What Are 25 Year Old People Thinking About Today? With Jack Millikan

About this episode

Vance Crowe sits down with 25-year-old Jack Millikan, his own podcast producer and founder of a podcast-publishing company, for a wide-ranging conversation about modern dating, economics, and friendship from a young man's perspective. Millikan describes navigating dating as a "numbers game," identifies confusing/contradictory cultural messaging given to men (be emotionally available, abandon chivalry) versus women (focus on career, don't settle down early), and credits the "red pill" movement and Andrew Tate with reframing his understanding of desire and dating dynamics ("you can't negotiate desire"). They discuss dating apps' effect on ego and devaluation of people into "swipe" decisions, "pretty privilege" as an underrated form of privilege, and Vance's own reflection on nearly buying into the "biological clock is a myth" messaging of his college years before eventually rushing into marriage. Millikan connects social media's exposure of "sugar daddy" dynamics and destination-lifestyle signaling to a broader erosion of local, achievable romantic matches, while Vance reframes this through his recurring economic thesis: dual-income households drove wage stagnation/inflation, government money-printing eroded household stability, and this — not just social media — is why both men and women increasingly seek stability outside traditional marriage. The conversation shifts into Vance's Bitcoin thesis (digital scarcity as an alternative to infinitely-printable assets like stocks and dollars) and government-corporate capture (using the former Monsanto as an example of a company beholden to its largest customer, the US government). Millikan reveals his own "doomsday" wealth strategy — land and cattle in Missouri — learned from a deceased wealthy uncle who prepped similarly. The episode closes on friendship: Millikan defines true friendship as willingness to tell hard truths, laments how many young men lack real friends (isolated by video games/online interaction), and credits his podcast as a "cheat code" gravity well for building high-value relationships, echoing Vance's own concept of "proof of work" as validation for what one deserves in life.

“I think most guys my age are being told be emotionally available... the old way of thinking as far as what a romantic relationship looks like is toxic and we need to do better... it's really negative.”

“What that did was it doubled the workforce, but it did not double wages. In fact, it increased the amount of people competing for jobs. And so it actually drove down the value of labor.”

“My version of saving for the future is developing skills right now that are needed by other people. And that potentially could always be needed by other people.”

Key moments

• early ~2-15%: Dating-as-numbers-game framing; confusing gender-specific cultural messaging; red-pill movement and Andrew Tate's influence on Millikan's dating philosophy (windows).
• middle ~20-30%: Dating apps' psychological effects — ego inflation/deflation, "pretty privilege," devaluation of people into swipe decisions (windows, money).
• middle ~35-50%: Vance's economic thesis — dual-income households as driver of wage stagnation and inflation; social-media-amplified "sugar daddy"/lifestyle signaling as symptom of eroded marital stability (money).
• middle ~55-70%: Bitcoin/inflation discourse — digital scarcity vs. infinitely-printable stocks/dollars; corporate capture by government as largest customer (Monsanto example) (money).
• late ~75-95%: Friendship discussion — defining true friendship via hard truths, the isolation epidemic among young men, podcasting as a relationship "gravity well," and the "proof of work" concept for earning what one wants in life (legacy, craft).

Notable quotes

“The value of the dollar isn't going as far... I also think that there isn't as much stability in being married as there once was. And so people are seeking out that stability in other paths.”

“I always look around and like, where's your proof of work?... 99 times out of a hundred, it's the proof of work is lacking, not that the universe was unfair to me.”

“There's like a really large part of the world of young men that we don't even see or hear from... because they're sitting inside, they're playing video games and they're talking to people online.”

Predictions made in this episode

• The US will not achieve a "soft landing" on inflation; once structural money-printing and Federal debt-interest dynamics take hold, the Federal Reserve will be trapped between reigniting inflation (lowering rates) and unsustainable debt-service costs (raising rates), with no viable exit.
• Corporations whose largest customer is the US government (using the former Monsanto as the model) will face collapse or major restructuring once the government's capacity to purchase via taxation or money-printing runs out.