Tik TOK. I saw the inroads that she was trying to make over there. And again,

She was never trying to win. There's many of these people who never, never trying to win. All they really cared about was, uh, was stopping Harris. And I was like, okay, but you don't have a plan after that. And so now we're in a situation where millions of people are going to die because of the destruction of USAID. We have literally millions of Americans who are now losing their healthcare. We've been dealt with all of the restrictions that happened to snap. We've had planes fall from the fucking sky, all these different things. And if

voting for Harris meant this list of things that they believed at that time, then what is not voting to have over here? And a lot of them, when I tie back into them, especially people in her camp, a lot of them are, if they're not outright botnets, they are people who are screaming about electoralism in general. And they love to scream about the revolutions around the corner, but it's so crazy how none of them are the ones who wanna actually do that.

plan.

They're not serious people about actually participating in democracy at

Yeah, but it's not even just about democracy. They're not serious about doing anything and anything. They wanna talk, they wanna yap, and they wanna be paid to yap. And it's okay, go get paid to yap. But then if you point out that hypocrisy on them or the fact that they can't get anything done, they lose their minds. And so for the most part, my option has been to, I I block most of them because they're bags of shit and they're also liars.

Right, yes, yeah.

Like they've just been outed as being basically conservative ops, or they've already fled the country because they just wanted to leave us here in hell. And that's fine. That's that. That was their right. It's my right to go tell you to go fuck yourself. ⁓ but yeah, Jill Stein's a big one up there. Fetterman for me is another one. ⁓ the entire Republican party is, is another one, but there's, there's like, there's, there's so many, then Joe Rogan, Theo Vaughn, Theo Vaughn. I've, I know I've ran it about Theo Vaughn all over my pod, but

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, fuck. Oh, he's terrible. He's terrible.

Terrible. For me, it's Scott Pressler. He is my nemesis. Scott Pressler. You know, that guy, we... I do feel really good. I do. I do. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, then you must be feeling really good right now because after 2025 after 2025 election, I've seen what Scott's been posting and it is it is pathetic. It is

pathetic Looney Tunes shit. ⁓ Yeah, no, he he Scott's one of those ones that it's always very funny seeing his content come across because I'm just like, buddy, eventually they run out of good ones.

Ken Kick Rocks.

Yeah, yeah, I just want to let them know the fascists always eat their own buddy. So just watch

Mm-hmm.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people platform bad actors, right? Whether it's for clout or to make money, it's just disappointing because the mainstream media does this so much already, right? Legitimizing bad people is a big reason why we got ourselves into this mess as a country in the first place.

Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Is there a line, and I feel like I know the answer to this already, that you would have as a creator of who you would engage with on your platform?

I'm a combative person, but I'm not somebody who looks, I'm not a debater and I don't look forward to a fight in general. So when I look at things like Jubilee or I look at like CNN, where they have the Abby Phillips show, everybody's sitting on a table. I know people have done that. That's not me. And I also don't find those things entertaining for me in general. I like to discuss things. I would rather talk to somebody who I agree with 90 % and then argue over 10.

Yeah.

Yeah.

then somebody like when it comes to, you know, somebody who's transphobic, who doesn't believe that trans people have a right to exist. Like I don't want to debate that person. They don't believe I or, or a Nazi who believes that, uh, you know, that Jews don't shouldn't exist at all. You know, there's things like that, like Nick Fuentes in the world or, um, you know, a vehement racist, a clan member, these types of people. And when it comes to a lot of these politicians, there's a lot that I wouldn't

But you have to figure out what that line is because some of them are, there was a time in this country that light did do disinfectant where shining a light on certain people like David Duke in the eighties, that actually made a difference. But a guy like Fuentes actually is a mold that gets stronger. He exists as an algorithmic parasite. He's an SEO clone.

Yeah.

He wants you to say his name. He wants you to Google him. He wants this. He wants this. He wants this because he knows this is how things grow. Andrew Tate was another one until very recent until more recently, Donald Trump is one of these.

