The Daily Show: Ears Edition

John Favreau and Tommy Vietor, they're founders of Crooked Media, host of Pod Save America, authors of Democracy or Else, How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps, and Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator and author of The Moment.

They're founders of Crooked Media, host of Pod Save America, authors of Democracy or Else, How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps, and Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator and author of The Moment.

My new book, Save America, published by Winning Team Publishing.

Director of polling at Harvard's Kennedy School's Institute of Politics and he's the author of Fight, how Gen Z is channeling their fear and passion to save America.

John, thank you for having me.

You have spoken to Gen Z, many of them here tonight, by the way.

John Della Volpe, Harvard IOP polling director and author of "Fight: How Gen Z is Channeling Their Fear and Passion to Save America," joins Jon to discuss the Harvard Youth Poll and how economic stresses have been hard on Gen Z.

The director of polling at Harvard's Kennedy School's Institute of Politics and he's the author of Fight, how Gen Z is channeling their fear and passion to save America.

John.

Thank you for having me.

Gen Z.

conservatives wanted to ban Harry Potter for promoting witchcraft

You know, like conservatives wanted to ban Harry Potter for promoting witchcraft.

Liberals want to ban Huckleberry Finn for using the N-word

Liberals want to ban Huckleberry Finn for using the N-word.

One of the central things I discovered was that we are garbage at making babies. Just the entire species.

our pregnancies and births and postpartum recoveries are harder and longer and more prone to dangerous and crippling and sometimes murdery complications than they are in most any other primate.

It's not that it is our destiny to make babies to be fulfilled or something.

It's more like it's how we do it, particularly as a species is so bad that there are many fail safes. There are many things built into kind of brace for impact.

And they're essentially the same thing for a long time. And what becomes the clitoris in a typical female... Oh, I just got a tingle when you said clitoris. My clitoris went, whoa! Shut up!

One of the central things I discovered was that we are garbage at making babies. Just the entire species.

It's not that it is our destiny to make babies to be fulfilled or something. It wasn't mine.

It's more like it's how we do it particularly as a species is so bad that there are many fail safes. There are many things built into kind of brace for impact, yeah?

The lack of studying endo, well that is just sexism actually, unfortunately, and we're just starting to come back around and really start to model how that's working.

And they're essentially the same thing for a long time. And what becomes the clitoris in a typical female?

I latched onto it, slid into his DMs and asked if I could do a young reader's version because it's important that young people have the tools.

So creating a text like How to Be a Young Anti-Racist, we're giving them information where they're learning these definitions, they're learning what racism actually is.

The beauty of How to Be an Antiracist, the adult book, was that you get Ibram's whole story, where he is very open about the racist ideas that he was holding.

Like your book beat my book in the New York Times bestsellers list. Sorry.

I'll be a young anti-racist and the Young Anti-Racist World Book are available now.

the great depression, the great recession, the great resignation, The Great Gatsby. I mean like the dude got shot in a swimming pool like a little bitch. What's great about that?

On the very night Snap Benefits ended, Trump threw a Great Gatsby-themed ode to decadence and hedonism that even Jeffrey Epstein would have thought was a little over the top.

Did you even read The Great Gatsby? I only read the Cliff Notes.

The Great Gatsby is a cautionary tale. And it's the theme for your- What did you just think? Oh, it's a great book about a rich guy who bangs married ladies. No! Partially, yes, but the-

And by the way, if you already read A War on Woke and Woke Inc., you're really not going to learn anything from woke warriors.

And by the way, if you already read A War on Woke and Woke Inc... you're really not going to learn anything from Woke Warriors.

And by the way, if you already read A War on Woke and Woke Inc., you're really not going to learn anything from Woke Warriors.

And by the way, if you already read A War on Woke and Woke Inc... you're really not going to learn anything from Woke Warriors.

It features a little boy and his sister Sally. And while the little boy is a narrator, Sally doesn't get to talk at all. She doesn't get to do anything. She just follows her brother around like she's the grim reaper and he's Joe Biden. The only action she does get to do is get tangled up in a kite string. So she's not allowed to talk and she's clumsy.

Alright, I've got one that they can't possibly have a problem with. Hop on Pop. What? Disrespectful to parents? You gotta be kidding me.

I think for many people is seen as not just something funny, not just a story that's interesting, but in many ways a cathartic exploration of how we see the relationships that we have with many of our parents, our caregivers, whoever it was in our world because you wrote a book entitled I'm Glad My Mom Died and it is a massive hit.

