Latest / Pod Save America / "Holiday Mailbag!"

Transcript

"Holiday Mailbag!" · Pod Save America

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I'm Jon Lovett.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: On today's show, we answer all the questions you asked yesterday.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: that aren't too weird, awkward, or annoying in our annual
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: holiday mailbag episode.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: And also that don't require too much preparation.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry, that's a big one.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: And also, our answer can last for two weeks.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: But first, check out Cricket's fantastic new podcast, Radio Lingo,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: that looks at the ways language plays a role in
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: our lives, from swearing to subtitles and everything in between.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: And if you haven't yet, highly recommend you binge listen
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: to Mother Country Radicals, a personal politically charged account of
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: a counterculture group of young activists. That's such a funny
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: way to describe it.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Didn't they blow stuff up? Counterculture, yeah, very counter. Counterculture,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: counter foundations, counter doors and windows.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Mother Country Radicals is one of my favorite podcasts that
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: we've done at Crooked. It just won at Tribeca. It's
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: one of Vulture's top 10 podcasts of 2022. It is
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: about a group of revolutionaries... In the late 60s, known
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: as the weather underground for anyone who paid attention to
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: the 2008 campaign about Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn. It's fantastic.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: And you should listen to it over the holidays if
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: you can. And you can listen to Radio Lingo also
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your podcasts. Also, before we start,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: wanted to say thank you to everyone who stepped up
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: in 2022 through Vote Save America. You helped raise over $ 5. 6
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: million and fill over 46,000 shifts, which contributed to winning
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: 52 races from Senate to House to Governors to Secretaries
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: of State, Attorney Generals, and more. Head to votesaveamerica.com, not
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: to donate, just to see all the work you've done.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just take a victory lap.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: We're going to have a full recap there, and you
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: can just sort of bask in it. It's really nice.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: We've got more work to do, so stay tuned for
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: more ways to get involved in the new year. But
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: for now, rest up, and happy holidays from everyone at
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Vote Save America. Okay, let's get to the first question,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: which is from Matthew Kale. What was the most significant
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: political event or story of 2022? Love it. Oh, you
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: want Dan to take it?
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: I didn't highlight this one. Nobody to think back on
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: a whole year.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: I mean, it has to be the overturning of Roe v.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Wade. Yeah.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Most political impact, affects the most people's lives, alter the
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: course of the campaign, probably alter the course of politics
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: for years to come.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: That was obviously my first thought as well. But then
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I wanted to really I wanted to think a little
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: bit about it. What about, this could be a runner-up,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: or it could be, Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Man, what a fucking godforsaken year this was.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I know. I know. 2022 was right. We've been saying
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: this since 2020 now. You're saying this since 2017.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. The hits keep coming.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: One of these years, we're going to get a good year.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: But I'm just, I mean, where it's very, I think
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: in the United States, certainly, it's Dobbs. Certainly. Yeah. And
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: in terms of how it affected politics in the midterm campaign. Globally,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: we don't have any worldos here, but they might say
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: that it's Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the consequences for energy,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: for supply chains, for the global economy, for potential nuclear catastrophe.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: It's a lot.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: One possible alternative, the canceling of CNN +.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: That is a big one.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Which also led to the canceling of Chris Wallace Plus.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: We will never know what was on Jake Tapper's bookshelf.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: A show that got canceled.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Man, that was a real.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Forgot about that. That is up there.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: That candle burned bright.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Dobbs, Ukraine, CNN Plus.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Twitter user Omnicronic asks, Are Democrats learning to campaign on
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: offense instead of from a defensive crouch? Two examples, Fetterman
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and Pritzker. They appeared to brush off the crime attacks.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and media narratives instead of constantly trying to refute them?