Yeah, I just I appreciate that because you whether and whether you want it or not you have a responsibility with all of your followers, you know to put out a certain amount of messaging and and I always respect people that don't fall off the rails and fall into that trap of going for the clout to the clickbait Whatever it takes to grow I'm gonna sell my soul or part of it to just get to where I need to be and so I just appreciate that you're mindful about

Mm-hmm.

Well, and a big part of that actually is, is my wife too, because there's been times where I've wanted to fall for the bait and I've wanted to go engage and, really scream at, you know, the Jack posts of IACS of the world. And she's pointed out to me, she's like, why you have all these other things going on to engage. he wants you to engage with him because he wants to be in front of our audience. The other thing is, ⁓ that really helps for me is I don't use Twitter.

Yeah.

Right.

Right. Yeah.

And by not using Twitter,

everyone who I know who has had a special issues with trolls, especially with coordinate attacks, all those different things, it's 100 % been because of Twitter. And it's been because of who they engage with over on Twitter. And that has been, I mean, that is really just that that is our new 4chan now. And then this is just where they're openly I mean, so to me, for the most part, I tell I try to help everybody if you want to have a better time on the internet, just stay away from Twitter in general.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, I agree.

I agree.

Yeah.

Alex, I read that you felt financially secure when you were making what would be the equivalent of minimum wage from your Patreon account, correct? So, I mean, and if that all fell away, you'd at least be able to live.

Mm-hmm. Yes.

in Pennsylvania with the abysmal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. And that just, that really spoke to me. Like as someone who really is cognizant of what people need to do to survive and get by. So I just kind of wanted to know how you arrived at that place. I mean, first of all, congratulations that you were able to do that. But I mean, that's the reality for a lot of people living in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Well, actually, more importantly, it was, was I knew if I had that base on Patreon, I could still go get another minimum wage job and I would be making double minimum wage, which would be in the ballpark of $15 an hour, close to that. That was really what the thought process was. And the hard part with content creation in general is having the base. And it's always fluctuating.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

there was a time where you can make really good money posting Instagram reels. One day they turned that off right now on Tik TOK. I went from, you know, ⁓ making a couple thousand dollars a month on Tik TOK to I think in November they've cut it down to like $200. Like it's, it's, you know, it's not a real job in the, in the sense of you don't have a contract with anybody. You're a contractor and they dictate all the terms.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

And so there's a lot of play on that side. So with the Patreon side of things and our, our listeners over there who've joined us at permania 500.net, they have come in and given us a baseline level of support.

So, you know, we tell our patrons all the time, they're the thing we're most thankful for.

that's great. I'm really happy that you have that financial stability. And I think it's still disgusting that Pennsylvania has a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which I am certain that if we ever flip the state Senate, the Democrats will be able to, you know, adjust that. But I just found that it just spoke to me to know that that that was good enough for you. And you deserved even long before you became who you are. And you deserved more than that. Pennsylvanians deserve more than just to say

If I make minimum wage double that, I'll be okay. Now people deserve a thriving wage. And so I just found that very interesting in your history.

Yeah, no, it's a, I've felt very strongly in the minimum wage because until very recently in my life, I was a shift worker. I've always been a shift worker. And I mean, at a time when $10 an hour was considered huge, you know, and I remember the first job I got that was $10 an hour before that. was like, I had one, I had one that they were like, this is a big job. I was like, oh yeah, like it pays $875. And I was like, Oh, $8 is 75 cents. And that was 2004, you know, and now like, I mean,

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

At this point, it's a joke. Every state around us pays so much more, ⁓ which is, a West Virginian is worth more than a Pennsylvanian.

figured it out.

I

Alex, why are you a Democrat?

⁓ so

a laundry list of reasons. but, ⁓ number one is because I was raised a Democrat and those are the values that were instilled into me over time. number two, I've seen what the

the Republican ideals have done to this country and I've lived through many of them. and number three, it's, it's hard to explain.

But I, it's, the party isn't perfect and it'll never be perfect. There's always this old Will Rogers quote. I don't believe in organized politics. I'm a Democrat. It's a great quote. A lot of people lean on it little too much, but it is also true.

