Wall Street Journal case: Amy Kant's predicament

In this Based Camp episode, Simone and Malcolm Collins dive into the harsh realities of aging alone through a Wall Street Journal article about Amy Kant, a 65-year-old single, childless woman facing health issues, estate planning struggles, and isolation. They explore the growing demographic of “solo agers,” the long-term consequences of choosing career and freedom over family, feminist regrets, and why so many women (and men) end up dying alone.

Topics include: the breakdown of intergenerational social contracts, business opportunities in elder care/power of attorney/estate planning/unclaimed assets, pronatalist perspectives, and real listener stories of regret. Malcolm also shares new rfab.ai features like the recipe generator and discusses building liable human services.

A raw, unfiltered look at demographic decline, life choices, and turning societal problems into opportunities.

Show Notes

Can two dark things cancel each other to create a rainbow?

* Dark thing: The job market is atrocious and about to get worse

* Dark thing: Millions of childless elderly people—and aged parents who moved away from and dissociated from their children—are headed into old age and death without support networks

* Rainbow? There are huge business and job opportunities

We can use a recent Wall Street Journal article, More Americans Are Aging Alone. One Woman Told Us What It’s Like, for inspiration!

(Not reading every paragraph)

“Amy Kant initially thought she should name a power of attorney about 10 years ago after caring for a dying friend. She still hasn’t appointed someone to do it.

The 65-year-old is single with no children, and bound up in that choice over who should make financial decisions on her behalf are other big questions that are often intensified when aging alone. How to handle eldercare? Estate planning? Where will she live in her later years?”

* Company opportunity? Power of attorney for isolated old people?

* Easy attorney job

* Many elder law and estate planning attorneys serve as POA agents (they charge both hourly and flat fees)

* You may not need to be an attorney: Some states recognize licensed/bonded “professional fiduciaries” who can be hired to act as your agent under POA, trustee, or similar roles

* You could also take the CPA route:

* Some planners recommend using a CPA, financial advisor, or daily money manager to handle money management and, in some cases, to serve as agent under a financial POA.

* Financial planners may not advertise as “POA companies,” but they can be named personally in the document

* Less relevant: Certain not‑for‑profit care management firms (staffed by nurses, social workers, and care managers) specifically market themselves as agents under POA for older adults without family.

* But these won’t be able to keep up with demand

* What percentage of Americans over 65 have savings sufficient to cover their costs in retirement?

* Federal Reserve data, summarized by several analyses, shows that around 51–62% of households headed by someone in their mid‑60s or older have money in retirement‑specific accounts (401(k), IRA, etc.). That means roughly 4 in 10 have no retirement account at all, though they may have Social Security, pensions, or other assets.

* A 2024 analysis of Federal Reserve survey data found only about 31% of Americans of all ages feel “on track” with retirement savings, implying that even among those who have savings, many believe it is not sufficient.

“Kant had long cherished the freedom that came with being single. She prided herself on doing headstands in yoga and walking 5 miles a day. But lately being single has felt like a struggle, and not just because of the weighty financial decisions hanging over her head. Back surgery and a heart valve replacement in the past few years have turned her condominium outside Boston into a recovery ward.”

“She spends most of her time at home these days recovering from heart surgery complications, with friends stopping by. She finds solace painting in a spare bedroom she turned into a studio, but knows she will eventually have to move to a smaller place that’s easier to get around in.”

* This isn’t just a problem for aging singles; it’s a problem for aging parents who move away from and stop supporting their kids

* There’s more of a social contract for kids to provide elder care for parents who provided childcare for their kids

* Though admittedly 18-20% of Millennials (people between 25-34 today) live with their parents, so those parents can likely expect care

“Kant is among the millions of Americans learning to navigate aging alone. Roughly 10% of the more than 125 million adults ages 50 and older in the U.S.—or at least 12.5 million people—are solo agers who live alone and have neither a spouse nor a child, according to an AARP analysis of census data. It’s a growing demographic hitting both genders, driven in part by climbing divorce rates among older Americans and a rising number of adult children becoming alienated from their parents.”

* Wow—and estate planners / financial advisors are super underwhelming and pretty low tech, so someone good with AI and navigating regulatory bureaucracies can lean up

“Kant didn’t set out with a master plan. In her 20s and 30s, she chose lower-paying nonprofit jobs to give priority to her art. She remembers how friends envied her freedom; while they were tied down with dinner duty, their kids’ homework, and college savings, Kant spent her evenings painting and didn’t think twice about going out on weeknights.”

* This is a really great example of how the Urban Monoculture lies to people and sells an unsustainable lifestyle

“She eventually earned her M.B.A. By her 40s, she was working as a fundraiser, maxing out traditional retirement account contributions to ensure her financial stability in later years.”

* What are the odds that she ultimately saved more money for retirement by getting an MBA?

“In her 40s she considered adoption but ultimately decided against it. Then in her 50s, after her own mother died, she went through a period of regret that she had decided against single motherhood.”

* Wonder why she did not adopt (pronatalist families do all the time + women in r/fencesitters mention it all the time)

* What percentage of childless elderly adults regret not having kids?

* An Australian study (often cited in media summaries) found that about one quarter of child‑free women later reported regretting the decision once they were past child‑bearing age and facing old age alone

“While Kant feels OK about her nest egg today, she’s worried it might shrink if the stock-market falls from its record high levels. Once she recuperates, she plans to return to part-time consulting to keep her mind active and feel productive.”

* This is another reason why Gen Z and Gen Alpha have trouble getting jobs

“When Kant first realized the importance of naming a power of attorney, she didn’t know whom to choose at the time, and put off the decision. She only recently identified the right friend for the role after her illnesses made clear she needed to act. Kant is planning to ask that friend soon.”

* SHE HAS NOT ASKED HER YET???

“A longtime college friend serves as her healthcare proxy, and Kant maintains a spreadsheet of friends to coordinate visits when she’s ill. Still, she understands the boundaries of a chosen family. Her friends have their own households to manage; some have already died. Kant also needs to draft a will and decide how to divide her assets.”

* SHE HAS NOT DRAFTED A WILL

“Kant has given herself a one-year deadline to complete her estate-planning documents. She is hoping she will have the mental energy needed to tackle such tasks once she is further along in her recovery.”

* Dying without a valid will is called dying “intestate.”

* When a single, childless person dies with a positive net worth but no will, their assets go through intestate probate and are distributed by state law to their next of kin (or, if none exist, to the state), not according to any informal wishes.

* STARTUP IDEA: Make this efficient and collect a fee

* The closest thing is “heir‑locator” / “finder” services and asset‑recovery firms that track down heirs to deceased people’s money (including cousins), often for a contingency fee. These operate alongside the standard unclaimed‑property system run by the states.

* When someone dies and assets go unclaimed or the owner cannot be located, banks and companies eventually turn those assets over to the state’s unclaimed‑property office

* Heirs can later claim them if they prove their relationship.

* You can search and claim for free via tools like The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (Unclaimed.org) and MissingMoney, or directly through each state’s unclaimed‑property portal.

* Some private “locator services” or “finders” proactively contact people and offer to help file claims for a cut of the recovery; federal guidance explicitly notes that these companies exist and charge a fee for using public data to match people with unclaimed funds.

* Many states regulate these finders (caps on fees, licensing/certification requirements); for example, Pennsylvania requires “finders” working with claimants to be certified by the Treasury, but this is easy for any competent founder to do.

“Back in her art studio, Kant processes how her life is set to shift in coming years through painting. She created a series about being alone but being part of a larger world. She also made a collection of autumn leaf portraits that explore aging, decay and the search for where we belong. “I’m thinking about what my legacy will be,” she said.”

* There is something deeply lonely about being the dead end of an unbroken chain of life that has lasted for thousands of years

* Homo sapiens have existed for roughly 300,000 years

* Life has existed on earth for over 3 billion years

* Talk about breaking a streak

Episode Transcript

Simone Collins: [00:00:00] Hello, Malcolm. I’m excited to be speaking with you today ‘cause we’re bringing back our favorite series, Women Are Terrible.

Speaker: What heartbreak drivel. See how the men look at her with utter contempt. Daphne, we’re going home.

