Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: and welcome to my new timeslot. The Carol Markowitz Show
Speaker 1: now airs Wednesdays and Fridays, so you can get this
Speaker 1: non political podcast, The Carol Markowitz Show on Wednesdays and Fridays,
Speaker 1: and then normally the political podcast I co host with
Speaker 1: Mary Katherine Ham every Tuesday and Thursday. The only day
Speaker 1: you don't get me is Monday. There was an article
Speaker 1: in The New York Times a few days ago that
Speaker 1: caused a stir. In it, a feminist playwright argues that
Speaker 1: women focused too much on wanting men to be breadwinners,
Speaker 1: and the men weren't succeeding at the same rate as
Speaker 1: women were forced to vote for Donald Trump. On My
Speaker 1: political show Normally yesterday we got into the politics of it,
Speaker 1: and how funny it is that The New York Times
Speaker 1: is blaming women for not wanting to settle for Trump selection.
Speaker 1: But here I want to talk about the culture part.
Speaker 1: I know this is supposed to be a pro woman article,
Speaker 1: but the writer ends up arguing that women should lower
Speaker 1: their standards. How is that pro women? She writes that
Speaker 1: women should quote let go of the male breadwinner. Norm
Speaker 1: do women want a man who can take care of them? Yes,
Speaker 1: of course, but what does that really mean. Once stat
Speaker 1: in the piece is that men like when women make
Speaker 1: up to forty percent of their pay, but no more so.
Speaker 1: It's also funny because they get into women wanting a provider,
Speaker 1: but then blame the men for wanting a woman that
Speaker 1: they could provide for as well. My husband sent me
Speaker 1: that stat and wrote, He'll set aside his pride and
Speaker 1: let me go to two hundred percent. Haha. But that's
Speaker 1: the thing. If I do make two hundred percent of
Speaker 1: what my husband makes, he won't be threatened by it
Speaker 1: and he won't be taking care of me any less.
Speaker 1: The question really is what happens if my two hundred
Speaker 1: percent goes to zero? Because what I think goes on
Speaker 1: said in studies on income and that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: is that in the back of the minds of many
Speaker 1: women is the idea that they may want to step
Speaker 1: away from their high earning role to be with their children.
Speaker 1: I know plenty of super type A doctors and lawyers
Speaker 1: who gave it all up to be with their kids.
Speaker 1: But you can only do that if your husband makes
Speaker 1: enough to support the family. But we don't talk about
Speaker 1: that because it's easier to have gender wars and talk
Speaker 1: about how men aren't thriving and how women have to
Speaker 1: tone down their ambition for them. But that's really not
Speaker 1: it at all, And to flip it to the man's perspective,
Speaker 1: I think the idea if a woman is making two
Speaker 1: hundred percent the man's salary is that she just won't
Speaker 1: be there. Very often men have a vision for how
Speaker 1: their family life will go if their women is a
Speaker 1: higher earner, and it might not be appealing to them.
Speaker 1: When my husband jokes about me making two hundred percent
Speaker 1: of his pay, he means and key being the same
Speaker 1: hours I currently have and travel and all the rest
Speaker 1: of that that I do. Now my workday every day
Speaker 1: is done by three pm, so I can pick up
Speaker 1: my kids from school and be with them. Not sure
Speaker 1: he should be counting on that two hundred percent anytime
Speaker 1: soon if he wants that to continue. One thing I
Speaker 1: talk about on this show is what we want versus
Speaker 1: what we're supposed to want. If you want to be
Speaker 1: a wife who will be home with the kids more
Speaker 1: often than not, yes, you will be looking for a
Speaker 1: man who makes more money than you. Do to support
Speaker 1: you and the family. But it takes admitting that to yourself,
Speaker 1: and then it takes not listening to the New York
Speaker 1: Times when they tell you to settle for less. Coming
Speaker 1: up my interview with a Jeet Pie. But first, the
Speaker 1: International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which is you a
Speaker 1: blessed beginning of the holiday season as you gather with
Speaker 1: your families, grateful for the blessings that God has given
Speaker 1: us all.
