The Daily Show: Ears Edition

My guest tonight, he is a Protestant minister, social activist, Yale Divinity School professor whose latest book is called White Poverty, How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy. Please welcome to the show, Reverend Dr. William Barber.

So, and my people are free people in Eastern North Carolina. There are a lot of those communities. And so in some ways, this book is me. And so to deny any part of my reality would be to deny myself.

The way we measure poverty in this country is not only a lie, but I can say on this show, it's a damn lie.

We got plenty more room for that.

We say we use official poverty measure says that poverty, if you make above $13,000 a year, you're not poor.

The way we measure poverty in this country is not only a lie, but I can say on this show, it's a damn lie.

This book says we need to face all of our poor and recognize that we have something, what Desmond, there's a author out of Princeton called poverty by America, not the poverty in America, but the particular kind of poverty by America that's unnecessary and abolishable because it makes no sense in the richest nation in the world.

And let's not look at this through the prism of race. Let's look at it through class.

We have to face this. We have to look at it.

White Poverty available now.

I loved your book. It's exceptional. It's so funny and honest and brave. I was very leisurely enjoying it over the last two weeks. And then I got to that point in the book where I only had like 20 pages left, and I started to panic that it was almost over. So I saved the rest for Mother's Day.

It's a hard one. Leave me alone. I'm still in the shower. The water's not running.

The book is, it's really for every woman who's aging and has secret desires and anxieties about those desires and is wondering what's going on with her body and her marriage and just her whole self.

I started writing the book when I was 45, but probably at like 40, I was looking for that book. Or honestly, I would have taken a pamphlet. I was that desperate.

You, I love that you have described this as a coming of age story. And it made me wonder like why do all coming of age stories have to be about teenagers? Why can't a coming of age story be about a woman in the middle of her life?

It's really for every woman who's aging and has secret desires and anxieties about those desires and is wondering what's going on with her body and her marriage and just her whole self.

I mean, you, I don't know what you were doing there in the bathroom. I wrote it for you.

And I mean, all I could figure was like, oh, what's coming must be so humiliating that it's like out of respect to us that we don't talk about it.

You can be one or the other. Explain what a parker is and what a driver is and which are you?

I mean, you don't end up here if you're not a parker.

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.

I love this book. This book is so funny and searing.

I mean, to me, she was, you know, basically the worst person I could write a book about, which really appealed to me.

But she also just had like a crazy sex life, which I found, you know, she was essentially in an open relationship at the end of her, you know, in her 60s. She was having an affair with like a man 25 years younger than her. So like Ayn Rand was basically a polyamorous. Like she had a polycule, which I think people sort of like don't know about her.

I think your book sort of looks at what it means to be selfish. It sort of examines narcissism. Like what to you is interesting about the idea of narcissism?

The Book of Ayn is available now.

I love this book. This book is so funny and searing.

I had always considered her the gateway drug for bad husbands to quit their jobs and start online stock trading.

She's so contentious within the culture but I had recently watched a documentary about her when I started thinking about this and to be honest, I mean, her ideas are provocative and difficult but she also just had like a crazy sex life which I found, you know, she was essentially in an open relationship at the end of her, you know, in her 60s. She was having an affair with like a man 25 years younger than her.

I'm always, in a sense, trying to cancel myself as I'm writing.

I edit the crap out of my books.

Our guest tonight is a professor of economics and public policy and the author of the best-selling book The Deficit Myth.

She's featured in the new documentary Finding the Money.

I'll guest tonight is a professor of economics and public policy and the author of the best selling book, The Deficit Myth.

The government can increase its deficit to do things like feed hungry kids, tackle the climate crisis, fix crumbling infrastructure.

We can't afford it. We have this deficit or we have this national debt. Where are you going to find the money to do these things?

The money is created when the government spends. Congress authorizes the spending and if the votes are there, the money is there. The thing you have to watch out for is inflation.

It's not about finding the money. The money is created when the government spends. Congress authorizes the spending and if the votes are there, the money is there. The thing you have to watch out for is inflation.

