Daniel Cartier (00:00)
I get asked this question all the time. Okay, so you don't believe in God, how do you have morality? Okay, we're going to talk about that. Let's start the show!
Daniel Cartier (00:31)
Hey everybody, welcome to There is No God and We're All Gonna Die. I'm your host, Daniel Cartier. I'm a gay liberal atheist living in the Bible Belt. You don't have to be gay or liberal or an atheist to be here if you're here and you hate everything that I just said. I'm still glad you're here. I love everybody.
I know I've shared about this before, I posted on Instagram last summer this really short post about being an atheist and I got...
like 1200 comments from angry people who were just really pissed off that I was an atheist, I guess, and they were telling me I was gonna burn in hell and all this other nice stuff. anyways, that's besides the point. One of the things that people kept bringing up was, okay, so you say you're an atheist. How do you know right from wrong? Like, how do you have any morality don't believe in God?
it actually made me stop and think, okay, why do I know right and wrong? Because I don't believe in God, but yet I don't lie. I don't steal. I don't cheat. like to play fair. I like to be a good person. I like to do good deeds. I rescue handicapped dogs. I help people in recovery from you know, there's a lot of stuff that I do as an atheist who doesn't believe in God. I think I'm actually a pretty nice guy. I don't know. Maybe I'm
delusional, but I think I'm a nice guy. like all of us, I've had my moments in the past where I wasn't doing so great. Back when I was drinking all the time, know, before I got sober, there was definitely some times where I really struggled to do the right thing. And I think everybody goes through periods where they're not at their best.
So I've certainly been there, but I know that when I was at those points in my life, how horrible it felt and disconnected from humanity I
But this thought of morality and like how I would know right or wrong, it got me thinking. And one of the beautiful things, this is one of the good things I will say about social media. I know that a lot of times we say, there there's never been an online argument that's been won.
And I agree, people show up to these online arguments pretty much dead set that they're correct. And I'm absolutely guilty of that. I usually think, okay, well, I'm right and you're wrong. And I know that the other person's thinking that too.
but I will say this about online arguing One of the good things is I know for me when I do engage with it And of course again, I don't suggest we all go out and argue with each other online But one of the things I will say is when I engage in it
It actually is one of the ways that I realize, oh, this is the way I think about this thing. Like, I actually discover stuff about myself sometimes when I'm arguing or trying to make a point to somebody who disagrees with me online. So this post where I posted about being an atheist was a great example of that. I had posted about being an atheist and I got like 1,200 people to...
comment and most of them were these really ugly comments. And I spent a long time responding to a lot of these people and in those responses, I found myself realizing, this is what I think about this. ⁓ I guess this is what I think about that. ⁓ I never thought about it this way, but this is why I believe this.
by responding to these people that actually forced me to look at why I believed what I believed so that question of morality and
like if we don't believe in God, like how would we have morality? It became pretty clear to me This is what I think. I think it's evolution. I think that
We didn't always have morality. think morality is something that human beings had to evolve into having in order to grow as a species. think that a long, long time ago in the very early stages of humanity, we were pretty much like every other animal. We were something that evolved and we were
you know, just trying to survive and not get killed and living in caves and it was very rudimentary. And so back then, before there was things like language or the concept of murder it was just survival of the fittest because out in nature, that really is what it is, And so I think back then,
If you and I were prehistoric humans and I had a deer carcass that you wanted, you could just hit me over the head with a rock and kill me and take it and take it back to your group of people you were living with. And it's not like the police would come and arrest you That didn't exist back then.
I honestly think that in the early stages of humanity, that is what humans were like. Like any other animal, like the way a lion would be or a tiger or any other predator. And so I think over time though, as humans developed and we started to realize, wow, if our species bands together,
We actually are a really powerful force because we have these hands that can create tools and we have this brain for as much as I have problems with the human race, I will give us this. We have an amazing brain. The brain is this incredible feat of evolution
the way we can have logic and rational all these other it's truly remarkable.
But in order for us to evolve into a species that could have all this where we could invent things and build communities, we had to evolve into a species that wasn't just hitting each other over the head with a rock to take what we wanted. Like for instance, if my neighbor
Ms. Brenda
came from Walmart, and she had like a bunch of groceries,
Like I can't just go out and hit her over the head with a rock and take all her groceries That would be anarchy. That would be like Lord of the Flies. It would be unsustainable. And the human race would not be able to survive if we were like that.
If we were still hitting each other over the head with rocks just to get what we wanted, yeah, it would be completely unsustainable. So I think we've evolved into this species that has to have things like morals. Now, here's the thing that sucks though
Daniel Cartier (07:06)
as sensible as what I just said seems, it does open up the door to a lot of troubling things. Like for instance, yeah, we're not going to be hitting each other over the head for deer carcasses anymore. you know, somebody is in a position of power, like say a president or
a billionaire who owns tons of companies and they're comfortable basically swindling people out of their life savings or not paying people or just stepping on people left and right in order to get what they want. And say that person claims, in the public eye that they believe in God or whatever, but then in private, they think it's a bunch of bullshit. Somebody could theoretically
live a life where they just pretty much step on people and ruin people's lives and take shit that they don't deserve. All to just accumulate more wealth and be more powerful. And if they're comfortable with that they truly think, when I die, it's lights out. So I might as well get whatever I can right now and they can sleep well at night.