Speaker 2: But let's also remember.
Speaker 1: Those who are facing unbelievable hardship in need of food,
Speaker 1: f fellowship, and hope. That includes the people of Israel,
Speaker 1: who are threatened daily by attacks from enemies on all sides.
Speaker 1: And during these hard times, Israelis are thankful to the
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Speaker 1: consider standing with Israel and the Jewish people. Go to
Speaker 1: SUPPORTIFCJ dot org to make a gift now, that's support
Speaker 1: IFCJ dot org, or call to give at eight eight
Speaker 1: eight four eight eight IFCJ. That's eight eight eight four
Speaker 1: eight eight four three two five. Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Carol with Show on iHeartRadio. My guest today is a
Speaker 1: jeep Pie, former FCC chair and current partner at Searchlight Capital.
Speaker 3: So nice to have you on, Aje.
Speaker 4: Great to be with you, Carol, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3: I'm going to have to start.
Speaker 5: The first question is the obvious one. Why did you
Speaker 5: destroy the Internet? What was the problem? We liked the
Speaker 5: Internet and then you like took it away from us.
Speaker 3: Why.
Speaker 4: I know, I've always thought in life that one should
Speaker 4: set big goals and then really try your best to
Speaker 4: accomplish them. And for me, there was no bigger goal,
Speaker 4: you know, since the dawn of the commercial Internet in
Speaker 4: the nineteen nineties, then getting rid of it. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I did everything I could during my time in office
Speaker 4: to do so. But it was kind of funny looking
Speaker 4: back on it now, like all the hyperbolic stuff twenty seventeen,
Speaker 4: twenty eighte eight about how we were destroying it it's
Speaker 4: pretty obvious now in twenty twenty four that wasn't something
Speaker 4: I succeeded at.
Speaker 1: But you again and tried real hard, and you know,
Speaker 1: I just didn't quite get there. But seriously, looking back
Speaker 1: at that time, it was crazy.
Speaker 3: You getting threats, You had people coming to your home.
Speaker 2: The hysteria was like nothing I had seen before for
Speaker 2: an issue like that, like, you know, judicial appointments, maybe wars,
Speaker 2: an FCC chair.
Speaker 1: I don't even think I could name our FCC chair
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 3: I don't know who it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that was kind of a crazy time.
Speaker 4: It really was. And I was just talking about this
Speaker 4: with some of my former teammates a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 4: It's kind of odds and funny to look back on
Speaker 4: it now, but at the time it was pretty all consuming.
Speaker 4: As you pointed out, it was not pleasant for me
Speaker 4: and my family, and a couple of people went to
Speaker 4: jail as a result of it, one for threatening to
Speaker 4: murder my kids. You had to spend money, thousands of
Speaker 4: dollars on that security system from my house. It is
Speaker 4: down in the safe room. My personal email was act
Speaker 4: you're just going around. I had to have security, which
Speaker 4: is not my norm you know, like I like to
Speaker 4: be unadorned and you know, meet people and be friendly,
Speaker 4: and so it was just a really awful time for
Speaker 4: me personally and for our team generally. And yeah, no
Speaker 4: to me, at least now with their benefit of hindsight,
Speaker 4: it's pretty obvious now that there's sort of a paranoid
Speaker 4: style among a certain segment of the American populist that
Speaker 4: they'll pick a random issue that is typically chosen by
Speaker 4: some so called comedian or a grandstanding politician or a
Speaker 4: self interested so called a public interest group, and they'll
Speaker 4: just say, this is the apocalypse if we don't stop it,
Speaker 4: and you know, the world's going to end, and whoever
Speaker 4: is the leading the change in that regard is going
Speaker 4: to become the devil incarnate for that day or week
Speaker 4: or month or year. And so, you know, it passed
Speaker 4: on for me, and now it's on to other people.