⁓ so my reason for being a Democrat is, ⁓ it's the values I was raised with. was the party I was raised with and the Republicans are fucking evil. ⁓ and the thing is I will tell the people all the time, which is if there was another party,

Right.

that could step in that actually had organization, any of different things, then I would seriously look at it. To me, inside of that is Working Families Party and DSA, which are doing the right and smart thing, which is to try to use the baseline organization and others of the bones of the Democratic Party. Because you have to do, people still do not understand what a full oversweep would be to rebuild these things. They have no idea the connections.

and the necessity and the legalese and all of these different things that have been built up over multiple centuries to get to this level. And if you, if you have the will to do that and go build up your own super green party, whatever the F you want to call it, go ahead. But I would highly recommend them to not start at the presidency, Jill Stein, but to start at a fucking dog catcher or maybe coroner and then work your way up from there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I appreciate that we're Democrats together. share the same values. It means a lot to me.

Thank you.

Alex, you have promoted a couple products on social media because, you know, man has to eat. Have you ever been approached by a company that you turned on their offer to promote a product? All the time?

a hundred. Yeah. All the time.

Yeah. I'm not going to say any of their names, but I turned down, I turn down stuff all the time.

we're again, because of the Patreon where we can be a little bit more discerning.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

you we can be a little bit more discerning. So we try to, you know, we try to look into it as much as we can, you know, as best we can. But there is also this weird thing that happens to liberals and Democrats

if we take the wrong one, you'll get pilloried for it. But like, you know, on the right, they can literally be like, Hey, buy my scam coin. And they're all multimillionaires. So, you know, whatever it's morals.

Yeah.

I know, I know, it's ridiculous. Well, I like the ones that you have,

yeah, I agree with you. I like the ones that you've promoted so far. So we're gonna play a game called Market Me and I'm gonna pitch you some products and I want you to tell me if you would endorse them, okay? Here's the first one, JD Vanity Couch Protector by Lazy Boy. High grade protection for the uninvited guests. You wanna go on them? Okay, fine.

Okay? Sure.

No.

I'm gonna go ahead with big old no on that. My dad

worked for DuPont, all right? This is Scotchgard House. Okay? Yeah. Okay.

Okay, okay, understood. Well, maybe this one will tickle your fancy. Pete's

headsets by Sony, they might lose their charge faster if you use critical thinking skills, though.

Got it. Got it. Yeah, no, I'm not going to go with those. ⁓ Yeah, this is I'm more of ⁓ a skull candy guy still. I like to go to the old Sam goodies and get some skull candies off the wall.

No.

Okay.

Okay,

fair enough. All right, have two more. How about Pam Blondies by Nabisco? They taste like alternative facts. No? I really hope you're gonna get this last one. How about Cashew Patel by Planters? When justice can't be served, have a cashew.

I know. Thank you. I'm going to pass on those ones.

Mmm, you know, I've heard that you could only purchase that one with the double tarantula skull eyed challenge coin

I think so. think you're right. All right, fine. I really worked hard on those. So I'm a little disappointed you didn't like one of them, but I understand. I understand. I'm sure even your wife would probably turn you away from those. Hope springs eternal.

I think so. I'm going to pass on Cashew Patel.

Alex, I met your mom at the last Harris rally at the art museum, and she's lovely. I mean, she really is. We talked about her past as a teacher. ⁓

That's right, that's right, you did.

I forgot about

this.

Yeah,

you were doing videos off to the side. was hanging out with your mom, keeping her company. And we talked about her past, how she got involved politically for women's rights throughout her career. So I can only imagine that had a large influence on you for your political ideologies later on in life.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, a hundred percent. One of my earliest memories is doing envelope stuffing with my mom. Folding, doing the three folds and then putting them into the envelopes and then doing a production line with me and my sister, know, sealing those envelopes. And then my mom having the now National Organization for Women, having pickets for them. And then she was a union member. My dad also comes from a backing of union organizers.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And my mom was also a Latin teacher. So she's always made sure that I had a historical view of the world and like understood the movements. She's Latin is so it's more a Roman empire, Roman Republic. Um, but through that, uh, a lot, a long history of like learning, especially British history. And, um, because so much of it was literally written in Latin. we would go to England and like read the stuff that way. And then that, you know, translates to the American side of things. So again, her family's also from the South. So that also.

pointed me towards looking more into the civil war and learning about having a Southern family, but learning about the civil war from the perspective of the North gave me like a two side view on that. to like have a better understanding of like what my racist cousins could not fucking comprehend because their schools weren't teaching it to them. ⁓ and so it's like, there's, there's a lot in that, but yeah, she, she taught me a love of

Yeah, right.

and a love of wanting to explain what I've learned.

