Speaker 1: Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Speaker 1: Washington Broadcast Center. Jack Armstrong and Joe Caddy arms Strong and.
Speaker 2: He Armstrong and Strong.
Speaker 1: Welcome to a replay of the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 1: We are on vacation, but boy, do we have some
Speaker 1: good stuff for you.
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed we do.
Speaker 1: And if you want to catch up on your ang
Speaker 1: listening during your travels, remember.
Speaker 2: Grab the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand. You ought
Speaker 2: to subscribe wherever you like to get podcasts. Now on
Speaker 2: with the infotainment. Dozens of Ukrainian prisoners.
Speaker 3: Of war were freed in an exchange with Russia. They
Speaker 3: were greeted to a hero's welcome at a hospital north
Speaker 3: of Kiev, but they looked like the living dead, gaunt
Speaker 3: heads shaven, their bodies broken and some said beaten. Alexandro
Speaker 3: Kolkoff told me he was a prisoner for over three
Speaker 3: years and that the Russians broke his ribs. If nothing
Speaker 3: was already broken, they would break it, he said.
Speaker 1: Jeez, Putin and his military, they're animals. You want to
Speaker 1: let them win. Don't get it anyway, Pete Hagzeth, who
Speaker 1: we were just applauding for something. He was asked under
Speaker 1: oath yesterday by Senate lawmakers. He's doing three appearances before
Speaker 1: Congress this weekend, being grilled about a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: different things. Senator McConnell, former Majority Leader, asked the question
Speaker 1: of Hegxeth who is the aggressor in Ukraine? And Hagzeth said,
Speaker 1: Russia is the aggressor now. Steve Hayes of The Dispatch said,
Speaker 1: should we be encouraged that Hegzeth gave the obvious and
Speaker 1: accurate answer to that question or discourage that McConnell felt
Speaker 1: the need to ask it. But yeah, it's good. It's
Speaker 1: good good news as far as I'm concerned. Man oh Man,
Speaker 1: that's that's something. Those stories about the hostages are prisoners
Speaker 1: coming back.
Speaker 2: He had the utter disregard for human life, whether theirs
Speaker 2: or other people's. That is part of Russian military history
Speaker 2: is a I was just reading and listening about World
Speaker 2: War two, some of the major victories that Russia had
Speaker 2: and the incredible sacrifices they made, and the point was
Speaker 2: made that some of those horrific numbers are because of
Speaker 2: their techniques. They're just utterly heedless of wasting men.
Speaker 1: That it doesn't matter. Tomo never had.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and US casualties were much much lower in similar encounters,
Speaker 2: just because we go about warfare in a very different
Speaker 2: way we did back in the forties. Anyway, culture and
Speaker 2: continues to today.
Speaker 1: Obviously back closer to home. I thought this was a
Speaker 1: pretty good point from Jim Garrity the National Review. Do
Speaker 1: California elected officials realize how ridiculous they sound when they
Speaker 1: spend several days insisting that local law enforcement had it handled,
Speaker 1: the streets were quiet, and local law enforcement resources are
Speaker 1: sufficient to maintain order, and then a day or two later,
Speaker 1: last night, the mayor is forced to declare a curfew. Okay,
Speaker 1: you had it and under control, you still got You
Speaker 1: had to have a curview last night with the National
Speaker 1: Guard troops. What would have been like without them?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: The metaphor I keep using and I'm sticking with it
Speaker 2: is demark the leaders in California are like a sports
Speaker 2: team that has not yet played a real game. They
Speaker 2: just scrimmage. They have an inter squad scrimmage over and
Speaker 2: over and over again, and they never come up against
Speaker 2: an opponent that's really really trying to win, and they
Speaker 2: think they have game. Gavin Newsom thinks he has national
Speaker 2: level game.
Speaker 1: Two suspects of It's just been charged with throwing molotov
Speaker 1: cocktails at police during the LA riots. This happened moments ago.
Speaker 1: That doesn't sound very peaceful to me. Firebombs. Just a
Speaker 1: bunch of people having fun watching carsburn. Just a bunch
Speaker 1: of people enjoying watching cars burn.
Speaker 2: Oh wait a minute, give me seventy, Michael seventy again,
Speaker 2: the great Maxine Waters.
Speaker 1: Don't think that somehow, because they called the National Guard
Speaker 1: there was violence. There was no violence. I was on
Speaker 1: the street. I know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those chunks of concrete being hurled over and over
Speaker 2: again at the cops.