Speaker 4: And I'm quite sure when the new administration takes over,
Speaker 4: they're going to be plenty more people who are the
Speaker 4: focus of their eyre. I would love to see a
Speaker 4: day when the public discourse actually focuses on the merits
Speaker 4: of an issue and try to look at soberly what
Speaker 4: the puts in takes are it's kind of that's so adorable.
Speaker 4: I know that's not going to happen, but you wouldn't
Speaker 4: expect it. Going from the Title one Title C classification
Speaker 4: of broadbanded Title one would like lead millions of people
Speaker 4: to lose their minds. That's so here we are.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you really miss it. Obviously.
Speaker 4: I don't miss that issue, but I do miss the
Speaker 4: work we did. We really got a lot done during
Speaker 4: those four years. And now it's kind of gratifying when
Speaker 4: I see people in airports or grocery stores and they
Speaker 4: recognize me, we'll act you point out something we did
Speaker 4: that has made their lives scatter. It's kind of nice
Speaker 4: in a way. It's not something you typically hear as
Speaker 4: a former.
Speaker 1: Federal regulator, right, And I don't feel like that's not
Speaker 1: typical at all.
Speaker 2: So I first, I mean, you were the FCC chair.
Speaker 3: I knew who you were, but I first heard you
Speaker 3: at the Reason dinner in New York.
Speaker 1: Now, people who don't know Reason is a libertarian magazine.
Speaker 1: Conservative but I love those crazy libertarians and I love
Speaker 1: going to their stuff. It's always the best parties. Libertarians
Speaker 1: really do host the best parties. So you spoke at
Speaker 1: that dinner and you were really funny, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I didn't know they do that in.
Speaker 3: The federal government. So how did you get into this world?
Speaker 1: What was your because you don't seem like the cutout,
Speaker 1: you know, bureaucrat guy.
Speaker 3: You seem like you're maybe destined for more.
Speaker 4: Well, you're very very kind. I think if you asked
Speaker 4: my mom, she would say I still haven't accomplished my
Speaker 4: true calling, which is to go to medical school and
Speaker 4: finally make something myself.
Speaker 1: As he got it Russian Indian culture sort of similar. Yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody should be a.
Speaker 4: Doctor exactly one hundred percent. Thanks for the kind of
Speaker 4: words about the reason dinner. That was such a great night,
Speaker 4: and I still remember that the aura in that place,
Speaker 4: the Art deco look of the place, and the good
Speaker 4: time that was had by all. And so I would
Speaker 4: like to think there's something more than my libations that
Speaker 4: made me funny. So I'm glad, but are good too, absolutely,
Speaker 4: But yeah, no, for me, it was really I sometimes
Speaker 4: joke that I'm the Forest Gump of the DC world.
Speaker 4: That I moved to Washington in nineteen ninety eight not
Speaker 4: really knowing anybody other than my lost roommate, and not
Speaker 4: really knowing what I wanted to do other than work
Speaker 4: at the Justice Department, which is the reason I moved
Speaker 4: here to work on antitrust in telecom M and A
Speaker 4: in the late nineties. Didn't have a plan beyond that,
Speaker 4: and just kept going from job to job and increasing
Speaker 4: levels of responsibility, increasing levels of interest to me and
Speaker 4: public sector in private sector, and just happened to be
Speaker 4: in the right place at the right time. In twenty eleven,
Speaker 4: when Senator McConnell's office called and said, Hey, would you
Speaker 4: been interested in interviewing for this position? There's going to
Speaker 4: be an opening, A lightning struck, And then of course
Speaker 4: lightning struck again in twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen when
Speaker 4: President Trump Donald Trump was elected president. Then he in January,
Speaker 4: once inaugurated, he designated to be as chairman of the Agency.
Speaker 3: Free It is medical school next right that this it's
Speaker 3: the table hair.