I don't know, mean, that's the troubling thing. I know for me, I think that heaven and hell are right now and I think we create our own heaven and hell. To me, even if you had a ton of money, like say billions of dollars, or you were the president of the United States, or you owned huge companies, I can't picture living a life where I've made my fortune off
the suffering of others. Like I just wouldn't be able to live with myself. I would just be miserable all the time. I would feel horrible. And I think it's because of how I was raised. My parents raised me to know right and wrong and to have empathy and have compassion for people and celebrate kindness and make that a priority. And so for me, when those attributes are in my life,
I feel wonderful, and when I'm able to help people, feel wonderful. And I'm not saying that to get any brownie points with you guys. I'm just saying that because that is how I view life. But I do know that there's people out there who I think to them, life is all about what you can get. And I think people want to bring religion into this because they want to feel like at some point there's going to be some sort of
Fiery retribution against people like that and as an atheist Here's one of the bummers about what I believe and I will openly admit it There may be no fiery retribution that person may be able to live their entire life Fucking people over taking shit that they don't deserve destroying people's lives and if they can sleep at night with that type of behavior
I it is what it is, ⁓ So not all my beliefs are all sunshine and lot of being an atheist is admitting that life is just not I wish that it wasn't the case, trust me. I do believe that there is some power in embracing the reality of this because if we just live in the dark
live in denial about the reality of life trying to deny the fact that people can just take shit without any repercussions. And if they're okay with that, they may be able to live the rest of their lives being totally fine with their actions. think embracing that reality is healthy because then it kind of puts us back in a position of power where we're like, okay, we can't wait for God to fix this. We can't wait for some divine force or whatever.
We need to fix this. We need to find these people who are doing this and call them out. I think it puts the power back, not the power, the responsibility back in our laps that if we don't speak up, then nobody will speak up. And it kind of amplifies the importance of not rolling over and playing dead.
Like, if you see corruption, you may be the only person who will ever stop that corruption if nobody else sees it. You know, if there's no then no God's gonna see it. So, anyways, that was a lot of, deep thinking, but it's what was on my mind, so I thought I'd bring it up. Let's talk about what's in the news.
Daniel Cartier (11:48)
Okay, so I'm not going to spend too much time on the news because I think people are pretty thoroughly reporting it and there's a lot of other stuff I want to get to and I really want to get to the voicemails because that's my favorite part. But I will just say right now, here's what's going on.
Daniel Cartier (12:02)
This is from Newsweek.
on September 1st this law goes into effect Senate Bill 10 which will require public schools in Texas to display the 10 Commandments in each classroom.
no smaller than 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall. So that's actually a pretty big poster, 16 inches by 20 inches. So yeah, that's going to be in every classroom. Even if there's Muslim students or Jewish students or students of all different faiths or atheist students, American tax dollars
I'm assuming are also gonna pay for these posters, which is a little screwed up to think a Jewish parents taxes or a Muslim parents taxes or a Buddhist parents taxes are gonna pay to print all these commandments and frames and everything. I don't think the teachers are gonna.
for them. I'm sure it's going to come out of the school budget. So that's really screwed up. and of course it's going to be challenged in the courts and it's going to just be one more thing clogging up our courts. But this is what I'm talking about. the post that I mentioned before on Instagram where I got all these hateful comments,
All I said was, I'll stop reminding you I'm an atheist when you stop shoving your religion in my face and using it to take away the rights of people I love. And then they were like, how are we shoving it in your face? It's like, ⁓ well, here's an example right here. You're forcing public schools to post the 10 commandments. How is that not shoving it in people's faces?
When are they gonna let Satanists hang up stuff in every how ludicrous it is. whenever Christians do stuff, I just come back with, well, when are we gonna let the Satanists do it?
But anyways, so that's happening. Trump posted this crazy thing on Truth Social,
about mail-in electronic ballots.
but I will get to that in Asshole of the Week,
Daniel Cartier (14:05)
So what else? Hillary Clinton was just interviewed and she seems to think that the Supreme Court will probably end up overturning gay marriage. She's very concerned about it. And she was actually telling gay couples she was urging them if they had any desire to get married, that we should probably get married now because once the Supreme Court does overturn it,
The gay marriages that have already happened will still be legal, that, depending on where you live in the country, you won't be able to get married anymore. She said that basically what they did with Roe versus Wade, she thinks that they're going to do it with gay marriage. So I thought that that was worth mentioning.
It's definitely concerning as a gay person living here in Tennessee. my right to get married I could easily see it being taken away. I could. mean, I don't think it's
it's funny, I've been engaged a bunch of times, but I've never actually tied the knot, but just knowing that I could get married made me feel a lot better about myself, so, yeah, I'm just gonna leave that there.
Let's do a little self promotion.