Women, know your limits.

Simone Collins: This time, we’re talking about an old woman who chose to eschew men and children and meaning, and now she’s going to face the prospect of dying alone.

Malcolm Collins: The- N- not just one. I also found a number of other transcripts from similar women-

Simone Collins: You did not.

Malcolm Collins: Oh, God ... that we can go across. And Simone goes through this, in her immediate thoughts, she comes to me and she goes, “Malcolm, I bet we can find a way to exploit this for money, and we can help our fans-” It’s

Simone Collins: worse than that.

I already got you 50 to $100 out of this.

Malcolm Collins: Wait, really? Yeah.

Simone Collins: Yeah. We’ll get into it, so.

Malcolm Collins: Wait,

Simone Collins: what? I know, I know. Anyway, let’s dive into it. So you can interject when you want to. I’m gonna be reading excerpts [00:01:00] from a recent Wall Street Journal article titled, Most Americans Are Aging Alone, and One Woman Told Us What It’s Like.

And her name is Amy Kant. The article begins, “Amy Kant originally...” Or I should say Kant, like Immanuel Kant. “Amy Kant initially thought she would name a power of attorney about 10 years ago, after caring for a dying friend. She still hasn’t appointed someone to do it. The 65-year-old is single with no children, and bound up in that choice over who should make the financial decisions on her behalf o- over big questions that are often intensified when aging alone.

How to handle an elder care, estate planning. Where should she live in her later years?” So already, huge company opportunity.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah ...

Simone Collins: if, if you’re an attorney, this is a super easy attorney job. There are mil- many like, like elder law, like literally they specialize in elder law and estate planning who also will serve as your power of attorney.

In fact, I think we know people who have lawyers as their power of attorney instead of like friends or [00:02:00] family. And they’re family members. This is your people who have family- And if

Malcolm Collins: you want, by the way, an AI to do legal stuff for you to handle like the simpler stuff, on rfab.ai we have a feature called a super search, which does multiple AI internet searches with different AI engines-

Simone Collins: Yeah

Malcolm Collins: or models-

Yeah ... that then counter-check the facts of the previous model to remove any hallucinations- Yeah ... for putting together a legal document or something like that. By the way, fun fact, new feature I added today, is a recipe feature. I’m

Simone Collins: so... Oh my God, it’s there? Can I check it now? Can I check it...

I’ll, I’ll check it after

Malcolm Collins: this- Yeah. We’ll, we’ll check it, we’ll check it at the end of the episode. But you’re like- Gosh ... excited

to

Simone Collins: show it to you. Okay. I’m excited. But also, you, you don’t have to be an attorney to do this. Some states recognize a licensed or bonded professional fiduciary who can be hired to act as your agent under power of attorney or trustee or similar roles.

So you don’t even necessarily need to be a lawyer. Though another really easy route, if you’re like, “Okay, I, I can make some easy money in here,” the tailwinds are good, as we say in the private equity [00:03:00] world. You could take the CPA route. Like, some, some certified financial planners will serve as power of, powers of attorney for their clients.

So they may not advertise themselves as power of attorney companies- Get to

Malcolm Collins: the sad women part. Our audience cares about that, and you can talk about how to make money at the end. This is

Simone Collins: true.

Malcolm Collins: We exploit old people later, we laugh at sad women first. Okay. Stick to the order of operations here, Simone.

Simone Collins: Back to this, this woman of, of age. “Kahn had long cherished the freedom that came with being single. She prided herself on doing headstands and yoga and walking five miles a day. But lately, being single has felt like a struggle, and not just because of the weighty financial decisions hanging over her head.

Back surgery,” I wonder if the headstands had something to do with that, “and a heart valve replacement in the past few years have turned her condominium outside Boston into a recovery ward. She spends most of her time at home these days recovering from heart surgery complications with friends stopping by.

She finds solace in [00:04:00] painting in a spare bedroom she turned into a studio, but knows she will eventually have to move to a smaller space that’s easier to get around in.” I wanna point out, by the way-

Malcolm Collins: That’s sad and terrifying ...

Simone Collins: it’s, it’s really sad and terrifying. And it’s also not just a problem for, like, aging singles, it’s a problem for aging parents who move away from and stop supporting their kids.

And I think this is a uniquely American phenomenon, and I, I think a, also a picture of really toxic culture, in that if you do not invest in your kids as adults, like you don’t provide them with childcare, you don’t provide them with support, you don’t really get involved in their life, you just sort of, “Okay, well now I’m just gonna go become an adolescent again and, like, travel the world and go have fun and, like, do my own thing,” they’re not necessarily going to feel like there’s some kind of social contract that means they need to show up for you when you hit old age.

This is why all the old people in America, or so many of them, get shoved into homes, ‘cause it’s like, well- Where were you when I needed you? Like, the whole way that communities used to work was you would [00:05:00] raise your kids, and then you would hit menopause as a woman, for example, and she is a woman in this case.

And one of the reasons people think women do hit menopause is that w- there’s a place in society for women who can no longer have their own kids, but instead who can be a supplemental parent to their, their children’s kids so that those children can focus on having more kids. Because it’s- Yeah

it’s really hard to both be pregnant and, you know, be raising a ton of kids, so having that support’s really there. So the, the social contract is you have your kids, you help your kids raise your kids, and then they help you live more comfortably when you can’t really do much of anything else. But now it’s not just these childless people, but also just parents.

They move away from their kids. They don’t take care of their kids. Though admittedly, like 18 to 20% of millennials, like, or at least people between 25 and 34 today, so like proper adults, still live with their parents. So maybe those parents could expect care, but like all the other ones, like not really.

I’ll go back to the article. “Conte is among the millions of [00:06:00] Americans n- learning to navigate aging alone. Roughly 10% of the more than 125 million adults ages 50 and older in the US, or at least 12.5 million people, are solo agers who live alone and have neither a spouse nor a child, according to an AARP analysis of census data.

This is a growing demographic hitting both genders, driven in part by climbing divorce rates among older Americans and a rising number of adult children becoming alienated from their parents,” to my point. My gosh, though, like also estate planners and financial advisors are incredibly underwhelming in like what they provide.

Like, th- they’re not very tech-enabled. They’re pretty disorganized. You kind of have to nudge them for everything. We’ve, we’ve like encountered a bunch throughout a, a, various things. They’re not very good. Like, people can

Malcolm Collins: just- So can, like use a super search on RFAB and it’ll do a better job.

Simone Collins: Actually, though, like yeah, just like use AI to superpower your [00:07:00] business.

RFAB has the best tools. And then, like advertise well. Make this really, like... And, and, and, and, and, and for people just searching like, “How do I find a power of attorney?” Like, it, I don’t... I think people can clean up. Anyway, back to the article.

Malcolm Collins: You still need a human for power of attorney, which is where we or you come in in terms of cleaning it

Simone Collins: up.

That’s... Well, and this is my big thesis with AI, is that a huge portion of jobs is going to be li-

Octavian Collins: I filled it up, Mommy, at the tippy top.

Simone Collins: Thank you very much, my friend.

Octavian Collins: Yeah. But I’ll give you... But, but, but getting that all the way at the tippy top for you costed to use all of it, so I’m sorry.

Simone Collins: Then we’ll have to buy more at Tractor Supply.

Octavian Collins: Yeah.

Simone Collins: Oh, no. We’ll have to go back to Tractor Supply. Love you.

One of my big theses with AI is that one of the big human jobs is going to be liable human. Like, there has to be a, a human- Mm-hmm ... who is going to be legally at fault for something or legally responsible

Malcolm Collins: for something. Should we create a website called Liable Human just for like-

Simone Collins: Oh my God, just like, it’s, it’s like Upwork, [00:08:00] but just for liability?

Malcolm Collins: For liability, yeah. Upwork for liability with AI on your- I

Simone Collins: kind of love this. Liablehuman.com. We gotta look this up. We gotta look this up. Okay. But-

Malcolm Collins: I like this idea ...

Simone Collins: but

Malcolm Collins: actually,

Simone Collins: though, is that like-

Malcolm Collins: Just liable human. Are you an AI... And we’ll, we’ll advertise it all to AIs. Are you an AI that needs a human to be your through fair?