Speaker 4: But no, no, certainly not that. But I feel extraordinarily blessed,
Speaker 4: and to the point that I see you often voicing
Speaker 4: on Twitter and others too. There's something really unique about
Speaker 4: this country that there are things, there are paths like
Speaker 4: that that can happen if you can worked hard, if
Speaker 4: you believe, and if you just embrace that opportunity that
Speaker 4: America offers you, and it's there's nothing like it in
Speaker 4: the world. I know that family is far flong, from
Speaker 4: India to Australia to the UK. There's something special about
Speaker 4: the US, there absolutely is.
Speaker 5: So what advice would you give your sixteen year old
Speaker 5: self if you're you know, doing this all over again?
Speaker 4: My god? I mean, the first thing would be to
Speaker 4: try to address some of the aesthetic challenges that confronted
Speaker 4: me when I was sixteen, nineteen eighty nine. Mustache, braces,
Speaker 4: bushy hair, it was a total disaster. But overlooking that,
Speaker 4: I would say, you know, really just keep your nose
Speaker 4: to the grindstone and do the best you can and
Speaker 4: whatever the job is that you're doing. And I know
Speaker 4: it sounds mundane, but at that time, as kind of
Speaker 4: a scrawny Indian kid in rural Kansas in the late eighties,
Speaker 4: never even occurred to me that somebody like me could
Speaker 4: be in a position or to have a career path
Speaker 4: that I've had. It just seemed like that was so
Speaker 4: far out of reach, and my parents were really focused
Speaker 4: on the medical they're both doctors. They're just focus on
Speaker 4: very They had no idea. It never seemed to me
Speaker 4: that that was something that I could get into. And
Speaker 4: so just really work hard and have faith that when
Speaker 4: the time comes, the door of opportunity will open and
Speaker 4: you'll be ready to go through it. And I think
Speaker 4: a lot of kids now, especially now in the social
Speaker 4: media age, think, Okay, there's always going to be a
Speaker 4: very quick and easy path to think incremental and painful
Speaker 4: gains are just not worth it or not likely to
Speaker 4: yield things. I tend to be a believer in sort
Speaker 4: of the professional version of compound interests, that you know,
Speaker 4: if you keep building and adding to your resume and
Speaker 4: working hard and impressing your bosses, that pays major dividends
Speaker 4: at the end of the day.
Speaker 3: How did your family end up in Kansas?
Speaker 4: So there were both doctors. They in those days, I
Speaker 4: was born in Buffalo, that we moved to Canada for
Speaker 4: three years. And at the end of our time in Canada.
Speaker 4: In those days, medical journals advertised in the classified section
Speaker 4: at the back, we needed a doctor in this hospital.
Speaker 4: Here's the salary. Contact us for information. And they were
Speaker 4: looking for a hospital that needed both of their specialties,
Speaker 4: my dad's e relogius, my mom's nanciodyelgist. So they found
Speaker 4: three hospitals that qualified, went in Montana, went in Texas,
Speaker 4: and went in Kansas. And they flew to Kansas and
Speaker 4: I think it was late seventy seven to take a
Speaker 4: look at the town. And they were like, this is it.
Speaker 4: We don't even need to look at here in Texas.
Speaker 4: So they moved there, didn't know anybody. And I still
Speaker 4: remember very vividly moving to our new house and yeah,
Speaker 4: I'd been used to relatively big cities Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto,
Speaker 4: and I've never seen a place like this, and it
Speaker 4: at first it was kind of jarring, of course as
Speaker 4: a four or five year old kid, but it was
Speaker 4: the greatest decision they could have made. I think that
Speaker 4: was the perfect place for me and my sister to
Speaker 4: be at that time, especially given my personality the way
Speaker 4: I kind of developed. I know it sounds hard to believe,
Speaker 4: but I was really shy and awkward and in proverted
Speaker 4: it let me, I know, I know, but it really blessed.