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Or is there just an exception for large men? Dan,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: you highlighted this one, so you can, you can take it. I.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: The answer is yes. I, I think JB Pritzker is great.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure how many, how many points you get
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: for winning in a plus 20 democratic state. But if
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: you look across the map, whether it's Warnock or Fetterman
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: or Kelly, even Democrats were on offense, they handled the
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: attacks and they won. And there's, been a strategic shift
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: since 2018. I think it's really since 2016 that hopefully
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: continues forward in the party. And there are some models
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: in some of the campaigns cited here that Democrats can
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: follow going forward.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah. One important part of the model is run against
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: absolute fucking cretinous morons.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that helps. Helps a lot. I do think just
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: reading this question again, they appear to brush off the
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: crime attacks and median errors instead of constantly trying to
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: refute them. Both of them did refute those attacks. And
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: they did so in smart ways. Right. Like Fetterman ran
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: an ad refuting the crime narrative that said he gave
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: a second chance to those who deserve it. Right. So
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: he didn't run away from that. Nonviolent offenders, marijuana users.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: But he also then said in the ad, I voted
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: with law enforcement 90 percent of the time.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: J.B.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Pritzker, he called a crime ad that was run against
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: him racist because it was showing black men robbing a
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: white woman. But then he also ran an ad that
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: touted his hiring of new police officers. So I think
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: there is a way that Democrats handled, whether it was
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: an attack on crime, on immigration, that wasn't just ignoring
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: it or saying, oh, this doesn't make, you know, or
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: saying like, you know, inflation's in people's minds or we're
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: not going to pay attention to this. The weaknesses the
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Democrats might have had or the attacks that came from Republicans,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I think all of the winning candidates from Warnock to
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Fetterman to Pritzker to everyone in between, they did a
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: really good job of punching back at the negative attacks
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: and then also putting forward their own vision and their
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: own attacks on their opponents.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: I think what Fetterman did was really interesting because he
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: made a case for compassion. He didn't just say, no, no, no,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: what you're saying about me is completely false. It's not
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: based in reality at all. He said, actually, this is
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: an unfair smear, but here's why it's okay to think
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: compassionately about people that have been behind bars. Like, here's
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: why it's okay to have been in favor of parole. Like,
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: here's why it's okay to make that part of your values,
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: to make that part of who you are. And I
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: think he was such a strong candidate. And people felt
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: they knew him so well that he was able to
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: do both, which I think was really important.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's exactly right. Fetterman also, and a
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: lot of Democrats also, stated explicitly that they supported funding
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: the police. And where there is a nuanced difference between
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: how this was handled by some in 2020 and how
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: it was handled in 2022 is, in 2020, we denied
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: the attack, making the strategic error to say, a lot
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: of Democrats went, I don't support defunding the police. I
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: don't support defunding the police, which causes voters to say,
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: did you say defunding the police? And in 2022, where
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: they simply... either used law enforcement in their ads or
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: said they supported funding the police or putting more cops
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: on the street. But in a context, it includes criminal
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: justice reform, police accountability, et cetera.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: There were lots of questions like this one from Jay Smith.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Can you explain why the Democrats couldn't get the rail
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: workers sick days? So for folks who haven't paying attention
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: to the story, and we have not had a chance
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: to cover this on Pod Save America, so we'll up
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: until now. So the Railworkers and the railroads, Biden helped
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: strike a deal between them in September. And there are,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: I think, 11 unions that represent railworkers. Seven signed off
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: on the deal. Four did not. There were continued negotiations
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: and there was the threat of a strike that happened
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: a few weeks ago. So this is what would have
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: happened if the railworkers went on strike and it wasn't resolved.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: The economy could lose like $ 2 billion a day. 700,000
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: jobs a month would have been lost, plunged the whole
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: country into recession. Chemical plants apparently would be the first
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: to shut down. And we count on chemical plants to
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: help us purify the water, so there would have been
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: water issues.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: Boy, that's ironic, isn't it?
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: After a week, there would have been food shortages. So, like,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: you don't want a strike, right? Now, the question is,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: so there was legislation in Congress to revert a strike,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: to basically say that it's illegal to strike, right? It's
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: a pretty intense step. And basically the legislation was just
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: going to codify the deal that was struck between the
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: unions and the rail industry in September. But many Democrats
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: said we should also add seven paid sick days, which
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: is really what the workers wanted in completely reasonable demand.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Disagree.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: So that part passed the House and a couple Republican
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: senators voted for it in the Senate, but not enough.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: So they couldn't get the sick days that they got
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: the rest of the deal. Now, could Biden have said, no,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: I'm going to demand the six days? Or I guess
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the other option is either Biden could have tried to
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: demand that the six days get included, which he has
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: no power to do because Republican senators wouldn't have voted
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: for it. Or Biden could have said, all right, well,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: then let them strike and we won't do the legislation.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: And then hopefully the rail workers and the railroads would
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: just negotiate amongst themselves. I think probably the Biden administration thought,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: we don't want to take the chance that there's a
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: strike even for A day or two or a week
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: because that could devastate the economy. What do you guys think?
