Did Iran 'Surrender?' - podcast episode cover

Did Iran 'Surrender?'

Jun 19, 202648 min
--:--
--:--
Download Metacast podcast app
Listen to this episode in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Summary

This episode delves into the breaking news of US-Iran peace talks being called off, analyzing the diplomatic and financial implications of the proposed deal and widespread Republican criticism. It also examines the ongoing issues with the DC reflecting pool renovation and the controversy surrounding JD Vance's defense of the administration's Christian values. Finally, the discussion explores the evolving media landscape, with Jay Leno's assertion that podcasts like Joe Rogan's are the new standard for talk shows.

Episode description

Despite receiving bipartisan criticism to the MOU he signed, President Trump claims Iran "surrendered" to the US ... There's something blue peeling from the bottom of DC's newly painted reflecting pool ... Confronted by a conservative Catholic podcaster, JD Vance defends the administrations values. 

 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Intro / Opening

S

This episode is brought to you by L'Oreal Group. Beauty is a powerful force that That's why L'Oreal Group has built a business that is inclusive at its heart with 100% of its brands championing diversity. With 25,000 professional opportunities for people under 30 worldwide and 54% of leading positions held by women. That helps L'Oreal Group create the best beauty products for all people. Visit L'Oreal.com to learn more.

🎵 Music

Initial News and Administration Values

B

Did Iran surrender to the US? Well, President Trump thinks so.

X

The MOU doesn't look like unconditional surrender.

J

Well, it really probably is unconditional surrender.

D

Yes.

B

There's something blue peeling from the bottom of DC's newly painted reflecting pool. So are these new signs of deep trouble in the shallow green water?

]

Thank you.

W

Let's let's be honest, the tone of the administration is not consistently a Christian tone.

B

JD Vance, confronted by a conservative Catholic podcaster, the vice president defending the administration's values. And is Joe Rogan the new Johnny Carson, what America's most popular podcaster has the The King of Late Night never did.

🎵 Music

R

Well maybe that's true, and if so they don't get any of the benefits of the bargain. But isn't it worth trying?

US-Iran Peace Talks Halted

B

The US and Iran giving peace a chance, and yet just one day into it could it already be on shaky ground? Good morning everybody, I'm Audie Cornish and here's where we begin this breaking news. The peace talks planned today between the US and Iran now called off.

At least according to the Swiss Foreign Minister. Vice President J.D. Vance was set to travel to Switzerland last night, but the White House said his plans changed last minute due to unresolved logistics surrounding the next phase of negotiation. This morning, the naval blockade has been lifted, the Strait of Hormuz is technically open, the clock is ticking, 60 days to get a final deal. President Trump is raising some eyebrows, however, with this.

X

You had talked about you only wanted unconditional surrender. And well the MOU doesn't look like unconditional surrender.

J

Well, it really probably is unconditional surrender.

Diplomatic Analysis of Iran Deal

B

Joining me now Kurt Volker, former US Ambassador to NATO. Thank you for being here this morning. First, I want to just start with the uh talks being called off today. Is that bad news? How should we read that?

E

Well, good morning, Audie. And uh look, I think we had to expect a lot of bumps in the road because this is a very vague and um very partial agreement. Uh it is meant to be the start of negotiations rather than the end of negotiations. And secondly, it did not bind Israel to anything. It did not bind Hezbollah to anything. So Iran how now has a card to play, which is peace in Lebanon.

And if Hezbolla attacks Israel, which apparently happened, uh then Israel responds, they can claim, Okay, there's no peace, so we don't have to do anything. So there's a lot to play out here.

B

Yes, you just mentioned that uh last night at least sixteen people actually uh were killed after Israeli air strike. Vice President Vance had pretty strong words for members of the Israeli government who have criticized the agreement with Iran and him. Here's what he had to say.

R

I don't think BB himself has actually criticized the deal because I think he's maybe a little bit more familiar with the details of what's in it. But yeah, you've seen people in their system, Ben Gavir and Smotrich, who've attacked the deal. And I guess my response to them would be What is your exact proposal? And, you know, you're you're a country of of nine million people. You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.

B

As a diplomat, how do you hear how he's defending this?

E

Well, th there are several things that come to mind. F number one is that it is an Iranian objective to sow divisions between the United States and Israel. And hearing that kind of comment from the Vice President about Israel is fulfilling that Iranian objective of sowing those kinds of divisions. Secondly, if you're Israel, you're living in a very dangerous neighborhood, and what you need to do is provide security for your people.

and that rests on deterring what are very real threats to your people. So Israel is focused on that. We may not agree with them as to how they go about that. We may think sometimes they are too aggressive in pursuing that, but that is what the Israeli Prime Minister's job is. and he's not going to be deterred from that. We have to look at that reality. And then thirdly, um, w we shouldn't make an assumption that because there is now this memorandum of understanding with Iran

that everything that is not in the memorandum of understanding is somehow better than it was before. Iran funds, supplies, trains, supports terrorist networks all over the world, especially those that are targeting Israel. And we have to recognize that that is real.