Daniel Cartier (15:20)
well first of all, you know, speakpipe.com slash there is no God and we're all going to die. That is where you go if you want to ask me a question or comment on anything and I will respond to your voice message on the podcast. It's one of my favorite parts of every episode. Also, this Saturday, August 23rd, 2025 from 3 to 5 p.m. I will be giving a lecture about being an atheist and about
why I started this podcast. That will be going on at Nashville Unitarian Universalist Congregation 374 Hicks Road in Bellevue, Tennessee. That is being put on by the Middle Tennessee Humanist Group.
Also, if you go to daniolcardier.com, my acoustic album is for sale, a bunch of new artwork is for sale, all the artwork benefits rescues and also the care of my handicapped dogs that Cory and I take care of. So yeah, check all that out. That's enough self promotion out of me. And let's get on to...
I'm kind of a douchebag when I'm dealing with assholes.
asshole of the week is none other than our president, Donald Trump. Again, he won again. He won twice. This is his second time being asshole of the week.
Daniel Cartier (16:51)
Okay I just want to read this thing that he posted on Truth Social, and I just want to ask you if you think this sounds like somebody who is unhinged or somebody who's sane. This was what he just posted today. From Donald J. Trump, I am going to lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots and also while we're at it, highly inaccurate, very expensive, and seriously controversial voting machines.
which costs ten times more than accurate and sophisticated watermark paper, which is faster and leaves no doubt at the end of the evening as to who won and who lost the election. We are now the only country in the world that uses mail-in voting. All others gave it up because of the massive voter fraud encountered. We will begin this effort. This is all like all caps. You know how he loves his all caps. Massive voter fraud encountered. We will begin this effort, which will
be strongly opposed by the Democrats because they cheat at levels never seen before. ⁓
So he basically wants to like get rid of voting machines, get rid of mail-in ballots, because he knows that that will really hurt Democrats. He doesn't fucking care about corruption. And he's saying that they've cheated at levels never before seen. Dude, spare me. Like, you're the one who kept pushing this phony stolen election charge back in 2020 and got a
band of rabid fucking crazy people to attack our nation's capital and beat up police officers and actually cause a police officer to have a heart attack and die and have other police officers fucking kill themselves because they were so traumatized. But yet Democrats are the ones who've cheated at levels never before seen. And here's the other thing that's so crazy. If you think we're so incompetent, but yet we were also the masterminds of massive
voter fraud, then which is it? Are we incompetent or are we these masterminds of voter fraud? Like, pick a lane. But anyways. he's going to sign an executive order to help bring honesty to the 2026 midterm elections. You see, he's already without any proof or without anything. What he's doing is already telling his base
you're not going to be able to trust the midterms. And the reason why he's doing this is because he knows he's going to get clobbered in the midterms. I really think that people are sick of his bullshit. I mean, I think people are really starting to see, hey, my fucking grocery prices are not coming down. I thought you were going to bring my grocery prices down. I, you know, there's going to be people getting kicked off of Medicaid that voted for him. Like,
There's people who've lost government jobs that voted for him. There's people who had relatives get arrested by ICE who voted for him. So I think he's seeing the writing on the wall. you know, that's why you see all this stuff about gerrymandering in Texas like, let's get some more seats in Congress and all this other stuff, because I think that they see the writing on the wall for the midterms.
And so, his big plan? Let's totally redo the way America votes. Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm not reading the rest of his bullshit because it's almost like I can't read what he writes without stopping and just commenting on it because it's so fucking crazy. But anyways.
He says, remember the states are merely an agent for the federal government and counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the federal government as represented by the president of the United States tells them. For the good of our country, with the horrible radical left policies like open borders, men playing in women's sports. Okay, now he's getting into like things that have nothing to do with it. Transgender and woke for everyone and so much more.
Democrats are virtually unelectable mail-in scam. Elections can never be honest with mail-in ballots voting, and everybody, in particular the Democrats, knows this. now he's just all caps all the time. He just, he's devolved into all caps.
and I, the Republican Party, will fight like hell to bring honesty and integrity back to our elections. The mail-in ballot hoax using voting machines that are complete and total disaster must end now!
so this is your gay liberal friend, Daniel J. Cartier, atheist from Tennessee, and I just wanna say once again, just go fuck yourself. Seriously, go fuck yourself.
Daniel Cartier (22:03)
First off, mail-in ballots predate all the way back to the fucking Civil War. So, you know, the fact that suddenly it can't be trusted because you, without any proof of any voter fraud, because we've looked at all the elections, all this fraud that you say is happening has already been disproven. basically all this is going to do, it's going to disenfranchise.
disabled people, it's going to disfranchise people who can't get off work to go vote. And you know this, you know this, what I keep going back to, and I said this last week and I'm just going to fucking say it again, to in Texas like they need to gerrymander everything in order to get seats back in Congress. Or you.
saying that we need to change the way we fucking vote and that we can't have mail-in voting anymore and that it's the machines the machines are making it happen. Here's the thought. Just get better fucking ideas. Like be a better fucking president. the Republican Party could actually take care of people, but they don't. They just kowtow to billionaires and they just roll over and play dead when it comes to Russia.
when your policies are shitty and they don't improve people's lives, guess what? They're not gonna vote for you. And you can, claim the mail-in the problem, we need more districts in Texas or whatever. if you have to go through all this trouble just to stay in power, maybe...
your ideas are just fucking shitty ideas but you know what do i know you know i'm just some gay liberal atheist living in the bible belt who sees you contradicting yourself all the time and so ⁓ yeah ⁓ fuck you fuck you just fuck you like always fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you yeah all right that's all i needed to say about that
as always, there's somebody who almost made it to first place, but they came in second place.
