Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: Our guest tonight is she actual discusts the inaugural Obama
Speaker 2: Foundation Democracy Forum and how he's training the next generation
Speaker 2: of young leaders in the US and around the world.
Speaker 2: Please welcome the forty fourth President of the United States,
Speaker 2: Barack Obama.
Speaker 3: I did that's thank you? Walk All. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3: I should have.
Speaker 1: I should I should have brought Michelle here so that
Speaker 1: she said this is this is how I'd like to
Speaker 1: be greeted when I come home.
Speaker 4: But I see like Michelle's star. Yea, mister President, Welcome
Speaker 4: to the Data Show.
Speaker 3: It is wonderful to say you.
Speaker 4: Do you miss your name?
Speaker 5: By the way, because everyone calls you mister president, But
Speaker 5: like I feel like I would like if people call
Speaker 5: me like mister daily, I would miss just being called Trevor.
Speaker 4: Do you miss your name something?
Speaker 1: Friends call me back? Okay, Okay, you should probably.
Speaker 4: Knew it, you know.
Speaker 3: I Welcome to the show.
Speaker 5: Let's start with I mean, the most pressing used the
Speaker 5: midterms just happened. You know, America votes to the houses,
Speaker 5: flipping Democrats have held onto the Senate. Many credit you
Speaker 5: for coming out and pushing out, you know, people to vote.
Speaker 5: I would love to know two parts to that. You know,
Speaker 5: Number one, do you do you feel pressure whenever you
Speaker 5: asked to come out. It's like in the movies when
Speaker 5: you know they need that home run and the bases
Speaker 5: are load and the team's losing and.
Speaker 4: They go, but Rock, we need you to hit this
Speaker 4: out in the park. We might lose everything. Do you
Speaker 4: feel the pressure? Does it get to you?
Speaker 5: And second of all, what does it say about the
Speaker 5: state of the Democratic Party that they always need you
Speaker 5: to come out and do that before an election?
Speaker 1: You look, I think that the reason we did better
Speaker 1: than expected it can be attributed to not me or
Speaker 1: you know, anything I did, But it has to do
Speaker 1: with a we recruited some excellent candidates.
Speaker 3: You look like good Wes.
Speaker 1: Moore and Maryland Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania. You look at
Speaker 1: our Senate candidates, you know a John Fetterman and Mark Kelly.
Speaker 1: You know they are committed, passionate, down to earth. They
Speaker 1: connect with people, and so I come in mainly to
Speaker 1: shine a spotlight on them.
Speaker 3: So that's point number one.
Speaker 1: And the second thing that happened in this midterm and
Speaker 1: we've seen it now for three elections. So I'm starting
Speaker 1: to feel pretty hopeful that this is a habit. Young
Speaker 1: people are voting and you've got higher It has been
Speaker 1: many times remarked how I got thumped during mid terms
Speaker 1: during my presidency, and part of it was that voting
Speaker 1: rates were really low. People In some sense, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of Democrats felt, all right, Obama's there will
Speaker 1: be okay. And you know, if it turns out that
Speaker 1: McConnell and Bayner and others suddenly have power, then that
Speaker 1: greatly restricts what a president can do. And I think
Speaker 1: that lesson was learned. Trump comes in and suddenly twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, and now this one, you've seen young people
Speaker 1: come in and they're typically voting at a rate of
Speaker 1: seventy to thirty, sixty to forty Democrat to Republican right,
Speaker 1: and that makes a huge difference, and so they're enthusiasm,
Speaker 1: I think is what really drove this election.
Speaker 4: I agree with that.
Speaker 5: In terms of the people who actually voted, but young
Speaker 5: people don't seem to be turning out as much.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 5: The ones who did vote votes as overwhelmingly Democrats. But
Speaker 5: then the number of young votes seems to be dwindling
Speaker 5: from election to election, and many young voters are saying
Speaker 5: they feel disillusioned. They feel like America hasn't made a
Speaker 5: way for them, they don't see a future for themselves.
Speaker 1: Well, look, what is always true is young people are
Speaker 1: going to vote at slightly lower rates than old people
Speaker 1: like me because they've got better things to do. Michelle
Speaker 1: and I are sitting at home, you know, eating dinner.
Speaker 1: We've kind of run out of things to say.
Speaker 4: Well, let's go vote.
Speaker 3: Young people.