I’ll be your liable human.

Simone Collins: Oh my God, yeah, get your liable human here. Oh my God. And we can, yeah, we can like list like, well, do you need a liable doctor? Do you need a liable driver? We’re

Malcolm Collins: not talking enough about sad women progressives for re-

Simone Collins: regretful choices. Back to the article. Back to the article.

“Kant didn’t set out with a master plan. In her 20s and 30s, she chose lower paying nonprofit jobs to give priority to her art. She remembers how friends envied her freedom. While they were tied down with dinner duty, their kids’ homework, and college savings, Kant spent her evenings painting and didn’t anything twice about going out on weeknights.”

And this is such a great example of how the urban monoculture lies [00:09:00] to people and sells an unsustainable lifestyle. I’ll continue. “She eventually earned her MBAs. By her 40s, she was working as a fundraiser, maxing out traditional retirement account contributions to ensure her financial stability in later years.”

Though I have to wonder, like, if she didn’t get an MBA, would she have s- ultimately saved more money? Like, the amount of student debt people get just by living on autopilot, which i- imagine she, like, she did, right? She just sort of did what felt good or like put things off. She’s put off getting a power of attorney for 10 years.

Malcolm Collins: So- By the way, so liablehuman.com is free.

Simone Collins: We’re buying it.

Malcolm Collins: Yes.

Simone Collins: Oh my gosh, we’re buying it. We’re buying it. This could be it, Malcolm. This will be we finally make our money ... give that to

Malcolm Collins: me as a vibe coding task and I can vibe code a, a website because you gave up on trying to do vibe code a website.

Simone Collins: Yeah, I, I suck at it. I suck at it. Yeah, I c- I’ll be the liable human and you do the-

Malcolm Collins: And I’ll do the vibe coding?

Simone Collins: Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: Okay. But go back to the sad women. That’s what they’re here for

Simone Collins: In her 40s, [00:10:00] she considered adoption, but ultimately decided against it. Then, in her 50s, after her own mother died, she went through a period of regret that she’d decided against single motherhood.

And I, I really wonder why she did not adopt because one, w- we in our paid only weekend episodes did a, a, like an overview of our fence sitters- Mm-hmm ... this subreddit on Reddit where people who are ambivalent about becoming parents post. And two of, like, the four top all-time posts that we read were written by women who were like, “Oh, I just plan on adopting when I’m retired, ‘cause then I’ve done all my fun things and I can then raise a kid without bringing a new person into the world.”

So why aren’t they doing it? Like, are they just, is this all performative? Like, they, they never actually wanna take care of

Malcolm Collins: someone. Well, I think a lot of it is because they don’t actually wanna do kids. They want to imagine w- like, a world where, like, maybe they do kids, right? Yeah. One day, right? ‘

Simone Collins: Cause I swear to you, the only families I see actually adopting people are these pronatalist [00:11:00] families that, like, have four of their own kids already.

It’s crazy. It is. And it’s not that, like, oh, they have four kids and then they hit some fertility window and they can’t have kids anymore. It’s often in between kids that they are having themself biologically. Yeah. Like, they’ll have three kids, then two adopted, and then another that’s theirs. Like, the... Oh, like, I don’t know what’s going on.

Anyway, it’s very odd. But in terms of childless adults who regret having kids, one Australian study that’s often cited when people talk about this found that one quarter of childfree women later reported regretting the decision once they were past childbearing age and facing old age alone. One in four.

Malcolm Collins: So, o- o- one in four regretted raising children?

Simone Collins: Yeah. Or regretted- No, re- no, no, no. Regretted not having children. Not

Malcolm Collins: having children.

Simone Collins: Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: Okay.

Simone Collins: Now, back to the article. “While Khan feels okay about her nest egg today, she’s worried it might shrink if the stock market falls from its record high levels.

Once she recuperates,

Malcolm Collins: she plans-” By the way, the stock market is at record [00:12:00] high levels right now for people who are like, “IRAM’s gonna ruin the economy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” Record high stock market.

Simone Collins: Yeah. Well, and it’s, I, it’s only gonna go up. I, I, I do believe what... Remember that AI 2027 report that,

Malcolm Collins: You put more money on the market when the war started, right?

Simone Collins: Yeah, ‘cause it went down.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah, really.

Simone Collins: I was like, “Sale.” Yeah, the, and I think with AI, the stock market’s just gonna keep going up and up for a while. That’s what the AI 2027 report-

Malcolm Collins: That’s

Simone Collins: what I think, yeah ... initially projected. Like, it’s... And yes, it’s all gonna be concentrated in this very small number of companies, but that’s, that’s the future, people.

Welcome to that anyway, she pl- once she recuperates, she plans to return to part-time consulting to keep her mind active and feel productive. So couple things there. One, this is why so many Gen Z and Gen Alpha people graduating from college or graduating from high school can’t get jobs, because all of these boomers are re-entering the [00:13:00] job force because they’re not...

They’re choosing to not take care of grandkids or support their, their kids. Mm-hmm. Or they’re childless, and they either wanna stay active, or they need the money ‘cause they don’t have enough saved.

Malcolm Collins: And our parents fall into this category, right? Like, we have, One of the fans of the show basically acts like a grandparent to our kids, and our parents- Yeah,

Simone Collins: meanwhile our parents...

Malcolm Collins: Do nothing. Yeah. Not, not, except, like, come by, and we’re like, “Yeah, great, you’re still alive.”

Simone Collins: Swoop in. Swoop in. Yeah, whereas one, like, regularly-

Malcolm Collins: I don’t know. I don’t know if your account is schadenfreude enough. Do, do you wanna go over, so I’ve got someone here like, “I regret belittling men.

At 63, I’ve ended up alone.”

Simone Collins: Oh. Yeah, we can take a break with yours, or we can finish mine and then read yours.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah, finish yours, then I’ll go over it. Yeah.

Simone Collins: All right. When Kant realized the importance of naming a power of attorney, she didn’t know whom to choose at the time and put off the decision. She only recently identified [00:14:00] the right friend for the role after her illnesses made clear she needed to act.

Kant is planning to ask that friend soon. Kant, what are you doing?

Malcolm Collins: You’re writing an article about it before acting on it. Some people

Simone Collins: just- Seriously. It, it’s, it’s, it’s disturbing. Anyway. A longtime college friend serves as her healthcare proxy, and Kant maintains a spreadsheet of friends to coordinate visits when she’s ill.

Still, she understands the boundaries of a chosen family. She, her friends have their own households to manage. Some have already died. Kant also needs to draft a will and decide how to divide her assets. Kant has given herself a one-year deadline to complete her estate planning documents.

She is hoping she has the mental energy required, needed to tackle such tasks once she’s further along in her recovery. She, she is in her 60s and she doesn’t have a will. Like, we, we had our first will together when we were in our late 20s.

Malcolm Collins: You’re asking us for advice, I guess. Yeah, like.

Simone Collins: Like, I think we were, we lived in Palo Alto when we first made a will together.

This is [00:15:00] cra- ... Like, part of, I think, not getting married is, is part of a failure to launch. Like, this is a sign of someone who really can’t get their life together, which is sad. But here’s- Like, how you, how you, how you- ... here’s, here’s where, here’s where your free money showed up, by the way. Oh, yeah. So here’s another business opportunity ‘cause come on, Malcolm, money.

So if you die without a valid will, that’s called dying in intestate, interstate, I don’t know. I don’t know what, what em- emphasis on the syllable to, to make, but you, you die intestate, intestate. When a single childless person dies with a positive net worth but no will, their assets go through intestate probate, and they are distributed by state law to their next of kin.

And if, if there is no one to be found, then it just goes to the state. It’s not according to any informal wishes. They can’t be like, “Oh,” like on their deathbed, like, “You can have my boom box.” Yeah. So startup idea. Yeah. Just make it really efficient to collect a fee. And here’s the thing, like, states publish [00:16:00] unclaimed funds.

And right now there are businesses, they’re, they’re called, like, heir locators or finder services or asset recovery firms, that will track down people sometimes, like, e- even including cousins. Like, it, it ends up- Mm ... so first it goes, like, if you’re childless, it goes to your parents then brothers and sisters, and then grandparents, aunts and uncles, and then distant cousins.