Speaker 1: I guess that video is AI or something. Okay, we
Speaker 1: live in a post truth universe. Oh and inflation lower
Speaker 1: than expected, So I don't understand what's going on. Why
Speaker 1: after a liberation day in the tariffs and the turmoil
Speaker 1: and this and that, and of course the endless mainstream
Speaker 1: coverage of how Trump's Hitler with a bad economic policy,
Speaker 1: his poll numbers are up. In inflation's basically flat.
Speaker 2: Okay, bing bing bang bang bing bing bing bing bing
Speaker 2: bong bong. Granted, but it's a complicated stew of the economy.
Speaker 2: It could be argued that increased fears of economic woes
Speaker 2: to come have caused a suppression of consumer spending. I
Speaker 2: would have to dig.
Speaker 1: Into that economic stew.
Speaker 2: Oh hey, speaking of AI, which I mentioned a second ago.
Speaker 2: Tens of thousands of people now believe AI or chat
Speaker 2: GPT is God.
Speaker 1: What seems to.
Speaker 2: Be a religion is forming up around AI. Quasi religious
Speaker 2: posts would fill up entire AI forums if moderators didn't
Speaker 2: censor them. Just five days ago, the moderator of a
Speaker 2: pro AI reddit announced that they are now banning these fanatics.
Speaker 2: Two days earlier, another dditor warned of thousands of people
Speaker 2: online with spiritual delusions about AI.
Speaker 1: I need to look into this. That I hadn't heard
Speaker 1: a word about nor anticipated a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 1: I had anticipated a lot of us did I hadn't
Speaker 1: anticipated that. That's kooky. Now I did get ye, I
Speaker 1: did get sent this the other day. It was an ad.
Speaker 1: I don't know where the ad show up. I won't
Speaker 1: replace him, but I'll be here when you can't sleep.
Speaker 1: Here are ten AI boyfriends who help you, heal, distract you,
Speaker 1: and remind you of your worth and it's got a
Speaker 1: picture of a young handsome man. Where in the hell
Speaker 1: are we headed a planet of the beavers? Nobody's getting
Speaker 1: together anymore. I won't replace him, but I'll be here
Speaker 1: when you can't sleep. Here are ten AI boyfriends who
Speaker 1: help you, heal, distract you, and remind you of your worth.
Speaker 1: That is so freaking crazy. That is so freaking crazy.
Speaker 1: How did it happen so fast? I mean we thought
Speaker 1: maybe someday, if AI gets good enough and robots look
Speaker 1: exactly like humans, possibly the most deranged among us could develop. No, no,
Speaker 1: just the middle of that sentence that happened, just just
Speaker 1: words on a screen with no voice, yeah, and no
Speaker 1: image whatsoever. And no robot is making people stay at
Speaker 1: home and feel like they're in a relationship. That is
Speaker 1: so crazy.
Speaker 2: You yourself have mentioned that uh chat GPT or whatever
Speaker 2: is a better counselor than most counselors.
Speaker 1: Freaking right if you have that in using that that
Speaker 1: biggest stretch that it's a better friend too. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: a but an emotional like love.
Speaker 2: Relationship, really, see, a friend relationship is sick because it's
Speaker 2: like you No, no, I haven't.
Speaker 1: I haven't felt that at all any like friendship or
Speaker 1: anything like that. The ability to distill a tremendous amount
Speaker 1: of information down to the best very quickly and put
Speaker 1: it in like conversational terms. Yes, but that is so nuts.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know where we're going, man, down
Speaker 1: this road lies Matt, You're right, Jonathan Turley, Maybe this
Speaker 1: stat that I came across doesn't matter since everybody's going
Speaker 1: to be in love with a chatbot. You can't have
Speaker 1: a kid with a chatbot. The average cost of raising
Speaker 1: a child in the US is now twenty six thousand
Speaker 1: dollars per year. Okay, I think most parents listening right
Speaker 1: now are saying, how in the heck are you raising
Speaker 1: a kid for twenty six thousand dollars a year?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know what they factor into raising
Speaker 1: a kid or whatnot, but seems low to me. Everything
Speaker 1: everything in, food, clothes, schooling, everything. Every time I hear
Speaker 1: those numbers, whether they are low or high, I think,
Speaker 1: how did you come up with that? That's true? Yeah,
Speaker 1: because what are you? And who asked? Band? Rental, travel, sports, vacation.
Speaker 1: But then again, to my point, who asked you? Since
Speaker 1: I've never heard a parent good point say, you know
Speaker 1: my kid's costing more than I thought. I'm a good
Speaker 1: point consider change in this relationship. No parent has like
Speaker 1: on their spreadsheet or whatever. If you're the sort of
Speaker 1: person that does this, I don't probably should where you
Speaker 1: put all your expenses. I don't know if anybody who
Speaker 1: like has things that they put in the what it
Speaker 1: cost me to have a kid column to keep track?
