Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: From the most trusted journalist at Comedy Central.
Speaker 3: It's America's only sorts for news. This here's the Daily
Speaker 3: Show with your homes Jordan Clever Look Daily Show. I'm
Speaker 3: talking club.
Speaker 4: We got so much to talk about Tonight, Donald Trump
Speaker 4: takes a mental health day. We go balls deep on
Speaker 4: sports stories about balls, and Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz
Speaker 4: have a douche off.
Speaker 3: So let's get at adlines.
Speaker 4: For two days now, the world has been waiting for
Speaker 4: Donald Trump to decide whether to accept Israel's evite to
Speaker 4: go to war with.
Speaker 3: We know he's viewed it.
Speaker 4: But he still has an RSVP. I hate it when
Speaker 4: that happens now. In the meantime, the question has started
Speaker 4: a separate war inside his MAGA base, and today it
Speaker 4: exploded into a heated debate between the two most likable
Speaker 4: and charming.
Speaker 3: Voices on the Riots.
Speaker 4: On the one side is Ted Cruz, who wants war
Speaker 4: with I run, And on the other is Tucker Carlson,
Speaker 4: who thinks Ted Cruz doesn't know shit about you know.
Speaker 5: How many people living around by the way, I don't
Speaker 5: know the population at all.
Speaker 6: No, I don't know the population. You don't know the
Speaker 6: population of the country. You seek to topple how many
Speaker 6: people living around ninety two million?
Speaker 4: Oh damn, Ted Cruz, are you a pair of eight
Speaker 4: hundred dollars Ferragamo boat shoes? Because Tucker Carlson owned you, buddy,
Speaker 4: And Ted Cruz.
Speaker 3: Was like, I know the population.
Speaker 4: Just give me a second to count. Okay, let's say
Speaker 4: there's the ayatola. That's one, the iron cheek two is
Speaker 4: a Latin one.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: No, But if you enjoyed seeing Ted Cruz get metaphorically
Speaker 4: punched in the face, I would you like to see
Speaker 4: it again?
Speaker 5: Why is it relevant whether it will be ninety million
Speaker 5: or eighty million or a hundred million.
Speaker 6: Why is if you don't know anything about the country.
Speaker 5: He didn't say, I don't know anything about Okay, what's
Speaker 5: the ethnic mixer for?
Speaker 3: Wrong?
Speaker 4: Oh no, oh no, oh no, not ethnic mixes. You
Speaker 4: don't want to go toe to toe with Tucker Carlson
Speaker 4: on ethnic mixes.
Speaker 3: That's his best subject. Look at poor Ted Cruz.
Speaker 4: He's like, uh, I'd like to phote a friend please.
Speaker 3: Oh shit, I don't have any Uh.
Speaker 4: I had a waiter last night and out back and
Speaker 4: he called me Champ, Can I phone him? You know,
Speaker 4: I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm I'm starting
Speaker 4: to feel bad for Ted Cruz.
Speaker 3: So come on, Ted, you got this.
Speaker 7: They are Persians and predominantly Okay, you don't know anything
Speaker 7: about Iran, So okay, I'm not the Tucker Carlson on Iran.
Speaker 7: You're a senator who's calling on government about the country.
Speaker 1: Eight.
Speaker 5: No, you don't know anything about the country.
Speaker 3: You don't know anything. No, you don't know anything. I
Speaker 3: don't care about who wins the fight. I just like
Speaker 3: watching the fights.
Speaker 4: It's like alien versus predator, but somehow more gross.
Speaker 3: You can see how heated this is getting.
Speaker 4: Clearly, MAGA is much more divided about whether to overthrow
Speaker 4: Iran than they were about whether to overthrow America. Every
Speaker 4: little comment in this interview turned into a semantic battle.
Speaker 5: Really believed that carrying out military strikes today. Who said
Speaker 5: Israel was right with our help? I'm said, we Israel
Speaker 5: is leading them, but we're supporting them.
Speaker 6: Well, this you're breaking news here because the US government
Speaker 6: last night denied the National Security Council spokesman Alex Fiffer
Speaker 6: denied behalf of Trump that we were acting on Israel's
Speaker 6: behalf in any offensive capacity.
Speaker 1: We're not bombing.
Speaker 3: Then Israel's bombing.
Speaker 5: Then you just said we were, we are supporting it.
