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Jack Armstrong
This is an iHeart podcast.
Joe Getty
Guaranteed Human. Then the space hamster flew his hot.
Jack Armstrong
Air balloon all the way to the bottom of the ocean. Where did that story come from? Book Dream? Nope. It came from a conversation. Meet Meco Mini plus, the AI companion that co creates personalized story adventures with your child in real time. What color was the hamster's cape and what did he pack for lunch? Unlock your child's imagination. Discover Mikomini PL and the magic of AI Exclusively at Costco.
Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
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Joe Getty
All right, who's ready for another cocktail? Yes, please. Whatever that last one was, it was incredible.
Jack Armstrong
That was a Bartesian margarita. Bright, smooth, perfectly balanced. You'd swear it came from a bar.
Katie
That came from the Bartesian cocktail maker.
Jack Armstrong
Yep, pop in a capsule, press a button and boom. Bar. Quality cocktails at home. My friend swore by it, so I finally got one.
Joe Getty
I tried the Old Fashioned earlier. Honestly, it's the best I've had outside an actual bar.
Jack Armstrong
Right over 60 craft cocktail options ready in under 30 seconds and Bartesians running their biggest holiday deal. Up to $150 off coffee dealmakers right now.
Joe Getty
Wait. Up to 150? That's huge.
Jack Armstrong
Exactly. Holiday hosting just got way easier.
Joe Getty
Make your holiday gatherings unforgettable with Bartesian, the cocktail maker that crafts smooth bar.
Katie
Quality drinks at the touch of a button.
Joe Getty
Save up to $150 on Bartesian cocktail makers.
Katie
The biggest savings of the year end December 2nd.
Joe Getty
Don't miss out. Order now at bartesian.com drinks. That's B-A-R-T-E-S-I-A N.com drinks.
Katie
It's the gaming event of the year featuring T Pain's Nappy Boy Grizzlies versus Neo's Gentleman's Gaming. It's a 4v4 matchup featuring Call of Duty, Tetris, Trackmania, Tony hawk Pro Skater 34 and Tekken 8.
Joe Getty
Season 0 of the Global Gaming League is live streaming on YouTube and Twitch.
Katie
Head over to globalgamingleague.com.
Joe Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio studio, the George Washington Broadcast Center.
Jack Armstrong
Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty.
Katie
Not live. We're not here. It's the Armstrong and Getty Replay.
Joe Getty
But what we have for you is delicious. A collection of some of our best stuff. You can hear more, of course, on.
Katie
Our podcast, Armstrong and Getty on Demand.
Joe Getty
And hey, get through your Christmas shopping list at the Armstrong and Getty Superstore. Shirts, hoodies, and much more.
Katie
So now enjoy the Armstrong and Yeti Replay. We talked about this a little bit earlier, but I want to get into more of the specifics because I find this really interesting. The headline sort of hides a lot of the really good stuff. The headline being that you reach your functional peak as a human later than they had previously thought. Now, functional. Functional is what we're going to get into defining here. That word as they use 16 different dimensions. This is a serious, like, university study. This is not, I don't know, so many studies and you should look out for this. It's fun to talk about them. So many studies that you hear that are, you know, it turns out, you know, it's paid for by the, the Pudding Corporation. And it turns out you'd be better off eating more pudding in your life or whatever.
Joe Getty
Right? Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Just dumb stuff like that.
Katie
But it turns out that people reach their functional peak in their late 50s, early 60s, decades later than most people assume when you figure in all these different things. So physical strength, obviously, and certain cognitive abilities like processing speed decline steadily after your mid-20s.
Joe Getty
And I think we all can attest, yes.
Katie
Oh, if you're past your mid-20s, you're aware of that, but a whole bunch of other things you get stronger at for quite some time, but they all diminish eventually. Intelligence, personality, emotional intelligence, decision making. Overall functioning continues developing through midlife, reaching its apex at around 60 years old. A 25 year old can process information faster, hold more items in their working memory, and solve abstract reasoning problems more quickly than someone decades older. So that stuff, you're better at 25 than you are later. And that's. Who was I talking to the other day? They were, they were younger than me. They're talking about how they, they forget stuff now. And I said, yeah, I finally had to give in and start like leaving myself notes because I used to just, I used to be very proud of. I just, I could remember everything I needed to do and how I was going to do it, and I just knew I was going to remember that. Worked for a while and then until it didn't. Fluid intelligence, because we were talking about working memory, they're holding information in your head and all that sort of stuff. Peaks around 25. Fluid intelligence, the ability to think on your feet and solve novel program problems, peaks at 20 and declines after that.
Joe Getty
Wow.
Katie
Isn't that something?
Joe Getty
Wow, huh? Okay.
Katie
That's probably good for, you know, a lot of your military age people and the kind of decisions they got to make really quickly on their feet. And they're around 20 years old.
Joe Getty
Yeah, man, there's a lot to this.
Katie
Yeah.