Speaker 4: It was a blessing in disguise, and it had things like,
Speaker 4: you know, a really good debate program, and a fantastic
Speaker 4: orchestra teacher. I play violin and so that helped me develop.
Speaker 4: It was just a great, great place to grow up
Speaker 4: and just being out in the country. We live on
Speaker 4: a dirt road outside of town, so yeah, getting time
Speaker 4: to just walk around in the outdoors was fantastic.
Speaker 3: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: I've never been to Kansas. It's definitely somewhere that I've
Speaker 1: had on my list.
Speaker 5: I've heard just everybody who's ever been from there is
Speaker 5: like it is the greatest state. It just gets a
Speaker 5: kind of reputation for people defending it and like saying
Speaker 5: amazing things about it in a way I think.
Speaker 3: A lot of other states don't.
Speaker 4: Some people call it Kansas, some people call it's Guts Country.
Speaker 4: It's really really whichever one you prefer.
Speaker 1: You guys, you know you have a good football team.
Speaker 1: Although is do they play in Kansas or they playing Missouri.
Speaker 4: They technically play on the Missouri side, which more not
Speaker 4: just East coast, friends remind me. But it's right off
Speaker 4: the state line, and so yeah, and you're the best barbecue,
Speaker 4: I would argue it is on the Kansas side of
Speaker 4: the border. So it's yeah, the greater Kansas city metro area.
Speaker 4: I think Kansas claims for its own I got it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean Missouri like stole the name. They how
Speaker 1: do they even go around calling it Kansas City.
Speaker 4: It's ridiculous, It's yeah, no, And that's the thing I never,
Speaker 4: I never, like take any flak from some of these
Speaker 4: East Coasters and mock us red. Look, the Midwest is
Speaker 4: just a haven for greatness, and don't be jealous with
Speaker 4: all we accomplished. Just try to embrace it. And there's
Speaker 4: plenty of room on the bandwagon for you, right.
Speaker 3: I mean, especially now like the traffs Kelsey.
Speaker 1: You know, my daughter was a Travis kelce pan before
Speaker 1: she was a Taylor Swift fan, but now she's obviously
Speaker 1: extra like she's like, this is the greatest coupling of
Speaker 1: all time.
Speaker 4: So my daughter was a chief fan too, but it's
Speaker 4: definitely amped up ever since he started dating Taylor Swift.
Speaker 4: It's as incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they really have a good thing going more coming
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Speaker 3: So were your parents immigrants to the US they were so.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they moved here in nineteen seventy one. My dad
Speaker 4: came in May, my mom in December. Yeah. They in
Speaker 4: those days you had to as medical students who just graduated,
Speaker 4: get to redo your residency, and that's why they moved Canada.
Speaker 4: I was born in Buffalo, where they moved, but then
Speaker 4: a year later we moved to Kanada so they can
Speaker 4: do the residencies. And then once they were done there,
Speaker 4: they were just sick of Pierre Trudeau's socialism, moved right
Speaker 4: back to the US and be a state here ever since.
Speaker 4: And you will never find a more die hard group
Speaker 4: of American loving people than those like them. And I'm
Speaker 4: sure you've seen it in your family too.
Speaker 3: Sure, Yeah, I.
Speaker 5: Have a very similar story. My father was a doctor.
Speaker 5: We moved her from the Soviet Union. He had to
Speaker 5: redo all the exams, drove a cab like you know,
Speaker 5: I had to read your residency in the whole thing.
Speaker 4: It's incredible, isn't it. I'm sure you hear stories from
Speaker 4: him too. But because they know what the delta is
Speaker 4: between where they left and where they are, and nobody
Speaker 4: takes that for granted in that generation. So I wish
Speaker 4: we could do have that same ethos, but right, and
Speaker 4: I'm so used to it now, I think a lot
Speaker 4: of us do take it care.
Speaker 3: So how do you instill that in your kids? Because
Speaker 3: I think about that all the time.