Speaker 3: We I you.
Speaker 4: For the party that promised no confusion around pronouns, This
Speaker 4: is really a confused The point is Michael world is
Speaker 4: tearing itself apart, and everyone is waiting for Trump to
Speaker 4: make a decision. And remember, Trump abruptly left the G
Speaker 4: seven sumven so he could rush back to the White House,
Speaker 4: meet with his national security team in the Situation Room
Speaker 4: and decide if he's bringing America into this war. So
Speaker 4: we were all waiting for the big announcement, and then
Speaker 4: it came.
Speaker 7: Trump said, in a true social post, it is my
Speaker 7: great honor to announce that I will be putting up
Speaker 7: two beautiful flagpoles on both sides of the White House
Speaker 7: North and south laws.
Speaker 4: Yes, that is definitely an announcement, not the announcement we
Speaker 4: were waiting for. But sure have a couple flag poles
Speaker 4: installed at the White House. That'll be something for the
Speaker 4: groundskeepers to take care of while you're busy in the
Speaker 4: situation room dealing with more important matters.
Speaker 8: At eleven o'clock, we're lifting the flag.
Speaker 3: But we're going to lift the pole now and then they're.
Speaker 8: Going to the other side.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, be out there introducing the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Now back to the situation room.
Speaker 8: So we'll have one on this side of the building.
Speaker 8: We'll have one on that side of the building, properly placed.
Speaker 8: These are the best poles anywhere in the country, in
Speaker 8: the world.
Speaker 1: Actually, they're tapered.
Speaker 8: They have the nice top. You know, I don't know
Speaker 8: if few people are aesthetic.
Speaker 1: You know, they're the fake news.
Speaker 8: I don't know about it. I don't know they're but
Speaker 8: it's a very exciting project to me.
Speaker 3: What's going on here.
Speaker 4: It feels like someone told him, sir, you're not doing
Speaker 4: well in the pole, and he was like, I hear you.
Speaker 3: I'm on it.
Speaker 4: By the way, what was that aside about how the
Speaker 4: fake news doesn't understand flagpole esthetics? I mean, this is
Speaker 4: a whole new stereotype of the liberal media.
Speaker 3: I didn't even know about. They lie about Hunter Biden's.
Speaker 4: Laptop and they have no appreciation for tapered flagpoles.
Speaker 3: Now, personally, I think it's cool that Trump found a
Speaker 3: new use for.
Speaker 4: The fifty foot pole that Millennia refuses to touch him
Speaker 4: with He was clearly having a good time, although he
Speaker 4: stopped himself from getting too carried away.
Speaker 8: Let's have a good They call it a lifting. They
Speaker 8: also use another word, but I'm not going to use
Speaker 8: that word. You know that is the word. It starts
Speaker 8: with an e.
Speaker 3: You know what the word is.
Speaker 8: If I haven't used it, I'd be run out of
Speaker 8: town by you people.
Speaker 3: All right, so enjoy it.
Speaker 4: Come on, Donald, you think if you say the word erection,
Speaker 4: we're gonna all act like children and take it out
Speaker 4: of context. I mean, come on, come on, where do
Speaker 4: you get a silly idea like that? I'm gonna come Okay, now,
Speaker 4: I remember, right. That's crazy for Trump to suddenly get
Speaker 4: all worried about saying erection. His closing campaign message was
Speaker 4: vote for me. I saw Arnold Palmer's incredible penis. But okay,
Speaker 4: you came out, you talked about flagpoles, You met the
Speaker 4: flagpole guys. You made some flagpole related dick jokes. Time
Speaker 4: to turn around, go back inside and stop and or
Speaker 4: escalate this war.
Speaker 3: Let's not waste any more time.
Speaker 8: Say what do you want about? But he wasn't for
Speaker 8: open borders. He wasn't for transgender for everybody. We don't
Speaker 8: know where it's coming from. Sir, I said, check out
Speaker 8: the tariffs. He calls back about a day later. Wow,
Speaker 8: somewhere in this group there's somebody that he's going to captivate,
Speaker 8: some movie producer. Not harvery Wednesday. The only thing too
Speaker 8: late is Powell. Powell's too late, too late, Let's have
Speaker 8: dinner too late. You have to have a guy that's
Speaker 8: not a smart person, and you're.
Speaker 3: Dealing with her.