Financial and Political Criticisms of Iran Deal

B

Yeah, and I think a lot of people do, frankly. Um, the people who are loudest in their complaints about this deal are Republicans. Um and we're just hearing so many senators saying similar things even to what you might hear from those loud voices in Israel. I want to play for you a a series of voices.

H

Everything I've heard about.

Y

I do have concerns that certain aspects of this deal might be a step in the wrong way.

K

I have to know where that money is coming from because I don't think my constituents are going to be really happy about it if that's all US taxpayer dollars.

\

History demonstrates that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is an exceptionally bad idea.

B

So people are kind of up in arms about many things, but specifically the$300 billion potential reconstruction and development fund, which is supposed to be an investment fund. Uh and Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, he's a top Republican. He was saying, look, I get that it's not funded by taxpayer dollars, but it's still a payoff. And he's saying it's a payoff that would make Obama's twenty fifteen deal look like a pittance by comparison.

E

Yes, that's exactly right. That's the one part of this thing that is the most mystifying at all. Why there's any money changing hands here, whether it's tax.

B

They're arguing that money isn't changing hands.

E

Well, um, they say that, but then you look and you say sanctions are being lifted, Iran is getting oil sales, there will be a reconstruction fund that the Gulf States will organize, that's money. And uh what what you have to look at here is where we were in January was Iran's nuclear program had been bombed and substantially destroyed, and the Gulf of Him was was open. Now we had four months of war that we paid for and

the nuclear program remains destroyed and we are still in an open ended negotiation about where that goes. And there is some Iranian insistence that they have some control over the state of uh the Strait of or moves. Okay, but maybe it was worth it to get out of the military conflict, to get our forces home, to bring down uh oil prices, to restore some stability in the global economy. You can argue, okay, we can go back and reset.

But then you add on top of that, and Iran gets access to hundreds of billions of dollars. That's kind of inexplicable.

B

Yeah, none of this sounds like what the president said, unconditional surrender by Iran.

E

Well, um i uh I know that's what he wants to say, but the Iranian regime is still in place. They are setting terms over the Strait of Hormuz. They are setting terms for future negotiations about nuclear weapons, and as we saw today, they're also insisting on demands about Lebanon that is mentioned in the agreement but has no binding effect on Israel or Hezbollah.

B

That's Ambassador Kurt Volcker. Thank you so much for your time.

E

Thank you.

B

Coming up on CNN this morning, accused killer Luigi Mangioni. Changes his mind, his lawyers announcing another new defense strategy this week. And the reflecting pool here on the National Mall got a multi million dollar makeover. But does President Trump's fix now need Some fixing. Plus, today is Juneteenth and the Juneteenth flag is now flying over Wisconsin's state capitol for the seventh year in a row. We'll be right back.

🎵 Music

N

Finding a source you can trust for weather forecasts should be easy, right? This is CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam, thrilled to introduce the new CNN weather app. Check your daily forecast to plan your day, the weekly forecast to see what's on the way, and prepare for any major storm with our robust real-time video coverage. The app is stunning, and if you're a weather nerd like me, You'll love our in-depth stories and the photo of the day. Download the CNN weather app on iOS today.

🎵 Music

The DC Reflecting Pool Problems

I

I am your host, Michael Ian Black. We're talking about Trump's big boy birthday party with fighting. Iran gives Trump his real present. Or did they? Plus the Kennedy Center returned to its former glory just in time to get defiled by Bill Maher. Have I got news for your ears? Amazon Music, wherever you get your podcast, even better, you can watch the vodcast on Spotify.

🎵 Music

D

It looks bad, I just agree. Green slime.

L

Pouring all that.

G

Peroxide into it clearly didn't help. I feel for the ducks.

B

All right, we could call it Watergate, a new issue after the multi-million dollar renovation of the reflecting pool. Now we're going to show you this blue material peeling off the bottom. It's not clear yet if that's paint or sealant. And earlier this week, crews were working on the algae turning the pool green. Despite these images, the U.S. Department of the Interior insists that the water is crystal clear.

And that crews are just vacuuming up dead algae, quote, just like the destroyed Iranian navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf. Again, that's the word from the Department of the Interior in charge of the reflecting pool. Joining me now in the group chat, Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Michael Warren, politics editor for the dispatch, and Lulu Garcia Navarro, CNN contributor and host of the New York Times podcast, The Interview.

