Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central now coming to you from
Speaker 1: New York City, the only city in America. It's the
Speaker 1: Daily Show, A Name Turkey plays the Name Game, Russia's
Speaker 1: three Gifting Green and Elliott Drinker. He's the Daily Show
Speaker 1: with Trevor No. What's going on? Everybody happen to the
Speaker 1: Big show coming on? He's going like the tuning in
Speaker 1: so like fine, fine, look at you. Take a seat. Everybody,
Speaker 1: take a seat, take a see. We've got a jam
Speaker 1: patch show for you today. The Nation of Turkey is
Speaker 1: tired of your jokes. CNN is done with breaking news
Speaker 1: and am a Putin blesses the grains down in Africa?
Speaker 1: What does that even mean? Plus stay tuned to find out.
Speaker 1: Plus we've got author Elliott Shrefer on the show to
Speaker 1: tell us about gay animals. Yeah I said that, So
Speaker 1: let's do those people. Let's jump straight into today's headlines. Okay.
Speaker 1: Our first story is all about language. Like when I
Speaker 1: say the word turkey, what do you think of? Probably
Speaker 1: a big bird that people eat while arguing with their
Speaker 1: family about whether or agendas a spectrum. Right, Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: the country of Turkey knows that's what you think about
Speaker 1: when you hear their name and they're sick of that ship.
Speaker 1: The country of Turkey is ready to change its name.
Speaker 1: Officials have notified the United Nations asking of the country
Speaker 1: be referred to as Turkey A the way it's spelled
Speaker 1: and pronounced in Turkish. It's a way to disassociate its
Speaker 1: name from the bird and negative connotations that sometimes come
Speaker 1: with it. The official request follows the release of an
Speaker 1: Adkin game promoting the new name. Hey mom, I just landed.
Speaker 1: Hello Turkey, Turkey, Yeah, Hello Turkey, Yeah, Turkey A. I
Speaker 1: like this. I like this, and I'm willing. I'm willing
Speaker 1: to start saying Turkey A. I don't mind, but I
Speaker 1: refuse to use those little dots over the U. All right,
Speaker 1: And this has nothing to do with Turkey and everything
Speaker 1: to do with drawing a line for how many keyboards
Speaker 1: I'm willing to have on my phone. I'm already three
Speaker 1: keyboards deep. I've got emoji keyboards, I've got my gift keyboard,
Speaker 1: then my symbols keyboarding, a secret symbols keyboard behind that keyboard.
Speaker 1: Not gonna add another keyboard so I can tap about
Speaker 1: you with the DUTs that make it look like it's
Speaker 1: staring at me. It's too much. It's too much turkey A.
Speaker 1: And I know what some of you are saying right now.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, Travor, you don't need another keyboard. You
Speaker 1: can just hold down the u ke. Yeah, but it's
Speaker 1: about the extra effort. If you use your thumbs too much,
Speaker 1: they're gonna bulk up. I'm trying to get mine long
Speaker 1: and slender for the summer. Baby, that's right. So I'll
Speaker 1: say turkey A. But you're gotta help me, help you,
Speaker 1: and not to you with the ducks. Turkey all right,
Speaker 1: because no, I get white turkeys doing this. I get it.
Speaker 1: A country's name is it's brand. Nobody wants their brand
Speaker 1: associated with an animal that people don't even like that much.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're gonna get mistaken for a bird,
Speaker 1: at least it would be a bird with some flavor,
Speaker 1: some juice, you know, Like if their country was named
Speaker 1: spicy chicken sandwich, they wouldn't be changing anything. I would say, turkeys.
Speaker 1: You just know this though, Just because they got the
Speaker 1: u N to agree on this doesn't mean that people
Speaker 1: are actually gonna start calling them turkey A. It's not
Speaker 1: that easy, trust me. I know this. Back in middle school,
Speaker 1: I tried to get everyone to call me Travolva. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they just laughed, like you guys did. Now. I
Speaker 1: said it was a stupid name, which I guess in
Speaker 1: retrospect it kind of was, you know, unless you guys
Speaker 1: like it. No, Okay, you're fine. Travolva, Travolva. NOI is stupid.
Speaker 1: Forget it. Let's move on. Wait did someone say it
Speaker 1: was cool? Now? Okay, anyway, I just thought I heard
Speaker 1: someone say it is cool because it couldn't know all.
Speaker 1: I actually think this is a good idea, you know what.
Speaker 1: A lot of countries should be updating their names. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just updated to make it modern. Like this isn't the
Speaker 1: United States of America. Let's be honest, it's more like
Speaker 1: the states that barely put up with each other of America.
Speaker 1: Every country like Greece makes it sound messy, but it's
Speaker 1: not hungary. What if they've eaten. Yeah, well, you need
Speaker 1: to change that name to be safe. You just need
Speaker 1: to change that name to be safe. I bet you
Speaker 1: right now. Then, losing a ton of white people tourism
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of white people are too nervous
Speaker 1: to type that into Expedia It's just like I'm heading
Speaker 1: to an I g you know what, I'm just gonna Paris.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go to Paris. I'm just gonna Paris.