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: You guys have any takes on the rail deal? I
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: think there are.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: Two things that are true. One, it was under this
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: Senate essentially impossible to get the workers this paid sickly
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: if they need. It is also true that more generally, Democrats,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: particularly Senate Democrats, should be more actively, vocally, and subtly
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: supportive of workers and unions.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's right. I think this was a–
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Every single quote from whether it was Biden or Pelosi
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: or Schumer or whatever else was like, this is something
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: that I don't want to do. But we feel like
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: we're in a pretty extraordinary circumstance right here. And by
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: the way, you know, the unions negotiated this deal in
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: September and most of them signed off. So it's I
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: think it sucks what the rail workers were asking for
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: is not only completely reasonable, but it's just like the
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: fact that they only have like one paid sick day
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: right now is is insane for the jobs that they do.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: So it's it sucks. Twitter user Mint Tea asks, Senate
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: map in 2024. How can we keep the chamber?
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: So you light as many candles as you can find.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: Do what we've always done. Donate to Joe Manchin. Support him,
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: work for him, volunteer for him. We have to win.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: If we lose nothing else and nothing else changes, we
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: have to win two of the three of Montana, West Virginia,
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: and Ohio.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: And then hold Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Minnesota. I mean, easy.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: It's obvious, right?
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Pretty straightforward from here.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: And then again, the two best flip opportunities, Florida and
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Texas with Ted Cruz. So that's it. That's the map, guys.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: So basically lay off Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. which
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: is tough, the newly independent Kyrsten Sinema. So you got
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: to let them win those two races, help Sherrod Brown
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: and Jon Tester in their very tough races. And then, uh,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: I hope they get some extremist opponents and then all
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the other States, uh, all the senators and all the
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: other States, you know, reelect them. It's a tough one.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: It's going to be tough.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: It's going to hope for some, um, I don't know.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: I don't even know how to hope for like a
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: national condition that puts that, that, you know what I mean? Like,
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: like that, that we feel like good about the whole map.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: That's a, that's a, That's feeling good about the entire map. Yeah.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Which we have never felt before in our fucking lives.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: I think we can get the house back, though. Yeah.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: House is very doable in 2024. We're back to the house.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: We were at the house in 2018, then we moved
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: over to the Senate in 2022. Back to the house
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: in 2024.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Just got to get New York right, and we're good.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: House and the presidency. That's what we're focused on.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Show people in New York how to draw a map.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: All right. And the most common political question we received
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: was some version of this one from Instagram user Hag Heels.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Who are the realistic Democratic frontrunners for 2024? Now, I
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: notice neither of you cowards highlighted this one in the document,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: but I did because we pushed off all the Joe
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Biden 2024 conversations during the midterm. I think Dan wrote
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: a whole box on this one because. We shouldn't be
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: talking about this now. We got to focus on the midterms. Well,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: guess what? The midterms are over, boys.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Are you not?
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Can we wait till 9 to 23? It's always another week, right?
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: It's always another month.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: There's a big state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: I don't want to distract from that. Yeah, we talked
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: to Ben Wickler about it. It is real. April. April 2023.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Get ready.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: So put this on the agenda for me.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: April. April.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: I'd like to introduce something to all of you, which
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: is the position I will be taking. Look, we've heard
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: of ride or die. I'm ride and die with Biden. Oh,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: my God.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, do you want the answer? The answer is
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: That's the answer to the question. Who is the most
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: realistic democratic front runner for 2024?
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: He is option A, B, and C people. He is
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: running for reelection.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: It seems like he is. There's the stories about like
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: his campaign team, who's going to be the campaign manager,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: where it's going to be. It seems like he's, he's
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: moving forward, barring some family conversation over the, over this
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: break that, um, That's unexpected. That goes in a way
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: that I think probably even he didn't expect.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Dan, question for you.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Do you think the reason that Minnesota wanted to be
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: one of the first four states, do we think that
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: that was a little bit of a like, fuck you,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Amy Klobuchar, no chance for you? We're not even going
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: to give you, we're going to entertain the long shot
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: idea that you're going to have a good jumping off point.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: I don't know whether that was about Klobuchar, but there's
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: no question South Carolina was a strong message to everyone
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: else that if you want to challenge Joe Biden, which
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: I don't think would happen under any circumstances, you would
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: have to go through the state that he won overwhelmingly.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: And interestingly enough, the Biden folks have pushed back on
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: criticism of this map from others saying, but it's only
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: for 2024. We can revisit this in 2028, which makes
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: it pretty clear it's a Biden map. But look, everyone
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: who works for Joe Biden thinks he's running for reelection.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: They are planning his reelection. They are talking to people
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: about his reelection. And also, everyone who's working for all
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: the other people that the person who asked this question
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: would like us to list right now thinks Joe Biden
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: is running for reelection. And they are not doing the
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: things you do when you think you're going to launch
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: a run for presidency in two months. They are not
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: recruiting staff. They are not courting donors. They, everyone is,
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: they could change. It's up to Joe Biden and Joe
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: Biden and his family, but he is planning on running
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: for reelection and everyone in the party is, has, is
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: assuming that.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And, and, and to the point about, you know,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: could someone challenge him? Most of the people that could
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: challenge him, and first of all, it's like Kamala Harris
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: is not going to challenge him. Pete Buttigieg is not
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: going to challenge him. They're both working the administration. Gavin
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Newsom has already like, pinky swore promise to the White
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: House up and down that he's not going to do it.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: His hands are shaking, but he's not going to do it.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Gretchen Whitmer has said, like, absolutely no way. You know,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: so all of the, like you said, all of the
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: possible challengers have basically already, even Bernie had said before,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: if Biden runs, I'm not challenging him. Man. So it's, again,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: it's ride and or. It's ride and or.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: Ride with Biden.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: It's, well, it also, like, It's also like, yes, it's like,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: I understand why none of them wants to challenge and
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: doesn't see a lot of hope in doing so. It
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: also is a kind of an implicit acceptance of the
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Biden argument, which is basically like, hey, the situation today
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: is exactly the same as the one in 2020. And
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: until someone is able to make a better argument for
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: why they are a better general election candidate than Joe Biden,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: is there anyone that's able to make an argument that
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: says that they are.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Better at it?