Speaker 1: My kids live this magical American life and they've never
Speaker 1: known anything else, and they've never had, thankfully, any serious strife. Right,
Speaker 1: But if you never have strife, how do you raise
Speaker 1: kind of grateful children who become well functioning adults.
Speaker 4: It's hard, and I wouldn't benefit of being the d
Speaker 4: area is that I can tell them and show them
Speaker 4: a lot of these things. So we go to Arlington
Speaker 4: National Cemetery for example, Memorial Day, or we walk around
Speaker 4: the Washington Monument and talk about President Washington. Or when
Speaker 4: we're on the road, I've taken them to Independence Hall
Speaker 4: in Philadelphia and we've done the three hour tour where
Speaker 4: we just go through yea even small things. We were
Speaker 4: in Arizona for spring break this past year and after
Speaker 4: we hike Campbell back Mountain nine sister that we go
Speaker 4: to the Bury Goldwater Memorial and they're grousing like, oh,
Speaker 4: we're tired. It's odd, both like, no, You've got to
Speaker 4: go out and see this memorial and we just started
Speaker 4: talking about Goldwater's life. And so my hope is that
Speaker 4: they're not tuning out all of that because such an
Speaker 4: important aide. They're thirteen and eleven now, and I really
Speaker 4: want to make sure that before the onslaught of America
Speaker 4: slucks comes at them, that they have a core foundation
Speaker 4: of believing in what this country is. Even if we're
Speaker 4: imperfect at times, we are always seeking to build a
Speaker 4: more perfect union. And there's something special about that that
Speaker 4: I want them to to remember.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, if it makes you feel better. I
Speaker 1: went through an America sucks phase in my late teens.
Speaker 3: I was in Europe.
Speaker 1: They all said America sucks. I just agreed, but you know,
Speaker 1: very quickly I was like, wait, America's actually awesome. I
Speaker 1: don't know what you guys were talking about. So they
Speaker 1: you know, even if they do end up going through
Speaker 1: that phase, good chance they come back around because we
Speaker 1: are kind of amazing.
Speaker 3: And you know, facts are facts.
Speaker 4: Really absolutely, I know if you ever think about this,
Speaker 4: but we are the luckiest human of all the humans
Speaker 4: who have ever existed on this earth. We're living in
Speaker 4: We're in the top zero. Here's there's or zer a
Speaker 4: one percent of people who've ever had it as good
Speaker 4: as we have it, and yet somehow we always think
Speaker 4: that things are terrible and getting worse, and it's yeah,
Speaker 4: there's so many worse places to be than America in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty four. So I certainly want my kids to
Speaker 4: remember that, you know, yeah, a lot of people have
Speaker 4: had it a lot worse than.
Speaker 3: You, absolutely and still do.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: I mean again, you're right.
Speaker 1: We get to be the point zero zero zero one
Speaker 1: percent who greatest country in the history of you know,
Speaker 1: the world. I think this is so funny, you know,
Speaker 1: immigrant and child of immigrant having a conversation like America's
Speaker 1: the best.
Speaker 3: Yeah, America is the best, just the greatest. It's so good.
Speaker 1: And the thing is, like, I want my kids to
Speaker 1: be able to have the same conversation, but I don't
Speaker 1: think that they can.
Speaker 3: I just don't feel like the longer you get away.
Speaker 1: From the immigrant experience, the harder it gets to be
Speaker 1: so unabashedly patriotic. And I just see I even get it.
Speaker 5: From like my friends, like, oh, you're an immigrant, Like
Speaker 5: obviously you think America is the best ever, but it's
Speaker 5: it's tough to maintain.