Speaker 1: I don't want any trouble here, and you gotta Paris.
Speaker 1: But let's move on to some other international news, because
Speaker 1: while Turkey is changing its name, Russia has spent the
Speaker 1: past three months trying to change Ukraine's name to Russia Jr.
Speaker 1: But Ukraine isn't the only country suffering from Russia's invasion. Yeah.
Speaker 1: What many people might not know is that Ukraine is
Speaker 1: one of the world's top producers of grain, but as
Speaker 1: part of its invasion, Russia is blocking Ukraine's ports and
Speaker 1: intercepting the grain. So now the world is facing a
Speaker 1: grain shortage which Russia is taking advantage of. The US
Speaker 1: has given out about fourteen countries the heads up about
Speaker 1: stolen Ukrainian grain. US officials say that Russia stole grain
Speaker 1: from Ukraine and alerted these other countries, mainly in Africa,
Speaker 1: that Russia will probably sell it. Policy experts say, faced
Speaker 1: with starvation, most countries in the area likely won't hesitate
Speaker 1: to buy from Russia. The director of one African think
Speaker 1: tank told The New York Times quote, this is not
Speaker 1: a dilemma. Africans don't care where they get their food from.
Speaker 1: And if someone is going to moralize about they are mistaken. Okay, okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 1: I get what you're saying. But Africans don't care where
Speaker 1: they get their food from. Come on, don't put it
Speaker 1: like that. Yes, some parts of Africa are suffering from
Speaker 1: famine and their leaders can't afford to take the moral
Speaker 1: high ground because they need the food. But not just
Speaker 1: Africans don't care where they get their food from. It
Speaker 1: makes it sound like us Africans were just running around
Speaker 1: on the sidewalk grabbing people's brunches out of their plates,
Speaker 1: just like, ha, you did not get your brios. It's
Speaker 1: mine now. And by the way, just in case you're wondering,
Speaker 1: Africans are going to use the grain to make like
Speaker 1: bread and ship. Okay, these stories always make it sound
Speaker 1: like Africans are just gonna eat the grain right out
Speaker 1: of the sec make it sound like that with us.
Speaker 1: This is like we love this. I put that grain
Speaker 1: in my mouth. Huh. I know that's what you guys
Speaker 1: are picturing in your heads. I know it. I said,
Speaker 1: we need grain, and you guys were like, I guess
Speaker 1: they eat grain. I guess that's what they do. We cook.
Speaker 1: The situation is really messed up. Not only is Russia
Speaker 1: stealing Ukraine's grain, they're causing a food shortage in the
Speaker 1: rest of the world, and then they're gonna sell the
Speaker 1: grain to make up for the shortage that they're causing.
Speaker 1: Can we just take a moment to acknowledge how humiliating
Speaker 1: this is for Russia. When they started this invasion, Putin
Speaker 1: was like, our glorious army will go uncle Ukraine for
Speaker 1: new Russian Empire. And now he's just like, okay, plain by,
Speaker 1: let's just rub this bitch. Okay, we just look the still.
Speaker 1: We'll just good to still. Now to be you went
Speaker 1: from being all high and mighty and now the dudes
Speaker 1: basically on the corner in Africa, like, you got do
Speaker 1: you want grain? I got the grain? You want grain?
Speaker 1: I got grain. I also got role just the good stuff,
Speaker 1: just the good stuff. You want the grain? I got
Speaker 1: the grain. But let's move on from the war in
Speaker 1: Ukraine to the war zone that is America. Ever since
Speaker 1: the Uvality School shooting, Congress has been working hard to
Speaker 1: craft sensible gun safety measures that can be narrowly defeated
Speaker 1: at the last minute. But a lot of people are
Speaker 1: trying to make this time difference. I mean, just today,
Speaker 1: Matthew McConaughey, who's from Uvaldi, was at the White House
Speaker 1: pushing for reforms. Unfortunately, though nobody really expects a lot
Speaker 1: to change now. That's where there is an upside to
Speaker 1: living in the states that barely put up with each
Speaker 1: other of America, all right, and that is individual states
Speaker 1: can break off and past their own gun laws, which
Speaker 1: is exactly what's happening right here in New York. New
Speaker 1: York bolstered it's already tough gun laws, some of the
Speaker 1: strictest in the nation. Governor Holgill signed a package of
Speaker 1: gun reform bills yesterday now, Among them a measure that
Speaker 1: banned the sale of semi automatic rifles to anybody under
Speaker 1: one New buyers are also required to obtain a permit. Also,
Speaker 1: red flag laws are expanding. Body armor for civilians is outlawed,
Speaker 1: and am all for semi automatic handguns is required to
Speaker 1: be micro stamped to make it easier to trace. HCAL
Speaker 1: celebrated the new laws in the Bronx. It just keeps
Speaker 1: have bid eight shots, ring out, flags come down, and
Speaker 1: nothing ever changes except here in New York. Wow, Wow,
Speaker 1: this is this is so weird. A mass shooting happened
Speaker 1: and then politicians did something. I didn't even know that
Speaker 1: that was possible. Yeah, it's like I showed up to
Speaker 1: McDonald's and the mcflurry machine is working. It's just I
Speaker 1: don't even know how to react to this. Dude, do
Speaker 1: I clap? Am? I supposed to tip? What's a good
Speaker 1: tip for posting gonlow? Ten percent? I'm sure it ten percent?