Speaker 1: Malia and Sasha they're out, you know, they got all
Speaker 1: kinds of stuff. So so that's always going to be
Speaker 1: the case that young people's voting rates are a little
Speaker 1: bit lower. They are higher now than they were in
Speaker 1: the mid terms when I was president, and in such
Speaker 1: a polarized environment, one percent, if they're turning out at
Speaker 1: one percent instead of eighteen percent, makes a difference. That
Speaker 1: can make an enormous difference.
Speaker 5: Right when you look at that tiny difference, you still
Speaker 5: see the places where, I mean, people got into power
Speaker 5: despite the fact that they deny elections. I think Republicans
Speaker 5: got one hundred and seventy election deniers into Congress.
Speaker 4: People who don't believe in.
Speaker 5: The way America is running its elections, people who don't
Speaker 5: believe Joe Biden should be president, or they you know,
Speaker 5: they'll be vague about their answers. What do you think
Speaker 5: it says about American democracy that so many people are
Speaker 5: getting elected to these positions when they seem to dismiss
Speaker 5: the election itself.
Speaker 1: Well, the interesting thing is you notice election deniers don't
Speaker 1: deny their own election. Funny how that works. How many
Speaker 1: of them actually believe that some of the nonsense that
Speaker 1: circulates versus those who think it's convenient or it's a
Speaker 1: way to own the Libs, or it's a way to
Speaker 1: send a message or align themselves with That's hard to say.
Speaker 1: But what is important is that because of some really
Speaker 1: concerted efforts in a lot of important states, some of
Speaker 1: the most egregious, prominent, and potentially dangerous election deniers, they
Speaker 1: got thumped, They got beat and particularly in these Secretary
Speaker 1: of States races and in some cases governor's races, where
Speaker 1: in the next presidential election you could have somebody who
Speaker 1: could really do some damage there. I think we held
Speaker 1: the line. Now, what it does say, more broadly is
Speaker 1: the fact that not just here in the United States,
Speaker 1: but around the world, the fundamental precepts of democracy are
Speaker 1: being challenged. We're not having arguments about policy, but we're
Speaker 1: having arguments about the rules of the game, which previously
Speaker 1: we all agreed to. Right there was a notion that
Speaker 1: all right, we run aloft, whoever gets the most boats
Speaker 1: actually wins. The loser concedes, goes back and tries to
Speaker 1: do better next time. And what we've seen now, for
Speaker 1: a whole host of reasons, is a creeping sense that
Speaker 1: if the outcomes not what we want, then we can
Speaker 1: do whatever we want and say whatever we want in
Speaker 1: order for us to win. And that is profoundly dangerous.
Speaker 1: And as I said, it's not unique to the United States,
Speaker 1: but when it happens in the United States, it sends
Speaker 1: a signal all around the world that weakens democracy. And
Speaker 1: that's why I think us getting our house.
Speaker 5: In order is so important when you look at the
Speaker 5: discourse in the country as well and around the world.
Speaker 5: But again, I think you're correct in that America is
Speaker 5: a leader in what's happening right now.
Speaker 4: The discourse has become so toxic.
Speaker 5: Now you you were in every single state, you were
Speaker 5: meeting with people all the way from Iowa, you know,
Speaker 5: through to California, wherever you you were meeting people on
Speaker 5: the ground, they were listening to you. There was an
Speaker 5: openness even though people had different political affiliations. It seems
Speaker 5: like that has eroded over time. And I wonder what
Speaker 5: you make of that. Where do you think it's coming from?
Speaker 5: Do you think social media?
Speaker 4: Think? Do you think it's the tenor of politicians and
Speaker 4: the capitol.
Speaker 1: Two things the biggest change that's taking place. When I
Speaker 1: ran for let's say US Senate in Illinois, you go
Speaker 1: down state, that's the South. I mean, it's rural, it's conservative.
Speaker 1: There aren't a lot of folks who look like you
Speaker 1: or me. And certainly there are more Trevors than there
Speaker 1: are Baraques in these areas.
Speaker 3: But and so, and I'm driving around.