Speaker 4: It really is isn't it. And so that's why I
Speaker 4: hope I wish there was some sort of in school,
Speaker 4: there was some sort of civic education that really was
Speaker 4: strong and not totally non partisan. Of course, no, you know,
Speaker 4: raw Raw this team or that, just teach them the
Speaker 4: very very basics. And we had that I don't know
Speaker 4: if you did when I was in what six or
Speaker 4: seventh grade, and you memorize the Preamble to the Constitution
Speaker 4: and things like that, and it was great. I remember
Speaker 4: once we an exercise we had to study the Bill
Speaker 4: of Rights and pick our favorite amendment and describe why
Speaker 4: and things like that may eyes at the time, but
Speaker 4: it's like, yeah, it was. It was a great experience.
Speaker 4: But yeah, no, I think I really hope my kids
Speaker 4: and all kids, right, we really embrace that. We're very
Speaker 4: very fortunate.
Speaker 5: Florida has a very good civic education program in schools.
Speaker 5: And so every episode, you know, I try to convince
Speaker 5: my guests to move to Florida.
Speaker 1: So if you're if you're interested in that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: you let me know.
Speaker 4: I have to say my firm has an office in Florida.
Speaker 4: Whenever I do calls with my colleagues down there. The
Speaker 4: sun is shining, they seem happy. Ah, everything seems good
Speaker 4: and warm and bright, and so I definitely see the appeal,
Speaker 4: especially when as now it seems to be getting dark
Speaker 4: here in Virginia at four thirty in the afternoon. I'll
Speaker 4: keep it.
Speaker 1: We get a little bit more daylight. I think we
Speaker 1: get dark around five thirty, So it's it's a little.
Speaker 4: Bit better here, but I'll take it. I'll take it.
Speaker 3: So what do you worry about?
Speaker 4: I worry about a lot. I know, first and foremost
Speaker 4: worry about my kids and where they're going to go
Speaker 4: and what they're going to end up doing. And some
Speaker 4: of it is linked to some of the technological trends.
Speaker 4: I see that in a world where things like AI
Speaker 4: are disrupting the workplace more than ever before, what are
Speaker 4: they going to find when they finish college or if
Speaker 4: they go to grad school, and what will they end
Speaker 4: up doing that's going to be productive. I do worry
Speaker 4: about the fraying of the bonds that used to hold
Speaker 4: Americans together. I know that the plural of anecdote is
Speaker 4: and data, but I'm always struck when I go to
Speaker 4: my high school Facebook page that this group of us
Speaker 4: who has been pretty tight since in some cases of
Speaker 4: the late seventies and never discussed politics all that often,
Speaker 4: at least in a serious way, is now starting to
Speaker 4: come apart because people are attacking each other over politics,
Speaker 4: and that is really unhealthy, I think for our country.
Speaker 4: And I'm sure you've seen it too over the last week,
Speaker 4: some people saying I'm going to cut off this family
Speaker 4: member and never speak to the game they voted for X.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's just they're many more important things than politics,
Speaker 4: which sounds odd for me to say, given where I
Speaker 4: had this.
Speaker 3: True, Yeah, it's so.
Speaker 4: I do worry about that quite a bit. And then yeah,
Speaker 4: I know, I just worry about all kinds of different
Speaker 4: things like that, the list, I know. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 4: know if that resonates with you or others out there,
Speaker 4: but it's just.
Speaker 1: So, Yeah, I absolutely I talk about that a lot
Speaker 1: on the show and my monologues about not praying with family.
Speaker 3: Especially because arguments with your.
Speaker 1: Family over Thanksgiving about politics are just not going to
Speaker 1: solve anything. No one is leaving Thanksgiving being like wow,
Speaker 1: that was a great point, you know, And now I'm
Speaker 1: more to change my perspective having respectful conversations and not
Speaker 1: allowing things to get kind of you know, Hayden is
Speaker 1: so important. I had a kind of a fractured family
Speaker 1: growing up, and just the idea that we would fall
Speaker 1: out over politics is hilarious because there's so many other
Speaker 1: things to fall out, exocus on those, you know, and
Speaker 1: ultimately we're like in a rock, you know, in a
Speaker 1: rock floating through space. Like, don't spend your time fighting
Speaker 1: with your mother about whatever the.