Speaker 2: Well, right, yeah, yeah, I've never having raised three kids,
Speaker 2: I had a minor child under my roof for twenty
Speaker 2: five straight years. At no point did Judy and I
Speaker 2: ever say, all right, we need to total up all
Speaker 2: these expenses so we can what and then we'll grant
Speaker 2: credits for lawns mode and bathrooms cleaned or whatever chores
Speaker 2: were done, and then we'll I mean, it's just it
Speaker 2: wasn't anything we ever thought about.
Speaker 1: Yea, I'll knock off five thousand dollars for the most
Speaker 1: satisfying thing I've ever done in life. I'll give you that,
Speaker 1: But the rest of it is just a cost.
Speaker 2: It's a negative, right, and the whole I'm just it's funny.
Speaker 2: Maybe I lacked imagination as a youngster, but Judy and
Speaker 2: I knew we wanted to have kids. Point and so
Speaker 2: we went ahead. There was no like, long, careful, can we.
Speaker 1: Afford to or what?
Speaker 2: No, you just do it and figure it out and
Speaker 2: it goes fine.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Were we poor? Yes? Was it fine? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well, the expenses just kind of fit in with the
Speaker 1: rest of your household expenses. I mean, I suppose you
Speaker 1: could make the argument that your house is bigger, so
Speaker 1: part of the house payment goes is because of them,
Speaker 1: and you have to maybe have a bigger car and
Speaker 1: make more trips. You figure out all the gas for
Speaker 1: driving to pick them up at school and drop them.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're a nut if you do that.
Speaker 2: Well right, yeah, and again, why are we talking about it?
Speaker 2: I don't know, so you can't exactly what's the thing exactly? Yeah, well,
Speaker 2: I need to put a price on each child.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2: The boy's extra handsome, so I'll getting a discount. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's an odd bit of analysis. You play sports, not
Speaker 2: dollars and cents. You play sports, so I had to
Speaker 2: buy you more clothes for that. You don't play sports,
Speaker 2: but you're in band, so you have a different cost.
Speaker 1: What the hell?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I don't know, seems odd. Life is not
Speaker 2: dollars and cents, folks, she can't take it with you. Ah, right,
Speaker 2: moving along. I don't want to talk unrest anymore. I'll
Speaker 2: tell you this. Here's a great protest for you. This
Speaker 2: is really going to get a lot of people on
Speaker 2: their side. Hundreds of flowers were vandalized at a botanical
Speaker 2: Michigan garden, and the activists who did it left pro
Speaker 2: Palestinian signs behind that said plant lives don't matter. Human
Speaker 2: lives do.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, glue those people to something, Let us
Speaker 1: pelt them with rocks or fruit.
Speaker 2: I'm in favor of all of those things. The garden
Speaker 2: director made his heart broken tell of.
Speaker 1: The few things that falls under our strict reading of
Speaker 1: cruel and unusual. Glue to them to something and throw
Speaker 1: rocks at them is probably cruel and unusual, Barber, It's
Speaker 1: a little cruel and certainly unusual. You've been sentenced to
Speaker 1: be glued to something in public. Yeahan lives. You deserve
Speaker 1: to be cared for more than these flowers. Don't waste
Speaker 1: your tears on the flowers. They're not even dead, and
Speaker 1: we'll grow again next spring. Ah. Is it even worth
Speaker 1: going this far into this conversation? Do they possibly think
Speaker 1: they did their cause any help. I almost feel like
Speaker 1: if I wanted to discredit the pro Palestinian crowd, I
Speaker 1: would do something like that. Is this like a you know,
Speaker 1: a noose flag operation, a noose in a fraternity to
Speaker 1: show racism, and it turns out it's the somebody put
Speaker 1: it up on purpose.
Speaker 2: To stop the war, resist imperialism, the flowers and crazy people.
Speaker 2: I would like to give you a good thrash, glue
Speaker 2: you or something.
Speaker 1: Jack Armstrong and Joe, the Armstrong and Getty Show, The
Speaker 1: Armstrong and So Japan released their birth statistics yesterday. They
Speaker 1: had about six hundred and eighty thousand babies in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four. That was down five point seven percent from
Speaker 1: the previous year, which had set a record.
Speaker 2: Previous ye year.