Speaker 1: I've got, you know, a map for young people here
Speaker 1: that it's this paper thing. You can't figure out how
Speaker 1: to fold it back, but it's how you find your
Speaker 1: way on roads. But I go into a town and
Speaker 1: it'd be seventy percent Republican. You know a lot of evangelicals,
Speaker 1: et cetera. But I could go to a diner or
Speaker 1: a VFW hall or county fair. I could go to
Speaker 1: the local newspaper and the owner there is conservative and
Speaker 1: he's got a bow tie and buzz cut. He's kind
Speaker 1: of skeptical about my ideas. But there wasn't the filter
Speaker 1: that had been created by Fox News or the media infrastructure,
Speaker 1: the sort of right wing conspiracy theory, you know, folks.
Speaker 1: And so they came at me with an open mind,
Speaker 1: and I could listen to them, and they could listen
Speaker 1: to me, and that at the end of the day
Speaker 1: they might say, well, he's a little liberal for our taste,
Speaker 1: but we have something in common. He talked about, you know,
Speaker 1: his mom getting sick. I remember my mom getting sick.
Speaker 1: You know. It seems like he loves his kids. I
Speaker 1: love my kids. There was some sense of connection, and
Speaker 1: I think the filter now has become so thick. It started,
Speaker 1: I think with Fox News and some of the other
Speaker 1: traditional media, and now with social media that's gotten turbocharged.
Speaker 1: If you go into those same communities now, they have
Speaker 1: so many preconceptions about what somebody like me believes, cares about, etc.
Speaker 1: That it's very hard to penetrate. So I think the
Speaker 1: answer is both thinking about information flow and media and
Speaker 1: how can we break through that information bubble that people
Speaker 1: are in. That requires, by the way, progressives to get
Speaker 1: out of their media bubble because we've got some preconceptions
Speaker 1: that I think create barriers as well. And then working
Speaker 1: a lot more locally because you notice that when you're
Speaker 1: on the ground doing stuff, it's harder to stereotype people.
Speaker 1: And the nationalization of our politics I think has been damaging.
Speaker 1: The more we can focus on grassroots efforts, real world
Speaker 1: rather than just virtual meetings conversations, that's what, over time,
Speaker 1: I think can help strengthen democracy. And that's part of
Speaker 1: what you know our MSIs has been at the foundation
Speaker 1: is with young leaders who are working on the ground,
Speaker 1: coming up with new ideas to create those connections.
Speaker 5: Well, I definitely want to speak to you about that.
Speaker 5: I want to speak to you about democracy worldwide. I
Speaker 5: want to speak to you about disinformation and what we
Speaker 5: can do to immunize ourselves from it. But we got
Speaker 5: to take a quick break. We'll be right back after
Speaker 5: this with more from President Roccabambo.
Speaker 4: Welcome back to the Daily Show.
Speaker 5: We are still here with President Barack Obama chattering democracy,
Speaker 5: disinformation and who is better looking between us.
Speaker 3: I want.
Speaker 4: Let's start with.
Speaker 1: Let's you know, the real question is how will he
Speaker 1: luck when he's sixty.
Speaker 3: Let's you want you know, that is attractive when they're
Speaker 3: in the.
Speaker 4: Come on, you know, I'm almost forty.
Speaker 1: That's speaking almost Yeah, almost, I doesn't cant almost doesn't.
Speaker 3: Let's a little bit.
Speaker 4: Let's talk about I plan to.
Speaker 5: Let's talk about your your your foundation, Let's talk about
Speaker 5: what you're doing. We see you out there, you know,
Speaker 5: we see you talking about democracy. The world isn't a
Speaker 5: really interesting place and that you know, a few years ago,
Speaker 5: I think the world was had like forty nine to
Speaker 5: fifty percent of the world was you know, you could
Speaker 5: say the countries were democrat democratic. You know, they had
Speaker 5: they had elect people won those elections, there was an
Speaker 5: exchange of power, etc. And now I think seventy percent
Speaker 5: of the world is living in a state where they
Speaker 5: either ruled where it's a complete, you know, autocracy, or
Speaker 5: it isn't a democracy. Two things again, One, why do
Speaker 5: you think the world has gotten there? You know, if
Speaker 5: democracy and freedom on things that everybody wishes to have,
Speaker 5: why does it seem like the world is moving away
Speaker 5: from that? And then secondly, what can we do or
Speaker 5: why should we then try to get back to this democracy?
