We're with Shameeka and Lee.
Also joining us
is the biological father of their children,
as well as 100 more.
And we are here to meet him.
I'm very excited to have a conversation with him.
Ari Nagel, welcome to the show.
Hallo, thank you, so good to be here.
(audience clapping)
Okay.
I want to just ask,
what I wonder if anyone else
has the burning question,
which is,
why do you do this?
But you know, I'm from a big family.
So in some ways I wanted a big family,
but you know,
you do it once and you see the mom is happy.
You see the kid is happy and then you do it again.
And then it just ended up growing.
And I was having around two or three kids a year.
And then I don't know, this year I'm on track to have 30.
I had 25 kids this year so far.
It's been very busy during the pandemic.
(laughs)
Some people were like getting into baking
and you know, and I was just expanding.
Of course I was traveling a lot.
Do you think that there is any
like God complex in there?
No, that's a legitimate question you know,
'cause I have a hundred children.
And people will like, well, why do you need more kids?
You know?
But if you look at Lee and Shameeka,
they each have one child.
So if I would've told them, sorry, Lee,
I can't help you because I already have
a lot of children
and I don't need any more children
then they would probably say,
yeah, but what about us? We want our one child.
So I don't focus on how many children I have.
You would focus on the families
that I'm helping grow.
Now, when you have your children,
do you say, I'll be as involved as you want?
What are the sort of prerequisites?
Is there a contract?
Like how do you go into this?
It's always up to the moms.
So there's some kids that I see all the time.
And then there's many kids that I've never met.
I was in Israel this past week
and I got together with two of my children there,
but then the other mom didn't really want me
to come visit.
So, that's okay, you know,
and I try and play a role wherever I'm wanted or needed.
And I think there's hundred different families.
So each of them have a different idea
of what role and it's dynamic.
It changes all the time.
So sometimes maybe they don't want me to play a role,
but then maybe the kid's 10 or 11 years old
and starts asking questions
and then it transitions into something else.
Okay. Now I just have to ask process.
what is the process? (laughs)
Yeah.
like have there been
actual,
intimate,
physical encounters,
the old fashioned way?
It varied.
So, you know I have a hundred kids.
So there's lots of different ways to make a baby.
The vast majority of them,
I just put it into a cup
and, you know, and I gave it to them
and they put it inside.
It is the soft cup handoff.
Exactly. And that works.
It works the same as if we did it the old fashioned way.
I mean, you've met people at, you know,
different places whenever these windows arrive.
That's right, yeah.
Okay, how the heck are you juggling all of this?
Like I have two kids. (laughs)
Yeah
I am spread so thin.
Like how are you like,
legitimately being like,
I'll be there to help you with your kids.
I'll meet you there.
Who is running your schedule?
How are you doing that?
Yep.
(audience clapping)
I don't have any unpaid interns.
You know, I'm working on my schedule.
So it's challenging,
and it's especially challenging because it's hard to plan.
I don't know when they're gonna be fertile.
So you really don't know sometimes
until the last minute.
So like I have a woman ovulating tomorrow in Atlanta
and then on Saturday in Jacksonville,
but I also have a baby being born on Tuesday.
So I'm gonna need to get back for that birth,
because I want to be there.
She's a single mom,
so I want to make sure I'm there
for the delivery room.
So I didn't buy my flight yet, but yeah,
sometimes it's challenging.
And then sometimes you have two women
ovulating on the same day
and then you have to decide, well,
who am I gonna help? You know?
So do you help the older woman
who maybe is running out of time
or do you help the younger woman
who maybe can try next month,
but has probably a much higher chance of conceiving?
Well, and that circles a little bit back
to a God complex.
Like who do you choose in that scenario?
Yeah.
Well ultimately in the end,
the good news is that they may ovulate every month.
So you might say, listen, I'm not free this month,
but let's try again.
Or sometimes I'll just work up the effort
and try twice in one day.
But ideally that's not the best case scenario.
What does the future hold for you?
Do you have any plans?
What is Ari doing?
Yeah, that's a good question, you know.
There are increased risks
I think for the age of the male,
even though physically I'm capable of continuing
to have children until my old age.
I think that some people link autism perhaps
to the age of the males.
So no, I think my retirement's gonna happen.
You know, it's hard, because you know,
I'm going to Jacksonville on Saturday
for this woman who is ovulating, right.
And we have a three-year-old daughter
and she wants a sibling for her daughter.
So what am I supposed to tell her you know?
It would be hard.
So it would have to be some kind of phased retirement
where if it's the family that I already helped
and they want the same father for both their children,
then that's something it'll be a little hard to say no,
but maybe it's a new couple, maybe somehow.
But you're mindful that eventually medically
things do change for a male
and you're cognizant of every aspect.
Yes, and I think it's different
if you're starting a family of your own,
but if you're helping other women grow their families,
then they could find someone younger.
Of course my son is 18,
but he is not interested in taking over
the family business.
(laughs)
Yeah.
(audience clapping)
Well Ari, Shameeka and Lee, you guys, thank you.
Thank you.
(audience clapping)
Really and truly,
and thanks for hanging out
and listening and to every-one at home.
This was really just,
it's hard to put into words,
but I'm very grateful to have this conversation.
(upbeat music)