Well, you know, it's an oldie but a goodie. the second place asshole is the Westboro Baptist Church. the reason why I chose them is because we don't really hear about them that much anymore, but I saw something about them and I was like, are they up to?
I went to their website and I checked it out and they're still very active
they are still going and they're still doing all their little stupid protests. They're still
holding up their God hates fags signs and they still thousands of people following them who think what they're doing is great. So, I like to bring these people up every once in a while because I think it's important to just remind ourselves that people like that are out there. so, yeah,
Daniel Cartier (24:55)
Okay, You know what? Enough with all of this. I really want to take some voicemails. I had other stuff I wanted to talk about, but I just want to get to the voicemails because all of this stuff just bums me out so much and the voicemails always cheer me let's see going on with the voicemails. Let's listen to some voicemails.
Let's listen to some voicemans. Yeah. Alright. Let's see what's going on.
Heather, it's so nice to hear from you and I agree. The earth is magnificent, the universe is magnificent. You are not going to get any argument from me about that. And also, wonderful people like you. actually know who Heather is. She's an amazing artist. She's an incredible tattoo artist and I would actually like to get some tattoos from her. she is
such a sweetheart, agree. the universe is incredible. there's so much stuff that is awe-inspiring. you look at nature, you look at the fact that, there's trillions of galaxies in our observable universe. Yes, it is awe-inspiring.
What you were saying is when you're thinking about it, you think there, does seem like there's something magical behind it. Listen.
I will admit it's all very compelling and impressive and I am left awestruck pretty much all the time but my brain is really literal and so you know I kind of think the Big Bang happened and all of this stuff has been going on for billions of years and
You know, so I'm an atheist, but I will say the cool thing about I say this at every single podcast, like every single time. I don't think there's been one episode that I've not said this, and it's probably just going to be this thing that I always say. And it's one of the things that I love about being an atheist is that I may be wrong. I may be very wrong and there may be some magical force behind everything. And if that's the case,
I will be psyched. I would be so psyched. I don't think I'm ever going to know in my lifetime. And so I just choose to be an atheist because that's what makes sense to me. I just think that all of this is nature could be anything. Nature could be a walk in the woods. Nature could be,
an animal, nature could be us, like we are just organic and nature could even be the universe, things happening naturally. And so I just view it all as things happening naturally,
when you have trillions of galaxies and then in those trillions of galaxies, there's who knows how many suns and rotating around the suns, who knows how many planets. Law of averages, some of them are going to be just far enough away from whatever sun they're rotating around.
that it could sustain life. And so I believe we lucked out. We happened to be on one of those rocks that was spinning around a sun. so we just happened to.
be in the right place at the right time where we could evolve and here we are right now.
as far as there being something magical behind it.
I don't want to take the fact that you think there's there's something magical like I really don't. So my problem with religion has nothing to do with people believing in stuff I celebrate that. I celebrate that.
And again, I hope I'm wrong. I would love to be wrong about all this because, if I got to die and go somewhere else or just knowing that there was some magical force behind everything, that would be really cool. My brain just doesn't work that way. I'm just so literal.
My problem always goes back to the values that people have and the values people push on other people, which I know you're not one of those people. You're an amazing person and you're like completely open-minded. So I'm not talking about you at all. But when people...
have a religion and they think, I have this religion so now I want everybody else to share this religious belief and I also want to take away people's rights because my religion says that I should. That's always been my only problem with any of it. And unfortunately right now, as you know, and we've talked about this, here in America, that version of religion has become so powerful.
And so I say I'm an atheist and I say it really loud, I'm a gay liberal atheist living in the Bible Belt because I want people to know that I exist and that people like me exist and that yeah, even here in the Bible Belt, there's people who don't believe, like I want some homophobic, Christian nationalist to know, yeah, even here in the Bible Belt, there's people who don't believe what you believe, dude, and so that's why the word atheist, it's a word that people understand.
I mean, I've been kind of all over in my answer and I probably gonna edit this answer down so it's a little bit more cohesive, but yeah, so that's where I am with all of
believe that if people wanna think that there's something magical behind that, I celebrate it. For me, I'm just very literal, but.
My only problem, it has nothing to do with what people believe. It's really more about, the agendas they're trying to push. so anyways, long winded thing, but I love that you called in. Thank you so much. And I, and I love the observations. I, I, and I agree. Universe magnificent, infinity magnificent nature, the world, the ocean, the skies, the mountain, art, music.
poetry, love, laughter, dogs, there's so much, there's so much, and it is magical, it is magical, even if it's just magical in the way it makes me feel. I guess that's my answer. Yes, I agree, it's The way it makes me feel is magical. So in that respect, yes, absolutely, it is a magical feeling, so, all right.