Speaker 1: You know what this feels like? This feels like when
Speaker 1: you're ready to argue with your partner and before you
Speaker 1: can say anything, they just apologize. Right, Yeah, now you've
Speaker 1: got a throat full of screams and nothing to do
Speaker 1: with it. It's like, thank you, I appreciate your apology.
Speaker 1: I love you. Do and New York made a lot
Speaker 1: of changes. For instance, it's raising the minimum age on
Speaker 1: semi automatic rifles, which seems like common sense to me.
Speaker 1: You know, although in my opinion, instead of twenty one,
Speaker 1: I feel like it should be twenty one and four days. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I don't want someone buying a gun on the
Speaker 1: same night that they're slamming ten shots of yeager. Just
Speaker 1: spread it out. You know, New York is also gonna
Speaker 1: be banning body armor, and that makes sense. In fact,
Speaker 1: this is the first state in the country to do it,
Speaker 1: which is a great idea. In fact, they should also
Speaker 1: ban under armor. While they added, yeah, it's not about
Speaker 1: the shootings. I'm just tired of seeing people's nipples on
Speaker 1: the train. You know, I get it. You work out
Speaker 1: your shoot and I know, I know some people are saying,
Speaker 1: but wait, I'm not a shooter. I just want body
Speaker 1: armor for my protection. Don't worry. You don't need body armor,
Speaker 1: all right, If you're not doing anything in the fairies,
Speaker 1: you don't need body armor. Yeah. There's something I've learned
Speaker 1: from American movies. It's that you just need to keep
Speaker 1: precious Emily a loom on your body that stops any bullets.
Speaker 1: Any times it's like, bah, thank god, my mom's Bible
Speaker 1: stop the bullets. Oh bah bah, Oh, thank goodness. My
Speaker 1: grandpa's pocket watch saved me. Oh thank god. I carry
Speaker 1: Grandma's Cherish dildo with me all the time. Saved my life.
Speaker 1: Once again. Thank you, Grandma, Thank you. So much. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna let that soak in for a second. Monk.
Speaker 1: All right, Finally, let's move on to a story about CNN,
Speaker 1: which stands for Cable News Ninja's anyway. For years, CNN
Speaker 1: has been notorious for overhyping every story like it's you know,
Speaker 1: the zombie apocalypse, it's like breaking news. The mid term
Speaker 1: elections are now six months away, and not surprisingly, this
Speaker 1: approach has started to backfire as viewers have learned to
Speaker 1: tune it out, you know, like the boy who cried wolf,
Speaker 1: or in this case, the wolf who cried wolf. So
Speaker 1: because of that, because of that, CNN is making a
Speaker 1: big change. We start here with breaking news about breaking
Speaker 1: news involving CNN. The network has a new boss, and
Speaker 1: he says CNN is now cutting back on over hyping
Speaker 1: everything is quote breaking news so much so that's in
Speaker 1: and has actually added a breaking news guideline to its
Speaker 1: style book, so you'll soon see a lot less of
Speaker 1: that breaking news banner at the bottom of the TV screen. Yes,
Speaker 1: CNN is cutting back on the over use of breaking news,
Speaker 1: and to celebrates it, immediately put up a countdown clock
Speaker 1: to the moment when it will officially reduce the amount
Speaker 1: of breaking news very exciting, one thing at a time. Cook. Look, people,
Speaker 1: the truth is, the truth is most stories on giant
Speaker 1: news in that way. I'm glad they're doing this. You know,
Speaker 1: great job, Chris Leech. There's only been like three breaking
Speaker 1: news stories of the past two decades, Let's be honest,
Speaker 1: like coronavirus and time that guy put salt on his food,
Speaker 1: but from up here. Yeah, most people put the salt
Speaker 1: from like down here, but he did it from up here.
Speaker 1: Y'all do change the game. It's a technique, it's a
Speaker 1: whole thing. And now that Sanna is acknowledging this, now
Speaker 1: that they're acknowledging them, not everything is breaking news. Maybe,
Speaker 1: just maybe all of cable news can acknowledge that maybe
Speaker 1: news doesn't need to be twenty four hours. Maybe, uh,
Speaker 1: it's not necessary. You know, maybe you can wait to
Speaker 1: get all the facts and tell us the correct story
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. Just me possibly, how
Speaker 1: do you think about it? Think about it? Think about it. Honestly,
Speaker 1: the first ten hours of any news story on cable
Speaker 1: news is just speculation. Breaking news. We're hearing that a
Speaker 1: tiger has escaped from the zoo and mald tan people
Speaker 1: as a sad hold on, hold on, slight clarification. We're
Speaker 1: now hearing that the tire was in the mall, and
Speaker 1: the mall has ten people. Everybody is alive, and oh,
Speaker 1: hold on, our our sources on the ground are telling
Speaker 1: us it's not a tiger, it's a Panda Express. There
Speaker 1: is a Panda Express in the mall. We're gonna stay
Speaker 1: on top of the story for the next twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: Breaking news gets a thing. Even when there is news,
Speaker 1: most of it isn't that exciting. It's just everyday stuff
Speaker 1: that's boring but important. The economy is up, the economy
Speaker 1: is down. The government is doing something more likely not
Speaker 1: doing something, you know. So this is good and to
Speaker 1: lower expectations, CNN is actually replacing breaking news with a
Speaker 1: new graphic for stories that are just normal stuff. And
Speaker 1: we have an exclusive look at what that will be.