Okay. So there are... If, if it’s a really, like, wealthy person or something, there are companies that will actually try to track down these cousins and then tell them about the unclaimed funds for a fee. But again, these are like... This isn’t very glorious work, right? Yeah. So it’s not attracting the world’s best and brightest.

And, and here, some entrepreneurial Basecamp listener or listeners can just use AI and a, a little bit of work to make a pretty good business that just tracks these things down. Wait,

Malcolm Collins: did you already do this for people?

Simone Collins: Well, so I just, I just [00:17:00] tried one out so because already you can search and claim w- like, property for free using tools.

There’s the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, unclaimed.org. There’s Missing Money. You could also just go to each state’s unclaimed property portal. So ‘cause it’s, it’s on a state-by-state basis. And so what I did just really quick,

Cause I got distracted and Octavian was whining, I, I decided to just, like, c- check both of our names and, and some business names that I should be regularly checking for, and I do with several states that we’ve been in. Yeah. And actually I found one for you. So it’s like, it’s only 50 to $100, but, like-

Malcolm Collins: Was it a bank account or something?

Simone Collins: I’m not gonna disclose. I’ll tell you after. But yeah. It, it was in Texas. It had our old Blackburn address, and I was like, “Oh, that’s definitely you.” Malcolm Collins, Blackburn, there we go.

Malcolm Collins: But yeah, to do this for... That, I mean, that’s not really the same, but I mean, I guess you, you made a little bit of money there.

Simone Collins: But go ahead. Yeah, no, I’m, that’s not just [00:18:00] it. I’m just saying, like, in, in merely the process of, like, thinking about it and toying around with the existing tools, I made you money. There is, there’s potential here. Here’s a- Earning potential ...

Malcolm Collins: better thing to do. Yeah If you’re a Base Camp listener and you don’t have a will yet, if people have forgotten about this system that we have if you put...

What is our foundation’s official name on paper?

Simone Collins: Oh, the Techno-Puritan Federation.

Malcolm Collins: No, no, no, no. The one w- oh, that’s the legal entity that’s

Simone Collins: the Techno- That’s our religion.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Yes. But you can do the Techno-Puritan Federation or the Pragmatist Foundation, right? That’s what it’s called, the Pragmatist Foundation.

Mm-hmm. And if you give it to either of these, both are non-profits, right?

Simone Collins: Yeah. Yeah. One is a nonprofit and also a religion. The other one’s just a normal- Yeah ... level 1[c]3.

Malcolm Collins: So if you give it to either of these nonprofits, what we do is we, If you, if you have your DNA stored anywhere, we basically will eventually put it on whatever we end up creating.

If we end up creating the civilization we wanna create put it in the database with the amount of money that you ended up [00:19:00] donating from your death, right?

Simone Collins: What if they have reproductive material on ice? Like I’ve s- I’m sure you’ve seen the headlines today. It’s like, “Oh, we think that Jeffrey Epstein’s sperm still belongs to his trust and estate.”

Like, what are we gonna do- Yeah ... about this?

Malcolm Collins: What

Simone Collins: if- Are people gonna... Like, can they leave us their, their, their dunna in the form of-

Malcolm Collins: That’s the idea, is that they leave us their DNA, and that if in the future-

Simone Collins: Eggs and sperm? Are, are we, are we accepting eggs

Malcolm Collins: and sperm? They can do that if they want. But the point is the DNA because it’s if we’re creating artificial worlds in a few hundred years or something like that, and they’re choosing who to populate those with, or they’re, you know, people will presumably be grateful at the civilization that we end up starting.

So that’s fun. By the way, one of the things that I’ve been doing recently is looking at starting up, And I’ll, I’ll talk to you about this. And I, and we’ve been connected with Nux- Yay ... who’s even watched some of our shows. And I was like, “Hey, like, we should start up a an actual, like, think tank/nonprofit for the new right.”

Like, we’re really [00:20:00] not organized in the way the rest of, like, the legacy right is organized or puts things together, and it would make sense for us to be, especially during political seasons to be able to, like... I mean, imagine, like, looping together, like, Scott Pressler, who’s a contact-

Simone Collins: What do you call it?

The, the tard vanguard?

Malcolm Collins: What?

Simone Collins: The tard vanguard? The- The tard

Malcolm Collins: vanguard?

Simone Collins: Yeah. Hmm, I’m trying to think. I’m just spitballing names here. Yeah, the...

Malcolm Collins: You with our video games.

Simone Collins: You, it, the vi- viga-

Malcolm Collins: No,

Simone Collins: it should be called- Vi- video game lantes, vigilantes?

Malcolm Collins: You with our video games, signed, the nerds.

Simone Collins: You can pry, you can pry my bouncy breasted video game avatar from my cold dead hands. Yeah, we’ll work on this. We’ll figure this out. Yeah. I’ll finish with the, the final, the final dark pair. I don’t even know how to make this light, so I can’t.

Malcolm Collins: Okay. Here

Simone Collins: we go. But w- this, the article ended with, “Back in her art [00:21:00] studio, Kant processes how her life is set to shift in the coming years through painting.

She created a series about being alone, but being part of a larger world. She also made a collection of autumn leaf portraits that explore aging, decay, and the search for where we belong. ‘I’m thinking about what my legacy will be,’ she said.” Which sucks, because she doesn’t have a legacy. Like,

Malcolm Collins: she lives- Yeah, you’re looking to be scaring young people out of having

Simone Collins: kids

like, we are, like, there is, there is a, I mean, depe- if you wanna like do it with like homo sapiens, like 300,000 a year, or if you wanna do, do life, three billion year, like, unending marathon relay game, or like, chain letter. And you, you, you’re letting it die. Like, that’s, that is your legacy, is the termination-

Malcolm Collins: For all of human civilization, people who replicate it

Simone Collins: of three billion years of life fighting, suffering to continue, to carry [00:22:00] on. And you, your legacy is, “I’m gonna snuff that out. I don’t care. I’m not gonna try. I’m not even going to try.” That’s, that’s her legacy. And, and, and, and, and of course her- I thought about it, darling ... dead body is, is gonna be found in her condo, and, you know, it’s, who knows how old it’s gonna be, ‘cause who knows how her spreadsheet of friends is really gonna pan out.

Malcolm Collins: Eaten

Simone Collins: by her cat. And, and some government appointed cleanup crew, which of course, another opportunity is, is cleanup crews for houses with rotting bodies of infirm- Yeah, robots can’t

Malcolm Collins: do that yet ... old

Simone Collins: people. Yeah, I know. I’m, that’s true. Although, did you hear that there’s there’s this new company that is deploying housekeepers in New York City with cameras on their heads to train future cleaning robots?

It’s kinda fun. I- Oh my God ... I, I like that idea.

Malcolm Collins: So, so, while I’m reading one, ‘cause I’ll, I’ll read a story too- Oh my

Simone Collins: God. Oh, that would be really cool if, like, I could make money cleaning my own house by wearing a camera on my head while I did [00:23:00] it. Oh. Can we... I need to reach out to that startup.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah, see, yeah.

Simone Collins: Dude, because that’s, that’s way more efficient. It’s just why are they hiring, like, making a cleaning business when they could just be like, “Hey, housewives, can you just, can you just wear this, this dash cam on your forehead?”

Malcolm Collins: And we could create, like, a network of housewives to make money while they’re cleaning.

Simone Collins: Oh, my God. Look, we’re on, we’re on a roll,

Malcolm Collins: okay? Ask them if they would be up for this, ‘cause we probably have enough housewife fans that we could put together a genuine network doing

Simone Collins: this. Dude, and, like, we’re doing it anyway, you know? Yeah. Like, ugh.

Malcolm Collins: Oh, my God. I mean- Yeah, Liable Human. This can be part of the

Simone Collins: liablehuman.com.

Liable Human. We got the cleaning, the, the, the, the clean cam. I mean,

Malcolm Collins: I- But okay, so when I start-

Simone Collins: Yeah, you do your thing. You do your- ...

Malcolm Collins: talking here, you make a note to yourself about liablehuman.com. Yeah. And go to rfab.ai- And clean cam ... and try out, it’s at the bottom right now, the recipe feature. Okay. I just tried it on the site.