All right. Um so both the reflecting pool and the Iran war are a win. Which if you were here for my interview with Ambassador Volcker just now, I'm not sure that's a great analogy. But I want to point out at least two companies worked on this project. Um and public records show that an Ohio company, Greenwater Services, was hired to install the in the filtration system and a Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings to resurface it.

Um and even though Greenwater Services didn't respond to our request for comment, the owner of Atlantic Industrial Coatings did. They said, um, Eddie Wood, he's who owns Atlantic Industrial Coatings. Um said the images do not provide enough information to tell exactly what this is. There's several things that we've got to address when we come back for maintenance and anything like that will be addressed if it's a problem.

Trump's Promises and Pool Debacle

L

So first of all, the fact that it was called Green Water should have been a giveaway. I'm just saying you can't make that up. Sorry, go on. I had to make the joke.

D

It was delivered well.

H

No, I look, I I I think this is one of these things that was uh thoroughly predictable. If you read anything, which, you know, I know nothing about water filtration, but I was reading about this as the administration was pushing this narrative that they were finally cleaning it up. Uh is that this is a long-standing problem in the reflecting pool that these algae blooms happen uh because there just isn't enough, you know, water flow out of out of it.

Um and I and I do think that, you know, two weeks ago, a week ago on social media, you had all these kind of supporters of the president, Republicans saying finally the president is cleaning this up. Uh and it was just it was obvious that this was going, this was very likely to happen. Now maybe they're just cleaning up dead algae, maybe it's just the seal was.

B

Well just because I went down the rabbit hole on this, once you start, you know, hand pouring jugs of peroxide in there and it kills the algae bloom, it floats to the bottom, and now you gotta scrape it up. And the ducks, which now um

D

You know, it's uh one, it's a question of did this need to happen in the way it did? And perhaps. Right? Perhaps there we all live in Washington DC or around the area, you see the algae there. There could have been a benefit to it. Once again, it is the Trump the Trump and the folks around him making the case aggressively before it almost as a moral matter.

A

Uh

D

And that when it goes badly now it's sort of it's a little bit.

B

Yeah, it was like a metaphor for the cleanup of Washington. Yeah. Well now it's cost a lot of money. Basically the fourteen million dollar price tag is not uh where we started. I wanna play for you Trump, how he sold it to the public.

J

One point nine million.

A

One week.

J

We had estimates to fix it of about three hundred and fifty five million dollars and it was gonna take three and a half years, you can see by the size of it, and so we're gonna be able to do it for about a million eight One point eight million and it's gonna take one week. And we'll be finished I guess.

D

You see, that's the point I'm making. It's he went so far out there making the case as to how quickly it was going to happen, how cheaply it would be done, and how perfect it would be. What could have been an honest problem of you know, maybe a piece chipped off or people been in a swimming pool know that that happens from time to time. What could have been a simple problem now becomes an

B

It's been interesting seeing progressives sort of have fun with this analogy. Remember the interior is the one that brought up the comparison to the Iran war. And so now they're able to say, Oh, really? A thing no one asked for has gone wrong, cost us way more than we expected, and you're trying to do a cleanup sounds familiar. And it was like the messaging of That is undefeated.

L

I mean there is so many jokes about this. There's like the Rothco joke because of the peroxide you have like the blue.

B

The joke's really great.

L

Yeah, th it has the blue around the green and it does actually look like a Rothco painting.

B

Ducks, we love you, ducks. We help you survive.

L

Um survive ducks.

B

I don't want to see an image of a little baby duckling like swimming past a Costco sized bottle of hydrogen peroxide. It's like it's not how I want to end the week.

H

Yeah it's it's also I mean look this is all supposed to be sort of in in the run up to the 250th anniversary and it's it's just not a good look to have those bottles of hydrogen peroxide all the work being done when you did have ammunition.

B

The tourist just be like, Looks green to me. You know what I mean? Like

H

It's it's yeah, I just you know.

B

Straightforward.

H

Yeah, it w it would have been nice if they had not sort of built this up as some great big restoration that was gonna make everything great and beautiful for the two hundred fiftieth wouldn't they need to be more work.

D

Last point, it could perfectly be the case that pouring bottles of hydrogen peroxide into a big pool might be the way to get rid of algae. That might per that might be a plausible way to treat it. I just think all of the circumstances around how they got us to this moment and how they talked about it.

B

It's supposed to be a win and instead it's a conversation about no big contracts and uh a failure. So not it didn't end up where they wanted. Um you guys stay with me. We've got more to talk about. After the break, we're gonna talk about why y'all need to put the phone away. Not just saying that because I'm on TV. There's a growing number of artists who want fans to experience the music, not stand there with their arms up. Plus, this was the

At the Minerva Foundation in Guadalajara last night, after Mexico beat South Korea in its second World Cup game, Mexico is now at the top of its group. And in the meantime, good morning to our viewers in Orange Beach, Elevator. Bama, live look at the coastline.