Speaker 1: It's perfect. I think they did a great job. All right,
Speaker 1: that's it for the headlines before we go to a break,
Speaker 1: and let's check in on the stock market with our
Speaker 1: finance expert, Michael cost To everybody's roll around, mirkeat more important,
Speaker 1: more important in Michael, what's happening in the market today. Well,
Speaker 1: I am crushing the markets. I mean I I crush
Speaker 1: all markets, financial markets, whole foods market where I actually
Speaker 1: had to get a second job. But I have a
Speaker 1: hot tip. I'm gonna share it with you. Hot tip.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna share a hot tip with you. So we'll
Speaker 1: get into the markets. Here we go at actually before
Speaker 1: we do that, that story about the African nations buying
Speaker 1: the grain, you know, I mean, why do we put
Speaker 1: this responsibility on them to know where their grain comes from?
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't even know where our food comes from.
Speaker 1: You know. I've probably enjoyed multiple avocados from the center
Speaker 1: Oa cartel, you know, and I I sleep fine at night.
Speaker 1: But I would say this to these African nations. Don't
Speaker 1: love this grain too much. This is white people grain,
Speaker 1: and you might develop a gluten intolerance. Okay, now look,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna kill you, but it's gonna make you
Speaker 1: very annoying. All right, next thing, you know, you're gonna
Speaker 1: be in Tanzania doing yoga with Gwyneth Paltrow while Vagina
Speaker 1: candle is lit in the back. So all right now,
Speaker 1: these markets. Oh oh, and Turkey, Turkey changing its name.
Speaker 1: I love this I love I love this. It got
Speaker 1: me thinking, I feel like South Africa should do this.
Speaker 1: I do. Look, part of what's great about being a
Speaker 1: country in Africa is you get to have this beautiful
Speaker 1: name Uganda, Senegal, now Mabia, South Africa. I mean, what
Speaker 1: happened with South Africa just went off the top of
Speaker 1: your head, Trevor, You're you're from You're from the Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's not like I named I didn't name it. Look,
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm other other people from South Africa and yeah,
Speaker 1: there's great. All right, okay, okay, alright, great, let's get
Speaker 1: to the market. Um so, look, this is volatile. It's
Speaker 1: almost as volatile as a teenage Michael Costa at a
Speaker 1: three eleven concert. But look, when you step back, take
Speaker 1: a look at all of this, what do you see dominating?
Speaker 1: I see this green line dominating. It's the least volatile
Speaker 1: of everything here, which is why I advise you be
Speaker 1: the green line right when you have your money, be
Speaker 1: the green line. Second thing to think about, you see
Speaker 1: these squares right here. Now, I have spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time analyzing the dimensions the field, the size of
Speaker 1: each square. Okay, now these squares, they don't mean anything. Okay,
Speaker 1: last thing you see all this red. Typically red is
Speaker 1: bad and finances. But Michael costa financial expert, will tell
Speaker 1: you when you have red, like a stoplight, stop wait
Speaker 1: till it turns green. Okay. So in summary, all right,
Speaker 1: green lines, no squares, red turns green. Boom. Now here's
Speaker 1: my hot tip. This is hot tip, Trevor. Okay, invest
Speaker 1: in turkey boom? Wait wait wait wait talky the food
Speaker 1: choking the country. Well that is the million dollar question. Okay,
Speaker 1: Now I gotta go. I gotta go to Whole Foods
Speaker 1: for a shift, Steve and produce got covid. So I
Speaker 1: don't know why you have back to Trevor, why do
Speaker 1: you need another job? Michael clock to everybody, don't go away.
Speaker 1: So when we come back, what would Jr? I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try to make friends with, right, hang a, TRENI. You
Speaker 1: don't want me to welcome back to within the show.
Speaker 1: You know, politics is so polarized in this country that
Speaker 1: American needs a leader who can bring the two sides together.
Speaker 1: But instead we'll have to settle for Roy Wood Jr.
Speaker 1: And a new segment we call Disagree to Disagree. America
Speaker 1: is too divided, Republicans versus Democrats, billionaires versus billions of
Speaker 1: the rest of US, broke bastards, Karen's versus everybody. That's
Speaker 1: why I'm reaching out to the other side to see
Speaker 1: if I can't find common ground with people I disagree
Speaker 1: with strongly. For this story, I traveled to Idaho or
Speaker 1: Montana or Wyoming, somewhere with no black people to meet
Speaker 1: anti government extremists and bighead enthusiasts am and Bundy and
Speaker 1: see if I could get him to agreed to disagree.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if they call it Republican or Democrat.