Speaker 1: So this is the spiral that people talk about that
Speaker 1: if you've ever read about it or looked at it mathematically,
Speaker 1: there's something happens when you're when you're you know, it's
Speaker 1: like compound interest. Really, it's a similar concept when you
Speaker 1: stop having babies and then those people don't grow up,
Speaker 1: so they don't have two kids, and I mean it
Speaker 1: just exponentially shrinks and then at some point you hit
Speaker 1: a tipping point and it just goes really really fast,
Speaker 1: and they must be there. In Japan, a drop of
Speaker 1: five point seven percent in one year from the previous
Speaker 1: record low in terms of babies what will be next year.
Speaker 1: It's the lowest number of babies born since they started
Speaker 1: keeping data. Again, they do this fairly regularly, and the
Speaker 1: now current number of live births per mom is what
Speaker 1: I just came across it. It's incredibly low. It's well
Speaker 1: below sustainable rate and will drop very very fast there
Speaker 1: and now at I think it was one point one
Speaker 1: point one five, it's about half. Really, it's tired than
Speaker 1: I thought it was, honestly, but has a birth rate
Speaker 1: to sustain your population and you don't allow immigration.
Speaker 2: Right, what the hell? I realize. I'm easily amazed, But
Speaker 2: I want to go back to that figure. If your
Speaker 2: birth rate dropped by five point seven percent in a decade,
Speaker 2: that would be a huge story.
Speaker 1: It dropped in a year, yeah, I know, it's absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1: There's all kinds of fallout from this, like, for instance,
Speaker 1: the number of vacant homes that they have in Japan.
Speaker 1: There's just lots of houses that are vacant, but there's
Speaker 1: nobody to buy because there's just are enough people and
Speaker 1: they're trying to figure out what to do with that.
Speaker 1: The number of ikea uninhabited properties that's the term, has
Speaker 1: topped nine million nationwide, with nine hundred thousand of them
Speaker 1: in Tokyo alone, just uninhabited places, and there's nobody that's
Speaker 1: gonna buy them because there's no hope of anybody buying them.
Speaker 2: Well, there's nobody to buy them because there's no body. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 2: I'm going ahead to Tokyo to do some prime squatting.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go down to Shinjuku, squatt in some apartment,
Speaker 2: eat some sushi.
Speaker 1: Anyway, like I said.
Speaker 2: Fuji, I've never been to Japan obviously, Like I said earlier,
Speaker 2: we get to watch the Japan's gonna be the you
Speaker 2: know what's gonna happen to the rest of us in
Speaker 2: Western society is our birth rates decline to and see
Speaker 2: what happens.
Speaker 1: Of course, we allow lots of sometimes not on purpose immigration,
Speaker 1: which is different than a lot of your Asian countries
Speaker 1: that have zero right.
Speaker 2: They're very very racist, uh they actually are.
Speaker 1: Anyway, So Japan will be a land mass with historical
Speaker 1: sites and no humans.
Speaker 2: Well, the whole country will be like the proverbial Japanese
Speaker 2: soldier hiding out in the jungle after World War Two.
Speaker 2: I mean, there are occasionally you'll come across the human
Speaker 2: being and be like, well, hey, what the hell, it's
Speaker 2: a whole country. Tokyo will be, you know, a post
Speaker 2: apocalyptic moonscape or something arm Strong see Armstrong and Ghetti show.
Speaker 1: So I got this new talkbacked feature that we're gonna try,
Speaker 1: and we're we're in the we're in the what do
Speaker 1: they call it, the beta phase of figuring out how
Speaker 1: we're gonna utilize this on the show or whatever. And
Speaker 1: I threw out the first question, try this out to somebody.
Speaker 1: This is somebody called in and then we record them
Speaker 1: or whatever, because we stopped taking calls years ago for
Speaker 1: a variety of reasons that listeners would know. So I
Speaker 1: throw out the question of what do you like about
Speaker 1: the Armstrong and Giddy show. Hey, you could be the
Speaker 1: first call it Hitler, Muslim extremist.
Speaker 2: That's good stuff, So hey, you can be the first.
Speaker 1: So solid, Okay, we don't need to hear twice. So
Speaker 1: so we're off to a good start. And uh, I again,
Speaker 1: do we need to reiterate why we stopped taking calls.
Speaker 1: But apparently this is some more on the question of
Speaker 1: what do you like about the Armstrong and Giddy show?
Speaker 1: You are my favorite people. You make me laugh in
Speaker 1: the morning when I'm taking the train to work.
Speaker 2: I love it. Thank you for being you.
Speaker 1: I do have to agree. Joe's looks are rough, but
Speaker 1: then again he has as beautiful hair. Why do you lie?
Speaker 2: Is it your greed?