Speaker 1: If you look at the trend lines. There are a
Speaker 1: bunch of factors. I think globalization, the global economy, disrupted
Speaker 1: a lot of traditional societies. What do you mean, Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: the global supply chain eliminates industries, eliminates jobst it increases
Speaker 1: the wealth gap, not only between countries but within countries. Right, So,
Speaker 1: and then modernity challenges people's traditional notions of religion and
Speaker 1: family and general roles. And you've got these culture clashes. Right,
Speaker 1: You're in some village in Yemen and suddenly your kid
Speaker 1: has a phone and it's looking at the Kardashians and right,
Speaker 1: and so you get this vertigo and what happened, What
Speaker 1: you've seen happen, I think in a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: places is essentially a pushback, a backlash to change that
Speaker 1: is happening too fast for their comfort. And when people
Speaker 1: are pushing back against change, then they're vulnerable to politicians
Speaker 1: who say, you know what, I can make things just
Speaker 1: like it was back then, when you were feeling more important,
Speaker 1: you had higher status. You know, you didn't have people
Speaker 1: who don't look like you suggesting somehow that you know
Speaker 1: you're doing something wrong, that somehow your traditions are flawed,
Speaker 1: and that appeal usually also involves saying the problems you're
Speaker 1: feeling are somebody else's fault. It's those folks there, it's
Speaker 1: the immigrants, it's gays, it's Hindus, it's Muslims, it's so
Speaker 1: forth and so.
Speaker 3: On, And.
Speaker 1: That then gets turbo charged with the information issues that
Speaker 1: we talked about. And look, democracy requires by definition, getting
Speaker 1: along with people who don't agree with you. And the
Speaker 1: other thing that happens is these countries are becoming less homogenious, right,
Speaker 1: And so you just had a right wing party in Sweden.
Speaker 1: We always used to Swedes right, they're so chill and democratic, right.
Speaker 1: But if you've got a whole bunch of immigrants coming in,
Speaker 1: suddenly people start getting nervous. And so part of what
Speaker 1: I think we have to do is to stand fast
Speaker 1: on the principles of equality and self governance and representation
Speaker 1: and everybody gets a seat at the table. But I
Speaker 1: think we have to also find a language and a story,
Speaker 1: a way of telling the story about how we can
Speaker 1: get together that does not threaten people who are uncomfortable
Speaker 1: with change as much. And that's going to be different
Speaker 1: for different countries. But I'll give you an example. There's
Speaker 1: a young leader who we worked with from Slovenia. She's
Speaker 1: part of our network, who was an advocate for doing
Speaker 1: something about domestic violence. The laws of that country didn't
Speaker 1: have domestic violence. It was a real problem. Ran a referendum,
Speaker 1: it got crushed, and we worked with her and suggested, well,
Speaker 1: maybe you want to talk to the people who didn't
Speaker 1: vote for it. So she goes out to these rural
Speaker 1: villages with these older, traditional rural, very religious, very conservative
Speaker 1: women and just interviewed them and listened to them and
Speaker 1: talk to them. And it's not that they agreed with
Speaker 1: domestic abuse, it's that they thought their way of life
Speaker 1: was being challenged. She had adapted their language. Ran the
Speaker 1: referendum again a few years later, and it passed right
Speaker 1: because she adopted the language that made them feel as if, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is not so much of a earthquake a huge
Speaker 1: change in how we lived, but it's rather affirming our
Speaker 1: best values. And I think us finding ways to do
Speaker 1: that in a consistent way will help.
Speaker 3: But it's hard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, look, for most of human history, democracy is a
Speaker 1: relatively recent vintage. It's a blip, Yeah tried, Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: nation state, race, sect you know, that's typically been how
Speaker 1: we organize things. And it's always easy to say us
Speaker 1: versus them, that's that's the easy politics. Well, what democracy
Speaker 1: demands is always a little bit more difficult.
Speaker 4: It also feels like, you know when when when you
Speaker 4: observe it.
Speaker 5: There are two elements that I that I often see is,
Speaker 5: on the one hand, storytelling. As you said, it's often
Speaker 5: easier to tell a story of blame. Yes, why are
Speaker 5: things going wrong because of that person? It's simple, there's
Speaker 5: the person, We've solved it. Why are things going wrong? Well,
Speaker 5: there's a confluence of factors, and you have this, and
Speaker 5: you have the economy. You got to understand this applied
Speaker 5: to That's not an answer for many people. And when
Speaker 5: you sell freedom, they got I don't. I can't eat freedom.
Speaker 5: I can't buy a house with freedom. I can't, you know.