Speaker 1: It is poison to liberty. You might remember Bundy from
Speaker 1: a standoff with the government over grazing rights, or from
Speaker 1: a standoff with the government at a nature preserve in
Speaker 1: am And Bundy who pointed guns at law enforcement in Arizona.
Speaker 1: Now he's doing it in Oregon, or from his protests
Speaker 1: against state COVID restrictions in Idaho. This dude is in
Speaker 1: a lot of standoffs. And now a guy who spent
Speaker 1: two years in prison for fighting the federal government before
Speaker 1: getting out on the mistrial is running for governor of Idaho.
Speaker 1: As governor, I will keep Idaho Idaho. The hell does
Speaker 1: that mean besides growing potatoes. I decided to talk to
Speaker 1: some of Bundy's supporters, am and it's definitely a threat
Speaker 1: to the old boy network in Idaho. Why you know,
Speaker 1: I don't need the government to tell me how to act.
Speaker 1: So m and Bundy for less governor. Yes, our rights
Speaker 1: don't come from the government. Our rights come from God. Okay.
Speaker 1: And certain people have said, you know what, the buck
Speaker 1: has to stop somewhere. Okay, But you are blacking in Idaho.
Speaker 1: How did that happen? So I'm like third generation here.
Speaker 1: I'm in Bundy is willing to do what it takes
Speaker 1: to defend liberty, just like Rosa Parks did on the
Speaker 1: bus I had to meet with this white male version
Speaker 1: of sister Rosa. Okay, so you've been called a militia leader,
Speaker 1: you have been called the T word domestic, domestic. How
Speaker 1: do you not come across as an anti government person
Speaker 1: who's now becoming part of the government. Well, I want
Speaker 1: people to use the land as God intended and for
Speaker 1: the government just to leave them alone other than to
Speaker 1: protect them. You know, like when you were a child,
Speaker 1: your daddy be all in your is it's coming your room.
Speaker 1: Go through your toys. That's that's government. Now, what we
Speaker 1: really want is a stepdaddy government that comes in and
Speaker 1: just goes, hey, don't kill each other. I'll be outside drinking.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, unless one of them tries to infringe upon
Speaker 1: another person's right. Clearly, finding common ground would not be easy,
Speaker 1: and sure enough, Bundy and I disagreed on a range
Speaker 1: of issues. From taxes, I don't believe that property tax
Speaker 1: is a moral tax to the social safety net. Never
Speaker 1: should I say, look, Joe over here is needing help,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to force you with the barrel of
Speaker 1: the gun to give me a hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 1: so I can give it to Joe. It's in moral
Speaker 1: and the definition of slavery. And then pretty soon you
Speaker 1: end up with thirty of the people providing for the
Speaker 1: other seventy. That's slavery. And that's all before we got
Speaker 1: to the keen cong of divisive issues. Today, COVID government
Speaker 1: will go as far as they people allow them to go,
Speaker 1: which is all the way to genocide. Explain Genesci. Let's
Speaker 1: look at the nineteen thirties. What was the Nazis claiming?
Speaker 1: What was their excuse? There was a national health emergency
Speaker 1: that the Jews and the Blacks that their genes were inferior,
Speaker 1: and ultimately decided that they needed even put them to death,
Speaker 1: so like they weren't like Jews and Black's dying in
Speaker 1: droves before Hitler came in and did what he did.
Speaker 1: He chose to start doing it, whereas at least with COVID,
Speaker 1: there was oh, there's a bunch of dead people, how
Speaker 1: do we stop this? People are dying? So do you?
Speaker 1: You're saying you believe what the government is saying? You
Speaker 1: believe the reports because they're so honest, right, and they're
Speaker 1: so good. How do I get the information you got?
Speaker 1: You can get it because anytime people go I've done
Speaker 1: the research, they never say where it's everywhere? And no,
Speaker 1: that's not an answer where to give it. I can
Speaker 1: give it to you if you want. I mean, do
Speaker 1: you want to go over right here? On my phone?
Speaker 1: Everybody said he'd done the research, but they could never
Speaker 1: give me a www. And I hadn't even asked Bundy
Speaker 1: about his history of arms standoffs against the govern Well,
Speaker 1: so these accusations of me associating with Violet groups, never
Speaker 1: once have we ever done anything violent You're like a
Speaker 1: Gandhi of the Rocky Mountains. I just can't get down
Speaker 1: with armed occupations, especially when they end with death. In prison,
Speaker 1: it seems like finding common ground was just too hard.
Speaker 1: But then Bundy surprised me. I was in prison for
Speaker 1: two years, federal prison, and you've got the wide throws
Speaker 1: over here, and you've got the Mexicans and the Native Americans.