Speaker 8: Any illegal immigrants in her thirty five club championships.
Speaker 1: You will know.
Speaker 8: I know that thirty five club championships and groceries a.
Speaker 3: Down, Eggs are down.
Speaker 8: You know you know what I do whenever I talk
Speaker 8: about Gavin Nuskin, I say, look at the railroad. Austria
Speaker 8: has very, very flammable trees.
Speaker 3: Good lord.
Speaker 4: I don't want to say anything, but if your flagpole
Speaker 4: erections last more than four hours, you probably want.
Speaker 3: To see a doctor.
Speaker 4: Donald donal focus, focus, focus, Get back to the flag poles.
Speaker 3: No, wait, get back to the war. I mean war.
Speaker 3: He's got me all mixed up. Just someone ask him
Speaker 3: about the war.
Speaker 9: You even to answered questions about whether you are moving closer.
Speaker 5: You believe the US is moving closet of striking Iranian
Speaker 5: nuclear facilities.
Speaker 10: Where's your mindset on that.
Speaker 8: I may do it, I may not do it. I mean,
Speaker 8: nobody knows what I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 3: Right, Super helpful, Thanks guy. That is the key to
Speaker 3: this whole thing.
Speaker 4: Nobody knows what he wants to do, including Donald Trump.
Speaker 4: You'd rather be doing home renovation projects than figuring out
Speaker 4: how to fix all his.
Speaker 3: Crops, And honestly, I you agree.
Speaker 4: I think we should encourage him to spend all his
Speaker 4: time on landscaping projects as opposed to bringing America into
Speaker 4: another Middle East war. Frankly, I think a lot of
Speaker 4: people would be relieved by that decision, even overjoyed. It
Speaker 4: might even give people. I don't want to say it,
Speaker 4: but it starts with an E.
Speaker 3: We come back. I fight with Dazie Leideck about.
Speaker 5: Sports don't go on.
Speaker 3: Well, that's the Daily Show.
Speaker 4: I think I speak for everyone when I say politics, drools,
Speaker 4: and sports rules. For a full recap of the biggest
Speaker 4: stories in the world of jocks and straps, we turn
Speaker 4: to sports War. You're ready for battle.
Speaker 3: It's time for Brought to you.
Speaker 1: By Gambling gambling. It's literally free money.
Speaker 9: One times pros and sports frauds.
Speaker 10: I'm Daisy Lighted.
Speaker 3: And I'm Jordan Klepper.
Speaker 4: This is Sports War, the show where we are legally
Speaker 4: not allowed to agree with each other.
Speaker 10: So if I say cheerleading is not a real sport, and.
Speaker 4: I say, of course cheerleading is a sports, why else
Speaker 4: would I be constantly watching it when I'm alone at home.
Speaker 9: Whatever keeps you indoors and away from people. Let's kick
Speaker 9: things off with our top story. Caitlyn Clark has returned
Speaker 9: to the court from injury, and not a moment too
Speaker 9: soon for the WNBA.
Speaker 8: It wasn't just the Indiana fever that miss Caitlyn Clark.
Speaker 3: The WNBA missed her and badly.
Speaker 10: Caitland Clark effect.
Speaker 9: Since the WNBA stares injury, ticket prices have drastically dropped.
Speaker 6: WNBA ratings plummeted fifty five percent league wide.
Speaker 4: Wow, So Caitlyn Clark gets injured and you all just
Speaker 4: stop supporting women's basketball. You people bailed on the WNBA
Speaker 4: quicker than Desi did on her fifth marriage.
Speaker 3: Look Fairweather fans make me sick.
Speaker 4: I Jordan Klepper, Champion of Women, Friends of the Female
Speaker 4: Maya Angelou Lover and Susan b Anthony Megafan. IM here
Speaker 4: to tell you there is plenty, I mean plenty of
Speaker 4: excitement in the WNBA besides Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 9: Name one WNBA team, okay, all name three?
Speaker 4: The Cleveland Clams, Toledo Tampons, and the Boston Bush's Go.
Speaker 9: Bush, Jordan, you idiot, those are possibly correct.
Speaker 10: I don't know I was bluffing.
Speaker 9: Regardless, it's great that Clark's absence gay fans a chance
Speaker 9: to watch cooler, less popular sports like I don't know
Speaker 9: women's cornhole, which I happen to have played professionally. In fact,
Speaker 9: people say I'm the Caitlin Clark of Cornhall.