Joe Getty
Other terms to understand and subtleties and the rest.
Katie
But other advantages emerge with age that younger adults haven't had time to develop crystallized intelligence, which is not a term I'd heard, but it means accumulated knowledge and vocabulary, obviously keeps rising. Well, until your 60s.
Joe Getty
Right?
Katie
That'd be. You can call it wisdom if you wanted to. Financial literacy, for some reason improves into your late 60s, early 70s. It goes beyond that. It goes beyond other kinds of intelligence. Isn't that something? Yeah, but then dig this one. Moral reasoning, because this all comes under the category of you, you being able to function. So some of them drop off early, some of them go later. Moral reasoning tends to rise through most of adulthood and research indicates that it reverses very late in life. Your moral reasoning will reverse very late in life. So I'll rob a bank and have an affair or what's, what's, what's that all about?
Joe Getty
I'm gonna have to ask my slaves if they agree.
Katie
Very late in life. You're a little young.
Joe Getty
Late in life.
Katie
Yeah, I think, I think you're just a bad person if you Got slaves at this point.
Joe Getty
Yeah, well, guilty. Yeah. Okay. All this rings true. I mean, it's interesting that they came up with different terms or more specific terms for the aspects of wisdom. Mm. I'm not sure we need all of them, but it's interesting to hear it broken out. I mean, you just, you have so many case studies, not only your own, but those of close friends and relatives and their experiences, and you just, you're. You're like a much more experienced surgeon. Yes, Michael. Maybe that's why so many old people.
Katie
Say whatever's on their mind because they.
Joe Getty
Have no more moral reasoning.
Katie
I don't know. Is a case of the efforts the same as moral reasoning? Yeah.
Joe Getty
Or, you know, combines in some cases. But. Yeah.
Katie
Well, Katie and I were talking earlier when you were gone. Just some of this stuff really flies in the face of why do we have 80 year olds running the country? Oh, on some of these. Some of these, but.
Joe Getty
Right. I got a bunch of old guys running the country and their financial literacy appears to be. There is none.
Katie
Emotional intelligence climbs through midlife before tapering off. Based on research comparing age groups, older adults. This is a financial one, I guess older adults are about twice as likely as younger adults. To avoid the sunk cost fallacy, the habit of throwing good money after bad. Twice as likely at like 60 as you would be at 30. Of understanding. No, you know, this turned out to be a bad idea. Let's just move on. As opposed to, well, we've come this far, we better keep spending more money.
Joe Getty
Right? Yeah. Yeah, I would agree. Again, it's a question of having lived through that sort of thing a couple of times and realizing, okay, this is really disappointing, but we have to admit it's a loser and move on.
Katie
Yeah, it's interesting that they did that. They separate out financial intelligence where it might just be all wisdom there. It's just accumulated knowledge. And yeah, personality also matures with age. Conscientiousness and emotional stability, which are the two traits that are most strongly linked to career success and life satisfaction according to this study. I have to say that again. So the two traits most strongly linked to career success and life satisfaction, which I don't know about you, but having a satisfying life is way up on my list of priorities.
Joe Getty
Whose ass you kiss, that's the most important thing. It's not who you know, it's who you bleep.
Katie
Wow. Conscientiousness and emotional stability are the two traits you need for life satisfaction. That makes sense. But both increase from early adulthood well into your 50s and 60s. So that's good. Researchers weighted these various dimensions and created a composite index tracking overall functioning and overall functioning peaks between 55 and 60, with clear declines emerging about 65 to 70. So I got a few years left before. I mean, because I'm barely functioning now. I got a few years left before.
Joe Getty
It really starts to crash. True International president. You don't, you don't get much time to enjoy your peak, do you? No.
Katie
Well, we're not designed to live past that.
Joe Getty
Right. Really. Right. Conscientiousness and an emotional. What was it? Stability.
Katie
Stability, yeah.
Joe Getty
Can that be translated as being beaten down? Emotional stability. I'm fine. I've been kicked before.
Katie
Well, it is true you get emotional stability, but I remember, God, quite a few years ago, I was proud of some reaction I had to something. And you, you said it's just because you have lower testosterone.
Joe Getty
I fully admit that.
Katie
Which took all the fun out of it. But there is. You do also gain emotional stability, don't you think? It isn't just low T.
Joe Getty
Because, again.
Katie
B, Again, because you've been through these situations before. This isn't first time you've had a boss shoot off about something dumb or whatever situation or you, you get something in the mail from the tax board that's going to be a pain in the ass. It's not the first time any of these things have happened. So you don't.
Joe Getty
Right.
Katie
Quite get as crazy.
Joe Getty
Well, please, if anybody disagrees with this, by the time you're playing in your third super bowl, you're focused on the game. You're focused on doing your job in a way. You can't be the first time.
Katie
Absolutely.
Joe Getty
Just to cite an obvious example, or.
