Episode Details

Can influence create impact? Or can inspiration be the way?

This past weekend, I went to the movies. It had been a while. I stopped going to movies + watching Netflix, HBO or the likes after 2020, realizing that movies + series were an incredible way to program the mind of the people. Instead, I’ve used that extra time to learn new skills, new ways of thinking, and have become more productive in different ways. But I’m not condemning if you are hooked to your Screen or you still go to the movies, You do you, but I’ll do me.

Anyway, it was a movie I wanted to watch for various reasons. It is a documentary and I noticed it through the algorithm, where I got caught up by the story of this kid that, at 18 years old, embedded himself next to Kanye, or Ye West, for six years. He was just a trailing shadow during the time where Ye was most canceled, scandalous, while he was running for president, while he met Donald Trump. He was in this very erratic behavior…. I think the filming stopped in 2024. Let’s stop for a bit and for those who don’t know who Kanye West, or Ye is, he’s one of the most influential artists and producers of the 21st century, a visionary who reshaped music, fashion, and culture with equal force. His genius and controversy often coexist, making him a mirror of the times he inhabits.

The filmmaker is Nico Ballesteros and the film is titled In Whose Name? released last September in cinemas.

This film speaks to me in many layers. It shows how culture shapes politics and how indoctrination operates as a political weapon. Culture reflects collective behavior, whether conscious or unconscious, revealing how our intentions or their absence shape the systems we live within.

There’s a striking scene where Candace Owens and a very young, silent Charlie Kirk listen to Kanye. It’s almost a pity not to hear his voice, to know what he might have said then. Today, Owens stands as a disruptive figure in the cultural landscape. Around 2017, she joined Charlie Kirk at Turning Point USA as Communications Director, and together they became central voices in shaping a generation’s political narrative. The 2010s through 2020 were marked by this kind of influence—where media personalities and online figures became the new architects of belief. Influencers became the voice of culture, programming collective perception as effectively as any institution before them.

So in this scene, Candace tells Kanye directly:

“Culture will always be upstream from politics. Whoever can control culture can control politics… You wearing a MAGA hat? It broke the internet.”

Ye responds:

“I have to show an example of a non-perfect Black celeb that still wins.”

Owens then calls such a position “a glorified slave.”

That scene alone is worth a pause: culture becoming politics, influencers shaping collective discourse, the blurring of lines between artistry, politics, and spectacle.

The film is very Neptunian in a way: beautifully crafted, almost oneiric. Nico Ballesteros, the director’s gifted eye and craft are very mature despite his age and experience, he endows the story with extremely powerful visuals, the way he merges into the environment with no boundaries is quite unique (I would love to see his chart and find the Neptune, Pisces quality unfolding). He calls himself empathic; he doesn’t want to judge or take sides, he just puts it out there in a way that you, the viewer, are going to experience it and then make a judgment, or come out like me connecting many dots…. I don’t have an answer, it left me in a contemplative state where I can look back and anchor the last 15 years in archetypal symbology to make sense and pivot my mind into a possibility to reach a synthesis that will light my way coming February 2026.

Remember I am always looki