Speaker 4: You're the Caitlin Clark of Cornwall who says that you just.
Speaker 9: Did your big dumb giraffe, which brings us to.
Speaker 10: Our holy hut bet of the night.
Speaker 9: Will our ratings decline if Jordan Clepper gets injured by
Speaker 9: the hood of my car brought to you by gambling. Gambling,
Speaker 9: you can't spell degenerate without great.
Speaker 4: Staying in the world of basketball, did you know it's
Speaker 4: also played by men and one former NBA star is
Speaker 4: making headlines in Puerto Rico by going.
Speaker 3: A little nuts.
Speaker 11: Former Golden State Warrior DeMarcus Cousins was suspended for the
Speaker 11: rest of the season in Puerto Rico's basketball league after
Speaker 11: this he did exchange with a fan during a game.
Speaker 11: Cousins made an obscene gesture exchange words with a fan.
Speaker 11: The four time NBA All Star was ejected.
Speaker 1: This is awesome.
Speaker 3: He grabbed his crutch and wiped it on that fan's face.
Speaker 4: Oh, anyone could shake a player's hand, but not many
Speaker 4: get to taste a player's ball.
Speaker 3: Sack you. I just bought season tickets at the player too.
Speaker 4: Rican Basketball League, and I'll be watching every game courts
Speaker 4: hid with my.
Speaker 3: Mouth wide open.
Speaker 10: Jordan, you human gloryhole. You couldn't be more wrong.
Speaker 9: De Marcus Cousins should know how to act professionally during
Speaker 9: the game, but after the game he should break into
Speaker 9: that fans car and rub that tank stank all over
Speaker 9: a steering wheel. The guy will have pink eye before
Speaker 9: he leaves the parking lot.
Speaker 3: Wait, is that how I got pink eye?
Speaker 9: Which brings us to tonight's second tack bed.
Speaker 10: Of the week.
Speaker 9: How many CDs will DeMarcus Cousins buy in his free time.
Speaker 4: Wait, wait, wait a minute, hold on, hold on, wait
Speaker 4: what CDs?
Speaker 10: CDs?
Speaker 9: No, these nuts have been brought to you by gambling, gambling,
Speaker 9: sack up and bit.
Speaker 3: I should have seen it coming.
Speaker 4: Moving on from a former pro to a current pro
Speaker 4: who just won't go away.
Speaker 8: Well, after months of speculation, looks like Aaron Rodgers, the
Speaker 8: former Jets and Packers quarterback, is going to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 1: So this was the decision that was best for my soul.
Speaker 10: Good for you, Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 9: He listened to his soul, the one part of his
Speaker 9: body that can't get cte Daisy.
Speaker 4: Daisy, dazzi, DESI did your botox your brain? Come on,
Speaker 4: Aaron Rodgers shouldn't be doing anything good for his soul.
Speaker 4: Everyone knows that bad souls equal great players. OJ Simpson
Speaker 4: terrible soul, incredible player. Mother Teresa great soul. Dog shit quarterback.
Speaker 10: You're just mad she wouldn't sleep with you.
Speaker 3: Woman, Get away.
Speaker 9: But luckily for the Steelers, Aaron Rodgers' soul wasn't the
Speaker 9: only thing making headlines.
Speaker 4: Rogers was at the Steelers mandatory mini camp yesterday.
Speaker 3: Noticeable difference compared to last season.
Speaker 4: Rogers was rocking a wedding ring, and he did confirm
Speaker 4: that he's now married.
Speaker 3: Although we don't know the identity of his wife. Ooh,
Speaker 3: the man does a lot of ayahuasca.
Speaker 4: Are we sure he knows the identity of his wife.
Speaker 3: He could have married a fighters plant.
Speaker 4: Either way, you know it's true love because he found
Speaker 4: someone willing to live in Pittsburgh, Jordan.
Speaker 9: We should not be celebrating this. Everyone knows football and
Speaker 9: marriage don't mix. Oj Simpson, great football player, terrible marriage.
Speaker 3: But what do I know.
Speaker 10: I've only been married twelve times.
Speaker 4: Which brings us to ours. Say yes to the bet
Speaker 4: wager of the week. What eradicated disease? Did guests contract
Speaker 4: at Aaron Rodgers' wedding? Brought to you by gambling gambling?