I definitely don't hate my mom. I think she was a really complicated and nuanced person and I try to kind of articulate her to the best of my ability in all of her many shades and colors.

getting to the place where I was finally glad and relieved that she was dead, you know, it took me so long to be able to accept that reality.

I felt even if they did, it was a message worth sharing. I really, I really mean that.

I'm Glad My Mom Died is available now wherever you buy a book.

It is a massive hit. So two questions. One, did you hate your mom? And two, does everybody?

I definitely don't hate my mom. I think she was a really complicated and nuanced person and I try to kind of articulate her to the best of my ability in all of her many shades and colors.

getting to the place where I was finally glad and relieved that she was dead, you know, it took me so long to be able to accept that reality.

I think it's way more common than anyone would care to admit. I know just from my experience of going into auditions countless times I'd have like 103 feet for my mom would be having me chug Gatorade. I'd be walking into like pretend to be a homeless child which is just already so kind of messed up as it is.

With my mom, I haven't gotten to a place of forgiveness. I was trying to get to a place of forgiveness for so long. In therapy, I would sort of plead almost with my therapist like, why am I not able to get to this place? What is...what's wrong with me that I'm not able to forgive my mom for this abuse? Why am I so terrible that I can't get to that place?

Guest tonight is a global economics correspondent for The New York Times and author of the new book, How the World Ran Out of Everything, Inside the Global Supply Chain. Please welcome Peter Goodman.

How the World Ran Out of Everything. During COVID, we ran out of toilet paper.

I'm sorry to say the vulnerabilities are still there.

I think what you painted the picture so well in here was that it's American business executives right that are saying we can make more money.

Look How the World Ran Out of Everything is available now.

How the World Ran Out of Everything during covid. We ran out of toilet paper. Sure did. Baby formula, computer chips. We had cars that were ready to run, but no computer chips. What happened?

Why don't we just make this shit here?

We could make more things here and there's a movement to make more things here. And that's helpful. It's in the margins. But we're not going back to self-sufficiency.

These are decisions, you know, the hollowing out of our factory towns that are not made in Beijing. These are decisions made in boardrooms in New York and Seattle and Congress.

Look How the World Ran Out of Everything is available now. Peter Goodman, everybody.

It's all in Ayn Rand's famous book, Atlas Puttage.

Really?

That's...

That's my literate crowd.

I read that in college, actually.

It's all in Ein Rein's famous book, Atlas Puttage.

It's corruption. Really? That's that's my literate crowd.

I read that in college, actually. This is corruption in plain sight.

We enjoyed your book very much and also were thoroughly horrified by all of it, obviously. But so many Americans felt kind of blindsided when Roe v. Wade was overturned, and yet you walk us through every step of the way. This was not an overnight shocking decision.

This was decades in the making.

This was a moral commitment for them, the greatest moral calling of their lives. And they were not successful until about 10 years ago, something changed. And we've taken to calling it the, this was the last decade, the final decade of the Roe era in American life.

I think one of the most interesting things we found in our book was the role that abortion plays. Of course, abortion is about the right to terminate a pregnancy and when a woman can legally do that. But it also has this great symbolism in American life.

I guess you articulate that Roe has taken on such a larger... Yeah. It's not just one thing anymore. Was that always the case or is there... Can you pinpoint when that really started to pick up steam?

At the New York Times and co-authors of the bestselling book, The Fall of Roe, The Rise of a New America. Please welcome Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer.

We enjoyed your book very much and also we're thoroughly horrified by all of it, obviously.

For 50 years, the anti-abortion movement tried so hard, right? They made it their life's work, generational commitment to try to overturn Roe. This was a moral commitment for them, the greatest moral calling of their lives. And they were not successful until about 10 years ago, something changed and we've taken to calling it the, this was the last decade, the final decade of the Roe era in American life.

I think there's also this broader effort and what they effectively want to do is overturn elements of the sexual revolution and return the family, the American family to a more traditional time.

This is a really different kind of story. This is, you know, a majority of America supported Roe for decades. But these activists on the right were, these conservative Christian activists, were able to seize controls of these levers of power and change the culture effectively through force.

One of the nicknames I've earned over the last few years is Big Gretch.

It is even the meanest person might have pretty eyes.

They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I think it's showing up. You know, I know that I don't have every person's lived experience. I'm learning when I'm asking, what can I do that'll make your life better?

