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Three for the Founders

November 17, 2025 • 34:40

Jon’s solo surf trip to Bali was supposed to be about chasing waves — but it turns into a meditation on power, privilege, and what it means to travel without leaving a footprint the size of your passport.

This bonus episode opens with salt spray and adrenaline — double-overhead surf at Uluwatu, a sea cave entry straight out of myth, and the quiet terror of being “8,000 miles from Los Angeles” with nothing but a rented board and your instincts. But as Jon, Antonio, and Lybroan debrief, the conversation swells into deeper waters: respect, fear, and the blurred line between traveler and tourist.

What starts as talk of wave height and local drivers named Gus turns into a sharp-eyed look at how tourism mirrors empire — from surf brands lining Balinese cliffs to Popeyes at London Bridge. The brothers trade stories and side-eyes about America’s global reach — by the gun or by the screen — and ask whether the U.S. exports culture or dependency. Cue references from Living Single to Ben Kingsley’s Gandhi, with a detour through UCLA’s own anti-imperial rebel scholar, E. Bradford Burns.

By the close, they’re joking politics, riffing on global headlines, and reminding listeners that even in small conversations — about surfing, travel, or food — there’s a whole world of economics, ethics, and empire beneath the surface.

💬 “Sometimes you paddle out for peace and end up surfing history itself.”

Listen for:

•The fine line between courage and foolishness in solo travel

•Ethics of street photography and influencer culture

•Tourism’s economic double edge

•How America exports itself through media, money, and myth

Follow the journey at threeforthefounders.com and on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok.

Text or drop a message through Buzzsprout — and don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share.

Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok and let us know. Til the next time...left on founders...we out!

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🎙️Ep. 23 - “Travel Is Fatal to Prejudice — But America Keeps Rebooking the Trip”

November 10, 2025 • 1 hour, 36 minutes

The hosts unpack how global travel broadens empathy even as America clings to the same old routes of racism, denial, and selective memory.

Mark Twain wrote that “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” This week, our hosts update that line: travel is fatal to prejudice in people. And as this conversation unfolds, they remind us that translation itself—of words, of cultures, of identities—is always an act of interpretation.

Because this episode isn’t just about passports and plane tickets. It’s about the journey of perspective—how seeing the world reshapes what we think we know about race, belonging, faith, and power.

And yes, there’s news. The guys unpack the fallout from the assassination of Charlie Kirk. They look at the way certain segments of America are already mythologizing him as a martyr of “free speech.” The conversation gets uncomfortable, especially when Jon revisits his own past as a young preacher intoxicated by certainty and applause—and recognizes, with some humility, how dangerous that confidence can become when supercharged with funding, politics, and grievance.

They identify white supremacy not as robes and rallies, but as a lens—one that distorts what we see and who we value. And they ask: if America can pay settlements to families wrongfully detained or deported, why can’t it pay reparations to those it enslaved and systematically excluded?

From Morocco’s marketplace warmth to India’s fearless flow of life, from Haiti’s echoes of home to the small cultural rituals that make family sacred—this episode asks what it really means to travel well.

• What happens when you realize your culture’s “order” is someone else’s “chaos”?
• When you feel less Black or white abroad and more American—and not always proudly so?
• When you see that happiness doesn’t depend on hustle, and that “community” might just be the most radical form of wealth?

Listener Takeaways & Questions:

•Can travel be a form of reparative justice—a way to unlearn the hierarchies we were raised inside?

•How does American consumer culture—our holidays, our spending, our advertising—mask deeper absences of meaning and belonging?

•And what would it take for our country to admit, out loud, that repair isn’t just legal—it’s moral?

Action Items:

1.Listen with curiosity, not judgment.

2.Reflect on where your perspective was born—and when it last changed.

3.Share the episode with someone who travels differently than you do.

4.Engage: Drop your thoughts on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok @ThreeForTheFounders, or text them directly through Buzzsprout.

This is a conversation about proximity—the kind that dissolves prejudice, reshapes identity, and maybe, just maybe, brings us a little closer to justice.

So buckle up. Episode 23 of Three for the Founders starts now.

Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok and let us know. Til the next time...left on founders...we out!

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🎙️ Three for the Founders
Oct 27, 2025 • 69:16 minutes

This week, the hosts of Three for the Founders head to the gun range with guest Alan Wright—better known online as @2A-N-LA—and come back with more than just ringing ears. What follows is a raw, layered conversation on what firearms mean in America: as lived experience, as cultural symbol, as constitutional right, and as public hazard.

From the bing, bing of a Glock that sent one host sprinting, to the data points on suicides, homicides, and mass shootings, to a candid reckoning with how guns conjure both heritage and trauma depending on who’s holding them—this episode refuses to flatten the debate into red-blue soundbites.

Alan offers an inside look at California’s labyrinthine gun laws, breaks down common myths around AR-15s, and situates gun ownership within Black history and the fast-growing reality of Black women arming themselves for safety. The hosts push back, raising questions about school shootings, the “urban” semantics of crime, and what kind of civic covenant—if any—should exist between Americans and their weapons.