Speaker 3: He went to Jared. That's my boogee, And that's all
Speaker 3: the time we have for sports war. Join us next
Speaker 3: week when we debate if hockey would be better if
Speaker 3: they played on pogo sticks.
Speaker 10: Of course not, they'd slip all over the ice.
Speaker 3: Oh there's no ice to play on a layer of sticks.
Speaker 10: Oh my god, that's a genous think about it.
Speaker 8: Lay.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the Danisher.
Speaker 4: My guest tonight is a Grammy Award winning singer songwriter
Speaker 4: in frontman of the band The National. His new solo
Speaker 4: album is called Get Sunk. Please Welcome, Matt Berninger.
Speaker 3: Welcome.
Speaker 4: I love this new album, I truly do. And a
Speaker 4: thing that I noticed. I'm a Midwest boy. I'm from Michigan. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and I know you're a Midwest boy from Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: Is that right?
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 4: A lot of people in this world think the Midwest
Speaker 4: is anything that's not on the coast. First of all,
Speaker 4: screw those people, right, But what I noticed within this
Speaker 4: album is you have very specific references to Indiana. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and I think I know that's not Ohio, and I
Speaker 4: know that's not Michigan. To you, What does Indiana mean?
Speaker 4: Why is that making its way on this album.
Speaker 2: I grew up on the west side of Cincinnati, which
Speaker 2: is right on the border of Indiana, and my uncle
Speaker 2: Jack had a farm which is where I spent like
Speaker 2: so many weekends and summers.
Speaker 1: And Christmases and everything at.
Speaker 2: A Christmas tree farm, originally a Christmas tobacco farm, and
Speaker 2: then switched it to Christmas trees when he found out
Speaker 2: that it caused cancer.
Speaker 1: Not Christmas.
Speaker 4: Good, Okay, good, yeah, yeah, I don't want to have
Speaker 4: to fact check you on that one. It's still okay
Speaker 4: to do the Christmas just causes poverty, I believe.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So I spent a lot of time on
Speaker 1: that farm, and.
Speaker 3: So this record I was really, uh, just.
Speaker 2: Just kind of visiting that idea of like what, you know,
Speaker 2: what makes you you? You know, why why did I
Speaker 2: end up like this with all my combination of neurosis
Speaker 2: and anxieties and stuff and so and and and you know,
Speaker 2: and then also just trying to figure out, you know,
Speaker 2: like where where were those happy, happy, yeah, care free
Speaker 2: times and just trying to connect with that.
Speaker 1: I wanted to make a record.
Speaker 2: That was it was happy, it was you know, positive
Speaker 2: and uplifting, and it's it's kind of hard to do,
Speaker 2: you know sometimes and especially now. And I don't know
Speaker 2: if I made that happy right, but it was it
Speaker 2: was revisiting that time and place made me understand a
Speaker 2: lot about my stuff.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 3: So you're thinking about what makes you you?
Speaker 4: I mean, you are an interesting person in many ways,
Speaker 4: but the U of you has been a famous person
Speaker 4: for a long time. The U of you back in
Speaker 4: Cincinnati and Indiana probably not as much so like, what
Speaker 4: what are you discovering about the mat of today versus
Speaker 4: the map of ten years ago.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of the reason why I was
Speaker 2: right going back to think about that, uh, because because yeah,
Speaker 2: for about i'd say for ten years, I feel like
Speaker 2: I've been a little bit uh uh have become something,
Speaker 2: you know, through the through the national and the the
Speaker 2: sort of brand of the sad depressing uh you know,
Speaker 2: you know, borderline alcoholic college professor, you know, sort.
Speaker 3: Of it's good work if you can get it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and and and it fits, it fits, but
Speaker 2: but it's it's also that has kind of turned into
Speaker 2: a its own uh, an own character, you know, and
Speaker 2: so and I and I really was getting sick of
Speaker 2: that character.
Speaker 4: Really did you feel like it was a self fulfilling
Speaker 4: a little way.