Speaker 3: The best part of Armstrong and Giddy is Katie, and
Speaker 3: when she was gone for a week, that was like
Speaker 3: a void.
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe.
Speaker 1: You make me laugh, you make me cry, you make
Speaker 1: me mad, But in the end, you make the first
Speaker 1: three or four hours of my day at least a
Speaker 1: good informative. You make these guys.
Speaker 2: Have a good one.
Speaker 4: What do I like about the Armstrong and Gutty show.
Speaker 4: I like the fact that you don't take calls.
Speaker 2: We'll see how.
Speaker 4: This little experiment goes, but I'm not optimistic. Don't let
Speaker 4: your meat.
Speaker 2: Loaf, don't let your hot dogs dand don't let your wristwatch. Okay,
Speaker 2: that made me incredibly uncomfortable? Me too, Why why did
Speaker 2: that make me thinky?
Speaker 1: Did you ask that question? All right, we have tomorrow
Speaker 1: you you come up with the question, Yeah, we'll try
Speaker 1: it again.
Speaker 2: Better than that.
Speaker 1: So I just I wanted something I knew people to
Speaker 1: respond to to get the first one. So this was
Speaker 1: in the New York Times the other day. It was
Speaker 1: an opinion piece, but a lot of fact built into it.
Speaker 1: The question was American men are getting worse at maintaining friendships.
Speaker 1: I think have I actually heard this before? Just heard
Speaker 1: people in real life mention it to me? Anyway, American
Speaker 1: men are getting worse at maintaining friendships. Is it a
Speaker 1: lack of time or energy or is it something else?
Speaker 1: And then getting into some of the details that this
Speaker 1: person writes, what I didn't know is that American men
Speaker 1: are getting significantly worse at friendship. A study in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four by the Survey Center on American Life found
Speaker 1: that only a quarter of men reported having six or
Speaker 1: more close friends. That seems like a lot to me.
Speaker 1: Pulling a similar question in nineteen ninety, Gallup had put
Speaker 1: this figure at over half of men had six or
Speaker 1: more close friends. The same Survey Center found that seventeen
Speaker 1: percent of men had zero close friends. That was a
Speaker 1: fivefold increase from nineteen ninety, the zero crowd went from well,
Speaker 1: it increased five times. Yeah, probably roughly three to seventeen.
Speaker 2: It's awful. I agree, six seems like a lot, but yeah,
Speaker 2: zero is too few.
Speaker 1: The lack of intimacy among male friends may seem normal
Speaker 1: because it's what we're accustomed to, but it isn't. Until
Speaker 1: the twentieth century, it was not uncommon for men in
Speaker 1: this country to openly hold hands, sit on each other's
Speaker 1: lapse in public party any.
Speaker 2: Wait, whoa whoa, Wait a minute, Yeah, that happened all
Speaker 2: the time. Wait a minute.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I believe this. Until the twentieth century,
Speaker 1: it was not uncommon for men in this country to
Speaker 1: openly hold hands, sit on each other laps in public parts,
Speaker 1: and write each other passionate, platonic love letters. You know
Speaker 1: my desire to befriend you is everlasting, Abraham Lincoln. I
Speaker 1: have wrote to his friend Joshua Speed and blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: Herman Melville, who wrote Moby Dick, once wrote to yes, Katie,
Speaker 1: you already have a comment. I can tell.
Speaker 5: I'm just gonna say, if this is true, you guys
Speaker 5: should bring that back each other's thing. I've ever heard
Speaker 5: in my life.
Speaker 2: Kill me?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, so is it? Herman? Melville once wrote
Speaker 1: to Daniel Hawthorne, what's he famous for? Red badge of courage?
Speaker 1: Not Stephen Crane? What Hawthorne? Anyway? The scarlet letter might
Speaker 1: be Crane, two famous authors from the eighteen hundreds. Melville
Speaker 1: wrote to Hawthorne that Hawthorne's heart beat in my ribs
Speaker 1: and mine in yours, and described their friendship as an
Speaker 1: friendship as an infinite fraternity of feeling. That is not
Speaker 1: the sort of thing I would write to a friend
Speaker 1: of the yod you see that game last night would
Speaker 1: be closer to it. Can I sit on your lap
Speaker 1: in the park?
Speaker 2: Hey, when we played golf, that was an infinite what
Speaker 2: did you say?
Speaker 1: Fraternity of feeling?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Today, dude, it was fun. Thanks for writing.