Next caller.
you know who that is? That's my best friend, Matt. Again, this is his second time calling in. I know I've mentioned it before,
My very best friend is a Christian and I love him dearly and he believes Jesus was the son of God and I again I don't want to take that away from him because we still share all the same values I mean he's a progressive liberal
person who believes in gay rights, trans rights, a woman's right to choose, down here in Tennessee, one of the things that I'm grateful for is that I've been able to meet a lot of people, quote unquote, of faith or believers,
who have amazing views, you know? And so again, I don't ever want to take that away from them. Anyways, that's not what he was calling about.
So Matt, you know I love you and thank you so much for calling. So the question was like what was like one of the hardest things I've ever been through?
and how did I get through it?
Honestly? You know, here's the thing!
I've been through a lot of stuff. I mean, I think we've all been through a lot of stuff. you know, so my natural inclination is to go back and look at all these things that happened in the past. You know, I was gay bashed really bad. I was a drug addict. I was an alcoholic. I was a prostitute. tried to kill myself a bunch of times. I was bullied really bad growing up. what else? I, ⁓
had people die, my mom dying of Alzheimer's, my dad following closely afterwards, saying goodbye to beloved pets, saying goodbye to friends, things like AIDS and cancer. I've seen so much, I've had friends kill themselves, I've had friends die of drug overdoses, beautiful people.
So you know, I've had all this happen, but you know what I keep going back to? What's the hardest thing? What's the hardest thing?
I always feel like what we're going through in the present moment is always going to be the most immediate thing. And so I know this is kind of a weird answer,
showing up even now with everything going on in the world and how corrupt the world is. Because a lot of the other stuff that I mentioned, a lot of it was like personal struggles in my own life me being an alcoholic or people die, you know, as tragic as it is, people die. And that's very painful.
But honestly, the thing I still struggle with all the time, all the time, is when I see blatant corruption and when I see things that are just so bold-faced and seeing it in power and people cheering for it
And it's just so obvious how corrupt it is. I can honestly say this has been one of the hardest things to get has been hard. I won't lie. The last half a year, just seeing how quickly our democracy has been getting chipped away at. And it's not even chipped away. It's like being Sledgeham.
I mean, things have been happening here in America that I never thought I would see happen in my lifetime. The fact that we voted back into office somebody who tried to overthrow our government and who colluded with a foreign power and bragged about grabbing women by the pussy and mock disabled people and ⁓ lied about winning the 2020 election and spread false stolen election claims and got people to
storm our capital and attack police officers and and yet he's somehow the good guy and people think he's this great person and people I love voting for him. I don't know like I haven't gone through it. I'm still trying to get through it. every day when I wake up it's there it's this thing.
that we're all living underneath right now. how I'm getting through it is one of the reasons is I started this podcast. I was walking around as you know, as my friend, we would talk about it all the time. I was walking around with so much anger in me and I had no place to put it. I couldn't fit it into a song. I couldn't fit it into a painting. and
You know, I was ranting about it on Facebook and I was like posting memes, about how much I couldn't stand them. And I was unfriending people and blocking people. And I even threw a chair across my living room. I was so upset. And I'm not the type of person who can hold on to that type of anger. I don't like feeling that way. I really don't. And the thing that always makes me feel
that way is when I feel powerless. Powerlessness, when I feel powerless to change something.
I don't handle it well because makes you feel trapped. It makes you feel like a caged animal. And sometimes we feel like we're trapped in our emotions and in our feelings and we feel trapped in our anger and we feel trapped in our rage. And that's how I was feeling.
So yeah, how I've been getting through it is honestly by doing this and by showing up and not being quiet you know, we're going to have pride here in our little podunk area of Tennessee, way out in the middle of, the woods, we're going to have a pride festival on Labor Day weekend and I'm going to have a booth there and I'm going to show up and I'm going to be like, yeah, I'm
a friggin' gay guy and here's all my pride artwork and I'm gonna have a booth and I'm gonna be there celebrating being a gay person in this conservative area of Tennessee. And is it scary? Yeah, absolutely. I know that last year we fag out of their pickup trucks and stuff and that concerns me,
I can't live like a little woodland animal who's just scared of everything. and as you know, like I was scared to start this podcast, like, I'm going to start a podcast called There Is No God and We're All Going to Die. I was convinced that as soon as I posted the first episode, some crazy rednecks, with shotguns would come to my house and kill me, you know, but honestly,
doing this and daring to do this. I don't know. It's like, it's made me realize that I can't live in fear and I can't let that feeling of powerlessness consume me. I don't expect this podcast to change anything. It's not going to stop people from being corrupt and it's certainly not going to stop Donald Trump from being a fucking douchebag. But I do feel
better knowing that I'm at least one more voice.