The episode doesn’t hand you answers. Instead, it sits in the discomfort: Is fear the real driver of our policies? Are guns scapegoats for deeper wounds like poverty, dislocation, and mental health? And is the Second Amendment the “teeth” behind the First—or a splinter in the body politic?

💡 Takeaways for listeners:

• Guns aren’t just tools; they’re symbols—of freedom, of violence, of belonging, of exclusion.
• The data is messy, and how it’s framed often tells you more than the numbers themselves.
• Common ground exists, but only if we stop outsourcing our opinions to algorithms and start talking like neighbors.

👉 Action items: Subscribe, share your perspective with the hosts, and—if you’re brave—ask yourself which amendment matters more to you: the right to speak, or the right to defend the speaking.

Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok and let us know. Til the next time...left on founders...we out!

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Oct 14, 2025 • 65:40 minutes

This week on Three for the Founders, we invite you to play America’s favorite quiz: What’s scarier—fraternity hazing or an AR-15? Spoiler alert: one of them can be survived with juice boxes and patience. The other requires ear protection.

Our guest is Alan Wright—fraternity brother, Sigma stalwart, and the one-man YouTube machine behind 2A-N-LA. He walks us through pledging philosophies (“What you gain too easily you value cheaply”) and then—because irony is delicious—explains why he now owns about 80 firearms he definitely did not gain cheaply.

We cover the basics:

• Gun safety 101: Eyes, ears, and making sure your range buddy still has all ten fingers when you’re done.
• History quiz: Did you know gun control laws in California were originally designed to keep Black Panthers disarmed? Yes, even Ronald Reagan had a role in America’s favorite game show: Who Gets Rights?
• Fun fact: “AR” stands for Armalite, not “Assault Rifle.” We know, it ruins half of Twitter’s jokes.

🎧 Questions for listeners:

• If you owned 80 of anything—guitars, cats, Beanie Babies—would your family stage an intervention, or just sell tickets?
• Is a Star Wars “Stay on Target” T-shirt an acceptable segue into a firearms debate, or should we have gone with “Use the Force, Not the Firearm”?
• And seriously—who do you trust more: your newsfeed algorithm or the guy with a Glock who also happens to be your godfather?

📝 Takeaways:

• Brotherhood sometimes means letting pledges breathe. Gun ownership sometimes means letting society breathe—before pulling the trigger.
• The number one new demographic of gun owners is Black women. Yes, America, meet your stereotype breaker.
• Dialogue beats shouting. Especially when shouting happens in an enclosed range with live ammo.

✅ Action items:

• Like, subscribe, and maybe rethink your next meme about “assault rifles.”
• Ask yourself whether your information diet is coming from data—or from whichever politician last yelled “freedom!” the loudest.
• And if you do head to the range… remember Alan’s golden rule: everybody goes home safe.

Because this is Three for the Founders: where we keep our trigger discipline tight, our mic levels tighter, and our sarcasm fully automatic.

Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok and let us know. Til the next time...left on founders...we out!

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🎙️ Three for the Founders: Episode 1 (Remix)

Airdate: October 6, 2025 • 1 hr, 2 min

Please allow us to re-introduce ourselves. Our name is Three for the Founders:

You’ve heard people say “I’m not racist.” But what if that’s exactly where racism hides?

This week, Three for the Founders reaches back with a director's cut, a remix of their very first episode—where three fraternity brothers trade comfort for candor in a fearless unpacking of racism, white supremacy, and America’s enduring myths.

Lybroan James, Reynaldo Antonio Macías, and Jon Augustine—three men bonded by brotherhood and sharpened by years of cross-racial conversation—take us beyond the slurs and the “hard R’s” into the quiet violence of detachment. Together, they name what many won’t: that neutrality is partnership, that silence is capital, and that America’s favorite myths—from Lincoln’s sainthood to Santa Claus—still serve as the bedtime stories of whiteness.

With humor, love, and uncomfortable honesty, they dismantle the everyday wind that pushes some of us forward and others back. From flag worship and “heritage” hysteria to DEI backlash and redlined neighborhoods, the hosts trace how symbols, language, and laws still do the heavy lifting of white supremacy—even when no one “means to.”

This isn’t a lecture. It’s a living-room intervention—equal parts scholarship, storytelling, and brotherly debate. The kind of talk that would make James Baldwin lean in and say, “Now, that’s the truth.”

So if you’re ready to stop whispering about race—and start defining it with precision—pull up a chair. As the brothers say, this is love work.

Listener Takeaways:

🌀 Redefine racism: It’s not just hate—it’s detachment.

🌬️ Check the wind: Whose back is it at, and whose face is it in?

🏛️ Interrogate the myth: What “truths” are you protecting, and at whose expense?

🤝 Engage: Use your proximity, your access, your discomfort—for good.