Katie
Think about raising kids, the second kid versus the first kid. I mean, think about.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Katie
The. Just the, you know, the first time your first kid falls down and bonks their head versus when you get to the second kid.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Katie
They bunk there. They're fine.
Joe Getty
Getting back to the testosterone thing, though. What, what you need to remember, I think, or maybe you don't. I don't know, is that virtually everything we think, everything we do is chemicals sloshing around in our brain and the spark of the divine. But. And I believe in free will. I believe we have a certain amount of control over how we're going to react and you work to develop that. But I mean. Yeah, so of course different levels of different chemicals is going to affect the way you approach life. It's, it's. It's obvious. It has to be.
Katie
Well, yeah, I'M just trying to claim that any, any growth I've had is not all because I have lower testosterone.
Joe Getty
Oh, no, no, not at all.
Katie
I would never take some credit for some growth.
Joe Getty
Right. Well, I think that that discretionary part I was talking about, that absolutely grows because you've gone through it once when you lost your head, you've gone through it another time where you didn't lose your head and you're thinking, yeah, I'm staying calm again this time.
Katie
Yeah.
Joe Getty
And then when he leaves for the day, I'll take a poop on his desk. Whatever it takes. Vengeance. Vengeance is fine.
Katie
Little sugar in the G could take care of that.
Joe Getty
Probably. Yeah. Served cold, Right? You know what I'm saying? Huh?
Katie
Good luck breaking down on the freeway on the way home. That's what you end up when you get older. The fact that you're like super quick thinking. Cognitive reasoning drops after 20. Wow, that's early in life.
Joe Getty
Yeah. Yeah.
Katie
So kind of wrapping it up. Studies sobering studies cited by the authors show that people typically earn their highest salaries and reach peak occupational prestige between 50 and 55. It's not just because you've been around the company for a long time or blah, blah, blah, it's actually when you've got the most accumulated knowledge and emotional stability and all those sorts of things.
Joe Getty
Yeah. In short, you're most likely to do a good job at it.
Katie
Yeah, exactly. Now the fact, as it says here, that the leaders of many political countries are in their 70s or 80s is not. Yeah. These are all averages though, of course. I mean, just flat out on the face of it, obviously Donald Trump's brain is different than Joe Biden's brain.
Joe Getty
Absolutely true. Yeah. And it strikes me that in a lot of your tech industries, for instance your tech companies, they're run by wunderkins, these, these young phenoms who are not 55 years old when they have their greatest success is that because there is no accumulated knowledge to be had in.
Katie
Their fields specific to that field?
Joe Getty
I mean, management is management dealing with people is dealing with people. But maybe energy and willingness to work 80 hours a week and not being tied to any sort of quote, unquote, accumulated wisdom. Maybe that explains it, I don't know. I mean, because you'd think a Sam Altman for instance, would hire a gray haired CEO and say, I'll just worry about the innovation stuff, you run the company. But that's not the way it goes.
Katie
The 55 year old CEO would say, what are we doing?
Joe Getty
What's the point of this what is I A? I keep telling you, it's AI AI Artificial intelligence. All right. Robots.
Katie
The fact that my moral compass may go south on me in my old age, that's got me concerned. Wonder what sort of hijinks I'll be up to.
Joe Getty
How bad could it get?
Jack Armstrong
The Armstrong and Getty show get more.
Joe Getty
Jack, more Joe podcasts and our hot links@armstrongandgetty.com.
Jack Armstrong
Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Joe Getty
A sheriff's officer in Indiana went into.
Katie
An elementary school to jokingly hand out.
Joe Getty
Tickets to students using the phrase 6 7.
Katie
Everyone had a good laugh.
Joe Getty
Then he pulled out his gun and said, now tell me what it means.
Jack Armstrong
Joke.
Joe Getty
But a funny one.
Katie
Well, and funny. Have to have the cops come to the school handing out tickets for saying 6 7. That's pretty funny.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah, good stuff. They are calling it Mar a Lago phase, Jack. Since January, plastic surgeries in D.C. have seen a wave of Trump insiders and would be insiders asking for overt procedures in line with what they're calling the Mar a Lago face look for the.
Katie
Longest time surgery Mar a Lago, the club where Trump lives down in Florida.
Joe Getty
Yes, yes, that would. That's the one. Yes. Most plastic surgeons in Washington D.C. like other places, have long gone with the nobody's sure you had anything done, you just look good look. Well, the President Trump is all in on aesthetics and Boulder is always better. And so people in his inner circle and those who would be again, are embracing a maximalist ethos when it comes to their look. Plastic surgeon Troy Pittman, who's big in D.C. i guess works with a lot of Trump insiders. We're quote, we're seeing people want to look like they've had something done, he says.
Katie
I suppose that's the logical next step and it doesn't have to be about Mar a Lago. Maybe that's what's been going on in Hollywood all these years and I didn't get it because I always, I was always saying, how's nobody told you that you took it too far. Well, I suppose when it's been around for decades, at some point the next logical iteration is you want to look like you've had work done because it makes you a certain sort of person.