Speaker 3: Political agenda of the day. Everything is kind of more
Speaker 3: important on the ground.
Speaker 4: I couldn't agree more. And especially now as I'm reaching
Speaker 4: this age when my parents and their friends are getting
Speaker 4: older and I start to appreciate more the limited duration
Speaker 4: of our time a lot really underscores that your family
Speaker 4: is what matters the most, and right politics is the
Speaker 4: last thing you should be thinking about. Is being a
Speaker 4: litmus test for whether you're or not.
Speaker 1: And you're likely taking your political positions to protect your family,
Speaker 1: and then you're going to throw them away if they
Speaker 1: don't agree with your politics.
Speaker 3: Like that makes just no sense to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I have loved this conversation.
Speaker 5: You are hilarious, and I think you should go to
Speaker 5: medical school and be a really funny doctor. Leave us
Speaker 5: here with your best tip for my listeners on how
Speaker 5: they can improve their lives.
Speaker 4: That's a really good question. I would say, Gosh, there's
Speaker 4: so many things I could I could pick here. One
Speaker 4: is to try to read long form articles. This has
Speaker 4: become increasingly difficult for me in their kind of things
Speaker 4: like Twitter, when you read everything in two hundred and
Speaker 4: eighty character chunks. But what I found in recent years
Speaker 4: is really digging into long form articles or books ideally,
Speaker 4: but yeah, that's almost going.
Speaker 3: To say there's this really long form thing that we have.
Speaker 4: No, I've always given up hope on books, but I
Speaker 4: mean I read a lot of nonfiction books, which are great,
Speaker 4: but yeah, just try to really dig into something, especially
Speaker 4: if you might disagree with it. And I found that
Speaker 4: I've actually changed my views on some things that I
Speaker 4: thought were bedrock principles of mine, just by virtue of
Speaker 4: reading different arguments. And so that's something I think it
Speaker 4: would be really good for people to do. And I
Speaker 4: guess a corollary to that is, and I'm the worst
Speaker 4: violator of this rule, you try to spend less time
Speaker 4: just doing scrolling through social media.
Speaker 3: Yeah, tough, tough to do.
Speaker 4: It's very hard to do. And especially now when things
Speaker 4: like X are my primary source abuse, it's part to
Speaker 4: escape it. But I do find that on days when
Speaker 4: I'm just outside with my kids, playing with them, or
Speaker 4: hiking with them or whatever, just my mood is so
Speaker 4: much better than when I'm sitting my college neck crane
Speaker 4: over just scrutch. If someone said this and I'm going
Speaker 4: to like this tweet that Carol'll put out attacking that,
Speaker 4: and just I mean nothing against your social media company.
Speaker 3: I know I have a great feed, you know.
Speaker 4: It's just it's really I think we've become enmeshed in
Speaker 4: social media so much that our mood becomes co terminous
Speaker 4: with it, which is not healthy. So yeah, I guess
Speaker 4: that's Lily.
Speaker 3: Although you do have a very happy feed.
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, particularly scrolling through yours in
Speaker 1: the last few days, like getting getting ready for this interview,
Speaker 1: and you do highlight a lot of really positive stuff.
Speaker 3: I think you're doing it right, you know, well, thank you.
Speaker 4: I really appreciate that. Every now and then, my former
Speaker 4: chief of stuff for the SEC would tell me, Okay,
Speaker 4: do you really want to tweet this out because I
Speaker 4: just found out something quickly. I always have him on
Speaker 4: my shoulder down metaphorically.
Speaker 3: Do you really want to tweep this out all?
Speaker 4: So I try to keep it positive?
Speaker 3: Jeep pie Storry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 3: He is a jeeppie. He is fantastic.
Speaker 5: You should follow him anywhere that he posts thoughts.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, a jeep.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Carol for what you do.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us on The Carol Markowitz Show.
Speaker 3: Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.