Speaker 1: Everybody sticks with their own. Yes, I know, I didn't
Speaker 1: feel that way. Next thing I know, I'm out playing
Speaker 1: basketball with black guys and no problem. Right, Um, the
Speaker 1: white guys might have a little bit of a problem
Speaker 1: with it. So I go back there and I talked
Speaker 1: to them and say, hey, look, I'm sorry, this is
Speaker 1: the way I roll, but we're playing basketball and I
Speaker 1: really want to win. Now the guards and the prison
Speaker 1: gets all concerned because the way they can keep us
Speaker 1: uh in the prison is keep us divided, and that
Speaker 1: to what's happening in society. As someone who also felt
Speaker 1: abused by the criminal justice system, Bundy was even supportive
Speaker 1: of a movement on the opposite side of the spectrum.
Speaker 1: You must have a problem in your mind if you
Speaker 1: think that somehow the Black Lives Matter is more dangerous
Speaker 1: than the police. What this cowboy headed, beef sweating constitutionalists
Speaker 1: was siding with Black Lives Matter and not the police.
Speaker 1: What I'm hearing is a brother who's some of his
Speaker 1: views kind of line up with Black Lives Matter. Well,
Speaker 1: I think they might line up with black people, and
Speaker 1: I think they might line up with white people too.
Speaker 1: And I guarantee that if I was to be able
Speaker 1: to communicate openly with the majority of the people in
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter, that probably of of our beliefs would
Speaker 1: would align with each other. I think that's some common ground.
Speaker 1: Maybe America is headed towards a civil war, but for
Speaker 1: a moment to Americans who vehemently disagree, found a way
Speaker 1: to be civil. Okay, it's a brief. You know. We
Speaker 1: don't agree on everything. I just think it's okay when
Speaker 1: I just want to just take that. Okay, you're talking
Speaker 1: to me, and there's something else we agree on. I
Speaker 1: look damn good in the cowboy hat. Thank you much,
Speaker 1: were Junior. All right, when we come back, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be celebrating Pride Month with author Elliott Trafa. You do
Speaker 1: know what I'm to say, talk about the new Gaining show.
Speaker 1: My desiz is Neil kind of besselling author and his trifer.
Speaker 1: He's going to talk about his new book, Quilt and
Speaker 1: the animals he had on and triform. Welcome to the show,
Speaker 1: it is I am so happy to be here. I'm
Speaker 1: so happy to have you. This is one of the
Speaker 1: most fun books I've ever read about science, about nature,
Speaker 1: about animals, about the human condition. Let's jump straight into it.
Speaker 1: Queer ducts and other animals. This seems like a joke,
Speaker 1: and the book is very funny, which is great. But
Speaker 1: you're learning about the side of the animal kingdom that
Speaker 1: many people haven't talked about. So let's start with the
Speaker 1: why why did you decide to write a book about
Speaker 1: queer ducks and other animals? Yea fair enough. I was
Speaker 1: surprised by the topic. Two Um. I come from a
Speaker 1: back kind of studying evolution, and I'd always assumed that
Speaker 1: that queer behavior was a sort of dead end for animals.
Speaker 1: Behaviors that wouldn't cause their genes to proper get into
Speaker 1: the next generation, wouldn't spread. Um. And yet Nature did
Speaker 1: a study three years ago that put the number at
Speaker 1: species and counting that have significant peer researched same sex
Speaker 1: sexual behavior in the wild, and so the question that
Speaker 1: was on my mind was why, right, why is this happening? Um?
Speaker 1: And the basic version of the story is that we
Speaker 1: got the story of animal sex wrong, UM, that we
Speaker 1: think of it as procreation only the humans. Sure, humans,
Speaker 1: we have a wide variety of reasons for having sex,
Speaker 1: but animals, animals just dutifully like walk up to the
Speaker 1: Noah's Ark and their male female pairs and they have
Speaker 1: sex only to have offspring. And at the end of
Speaker 1: the story, when there's actually a wide range of animals
Speaker 1: where it different reasons for having saying sex sexual behaviors.
Speaker 1: Yeahs As I read through the book, I mean my
Speaker 1: mind was blown by some of the stories you were telling.
Speaker 1: And and I think if we start with it from
Speaker 1: from the angle of you know, with its governments, with
Speaker 1: its churches, where it's just like society saying we don't
Speaker 1: want this out there. There were researchers who are discovering
Speaker 1: this for decades and they had to hide that research
Speaker 1: because just people didn't accept it. You know, Like, what
Speaker 1: do you think has changed in academia? What do you
Speaker 1: think has changed in the world of science and in
Speaker 1: research where people are now willing to accept these things
Speaker 1: and put them out there. Yeah. Well, there's a famous
Speaker 1: rich shape research and nafare disgeist who studied big horn
Speaker 1: sheep in the nineteen sixties, and at that time he
Speaker 1: realized that sheep basically lived in a mostly homosexual society.