Please welcome Kyle Shaker.

I like this book. I'll tell you why.

I've been a grumpy asshole about culture for years now. And this book validates so many of the things I've been telling other people. Tell me, how am I right? How do algorithms flatten culture? How has everything gotten worse in the past decade or something?

Filter World is available now. Kyle Chaka.

I like seeing the sticky notes, by the way.

I actually, you mentioned here which I think is a good example of it, and part of what you ruminate on is this generic coffee shop. Tell me about that.

It's like, I hate social media as much as anybody.

I think it affects everything.

I think something... I think it's Taylor Swift.

This book, There's Always This Year.

It's been said, Ball is Life.

But you have written a book about basketball, poetry, meditation, music, LeBron.

My hope was to write a book where anyone could see their own interest in it.

The floater, the most romantic shot in the game when done right.

It's like walking to a body of water, looking in and seeing what you most want reflected back to you.

The floater, the most romantic shot in the game when done right. It's almost obsessed with drama, almost pausing in the air to make sure you get its good side before it begins to twirl downward.

There's always next year. But the significance of There's Always This Year. It presents a real urgency.

Nostalgia for nostalgia's sake is great but there's a difference between say a porch conversation and a page conversation. A page conversation has to use nostalgia as a way to move your actual present life forward I think.

And when I do those things, I'm unstoppable for a little while.

the core question at the heart of the some of us is why does it seem like we can't have nice things in America nice things like not like flying cars but nice things like universal health care and paid family leave and childcare in a great school in every neighborhood

it's this zero-sum story this old story that says that progress for people of color has to come at the expense of white people that we can't all sort of share in well-being that we're in this competition for dominance and status

The Sum of Us is about we all do better when we all do better

the hopeful part...they want to hear that we can fix this and I truly believe that everything about the world that we see now all the dysfunction it's because people made decisions to make the world as it is and so people can make better decisions

through collective action people coming together across lines of race finding solidarity recognizing that we all do better when we all do better and that we all want big beautiful public pools we can really win and take on powerful interests but we can't if we're divided

The Sum of Us is about how race intersects with economic inequality. And it became an instant New York Times bestseller.

And now you've done a book that's for school children, for middle schoolers.

We really didn't dumb it down. That was the lesson I got.

The core question at the heart of The Sum of Us is why does it seem like we can't have nice things in America?

And The Sum of Us is about we all do better when we all do better, which is what Paul Wallstone used to say.

Ronnie Chang had caught my eye when he did a piece on The Daily Show that mocked a racist Fox News segment about Chinatown. I love that he was smart and hilarious and clearly wasn't trying to please anybody.

When we were casting, I just wanted to cast Asians that I wanted to be like or had the confidence to be like and you had all of it.

I feel like, you know, the American dream still exists. Yes, it wasn't maybe not what our parents said it was and maybe not what we hoped it would be. But the idea of it still exists. And we have the power to control what that narrative will be in the future.

And I really wanted in the book to show any young dreamer out there or old dreamer when you're up, you're on the cusp of chasing your dream, that it can happen and that it's hard and that there's ups and downs and it's not overnight. But if you just keep walking, you'll end up at some place.

I also think that everyone has a camera now. Everyone's a creator. Everyone has on their phones or editing for Tik Tok or whatever it may be. And there's that's power. That is a very powerful thing in your hand.

Ronnie Chang had caught my eye when he did a piece on The Daily Show that mocked a racist Fox News segment about Chinatown. I love that he was smart and hilarious and clearly wasn't trying to please anybody.

I really want in the book to show any young dreamer out there or old dreamer when you're up, you're on the cusp of chasing your dream, that it can happen and that it's hard and that there's ups and downs and is not overnight. But if you just keep walking, you'll end up at some place.

But the idea of it still exists. And we have the power to control what that narrative will be in the future.

And I think that's necessary in this world right now.

And I think that's necessary in this world right now. I mean, I did read this and it's a paper. I did read it. I was looking for my name. I was the whole time. It's already at the end. So I had to read the whole book before I could find out what you said about me.