Joe Getty
While old school Beltwayers tend to be hush hush about their tune ups, the Palm beach crowd is all systems go, says Dr. Pittman. Fillers are big with this crew, especially Lips as our Botox and dysport, which I don't even know About. Let's see. A different DC plastic surgeon says she's actually turned down a bunch of people who want contact because she just doesn't do that. Yeah, I didn't.
Katie
This all makes sense to me. People like me, who've never had that done and run around with people who've never had that done. We've been wrong all along. They're not trying to fool us. They want to.
Joe Getty
They want to.
Katie
They want a big statement that says, I get work done.
Joe Getty
Okay, well, you're. You're half right. As Nelly Bowles writes in the Free Press, the directive is bigger lips, Doc, and eyes that never shut, so as not to miss a thing. Tarantula lashes. Charcoal. Smear it on your lids. Everyone dresses to please the king, even if the royal aesthetic is if poltergeist were an escort anyway. But then this other DC plastic surgeon who does subtle stuff says these people want extra fillers and injections on top of already treated faces, which can be dangerous. She says it's a situation she calls filler blindness. If you add more and more product to your face and are surrounded by people who do the same, you lose sight of anatomic normalcy sake.
Katie
Clearly that is true.
Joe Getty
So, no, they don't want you to know it necessarily. They've just completely lost track of what's normal and what looks good.
Katie
Man, if I could get a little something done without anybody noticing, I would absolutely do it.
Joe Getty
The fellas are in line too, Jack. Looking for a Botox, liposuction, suction and eyelid rejuvenation. It's Pete Hegseth Washington. Now, you got to be young, fit and handsome. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. The Armstrong and Getty. Shh.
Jack Armstrong
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Joe Getty
You and your best self is a start button this Black Friday. Explore the world with NordicTrack. From the peaks of Peru to the streets of Paris, every workout moves you somewhere new. With iFit trainers leading the way. The equipment's amazing. Smooth, quiet, and those screens make it all feel real. Ready to start your next workout adventure with the number one treadmill brand in the U.S. shop NordicTrack.com for Black Black Friday savings. NordicTrack train anywhere. Explore everywhere.
Jack Armstrong
There's nothing like sinking into luxury. Anabe sofas combine ultimate comfort and design at an affordable price. Annabe has designed the only fully machine washable sofa from top to bottom. The stain resistant performance fabric slipcovers and cloud like frame duvet can go straight into your wash. Perfect for anyone with kids, pets or anyone who loves an easy to clean spotless sofa. With a modular design and changeable slipcovers, you can customize your sofa to fit any space and style. Whether you need a single chair loveseat or a luxuriously large sectional, Anna Bay has you covered. Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home. Sofas start at just $699 and right now get early access to Black Friday savings up to 60% off store wide with a 30 day money back guarantee. Shop now@washablesofas.com Add a little to your life. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
Joe Getty
All right, who's ready for another cocktail? Yes, please. Whatever that last one was, it was incredible.
Jack Armstrong
That was a Bartesian Margarita. Bright, smooth, perfectly balanced. You'd swear it came from a bar.
Joe Getty
That came from the Bartesian Cocktail maker.
Jack Armstrong
Yep, pop in a capsule, press a button and boom. Bar quality cocktails at home. My friends swore by it, so I finally got one.
Joe Getty
I tried the Old Fashioned earlier. Honestly, it's the best I've had outside an actual bar.
Jack Armstrong
Right over 60 craft cocktail options ready in under 30 seconds. And Bartesians running their biggest holiday deal up to $150 off cocktail makers right now.
Joe Getty
Wait. Up to $150? That's huge.
Jack Armstrong
Exactly. Holiday hosting just got way easier.
Joe Getty
Make your holiday gatherings unforgettable with Bartisian, the cocktail maker that crafts smooth bar quality drinks and touch of a button.
Katie
Save up to $150 on Bartesian cocktail makers. The biggest savings of the year end December 2nd.
Joe Getty
Don't miss out. Order now at bartesian.com drinks that's B.
Katie
A R-T-E-S-I-A-N.com drinks it's the gaming event of the year featuring T. Pain's Nappy Boy Grizzlies versus Neo's Gentleman's Gaming it's a 4v4 matchup featuring caller Duty, Tetris, Trackmania, Tony hawk Pro Skater 3/4 and Tekken 8.
Joe Getty
Season 0 of the Global Gaming League is live streaming on YouTube and Twitch.
Katie
Head over to globalgamingleague.com.
Joe Getty
The Armstrong and Getty Show Wikipedia said that traffic to their site is falling because People are using AI instead.
Katie
And.
Joe Getty
AI said the same thing, slightly reworded it and cited them as a source.
Katie
That's pretty clever, actually. That is pretty funny.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Katie
Yeah.