It seems to be working. I wanna get your takeaway on [00:24:00] this. But okay. So this one is from 2025. “I regret belittling men. At 63, I’ve ended up alone. I’d always imagined I would end up married with two wonderful children, living in a house in the countryside. I have paid a hefty price for my so-called liberation.

A few years ago, I went to Italy with my then boyfriend, James. As we sat tucking into the plate of frutti di mare at a seaside

Simone Collins: restaurant-” Ugh, frutti di mare’s such a gross dish. Girl.

Malcolm Collins: What is it?

Simone Collins: It’s just, like, a bunch of seafood thrown on top of pasta.

Malcolm Collins: Sounds gross, yeah.

Simone Collins: Yeah, gross.

Malcolm Collins: I struck up a conversation with the waiter in Italian.

Of course she has to mention that, right? Oh

Simone Collins: my God. Oh my God. Please let it be... Michael, if you’re listening, I’m so sorry, but, like, the way you speak Italian.

Malcolm Collins: Oh my God. That’s my dad, by the way ... yeah ... who always has to speak in Italian to waiters.

Simone Collins: But, like, in, in, like, the c- the way that, like, kids get angry about, where you’re like, it’s like- No,

Malcolm Collins: it’s annoying because he does it when he goes to Italian restaurants in the United [00:25:00] States. He does- With

Simone Collins: the affectation, but without the correct accent. Like, that’s, that’s the one thing. Can

Malcolm Collins: you imagine as a kid how embarrassed you would be if every time your dad took you to an Italian restaurant, when the waiter

Simone Collins: would- Prego, the fruit de mer.

Yeah, it’s cold ...

Malcolm Collins: clearly an American, he would try to order in a... It’s literally out of a- God, what’s that fricking guy who does those movies? Exci-

Simone Collins: the guy who does the movies?

Malcolm Collins: No, the, the guy’s names. Of course. Out of, out of this guy’s movies, like the one where it ends and it’s, like, he died and they change his tombstone to say, like, he died saving a bunch of people from a sinking ship.

... It... Come on. You know the movies I’m talking about. They have a huge style to them. The

Simone Collins: movies with Wes

Malcolm Collins: Anderson- The Royal Tenenbaums he did ... I know the

Simone Collins: answer to that question. The movies with the style to them is Wes Anderson.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah, the Royal Tenenbaums. Who’s the, who’s the guy I’m thinking of?

Simone Collins: Wes Anderson.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah, Wes Anderson. My dad is, like, literally out of Wes Anderson. Like- No ... in a Wes Anderson movie, I can see a dad who always sat down and started

Simone Collins: ordering- [00:26:00]

Malcolm Collins: Okay. Okay, maybe ... in Italian, and everyone would look. The movies with the style. Just lets you sit in the cringe.

Il salmone, per favore, con una spruzzata di limone e una spruzzata di mistero

Simone Collins: Stewing in it a little bit. Yeah.

Yeah, like some little shrimp in

Malcolm Collins: a fruit de mer. Okay. By the, by the way, did you get... Have you gotten to the recipe generator yet?

Simone Collins: I, I’m sorry. I’m looking through the litany of features. Oh, there it is at the very bottom between-

Malcolm Collins: I told you, yeah, at the bottom. Come on.

Simone Collins: I’m so- whoa.

Malcolm Collins: Are you, are you putting it in right now? Yeah, yeah.

Simone Collins: Well, I mean, where do I... Oh, so you can choose cuisine by nation or region, so I’m gonna choose... Ooh, well, not Mongolian. I don’t want fricking yak butter. Was that... Oh, no, that’s Tibetan, right? That’s... Your mom, like, basically didn’t eat anything she chose so- It’s

Malcolm Collins: not.

Just choose one, Simone.

Simone Collins: Oh, well, g- aw. Okay, Shanghai, because we just, we just made something that was sort of Shanghai based. And then, Ooh, [00:27:00] Shanghai soul food fusion. Oh, yeah. Okay. And then w- meal type dinner

Malcolm Collins: You don’t have to choose every option,

Simone. You can just

Simone Collins: choose- Oh, time available under 15 minutes and for one person ‘cause I always just make food for you.

And interesting. Th- there’s no, like, there has to be meat in it. I guess I’ll just do high protein though.

Malcolm Collins: No, if you want to, you can choose the type of meat in it, or you can

choose

Simone Collins: vegetarian. Oh, that’s true. Oh, yeah, flavor profile, spicy All right. Okay, creative mode. Ooh, dish from the distant future?

Dude, fantasy tavern dish. Historical recre- ha. For- forbidden combination. Break the rules. C- well, but I, yeah, but I, I chose my, my regions. Okay, I’m just gonna click ... Ooh, generate recipe image too. Okay, generate six recipe ideas.

Malcolm Collins: Okay, you, you just

Simone Collins: unclicked- Okay, Shanghai-based soul food ...

Malcolm Collins: Simone. You didn’t unclick generate recipe i- i- image.

It was auto-clicked, right?

Simone Collins: I know. I didn’t unclick it.

Malcolm Collins: Okay.

Simone Collins: Don’t worry, [00:28:00] I am tard, but I am not Treytard. I am just-

Malcolm Collins: Is it, is it generating now? Do you see

Simone Collins: the nice- Oh, petite tard. Okay ...

Malcolm Collins: animation and everything?

Simone Collins: Ooh, okay. Okay. So spicy Shanghai rice cake stir fry, quick spicy red braised pork skillet, fiery crab and greens

I hate, I can’t do, and I don’t like okra. Chili sweet potato and pea hash, and blazing pork and crab noodle toss. So we’re going with the quick spicy red braised pork skillet. Generate full recipe.

Malcolm Collins: And take a screenshot of the recipe when you get it so I can put it here for- Mm ... when people are

Simone Collins: watching the episode.

Mm-mm. Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: Oh, my God.

Simone Collins: We’re

Octavian Collins: spinning it.

Simone Collins: Ooh. Tell me about this woman and her fruitti di mare with James, right? Was it James? Was it- Okay ... John?

Malcolm Collins: Back in the hotel, he asked me why I had ignored him. By speaking in a language he didn’t understand- Oh. ... he said I managed to make him feel small. I could see his point.

[00:29:00] I spent quite a while chatting away, oblivious to how he must be feeling. I then went on to joke about how that as an Italian speaker I would order for us after he didn’t know what osso buco meant. I was showing off. Clearly, that’s kind of a jerk thing to do. I did

Simone Collins: not want osso buco. Ew, ...

Malcolm Collins: I, I know, right?

It wasn’t the first time something like that had happened to me. I was always taken- Oh,

Simone Collins: Malcolm, this looks really good. Oh, my God.

Malcolm Collins: Right. Did it fully output with the picture and everything?

Simone Collins: Yeah. It’s, it’s got the steaming ... Mm, you can see the little pepper flakes on it.

Malcolm Collins: But also look at how it formats everything.

Simone Collins: No, this is really nice, and like, but the enticing ... It, it gives you, like, this like a food blog style image output.

Malcolm Collins: Oh, my God. And then it gives you a food blog with a separated menu section, time section, cooking section, and then at the end we run another internet search capable AI-

Simone Collins: Nutrition per serving?

Malcolm, you love me.

Malcolm Collins: Right. Aw. And then at the end we run [00:30:00] another search AI on the output of the first search AI just to correct anything that might be wrong or need nuance within the initial output.

Simone Collins: Malcolm, are you publishing all these results in an indexable part of our website that becomes rich?

No, but

Malcolm Collins: that’s a really good idea.

Simone Collins: Mm-hmm. I think you really, I think you should so that things like Google searches will point to it ‘Cause this is great fusion, like, recipes.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. And then people will make their, their cursed recipes and stuff like that to try to make a big indexing of it.

Simone Collins: A drink pairing?

Oh my gosh. A chilled off-dry riesling? I mean, gross, but, like, I get it actually with this. Or unsweetened iced tea with lemon. Food safety tips. Oh my gosh.

Malcolm Collins: Didn’t I go over the top with the creation of this feature?