🎵 Music

M

Craig Ferguson is going coast to coast to unpack what it really means to be an American today.

C

Possibly go wrong.

M

Greg Ferguson, American on Purpose. New episodes now streaming on the CNN app. Go to CNN.com/slash watch to subscribe or log in with your TV provider.

🎵 Music

The Rise of Phone-Free Concerts

P

Oh no I need my phone at conscious cause what am I barricade? I'm gonna get bored. I'll have nothing to do, what if I get bored?

🎵 Music

G

Are you guys not chit-chatting at concerts? Like you can still

D

the moment like your eyes are independent of where your phone can be.

B

Okay, there's concerts, binge watching, reading. A lot of us are, you know, it's summertime. We're getting ready to escape the issues of the real world. But even how we enjoy our downtime is stirring up controversy. When you look out at a concert, for instance. Sometimes all you see are phones. And uh singer Phoebe Bridgers is the latest artist to say enough is enough. She just announced a phone-free arena tour after a sold-out surprise show at Madison Square Gardens last week.

There are some fans concerned about, you know, this taking hold nationwide.

G

I felt like I was able to enjoy the music more, connect more with the artists. People held up their lighters. They're like, damn, I should have brought my lighter.

B

If they're gonna be locking up everyone's phones, there has to be a better way to unlock them at the end because there was basically very few workers unlocking them. So it was a big bottlenecking situation and it took forever to get out. I can see that becoming an issue.

All right, so we're talking about that on this week's episode of Engagement Party. My co-host Ari Shapiro enters the chat. Hi friend. What's the deal with the phone free? Is it becoming a trend or other artists talking about that?

Debating Phones at Live Events

Q

Absolutely. We have seen Harry Styles do it. He handed out disposable cameras to people at his shows. And we've seen other artists, whether it's Madonna or Mitsuki or whomever, say, you know, fans, I would like you better if you didn't have your phones out the entire time.

I come to this not only as somebody who goes to concerts, but also as somebody who sings with a band called Pink Martini. And we say, yeah, use your phones, please don't use your flash. But I have to tell you, when I'm on stage and I'm singing and I'm trying to make a moment of connection with the audience. And all I see are phones and screens, it's a little bit of a barrier. I think there's something really special about live performance that phones can get on the

B

I just want to play one more thing for the group. This is Harry Styles. He was on the Cue with Tom Power um podcast, and he was talking about how he got the idea to do a fully phone-free show. Here's what he said.

C

I remember like standing in the middle of the dance floor And um I like had my hands up and I was kind of just like breathing and I closed my eyes and I remember the feeling of like, oh, I'm I'm no longer like scanning the room to see if anyone's like you know, filming or anything. I just felt like, oh, I'm just on my own right now and I feel so free.

B

So this was after an experience at a phone-free club in Berlin last year. It's sort of funny because he's just describing what concerts used to be like. That's what we did with stand and sway. Like, I don't know. Are you guys phone free?

L

It works.

B

Totally. Yeah.

H

But this is this has been uh you know, sort of standard operating procedure for years now with standup comedy, for instance. Um and and And there's a reason for that, right? A lot of these uh stand-up comics are working on their hour for a special. And so they they have kept phones out of there because they don't want people posting the jokes that they're honing and working on. So stand-up comedy's been doing it. I think it's been a pretty big success.

and pretty easy to do. So uh I'm not a I'm not a concert guy. I wish I were and previous time in my life I was. But like I I don't understand how you need the phone to enjoy

L

I'm gonna give the opposite view. Please. Um, which is this. No, I uh and I get it. Like phones are annoying and everything's annoying and la la la. But um I also feel um that Some of these artists are being disingenuous because nowadays these moments They live on, they're ephemeral, but they live on to a much wider audience. Ticket prices are unaffordable for most people. And so I'm I mean I listen and and

Q

House for free. We wouldn't ask Nike to make us shoes for free. Why do we believe that every live performance by every artist should be available to everyone at all times?

L

I'm not saying that everything should be recorded and the entire thing should be put out there, and there's rules against that, right? But I'm saying that some clips. They do live on and there are these moments that happen that can be shared to a much wider audience that actually helps the artist.

Romance Content's Streaming Success

D

This whole fight uh not fight, but this whole discussion is really about the rise and aging of Gen Z because they're the fur no, I mean this. They are the first generation to have grown up entirely with devices. Yeah and now you're seeing the backlash to it. Here it's the phones, if you know

Q

Healing.

D

The healing. It's the it's the tin can phones wanting to get away from cell phones. It's the disposable cameras. And a lot of that is is you know, because because folks who grew up as kids so inundated with devices are just

B

Let me talk about one more thing they're inundated with. Romance TV show content. Here is a fan um online talking about this pipeline that goes from book talk uh to streaming.