Speaker 1: I gotta know this, Katie. Who's Nathaniel Hawthorne? What did
Speaker 1: he write? Scarlet letter? Scarlettletter? Joe's right congratulates got it? Yes,
Speaker 1: today we may see these gestures as homo erotic, but
Speaker 1: men at the time, gay and straight talk to one
Speaker 1: another in this way. I don't know that we have
Speaker 1: to go back to holding hands as we walk down
Speaker 1: the street are sitting on each other's laps. But I
Speaker 1: don't know. You don't even see grown women sitting on
Speaker 1: each other's laps, So it's not a male thing. What
Speaker 1: the hell is that?
Speaker 2: Is there a lack of seating back in the day?
Speaker 1: Was that what was going on?
Speaker 5: You absolutely do see women sitting on each other's laps,
Speaker 5: you do?
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah all the time? Are not bars concerts? Okay? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: If there's only one share? Did they ever actidently kiss? Yes?
Speaker 1: All the time. It's crazy how it happened. Yes, Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: so I guess I'm wrong about that, all right, So
Speaker 1: it's kill don't know if that's got much to do
Speaker 1: with the friendship thing. Something tells me.
Speaker 2: There's a greater point here beyond the lap sitting and
Speaker 2: handholding though, right.
Speaker 1: Well, so for the I have a bunch of questions.
Speaker 1: Define good friend? Close friend? I feel like I need
Speaker 1: a definition on that. Oh, I think we all have
Speaker 1: one in our heads, don't we. Beyond a companion, you
Speaker 1: do stuff with.
Speaker 2: You, You talk about your lives and ups and downs
Speaker 2: in a sincere way. If you have to call on
Speaker 2: them to help you, even if it is inconvenient, expensive,
Speaker 2: or difficult. They'll come through for you.
Speaker 1: You know, how often you need to talk to them
Speaker 1: to All of that.
Speaker 2: Depends, I suppose, you know. It's it's funny this should
Speaker 2: come up. I missed the last hour of the show
Speaker 2: yesterday an unexcused absence, which will go on my permanent record.
Speaker 2: But I had the opportunity to reconnect with a friend
Speaker 2: who I had not seen in far too long, and
Speaker 2: because of his travel schedule and all, and I had
Speaker 2: to like go where he was. That something had to give,
Speaker 2: and so I missed an hour of the show, which
Speaker 2: I never would have done for years and years and years.
Speaker 2: But I because partly because I'm a little obsessive about
Speaker 2: this job, I have not prioritized friendships, and it has
Speaker 2: left me a less happy person. So it's funny that
Speaker 2: this should come up today.
Speaker 1: Do you think that's what people are doing? Men are
Speaker 1: doing they're working too much.
Speaker 2: Have have friends or other. Entertainment is always there. It's the
Speaker 2: same thing that keeps guys from going out and finding
Speaker 2: a girlfriend and you know, actually having a delightful physics.
Speaker 2: The emulations. They're so entertained, they're on their couch, they
Speaker 2: don't bother.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's That's kind of where I was going,
Speaker 1: is just thinking it's probably the same phenomenon of not
Speaker 1: needing to date or have sex. I mean, if you
Speaker 1: can overcome the strongest desire that all beasts have to
Speaker 1: have sex, then you can certainly give up, you know,
Speaker 1: hanging out with another dude now and talking. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: for whatever it is that you're doing instead, which I
Speaker 1: assume is I don't know, video games, porn, hanging out.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it.
Speaker 2: Is, but yeah, porn, video games. I think it all
Speaker 2: is under the awful, evil umbrella of disconnectedness. I've got
Speaker 2: another big fat article that I've got in my queue
Speaker 2: to read about. You know that topic again. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just undeniably at the root of so much that's
Speaker 2: going on right now in human society, particularly the Western world. Again,
Speaker 2: and we've made this point many times. Forgive us if
Speaker 2: you've heard it before, but the idea that catastrophic plunges
Speaker 2: in the birth rate are merely interesting is that would
Speaker 2: not apply if there were any beast on Earth that
Speaker 2: had a catastrophic drop in it's firth off.
Speaker 1: Remember when riientists would be obsessed with it. Remember we
Speaker 1: were getting so many news stories about bees because bees
Speaker 1: might go away? How about human beings going away? That
Speaker 1: seems like a big bees jack.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so I stupid. I ashamed of that I had.
Speaker 1: I had my guard up a little bit and still
Speaker 1: do for it just being a there's something wrong with
Speaker 1: men story When it's Homo sapiens. Clearly there's something wrong
Speaker 1: with human beings. We're not getting together at all. So
Speaker 1: turning to turn it into a why why are men
Speaker 1: so worried about sitting, you know, being seen holding hands
Speaker 1: that they don't have friends anymore? I just I feel
Speaker 1: like they're going for an angle there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a particularly New York Times guy. He's
Speaker 2: really ought to be able to hold hands and maybe
Speaker 2: kiss and stuff like that, because you know, traditional masculinity
Speaker 2: is stupid. It had a bit of a feel field.