Simone Collins: You went, you went super over the top, but I am

Malcolm Collins: here for it. Because now I’m getting better at making these sorts of things, I immediately was like, “Ooh, how can I make this...”

And I don’t know if you noticed, but next to this button we also put-

Simone Collins: Refrigerate [00:31:00] leftovers within two hours. You... Food safety. Avoid overcrowding the pork so the pork- the pans so the pork sears rather than steams. Yes, okay.

Malcolm Collins: Ooh. I also made a feature for this that well, one I’m gonna add, ‘cause I just had the idea to add it, is a feature where you put in, like, “I have too much of X ingredient in my fridge, I need to use it all,” or put in, like, “I have X, Y, and Z in my refrigerator, I wanna get rid of it.”

Simone Collins: Yes.

Yes. Oh my gosh, Malcolm.

Malcolm Collins: And I’ll add something that’s, like, meat-based in general dish, right?

Simone Collins: Have I mentioned I love you?

Malcolm Collins: But I don’t know if you noticed, but next to this, the other new feature I made was for people doing D&D campaigns or, like, any sort of campaigns.

Simone Collins: I saw that, yeah. You can

Malcolm Collins: put in the rule book and it will just, like, auto help you with the next turn with your players.

Simone Collins: Bless you, sir. You’re doing God’s work.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah, right? But I just made this stuff because somebody on the Leaflet stream- Wait, you’re- ... wanted that, and I was like, “Sure, I can make that.”

Simone Collins: For a Leaflet fan, anything. Come on. Yeah ... yeah. I, Okay, tell me about this woman whose, whose [00:32:00] boyfriend- Okay, okay ... is un- inse- The...

So one, this guy can just take a hike anyway because his reaction was to feel insecure when she spoke Italian intolerably as an American in a restaurant- Yeah ... instead of, like, to feel embarrassed.

Malcolm Collins: Okay, so anyway.

Octavian Collins: Can I tell you

Malcolm Collins: something I

Octavian Collins: learned?

Simone Collins: Okay, you can tell them what you learned. Hold on.

Octavian’s gonna tell us what he learned.

Octavian Collins: Here’s another fun fact of the day. You can make a window by your- self if you had some, if you had some, like a sand hammer glass, and then you can, like, melt it, and then let it cool, and then get, window mold, and then let it dry for a couple of days, and then ta-da, you get your own window.

Simone Collins: Love you, buddy.

Malcolm Collins: Fun fact. If you have sand- Yes ... melt it into glass and make your

Simone Collins: own window.

Octavian Collins: Another fun fact of the day. It’s, Did you know you can sew a shirt by yourself? Hello, hello? Like this one, like

Simone Collins: this big. It’s true. Yeah, you know, [00:33:00] people even made their own fabric in the past, Octavia.

Octavian Collins: Yeah, .

Malcolm Collins: That’s the type of useful fact- Phew ... you’re getting from him. Yeah. With us it’s just how to make money from people. Yeah, ew ... but let’s look up, Can you just tell me more things?

We’ll, we’ll go over this later. No,

Simone Collins: no, no, buddy, you gotta work.

Malcolm Collins: To do this attorney thing. Tell me more things. But I, I wanna continue here. Okay. Can I just tell you more things? I’m convinced the reason I’m still booking a table for one at the age of 63 instead of having settled with a significant other is because like so many women of my generation, feminism has ruined my love life.

Instead of empowering us, those ideals of second wave feminism made us believe that marriage and domesticity were to be avoided like the plague, and that men were competitor rather than partners. I might have a successful career as a writer and broadcaster, but I never had children, underlying bolded, or been married, and my longest relationship lasted eight years.

I regret this. I always imagined I would end up married with two wonderful children and living in a house at the countryside. I’ve paid a hefty price for my so-called liberation. I was 17 and a pupil at Golders and Leigh Mire, one of Britain’s most academic institutions, when I [00:34:00] was introduced to the women’s liberation movement.

It offered so much hope and excitement, and we spent our lunch breaks soaking up feminist mantras of Geramir Greer and Betty Friedman. Act like the men they bribed- Betty, Betty Friedman? ... as they burned their bras and demolished... I, Betty Friedman. I don’t know. Betty Fr- some, some Jewish name, Betty Friedman.

A bra is, and demonized housework in the family. And now here I’m not saying that, like, Jews are a problem. Clearly this got to a Jewish woman. Like, th- this was a Jewish man who ended up not getting a wife ‘cause she burned her bra or whatever, right? I, obviously this is what men wanted them to do in the first place, like yeah, go braless.

What, what are you doing, you know? End up destroying their breasts at like the age of 30.

Simone Collins: I don’t think you destroy your breasts- Oh, yeah ... by not wearing support.

Malcolm Collins: If you, if you, if you don’t wear support your breasts start sagging much faster.

Simone Collins: Do they actually? Hmm.

Malcolm Collins: From what I’ve heard, yes.

Simone Collins: We, we can fact check this.

Malcolm Collins: Why don’t you, why don’t you fact check that?

Simone Collins: G- Grok.

Malcolm Collins: By the time I was 25 clutching a degree in French and [00:35:00] Italian I was a bright, confident feminist keen to flex her intellectual muscles and to never let a man get the last word. I read Nietzsche for fun, and my bedside table was always buckled beneath the weight of substantial intellectually challenging books.

God, she

Simone Collins: sounds so annoying. Nietzsche and Betty Friedman

Malcolm Collins: Right? But not many feminists read niche, I’ll tell you that.

Simone Collins: No, n- Not wearing a bra does not cause breasts to sag earlier, according to the Cleveland Health Clinic, but also via Grok. This is a common myth without strong scientific backing.

Breast sagging, medically called ptosis, happens primarily due to natural factors, and bra wearing habits have little to no proven long-term impact on it. Besides, Malcolm, I don’t wear a bra.

Malcolm Collins: Oh, you don’t?

Simone Collins: I wear stays, though, which is the, the OG bra. The

Malcolm Collins: OG bra?

Simone Collins: Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: Oh, my gosh. So, we... I... We keep finding that Leaflet and you dress in the same outfits.

Like, she wears these what, what do you call them, at nights? Like, the medieval outfits.

Simone Collins: A, a chemise.

Malcolm Collins: Chemise. But th- th- wh- wh-

Simone Collins: That’s [00:36:00] just the, the universal undergarment. This, this is a chemise.

Malcolm Collins: She...

Simone Collins: You looked like the- W- we literally found that we shop at the same stores. The women from my n- She has...

She’s a woman of taste, okay?

Malcolm Collins: And like- ... medieval plays, and now I realize that in real life she also dresses like a medieval woman, and I’m like- Well, that’s like, it, it, the best thing is- ... this is, we gotta get this new, like, nerd right. We all dress like medieval women, it’s not just you. That’s

Simone Collins: like- I think that’s a, that’s, it’s just a continuation of that...

I think we even did an episode on it, when, like, when conservative anon accounts got doxxed, it just turned out that they were, like, attractive, cool people who are, like, well-adjusted. And I think it’s the same with VTubers. Like, were they to be unmasked, it will turn out that they were, they are attractive, cool people who actually look as cool, if not cooler, than their VTuber avatars.

Malcolm Collins: Right. I wanna, I wanna start the trend. I like this trend. All of the, like, new right women, our thing is, like, we all dress m- like medieval fantasy people. Like we’re, we’re princesses, right? That’s what everybody wants to be anyway.

Speaker 4: I just realized that [00:37:00] in real life, like new right women are beginning to dress like the characters that the left is freaking out about and calling a fetish from the Knight’s Path, where they’re just like normal medieval females who are sweet and kind, and the left is like, “Oh my God, how could you do this?

This is a weird, perverted fetish.” , Which I like. I, I don’t mind. I don’t mind. We might do a whole episode on this

Malcolm Collins: Ah. And then it will become cool, and progressives won’t be able to dress that way anymore, and they’ll get all annoyed.

That, and when we’re younger, we all dress like Emilia, okay? The, the art hoe look- So you

Simone Collins: go from, like, art hoe to- ...

Malcolm Collins: conservative guys are into it, right? I love it when, like, Totally, like, Coping ShortFatOtaku did a piece where he’s like, “Oh you know, no, none of these conservative art hoe girls actually exist.”