there's eight billion people in the world. And so we need billions of people speaking up. need billions of people. they don't need to all be doing podcasts, but, just speaking their mind, talking to friends, talking to neighbors, letting people know how, all this corruption is affecting them. And I think at the end of the day,
It's about community, And so my goal with this podcast was to just be one more person in the community of compassion and kindness and empathy, speaking up about how upset I find all this corruption. And so that's how I'm getting through it. I mean, there's other things I've been through before,
I mean, certainly getting sober. being an alcoholic and almost drinking myself to death and trying to kill myself and stuff. I mean, that was a very dark period in my life, but I still felt like I knew where to go. I knew that when I went back to get help and go back to meetings, I knew that there would be a community of people there.
waiting to help me. And so now I get to help other people as well. I get to turn around and pay it forward. But yeah, this powerlessness over corruption, it's something that, ⁓ God, I struggle with it. but this is helping. This is helping. this always helps this communication. So thank you. And you know, I love you and thank you for calling in. All right, let's see who else.
my gosh, wait a second. ⁓ I think we have a special call.
I think that my partner, Cory, called. ⁓ my goodness gracious.
Aww.
No.
Aww. Well, Cory's called up so many times that ⁓ I decided he needed a little theme song, so I want to hear that again. I want to play your theme song again. ⁓ Let's listen to it one more time. I'm very proud of this. Hold on. Here's the Cory Calling theme. So when Cory calls up, you will hear this.
Anyways, that's a lovely question, honey. Thank you so much for calling and thank you for asking me like what the most important quality of work of art could have.
Is that what you said? Now I need to listen to your voicemail again. Now I can't remember what you said. I was so excited about my Cory theme, that I kind of forgot what you asked.
Okay, all right. I was correct. I was correct. I thought maybe I was remembering the question wrong, but I guess I was remembering it correctly. What's the most important quality that a work of art can have? I mean, I don't want to give you a short answer because I feel like you're the love of my life and you've just called up and I actually created a theme song for you. And so I feel like I should be giving this long winded, four score and seven years ago answer.
But I think the answer is just honesty. think that honesty is the most important thing that any work of art can have. It has to be honest. I mean, that can mean so many things. You know, we talk a lot nowadays about authenticity. As you know, I've been trying to get my music into TV and film. And so I've been taking part in all these workshops on how to get songs placed in
television shows and films.
and talking to all these music supervisors, the thing that they keep mentioning is authenticity, authenticity, authenticity. so I translate that to honesty. I know that for me.
When I look at ⁓ work of art.
I want to feel like the person, whatever they were doing, they were sincere about it. the funny thing is, it doesn't even mean that everything needs to be heavy handed or anything. Like honesty could be the B-52's love shack. They honestly wanted people to just party and have a good time, but it was honest. know, that's what the song was. And so that's why the song is such a great song.
When I see Van Gogh's A Starry Night, as you know, the first time I saw that in person, it actually made me cry. I burst into tears. I was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and I turned the corner, and I wasn't even expecting to be confronted by that painting. I knew that the painting was there, but I didn't know where it was. And so...
I was walking through a corridor and I turned and I went into another room in the museum and there it was. this was a painting that I had been obsessed with my whole life. I had almost gotten it tattooed on me. I mean, it was just like this major painting for me. And to see it in person, I literally burst in tears and I had to keep leaving and I had to go and I actually had to collect myself and to have that,
reaction to a painting that had been painted, so long ago, like back in the 1800s, it was just, it was a beautiful experience. one could also say that one of the most important qualities of a work of art is to shed light on injustices. But even then I would say, but that we're still talking about honesty.
You know, because honesty can take many forms. whether it's somebody honestly sharing about how they feel, be it in a poem or a painting or a book or whatever movie however they are trying to express themselves artistically, ribbon dance, ⁓ you know, that they're being honest about their feelings or the honesty could be that they are
trying to be a truth teller with the work about they're trying to shed light on how they honestly feel about an injustice in the world or a tragedy or something that they feel like humanity should be paying more attention to. That's still honesty. So I kind of feel like I just gave a bunch of examples so that I wouldn't just say like honesty and then go on to the next call. But like
Yeah, as soon as I heard the question, that's the word that popped into my head is honesty. And you know, you can kind of tell when people aren't being honest. It's like
I even know that I've had songs that I don't really do this as much anymore, but back when I was younger and I was trying to make it, I know that I've shared this story with you before. you know, I had this record deal and this is, this is kind of off the beaten path, but it's such a dorky story that I need to tell it.