Hosts:

•Lybroan — Math educator, futurist, and former Young Republican with a “Ph.D. in white-tea.” (UCLA, Harvard)

•Reynaldo Antonio — Historian, educator, and community builder fluent in identity, language, and legacy. (UCLA, Brown)

•Jon — Musician, executive coach, and a white man initiated into a Black fraternity, navigating whiteness from the inside. (UCLA)

Together, they make up Three for the Founders: a podcast born from decades of late-night talks among brothers who refuse to flinch at the truth—and who want you to stop flinching, too.

Call to Action:

💬 Share your reflections at threeforthefounders.com or on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, or send us a text through Buzzsprout.

❤️ Comment, like, subscribe, and share this episode with someone who “doesn’t see race”—they need to hear it.

Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok and let us know. Til the next time...left on founders...we out!

What do YOU think? Text us and let us know!

🎙️ Hey y’all, it’s been a minute.

This bonus episode of Three for the Founders is what happens when travel plans, grammar jokes, and breaking news collide. Hours after Charlie Kirk was shot, the hosts ask: was it an assassination or did that fool just get shot? They pull apart how the media frames violence, what it says about our politics, and why America still clings to the myth that killing “the bad guy” somehow makes things right.

And it’s not all heavy — there’s banter about speaking three languages in Morocco, the eternal fight over the Oxford comma, and why “I got you” in Black English does more work than a whole paragraph. The team also gets real about their own dynamics — who’s facilitating, who’s participating — and share some big news: the podcast is moving to a biweekly release schedule. Next drop? October 14th.

So: is violence ever redemptive, or just another myth we tell ourselves? Is “assassination” a political word, or just a shiny label the media slaps on whoever’s trending? And, most importantly… why does “probologetic” kinda sound like a word we need?

Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok and let us know. Til the next time...left on founders...we out!

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Good morning, family. You’re tuned in to Three for the Founders, and we’re coming at you this Monday, September 16th with a brand-new episode that runs a smooth 65 minutes and change.

This week, John, Lybroan, and Antonio start with the kind of banter that’ll have you grinning before you sip your coffee—debating whether it’s sock-sock, shoe-shoe or sock-shoe, sock-shoe (and yes, they manage to turn even that into a DEI joke). They shout out friends from Santa Clara to the San Fernando Valley—and even a new listener tuning in all the way from Vietnam.

Then the crew flips the beat and goes deep:

• What does it mean when we talk about “white time” versus communal rhythms of the global majority?

• How do Black and Brown teachers shift classroom culture from rigid bells and whistles to gatherings that begin when the people are ready?

• And what really happened with integration after Brown v. Board—was it about race, or about resources?

Along the way you’ll hear stories of math made dope, classrooms as lifelong families, Mama James’ “check and hug” survival strategy, and why speaking—like jazz—ain’t about hitting every note, it’s about knowing when to improvise.

And before they sign off, the hosts draw a sharp line between everyday prejudice and the weight of systemic racism backed by government power. It’s candid, it’s layered, it’s got humor and heart—just like hip hop radio in its golden age, but with that NPR-level reflection.

So hit play, stay with us, and when it’s done—share it with somebody who can use it, or somebody who can challenge it. Because these conversations don’t end here, they keep moving when you bring them into your world.

🎧 Three for the Founders: Episode dropping Monday, September 15th

Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok and let us know. Til the next time...left on founders...we out!

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🎙️ This week on Three for the Founders, the hosts dive into one of the most pressing and uncomfortable realities of our time: racism, proximity, and the ways white supremacy quietly weaves itself into the fabric of modern society.

In this unreleased conversation—titled Exploring Racism and Proximity in Modern Society—you’ll hear candid stories of family, history, and lived experience. The hosts wrestle with parallels between current government actions against communities of color and the haunting echoes of the Holocaust. They unpack how white privilege often goes unnoticed, and how the lack of genuine proximity between people of different races fuels misunderstanding and division.

You’ll also hear Lybroan share a story about sitting down with Peggy McIntosh, the scholar who first coined the term white privilege, and what that moment revealed about hidden advantages many never think twice about. And the metaphor of people of color as “zoo animals”—observed, but not truly engaged—invites listeners to question their own roles in systems of passive observation.

✨ Here are a few questions we invite you to consider as you listen:

• What happens when we move beyond observation and into genuine proximity?
• How do our personal stories shape the way we see—or ignore—systems of oppression?
• If white supremacy thrives on being normalized, what does it look like to denormalize it in our daily lives?
• And perhaps most importantly: what will it take for us to step out of silence and into meaningful dialogue?

🗓️ Mark your calendars: Exploring Racism and Proximity in Modern Society drops Monday, September 8th, 2025. The episode runs 30 minutes, and trust me—you’ll want to sit with every second.

👉 Subscribe now to Three for the Founders wherever you get your podcasts, and join the conversation.

Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok and let us know. Til the next time...left on founders...we out!