Speaker 5: And then the second part is what you're talking about,
Speaker 5: you know, the US versus them, the who is and
Speaker 5: who isn't. Sometimes I think for many people it feels
Speaker 5: like it feels like the populists come in and just
Speaker 5: do you know whether it is in Brazil?
Speaker 4: You know whether it's b Ornaro, you know whether it's
Speaker 4: in America?
Speaker 5: With Trump where they go, they're just going to do
Speaker 5: and whether they do or don't actually do it, it feels
Speaker 5: like they're going to do. But then some people go, oh,
Speaker 5: but when we get the freedom people they want to
Speaker 5: talk and they want to discuss, and it seems incremental
Speaker 5: and it seems like things won't change. Is there a
Speaker 5: way to combat that because it is a feeling a
Speaker 5: lot of the time.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, Look, if you want to be a progressive,
Speaker 1: pluralless tolerant democrat, uh and I don't mean small D democrat,
Speaker 1: I don't mean democratic party, you know, you can't be
Speaker 1: a worse I mean you've got to have a story
Speaker 1: that with some swag. You've got to to be able
Speaker 1: to sell the future and deliver and also call out
Speaker 1: the fact that what those folks say they're gonna do,
Speaker 1: they almost never do, right, Because the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is is that when you look at we have
Speaker 1: experiments those countries that have the ability to harness everyone
Speaker 1: and everybody participates and there's consent and people feel like,
Speaker 1: all right, this is working for us versus places that
Speaker 1: are failed states. You know, the track record of democracy
Speaker 1: is pretty good, but you know, we have to be
Speaker 1: forceful in making our argument. And what is true is
Speaker 1: that you know, we can't just talk. We got to
Speaker 1: walk the walk, which is why you know we're having
Speaker 1: a form.
Speaker 3: In New York.
Speaker 1: One of the topics that we're talking about is inclusive capitalism.
Speaker 1: It people are when you think about, let's say, here
Speaker 1: in the United States, there's greater appeal of right wing
Speaker 1: populism in a lot of communities, rural communities that they're
Speaker 1: not wrong that the economy, the global economy, has shifted
Speaker 1: away from them to urban centers, even in their own states,
Speaker 1: and so the opportunities in Austin, Texas are different than
Speaker 1: in a rural community in East Texas, and people notice that.
Speaker 1: So we have to spend some time thinking about how
Speaker 1: are we delivering on behalf of people whose lives who
Speaker 1: used to work in a factory, who used to you know,
Speaker 1: farm for a living and have dignity and worth and
Speaker 1: stability and security in those lives, and now suddenly they
Speaker 1: don't feel as if they've got the lottery ticket in
Speaker 1: this in this existing economy. That does have to be addressed.
Speaker 1: And in places like Africa, you know right now you
Speaker 1: have let's say, China coming in heavy presence in a
Speaker 1: lot of these countries providing a lot of foreign aid,
Speaker 1: a lot of strings attached, a lot of Chinese workers
Speaker 1: coming in to build big buildings, et cetera. But if
Speaker 1: we're not there, if we're not helping build that road,
Speaker 1: if we're not there to you know, build that port,
Speaker 1: then naturally people are going to start thinking, well, maybe
Speaker 1: that's a that's a recipe for bettering my life, as
Speaker 1: opposed to you know, some flowery language but has nothing
Speaker 1: behind it.
Speaker 5: I wonder, though, do you think inclusive capitalism is somewhat
Speaker 5: of a paradox. You know, it feels like it's possible,
Speaker 5: it feels you think it's because it feels it feels like,
Speaker 5: I mean, capitalism is designed to extract as much wealth
Speaker 5: as possible from every single interaction that it can.
Speaker 1: Look you know, I mentioned ye know Sweden and some
Speaker 1: of the problems they're having because of immigration. On the
Speaker 1: other hand, you look at Scandinavian countries, they're capitalist countries
Speaker 1: and those work very well.
Speaker 5: But some people would argue that their foundation is more
Speaker 5: you know, socialists, and then they go with It's almost
Speaker 5: like they go with socialists first and then capitalism is
Speaker 5: our undercurrent.
Speaker 1: Not really you know, well, if you go there, essentially
Speaker 1: they people are taxed more and they have more common goods.