Speaker 2: I mean a little bit or you just you just
Speaker 2: get uh you get trapped in a in a in
Speaker 2: a this is like this is the way a guy
Speaker 2: like me behaves, you know, or whatever that is. And
Speaker 2: you and uh, I think sometimes you uh you really
Speaker 2: everybody what you always want to like discover yourself and
Speaker 2: figure out who you are. And I think sometimes people
Speaker 2: do that and then get stuck in that that label
Speaker 2: or that that that idea of themselves and uh, and
Speaker 2: that's a that's a trap. So I kind of felt
Speaker 2: myself trapped, like I put myself in my own trap
Speaker 2: of of uh, you know who I was and what
Speaker 2: what Matt Berninger is or whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was a lead singer of the National. That's
Speaker 1: kind of all I was. So I wanted to undo
Speaker 1: that a little bit.
Speaker 4: So I sometimes feel like I'm trapped being me. How
Speaker 4: do I get out?
Speaker 1: Ah? I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean, the truth is I went through a really
Speaker 2: a really long period of depression and stuff. You know,
Speaker 2: it was in the pandemic and a lot of people did,
Speaker 2: but I I went through a period where I didn't
Speaker 2: want to didn't want to write songs, didn't want to
Speaker 2: get on stage anymore because I felt that whole lifestyle,
Speaker 2: the touring and all that stuff and had had had
Speaker 2: had sort of turned me into somebody I didn't like anymore,
Speaker 2: you know, And so I think, uh, the depression was
Speaker 2: triggered by well, the well then.
Speaker 3: What do I do?
Speaker 2: You know, if I'm not going to be a lead
Speaker 2: singer of the National, do I go back and be something,
Speaker 2: you know, graphic designer, which I used.
Speaker 3: To be or what do I do?
Speaker 2: And I didn't want to do that, so I was
Speaker 2: kind of stuck not knowing what to do, you know.
Speaker 1: So that caused a lot of depression.
Speaker 2: And and so I think digging into all that, like
Speaker 2: why am I.
Speaker 1: So at this such a low spot? You know?
Speaker 2: And I think it was I had to sort of,
Speaker 2: you know, just just burn all that down, the idea
Speaker 2: of who I was and and uh and kind of
Speaker 2: slowly slowly rebuild something something, maybe more authentic.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if here I am. I don't
Speaker 1: know if this is authentic.
Speaker 3: I'm not buying it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think this is total.
Speaker 3: This is total bullshit right here, we have our makeup on.
Speaker 3: I know this is a lot. I don't Yeah, we
Speaker 3: don't look this good. I was a goddamn mess. It
Speaker 3: was a ghost.
Speaker 1: It's not real here, that's not real.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I look great backstage, Thank you very much. Anyway.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm curious to you a little bit about your
Speaker 4: your process specifically. I heard you weren't writing on notebooks
Speaker 4: when you were crafting this album.
Speaker 2: Is that correct? I? I, yeah, notebooks. I used to
Speaker 2: fill up so many little notebooks Moleskin notebooks and always
Speaker 2: trying to get cool looking notebooks and writing in cafes
Speaker 2: and stuff, you know, but then all the I've got,
Speaker 2: I've had so many notebooks that were in plastic bins
Speaker 2: that were on shelves and never going back to it.
Speaker 1: And and uh.
Speaker 2: So I kind of stopped writing on notebooks for a
Speaker 2: long time. I was writing on my phone for I
Speaker 2: mean a lot of people, you know, you can't. It's
Speaker 2: a really useful tool, but then you get stuck on
Speaker 2: your phone. So a lot of it was just to
Speaker 2: get the phone out of my hand.
Speaker 1: And I like baseball. They feel they feel great. I
Speaker 1: don't follow baseball, but I tossed baseball.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: My daughter and my dad and I used to.
Speaker 2: That's when my dad and I had our best conversations,
Speaker 2: tossing basis, playing back and forth.
Speaker 1: And that's what baseball means to me. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, And I was from Cincinnati, the big red machine
Speaker 2: and the whole the whole seventies west side of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: You know, Pete Rose was a was a hero.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, not so much anymore for me,
Speaker 2: for obvious reasons. In a and uh so, all that stuff,
Speaker 2: like the whole identity of like what a West side
Speaker 2: Cincinnati kid I was, and how what I thought the
Speaker 2: world was and who my heroes were.
Speaker 1: All that changes, you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you'd put you'd put your songs onto these
Speaker 4: these baseballs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I ret Yeah, I forgot what we're talking about. Baseballs.