U

It's also nine because my algorithm is just feedback.

L

Feeding me, feeding me, feeding me.

U

The edits. My fault because I've watched it four times now. Four tim four times all the way through. At this point in time, I think I need some serious help.

Z

How are we getting Garrett Graham out of our heads? Because I'm a married woman and I cannot be thinking about Another man.

B

This frequently is Okay, so needless to say the numbers are good. You look at a show uh like Heated Rivalry, the book sold one point three million, streams per episode ten million. A show like s uh The Summer I Turned Pretty on Amazon, uh the book sold uh 4.5 million copies, and on the first seven days of airing, 25 million streams. The money's there.

Evolution of Romance and Masculinity

Q

The money's there, and what I think is really interesting, which we discuss in the latest episode of Engagement Party, is the way these romance shows depict. Masculinity and the male heroes. And it is not the kind of tough guy, stuff your feelings down, punch a wall depiction.

actual communication and consideration of people's feelings. And it doesn't feel dutiful. It still feels romantic and sexy and clearly it's working because people are watching these shows, but it's a different kind of depiction of that man.

B

Yeah, and also there's male fans. Like I remember during the heated rivalry thing, like all the hockey guys who got into that show, which was

A

You know.

B

A uh a vibe.

L

It's for everyone. I mean, I think this is a tale as old as time, frankly. I mean, where do you get these stories and and

B

And novels were sort of in the ghetto of genres. Like it was like

L

They were, but I think that that was a misunderstanding. As a longtime romance reader and a longtime reader of romanticism.

B

Pounding the tape.

L

I am because I feel very strongly and I'm very invested. Ha ha female rage is a something that doesn't get enough uh enough. But but you know, I do think that this is a genre that gets poo-pooed by in elite circles, but has always been the engine of publishing. Um women read, women are the biggest readers, book clubs. And these are the stories that you know that we enjoy for all sorts of

Q

We would as invested as they are.

L

I agree, but I don't think they understood how to make them in the way that you get the nuance in the books, right? In the books you're getting character development, and then it all would get flattened often to Harlequin romance type stuff.

D

Subtext here is the inner or social media is everything, right? It's th I don't know if if we wouldn't be here at all without these folks on TikTok. But y again, you're talking about literally tens of millions of people promoting books and sharing them and so on. You know, um There we go.

H

Old is new again, sex sells. This is like a shocking idea.

D

And it's not just sex.

B

And we end the segment with the men arguing about how much sex is in the romance stuff.

L

Yeah.

B

Aurie, thank you so much. We've got new episodes of Engagement Party every Friday. Check us out.

🎵 Music

B

And in the meantime, we're gonna lawyer up. Elliot's talking about guns in marijuana, why this latest Supreme Court decision could reach Far beyond one man's case, and today's talks with the wrong, and the formal signing ceremony that's been canceled at the last minute.

🎵 Music

F

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life Podcast. Dr. Darby Saxby is a psychologist at USC who has been researching what happens to men as they become dead.

X

Dads.

F

How do their brains change? How do their hormones change? What happens to their mental health and to their other relationships?

[

Men are built with the brain architecture that can adapt to parenthood. I think of caring and parenting not just as traits that you're born either being good at or not, but as skills. That you can hone through time and repetition and practice. And so women are really socialized to expect to occupy a primary parenting role. And we don't necessarily raise our boys with that objective in mind.

F

Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcast.

🎵 Music

Obama Center and Current Affairs Update

B

Good morning everybody. I'm Audi Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It is half past the hour and we're following this breaking news. Overnight, today's planned talks between Iran and the U.S. canceled. Vice President delaying his trip to Switzerland at the last minute. Uh because of what the White House is calling unresolved logistics surrounding the next phase of negotiations.

And US boat strikes on suspected drug smuggling boats still happening. The latest was yesterday and three people were killed. At least two hundred and eleven people have been killed in the Trump administration's war. Some lawmakers are calling for an investigation, saying the administration is not offering enough evidence to support its claims.

is set to open to the public. Yesterday the Obamas celebrated the grand opening. Former presidents Clinton, Bush, and Biden were there to support. And the former First Lady kicked off the celebration honoring what she called her husband's dedication. the American people. You were on the Every turn.

L

Always focused, always calm.

B

Always looking at the long

T

Democracy can be frustrating. It can be slow, it can be inefficient. And yet more than anything, I hope this center will serve as an affirmation of just how special. Our democracy truly is.

Supreme Court: Guns and Marijuana Rights

B

Now, general admission tickets for the center are sold out through the end of October. And the Supreme Court expanding gun rights to some who light up. The High Court siding with a Texas man who argued that he should be criminally charged. for owning a gun just because he smokes marijuana. The decision loosening a federal ban, but the ruling is not so cut and dry, which is why it's time to lawyer up.

With CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams. Okay, you started out a baby federal prosecutor once upon a time.

D

Fair prosecutor once upon a time.

B

And I kind of think of prosecutors liking a good drug charge here and there.

D

And one of the more common things that young prosecutors prosecute is this kind of case, which is a pr uh prohibition case where an individual is prohibited from owning a firearm based on the class of uh society that they that they belong to. The big ones are felons, that's a very common one, but also drug users. Someone who is a drug user or an addict

Of any controlled substance can be barred from owning a firearm. Well, this individual, who was a casual, habitual marijuana user, said he used it a few times a week. had his firearm taken away and and brought a lawsuit saying that, well, the Second Amendment should not bar someone like me from using a firearm.

B

Can you talk about how this is complicated by the moment we're in where recreational marijuana is everywhere? I don't even know how you define a casual habitual use

P

Right.

D

And that and that was exactly uh so it's a unanimous decision, but Justice Katanji Brown Jackson picked up on that point exactly. She says that the state of our jurisprudence on firearms. Leaves open these open questions. So, how do you define what a casual user of marijuana is? Now, the way they use it is that number one, it is Increasingly in a different class of substance than cocaine, heroin, whatever else, and it just had its classification level lower. That's what

Justice Gorsuch said. But but it's a vague standard, and I just think what we're seeing here is the con the convergence of two big areas in American law, relaxing laws on cannabis, but also relaxing laws on firearms. And the Supreme Court has been heading in that direction in both areas and and they really came to a

B

And that so that's the legal part. The political bedfellows of this is also like it's just like really interesting because I think even in Republican circles there is let's say a more relaxed attitude in so many ways towards um cannabis for sure, uh but even um the punishment aspect of that.

H

Yeah. uh you know the uh opinions and then the concurrences and you had different viewpoints all coming to the same conclusion and I think that is reflected in the fact that it was an it was an I know decision. And it's a reminder as well that a lot of controversial or supposedly controversial issues. Um that there can be and there often is in this Supreme Court a lot of nine hour, eight one decision.

No, I but I think it's actually it's it's less shocking than if you know if you if you follow the court and and and look at uh a lot of the reasoning. I mean even even a Lenny Cake and a liberal appointed justice as, you know, we're all originalists now, uh as she said several years ago, um I think that there is Uh oftentimes those don't get as much attention. But on an issue like this, I think it does get attention because it is so

B

This is the same law used against Hunter Biden when he was convicted of buying a gun while being a cocaine user in twenty eighteen. Now of course He was pardoned for all the things. There's a few things. But it's interesting that this law has been deployed in a very public way.

D

Yeah, there's a few things going on here. One, like to your point, it's the strange bedfellows of uh pro gun folks, but also people w y with different types of drug convictions. Now they're very careful to say this is just for casual users of marijuana. Other people with different sort of substances

uh will still have the prohibition to ply to them. I think the Supreme Court was trying to find a way to carve marijuana out of the law. Like the other prohibitions like being a felon, either you are or you aren't. Either you have a conviction or you do not. Um here it's a vague standard of how do you ultimately define when someone is sufficiently dangerous based on the the type of substance they're using. And it is a pretty vague standard that that

B

They followed him. All right, you guys stay here. Next we're gonna talk about something else. There's a former late night host with a hot take. I'm gonna talk about why Jay Leno is saying that podcasters are the new king of talk. Plus there's this.

R

I'm not saying we're perfect because we're not.

W

Yeah.

B

An interview with a fellow Catholic takes a turn. Vice President Vance pressed on whether the administration practices what it preaches.

🎵 Music

JD Vance and Christian Values

W

Let's be honest, the tone of the administration. is not consistently a Christian tone. There is a tone of aggressive uncharity to people who aren't on board with the administration's policies.

B

So Vice President Vance sat down for what he probably thought might be a friendly interview with Catholic conservative writer Ross Duthat, but the administration's Christian values were quickly called into question. And here's how Vance pushed back.

R

For every clip that you could show me. of me or the president or some cabinet secretary saying something that in your view is unchristian, I could show you another few clips of us doing something or saying something that is like very Christian. I'm not saying we're perfect because we're not.

B

Group chat is back. I wanted to talk about this. Michael, you had like a pretty interesting take where you found his answers evasive, which is interesting, but also um a poor Christian witness.

H

Look, uh if I were to walk into my confessional and tell the priest, Oh, I committed these sins, but you wouldn't believe all the great stuff that I was doing as well. That doesn't work? It it doesn't work. I've never tried it because I'm afraid

B

Hail Mary's.