Speaker 1: So a big horn sheeper and there's a male group
Speaker 1: and a female group, and for most of the year
Speaker 1: they're just having sex within those groups. Uh. And then
Speaker 1: they'll come together during the rudding season and males and
Speaker 1: females will have sex. But he didn't publish on that
Speaker 1: finding because in the nineteen sixties, he said later in
Speaker 1: his memoir, he couldn't conceive of these magnificent beasts as queers, right, Like,
Speaker 1: he loved this animal and didn't want to propagate this
Speaker 1: story around the species that he loved. And then years
Speaker 1: later in his memoir, you know sort of came out
Speaker 1: about having hidden the same sex sexual behavior and sheep.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of a story that goes from animal
Speaker 1: species to animal species. Even in the eighteen thirties, German
Speaker 1: entomologists were discovering same sex sexual behavior in cockcha for
Speaker 1: beetles also known as doodlebugs. Uh. And that was within
Speaker 1: the entomology circles, like anyone who knew their bugs was
Speaker 1: talking about it. But they were also accused of perversion
Speaker 1: or having like an natural interest in cockbugs. And then
Speaker 1: like everyone everyone's brain seems basically by naming it a cockchafer,
Speaker 1: you've already I'm just saying, I'm just saying, um. You know.
Speaker 1: You know what what makes this book fascinating, and the
Speaker 1: research behind the book as well, is the fact that
Speaker 1: for so long people would would use, you know, like
Speaker 1: the cudgel they would use against any member of the
Speaker 1: LGBTQ communities. They would say the same thing. They would go,
Speaker 1: it's not natural. You cannot be gay. It's not natural.
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't it be in nature? God didn't create that?
Speaker 1: And then now the science has shown that it is natural.
Speaker 1: The irony is then you have people now saying that,
Speaker 1: but we're not animals were better than them, We're different.
Speaker 1: And what I do enjoy the book is this, You're
Speaker 1: really careful to not make it a blanket. You're not saying, hey,
Speaker 1: we are the same as the animals. Animals are the
Speaker 1: same as us. You're just giving us an insight into
Speaker 1: a world that we didn't think existed. One of the
Speaker 1: more fascinating stories for ins was the bottleneck dolphins. It
Speaker 1: feels like a very intentional world that they're living in.
Speaker 1: You know that that that that you speak about. Tell
Speaker 1: me more about that. Yeah, the bottom those dolphins were
Speaker 1: one of my early examples because they are the closest
Speaker 1: we come to actually having a gay animal um. There
Speaker 1: are some bottle those dolphin males who only have sex
Speaker 1: with other males are only here for the males and
Speaker 1: not the females. But the majority of them are I
Speaker 1: guess we would say bisexual and like the basically the
Speaker 1: spoiler alert is most animals are some version of bisexual
Speaker 1: um and exclusive homosexual preference is very rare. But there's
Speaker 1: some dolphins that that behave that way. And is there
Speaker 1: is there a logic behind it? Because you know, as
Speaker 1: you said, you study evolution, Why would they do that?
Speaker 1: Do we have any idea? Doesn't you know, doesn't just
Speaker 1: hit a brick wool of Oh they don't want to
Speaker 1: procreate anymore? Is it just because of pleasure? What are
Speaker 1: the reasons? Yeah? So we bottom those dolphins. The male
Speaker 1: union is actually the only last thing union within their society,
Speaker 1: So males and females will come together for a week
Speaker 1: or two and have sex. The female will go and
Speaker 1: raise her calf by herself or with other females. But
Speaker 1: the males bonded through having really frequent sex, like about
Speaker 1: two point four times an hour on average. What what
Speaker 1: what sex does is it produces oxytocin, which is known
Speaker 1: as the bonding hormone. And so that's why when you
Speaker 1: first make out with someone when you're thirteen, you feel like,
Speaker 1: I got to spend my life with this person. This
Speaker 1: is amazing, I love them. You haven't gotten crazy, it's
Speaker 1: just oxytocin is flooding your system for the first time.
Speaker 1: I've never made up when I was just like wait
Speaker 1: the first time. So they're taking advantage of this to
Speaker 1: form this this intense alliance between the two male dolphins,
Speaker 1: which gives them power within the dolphins society. So they
Speaker 1: still have procreative sex with female dolphins, but they're so
Speaker 1: close together because of this oxytocin rush from all the
Speaker 1: frequent sex that they are like an intensely strong sexual friendship.
Speaker 1: So they found different reasons for the sex. It's almost
Speaker 1: more intentional. It's almost like that that's sort of like
Speaker 1: you chalk about with is it the be noble monkeys
Speaker 1: where they would you they would use orgies to like,
Speaker 1: let like just I guess for stress relief. They're just
Speaker 1: like a really stressful day everybody pretty much. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And the most frequent sex activity among bonobos is between females,
Speaker 1: and this animal is tied with chimpanzees as our closest relative.
Speaker 1: They share of their DNA with us um, and the
Speaker 1: females will have sex with males. They'll still have offspring,
Speaker 1: but they have really really frequent female female sex and
Speaker 1: that produces this oxytocin rush um, and it produced a
Speaker 1: feeling of peace and bonding. So um. You know, if
Speaker 1: they introduce a food source, the bonobos won't eat it
Speaker 1: right away, they'll have sex first, so everyone's feeling good
Speaker 1: with each other. Okay. When you think of it as
Speaker 1: like this is our closest relative with the chimps, you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a model for how we might be.