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: We haven't heard it.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So there we go. There we go. So here
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: we go.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Here we go. And I, for one, am excited.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Biden-Trump? Biden-DeSantis? Who knows? Biden-Kemp? Possibilities are endless.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: These are matchups, not tickets, right?
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, boy. Biden Cinema?
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: I thought you said Biden Cinema.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, some fun stuff. Audrey O'Connor asks, what would be
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the better Christmas gift? Trump indicted by Garland or Clarence
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Thomas retiring? This is easy.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Come on, people. Get him off the fucking court. Guys,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: come on.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: I'm troubled by this question.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Me too.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: And I'm troubled. I hope that no one else thinks
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: that that Trump being indicted is a some like magic
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: thing that gets Trump out of our lives. It doesn't.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: It doesn't.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Just think about what.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Listen, listen.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Where do you think Hitler wrote that fucking book?
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: OK.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Wasn't at home.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: You look whenever again, whenever you raise Hitler comparisons. Famously
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: goes well.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Excuse me.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Excuse me.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: At some point, it has to be allowed. I've got
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Nazis running around Mar-a-Lago. I'll put on a fucking ski
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: mask and I'll blow your mind.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: That would have been so funny. It would have been
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: so funny for you to do this episode in a
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: ski mask.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: I didn't think of it until now. Fuck.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: I mean, ultimately, this is the marshmallow test for resistance Twitter. Obviously,
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: it is.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Clarence Thomas retires. We finally get one of the worst
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court justices in history. We replace with Biden. Joe
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Biden would get to replace that person.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: With Naomi Biden.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: He appoints Naomi Biden to Kyrsten Sinema.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Trump gets indicted and then runs for president anyway. Come on. Okay. Okay.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I'm glad we just covered that.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: There were a lot of White Lotus questions that we
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: will not answer because we are A, recording this before
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the finale. B, we don't want to spoil anything. And C,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: we'd also have to be insane to answer what White
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Lotus character each of us is. Really?
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: I actually thought that was a good one.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Who you got then? Let's keep moving.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: That's what I thought. But Becky asked what I think
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: is a safe one. How do you like this season
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: of White Lotus compared to the last? And it is
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: still hard because we haven't, again, we're recording this before
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: the finale, so we haven't seen the finale yet. The finale,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: I guess, could upend everything.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: This season, I love White Lotus. This season has been riveting.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Riveting? That was my word.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: It's riveting. That is what I thought. And, you know,
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: the first season was so, it was like this, it
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: was shot during the pandemic, so it was really small.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: And you just felt that smallness was really intimate. And
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: this is such a bigger season. So it's more exciting
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: in a lot of ways. It's just like a bigger world.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: And I.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Just, the first season was so good and was so
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: interesting and there hadn't been a show like it. And
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: this is like everything that you loved about the first season,
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: but the, the stakes feel higher and the, and the
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: more drama, more anxiety.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: Almost knowing how the first season ended in what was
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: at the core of it makes this more exciting because
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: you didn't really know what was going to happen the
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: first time or what it meant.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: It's great.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: And this is an incredible feat to pull this off.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: The second time around, because the thought was the first
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: season seemed so great because no one ever done anything
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: like this on television before. So now you're just going
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: to do it again and do it better. And look,
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: HBO has never screwed up a finale of a major
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: show before. So I'm sure this is going to be great.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: They land every plane. They're incredible. Incredible pilots over there.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: I can't wait to find out that the person in
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: the ocean is Bran.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Spoiler!