H

No, no, no. In fact, I'll probably get a lot more. Um look, I I I I I think, you know, I can't know what's in J.D. Vance's heart. I I just

B

to tell us. I mean he's on a book tour call for this book called Communion, in which he is trying to show his heart.

H

Well and and and I think that's that's admirable and I and I know that, you know, as myself, as a work in progress uh Christian and Catholic, uh that it is something you have to do every single day. But I find the The sort of dismissal of the question about tone, of the words that the administration uses, um and even J.D. Vance himself, I've written about this from the beginning of this administration toward the U.S. uh Conference of Catholic Bishops.

uh uh about uh the you know the sort of immigration policy that the words matter, the sort of things that we do every single day.

D

The word.

L

Um I mean I think my colleague Ross Dalthidin opinion um was obviously pressing on what is what are Christian values and that becomes central why? Um because this is an administration that really wears its Christianity front and center controversially. Um you know many are worried that they are trying to push a kind of Christian nationalism in this country that we traditionally have not seen. And so when we see JD Vance sort of front his religion and his own religious journey.

And of course, uh, you know, I've interviewed him about his conversion to Catholicism. Um, he wears his faith very, you know, I I I believe in the sincerity of his faith. But those public expressions of that are important politically. Why? And what do we mean when we understand Christian values? And this has become an issue with the Pope himself.

B

Exactly. And was an issue with the prior Pope. One of the things I learned in researching this is that when JD Vance made this comment about the sort of the order of love like kind of ranking the things you should care about. citing Catholic uh doctrine, um, the letter and the response from Pope Francis was actually penned by a person who became Pope Leo. So he there he's well acquainted, right, with the real response from the Vatican in terms of outlining these things publicly.

Politics, Religion, and Language

D

I think what we're seeing is the problem when we try to graft politics onto religion or vice versa. And I think, you know, from my

B

But that's very American.

D

It is very American, but I just think uh it fine and and and uh People who founded the country were were proud Christians, and I understand that. But the problem is that when churches start wading into politics, my own Catholicism, when uh there are certain aspects of American politics that tend to come up much more in Catholic churches than others. You know, I don't I did not hear priests talking as much about war as they did about abortion. And I understand that. It's a big political issue.

B

Maybe the age you came up in too, right? I mean obviously, like certainly civil rights, I heard there was a lot of pushback.

L

This is a central issue of this administration. And Catholic teaching on this is pretty clear, which is why you have so many Catholics teaching. No.

H

But actually I wanna I wanna I wanna on this point of the question of the tone. Yeah. I think if we go back to what J.D. Vance was saying about what the US Conference of Catholic Bishops was criticizing the Trump administration for

on immigration and and JD Vance hits hit back on them and saying that they're essentially advocating off of the money. They're making money and advocating for this because they make money off it. I think that's extremely it was extremely uncharitable at the time and I think that's what Ross is

Pressing him on. He's pressing him on the way that he's uh speaking about people who disagree with the administration is itself what is unchristian. And I think that's what's What's most important from not from a necessarily political point of view, but from a from a faith point of view, it's how we talk to uh about people who

B

People are talking about this in the context of 2028 as well, this book tour. It's like rebranding. Yeah, so the idea is if you're gonna do a rebrand, then people are probably going to look, they're gonna kick the tires on that and find some inconsistencies. You're fronting with your values driven policy.

L

One of the responses to this has gotten a lot of traction specifically on the right and the left was him sort of pushing back and saying that the language

That that some of the language that's used is um class based, right? And that the elite spaces are pushing back on this language because they're not used to the rough and tumble of the F-bombs being deployed. Um which You know, those on the right and the left have looked at this and said, like, this could have been like a hard left response to um some of these issues.

It was a horseshoe thing, but i but even so it it elided some of the responsibility to this. All politicians have to respond to how they deploy language.

B

I see, I see. It took me a minute. So basically he was saying, like, look, just the fact that you're asking this question reveals your kind of elitism. Because y'all aren't used to the rough and tumble language of the hillbilly elegy and everyone's like, but

H

I find that so condescending, frankly.

L

100%.

H

And acting as if he can speak for how working class people uh accept, you know, what what's acceptable to them?

B

So that's also been part of his brand for a long time.

H

Yeah, it's very un very uncharitable and uh uh uh I would say unchristian of

Podcasts as New Talk Shows

B

All right, I want to talk about another thing um which Jay Leno, you may remember him, absolute cold take. Late night TV is dead, he says. So in an interview with Deadline, the former late night host said, quote, I mean podcasts really are the new talk shows. Joe Rogan is the new Johnny Carson. And he credited this to Rogan not having to deal with the FCC. And a younger generation, honestly, not that interested in watching TV and instead turning to YouTube.