Joe Getty
So the way we see our jobs around here, speaking for myself, is, yeah, we bring you news of the day and our thoughts, but we're also curators of, you know, ideas. I. That's the most fun part of the job for me is reading all day long and trying to find the best ideas and bring them to you. Sometimes there are, sometimes they're not. And I came across. That's the way you describe our jobs.
Katie
I'm more of a lavishly paid to blather on, barely knowing what I'm talking about.
Joe Getty
That's your special charm. I came across this great piece by author Helen Andrews, and a number of our more astute listeners have sent it along, saying, in essence, omg, have you guys seen this? And it's a little longer than something we would generally read to you, but it is so good and, I think so important, it's worth it. It's entitled the Great Feminization. And here's a disclaimer real quickly, because as you know, a happily married guy who I love and respect, my wife, I have two daughters, my mom is a saint, blah, blah, blah, women and womanhood are essential to the functioning of mankind. I am a great believer in balance. People who ask me about politics, I always tell them, look, I'm a really conservative conservative, but I believe we need Navy Seals and poets. For society to work, for the world to work, we need men and women. The masculine, the effeminate. That's the way we're made by God or creation or whatever. Anyway, having said that, the Great Feminization. Helen Andrews and Jack obviously dive in whenever you want. In 2019, she writes, I read an article about Larry Summers and Harvard that changed the way I look at the world. The author argued that the day Larry Summers resigned as president of Harvard University marked a turning point in our culture.
Katie
We talked about that a lot at the time.
Joe Getty
Oh, yeah, the entire. And she explains exactly what happened. If you're trying to remember what happened, the entire woke era could be extrapolated from that moment, from the details of how Summers was canceled and most of all, who did the canceling Women. The basic facts of the Summers case are familiar. January 14, 2005, at a conference on diversifying the science and engineering workforce, Larry Summers gave a talk that was supposed to be off the record. In it, he said that female underrepresentation in hard sciences was Partly due to, quote, different availability of aptitude at the high end, as well as taste differences, preferences between men and women not attributable to socialization, meaning dudes just tend to xxx. Some female professors in attendance were offended and sent his remarks to a reporter in defiance of the off the record rule. The ensuing scandal led to a no confidence vote by the Harvard faculty and eventually Summer's resignation. The essay argued that it wasn't just that women had canceled the president of Harvard, it was that they'd canceled him in a very feminine way. They made emotional appeals rather than logical arguments. Quote, when he started talking about innate differences and aptitudes between men and women, I just couldn't breathe because this kind of bias makes me physically ill. Oh my God, said Nancy Hopkins, a biologist at mit. Wow. Summers made a public statement clarifying his remarks. And then another, and then a third, with the apology more insistent each time, experts chimed in to declare that everything Summers had said about sex differences was within the scientific mainstream. These rational appeals had no effect on the mob hysteria. This cancellation was feminine, the SA argued, because all cancellations are feminine. Cancel culture is simply what women do when there are enough of them in a given organization or field. This, that is the great Feminization thesis, which the same author later elaborated on at book length. Everything you think of as Wokeness is simply an epiphenomenon of demographic feminization.
Katie
I like where this is. I like where this is going.
Joe Getty
The explanatory power of this simple thesis was incredible. It really did unlock the secrets of the era we were living in now. Here's a point I disagree with. Wokeness is not a new ideology, an outgrowth of Marxism, or a result of post Obama disillusionment. It is simply feminine patterns of behavior applied to institutions where women were few in number until recently. How did I not see it before? My disagreement with the Marxism point is that Michel Foucault, who's really the godfather of critical theory and neo Marxism, he understood human nature and he understood how making an emotional moral argument could get people to ignore facts. That's why they're so intent on getting you to say a man can give birth to a baby, because if you can be pried away from logic and rely on pure emotion and what the crowd says you should say, then they've gotcha. So this is not divorced from Marxism, it's just another layer of it. But anyway, on with the essay. Let's see. Then she mentions a couple of firsts. People think about the feminization of like the first woman to attend law school in 1869, first woman to argue before the Supreme Court in 1880, first female Supreme Court justice, 1981. But she says a much more important tipping point is when law schools became majority female, which occurred in 2016. Or when law firms associated became majority female, which occurred in 2023. When Sandra Day O' Connor was appointed to the high court, only 5% of judges were female. Today, women are 33% of the judges in America and 63% of the judges appointed by President Biden, 63%. The same trajectory can be seen in many professions. Pioneering generations of women in the 60s and 70s, increasing female representation through the 80s and 90s, and gender parity finally arriving in 2010s or 2020s. For instance, in 1974, only 10% of New York Times reporters were female. The New York Times staff became majority female in 2018. And today the female share is 55%. Medical schools became majority female in 2019. Women became a majority of the college educated workforce nationwide in 2019. Women became a majority of college instructors in 2023. Women are not yet a majority of the managers in America, but they might be soon. They're now 46%. So the timing fits. Wokeness arose around the same time that many important institutions tipped demographically from majority male to majority female. All right, so what you're saying, here's. Here's what she means. The substance fits, too. Everything you think of wokeness involves prioritizing the feminine over the masculine, empathy over rationality, safety over risk, cohesion over competition. Give you a second to absorb that. 100 right, 100 right. And 100% right.