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: It was Bran all along.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: All right, Laris asks, what's everybody's favorite Taylor Swift song?
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: So I've said Exile for a long time.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're an Exile fan.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: I love the song Exile. It was on repeat for
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: me when it came out. But, you know, Antihero's rising
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: for me. I really love that song. I love that song.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: I think it's a really, I like the writing. I
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: think it's like one of her best written songs.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: Dan, as you know, as I revealed a few weeks
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: ago on our last mailbag, I'm very new to the
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: Taylor Swift thing.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: So I really have a limited catalog.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: But the song that is most, so everything I have
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: is from this album. I have not yet followed your
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: instructions to listen to all the other albums. Um, but
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: the song that is played in my house, the most
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: of all is welcome to New York. Cause it's the
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: one Kyla loves. We play all the time.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: That is one of the favorites of the youngins. I
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: got to go with 10 Minute All Too Well.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: 10 Minute All Too Well.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: 10 Minute All Too Well. It's a feat. It's a feat.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Watch it. And when she performs on Saturday Night Live,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: it's something. Sarah Skira asks, who was on your Spotify
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Raps Top 5?
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Everyone's going to say all five. We're all going to
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: say all five.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Sure. Okay.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: I'll go first. I don't mind.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: I don't love it, but.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Here we go.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Number, uh, I'll go five to one.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Number five, Orville Peck. Okay. A, a gay kind of
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: country guy.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Cool.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Number four. This is, this is not, this isn't like,
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: I'll be honest. This isn't reflective. This is because I
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: listened to one song.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: I do the same thing.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: I listened to one song so often that this band,
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: I don't really know very much about rocketed up the charts.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: It's a band called St. Motel. There's a song called
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: Happy Accident that I listened to a million times in
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: a row for some reason.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I have one of those this year too.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Number three, Miley Cyrus. Miley Cyrus. That live album is
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: so good. As long as you skip the parts where
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: she does some spoken word and that is unbearable. It's
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: like she does one of the best covers of Like
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: a Prayer of all time. And then she says, let
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: me tell you the meaning of this. Every person is
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: a person. And it's like, get me out of this.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: Number two, Moona.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Moona.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: You'll find out soon. It's not reached the straights yet.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: And then number one, Taylor Swift. Number one this year.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Same for me.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Number one, Taylor Swift. Billie Eilish. The Anxiety, which is
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: the song.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: Boy, that is fucking on brand.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: No, the song Meet Me at Our Spot, which I
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: listened to a million times. And then rounding out the list,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Blippi and Encanto.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sure. I think there should be a way that
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: I think there should be a button you press that
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: just says like, almost like incognito mode for Spotify. Like,
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: don't track this. What I'm doing right now is not
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: for you.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: We don't talk about Bruno. A lot of play, a
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: lot of play on my phone this year.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: Number one, Kendrick Lamar. Number two, Vince Staples. Number three,
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: Pusha T. Number four, the Jolly Pops, who sing a
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: song called Popsicles, which we listened to on repeat on
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: the way to school and home every day for six months.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: And coming in at number five and something I'm not
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: proud of and really has not aged well, this is
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: why I haven't shared my Spotify.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: What's it going to be?
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: Kanye West.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Well, what are you going
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: to do?
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: There was like seven names.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: It could have been Jordan Peterson. All right. Now that
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: we did that, Russ asks, uh, what video games is
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: love it planning on tearing into over the holiday break?
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Callisto protocol. Maybe would love to see him play a
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: horror game on Twitch.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: I want you to know something. I want you to
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: know something. It was this very question. It was this
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: very question that got me excited. You reminded me that
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: this is something that I could do for the entire break.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: And I now will because of this question. So I
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: still have to go back. I gave up on Elden Ring.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: It was a busy time. And I got into it.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Then I fell out of it. And it's a game
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: you need to focus on. So I'm going to play
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Elden Ring beginning to end. And I also need some
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: other recommendations. So send me recommendations. I loved Hades. I
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: loved Returnal. I loved, I'm sure I'm going to love
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Elden Ring. You know I love the Soulsborne games. Hit
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: me with some recommendations. But Elden Ring is number one.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: I'm going to play it all. I'm going to finally,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: finally play it. Maybe I'll stream it, you know?
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: It's called, it'll be.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Something to look forward to, everyone.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, including me. Just go to at LonelyLoveIt underscore sad
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: and alone on Twitch. You'll find me there.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: It seems like a long handle.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Friday night, Saturday night.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Okay. Cinti Diaz asks, what non-crooked pods are you listening to?