That's the biggest thing I got from her was how to explain to somebody a concept and to study their face to see if they actually understand what you're saying, which is hard to do on the internet.

It is hard. so it was a lovely time hanging out with her. if you see her again soon, which I'm sure you will, tell her I said hi.

I will. Yeah, I will definitely.

Alex, you do a podcast with your wife, Too Many Tabs, where you take deep dives into history and educate each other. But it started off with her being off camera. But now she shows her face. So I have to know, like, what was that watershed moment where she decided to show her face?

Mm. Yep.

We've been working at it for a really long time. We had been working for a very, very long time at getting her on camera. We did slow upgrades to everything. Initially, if Kamala had won, she probably would have gone on camera in January or February.

And my big concern was always, ⁓ when you take somebody who's who that you haven't seen and you show their face for the first time, people can often be overly critical. I've had this experience when dealing with radio personalities that I've listened to my entire life. ⁓ so like a Terry Gross from NPR or Pierre Robert from ⁓ WMR who just passed away.

So I was very concerned and very, know, she's also a woman showing her face on internet. So we showed it without making any announcement. We didn't even acknowledge it during the episode. ⁓ It just happened. And so people who were listening on the audio side of our podcast had no idea.

Mm-hmm.

wow.

that they were listening to the fact that her face had revealed. and in fact, actually it was for up to like a month or two months after the face reveal where we still get comments, where people are like, my God, that her face? Like, and like, and so it wasn't, so we got to a certain point where I was like, okay, now we're to post the clips. ⁓ and all these other different things, but it was just from like looking at everything and it was, it was actually also holding the show back a little bit too, because you know, if, a clip was going viral, people were like, who is he talking to?

You

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And

so people understand going back and forth on two clips. It's, it's a little bit different on that way. ⁓ and all these different things, but also I wanted, I wanted for her to be able to have a full content creator experience, which she's been able to on her Instagram, this is dot Pearl mania 500. Yeah.

Well, I mean,

I'm jealous because your wife is amazing and I know that she's been a large part of your life and

steering the ship and what you're doing. And my wife is the same way. I mean, she does a lot of stuff in the background and she told me that she might make an appearance if I ever get a million followers on a platform. So I have a long way to go, but if you ever want to see Mrs. Tayler, it's going to be a little while. So I'm jealous that you get to have

Mm.

Okay.

Yeah.

experiences with her.

Well, and that's

Alex, I understand you make a point to pay attention to your local library to make sure there's adequate funding and that books aren't going to be banned. ⁓ So what could possibly be wrong if you don't have access to public libraries, Alex? What's the big deal with that?

Mm-hmm.

the big thing is that you don't know what you're missing until it's gone.

So when you see defunding of things like library systems, it's very hard to get them turned back on. when you see cuts to libraries, people don't

not just our local library, but libraries across this nation, they do more than just books. They do more than books, DVDs and CDs and all these other different things. There's.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They'll

have Narcan Narcan trainings there. They have a citizen test trainings. They have help for people to get jobs. mean, it really is short of your township building where your township supervisor are. It is probably the closest actual government you get beyond a public

It wasn't until I was in my late 30s. My wife took me to the library I knew my library from my high school and things like that, but I never again as a renter I never engaged with my local library system because again, I was only gonna live there for a certain amount of time I was always worried about taking out a book and I went there and I immediately found So many resources of so many different things people who were willing to help me

Yeah.

community events and things I would never have access to. But also for me, somebody who has to sit here and do these deep dive episodes about too many tabs and other things today, I spent three hours sitting in the library today with my laptop. I have internet at home. I need to sit at a place where I didn't have all of these fun things that I have around me and distractions and everything else. At my local library, they have one of these like big comfy chairs with like a desk thing and a laptop plug in the back and I use it in their wifi.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I was in my Google docs just writing on my thing about Louis Napoleon and Napoleon the third typing this thing up and it was just good. It's just, it's a great place to go for those things in the center of

And it's also one of those things where I guarantee you if libraries didn't exist now, we would not invent them. And so if we lose them, we lose them. If you got to believe,

that Jeff Bezos wants you to pay for Kindle Unlimited rather than go to your library for free.