And I was like, “Simone dressed exactly like that when I met her.” A lot of the conservative girls now who are on the right, like The Nerd Right- And did dress like

Simone Collins: Emilia. Oh, my God,

Malcolm Collins: yeah ... originally dressed like Emilia. You think Leaflet didn’t dress like Emilia at some point in her life? You know, like, come on, people.

Look,

Simone Collins: we’ve all... If we’ve been in America we’ve- [00:38:00]

Malcolm Collins: And, and we, the only reason they’re not dressing like that now is because it’s not cool to dress like that when you’re in your 40s. Now you go for the medieval phase. Okay. By the time I was 25, clutching a degree in French and Italian, what a pointless degree, I was a bright, confident feminist keen to flex her intellectual muscle.

Oh, no, I’m gonna read you whenever that.. For, at first men loved my wit and intelligence. “You’re such a breath of fresh air. I love talking to you. You’re the first woman I’ve met who stimulates me,” they’d trill. Trill

what type of guy says that to somebody? And if you have a degree in French and Italian, what interesting thing could you possibly have to say? But anyway,

Simone Collins: that was- Well, I thought you said breast of fresh air, so that, I thought that was the dead giveaway,

Malcolm Collins: but. Oh, yes. That was until I had lectured them for the umpteenth time on the virtues of modernism.

Mm-hmm. “You’ll never win an argument against Kate,” one man said as he watched me outsmart yet another potential lover. Subtext, don’t bother. No, what he meant by that is you’ll never back down from an argument. No one always wins an argument. Even [00:39:00] between Simone and I, she wins quite frequently.

Simone Collins: In a- Nice try, Malcolm

Malcolm Collins: You do.

You do. Oh, yeah, I, you, you joke that I don’t even bet with you anymore because I’m so frequently wrong.

Simone Collins: That’s just because the only time I will say, “Do you wanna put money on it?” is when I know I’m gonna win. And you figured that out really

Malcolm Collins: quick ... men had called me intimidating, scary, opinionated. I now see that not only was I trying to prove I was their intellectual equal or superior, I was treating every encounter with a man like he was my adversary.

If a date brought me a bouquet of flowers, instead of smiling and putting them in a vase of water, I would bite their head off. Can’t you buy me some nice olive branch or balsamic vinegar? Oh, sorry, some nice olive oil or a balsamic vinegar. What a, what a jerk thing to say to somebody- Malcolm ... who bought you flowers.

Simone Collins: That’s true. That’s true. But, like, you buy me popcorn instead of.

Malcolm Collins: I fed with my eye roll to one hapless suitor as he stood, wilting faster than the fragrant offering he held in his hand.

Simone Collins: Oh.

Malcolm Collins: He had bothered to think about making me [00:40:00] happy, and I crush him for it. And flowers are expensive, too. By the way- It’s true.

Simone Collins: Flowers are su- they’re, they’re a costly signal. Like, the whole point of giving flowers is that they are useless, but you choose to give them to someone anyway. Yeah,

Malcolm Collins: people.

Simone Collins: Like, the, the, the gift that, that is famously terrible for a man to give to his lady partner is something that’s useful, like a vacuum.

Oh, no, that’s a terrible gift, and here she is scoffing at him. Of course, if he gave her something useful, he’d be like, “Oh, what? You expect me to cook you something with olive oil?” Like, there is no winning with this kind of ideology. But she’s come to recognize that in her dotage.

Malcolm Collins: By the way, if you wanna make your w- life hap- wife happy, I learned a new thing that I can do to make Simone happy.

Simone Collins: Oh,

Malcolm Collins: my God. And so you guys can do this for your wives. If you ever see dust accumulating in a corner or on a stair corner or anything like that, clean it up for them while they’re doing something else, and they will be very appreciative because- I just

Simone Collins: saw what you did today in that, right over there.

Thank you.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. I place so much importance on finding a, [00:41:00] quote-unquote, “strong man who can match me” that I forgot men were people with feelings. I, I, indeed I forgot I had feelings and hid my softness. No, the thing is, is she wanted a strong man, but she also saw it as a red flag or a negative sign if a guy was better than her, right?

Mm-hmm. Like, a guy can’t just be like, “Yeah, I know more than you.” And Simone admitted that fairly early in our relationship that I just know more than her about most things, and that’s okay.

Simone Collins: It’s okay.

Malcolm Collins: I now see that I had longed to be loved, but I was scared to be vulnerable. I was using my sharp mind to protect my all-too-soft heart against yet future rejection.

Another thing I regret deeply is the tally of my one-night stands when I was younger. I distinctly remember thinking it would be uncool to say no to men I met at parties or dated, but I struggled to enjoy it. There was always a disconnect. This was abundantly clear the morning after. As I lay there waiting for a sign of affection, he would be singing the triumphs of Had Her song in the shower.

A [00:42:00] quick cheerio and he was gone. While I pretended to enjoy it, I felt uncomfortable about sex so early on. I felt sad and used. Sorry, I felt empty and used. My generation of women were encouraged to have sex like a man. In other words, have casual sex, and it backfired. Fast-forward to now, the idea that women are different from men, that casual sex can be harmful, is gaining traction.

In her last book, A Guide to Sex in the 21st Century, the young adult adaptation, Louise Perry explores how the sexual revolution impacted women negatively and led to unwanted consequences. Ooh, Louise Perry is impacting feminists now. I mean, Louise Perry has always been a feminist. We interviewed her.

Well,

Simone Collins: she, well, yeah, she started out from a- She was on the show ... just like us, from a progressive perspective, and I- she’s still, her primary audience, at least the last time we, like a couple years back, was progressives who started to have thoughts-

Malcolm Collins: Uh-oh ... about vaccines Don’t have thoughts, ‘cause then you’re not a progressive anymore, right?

Mm. You get kicked out. I mean, she’s seen as a far-righter at this point ‘cause she [00:43:00] also, you know, questions the trans agenda. Well,

Simone Collins: but she’s one of the far-righters who has, like, an audience primarily among far-righters, progressives who are like, “Look at me being naughty. I’m going to read Louise Perry.”

Malcolm Collins: I al- I always thought her, like, core audience was lesbians who are pissed off that trans people keep hitting on them and invade their spaces.

That’s sort of like most of the people on her show I get the impression of, is like Louise Perry- Well, ‘cause that’s like the one group of, of women who when she’s ... Of like her core thing is like women aren’t actually into being choked, and I’m like, “They’re not actually into like a big strong man.” I’m like, “Yeah, it’s because of men that the monster effer category at Barnes & Nobles is like three rows.”

Simone Collins: Is, is a category. Uh-huh.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah, it’s because of men that like 50 Shades of Gray was a bestseller. I believe you, Louise Perry. Mm. But I think like the one cate- b- well, I mean you, you gotta have your head in the sand a bit as a woman to not like recognize that like even if you’re not turned on by something, clearly the majority of women are, right?

You know, or there’s a big audience out there for it. But [00:44:00] yeah. How can people make money off of being other people’s power of attorney? Like, how do they advertise themselves for this? How do they find people who want this? What’s your... Because Simone, ‘cause she does have Jew DNA, so she got, like, plus five in mercantil- mercantilism- Mercantilism

as- as- as being born half Jew. Oh, no. By the way, she’s not half Jew. She’s one-eighths Jew, but it’s, it’s matrilineal, so they consider it,

Simone Collins: So then I’m all Jew. I’m a Jewess.

Malcolm Collins: For- for Jews

Simone Collins: According

Malcolm Collins: to ... but yeah. That- that- that unfortunately, the half Jew started her into, she heard about sad women and then thought, “How can I make money off of them?”

So- Dude,

Simone Collins: well, you’re welcome for the 50-plus dollars I got you today.

Malcolm Collins: So go and help people here. Now, how do they set this up to exploit people? And if you’re a Base Camp fan, you can always use us as your power of attorney. We’ll make some easy way to handle this. So- Well,

Simone Collins: I mean, sometimes you have to be present, so it is important to be able to find.