Speaker 2: So instead of like I think, I started doing out
Speaker 2: on an airplane and and I usually have a baseball or
Speaker 2: two with me, and.
Speaker 3: Uh, just you were doing it on an airplane.
Speaker 1: I started writing on an airplane.
Speaker 3: So then I imagine seeing you and most people.
Speaker 4: Are like this crazy guy it's scribbling some sort of
Speaker 4: manifesto out of baseball. No, he's an artist crafting the
Speaker 4: next great Grammy Award winning album.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: That's what we need to think we have more empathy
Speaker 4: towards the things that we see.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, I know.
Speaker 2: But the but the yeah they're writing on the baseball's
Speaker 2: things was was it just felt good because the weight
Speaker 2: of the baseball, and it's just it's just an easy
Speaker 2: thing thing to Uh. I can lay on the couch
Speaker 2: and drink wines like weed and write on the baseball.
Speaker 2: You know, It's like it's just fun. It's it's in
Speaker 2: the phone is in the other room, and so.
Speaker 3: It's a way.
Speaker 1: It's also the words.
Speaker 2: The words start to go up against each other, and
Speaker 2: so it's just a trick to change my process, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think processes the whole.
Speaker 2: But the reason why it's also fun, you know, like
Speaker 2: the making of stuff, the going out and promoting.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is also fun to part of the process.
Speaker 2: But but I think the the even the right I
Speaker 2: wanted to change the way my brain was was normally
Speaker 2: puts words together. Yeah, and so writing on whiteboards or
Speaker 2: with sharpie's or writing on I mean, I write in
Speaker 2: write in books that I'm reading. I'll just write in
Speaker 2: between the lines instead of bringing a separate book, you know,
Speaker 2: because I'll be like, oh, what's I remember I wrote
Speaker 2: something great and that my copy of the Sun also rises.
Speaker 1: I know where that book is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as opposed to a just a just a notebook
Speaker 2: on a shelf. I can't find it, you know.
Speaker 4: So did I see you post as well? Are you
Speaker 4: rewriting the Great Gaspy? Saw you post?
Speaker 2: I'm not rewriting the Great Gaspy I'm I'm I'm using
Speaker 2: only Fitzgerald's words.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: In writing a different novel, kind of line by line.
Speaker 1: It's called The Great Sponge.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm only about three pages, but I'm actually really
Speaker 2: attached to the characters. It's about a father and a daughter.
Speaker 2: It's not about the Great Gatsby at all, but it's
Speaker 2: only using his words.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you feel like you need that restriction to create.
Speaker 1: It's just.
Speaker 2: Putting yourself in a corner helps you find a new
Speaker 2: a new a new crack.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: You it forces you to to It makes your brain
Speaker 2: go left instead of right sometimes you know where you're
Speaker 2: so used to going right. So, yeah, you put yourself
Speaker 2: into a constraint of some kind.
Speaker 1: It is really I find that really. Like the baseball
Speaker 1: itself is like it's it's you have to turn it
Speaker 1: and you have to.
Speaker 2: Go around the seams and then you run out of
Speaker 2: you eventually run out of space, and I'm like, okay, well
Speaker 2: that's my songs have too many words anyway, you know,
Speaker 2: So it's it forces me like, okay, that's all that stuff,
Speaker 2: and it's not really, it's all just random kind of
Speaker 2: just letting your mind go. And I'll go back and
Speaker 2: take the pieces off the baseball and I'll color like
Speaker 2: all that stuff I'll highlight parts and put pins in it.
Speaker 2: So then I'll look at all the baseballs. I'll have
Speaker 2: a big bunch of baseballs, like all that red stuff.
Speaker 2: All those red stuff kind of goes together, and so
Speaker 2: that's how you know it's a collajing.
Speaker 4: The different point where are like, oh shit, my second verse,
Speaker 4: my daughter's playing with it on the yard.
Speaker 3: Just get it back in there.
Speaker 2: And I also like not being precious about anything like
Speaker 2: the notebooks or anything. I've lost so many notebooks, I've
Speaker 2: lost so munch of stuff over the time that you think, oh,
Speaker 2: that great stuff is there, and losing everything is a
Speaker 2: really healthy thing to do, you know, because then you
Speaker 2: just start you just start putting new seeds in the ground,
Speaker 2: and different stuff grows.
Speaker 3: So I love that.