I guess, yeah, you're right. You're 100 % right. yeah. No, I appreciate that you're a watchdog for that because I take my kids to the library a lot. Yeah. Yeah.

I know I'm right.

That's more Mrs. P. No, that's more my wife though. I'm a

listen, ⁓ this, that's more, she's in the back bark and orders on that when she's like, go defend the library. but, but also one of things we try to do through the pod and in general, the best way to defend your library is just get your library card. just get your library. You don't have to, and then use it, but that is a great thing, but also just get it because it shows a need and the need of having people having a library card then ends up being a budget line. And that budget line ends up being options at budget line means another librarian.

Yes, yes.

another staff member, that budget line means a backup of extra lights, another shelf, that budget line means just a few more different things. The other thing that we try to tell people as well is if you have the capacity and availability, go to your library, ⁓ supervisory board meetings because the only people who show up to these things are fucking lunatics. And so if you have five library supervisors sitting there and one person shows up and they say, we should burn all the books. And that's the only person who shows up for six fucking years.

Yeah.

they're gonna burn the books. So you have to show up and they go, why is this fucking lunatic here? And then bring two of your buddies. And then for another three of you and the one person goes, we should burn all the books. And then three other people said, you're a fucking lunatic. And before you know it, that person leaves and they go on to something else. Probably the Senate.

Right. Yeah.

You know, you're probably right, I approve. Yeah, that is how it works. Well, I appreciate that. We'll protect the libraries

Yeah, that's usually how it works.

Alex, what gives you hope?

so my hope in general is just to do do something every day. What does that mean? What does that impact have? I can't, you know, if this was a few years ago, I'd be like, well, Gen Z will be less racist. Wrong. There's so many things like that. were like, so many things are going to happen that we can never count on. And we're going to live through more and more unprecedented times every single day of our lives. But what do you do? How do you feel? I when I look back at 2024, the one thing my wife

Yes.

Yes.

And I keep saying to ourselves, there's nothing, there's nothing else I could have done different. But I did something and there's a lot of people who can't say that. There's a lot of people who can say, actually can only say the opposite of that. they either didn't vote or they actively, made things worse. And those people eventually, I don't know if they'll ever reckon with that, but you know, those people will have to process that on their own time.

Yes.

Yeah, well, hope is a verb. something that we have to do every day. And you give me hope. You really do. People who wake up every day and try to make our Commonwealth a better place, using your words or whatever way you can, that gives me hope. So I appreciate you.

Well, thank you.

Well, you give me hope by knocking doors

Because I'm telling you right now, the Republicans are not knocking doors like that. They aren't. And this is a thing that again, the Democrats could, they have done before.

I know.

I got stopped on the street and people would say, thank you for being so brave and speaking out. That was, that was a change from, I want to say that started around April of this year.

Okay.

People started thinking that speaking out against this administration or speaking out against certain policies is brave in America. And it's not, it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be, it should be the default. We have a first amendment and I'm from Delco and I lived in Philly for a very long time. And if I see somebody do something fucking stupid, whether it be Nick Sirianni with the Philadelphia Eagles, you bag of shit, get it together. Or it'd be John Fetterman, you bag of shit, get it together. Or it'd be Donald Trump, you bag of shit, get it together. Or it'd be Joe Pittman, you bag of shit, get it together. Like there's so many people.

Yeah, it shouldn't be now. Right.

Yeah.