Speaker 1: And that's why you don't have friends anymore, because you're
Speaker 1: too homophobic.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, somehow that isn't it.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I noticed that. It's different than
Speaker 1: it was decades ago, like nineteen ninety. I was a
Speaker 1: twenty five year old in nineteen ninety, so I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's either a crisis or it's not well. But again,
Speaker 1: there is a crisis that people in general don't hang
Speaker 1: out with other people period, So don't try to make
Speaker 1: it a there's something wrong with men's story.
Speaker 2: No, in my mind, no, no, I think it's the
Speaker 2: canary and the coal mine or the owl or something.
Speaker 2: I don't know. But because women have so much stronger,
Speaker 2: generally speaking, so much stronger and urge to build coalitions
Speaker 2: and social groups than men do, and it's different. I
Speaker 2: think you're seeing it first among men, especially because and
Speaker 2: it's funny we're talking about this in the context of
Speaker 2: the Democratic Party trying to understand why they've lost young
Speaker 2: men and how masculinity and traditional roles have been demonized,
Speaker 2: especially on the progressive left. Yeah, the things that brought
Speaker 2: men together traditionally for years and years. And it's funny
Speaker 2: the New York Times should suddenly be enamored with traditional
Speaker 2: male roles and the way males acted. A lot of
Speaker 2: that's gone.
Speaker 1: Yeah. One note before we take a break is just
Speaker 1: I was thinking at the gym, because everybody where is this.
Speaker 1: I'm sure this is true for you, Katie, the gym
Speaker 1: you go to, but everybody wears earbuds, So everybody's got earbuds.
Speaker 1: In and I go to the gym every single day,
Speaker 1: and I was just sitting there with my earbuds listening
Speaker 1: to a podcast, sitting there in between sets. The other
Speaker 1: day thinking I have been going to the same gym
Speaker 1: with the same people, oftentimes for what nine months now,
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody's name. I've never spoken a word
Speaker 1: to any of these people. You go back pre wearing earpieces.
Speaker 1: I think I would know everybody in here just because
Speaker 1: you couldn't help it. I mean you would. You couldn't
Speaker 1: help being in the same room with all those people
Speaker 1: in silence, or maybe with a with a jam box
Speaker 1: playing in the corner that you wouldn't have started up
Speaker 1: hot today. And yeah, I know, I was supposed to
Speaker 1: go golfing with some friends, but I got and they've
Speaker 1: got conversations starts now, you know, and something happens. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you get to know her and everybody know, but
Speaker 1: now nobody. I have never said a word to a
Speaker 1: single person at my gym. Maybe are you dog?
Speaker 2: The other day and our neighbor came out with her
Speaker 2: dog and I shouted a happy greeting, intending to converse
Speaker 2: that she had the earbuds going, and yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Which I do all the time. I'm not faulting her, no, no, no, yeah,
Speaker 1: it works both ways. But anytime I tried to say
Speaker 1: something like are you done here or whatever, so they
Speaker 1: always got to pause their device and what was that?
Speaker 1: So that might have something to do with it.
Speaker 6: Activists, including Greta Tumberg, the environmental activist, arrived at a
Speaker 6: port in Israel after they were detained by Israel's navy
Speaker 6: on board and aid ship found for Gaza. The activists
Speaker 6: group called the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, claims that the israelis
Speaker 6: quote unlawfully boarded their ship, which was full of baby
Speaker 6: formula and medical supplies, and quote confiscated the goods. Israel
Speaker 6: calls the ship and its passengers a quote selfie yacht,
Speaker 6: and they said the mission's sole purpose was publicity. Israel
Speaker 6: plans to quickly deport the detained activists back to their
Speaker 6: home countries.
Speaker 2: Israel also claims that the.
Speaker 6: Aid that wasn't quote consumed by the celebrities unquote will
Speaker 6: be sent to Gaza through humanitarian channels.
Speaker 2: That's good trolling right there by.
Speaker 1: The idf oh, the selfie yacht. It is obviously such
Speaker 1: a stunt because it's such a dent in, you know,
Speaker 1: in the whole thing. And this doesn't get reported a lot,
Speaker 1: But there have been millions of meals provided they're in Gaza,
Speaker 1: millions some of which are stolen by Hamas, but most
Speaker 1: of them are millions over the last several weeks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they had less than a single truckload of AID.