I moved to New York in my twenties and then I was doing the folk singer thing and I got signed I had a couple of record deals and then Elton John signed me to his record label and they tried to make me into a big rock star and then it didn't work. And so then I went back to being this like unknown singer songwriter. And in the meantime, I was kind of just grabbing at straws like,
what could I do to get people to notice me and what could I do to it was desperation is what it was and
my feelings had been so crushed by losing like that, this big record deal I had pinned all my hopes and dreams on, that it didn't work out. I just remember like, when it all fell apart, I went through this period where I was just kind of grabbing at straws creatively, like what could get me back on top? what could get me back in the limelight and get back all the stuff that I just lost and
so then I wrote that rap song you guys, like I literally wrote a rap song because I thought, maybe if I do rap music, first of all, I have no business rapping. Like I am not, it's just so fucking lame. It was like, God, what was it like? ⁓ like I remember I like,
I'm not even going to do it. Like I remember how the rap goes, but it's so fucking embarrassing that I would, I think it's like the one I refuse to ever do it. I mean, it was, it was so embarrassing that I even tried. And I think that the reason why it's so embarrassing because there was no honesty. knew even when I was doing it, okay, this is just so, cloying and like just, ew, like you're trying to gloam onto something because you see that it's popular with the kids now.
and it's just like, no, Daniel, no, you're not somebody who does rap music. Like don't try, like that's just so lame. I also remember, I know I told you about this, I was dating this guy for a while and he was kind of helping me with my music career. And this was, again, another weird period in my life where...
I felt like was floundering around and I didn't have any direction and I don't know. was grasping at straws. And so he wanted me to, look at the news and then for every news story, he wanted me to like write a song about it. there was like a baby that had
been killed or something like baby, I can't remember baby Amanda or whatever. And he's like, you know, like for instance, baby Amanda, I don't think that was the baby's name. I can't remember what the name of the baby was, but he's like, you know, every single time there's a news story, you should be doing something like, this is for baby Amanda who just died and like write some cheesy song about this baby who had just died or this is for the people who just were in this
flood you know, and then like write a song about that. And it's like, dude, that is so cheesy I mean, there's a word for it. It's called pandering. another word for pandering, I would say is disingenuous. And another word for disingenuous is dishonest. And so if I had been recording all those songs, it would have been so dishonest to me and it would have been so cheesy and it would have been so dumb.
And so, when I think of what the polar opposite of honest is and then think of the times that I've almost gone there in my own art, it just makes me like, ⁓ God, no, like, no, no, no, no, no, no. life is so short. so if I'm going to do art now, I at least want it to be art that I can get behind and I can put my stamp of approval on it.
because this is truly something that I believe in. So, ah, honesty. There's my answer in a very long winded format. And I love you. I honestly love you. love you. I honestly love you. Aw, yay. All right, let's see what else.
⁓ I love your voice.
first of all, can I just discuss how much I love your voice? Like you have the best voice. Thank you so much for calling. Your voice just made me smile. Like you, I don't know, you just have a very soothing voice. You have one of those voices I could listen to like all day long. So thank you so much. Like I'm just like smiling right now. ⁓ What was the question? ⁓ is Donald Trump an atheist? ⁓
It's what that's so weird you ask that because it's like that's what I was talking about at the beginning of the podcast like Maybe probably yeah, like him holding up the friggin Bible upside down. I Wouldn't be surprised because with somebody who believes in God like, okay, you know, I don't believe in God but I choose to be a good person because I Don't want to live in hell right now. I don't want to live with
the pain of knowing that I've caused other people pain or undue hardship just so I could get what I want out of life. that's why I choose to be the way I am. as an atheist, it's like, I don't need some guy in the sky I'm choosing to be this way because I like the way I feel when I haven't fucked people over. But I look at somebody like Donald Trump,
And he's clearly aware of how he's fucking people I'm not going to list off all his atrocities. We know what his atrocities are. I could stay here for the next hour and list off Donald Trump's atrocities. Dating all the way back, not just from when he was president, but I'm talking way back, like when he was a slumlord.
when he declared all those bankruptcies and didn't pay people. you know, there were family businesses that went under because of Donald Trump not paying people. his whole history, he's notorious for fucking people over, you know, like all the scams, all the charities that we know he stole from, the corruption, the lies. mean,
his entire life, his infidelities. And let's not forget probable possible, very possible pedophilia, you know, friends with Jeffrey Epstein. And we know that there's court documents with very underage girls who claim that, yeah, he raped them. for somebody like Donald Trump,
to do all this shitty stuff his whole life and be so corrupt for them to also believe in God to me it wouldn't make any sense because if you believe in God then you believe one day you're going to meet him and here you are being such a douchebag asshole wouldn't he think well I guess when I die I'm going to hell unless he's not worried about that
There's an old interview with him where he talks about his philosophy I can't remember exactly what he said but something along the lines of kill or be killed,
so I think that Donald Trump, I wouldn't be surprised if he was an atheist. he doesn't seem like somebody who believes in well, maybe he does believe in God, but I also think he's a psychotic narcissist. for a psychotic narcissist,
like a sociopathic psychotic narcissist like him.
I could picture somebody like, I believe in God and God serves me. I'm God's favorite. so I think there's either two things that could be going on. He could either think the whole God thing's a bunch of bullshit and he just pretends to believe in God so that he can dupe his base into voting for him. And then he just, meanwhile goes and he just like stomps all over people's liberties and he just treats the world like it's his fucking.