You

Joe Pemmon.

that we need to be told that. And if we don't tell them, then it's just gonna get worse. And anyone who tells you that you can't tell people that, tell them that hurts and they're a bag of shit too, and then tell them to get it together. That's my hope. That's my hope. That's my hope spot.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Well.

That's right. that's how you get, no,

I love it. I appreciate that. I'm gonna take that with me.

Alex, my last question for you is what are your plans to get you through these next few years?

A gun? I don't know man.

You

No, just one day at a time. That's all you can do. Just one day at a time. I I got a toddler. So like, don't know. I never know what the next five minutes are gonna do. I spent this entire interview just thankful my wife is home in case he wakes up. But no, it really is just the same with the hope thing. It's about one day at a time.

One day at a time, that's

Yeah.

capitalizing on the minutes you have and just, you know, trying to the big part of from the election last year until the election this year has truly just been survival. There is, I've known plenty of people who did not want to be here anymore and convincing them that they need to stay here. Whether that be on the country or this plane of existence. I have met so many people who were rightfully depressed ⁓ about the state of the world and rightfully have still have

major major concerns about what's gonna happen great I want you to stay here and I want you to be here because when we can start to get on the other side of some of this because we

I listen to a lot of drag queens and drag queens are often very very very very wise because they are typically the canary in the coal mine RuPaul reminds people about how cyclical civil rights are

⁓ In this century in particular we have grown up in a post-apocalyptic Death cult world We have had a series of presidents who believe that the end of the world was inevitable We have a opposition and the Republican Party many of which are Christian nationalist psychos Who believe that is their job to bring about the end of the world? We have people internationally depending on what areas we're talking about who believe that the end of the world is around the corner We have AI tech bros who believe that they're bringing about the tech apocalypse

All of these guys at the end of the day are wrong.

we spent a lot of this last year telling our listeners, find the thing that's close to home that you can protect first.

Is that going to be the baseline of it in the case of people who might have immigrants in their family? Is that going to be literally your family? Is that literally your children? Because I sit at the door in the case of trans people, same thing with your family in the case of, um, is it your job because of the union or because the AI is coming in to destroy your job? Where any of these steps I take is that your local library? Is it your local hospital, which we've had in our areas? Are there any certain things? Because I'm here to tell you the one thing that I've learned

in the last 40 years is that there is no fucking Calvary. We are our own Calvary and we have to ring the wagons together and figure out how to protect ourselves. And inside of that, we can then begin to expand that circle bigger and bigger to protect more people. But we've been pushed back right to the goal line and we have to make sure that this far, no further.

Yeah, you're right.

Alex Perlman, I appreciate you. If you don't follow him, Perlmania 500 on all the social media platforms, TikTok, Instagram, Blue Sky, Too Many Tabs is his podcast. His wife is also lovely. I just can't wait to keep working with you. And I'm really happy that you're part of my cavalry to keep moving Pennsylvania in the right direction. So thank you very much.

Appreciate you.

And thank you, Dr. Zeke. And everybody should follow you and everybody should listen to you more because your calmness and your thoughts on how to move things forward. Like I'm dead serious, bro. The last year watching you pick back up the pieces, put the shoes back on and go back to the doors and just slogging at it. There has been times where, you know, I've

been confused about things. I've turned to your page for information. And that has helped me then go explain things, to my audiences, because the thing is about this day and age, anyone can be a celebrity. Anyone can be a spokesperson. The barrier to entry has never been lower. so to any of your listeners out there who have made it to the end of this massive endeavor, ⁓ whoever's made it to the to here, truly, if you have something you feel passionately about and you are ready to step in, you can pick up your phone and yell into it or

can start to do research about what's in your community and go try to organize around that, which is probably an easier lift to be honest. And most people will be shocked that somebody showed up. I can't tell you how often people have tried to offer me power just because I happen to be the person to show up for the meeting. And I'm sure you've done with that before too.

Yes, I agree.

Yes. Yeah,

you just gotta look for the helpers and stick together. That's all you can do. Thanks again, Alex. I appreciate you.

Yep.

Well, thank you so much for joining me here on The Zekely Podcast. Stay hopeful and get involved and until next time, let's keep building a stronger Pennsylvania together.