Speaker 2: More than twelve hundred AID trucks have entered Gaza from
Speaker 2: Israel within the past two weeks, et cetera. I think
Speaker 2: the selfie yacht is a good name for it. I
Speaker 2: love that they made these people watch October seventh footage
Speaker 2: as condition of their release the Freedom Flotilla. Do you
Speaker 2: think Hamas wants freedom?
Speaker 1: You morons?
Speaker 2: This is all wrong.
Speaker 1: Yes, you're right. Well, so that was back when she
Speaker 1: was more of a child. You can't blame her really
Speaker 1: for the you know, the lefty world elevated her to
Speaker 1: Pope's status when she was a child. You know, that
Speaker 1: would get to your that would go to your head.
Speaker 1: You would start to think, well, people really care what
Speaker 1: I think about stuff?
Speaker 2: She's unhinged, poor kid.
Speaker 1: Well it was that whole because she's a child. That
Speaker 1: makes it more true. Thing about climate change, there for
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee. Soda fans I say pop, so
Speaker 1: I'll say pop. Pop fans are freaking out over the
Speaker 1: limited return of the beloved, beloved Coca Cola flavor. I
Speaker 1: didn't know this was so beloved. Diet cherry coke is
Speaker 1: making a comeback. Anybody excited about that?
Speaker 2: No, I consume that way back in the day, but
Speaker 2: it sounds disgusting to me.
Speaker 1: Now, you don't drink pop. Oh, you're better than us.
Speaker 1: I don't drink pop either, correct, Yes, yes, Katie, do
Speaker 1: you drink pop rarely?
Speaker 5: But everything everything that cherry flavored tastes like cough syrup
Speaker 5: to me.
Speaker 1: That manufactured cherry flavor. I can't do it different red fruit.
Speaker 1: But did you know this is My son said this
Speaker 1: can't be true. He wanted a strawberry milkshake the other day.
Speaker 1: We were at In and Out and he says, they
Speaker 1: have the best strawberry milkshakes. And I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I've never had a strawberry milkshake, which added to the
Speaker 1: list of things Jack is never which I couldn't believe.
Speaker 1: And I know I've never had a story. It always
Speaker 1: sounded gross to me. But you know, I'm starting to
Speaker 1: think it might be delicious. This is this. I think
Speaker 1: about this because my son, Henry, the thirteen year old,
Speaker 1: had his first Ham sandwich the other day and loved it.
Speaker 1: It's not because I haven't like allowed him. I've been
Speaker 1: trying to encourage that for years, but he just thought
Speaker 1: Ham sounded awful. For some reason. He finally tried Ham
Speaker 1: and he said, Dad, Ham is fantastic. I said, yes, yes, yes, welcome.
Speaker 1: So he loves the Ham sandwich. And I'll bet in
Speaker 1: the last week I'm not exaggerating. I'd be shocked if
Speaker 1: he hasn't had twenty Ham sandwiches in the last week,
Speaker 1: two or three a day.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm a guy. I had my first
Speaker 1: BLT when I was forty five, and I remember coming
Speaker 1: on the air the next day and saying, the belt
Speaker 1: is amazing. I've never had one before.
Speaker 2: Have you checked out?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: A sun that or falling in love those are kind
Speaker 2: of nice too. Puppy is a nice Puppy.
Speaker 5: Working with you is so great, Jack, because every day
Speaker 5: it's like.
Speaker 2: Really, wow, I know, well, but.
Speaker 1: I have such wonders that await me. You know, other
Speaker 1: people have to I don't know, travel to BALI to
Speaker 1: have some new experience. All I got to do is apple, bacon,
Speaker 1: lettuce and tomato sandwich.
Speaker 2: Or try one of the three most popular flavors of
Speaker 2: milkshake hunters.
Speaker 1: Right now, I've never had a strawberry milkshake. I should
Speaker 1: try that. They're really good, That's what everybody says.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: They always sound it gross to me. And whenever you're
Speaker 1: offered one, there's also a chocolate or vanilla.
Speaker 2: But why the strawberry is a delightful berry universally enjoyed.
Speaker 1: But there's always a chocolate or vanilla option there, and
Speaker 1: I know I love that, So I just figured why
Speaker 1: I risk it?
Speaker 2: There you go?
Speaker 5: Well, when you go to In and Out, try the
Speaker 5: Neapolitan shake they mix all three?
Speaker 1: Is that one part of the secret menu. I don't
Speaker 1: like the secret menu thing. I don't. I don't like
Speaker 1: that at all. That for some reason that bothers me.
Speaker 1: Get over it. Try it elitism or something.