Speaker 1: I've I've often thought that. I've often thought, if I
Speaker 1: have sex with all my friends before we eat, people
Speaker 1: are less likely to fight over who pays the bill.
Speaker 1: How do you propose them? Just like, I mean, now
Speaker 1: that I have the research behind it, before I let
Speaker 1: you go. Though Before I let you go, you you
Speaker 1: have a I think you have a really beautiful reason
Speaker 1: that goes beyond the research in writing the book, a
Speaker 1: personal connection with it and with what's going on in
Speaker 1: America right now. Um, I'd love to know how much
Speaker 1: of that inspired you to write the book. So when
Speaker 1: I was eleven, I realized I was gay. And it
Speaker 1: was like the moment puberty hit. It was utterly clear.
Speaker 1: I just lingered over the fruit of the loom ads
Speaker 1: and my brother is rolling stone and I was like,
Speaker 1: which you know, which one do I want to be
Speaker 1: my special friend? Um? And it was just it was
Speaker 1: just who I was. But it's surreal if you're not
Speaker 1: someone who I lives this identity. It's surreal because the
Speaker 1: day before it was not true. And all of a
Speaker 1: sudden I was gay and which this was in the
Speaker 1: early nineties, and it was everything I'd heard about it
Speaker 1: was that it was terrible thing to be right, that
Speaker 1: it was unnatural or something wrong with it. And so
Speaker 1: I was a nerdy little kid, which would be no surprise.
Speaker 1: I went to the encyclopedia and I looked up homosexuality
Speaker 1: in this volume paper and Kipedia and The story I
Speaker 1: got was that it's a psychological aberration unique to humans,
Speaker 1: caused by too much attachment to mother father, maybe too
Speaker 1: little attachment. No one was quite sure, but something went wrong. Um.
Speaker 1: And I you know, that was a lot to wrestle with.
Speaker 1: And I came out on the other side of it
Speaker 1: by sort of loving my gayness. Right. I was like,
Speaker 1: it's unnatural and that's great, Like who needs natural? Like
Speaker 1: this is who cares? Right? Like we read books that's
Speaker 1: not natural and that's fine, Like this is this is
Speaker 1: just who I am. And it just it would have
Speaker 1: shortened that journey to health acceptance, which a lot of
Speaker 1: l g B t Q kids do not survive, right, Um,
Speaker 1: it would have shortened that journey to know the research
Speaker 1: that's in Queer Ducks. And so I wrote it towards
Speaker 1: that eleven year old version of me that needed it. Um.
Speaker 1: Which is what makes it makes it so at seven
Speaker 1: to see these challenge is these schools and libraries now,
Speaker 1: um And I know because I lived that logic. I
Speaker 1: was lived in a purple area in Tampa Bay. And
Speaker 1: you know, in just in the cheerfully in the cafeteria,
Speaker 1: we would talk about, yeah, we should send all the
Speaker 1: gates when island to die right, Like, that was just
Speaker 1: the way we talked about it as middle school kids
Speaker 1: and high school kids, um and the like it's Adam
Speaker 1: and Eve, not Adam and Steve, right, which rhyme, So
Speaker 1: it had to be true. That's like kid logic, UM.
Speaker 1: And so I understand the thinking, which is basically that
Speaker 1: the idea is if if you believe that this is
Speaker 1: an outside source, it's a contagion that comes into people
Speaker 1: that they read the wrong book that has a lesbian character,
Speaker 1: and now my daughter is going to become a lesbian UM.
Speaker 1: If you that is truly your belief, then it's also
Speaker 1: your belief that you can wall it out. Right If
Speaker 1: in our town there's in a single book that has
Speaker 1: a lesbian character, if there's I'm not letting my kid
Speaker 1: watch TV shows that have them, then it's impossible that
Speaker 1: she will become a lesbian UM. And the one thing
Speaker 1: that's coming out of this, all this abundant research, it's
Speaker 1: explosion of research into same sex sexual behavior across the
Speaker 1: animal kingdom invertebrates, vertebrates, primates, dolphins, fish, is that you
Speaker 1: can't wall it out because it's coming from inside it
Speaker 1: is like it is our heritage as animals is to
Speaker 1: have this as part of us, right, this like huge
Speaker 1: diversity in the ways to express sex and to to
Speaker 1: be with other organisms. Um so, even if your kid
Speaker 1: doesn't read a book with a lesbian in it, they
Speaker 1: come from the natural history of of animal kind and
Speaker 1: that the possibilities in there. Just look at a bonobo
Speaker 1: or a Japanese macaque monkey or any of it. But
Speaker 1: if they do read a book about it, they should
Speaker 1: definitely read this one. That's kind of it. I already
Speaker 1: do what already giving it. Thank you so much to
Speaker 1: do to fool that's such a treble, which is too
Speaker 1: much fun, I remembers Sting Brett. We have got to
Speaker 1: be available right now. We want to take a stick break. Well,
Speaker 1: the right sat possible, that's real, that's all right, Well,
Speaker 1: that's all fulf that you like, fuck before we go,
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