Fix the damn roads was the initial response and that's why I'm so focused on this.

One of the nicknames I've earned over the last few years is big grudge.

during covid, you know when donald trump turned his ire to me because I observe there was not a national strategy when he told us. He's not a shipping clerk. We need to go find masks ourselves

Someone on my staff said you know that people are starting to call you big grudge, right? And I was like, What is this?

On page two, the second page of your book you talk about your grandmother nino, and how she said always look for the positive in people and I love this quote: It is even the meanest person might have pretty eyes.

I love the audio version as well. There's a lot of humor and it just comes naturally for you.

Hunter S Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas he's really the one who Cemented the myth of adrenochrome as a drug because he turned it into this kind of immortality drug

For me. I love that book top 10 book in my world It's a great book

For me. I love that book top 10 book in my world It's a great book But that is sort of the the central the beginning that and Huxley's book is where the first time we actually hear the term

It's basically like the real housewives of Washington, D.C.

Shouldn't the American people see that then?

It's one of the things that we tried to do in this book is that there's not some clean separation between the personalities of politics and the feuds that you're talking about and the real housewives-style drama and the policy of it.

And if people in Washington were more upfront about that, I think first of all they would confirm a whole lot of what the American people sort of suspect about their politicians. But secondly, I think it would be possible maybe for the country to have a more honest conversation about what's wrong here if we weren't all putting on a different face.

So this book exposes a lot.

It's basically like the real housewives of Washington, D.C.

It's one of the things that we believe so passionately about political journalism. It's one of the things that we tried to do in this book is that there's not some clean separation between the personalities of politics and the fuge that you're talking about and the real housewives style drama and the policy of it.

the people you're talking to, the sources you're working with will be more candid with you and will share more information. It's not just audio. It is documents. It is notes that they're taking in real time. It is their personal views and recollections.

These are the people running the country?

You can't BS a BS or I think they kind of both know that the other isn't totally on the level.

His latest book is called New Cold War's China's Rise, Russia's Invasion and America's Struggle to Defend the West.

So, New Cold War's... David, first of all, thank you. It's nice to see you again.

And the fundamental argument of the book is that we believed somehow, we deluded ourselves, John, into believing that China and Russia, each for their own different reasons, would like to sign up to the Western world.

And that was supposed to be the end of history because, right, the competition was over.

So, the book is sort of a warning ahead to what these next 20 or 30 years are going to look like because this is not a world in which these New Cold Wars are going to end sometime soon.

His latest book is called "New Cold Wars' China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West.

The fundamental argument in the book is that we believed somehow, we deluded ourselves into believing that China and Russia, each for their own different reasons, would like to sign up to the western world.

Francis Fukuyama said it's the end of history. Western liberalism is triumphant, and we can all just skate on the glorious booty that we get from it.

Putin isn't trying to recreate the Soviet Union. He thinks the guys who ran the Soviet Union were idiots.

The book is sort of a warning ahead to what these next 20 or 30 years are gonna look like because this is not a world in which these New Cold Wars are gonna end sometime soon they are gonna be the dominant theme of the next 20, 30, 40 years long after Putin and Xi are gone and long after Joe Biden and Donald Trump are gone.

There's great book by Neil Postman I'm using ourselves to death that talks a lot about how the mediums affect the message the eventual of the printing press affected Not only the way information was spread but the way we think about information the way we process information and then you suddenly have televsion come out and out the way in which we communicate and the way we process information is Very different than the way we used to with the printing press

There's great book by Neil Postman I'm using ourselves to death that talks a lot about how the mediums affect the message the eventual of the printing press affected Not only the way information was spread but the way we think about information the way we process information and then you suddenly have televsion come out and out the way in which we communicate and the way we process information is Very different than the way we used to with the printing press

He also co-authored a new book about the making of the Eric Andre show called Dumb Ideas.

Did you feel like writing this book was a prank on yourself?

Yeah, yeah. I'm not a book writer. I'm not a book reader. The last book I read was Where's Waldo.

He also coauthored a new book about the making of the Eric Andre show called Dumb Ideas.

Did you feel like writing this book was a prank on yourself? Yeah. I'm not a book writer. I'm not a book reader.

It's a tremendous amount of work. You know, yeah, this is not this is just work. But this is you just go back to your say. This is like we have a deadline. We had to have this written and out here.

Seventy pesos. Seventy pesos. Yeah. That's not going to get you very far in Spain.