So the group chat is back. I thought this was interesting because people have been using poor Joe Rogan as a proxy for every uh every ill around the death of, I think, monoculture. The idea that how did this person sort of rise. The left wants a Joe Rogan, the right wants to hold on to a Joe Rogan, the late night guys are like, well wait a second, did I have to wear a tie? Can you talk about why you think this is such a deal?

D

About one of the enduring questions out of the 2024 election. Should Kamala Harris have gone on Joe Rogan? Why did that not?

B

I hate it.

D

Because of how th that that Johnny Carson point uh we are now in a world in which YouTube is king. We were talking a little bit earlier about books in the program, about how TikTok sells books. It is just a different world than the one that any of us grew up in. And it's all it almost makes sense to get on board rather than try to fight.

B

Um I wanna show you guys just some images of the talk shows that are doing well. You're gonna be familiar with uh like Hot Ones or The Therapists, Chicken Shop Date, Subway Take. uh Royal Court. These are all shows that are bite sized. A lot of people take them in in their virality, but I'm also interested in the fact that frankly, they're longer than your average late night show. Like their ability to talk and hang out for a while feels like maybe that's what people are responding to.

L

I mean as the host of an interview show um where um you know you do sit down with people for an extended period of time, it's just a different beast, it's a different animal. Um It you know, you nowadays have to make a show and have it go everywhere, all the time, you know, on all the different platforms.

B

Because it's replacing broadcast.

L

Because it's replacing broadcast, but the way people consume it, you know, people are gonna see it on their TikTok feed, on their Instagram feed. And then if they like the clip, maybe although versions aren't great. But maybe they'll go to YouTube. But maybe they'll sit down and watch the whole thing. But sometimes people are s you know, people are

Sitting with these people and they're getting to see them in a different way. You know, if you're a long-form interviewer, the first 20 minutes are always like people getting comfortable, people.

B

Can I show you this can I show you the face of a long form interviewer? Okay, because T V could have done this a lot longer than they did uh Dick Cavot. Uh the period of time where people would do long, winding political kind of going all over the place chats, which honestly could be a podcast that works today. Whereas I don't think you could have a Johnny Carson today because

Each one of these guys has picked out a lane based on ideology. Since there are no collective facts, you pick a lane and you start poking jokes at the ideology.

The Future of Talk Media

D

Cảm ơn các bạn đã theo dõi và hẹn gặp lại

H

if it's more technological, right? I mean the th I think the point Jay Leno was trying to make here is that that sort of he he was complaining uh actually about the way that ads kind of have broken more into late night uh and and you know it went from you know a very much of it. Yeah, exactly. And uh and that there's a lot more sort of freedom and people can sort of choose what they want to watch with these long form interviews. And I

L

Your daddy is hot ones, is subway takes ideological? I don't think so. So I I don't know that that actually holds as a premise.

B

You mean like a Jimmy Kimmel is, right? A Colbert was. They picked Lane.

L

And they b and they picked lanes and they did well by it, you know, in this very fragmented culture that we live in. I mean, yeah, if you look at what's replaced.

B

I'm gonna show the numbers now what's happened after Colbert has left. Wow. All right. Um Ellie, you haven't been here for a while. Can you tell me what's in your group chat?

Group Chat: Odd News and Absurdities

D

My group chat is about America. There's nothing more American than July 4th and eating hot dogs and the criminal justice system. Joey Chestnut.

B

Yeah. Like gone.

D

Joey Chestnut, this champion hot dog eater is

B

Yeah.

D

Probation and will be able to compete on July 4th in the Nathan's hot dog eating contest from probation for an assault. God bless America.

H

It's nothing sacred.

B

Warren for you?

H

Uh we'd uh been talking about this uh this father who brought his two little girls into a gas station bathroom. He brought them into the women's restroom and uh he began filming it uh because a man, another man sort of broke in to say, there's a grown man in the women's restroom. The young father's trying to explain, I'm here to help my kids, to help my little girls, uh, and it's just caused a lot of

B

I I get it. It's a viral moment. Uh last word to you, Lulu.

L

Um my one is about a tree that is sadly R.I.P. um twelve hundred year old tree that was there um during the days of Robin Hood, um twelve hundred years old and is now sadly no longer alive. Okay.

B

Okay, that is a timeline cleanser. Say n say here the headlines are next.

🎵 Music

V

Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. In my podcast All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities.

O

Everything that he did and why, I realized how much he had to take on that I just wasn't really aware of. me wish that I could just go back and be a little bit more understanding at that time.

V

Schiffrin was too. He was an anesthesiologist who first put Michaela on skis when she was three. What was he like?

B

This is

O

Maybe kind of weird, but like he was really handsome. I've totally become the scheduling person in our family.

V

Talking grief, building community. That's what the podcast is all about. This is all there is. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

This transcript was generated by Metacast using AI and may contain inaccuracies. Learn more about transcripts.
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android