Speaker 4: I love that you've talked about You mentioned sort of
Speaker 4: being put into a category or a category of like
Speaker 4: the sad dad, drunk professor.
Speaker 3: Wonder Boys category.
Speaker 4: I'm curious about, like you talked about how that audience
Speaker 4: you found there's an audience both for this like middle
Speaker 4: aged man music that's also found a kinship with Taylor
Speaker 4: Swift fans and a younger teenage female fan base. What
Speaker 4: what is that connections.
Speaker 2: I know it's a real, it's a it's a pretty
Speaker 2: I think it makes a lot of sense. I mean, uh, well,
Speaker 2: the tailor thing specifically is like I mean, she writes
Speaker 2: very personal dietary not always that she writes all kinds
Speaker 2: of songs, but but but the personal, the real personal
Speaker 2: access do you have to her mind and her heart
Speaker 2: in her all the confusing thoughts is why she's uh,
Speaker 2: why she is who she is?
Speaker 1: Right, and she's she's.
Speaker 2: A masterful songwriter that connects with with with people and uh,
Speaker 2: and I think I write very uh, I try to
Speaker 2: write pretty honest, emotionally murky, sometimes very ugly emotional stuff.
Speaker 1: And and so and it's very similar. I think it's there.
Speaker 2: There's a real connection to the way she writes, the
Speaker 2: way she thinks about songs in the way I do.
Speaker 2: And she's she's been a fan for a long time.
Speaker 2: We've been fans for what we've I've you know, met
Speaker 2: her ten years ago. So that connection and what the
Speaker 2: work she's done with Aaron was pretty organic and pretty pretty.
Speaker 1: It made a lot of sense to all of us.
Speaker 2: And yeah, and I've got my daughter's sixteen, and uh,
Speaker 2: and she loves she really really loves my writing, you know,
Speaker 2: and and uh and I think I think young people
Speaker 2: like the dark, complicated stuff, you know. And uh like
Speaker 2: kids always liked the stuff that's a little scary that
Speaker 2: the children's books, you know, where the wild things are
Speaker 2: all that stuff is a little bit because life is scary.
Speaker 2: And and and if somebody, if they're not if the
Speaker 2: art that there there are books they're reading don't represent life,
Speaker 2: they don't buy it, you know. So so yeah, so
Speaker 2: I think teenagers do. I mean, I was a teenager
Speaker 2: when I discovered Tom Waits, you know, and and Nick
Speaker 2: Cave and and and Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. But
Speaker 2: these are people who who write really directly and and
Speaker 2: honestly and filled with you know, all their flaws, all
Speaker 2: the flaws of their heart and soul.
Speaker 1: They put it right out there, you know.
Speaker 2: And so I think that's that's the connection, I think,
Speaker 2: which I really that's what. That's what That's why I
Speaker 2: think it's it's kind of there's this connection between the
Speaker 2: national and and.
Speaker 1: And the teen a teen sort of thinking.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 4: I love that we're gonna hear a song from you, Yeah,
Speaker 4: Inland Ocean. What do I need to know about Inland Ocean.
Speaker 2: This is the first song, one of the first songs
Speaker 2: that ended up that that that made it to the vibe.
Speaker 2: I writ wrote like thirty or forty songs, but but uh,
Speaker 2: this one I read a long time ago, and I
Speaker 2: knew that it was going to be the first song
Speaker 2: on whatever record I was going to finish.
Speaker 1: I wrote it with Walter Martin of The Walkman and
Speaker 1: Who's Here Tonight and.
Speaker 2: And Yeah, this one kind of sets up I think
Speaker 2: is a good prologue sort of for the album. It
Speaker 2: talks about just just that murky idea of Middle America,
Speaker 2: and it sets up Indiana and it's it's just a
Speaker 2: good Uh, it's good first song.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm excited to hear it before I let you
Speaker 4: go play this song. Yeah, as a fan, I think
Speaker 4: this is a wonderful album.
Speaker 3: Good. Would you mind signing my notebook? I would be
Speaker 3: happy here?
Speaker 1: Yeah? All right? Yeah.
Speaker 3: Get song is available now.
Speaker 4: Explore more shows from The Daily Show podcast universe by
Speaker 4: searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3: Watch The Daily Show week nights at eleven.
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Speaker 1: This has been a Comedy Central podcast.