And Brittany Cooper is a professor at Rutgers University and author of Eloquent Rage.

Betty Medsker then wrote a book in 2014 and that's what that is The Burglary.

My own document revealed that every black student at Swarthmore College was under FBI surveillance.

Betty Medsker then wrote a book in 2014. And that's what that is, The Burglary.

40% of the case files that the crew stole dealt with surveillance of legal political activity.

One document revealed that every black student at Swarthmore College was under FBI surveillance.

He craves attention and I explore this in the book.

He just constantly wants to hold the media's gaze and he wants to see if he can sell you on a version of himself and he wants to get what he would call a good story, literally those would be the words, a good story and then you write about him accurately and he says that it's unfair.

He is uniquely focused on the paper and I'm just the person who has covered him more often than not.

I think there is a preserved an amber quality to him. You just described that about how all of his cultural touchstones are in the 1980s which is when he was reaching his height.

This book is neither one of those and I think explains exactly who he is.

He's a subject who I cover and I have covered a number of politicians over the last 26 years. I covered Hillary Clinton, I covered Mike Bloomberg, I covered Rudy Giuliani, I covered Donald Trump...

Trump needs the media in a way that's unlike any other politician I've ever seen. He craves attention and I explore this in the book.

He just constantly wants to hold the media's gaze and he wants to see if he can sell you on a version of himself that is a good story. Literally, those would be the words, a good story.

But basically, he's obsessed with The New York Times. That is a lot of what this is about.

I think that he has exposed aspects of how America has broken and fueled and exploited that for his own gain.

So you've written about social media companies and how they monetize rage.

It's like cheaper to be shitty, right?

Like it is in their financial best interest to just keep poisoning the river until someone makes them stop

It's all designed to make you feel like the best person possible and that everyone else is a dumb piece of shit.

I think that as long as these companies, the primary way they make their money is for us to spend as much time as possible on them. And the best way, as you were saying in that segment for us, for them to ensure that we spend as much time on them as possible is through all of the emotions that make us feel as bad as possible.

She's here to talk about social media companies monetizing hate and how we can use the Internet as a force for good. Please welcome Gia Tolentino.

So you've written about social media companies and how they monetize rage.

You take us through each year of the Obama presidency and it's interesting how the book starts from a place of hope excitement.

You know you talk about how you went with your partner you bought food you were chasing was like oh black times baby it was good things.

And then as the presidency unfolds we go through this journey with you.

That's really powerful because you take us to a place where in many ways you argue that Obama's presidency and black leadership in any way shape or form is in some way contributing to white supremacy which is very complicated argument.

It's the reaction to that. It's always the reaction to the ordinariness to the bourgeoisness to the middle classness of you know normal everyday black people and how well that accords with what this country claims to value.

You take us through each year of the Obama presidency. And it's interesting how the book starts from a place of hope, excitement.

You know, you talk about how you went with your partner. You bought food, you were just like, oh, black times, baby. It was good thing.

It's the reaction to that. It's always the reaction to the ordinaryness, to the bushworn, the middle classness of, you know, normal everyday. Black people are how well that accords with what this country claims the value.

But this goes back to, you know, justification to slavery and black folks who present themselves, you know, in a particular way as undermining that. You know, it's always a threat to the thinking about white supremacy.

I think that's why folks were so offended by Obama. You know, like they couldn't grasp that he was actually black and so they became this whole other mythos that sprung up around them, most, you know, specifically in this birth or the reason thing.

Aldous Huxley was the first one to talk about it as a drug

He talked about it in doors of perception

Aldous Huxley was the first one to talk about it as a drug

He talked about it in doors of perception and then 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

So this short story collection is from the soil of Dirty Computer. My album that came out in 2018 and I released a film with that.

And I knew I had more to say. Set down the pandemic 2020.

And I finally say that there's more. And you know, I was on mushrooms and I just came up with all of these thought experiments, you know, where I was like, what if there was this black woman, she was a memory keeper of this city.