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: I got Ultra, the Rachel Maddow podcast, which is fantastic.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: We talked about before. On with Kara Swisher, the Ezra
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Klein show, Hacks on Tap, The Watch from The Ringer,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: which does a great, been doing great, White Lotus recaps
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: and a whole bunch of other shows, Andy Greenwald and
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Chris Ryan. And every single album, which is also on Ringer,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: they do pop album reviews, which is really great. And
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: I just started The Prince, which is about President Xi.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: It's an economist podcast. It's very, very good.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: That is fake. There's not a change list.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: I was looking at the top podcast list because Mother
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Country Radicals made it. And number one was The Prince.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: And I was like, what's this all about? So then
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: I started listening to it on the way home yesterday.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, yeah, I'm into this. It's good.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: For me, I love the podcast Unexplainable on Vox. They're
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: just great looks that are hard to answer or impossible
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: to answer questions. And, you know, I'm just going to say,
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Ezra Klein puts together a great podcast.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: He does? He does.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: I don't particularly like it when he says, this episode
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: is a gift. Like, Ezra... a com let us don't
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: show don't tell.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: Also only one of them can be a gift you
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: can't have there's so many multiple gifts.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: It's like this conversation's a gift that conversation i i
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: love and sometimes it's like what this philosopher tells us
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: about trees has a lot to teach us about politics
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: you're like i don't know.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: But i love it this was a compliment but i
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: love it i love it but i love it dan uh.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: The watch as john mentioned from the ringer The Rates
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: of Ricky Sanchez, a Sixers podcast, which has helped me
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: get through this miserable Sixers season. Hard Fork, which is
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: the new tech podcast on the New York Times from
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: Kevin Roos and Casey Newton that is very good. I
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: really like Recode Media, Peter Kafka's tech and media podcast.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: And then a bunch of sports podcasts like The Low Post,
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: The Mismatch, The Mina Kime Show, and a whole bunch
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: of fantasy football ones until this season is over.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Heather Asher asks, what's your pre-podcast routine, i.e. the hour
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: or so leading up to it? Love it.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Why don't you kick us off? So my alarm goes off.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: What day is it? What time is it? I shake
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: off the Alavan. You got to shake it off. I
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: check to see if there's a new message box to
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: find out if I'm going to be able to.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: What do you do? I finish figuring out what clips
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: we're going to play, updating the question. I take notes
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: for myself. I keep up with other breaking news. I
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: caffeinate myself, and then I over-caffeinate myself. Then I drive
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: to the office. Dan?
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: We've been up for five hours. We've read all the news.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: We've had all the takes.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: What did we do for that last hour before we
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: recorded ten episodes?
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Dan and I start texting each other at 5 a.m.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: Sometimes I miss the window and my caffeine runs out
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: before the podcast starts.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Those are hard ones.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: That's why usually it's a morning coffee. I walk to
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Starbucks at 5 a.m. Then when I drive to the office,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: sometimes I stop at Starbucks again on the way to
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the office. Or now I've been getting Dunkin' too, which
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: is great.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You know that people make coffee at home? I
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: just found out about it. I don't know, but I
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: couldn't believe it.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: It's such a bore, though, that I don't get to walk.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: I want to take a walk.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: But I just don't understand.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: The crisp air. How?
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: It's a whole building.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: Do you think there are some people who make coffee
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: at home that they might buy from a podcast company
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: with branded coffee?
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: Again.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: But that's where I found out about it, because people
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: were telling me about this crooked coffee. And I was like,
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: you can do that at home? You mean you bring
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: the beans to Starbucks?
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: I'm in my home, quite enough, thank you.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: You know, we were young men.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: I live in LA, but I live in walking distance
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: to a Starbucks. I'm going to take advantage.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: We were young men when we started this podcast, waking
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: up at 8, 7, not even.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: I was going to say.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: It keeps getting earlier and earlier.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Getting rough. All right. Instagram user. Oh, Dan, did you
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: do– you didn't really do your hour before.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: I read the news.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: I read the news and I text with you and
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: then we talk in our microphone about the things we
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: texted about.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: He's– Dan looks in the mirror and he just screams
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: at the top of his lungs and hits himself in
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: the face.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: I tack the sign above my office that says, pod
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: like a champion today.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Instagram user Horner Caitlin asks, on any given day, how
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: many dogs can be found in the cricket office?