Katie
Those are all real interesting.
Joe Getty
Other writers have proposed their own versions of the great feminization thesis. She drops a few names who looked at feminization's effect on academia offer survey data showing sex differences in political values. One survey, for instance, found that 71% of men said protecting free speech was more important than preserving a cohesive society, whatever that means. 71% of men, 60% of women said the opposite.
Katie
That doesn't surprise me. And as a. For some reason, it popped into my head, he was talking about how when women got involved in youth sports, how it changed. Then we got uniforms at every age.
Joe Getty
And lots of team pictures and lots of ceremonies.
Katie
Ceremonies and stuff like that.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah. Anyway. And then she issues a disclaimer, which probably isn't necessary, but the most relevant differences are not about individuals, but about groups. Yes, an individual woman might be taller than an individual man, but a group of 10 random women is very unlikely to have an average height greater than that of 10 men. The larger the group of people, the more likely it is to conform to statistical averages. So again, you independent thinking, free speech loving women out there, it's not about you, it's not about individuals. It's about. In large groups, tendencies become more and more true. Anyway, the female group dynamics favor consensus and cooperation. Men order each other around, but women can only suggest and persuade. Any criticism or negative sentiment, if it is absolutely to be expressed, needs to be buried in layers of compliments. The outcome of a discussion is less important than the fact that a discussion was held and everyone participated in it. The most important sex difference. The most important sex difference in group dynamics is attitude to conflict. In short, men wage conflict openly, while women covertly undermine or ostracize their enemies. Any ladies like to disagree with that? Katie, feel free to jump in if you like. Okay.
Katie
Do women ostracize their enemies as opposed.
Joe Getty
To confronting them openly and saying, hey, we have a problem, we need to settle this? Yeah, without a doubt. Barry Weiss, in her letter of resignation from the New York Times, described how colleagues referred to her in internal slack messages as a racist, a Nazi and a bigot. And this is the most feminine part. Quote, colleagues perceived to be friendly with me were badgered by co workers, she said in her resignation. Wow. Weiss once asked a colleague at the Times opinion desk to get coffee with her. This journalist, a biracial woman who wrote frequently about race, refused to meet. This was a failure to meet the basic standards of professionalism. Obviously. It was also very feminine. Men tend to be better at compartmentalizing than women. And wokeness was in many ways a society wide failure to compartmentalize. Listen to this. This is another blockbuster point. Traditionally, an individual doctor might have opinions on the political issues of the day, but he would regard it as his professional duty to keep those opinions out of the examination room. Now that medicine has become more feminized, doctors wear pins and lanyards expressing views on controversial issues from gay rights to Gaza. They even bring the credibility of their profession to bear on political fads, as when doctors said Black Lives Matter protests could continue in violation of COVID lockdowns because racism was a public health emergence.
Katie
You're nodding your head, Katie. You've been in hospital situations a lot more than us lately. You've seen that?
Joe Getty
Oh, yeah, I've seen it. You know, the little lanyards where they. It's like their key to the doors. They all have the different little trinkets with, you know, rainbows and I saw a Palestinian flag recently.
Katie
Yeah, dudes wouldn't have done that.
Joe Getty
Now one more note and then we will take a break. One book that helped me put together the pieces was warriors and warriors the Survival of the Sexes by psychology professor Joyce Benenson. Practically all of the scientists cited in this article are women. By the way, it's worth pointing out I she theorizes that men developed group dynamics optimized for war, while women developed group dynamics optimized for protecting their offspring. These habits formed in the mists of prehistory explain why experimenters in modern psychology labs, in a study that Berenson cites, observed that a group of men given a task will, quote, jockey for talking time, disagree loudly, and then cheerfully relate a solution to the experiment. Experimenter, a group of women given the same task will quote politely inquire about one another's personal background and relationships, accompanied by much eye contact, smiling and turn taking, and pay little attention to the task that the experimenter presented. The point of war is to settle disputes between two tribes, but it only works if peace is restored after the dispute is settled. Men therefore develop methods for reconciling with opponents and learning to live in peace with people they were fighting yesterday. Females, even in primate species, are slower to reconcile than males. That is because women's conflicts were traditionally within the tribe over scarce resources, to be resolved not by open conflict but by covert competition with rivals with no clear end. All of these observations match my observations of wokeness. But soon the happy thrill of discovering a new theory eventually gave way to a sinking feeling. If wokeness really is the result of the Great Feminization, then the eruption of insanity in 2020 was just a small, small taste of what the future holds. Imagine what will happen as the remaining men age out of these society shaping professions and the younger, more feminized generations take full control.
Katie
That's what I'm always saying, that when we're all dead who remember the before times, there won't be anybody around to say, hey, it didn't used to be like this.