Speaker 1: But you're still going around at a job and you
Speaker 1: get paid and you know you can't It's not like
Speaker 1: you're going into the store just grabbing whatever you want
Speaker 1: walking out, fish man, you got to pay for it,
Speaker 1: right then? The guy the cash registers checking and did
Speaker 1: America profit here today?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 5: But the reason I'm asking that is because I and
Speaker 5: maybe it's the words that fail us sometimes. I often,
Speaker 5: you know, I'll talk to my friends about this. It's
Speaker 5: interesting that we sort of stopped. We went, oh, there's socialism,
Speaker 5: there's you know, there's this, there's the communism, this capital
Speaker 5: and then we just stopped, like this is it?
Speaker 4: This capitalism? And that's that.
Speaker 5: I sometimes wonder is there not something better? Is there
Speaker 5: something we could be?
Speaker 3: I think there is.
Speaker 4: I maybe I should be what is inclusive capitalism?
Speaker 1: The reason I just used, uh, let's say a Denmark
Speaker 1: is an example is not because it's going to work
Speaker 1: perfectly in India and the United States, et cetera. The
Speaker 1: point though, is is they they've got some blend, some mix,
Speaker 1: right right, There is an advantage in terms of efficiency
Speaker 1: and also freedom.
Speaker 3: To a market system.
Speaker 1: Okay, you have a control system. You know, some guy
Speaker 1: in an office is deciding how many potatoes we're going
Speaker 1: to grow this year. That usually doesn't work.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: The flip side of it is that what we've also
Speaker 1: learned is that if some guy in a boardroom is
Speaker 1: deciding I'm going to ravage the environment to do whatever
Speaker 1: I want, that doesn't work either. So we're going to
Speaker 1: have a blend of some sort. We want some collective
Speaker 1: decision making about the social good, and we want something
Speaker 1: that's sufficient and dynamic and allows us to exercise our
Speaker 1: innovation and freedom. And we don't need to worry so
Speaker 1: much about the labels as we do about being practical
Speaker 1: and thinking about what's working and what isn't. And this
Speaker 1: is going back to the information issues. This is part
Speaker 1: of why to me, one of the biggest challenges of
Speaker 1: democracy is not just the mechanics of elections or the
Speaker 1: independent judiciary. Those things are all important, but this is
Speaker 1: why this information and media issue is so important, because
Speaker 1: what we've seen here in the United States and elsewhere
Speaker 1: is an abandonment of a commitment to facts and reason
Speaker 1: and logic and you know, stuff that.
Speaker 3: Is useful.
Speaker 1: And necessary, necessary, And if we can't have a debate
Speaker 1: based on facts, then we can't get to better solutions. Right,
Speaker 1: we start talking in slogans and nonsense and there's no
Speaker 1: reality check. We just make stuff up. I didn't lose
Speaker 1: an election. You know there's something broken over there, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't and it's impervious to fects. So so part
Speaker 1: of what I think, why I've been spending a lot
Speaker 1: of time thinking about this disinformation issue, is how do
Speaker 1: we in how we teach our kids in you know,
Speaker 1: either industry standards and or regulation of these social media platforms.
Speaker 1: How do we get back to the point where you
Speaker 1: can have opinions We all do, but facts matter, and
Speaker 1: proof matters, and our capacity to debate and say, you
Speaker 1: know what, if we do things this way, it might
Speaker 1: work better, and then you may disagree, but at least
Speaker 1: we agree to a set of rules whereby we can
Speaker 1: arrive at a better solution.
Speaker 5: You think it's possible to get to that place when
Speaker 5: almost half, let's just talk about the United States, almost
Speaker 5: half the country says, well, what are those rules and
Speaker 5: why are you even deciding them?
Speaker 4: And why are we having this conversation?
Speaker 5: You are not even effect, how do you I honestly mean,
Speaker 5: how do you get to that place with people.
Speaker 3: You can We're not.
Speaker 1: The interesting thing is, even in those places that are
Speaker 1: just inundated with what I consider to be nonsense and
Speaker 1: lies and distortions, when people operate in their own life lives,
Speaker 1: they're still operating on facts right on their jobs. When
Speaker 1: they're coaching their kids the league or their soccer game
Speaker 1: or football game, they don't let the ref just kind
Speaker 1: of say, you know what, this time, we're just going
Speaker 1: to get five points for the touchdown. It's like wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: folks on the sidelines say nope, it's six points for
Speaker 1: the touchdown, and then you get the extra point. And
Speaker 1: so we abide by all kinds of facts in our
Speaker 1: own lives. It's just this national story that is being
Speaker 1: told where we allow lives to be told, and we
Speaker 1: accept them mainly because it turns out that when we
Speaker 1: tell a story about the other side, it makes us
Speaker 1: feel better. It's like, ah, you know, Trevor, he's a jackass.