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: It's a menagerie. I mean, it's six, seven dogs.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Sometimes more dogs than employees.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the dogs are also on a hybrid schedule. Yeah.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: And both the dogs and the staff have trouble counting
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: to three.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: I think we're at like three or four on an
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: average day.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: On an average day. Pundits here almost every day.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Pundits here almost every day. Lucinda's our new CEO. Her dog, Augie,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: is here almost every single day. Which is basically a horse.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: One of the biggest dogs I've ever seen in my life.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Humanized in that skull. Just a wonderful dog. Leo and
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Luca don't really come anymore.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: No.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: But then everyone on the other side of the office,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: a bunch of dogs over there. We have so many
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: dogs here that once this was pre pandemic, once there
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: was a dog that just walked into my office and
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: love it offices and Tommy's Tommy's office. And we're like,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: whose dog is that? And we found out it was
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: a dog that belonged to no one in the company.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: There was an office across the hall from us and
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: it just wandered in. It just wandered in. Yeah.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: There's Iggy. There's been, there's been, there's Iggy. There's Bruce.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: So many dogs.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Sarah, our COO had to, uh, drop an office
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: dog policy a couple years back.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: And then we punched it up. Wizard used to come
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: in a lot.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: She's like, I wasn't asking for edits.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: This isn't funny.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Jesse Speaks asks, is Love It Right about LA having
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: the best bagels?
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: Listen, I mean, Dan's San Francisco and John doesn't deal
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: with carbs anymore.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Trying to get back into carbs. Yeah. That's for the
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: resolutions podcast.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Look, you know, here's the thing. I'm, you know, I'm
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: a New Yorker by birth and constitution. And it doesn't
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: bring me any pleasure to say that a courage bagel
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: beats every bagel in New York City. It's just the
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: reality of our situation.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Wow. Okay. Okay. Okay. Speaking of food, Instagram user crochet
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: anything asks, go to airport food? Bloody Mary?
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're like Bloody Mary and Xanax.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: And then I'm in the place that I'm flying to.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: And then I've arrived.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: We were on a flight. We were on a flight once.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Just see me on a plane.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Say hi. Yeah, he won't remember. We were on a
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: plane once. And John slept through a full-blown TikTok-worthy confrontation.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, he was fully passed out. There was seat switching.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: There was two people brought on board. There was a
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: flight attendant saying, you're welcome to get off. There was recrimination.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: There was another person brought in. He missed the whole thing.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: We had Tommy and I to tell him about it later.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: I had a great flight. We were going on vacation.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: It was not a work flight. Work flights are a
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: little different.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Are they? Okay. Who are you saying that for?
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to prep for the live show. That's what
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: happens on the work flight. Prep for the live show.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: All right. What about you guys? Go to airport food.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Yours is something fried, I'm sure.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, look. Here's the thing. I love a
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: morning Sparrow slice. I know it's disgusting.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: I do.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: I really do.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: I really do.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: I love a slice of Sparrow pizza in the morning.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Perfect.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: Especially because usually in the morning, they're right out of
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: the oven. They haven't been sitting there all day. They're fresh.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: It's 10 a.m. Nobody's eaten this pizza yet. It's just me.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: It's just for me.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: I'd say two things. One, if there's a Chili's at
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: an airport, you will find me at that Chili's.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Same. Same, same, same.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: Two.
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: The Dulles Airport, the United Terminal Dulles Airport, which I
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: have spent way too much time in in recent years,
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: is a food desert. It is terrible. It is hard
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: to find food there, except for one loophole. By the
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: D gates, there's a Potbelly's, and that Potbelly's serves the
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: full menu starting at 7 a.m. So why get a
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: fattening breakfast sandwich when you can get the wreck at
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: 7 a.m.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: We flew Dulles on our most recent trip to D.C. Man,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: that fucking airport. Don't miss that.
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: And I remember going out with you the night before,
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: and so I imagine you would have enjoyed that, Pop L.
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: I said you'd known about it.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Oh, that was two times DC ago. Yeah,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: that was tough.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: Trying to think of what other go-tos, but that's, you know,
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: I'm always happy to see a Sparrows. I know it's sick, but.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: It is true. Legal Seafoods and Logan.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: There's also a Legal Seafoods. Wait, is there one at
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: DCA now? Am I imagining that?
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: I think it, is it a Legal Seafoods or a
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: McCormick and Schmidt's?
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Same, same, same. Any kind of seafood restaurant at an airport.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: Who decided what's a morning food?
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: First seafood at an airport? Absolutely.
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: I don't accept this idea. Look, it's time we put
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: aside this bygone notion that there's breakfast food and dinner
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: food and lunch food.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Especially at an airport where time doesn't... It's like inside
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: an airport in a Vegas casino. Exactly, yeah. Time doesn't...
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Eggs are for breakfast?
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: Why? Whose rule is that?
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Not mine. Elliot Schneier asks, if you had to move
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: to another country, not just for a while, immigrate, where
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: and why?