And I always wonder why it's not so obvious to the people who are quote unquote people of faith, but yet they're voting for him. And he's like the polar opposite of everything that I've understood Jesus to be for. anyways, that's another topic for another day. But thank you again for calling. Thank you for calling because I just loved listening to your voice and I hope you call back because
You just had one of those voices again, like I love it when people call up and their voice just makes me smile. I like the listening to your voice. All right. I think we have one more call.
that's my friend Ruben calling. He's going to need a little theme music at some point because I think this is the third time he's called. Ruben. ⁓ Ruben, I just think you're the best thing since sliced bread. Thank you so much for calling. And what a great What's the greatest achievement for me as an artist? Again, you know, here's the weird thing. I'm going to give you a very simple answer.
because I mean, could go on and be long-winded. I think I've done a lot of cool artistic things in my life. But I think the greatest achievement as an artist
is today. I showed up today for my art.
anytime I show up for my art.
I showed up because here's the thing. I've struggled with suicidal feelings most of my life. even now at six and a half years sober. I still struggle with some really dark feelings. you know, when you are self promoter, because it's just me, like I film these podcasts, I record my music,
edit all my own music videos, I have no assistants, like it's all just me. That's why I'm constantly busy. I would love to have a team of people. the thing that can be very frustrating is, as you know, like we can put all this blood, sweat and tears and all of our honesty, getting back to Corey's question, you know, put all our honesty into this music or this art or
whatever it is we're doing. And then the world is so busy now and people are just so distracted and there's so much going on that you kind of feel like, is anybody even listening? Like, does it even matter? Like if I just, burned all my paintings and destroyed all my songs and deleted all my music files and just got rid of all my creativity ever and moved to a cabin in the woods.
Would people even care? Like sometimes I find myself thinking that because the world is such a big place and I'm just one person. And so that is who Daniel is a lot of times. Like I have to still show up in spite of those feelings, even recording this podcast, Corey will back me up. Every single episode I film, I go through this moment where I have to stop filming.
because I feel like why the fuck am I even doing this? Like, does it even fucking matter? Like, does the world need a podcast episode for me? this is stupid. or like, every album I've ever made, it's like, yeah, these songs are but is anybody even going to care? they said every day now there's
over a hundred thousand new songs being uploaded to the internet to things like Spotify and everything. It's like, so does the world really need an album from me? the truth is no. mean, the world could survive Like if I just stopped doing creative things altogether, the world would keep spinning. People would keep going to work. know, babies would continue to be born.
countries are dry as in fall, like everything would happen the way it's always been happening. What I'm doing, it's great that I'm doing it, but if I stopped doing it. sometimes as a creative person having that realization, you know, it can make you feel, or I know it can make me feel like, there any fucking point to any of this? So again, being very long winded, I will just say.
My greatest accomplishment as an artist is that I showed up today. I showed up today and I honored my art. Every day that any of us show up doesn't have to be the greatest thing we ever accomplished. Like it doesn't need to be the best painting we ever did or the greatest song we ever did or anything. Just showing up. I think just showing up, just showing up and showing up and showing up and showing up. I'm 56 years old and I'm still showing up.
my creativity. So to me, that's the greatest accomplishment. So I love that you asked it because it made me really happy to know that I'm still showing up. it's something that I'm proud of. we all should be proud when we show up for ourselves and for our creativity. ⁓ And if people like it, great, even better. And if they don't like it, well, it's not their job to like it or not like it.
that's the results and the results are never gonna be up to us. The results are gonna be whatever they are. if we can still show up regardless of what the results might be, that's awesome. That's always so impressive, you know? Like here we are, we put all this time and energy into creating something, not knowing if people will ever pay attention to it or ever give it the time of day.
or like it or hate it, just not knowing there's just so many unknowns, but yet we still show up for it because we need to express whatever it is. How beautiful is that? That's so beautiful to me. So to all the artists out there, including Ruben, who I absolutely adore, I love the fact that if you're showing up today, I just want to give you a high five. So anyways.
I think that's it you guys I think that's the end of the podcast I think that I've answered all the questions we talked about asshole of the week we yeah I think we're winding it down here which is good because my throat is kind of doing a weird thing right now
All right, I hope everybody has a wonderful week. I will be back next week with another episode. Go to speakpipe.com slash thereisnogod and we're all gonna die. And you can leave me a voice message. As you can see, I love getting them and I love answering them. You can also go to facebook.com slash thereisnogod and we're all gonna die. And you can send me a message that way. You can just.
Go to the message app and there's a little microphone icon. You just press that little microphone and you can leave me a voice message that way. Or you can go to danielcartier.com check out all my art, check out all my music, and while you're there, right on the homepage.
it's that button, call the show. You can press that button and you can leave a message that way. There's so many ways and leaving a message only takes a minute. You can see, like, these were very short messages you don't need to call and, like, talk for 14 minutes. you can just call and ask me a question. And every single time I get a question, I am so happy to get it. it lets me know people are listening, and you don't even have to like me.
You can hate me, you can hate everything I just talked about, can hate the fact that I'm an atheist, you can hate the fact that I'm gay, you can hate the fact that I'm liberal, you can hate something I shared about. I welcome all of it. To me, I love hearing what's on people's minds, even if they don't agree with me. I still wanna hear it. So please call and leave the voice message and yeah, I'm wishing you all.
a wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful moment in time wherever you may be right now. alright. Let's wind it down.