What does that mean when you want to fall in love? But you know everybody's secrets. That's the first story. What does that mean?

I wrote The Memory Librarian with her. And I wrote this entire collection, each short story, I partnered with a writer that I...

she's here to talk about her debut book, "The Memory Librarian"

it's already got starred reviews

this short story collection is from the soil of Dirty Computer, my album that came out in 2018

I knew I had more to say

The Memory Librarian will be available April 19th

The Path Made Clear, discovering your life's direction and purpose.

I love your book so much.

When you look at successful people, you have talked to everyone in the world who is successful. What would you say is the one common characteristic that you find gets people to where they want to go?

The most important question is the people get to where they want to go because they know where they want to go.

The reason why most people have such chaotic lives is because they're living in chaos in their head. And as soon as you get clear, it clears up.

The most important question you can ever ask yourself is, what do I really want?

And the answer to that, once you can establish for yourself what the answer to that is and have everything you do, every choice you make move you in the direction of what you say your vision is.

The reason why most people have such chaotic lives is because they're living in chaos in their head. And as soon as you get clear, it clears up.

I'm only going to use my work, this platform as a force for good. Yes, I will cause no harm.

I feel like I feel like you're creating that for others now because now we're seeing Oprah Winfrey, the executive producer. We're seeing the own network. We're seeing your work with creators.

No it's basically like thinking that more food is always good for you you know there is a limit to how much food the body needs and in a similar way there is a limit to how much food for the thought for food for the mind the mind needs which is information and the same way that most there is so much junk food out there there is also so much junk information out there and we basically need to go on an information diet.

the most misunderstood and abused word in the english language today is the word excited people think that excited means happy like they i meet you and i say oh i'm so excited to meet you yeah that's what happened with us backstage yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah but excited excited doesn't mean happy it doesn't mean excited means that all your nervous system is in your brain is like fuzzing it's on and it's good to be excited sometime but if you keep an organic being an animal excited all the time it eventually collapses and dies

if we if for every dollar and every minute that we invest in developing artificial intelligence we also invest in exploring and developing our own minds we will be okay but if we put all our bets on the technology on the ais and neglect to develop ourselves this is very bad news for humanity

It's basically like thinking that more food is always good for you. There is a limit to how much food the body needs. And in a similar way, there is a limit to how much food for the mind the mind needs, which is information.

And the same way that most, there is so much junk food out there, there is also so much junk information out there. And we basically need to go on an information diet.

The most important thing to understand about AI is that AI is not a tool. It is an agent. It's the first technology in history that can make decisions and invent new ideas by itself.

The kind of existential threat we are facing is not this Hollywood scenario of a single computer trying to take over the world. It's millions of AI bureaucrats in the banks, in the governments, in the armies, in the schools making decisions about us.

If we if for every dollar and every minute that we invest in developing artificial intelligence, we also invest in exploring and developing our own minds, it will be OK. But if we put all our bets on the technology, on the AIs and neglect to develop ourselves, this is very bad news for humanity.

There's a reason that my book is called No Visible Bruises, right? It's like so, you know, there's emotional abuse, there's psychological abuse and there's coercive behavior.

there's a reason that my book is called No Visible Bruises.

For example, I covered the Orlando Pulse trial that Omar Matine killed 49 people in that nightclub shooting. And he had been married twice.

So it was his second marriage when the shooting happened. And with both women, he had been incredibly controlling.

he moved her 3,000 miles across the country where she had no one. She was from California and he moved her to Florida. She didn't drive and he wouldn't let her drive. So she was really isolated. She didn't have her name on the bank accounts and he would give her money to spend for her and her son every week.

You don't have to physically be violent to control somebody.

I love like racial justice books because I feel like I can relate to that a lot. Like The Hate U Give or like Blended.

Not good because like I feel like you need to... This is what's happening in the world right now. Like racial injustice is happening right now and these books are about racial injustice. So people need to learn about it if they want to do something about it.

There are exactly 89 instances of the F word and the hate you give. I counted on my Kindle.