Jack Armstrong
The Armstrong and Getty show get more.
Joe Getty
Jack, more Joe podcasts and our hot links@armstrongandgetty.com then the space hamster flew his.
Jack Armstrong
Hot air balloon all the way to the bottom of the ocean. Where did that story come from? Book Dream? Nope. It came from a conversation. Meet Meco Mini plus, the AI companion that co creates personalized story adventures with your child in real time. What color was the hamster's cape? And what did he pack for lunch? Unlock your child's imagination. Discover Mikomini plus and the Magic of AI Exclusively at Costco.
Joe Getty
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Joe Getty
All right, who's ready for another cocktail? Yes, please. Whatever that last one was, it was incredible.
Jack Armstrong
That was a Bartesian margarita. Bright, smooth, perfectly balanced. You'd swear it came from a bar.
Katie
That came from the Bartesian cocktail maker.
Joe Getty
Yep, pop in a capsule, press a.
Jack Armstrong
Button button and boom. Bar quality cocktails at home. My friend swore by it, so I finally got one.
Joe Getty
I tried the Old Fashioned earlier. Honestly, it's the best I've had outside an actual bar.
Jack Armstrong
Right over 60 craft cocktail options ready in under 30 seconds. And Bartesian's running their biggest holiday deal. Up to $150 off cocktail makers right now.
Joe Getty
Wait. Up to $150? That's huge.
Jack Armstrong
Exactly. Holiday hosting just got way easier.
Joe Getty
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Katie
Quality drinks at the touch of a button.
Joe Getty
Save up to $150 on Bartesian cocktail makers.
Katie
The biggest savings of the year end December 2nd.
Joe Getty
Don't miss out. Order now at bartesian.com drinks that's B-A-R-T-E-S-I-A-N.com drinks it's the gaming event of the.
Katie
Year featuring T. Pain's Nappy Boy Grizzlies versus Neo's Gentleman's Gaming. It's a 4v4 matchup featuring call of Duty, Tetris, Trackmania, Tony hawk Pro Skater 3/4 and Tekken 8.
Joe Getty
Season 0 of the Global Gaming League is live streaming on YouTube and Twitch.
Katie
Head over to globalgamingleague.com.
Joe Getty
The Armstrong and Getty show.
Katie
So perhaps.
Joe Getty
You you would like to leave a flaming bag of dog excrement on your neighbor's front porch, but you lack such an item. You could go with Randy Weingarten's new book instead, why Fascists Fear Teachers, Public Education, and the Future of Democracy. If there was ever a flaming bag of dog crap sold as a book, this is it. Why Fascists Fear Teachers who are these fascists? We'll get to that in a moment. So obviously the title is designed to be eye catching and attract readers, but by now, as this review puts it, the word fascist is thrown around routinely. The book's title, Public Education the Future of Democracy, is more significant, deceptive. The book's purported intention is to argue for public school's crucial role in our democratic society, but it offers very little in the way of education policy or ideas that would truly benefit teachers or, God forbid, students. The real aim is, yes, Randy Weingarten.
Katie
Played the major role in keeping the schools closed during the pandemic, for instance.
Joe Getty
Yeah, I'm sorry, the American Federation of Teachers president for years and years and years. The real aim is made clear. It devotes most of its pages to attacking her political opponents, especially supporters of school choice, and defending the interests of the American Federation of Teachers, her big rich union. She starts out claiming 90% of American kids attend public schools. Not so fast. It was a little over 81% four years ago at the beginning of COVID So. And that's before the expansion of universal school choice in states like Texas and New Hampshire. Half of American children now have access to school choice, so the number is far, far lower than the 90% she claims. So it's appropriate the book would start off with lies. As it continues in that vein, Weingarten characterizes the school choice movement as a conspiracy organized by Christopher Rufo, Moms for Liberty, and other hard right wing activists, quote, a plot to destroy public education.
Katie
Yeah, I'd be all for that based.
Joe Getty
On where it is right now. You know, honestly Yeah, I see your point. The real drivers of the choice movement, they point out, however, are parents like Virginia Walter, a black, low income mother in Washington, D.C. who grew frustrated watching her son struggle in public school and helped create the D.C. opportunity Scholarship Program, the nation's first federally funded voucher initiative. But yeah, she's a conspiracy nut. Sure, Randy. Let's see. Weingarten also insists that vouchers are devised by whites to undermine desegregation. Oh, it's racism. Probably systemic racism. This isn't just wrong. It gets the history completely backward. In fact, some teachers unions fought against vouchers because they facilitated integration. Weingarten claims she is, quote, willing to work with anyone who wants to actually address the problems facing our public schools. But she refuses to engage with school choice advocates who propose concrete and constructive options for students underserved by traditional school districts. Then she denigrates religious schools whose very purpose is indoctrination. That's a quote. This animus causes her to overlook the many advantages of faith based education, such as the Catholic school effect, which has been demonstrated to benefit disadvantaged minority students in particular has to do with high expectations and discipline and that sort of thing. The biggest deception in Weingarten's book is her portrayal of her role. Jack, you'll love this. During the pandemic, I quote, I led the AFT in developing a concrete plan to reopen schools as quickly and safely as possible. When, of course, Weingarten and her union colleagues kept children, American children, out of schools until the government approved her request for a $750 billion federal aid package to feather their nest and hire more administrators and more union members. Unbelievable. The book is primarily an attempt to rehabilitate Weingarten's image after she backed the longest school closures in American history, which yielded the largest drop student performance ever recorded.