Speaker 1: You should see and you happen to be sitting there,
Speaker 1: and and and so we enjoyed the performative aspects of
Speaker 1: and stuff up and part of that is because we
Speaker 1: don't think there are consequences to it. Now, what we've
Speaker 1: learned from the election of my successor from the pandemic,
Speaker 1: from the insurrection is actually the stories we tell do matter,
Speaker 1: and you know, having some baseline of sticking to the
Speaker 1: truth when you're telling stories about our country, about policy,
Speaker 1: but also about the other side, that matters. And I
Speaker 1: like to think that part of what happened to this
Speaker 1: election is people said, Okay, you know what, some of
Speaker 1: this stuff's getting a little too crazy. It turns out
Speaker 1: that there is a you know, a majority of country
Speaker 1: that does prefer normal not crazy. And that's and that's
Speaker 1: that's a basis for hope.
Speaker 4: I've told you for hours about this. I know you
Speaker 4: don't have the time.
Speaker 5: It has been wonderful having you here, though it's also
Speaker 5: been wonderful seeing you know what what you're getting up to,
Speaker 5: because after you you know, we have the pleasure of
Speaker 5: interviewing you at the White House just before you left,
Speaker 5: and then afterwards I saw you kite surfing and I, uh.
Speaker 4: I loved it.
Speaker 5: I loved it, by the way, great technique. But I
Speaker 5: often wonders, like, you know, what, what is mister President
Speaker 5: going to do next where does he go? And you know,
Speaker 5: you started producing shows about issues around the world, and
Speaker 5: now you've got this forum. I wondered if maybe you know,
Speaker 5: you have any tips for me as you know, because
Speaker 5: well because because you, I mean you and I like
Speaker 5: we're basically, you know, we're basically saying.
Speaker 3: You know, you know, I think.
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna have to, uh really focus on
Speaker 1: relearning things like driving, pressing your own elevator buttons.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 1: When was the last time you heard the drag players
Speaker 1: on streets.
Speaker 4: Where I go? I take myself. Yeah, we have very
Speaker 4: you you you don't like, you're very like you know.
Speaker 5: That's like I said, you missed the president forever. You
Speaker 5: have secret service forever.
Speaker 1: That's correct, I do, and and it, uh, I get
Speaker 1: to keep I still am in a bubble. I thought
Speaker 1: I thought I could escape it quick story. Since we're
Speaker 1: in New York. I used to say, Oh, you know what,
Speaker 1: once I get out of here, I'm going to just
Speaker 1: be able to like walk through Central Park and it's
Speaker 1: going to be you know, and I'll just put like
Speaker 1: on a baseball cap and it's going to be fine.
Speaker 1: And yeah, Michelle's all like, yeah, okay, good luck with that.
Speaker 1: And the first time I tried it, I got like
Speaker 1: half a block and then suddenly there was this swan
Speaker 1: and their phones and traffic stopping and.
Speaker 3: It didn't work.
Speaker 1: So so you know, uh, I guess what I would
Speaker 1: say though, is uh that you will be missed here.
Speaker 1: But and uh but but but we were talking backstage. Uh,
Speaker 1: you're already following. One piece of advice that I would
Speaker 1: have is leave when your poll numbers are high. That
Speaker 1: that's how they'll remember you.
Speaker 4: So I'm actually yeah, I'm excited. I'm gonna you know,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go on the road. Yes, I mean I've
Speaker 4: said this to you before.
Speaker 5: You know the way it's the White House correspond instead
Speaker 5: and Georgia when you're doing the speak, you're a very
Speaker 5: funny guy.
Speaker 3: So you want me to open for you? I got
Speaker 3: some shows in Chicago.
Speaker 4: It doesn't you know what, not even opened. I wouldn't
Speaker 4: there we could you know, you can't open for me.
Speaker 4: You you still missed the president banter.
Speaker 5: We just do like a banter at headlining tour. You
Speaker 5: know what I mean, We'll call it haff and half,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I like that we can do it, we can do it.
Speaker 3: Welcome President Morocco. Com Everybody episode.
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