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: So it's a practical issue for me in that I
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: don't pick up languages. I've struggled my whole life. I
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: was socially passed through Spanish in middle school and high school.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: So it does have to be in, you know, a UK,
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: in Australia. That's Canada. You know, I'm just limited. I'm
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: just not going to pick it up.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: You can't Rosetta Stone this once you get there? Or
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: on your way? I mean, I don't know under what
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: circumstances you're leaving.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah. They're, they're urgent. I'll say that. I'll say that.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: Am I free?
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: Am I fleeing prosecution or do I have to work?
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: So I don't throw an extradition.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: If I am not fleeing. There's no larger context here.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: If I'm not fleeing prosecution, I am happily going to Canada.
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: You get NBA basketball. You're not that far away. You
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: don't pick up a language. The Canadians seem very nice.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: I'm going to the Netherlands. Huh? Love Amsterdam. I'm going
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: to go live in Amsterdam. That's it. I've been there
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: a bunch. After we left the White House, I was
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: asked to speak there. And then for some reason, it's
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: the only place I was asked to speak outside the country.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: And they would keep asking me back. And so I
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: had to go every year for a couple of years.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: First of all, they speak Dutch, obviously, but there's a
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: lot of English. It's a very cosmopolitan city, so there's
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of languages. But plenty of English there, so
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: that's fine. And it's a beautiful place. Beautiful place. Very walkable.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: They have bike paths. It's great. I'm all in on Netherlands.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: And once again, I want to thank the Tourism Bureau
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: of the Netherlands for sponsoring this podcast. You can also
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: get mushrooms at bars.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can. Yeah. Finally, Sarah Saines asks, what organizations
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: would you suggest people support as holiday gifts to others?
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Our friend, Jose Andres, runs World Central Kitchen, which is
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: helping to feed people all over the world. Right now,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: they're doing a ton of really great work in Ukraine.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: But they are every time everywhere there is a disaster
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: or war or any kind of conflict. World Central Kitchen
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: is there and they do an incredible, incredible job. So
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: that's mine.
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: I'd like to end this podcast with a public service announcement.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: And it is this.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: If you want to be a pathbreaking LGBTQ member of
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: the Biden administration, I support you. And if there's something
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: that also compels you to be a person that steals
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: suitcases from his fucking fucking suitcase thing, even though you
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: didn't check any baggage. I don't support that, okay? You're
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: on your journey. You cannot do both, all right? You
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: have to choose what kind of life you want to lead.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: You can either be someone who has stories written about
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: you as the first, as a path-breaking member of the
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: LGBTQ community, or you can be a person that goes
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: up to suitcases you like and just goes, yoink. But
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: if you do both, it reflects poorly on the community.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: It leads to a lot of bad right-wing stories. Is
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: the fact that you're gender fluid, does it have anything
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: to do with the fact that you're stealing suitcases? No.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Do straight people that look like John and Dan steal
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: suitcases all the time? Absolutely. All right. But you just
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: can't do both. You got to choose.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Is this an organization that helps people who've
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: lost their suitcases? No, I'm not.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: That's just more of a public service announcement. That's just
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: something that I think was important to get in. Just
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: because I see it going around.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: No. I hear that. I'm glad you did. Thanks. Look,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: that's important. Dan?
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: We always give You're in the Bay Area to the
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: Bay Area Crisis Nursery, which you can donate money and
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: give toys and gifts and diapers and things to fit
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: new families in need. That's where we give money. Also,
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: Heifer International is something our kids often give to other kids.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: Our parents did it. It's also another great organization.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: I'll do a real one. I'll do a real plug,
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: which is we raise money for them with our pride
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: show this year, but support the Trans Lifeline. They do
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: really good work and are there for trans people in
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: their moments of most urgent need. So support Trans Lifeline.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: That's great. All right, everyone. That's all the questions we got.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: That's all the questions we're answering.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: We got a lot of others that we're not answering.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Everyone have a happy holiday, Merry Christmas, and we'll talk
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: to you soon.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: I wonder if by the time this comes out, Maybe
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: Jennifer Coolidge died. We don't know.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: What?
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: We don't know. I'm just saying, we won't know.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: We don't know.
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: Bye, everyone.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: producer is Michael Martinez. Our senior producer is Andy Gardner Bernstein.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Our producers are Hayley Muse and Olivia Martinez. It's mixed
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: sound engineered the show. Thanks to Hallie Kiefer, Ari Schwartz,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Sandy Gerard, Andy Taft, and Justine Howe for production support.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Milo Kim,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: and Amelia Montuth. Our episodes are uploaded as videos at youtube.com
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: slash podsaveamerica.