But I think the- We

Malcolm Collins: can go and be present if somebody’s, like, dying or needs the decision, Simone. [00:45:00]

Simone Collins: Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. We can. I- I would... N- I mean, the... Go to my show notes. I will put them in the show notes. Just, like, look at your specific state if you’re in the United States at what the regulations are around what you need to- to qualify, how you, how you might need to be certified to become a power of attorney.

And then figure out the best way in your state to make yourself an easy search result when people in your state search for power of attorney.

Malcolm Collins: And you can vibe good this, right?

Simone Collins: You can totally vibe good this. And then what you need to do is just make yourself really easy to reach via phone, ‘cause- The boomer generation that is going to need this service really likes just picking up their phone and calling people possibly just showing up at addresses.

We know this from experience. So I think if you can have a, an address where people can just show up and a phone number, at least a phone number that people can just [00:46:00] call and you can answer, I think you could start... And you’re properly certified for your state, even if you need to be. You might not need to be, and you don’t even need to be a CPA or an attorney necessarily.

Just start offering it, and, and I mean, you, you need to be ready to commit to this to actually follow through. Some states like in Pennsylvania will put a cap on certain services related to stuff I brought up in this, like in terms of recovering finances. Our state, Pennsylvania, will cap how much you can charge in terms of like finders fees in helping people recover this money that has been left by distant cousins who didn’t have any friends or family in wills.

But just look it up. Use, use, use Malcolm’s super search feature on rfab.ai and figure it out, and then create a website.

Malcolm Collins: Another thing that you can use us for, by the way, if we’re thinking of services we can offer to people- Yeah ... is if you’re getting married to somebody, you know how we have like our marriage contract?

Mm-hmm. One of our early episodes is on how to put one of those together. If you need a line in the [00:47:00] contract about disagreements with a partner that involves some form of third-party

Simone Collins: intervention- Oh, an arbitrator.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah ... yeah, and you’re like, “Malcolm and Simone seem fairly reasonable as an arbitrator,” we’re happy to serve that role where we just say, basically we make the decision when both of you can’t agree on something.

Simone Collins: Make a call. Yeah. Yeah, we, we have, We’ll just ... we have arbitrators in in our marriage contract specifically related to the fat clause. That’s the one place where we have arbitrators.

Malcolm Collins: Oh, who’s the arbitrat- Oh, is it my mom?

Simone Collins: It’s, it’s y- your brother and, and- Oh ... our sister-in-law. Because they, they are good, like, they’re on the more judgment...

But they, neither of them would lie about either of us getting a little

Malcolm Collins: chunk. Oh, no, they would totally be honest about it. Yeah. They’d be like- Yeah ... “Yeah, you’re, you’re chubsters.”

Simone Collins: Yeah. They would enjoy, they would enjoy saying it, so.

Malcolm Collins: If you don’t have a will, get a will. Put us in it. The, the-

Simone Collins: Yeah, but also exploit the reality that apparently many aging, childless, parentless, family, friendless old people are going to [00:48:00] die with assets.

Of course, many of them are gonna die with negative net worths, but you could potentially make some money from this too. So yeah, take lemons, turn them into lemonade. It’s doable, and I love you very much, Malcolm.

Malcolm Collins: I love you too, Simone.

Simone Collins: Oh. Which one would you like to do next?

Malcolm Collins: All right.

Simone Collins: Did you watch

Malcolm Collins: the end of Euphoria?

Simone Collins: No. I’m gonna watch it tonight. It’s my treat.

Malcolm Collins: Okay, okay, then I won’t mention anything.

Speaker 9: For those wondering, the first thing that came up when I searched the Christian family from Euphoria was some other person being with him, um, at the end of the show

Simone Collins: Yeah, don’t. Dude, I mean, like the, the previous episode was oh oh. It’s like I- I,

Malcolm Collins: well, I can guess it- ... can’t even ... because I, I got more information than you have from looking up clips of the family, the rural family.

Simone Collins: Oh, did she go back to them? Don’t know

Malcolm Collins: I won’t, I won’t say anything

Simone Collins: I hope she doesn’t like die trying to get there.

Oh, geez. Okay, well The,

Malcolm Collins: the [00:49:00] scene with them when I put it on, the, the, the first scene with them is very sweet. Isn’t it? ... where... Well, it’s sweet, but also in that sort of sad progre- Like, when the other girl asks her why she wouldn’t trade positions with her, she just looks upset and then turns up the radio.

Simone Collins: Yeah, like she doesn’t explain, “Oh, well, I’ve been turned into a drug mule, and like all my friends are miserable, and...” Yeah, we need to be more clear about what’s

Malcolm Collins: going- I, and I really feel this w- like when progressives come after us, like this recently had a negative podcast on us. And I’m like, “Bro, we really are like just trying to help you,” right?

Like, I love their like, their marriage. Well, yeah, they seem to love each other, but they never talk about how hot the other one is and how they want to like jump each other’s bones and stuff. They, they just seem to respect each other. And it’s like- Wow ... maybe you shouldn’t structure your marriage off of that.

That’s a bad way to structure things.

Simone Collins: Yeah, no, read, read my early diaries though and it’s, it’s pretty clear,

Malcolm Collins: Oh, in the early days. Yeah, you know.

Simone Collins: Look, [00:50:00] if we weren’t as sleep deprived and stressed as we are right now, I think we would just constantly have that on our minds too. But guess what?

We’ve given ourselves bigger things to worry about.

Malcolm Collins: Well, I, I was almost thought of doing an episode pointing out that like when you have kids, babysitters are just prostitutes with extra steps because- They

Simone Collins: are though, ‘cause you’re paying that person for their time in order to have sex.

Malcolm Collins: So that you have time to sleep- Yeah

with your partner, right?

Simone Collins: Mm-hmm.

Malcolm Collins: You know? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because otherwise you got the baby in the room and everything like that, you know.

Simone Collins: Yeah, gross.

And no, having it, like I... You can’t get turned on if your baby is in another room crying. I don’t know how that works for people. I also though don’t know how people have sex in front of their pets which apparently happens a decent amount.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah, that sounds really gross. Like the, the pet is either looking at you or not looking at you. Both- I

Simone Collins: mean, I could handle fish, like goldfish or something.

Malcolm Collins: Oh yeah, I can understand that. I’m thinking a dog obviously, right? Yeah. Like obviously- Like a dog understands what’s [00:51:00] happening. The, you know, it’s like-

Simone Collins: Yeah, like a cat might not pay that much attention, so maybe they just be like asleep in a corner and you’d like contextualize them as more like a pillow, you know?

You can kind of write it off. Anyway.

Malcolm Collins: Oh my God fun. By the way, the episode that I prepped for today is why we stopped believing women slash why did Democrats stop caring about grape. Is

Simone Collins: this your, is this your ass mogging video or not?

Malcolm Collins: No, it’s not that one. I, I like the ass mogging one- There’s another one

but like I can just riff on that topic anytime. This one is more-

Simone Collins: Okay. Fair ...

Malcolm Collins: in depth.

Simone Collins: Yeah. Speaking of pillows, like my highlight of yesterday, I mean, you know, aside from like our meaningful life and everything, was I saw one of our pillows that your mom gifted to us, I- on, on, on the Nancy Drew show, like that HBO stupid fantasy mystery show.

I was like, “Oh my God, we have that pillow.” I got so excited. [00:52:00] Those stupid rough ass pillows that your mom got for us. You know, the, the, the like burlap ones.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah.

Simone Collins: Oh, anyway. I, I’ll get us

Malcolm Collins: started. Love you, sweetheart.

Simone Collins: Life is delightful.

Speaker 5: no, no.

Are the apples wet? They, they have a lot. All apples

No, no, apples are just naturally a bit wet,

the dust- Come on, Toasty ... that

Speaker 8: you’re always so worried about, right?

Speaker 5: Torsten, eat an apple. What are you doing?

She didn’t lick them all

Speaker 6: I want it back to zoo. It’s true.

Speaker 5: I know it’s true. I, I promise you she- Jackson,

Speaker 6: you were-

Speaker 5: See, Tyne [00:53:00] didn’t. That would be a really long thing for her to do, Josie You

Speaker 8: make her too much fun. We went in the-

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit basedcamppodcast.substack.com/subscribe