Katie
Not to mention the emotional turmoil.
Joe Getty
And she mentions the aforementioned fascists like ourselves in her title. Replace facts and critical thinking with propaganda that romanticizes the nation's past.
Katie
No.
Joe Getty
Absolutely obscene. You know, I gotta. I gotta apologize to Flamin. Bags of dog crap. Comparing them to this book. It's insulting.
Katie
Yeah, that's really maddening. I mean, we've talked about this a lot and I hate her so much. Much.
Joe Getty
Do you think she actually believes she's.
Katie
Doing the right thing for kids? Or did she abandon that a long time ago? I don't.
Joe Getty
She couldn't.
Katie
There's no way.
Joe Getty
There's no way she possibly thought keeping.
Katie
This school's closed was the best thing for the kids? Not a chance. She actually believed that?
Joe Getty
No. Unless her own evil and her need to, you know, explain it has has perverted her own mind to the point that she can't recognize truth. She's like O.J. simpson who thought he didn't kill his wife. Life. Yeah.
Katie
What a horrifying human being.
Joe Getty
Yeah. Armstrong and Getty. Then the space hamster flew his hot.
Jack Armstrong
Air balloon all the way to the bottom of the ocean. Where did that story come from? Book Dream?
Joe Getty
Nope.
Jack Armstrong
It came from a conversation. Meet Miko Mini plus, the AI companion that co create creates personalized story adventures with your child in real time. What color was the hamster's cape and what did he pack for lunch? Unlock your child's imagination. Discover Miko Mini plus and the Magic of AI Exclusively at Costco.
Joe Getty
The only thing between you and your best self is a start button this Black Friday Explore the world with NordicTrack from the peaks of Peru to the streets of Paris, every workout moves you so somewhere new with iFit trainers leading the way. The equipment's amazing, smooth, quiet and those screens make it all feel real. Ready to start your next workout adventure with the number one treadmill brand in the U.S. shop NordicTrack.com for Black Friday savings. NordicTrack train anywhere. Explore everywhere.
Katie
It's the gaming event of the year featuring T. Pain's Nappy Boy Grizzlies versus Neo's Gentleman's Gang. Gaming It's a 4v4 matchup featuring Call of Duty, Tetris, Trackmania, Tony Hawk, Pro Skater 3. 4, and Tekken 8.
Joe Getty
Season 0 of the Global Gaming League is live streaming on YouTube and Twitch.
Katie
Head over to globalgamingleague.com. Every story begins somewhere for your child. It could begin with a Guardian bike built right here in the usa, engineered for safety and designed for confidence. Kids of all ages are learning to ride in just one day. No tears, no frustration. It's why Guardian is America's favorite kids bike and the New York Times and Wirecutter's top pick three years in a row. This holiday season, give the gift that's safer, smarter and built to last. Visit guardianbikes.com to save up to 40% on all bikes plus a free accessory bundle worth over $100.
Joe Getty
I already love same day delivery with Shipt, but it's so much better since.
Katie
I signed up for target's circle 360. Why?
Joe Getty
Because I no longer pay price from the majority of stores through Shipt. Only a handful of alcohol retailers and items don't count. That means no markups on groceries, pet food, even home goods and makeup. So to recap, I have more time.
Katie
To catch up on life while someone.
Joe Getty
Shops for me and I spend less. It's a win win.
Katie
Order now@shipt.com 360 terms apply.
Jack Armstrong
This is an iHeart podcast.
Joe Getty
Guaranteed Human.
iHeartPodcasts | Nov 24, 2025
This replay episode of Armstrong & Getty On Demand features a strong discussion about the evolving nature of human capability over the lifespan, social trends in American society, gender dynamics shaping institutions, and a sharp critique of the state of public education leadership. With their characteristic mix of wit, skepticism, and insightful banter, Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty, and Katie unpack recent research, social commentary, and current culture war controversies.
On Wisdom & Aging:
On Social Trends:
On School Leadership:
This replayed hour of Armstrong & Getty blends humorous personal anecdotes, skepticism about trending research, and pointed social commentary. The hosts puncture conventional wisdom about age and capability, question the implications of demographic shifts in power, and lampoon the worst of contemporary educational leadership. It's a mix of irreverence, analysis, and a dash of resigned concern for the future—all delivered in the show’s familiar, wisecracking style.